Skink—No Surrender

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Throughout the novel, characters lie, steal, and even use violence to get their way.

• What is an important difference between the way Richard, Skink, and Malley break rules and the way Tommy breaks rules? (topic sentence)
• Offer an example of rule-breaking for each character and explain how each example supports your claim about how the “good” characters’ rule-breaking is different from Tommy’s.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how this difference supports the novel’s themes of Refusal to Conform and Deception as a Useful Tool.

2. After his father’s death, Richard downloads his father’s favorite music; later, he listens to this music with Skink.

• What is the symbolic significance of the music that Richard shares with Skink? (topic sentence)
• Offer details from the plot and the characterization of both Richard and Skink that demonstrate that your claim about the music’s significance is correct.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how the music’s symbolic meaning supports a larger idea in Skink—No Surrender.

3. The novel begins and ends on the same beach, but there are key differences between these two scenes.

• What is the significance of the similarities and differences in the book’s first and final scenes on the beach? (topic sentence)
• Note which details are similar and explain what meaning this conveys; note which details are different and explain what meaning this conveys.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, explain how these differences and similarities support the novel’s themes of Allyship with Nature and Identity and Independence.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. In what sense is this novel also the story of Malley’s fight for her independent identity? Why does she run away in the first place? What moves does Tommy make to try to control Malley and her identity? How does Malley fight back, and at what point in the story does she symbolically destroy Tommy’s control over her? Write an essay in which you trace Malley’s journey toward claiming her own independent identity, and show how this journey supports the novel’s themes of Identity and Independence and Refusal to Conform. Support your ideas with evidence from throughout the text.

2. How are both Skink and Richard traumatized by the past? What traumatic events have they experienced, and how do these events continue to affect them? How does the fact that both have experienced trauma impact their relationship with one another? Are there any signs in the novel that one or both of them are beginning to heal from this trauma? Write an essay in which you compare and contrast the impact that trauma has had on Skink and Richard and show how this motif supports the novel’s meaning. Support your ideas with evidence from throughout the text.

3. What message is Skink—No Surrender suggesting about Allyship with Nature? How do Richard and Skink think about nature? In what way is Tommy’s attitude toward nature very different from Richard’s and Skink’s attitudes? How does nature—in the form of the river, the weather, animals, and other text elements—seem to take an active part in the plot of this novel? How do the novel’s events suggest which characters’ attitudes toward nature are the “right” way to look at nature? Write an essay in which you make and defend a claim about what the novel is conveying about being an ally to nature. Support your ideas with evidence from throughout the text.