"Bloomability" by Sharon Creech Quiz

Answer: Sixteen

Dinnie's sister, Stella, was always popular with the boys. One night when she was 16 she came home from a party saying she had gotten married. Not too long after she had a baby.

Answer: Kidnapped! Held against my will!

At first Dinnie writes the sign in English, but Aunt Sandy says people might not be able to read English. The other signs are ones she tries to write in Italian, with little success.

Answer: Tillie

Aunt Tillie (Dinnie's father's sister) often signs her postcards, "Love from your Aunt Tillie, Champion Cheesecake Jell-O Maker." Aunt Grace is the one who makes that awful pot roast Tillie keeps talking about.

Answer: Anchovies

Because of the language barrier, the waiter brings Dinnie pizza with anchovies. Dinnie picks them off and hides them under a piece of crust.

Answer: Mrs. Stirling

Mrs. Stirling wears a black dress and spike heels, only occasionally exchanging the black heels for red ones. She's somewhere between 65 and 70, but she acts younger, and keeps a tube of red lipstick in the front of her dress. Dinnie is impressed when Mrs. Stirling puts it on without a mirror.

Answer: Peter

Peter Lombardy Guthrie the Third does not like his first name and would rather be called Guthrie. Everyone but Mrs. Stirling does so.

Answer: "When do you mosquito?"

Dinnie has trouble learning Italian because she picks up some of Guthrie's personalized versions of words, and because of the masculine and feminine nouns.

Answer: rude

This is when Lila is in one of her moods. She manages to criticize everyone and everything about anything they ever did during the course of one dinner. Dinnie wants to strangle her.

Answer: Struggling

During a discussion in English class about a boy in a story who is struggling to win races, the students are trying to decide why the story is interesting, and Dinnie thinks it is because he is struggling.

Answer: Michael

Dinnie gets a Christmas card from Stella signed, "Love from Stella, George, and Michael." At first she doesn't remember who that is because she thinks it's odd to call such a small person a grown-up's name.

Answer: White

After that Dinnie starts thinking of everyone's voice as a color. She decides Guthrie's voice is white, but she never says what color other people's might be.

Answer: Romeo and Juliet

The boys groan, but when Mr. Bonner tells them the basic storyline, everyone jokes that it's about Belen and Keisuke.

Answer: You never find out

After Guthrie is buried in the avalanche, Aunt Sandy is trying to reach some of his relatives. When she asks about his mother, the woman on the other end says he doesn't have one.

Answer: "Viva! Viva! Viva!"

This is the perfect thing to chant for Guthrie, as he is always celebrating life.

Answer: Zinny

Aunt Tillie says, "I found a turtle by the river and met a girl who is uncovering a trail. You'd like her, I bet." Dinnie's family is moving back to Bybanks Kentucky, and I always wonder if Dinnie and Zinny (and maybe Sal, too?) ever get to meet, and what would happen if they did.