Chapters 17, 18 and 19

• Read on as the plot thickens.
  
• React to what you read by picturing the details.
  
• React to personal feelings about characters and situations.
  

Respond to what you read by answering the following in your ROAD JOURNAL:

1. Describe the downtown Dallas Gladstone Shoe Store.
   
2. Jenna finally gets to meet Harry Bender. Describe him.
   
   What makes Harry Bender such a great salesman?
   How does he make people feel?
   What was his conversation on his cell phone all about?
   What thought does Jenna have at the end of Chapter 17?
   
3. The letter Jenna receives from her mother in Chapter 18 causes Jenna to have a flashback.
   
   What memory (about the white phone) does Jenna have with a "sickening anxiety"?
   What other memory does Jenna recall about her past?
   
4. In Chapter 18, for the first time, the author reveals the first names of Jenna's mother and father in a clever way.
   
   The mother is a nurse named Mrs. ______________ Boller.
   The father had a call for a Mr. _________ Boller.
   Why do you think the author does this at this point in the story?
   
5. What is Jenna having "done to her" at the end of Chapter 18 and beginning of Chapter 19?
   Who is doing this?
   How does it make her feel?
   
6. Characters in the story can be seen doing "up-to-date things" today's readers can relate to. Make a list of actions, events, or items mentioned in the story that illustrate this. Compare your list with another reader.
   
   Harry Bender using a cell phone. (p. 130)
   Jenna using the library computer to do an internet search. (p. 142)
   Jenna making copies on a Xerox machine. (p. 144)
   

GO DEEPER: Find more information about Al-Anon or being a sponsor in A. A.