91 pages • 3 hours read
Jeff ZentnerGoodbye Days
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Quiz
Reading Check, Multiple Choice & Short Answer Quizzes
Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.
Chapters 1-5
Reading Check
1. Where is Carver when the book opens? What is he doing there?
2. Who is Jesmyn?
3. Who is Sauce Crew?
4. Why does Adair dislike Carver?
Multiple Choice
1. What is Darren Coughlin’s job?
A) policeman
B) funeral home director
C) teacher
D) journalist
2. How did “Sauce Crew” get their name?
A) cooking their signature marinara sauce
B) getting into a sauce packet play-fight at McDonald’s
C) collecting Taco Bell sauce packets
D) creating their own startup to sell hot sauce
3. What was Blake known for on YouTube?
A) fart pranks
B) playing guitar
C) makeup tutorials
D) live-stream gaming
4. Why does Georgia suggest Carver see Dr. Mendez?
A) Carver is depressed.
B) Carver has a panic attack.
C) Carver has an eating disorder.
D) Carver needs a checkup.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Carver feel lonely?
2. What’s significant about Nana Betsy calling Carver “Blade”?
3. Why was Blake raised by Nana Betsy?
4. What’s the purpose of Darren Coughlin approaching Carver in the parking lot, both practically within the story and as a literary technique?
Chapters 6-10
Reading Check
1. Why are Carver’s parents so emotional when they reunite with him?
2. What event convinces Carver’s parents to get him a lawyer?
3. How does Carver react to Jesmyn’s texts?
4. What is Carver “sorry” for—what does he feel guilty about?
Multiple Choice
1. Whose idea is the goodbye day?
A) Carver
B) Georgia
C) Jesmyn
D) Nana Betsy
2. What Sauce Crew tradition does Carver share with Jesmyn?
A) gerbil hunting
B) dogfighting
C) squirrel rodeos
D) cat races
3. Why does Carver wake up in the night?
A) His phone rings.
B) His mom wakes him up.
C) He’s having a night terror.
D) He’s having a bad dream.
4. Where was Carver when his friends were in the car accident?
A) at home
B) at work
C) at school
D) at sports practice
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Carver feel weird picking Jesmyn up from her house?
2. How does Carver’s family react to the news of a potential criminal investigation?
3. How does Carver feel about Nana Betsy’s proposal to have a last day for Blake?
4. What writing is Carver supposed to be working on? Why isn’t he getting it done?
5. What is Carver surprised to learn about Jesmyn when he picks her up from her home?
Chapters 11-15
Reading Check
1. Why does Jesmyn accuse Carver of being a racist?
2. What critical detail would allow for Carver to be charged with criminally negligent homicide?
3. Why does Carver feel guilty texting Jesmyn?
4. Why does Carver drive to Nana Betsy’s house and then leave before going in?
Multiple Choice
1. Who is Jim Krantz?
A) the principal at Carver’s school
B) a defense attorney Carver’s parents hire
C) a reporter covering the criminal investigation into Sauce Crew’s death
D) the local chief of police
2. How much will Carver’s parents have to pay in legal fees?
A) $10,000
B) $100,000
C) $150,000
D) $250,000
3. Why is Jesmyn attending Nashville Arts Academy (what’s her creative talent)?
A) painting
B) writing
C) sculpture
D) music
4. Who is Dearly?
A) a musician
B) Blake’s birth mom
C) a friend of Jesmyn’s
D) a social media star
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Carver have a panic attack at school?
2. How do Carver’s flashbacks of his friends evolve in these chapters?
3. Why is it logical that Carver thinks about Mars when meeting his attorney?
4. What conditions does Georgia make when she agrees to pick Carver up from school?
5. Why does Jesmyn think Adair is giving her dirty looks at school? What does Carver think?
Chapters 16-20
Reading Check
1. Why does Carver call Nana Betsy?
2. How does Jesmyn comfort Carter after a bad day at school?
3. What is Carter’s emotional reaction after therapy?
4. What does Adair accuse Carver of when he returns to school?
Multiple Choice
1. What does Dr. Mendez prescribe for Carver?
A) anti-anxiety medication
B) anti-depressants
C) nothing; he says therapy is enough
D) multivitamins
2. What’s the name of the Facebook group Carver discovers?
A) “Carver Briggs is a Murderer.”
B) “Prosecute Carver Briggs.”
C) “Who Killed Sauce Crew?”
D) “Carver Briggs is a Killer.”
3. Why is Georgia leaving?
A) She got a new job.
B) She’s getting her own apartment.
C) She’s going to college.
D) She’s moving in with her boyfriend.
4. How does Carver feel after he dreams about Sauce Crew?
A) guilty
B) sad
C) angry
D) betrayed
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why is the Facebook group targeting Carver so problematic?
2. Why doesn’t Carver fight back when Adair verbally attacks him?
3. As she’s getting ready to leave, Georgia encourages Carver to do more of a certain thing. What is it?
4. Why is Carver hesitant to seek closure for Sauce Crew’s death?
Chapters 21-25
Reading Check
1. What do all of the “what if” scenarios Carver dreams up about the day of the accident have in common?
2. What favor does Nana Betsy ask of Carver at the end of the goodbye day for Blake?
3. What does Carver tell Darren Coughlin when he calls and asks if Carver has any comment about the DA’s plans to open an investigation?
4. Name some of the ways Carver and Nana Betsy pay tribute to Blake.
Multiple Choice
1. How does Carver react to learning that the district attorney has opened an investigation into the accident?
A) He cries.
B) He calls his lawyer.
C) He has a panic attack.
D) He tells his parents.
2. What secret did Blake keep from Nana Betsy?
A) He had a girlfriend.
B) He was gay.
C) He had a substance abuse problem.
D) He had dropped out of school.
3. What song does Carver play for Jesmyn on the piano?
A) “Mary Had a Little Lamb”
B) “Chopsticks”
C) “Three Blind Mice”
D) “Happy Birthday”
4. Why is Nana Betsy leaving Nashville?
A) She wants to get away from the pain of Blake’s memory.
B) She wants to move to a retirement home in Florida.
C) She was only staying in Nashville so Blake could attend the arts academy there.
D) She lost her house in a foreclosure.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does Mitzi react to the news of Blake’s death?
2. Why does Dr. Mendez ask Carver to create a story about Sauce Crew’s death that doesn’t include Carver?
3. Why is Carver hesitant to reveal Blake’s secret to Nana Betsy?
4. What happens when Carver touches Jesmyn’s leg to brush dirt off it?
Chapters 26-30
Reading Check
1. What physical phenomenon does Carver compare losing his three best friends to?
2. Why is Jesmyn mad at Carver?
3. What does Carver tell the police when they interview him in Attorney Krantz’s office?
4. What does Nana Betsy tell the police when they question her about the accident?
Multiple Choice
1. Who does Carver suspect is spreading the rumor about him and Jesmyn?
A) Alex Bishop
B) Adair
C) Georgia
D) Nana Betsy
2. What rare condition does Carver learn that Jesmyn has?
A) autism
B) ADHD
C) depression
D) synesthesia
3. Who is Hiro Takasagawa?
A) a new foreign exchange student at school
B) a friend of Jesmyn’s
C) a character in one of Carver’s stories
D) the district attorney investigating the accident
4. How do Nana Betsy and Carver part ways?
A) She simply wishes him well.
B) She cries on his shoulder.
C) She curses him and blames him for Blake’s death.
D) She invites him to visit her in her new home.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What purpose do Carver’s internal monologues serve in the story?
2. How do Eli’s parents react to the invitation to participate in a goodbye day for Eli?
3. What effect does Nana Betsy’s move have on Carver?
4. What evidence is there that Carver’s efforts in therapy with Dr. Mendez are working?
Chapters 31-35
Reading Check
1. Carver keeps having a memory of hanging out with Sauce Crew at a playground. What bothers him about this memory?
2. How do the Bauers want to spend their goodbye day for Eli?
3. What does Mr. Bauer say to Carver in the bathroom during the goodbye day for Eli?
4. What does Carver think is happening when he’s sent to the principal’s office and finds detectives waiting for him?
Multiple Choice
1. What surprising information does Carver tell the Bauers about Eli?
A) that Eli was gay
B) that Eli was planning to drop out of school
C) that Eli believed in God
D) that Eli had a secret addiction problem
2. Which of the following people does not participate in Eli’s goodbye day?
A) Jesmyn
B) Mrs. Bauer
C) Adair
D) They all participate.
3. What object do the police take from Carver (choose all that apply)?
A) his car
B) his phone
C) his tablet
D) his laptop
4. How can the Bauers’ relationship be described?
A) Each accuses the other of being responsible for Eli’s death.
B) The relationship is strained, and they bicker frequently.
C) They are loving and supportive of one another.
D) They cry to one another.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Eli’s mother choose to scatter sand from his art project at the falls?
2. What is the “what if” moment that Mr. Bauer calls up when reflecting on Eli’s death?
3. What does Eli’s goodbye day change for Carver?
4. How do Eli’s feelings for Jesmyn relate to his feelings about the accident?
Chapters 36-40
Reading Check
1. What event does Carver attend with Jesmyn?
2. What does the DA announce at the press conference Carver watches?
3. Why does Judge Edwards call Carver?
4. What does Carver find in his locker the day after the DA’s announcement?
Multiple Choice
1. What does Dearly give Jesmyn?
A) a kiss
B) a hug
C) a business card
D) a phone number
2. Why does Jesmyn get angry at Carver?
A) He confesses his feelings for her.
B) He criticizes her piano playing.
C) He criticizes Eli.
D) He criticizes her for flirting with Dearly.
3. Attorney Krantz calls Carver after the press conference to give him a warning. What is the warning?
A) Adair is out to get him.
B) Judge Carver could still file a civil suit.
C) The police are coming to take him into custody.
D) The investigation into the accident is ongoing.
4. How do the students at school react towards Carver after the DA’s announcement?
A) They are aggressive.
B) They shun him.
C) They beg for his forgiveness.
D) They are friendlier than before.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What effect does the fight with Jesmyn have on Carver?
2. What sparks Carver’s jealousy at the Dearly show?
3. What is the remaining bright spot in Carver’s life after his relationship with Jesmyn disintegrates, and why is this important?
4. Why does Carver sabotage his relationship with Jesmyn, according to Dr. Mendez?
Chapters 41-45
Reading Check
1. What task does Judge Edwards assign Carver as part of Mars’s goodbye day?
2. Why does Judge Edwards not want to pursue criminal charges in the accident?
3. What does Carver do when he gets home from his goodbye day for Mars?
4. What surprising fact does Carver learn about Dr. Mendez?
Multiple Choice
1. What does Judge Edwards tell Carver to do with Mars’s artwork?
A) frame it
B) sell it
C) keep it for himself
D) trash it
2. What was Mars’s favorite milkshake?
A) chocolate
B) strawberry and vanilla
C) peanut butter and banana
D) caramel and chocolate
3. How does Jesmyn respond to Carver’s apology text?
A) She ignores it and doesn’t respond.
B) She tells him to apologize in person.
C) She accepts the apology.
D) She curses at him.
4. How is Adair’s relationship with Carver by the book’s end?
A) She continues to blame him for her brother’s death.
B) She forgives him.
C) She asks for her own goodbye day.
D) She is still pursuing a criminal case against Carver.
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How is the second part of Mars’s goodbye day different from the first?
2. What advice does Judge Edwards give Carver at the end of their goodbye day for Mars?
3. Why did Dr. Mendez ask Carver to create stories about the accident?
4. How has Carver’s relationship with his parents evolved by this point in the book?
Chapters 46-49
Reading Check
1. What school is Jesmyn preparing to audition for?
2. Why is Jesmyn finally happy with her audition piece?
3. What does Carver tell his friends for the first time in what appears to be a false memory (that they tease him about)?
Multiple Choice
1. What does Jesmyn say is the color of Carver’s voice?
A) white
B) bull-shit colored
C) winter clouds at night
D) B and C
2. How is Carver’s demeanor by the book’s end?
A) He’s angry.
B) He’s guilty.
C) He’s depressed.
D) He’s calm.
3. What incident marks the book’s final chapter?
A) the anniversary of Carver’s friends’ deaths
B) the anniversary of Carver’s first goodbye day
C) the anniversary of Carver’s first panic attack
D) the anniversary of Sauce Crew’s first meeting
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How has Jesmyn’s and Carver’s relationship evolved by the book’s end?
2. How have Carver’s memories of his friends changed since the book’s beginning?
3. It’s unclear whether the final memory Carver conveys of his friends is real or manufactured. What purpose does this serve?
Quizzes – Answer Key
Chapters 1-5
Reading Check
1. Carver is at his friend Blake’s funeral. He’s a pallbearer. (Chapters 1-2)
2. Jesmyn is the ex-girlfriend of Eli, another one of Carver’s deceased friends. (Chapter 2)
3. Sauce Crew is Carver’s group of friends—himself, Eli, Mars, and Blake. (Chapters 1-2).
4. She blames him for Eli’s death. (Chapter 4)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Carver is lonely because his three best friends have passed away and he’s now starting his senior year of high school without them. (Chapter 1 / Chapter 4)
2. Blade is Sauce Crew's nickname for Carver and what Nana Betsy’s deceased grandson, Blake, called him. (Chapter 4)
3. His birth mother, Mitzi, struggles with addiction issues. (Chapter 4)
4. Darren wants to know if Carver knows what caused the accident and if there’s a criminal investigation being opened, foreshadowing the fact that there will be one. (Chapter 4)
Chapters 6-10
Reading Check
1. They’re grateful he wasn’t in the car with his friends. (Chapter 6)
2. Judge Edwards, Mars’s dead, tells reporters he wants a criminal investigation into the accident. (Chapter 7)
3. He finds their text conversation comforting. (Chapter 8)
4. He feels guilty for Sauce Crew’s death, because he was texting them when they crashed. Mars may have been replying to his text when the accident happened. (Chapter 7)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. It’s awkward because it’s like he’s picking her up from a date (he meets her dad), but Jesmyn used to date Eli. (Chapter 9)
2. Carver’s parents are shocked and stunned. His parents get a lawyer, just in case. Carver is afraid of going to prison. (Chapter 7)
3. Carver is nervous about the idea of a goodbye day and is afraid he won’t do Blake’s memory justice, but he also wonders if it could bring absolution or closure. (Chapter 10)
4. Carver is supposed to be writing a college admissions essay but can’t concentrate and keeps thinking about the accident. (Chapter 7)
5. Carver is surprised to discover that Jesmyn’s adopted—she’s Filipina while her parents are white. (Chapter 10).
Chapters 11-15
Reading Check
1. Carver says he thinks it's funny that her favorite breakfast is biscuits, gravy, grits, and ham. (Chapter 14)
2. Carver would have had to know that Mars was driving while they were texting. (Chapter 13)
3. She’s Eli’s “ex.” (Chapter 11)
4. Carver wants to tell Nana Betsy that he’ll do the “goodbye day,” but he chickens out. (Chapter 12)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. He sees a memorial that has been set up in honor of his friends. (Chapter 14)
2. Instead of calling up memories of them, he has imaginary conversations with them, as if they’re in the present. (Chapters 13, 15)
3. Mars’s dad is a judge and his brother is a lawyer, so he knows what the legal world is like. Mars can comfort Carver in this moment. (Chapter 13)
4. Georgia tells Carver that he has to see the therapist she recommended and tell their parents about his panic attacks. (Chapter 15)
5. Jesmyn thinks Adair is giving her dirty looks because she sat with Adair’s ex, Alex Bishop, at lunch. Carver believes Adair is giving Jesmyn dirty looks because she’s spending time with Carver. (Chapter 15)
Chapters 16-20
Reading Check
1. to tell her he’ll do the goodbye day (Chapter 19)
2. by playing piano for him (Chapter 17)
3. He feels lighter and cries. (Chapter 16)
4. putting on a show with his panic attack at school the previous day (Chapter 17)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. The Facebook page will show up in Google searches about him, making it visible to potential colleges, employers, etc. (Chapter 18)
2. He recognizes that her rage comes from a place of pain. (Chapter 17)
3. She encourages him to open up more to their parents. (Chapter 19)
4. He feels guilty and is not sure whether he deserves closure. (Chapter 19)
Chapters 21-25
Reading Check
1. In all the “what if” scenarios, Carver doesn’t text Mars. (Chapter 22)
2. Nana Betsy asks Carver to stand by while she calls Mitzi and breaks the news of Blake’s death. (Chapter 24)
3. Carver says he has no comment, as his lawyer told him to. (Chapter 23)
4. going to Waffle House, going fishing, making a YouTube prank video (Chapter 24)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. She is angry and accusatory, blaming Nana Betsy for the situation. (Chapter 24)
2. Dr. Mendez wants to show Carver the dangers of assigning causality to every life event. However, people are often more comfortable assigning blame than admitting there is a randomness to the universe. (Chapter 25)
3. Nana Betsy is very conservative and religious, so Carver worries that she may not like to hear that Blake was gay. (Chapter 24)
4. He gets an erection, which makes him feel guilty and gross. (Chapter 23)
Chapters 26-30
Reading Check
1. phantom limb syndrome (Chapter 26)
2. She thinks that Carver is telling people they’re hooking up. (Chapter 27)
3. Nothing. Attorney Krantz jumps in and tells the police that Carver is exercising his right to remain silent. (Chapter 28)
4. Nothing. She refuses to cooperate. (Chapter 30)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. They show his inner feelings and emotional development, especially as he goes through the stages of grief. (Chapter 26)
2. They agree immediately, having already heard about the concept and its merits from Nana Betsy. (Chapter 28)
3. Carver is surprised by the news of Nana Betsy’s move. He starts to see how his friends’ deaths tangibly affect other people, speaking to the ripple effect—or butterfly effect—of their passing. (Chapter 30)
4. Carver manages to tell Dr. Mendez a version of the story surrounding his friends’ deaths that doesn’t involve him at all. His creativity seems to be returning. (Chapter 29)
Chapters 31-35
Reading Check
1. He’s not sure if it’s real or a false memory. (Chapter 31)
2. They want to scatter bits of sand from an art project he made when he was a kid at some nearby waterfalls. (Chapter 32)
3. He admits that he feels Carver has some responsibility in the accident and accuses Carver of capitalizing off of Eli’s death by getting closer to Jesmyn. (Chapter 32)
4. He assumes he’s getting arrested. (Chapter 33)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. She recognizes the importance of creativity in her son’s life and sees the art project as one of his earliest creative works. (Chapter 32)
2. Mr. Bauer says that if Eli had never gone to Nashville Arts Academy, he would never have met Mars and Blake—he wouldn’t have been in the car with them and wouldn’t have died. (Chapter 32)
3. He realizes that he has feelings for Jesmyn. (Chapter 34 and 35)
4. Dr. Mendez theorizes that Carver’s affection for Jesmyn is part of the reason he can’t let go of his guilt around the accident. (Chapter 34)
Chapters 36-40
Reading Check
1. the Dearly show (Chapter 36)
2. that they won’t pursue criminal charges (Chapter 38)
3. He wants to have a goodbye day for Mars. (Chapter 38)
4. ashes and a card with MURDERER written on it (Chapter 39)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Carver experiences the altercation as a new type of “heartbreak” and is increasingly isolated. (Chapter 37)
2. seeing Dearly and Jesmyn talking—specifically, Dearly giving Jesmyn his manager’s card and inviting her to reach out after she’s done school (Chapter 36)
3. his therapy appointments with Dr. Mendez, which is important because it highlights the book’s theme of The Importance of Mental Health (Chapter 37)
4. Dr. Mendez theorizes that Carver feels guilty about his relationship with Jesmyn and doesn’t feel worthy of her, so he sabotages his relationship with her. (Chapter 40).
Chapters 41-45
Reading Check
1. cleaning out Mars’s room (Chapter 41)
2. He’s afraid that Mars, a young black man, will be put on trial for his own death. (Chapter 42)
3. He gets into his parents’ bed and cries. He also texts Jesmyn to apologize. (Chapter 43)
4. that Dr. Mendez also had a close friend pass away unexpectedly (Chapter 44)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Judge Edwards leads the first half, which is regimented and strict, while Carver leads the second, which is more intimate. Both sides are a part of who Mars was. (Chapter 41 and 42)
2. He suggests Carver have his own goodbye day for his parents, allowing them to get to know him better. This speaks to the book’s theme of The Importance of Family. (Chapter 42)
3. He wanted Carver to understand that a million different circumstances and details could have contributed to the accident. By creating different stories about the accident’s cause and removing himself from the equation, Carver could see that he wasn’t to blame. (Chapter 44)
4. He is more emotionally open with them and decides to have a “hello day” to better connect with them. (Chapter 43 and 44)
Chapters 46-49
Reading Check
1. Julliard (Chapter 46)
2. She finally “saw” the right color when playing it. (Chapter 46)
3. “I love you.” (Chapter 48)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Following their fight, she forgives him and they reestablish their trusting bond. There is a hint of romance when they hold hands. (Chapter 48)
2. The memories no longer bring him pain. He sees them as “visits” from his friends, often finding humor or comfort in them. (Chapter 47)
3. The final memory when Carver says “I love you” seems to be more of a fantasy, giving Carver the final sense of closure he needs. (Chapter 49)
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