Unwind

Chapters 1-5

Reading Check

1. The state has to cut costs and they “can’t afford” to keep taking care of older teens like Risa. The state chooses to unwind older kids to make room for younger ones. (Chapter 2)

2. Lev is a tithe. His parents sacrifice one tenth of everything in the name of religion. Lev is their 10th child. (Chapter 3)

3. Connor’s escape truck gets stopped by the police. His attempt to flee causes Risa’s bus to crash. He attempts to kidnap Lev to use as a human shield but then kidnaps him to save him from unwinding. (Chapters 3-4)

Short Answer

1. Connor is impulsive. He doesn’t seem to think before he acts and takes dangerous, sometimes life-threatening, risks. (Chapters 1-5)

Chapters 6-10

Reading Check

1. They pretend to argue, giving Lev a chance to escape, but he doesn’t take it. (Chapter 8)

2. She pretends to be collecting clothing donations as part of a charity drive for the local high school. (Chapter 10)

Short Answer

1. Storking is leaving a newborn on an unwitting family’s doorstep. It’s legal as long as the parent leaving the newborn doesn’t get caught in the act. (Chapter 9)

2. He thinks he’s better than them. He won’t deign to try to explain his religion or convince them that his unwinding is righteous. (Chapter 6)

Chapters 11-14

Reading Check

1. His reason is that it will throw off the search for them—the authorities won’t be looking for three teens and a baby. (Chapter 12)

2. They get on a school bus that takes them to the local high school. They hide in a girls’ bathroom. (Chapters 12-14)

Short Answer

1. He thinks it’s a lucky break—no pictures means they won’t be widely recognized by the public. (Chapter 11)

2. She suspects Lev’s wealthy parents paid the police to kill Lev’s kidnappers and return Lev safely. No pictures means no story, which means no one will know whether they live or die. (Chapter 11)

3. She’s a shrewd, sharp thinker and strategic. (Chapter 11 and throughout)

Chapters 15-20

Reading Check

1. A sympathetic teacher named Hannah (Chapters 16-19)

2. The basement of an antique shop run by a woman named Sonia, where she houses three other Unwinds (Chapter 19)

3. A tattoo of a tiger shark (Chapter 19)

Short Answer

1. His phone call with Pastor Dan finally gets him to understand that no one is looking for him, and, worse, his whole life training to be a tithe was based on a lie. Moreover, he violently betrayed the only two people who would care to keep him alive in this suddenly dangerous, cold, lonely life. (Chapter 18)

Chapters 21-26

Reading Check

1. Joplin, Missouri (Chapter 21)

2. Roland sees Connor as a threat. Roland is trying to consolidate social power through lies and manipulation. He can’t outwit Connor, and he is likely to kill him in cold blood instead. (Chapter 22)

Short Answer

1. He has a temporal lobe that he got from a troubled Unwind kid. His parents paid more for him to get a whole lobe, not just bits and pieces. The lobe compels Cyrus to steal shiny objects, and he feels overwhelming emotions and the urge to go to Joplin. (Chapter 21)

2. Human compassion and connection are missing. They see the Unwinds as a noble cause, not as human beings in need of care. (Chapter 22)

Chapters 27-33

Reading Check

1. The police, Tyler’s mother and father, and Cyrus’s fathers (Chapter 30)

2. Begging his parents to forgive him and not unwind him (Chapter 30)

3. Medic (Chapter 33)

Short Answer

1. The Graveyard is a place where Unwinds end up being cared for. It is an Unwind society led by the Admiral—a man who was old enough to fight in and live through the Heartland War. The Graveyard is a place in Arizona filled with decommissioned commercial and private airplanes. (Chapter 27)

2. They escape via a network of underground warehouses. They get shuffled around to avoid detection and are eventually loaded into crates on a decommissioned airplane headed to its final resting place, the Graveyard. (Chapters 22-27)

3.  The Unwinds discuss existence, the nature of the Soul, whether unwinding counts as death, and the morality of the Bill of Life. (Chapters 27-28)

Chapters 34-40

Reading Check

1. Repairman and the Admiral’s new eyes and ears (Chapter 34)

2. Risa (Chapter 36)

3. Roland (Chapters 34 and 39)

Short Answer

1. Since unwinding became commonplace, doctors have grown accustomed to just giving people body parts from unwound youth. The Admiral refuses to accept such treatment and must get teeth specially made. (Chapter 34)

2. Roland stops at seemingly nothing to gain power over others. Connor’s hatred for him and Risa’s previous warning lead him to believe that Roland is capable of murder. (Chapter 34 and throughout)

3. Lev joins a hate group—a terrorist cell. (Chapter 35) At the very least, he signs up for a work assignment that is clearly a death wish. (Chapter 36)

Chapters 41-50

Reading Check

1. A heart attack (Chapter 46)

2. Bullies and their victims (Chapter 48)

3. The cops already know about the Graveyard, so Roland has no leverage. (Chapter 50)

Short Answer

1. He doesn’t believe kids should be unwound, so he refuses to take their parts. (Chapter 47 and throughout)

2. All his handiwork from the previous months is down the drain. He wants revenge and an easy escape to a new life. (Chapter 49)

3. Answers will vary based on student inferences.

Chapters 51-58

Reading Check

1. He’s the famed Akron AWOL. (Chapters 51 and 53)

2. Being in the band that plays as kids are marched to their deaths in the chop shop (Chapter 53)

3. There was no assignment. Lev is a clapper who goes to Happy Jack Harvest Camp on a suicide bombing mission. (Chapter 56)

Chapters 59-65

Reading Check

1. He has a rare blood type—AB negative. (Chapter 59)

2. Foot to head (Chapter 61)

Short Answer

1. He’s not really a tithe. He doesn’t believe in God anymore. He’s anxious and shifty because he’s a clapper and could explode at any moment. (Chapter 62)

2. He must save Connor to redeem himself. Connor and Risa saved him, and they are his only real friends, so he feels compelled to save them. He was previously content that they were safe at the Graveyard. (Chapters 62 and 65)

Chapters 66-69

Reading Check

1. They’ve given him the identity of the dead guard instead of having him unwound. (Chapter 66)

2. She refuses a spine transplant, which means she’ll remain paralyzed. There are laws against unwinding people with disabilities. (Chapter 67)

3. Pastor Dan, who is no longer a pastor (Chapter 68)

Short Answer

1. The Admiral and his ex-wife throw a party and invite everyone who received a body part from their son to Harlan’s 26th birthday party. The party puts everyone with their son’s body parts in one room, and it creates a surge of his reanimated consciousness. (Chapter 69)

2. Lev is the face of a new movement where people are becoming aware of the horrors of unwinding children. (Chapter 68)

3. His friend Cyrus is speaking out, and Lev’s sweet, innocent face goes against most people’s preconceived notions about Unwinds being sub-human. Even Lev’s actions present a mixture of misguided youth and heroism that the public finds difficult to dismiss. (Chapter 68)