Unwind

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-5

Reading Check

1. Why is Risa being unwound?

2. Why is Lev being unwound?

3. Why and how do the three main characters’ stories converge?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Character development often hinges on establishing the character’s flaw first. Shusterman goes to great lengths to make Connor’s flaw clear. What is it?

Paired Resource

“Child Welfare and Foster Care Statistics”

• This frequently updated source from the Annie E. Casey Foundation is filled with statistics about the realities faced by young people in foster care. The information raises questions about social and ethical responsibilities toward children left without parents.
• How does this resource connect to the novel’s theme of What Is Morality?

“America’s Pandemic Orphans Are Slipping Through the Cracks”

• This article from The Atlantic discusses the rising number of children left without caregivers because of the recent pandemic.
• How do these realities of overwhelmed systems and slow bureaucratic decisions make their way into Shusterman’s fictional world?

Chapters 6-10

Reading Check

1. How do Risa and Connor test Lev’s sincerity?

2. How does Risa secure new clothing for the group?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is “storking?” How does it fit into this new reality under the Bill of Life?

2. Why is Lev only pretending to go along with Risa and Connor?

Chapters 11-14

Reading Check

1. What reason does Connor initially give for picking up the storked baby?

2. Where do the teens go to escape police suspicion?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Connor make sense of not being in the paper?

2. How does Risa make sense of not being in the paper?

3. What does Risa’s conclusion reveal about her character?

Paired Resource

“Things You Didn't Know About Safe Haven Laws: Every State Has One”

• This is a short USA Today article describing safe haven laws, the circumstances under which people relinquish babies, and some of the misconceptions about the laws and practices.
• What commonalities can you spot between the laws about storking and safe haven laws?
• How does this resource connect to the novel’s themes of Morality and Inner Versus Outer Strength?

Chapters 15-20

Reading Check

1. Who helps Connor and Risa escape the high school?

2. Where do they end up?

3. What is on Roland’s arm?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Lev “suddenly realize he no longer exists”? (Chapter 18)

Paired Resource

“Watching Underground Railroad Miniseries? Here Are Some North Jersey Safe Houses”

• This article details the locations and features of a series of houses that were a part of the Underground Railroad during the 19th century.
• When imagining a safe house, what would be some of its key features?
• How does Shusterman leverage American history to create a feasible reality for his novel?

“Explore the Underground Railroad’s ‘Great Central Depot’”

• This article from National Geographic describes the critical role Syracuse, New York, played in the Underground Railroad.
• How does the treatment, secrecy, and desperation surrounding those escaping enslavement compare to the treatment, secrecy, and desperation surrounding AWOL Unwinds?

Chapters 21-26

Reading Check

1. Where are Lev and Cyrus Finch headed?

2. What chilling warning does Risa issue to Connor?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is the source of Cyrus’s troubles? What problems does it cause him?

2. According to Risa, what is missing from the adults who chaperone the Unwinds at the warehouse?

Chapters 27-33

Reading Check

1. Who meets Lev and CyFi at Tyler’s home in Joplin?

2. What is Tyler’s unfinished business?

3. What job does Risa receive at the Graveyard?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is the Graveyard?

2. How do the Unwinds travel to the Graveyard?

3. What kind of conversations do the Unwinds have on their way to the Graveyard?

Chapters 34-40

Reading Check

1. What two jobs does Connor take on?

2. Who is the first person “to care something’s wrong with Lev”? (Chapter 36)

3. Who openly fans the flames of distrust and fear among the Unwinds at the Graveyard?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why are the Admiral’s dentures so rare?

2. Why does Connor immediately suspect that Roland killed the Goldens?

3. What kind of trouble is Lev up to?

Paired Resource

“Stories From the Boneyard”

• As indicated in the text, the Graveyard is a real place. This seven-minute video from Arizona Public Media is provided to give students a visual grounding in this section of the novel.
• How are the planes in the Boneyard similar to the young people who are being unwound?

Chapters 41-50

Reading Check

1. What is the Admiral’s medical emergency?

2. According to Risa, who are the two types of people who become Juvey cops?

3. How does Roland’s plan fall apart?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Admiral Dunfee refuse to accept a heart transplant?

2. Why does Roland risk capture to sell out the entire Graveyard?

3. Make a prediction. What happens next? How does this novel end? Provide text-based evidence to support your claims.

Paired Resource

“The Ethics of Organ Transplantation: A Brief History”

• This article from the AMA Journal of Ethics details the history of the ethical arguments raised by organ transplants as science evolved.
• How do similar ethical arguments play out in the novel?

“Are There Non-Human Persons? Are There Non-Person Humans?”

• This 14-minute video from Bioethicist Glenn Cohen outlines the difference between humans and persons as it relates to some of the issues raised in the novel.
• This video might be a useful framework for understanding the Admiral’s choices and the ethical conundrums raised by Unwinding in future chapters, as well as for the students to navigate some of the after-reading activities.
• According to Cohen, what is the difference between humans and persons?

Chapters 51-58

Reading Check

1. Why does Connor’s reputation precede him at the harvest camp?

2. What is the secret to surviving a long time at the harvest camp?

3. What is the truth behind Lev’s dangerous Alaskan assignment?

4. What occurs when Roland and Connor have a conflict?

Chapters 59-65

Reading Check

1. Why does Roland get unwound so quickly?

2. In what order does unwinding occur?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Lev have trouble fitting in with the other tithes at the harvest camp?

2. Why does news of Connor’s scheduled unwinding spur Lev into action?

Chapters 66-69

Reading Check

1. Why does the nurse call Connor “Mr. Mullard?”

2. How does Risa evade unwinding?

3. Who visits Lev in prison?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Humphrey Dunfee get put back together again?

2. What impact do Lev’s actions have on the world?

3. How is Lev different from the clappers he joined?

Recommended Next Reads 

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary Pearson

• Like Unwind, this novel explores the ethics and morality of life, transplants, and death in a young adult dystopian novel.
• This novel also explores betrayal, sacrifice, and survival—all sub-themes in both novels.
• The Adoration of Jenna Fox on SuperSummary

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

• This novel follows the lives of three seemingly normal boarding school teens who are actually clones being raised for the purposes of organ harvesting.
• With highly literary prose, this novel received numerous awards and was adapted into a film released in 2010.
• Never Let Me Go on SuperSummary

UnWholly by Neal Shusterman

• This novel is the second installment of Shusterman’s Unwind Dystology.
• Connor, Lev, and Risa’s story continues as people finally begin to question the morality of unwinding, but politicians and corporations, driven by their thirst for power and profit, aim to expand the program.
• UnWholly on SuperSummary