Book: The Girl from Chimel
Author: Rigoberta Menchu and Dante Liano
ISBN-13: 978-0-88899-666-4
U$1.00-B-0.0046743907-BE-214
Comments: The illustrations by Domi were beautiful in this book. I recommend this book because the story was simple to understand for elementary school students. The combination of illustrations and the words used to describe the character's childhood was well done.
Go to Directory of Books
Go to Answer Key
Questions
Chapter 1: The Girl from Chimel
1.
What is the little girl's name?
2.
What is the name of the village when it is large?
3.
What is the name of the village when it is small?
4.
Who is Don Benjamin Aguare?
Chapter 2: My Grandfather
1.
How long ago did Rigoberta's grandfather arrive to Chimel?
2.
How did Rigoberta's grandfather get to her village?
3.
What is Chiquimula?
4.
What are Chiquimulas?
5.
What does Chiquimula mean?
6.
Who told Rigoberta what Chiquimula means?
7.
What did Rigoberta's grandfather find in his walks that was more precious than gold?
8.
Did Rigoberta's grandfather ask the delightful girl's parents for her hand in marriage?
9.
What did the girl's parents say to Rigoberta's father?
10.
On page 12, it says "We don't want to see her wearing a red and black huipil, her hair braided with colorful ribbons. What do you think huipil means?
11.
Did Chimel have a river?
12.
Did Chimel have fish in its river?
13.
What animal ate the crabs in Chimel?
14.
What are the colors of the four corners of the universe?
15.
How many houses and corn fields that grandmother want to build?
16.
Who is Ajaw?
17.
Who founded the village of Chimel?
Chapter 3: My Grandfather's Stories
1.
The grandchildren asked their grandfather, "Grandpa, why are there white, black, red and yellow people"?
2.
What was the story of the weasel and the hen about?
3.
Why are Mayan tales similar to Spaniard tales?
4.
What do the Spaniards call the place the devil lives?
5.
What do the Mayans call the place the evil lords live?
6.
How does Luis combine the Mayan and Spaniard story in page 18?
7.
What was the story of the rabbit without a tail about?
8.
What were the names of the two boys that lived long ago?
9.
What did these two boys protect?
10.
How did the rabbit lose its tail on page 20?
11.
How did the mouse get its bulging eyes?
12.
How did the mouse lose all hair on its tail?
13.
Grandfather liked telling stories from which book?
14.
Where is the book from?
Chapter 4: The Wandering Piglet
1.
What type of animal did mom take as a pet?
2.
How did mom take care of piglet?
3.
Where did Ajaw live?
4.
Who else lived with Ajaw?
5.
What are nuhualas?
6.
What animal would you hear howling in the distance?
7.
Who ran after the coyotes?
8.
Was mom successful in saving the piglets?
Chapter 5: The Plants and the Forest
1.
What has language of their own?
2.
What listens and understands when you speak to them?
3.
What type of teas did Rigoberta's mom give her?
4.
What is Chipilin?
5.
What would you take if you had a stomachache?
6.
What got rid off headaches and eye strain?
7.
What was good for stomachaches?
8.
What healed foot injuries?
9.
What cured colds and flus?
10.
What helped you get worms out of your stomach?
11.
Who taught mother this plant knowledge?
12.
What was mother's vocation?
Chapter 6: Grandfather and the Cornfield
1.
How tall was the little man who braided horses' tails at night?
2.
What was this man called?
3.
What is a nahual?
4.
What is a duende?
5.
Describe this little man.
6.
What is greedy like people?
7.
Why did the little man braid horses' tails?
Chapter 7: The Story Behind My Name
1.
What was Rigoberta's name as a baby?
2.
What will Rigoberta's name change to when she is respected and have some knowledge about life?
3.
Mi'n is one way to say what in K'iche?
4.
What does the name mean?
5.
Rigoberta takes great pleasure in what?
6.
Is Rigoberta a pessimist or an optimist?
7.
Who is Don Vicente?
8.
Why wouldn't the clerk register Li Mi'n?
9.
Who gave Rigoberta her name?
10.
Why was Li Mi'n registered as Rigoberta?
11.
What was Rigoberta's nickname?
12.
What was another name Rigoberta's family called her at home?
Chapter 8: The Story of My Birth
1.
What did Rigoberta's mother do after Rigoberta was born to give thanks to Mother Earth?
2.
Why does Rigoberta's mother burn the umbilical cord?
3.
Does Rigoberta's mother bury and why?
4.
Why does Rigoberta's mother feel that when we leave the earth, we feel sadness?
5.
Rigoberta's mother says we are born with a little creature. What is this creature called?
6.
What is the name of the nahual's spiritual leaders?
7.
What type of animals can the nahual's be?
8.
What does Rigoberta's mother mean on page 39, when she says "All animals play their role"?
Chapter 9: When I Was a Little Girl in Chimel...
1.
What is the name of Rigoberta's brother?
2.
What is panela?
3.
What did they eat panela with?
4.
What did her family cultivate?
5.
What would Rigoberta's village eat during rainy season?
Chapter 10: The Curse of the Bees
1.
What happened with the bees in this chapter?
2.
Why did Mama burn a substance?
3.
What is the substance call?
4.
What is sacred in Rigoberta's village?
5.
What could have led to an evil curse?
Chapter 11: The Story of the River That Changed Its Course
1.
How could you reach the river from the village?
2.
What came to the village that the river disappeared?
3.
Does the river run through Chimel today?
4.
How will the river be able to return?
Chapter 12: The Sacred Mountain
1.
What berries were available in the mountain?
2.
What did Rigoberta say about the plum trees?
3.
What is the tukur or k'urpup?
4.
Waht is a sanate?
5.
Which bird eats the newly planted corn kernels?
6.
What type of music was Rigoberta's childhood?
7.
What did Rigoberta eat when she reached the top of the mountain?
Chapter 13: When I Was A Girl
1.
Which sentence in chapter 13 is important to you? Copy the sentence
2.
Why is this sentence, from question 1, important to you?
3.
Why does this sentence mean/matter to you?
