Q 01/05

Why does the scarred Sarah Byrnes insist that everyone at school always use her full name?

A) To honor her mother

B) To spite her father

C) Its pun on her burns

D) A teacher's old rule

Answer · why

C) Its pun on her burns

Its pun on her burns is why she demands both names: the surname echoes the injury that scarred her face and hands when she was three years old.

Q 02/05

Why does a slimming Eric Calhoune go on gorging himself after joining the swim team in Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes?

A) To get cut from the team

B) To keep his best friend

C) To spite his mother

D) To win a lunchroom bet

Answer · why

B) To keep his best friend

To keep his best friend, Eric tries to stay as much an outcast as Sarah Byrnes. The two had bonded as children over his weight and her scars.

Q 03/05

Which underground newspaper do Eric Calhoune and Sarah Byrnes write to mock the bullies at their junior high?

A) Burnt Bacon Bits

B) Greasy Spoon Gazette

C) Fried Chicken Skins

D) Crispy Pork Rinds

Answer · why

D) Crispy Pork Rinds

Crispy Pork Rinds takes its name from the pair's own pain: a sarcastic nod to her burn scars and his weight. Its first issue went after one particular...

Q 04/05

Sarah Byrnes's father deliberately burned her face against which household object during a fight with her mother?

A) A clothes iron

B) A wood stove

C) A steam radiator

D) A barbecue grill

Answer · why

B) A wood stove

A wood stove left the scars that Sarah Byrnes long passed off as an accident. She was three when her father pressed her face to it to punish her mothe...

Q 05/05

What does Eric Calhoune eventually discover about Sarah Byrnes's catatonic silence in the hospital psychiatric ward?

A) Her father drugged her

B) She lost her memory

C) She is faking it

D) A head injury caused it

Answer · why

C) She is faking it

She is faking it: the silence is a ruse, because the hospital is the one place she feels safe from her father. His abuse had been getting worse.