from Bad Boy Study Guide

11. Walter decides to pursue another secret interest, despite his friends' disapproval, which quote from the story supports this answer?

• I was very comfortable being a boy, but there were times when the role was uncomfortable.

• When the girls had finished their dancing, they went through some stretching exercises. A teenager, Lorelle Henry, was leading the group, and she was pretty, so we sent a few woo-woos her way.

• They danced to music as a poem was being read.

• I liked dancing, too, but I had to pretend that I didn’t like it. No big deal. I was already keeping reading and writing poems a secret; I would just add dancing.

11. In the selection from Bad Boy, how does Walter change and grow after the incident with the girls in the gym?

• He discovers that he hates basketball

• He discovers that he likes dancing too

• He starts a relationship with Lorelle

• He gets suspended for mocking the girls dancing

14. Which quotation directly expresses a central idea about books in the selection from Bad Boy?

• With school out and me not having access to Mrs. Conway’s cache of books, I rediscovered the George Bruce Branch of the public library on 125th Street.
• The librarians always suggested books that were too young for me, but I still went on a regular basis.
• Away from books I was, at times, almost desperate to fill up the spaces of my life. Books filled those spaces for me.
• I began taking a brown paper bag to the library to bring my books home in.

15. One central idea in the selection from Bad Boy is that boys are “supposed to” act in a certain way. Which sentences from the selection best suggest this idea?

• There wasn’t any ice to skate on in Harlem, so I gave up hockey.
• Most of the girls I knew couldn’t play ball, and that excluded them from most of what I wanted to do with my life.
• When the girls had finished their dancing, they went through some stretching exercises.
• I liked dancing, too, but I had to pretend I didn’t like it.

13. What is a central idea in the selection from Bad Boy?

4. According to the selection from Bad Boy, what is Walter led to believe that boys should not do?

1. At what stage of life is Walter, the narrator, when the events of the selection from Bad Boy take place?

• small child
• grade schooler
• teenager
• young adult

3. In the selection from Bad Boy, what happens when Walter and his friends run into a group of girls exercising in the gym?

• The boys make fun of the girls for not being interested in basketball.
• The girls and boys dance together while Walter reads a poem aloud.
• The girls challenge the boys to do their exercises, but the boys cannot.
• The boys invite the girls to play basketball, but the girls do dancing exercises instead.

2. In the selection from Bad Boy, why does Walter feel a connection to the children he sees on the trolley?

5. How does Walter, the narrator of the selection from Bad Boy, feel about books?