63 pages • 2 hours read
They Cage the Animals at Night
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
During Reading
Reading Questions & Paired Texts
Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.
PRLOGUE-CHAPTER 4
Reading Check
1. In what setting does the Prologue take place?
2. At the Home of Angels orphanage, the older boys bully Jennings by calling him what nickname?
3. Who is the lead bully at the orphanage?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Jennings characterizes the Home of the Angels as a place where the children wait. What are the children waiting for? What are Jennings initial impressions of the orphanage?
2. Why do the Carpenters reject Jennings as an adoptive son?
3. As Mark explains to Jennings, why is the first rule of the orphanage not to make friends?
Paired Resource
- This obituary for Jennings Michael Burch, who died in 2013, appeared in The Putnam County Courier, a newspaper local to Burch’s home in upstate New York.
- Besides the writing of They Cage the Animals at Night, what other legacies did Jennings leave?
CHAPTERS 5-7
Reading Check
1. What war begins just as Jennings returns to Catholic school where his teacher is Sister Anne Charles?
2. Why is Jennings’s new friend Stevie at St. Teresa’s?
3. Back at home, which of Jennings’s brothers intends on quitting school to find a job, to better help financially support the family?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What reason does Jennings’s mother give him for having left him at the first orphanage?
2. What is Jennings’s relationship to Doggie? How does this relationship speak to larger issues Jennings faces in the orphanages?
3. As Jerome tells Jennings, what place does he primarily consider to be “home”?
Paired Resource
- The non-profit Voices for Children provides an overview of the history of the foster care system from the 1500s to present day.
- The information in this resource connects to the theme The Abandonment and Isolation of Children.
- How has the focus of foster care shifted over time? Did you find any surprising and/or unusual facts about the history of foster care system in this article?
CHAPTERS 8-10
Reading Check
1. What is the name of Jennings’s bus driver friend?
2. What kind of creature does Jennings tell his classmates he caught in a pail?
3. In Jennings’s family’s new apartment, with which of his brothers does Jennings share his room?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Walter remove Jennings from Miss Keller’s class?
2. What is Jennings’s relationship like with Mr. Frazier’s son, Donald? How does this relationship speak to general relationship conflicts that Jennings experiences?
3. What causes Jennings to run away from home? Where does he go?
Paired Resource
“One Former Foster Child’s Simple Approach to Fixing a Broken Home”
- In this 10-minute PBS NewsHour video, Sixto Cancel, an adult who experienced the foster care system as a child and founder of the non-profit Think of Us, offers his idea to improve foster care system by placing children with relatives rather than strangers.
- The content of this interview connects to the themes The Ephemerality of Happiness and Comfort for Children in Foster Care and The Abandonment and Isolation of Children.
- Might Cancel’s idea to fix the foster care system have worked in Jennings’s case? Why or why not?
CHAPTERS 11-13
Reading Check
1. Who is the only member of Jennings family that seems to hate Sal?
2. When Jennings arrives in the Brooklyn Shelter, which friend from the Home of Angels does he encounter?
3. From what addiction does Walter tell Jennings Larry now suffers?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What important piece of advice does Sal give to Jennings which directly contradicts the advice Larry gave him just the day before? What overall message does this advice convey?
2. Describe the Brooklyn Shelter. What does it look and smell like?
3. What important discussion do Jennings and Stacy have about the nature of love? Why is this a momentous occasion for Jennings?
Paired Resource
“Michael Jackson’s Lost Movies” (first 2 minutes)
- Pop singer Michael Jackson took a special interest in They Cage the Animals at Night and wanted to make it into a screenplay. As part of that process, Michael Jackson interviewed Jennings about the book; part of that interview is shown in this video from The Hollywood Reporter. (Content Warning: The interview includes a question and response about suicidal ideation.)
- In this brief clip, Jennings reflects on his experiences.
- Why do you think that Jennings brought Doggie with him to this interview?
CHAPTER 14-EPILOGUE
Reading Check
1. What is the name of the bully who punches Jennings in the stomach and face upon his arrival at the new children’s home?
2. What question does Jennings ask Mrs. Daily that causes her to cry?
3. How does George escape alcoholism?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. When Jennings happens upon a little boy named Kevin crying in bed, how does he advise him? How does this moment represent Jennings “paying it forward”?
2. What are the acts of kindness that the Dailys (Officer Daily and Mrs. Daily) complete for Jennings?
3. In the Epilogue, what is one of the major ways that Jennings helps break the cycle of neglect and harm that he experienced in the foster system?
Recommended Next Reads
I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond by Michael Oher
- Michael Oher’s memoir describes his childhood and his rookie year in the NFL.
- Shared themes include “Home” Is Relative.
- Shared topics include poverty and at-risk youth.
- I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond on SuperSummary
Three Little Words: A Memoir by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
- In this inspiring true story, Rhodes-Courter discusses her painful experience growing up in the Florida foster care system.
- Shared themes include The Ephemerality of Happiness and Comfort for Children in Foster Care.
- Both Rhodes-Courter’s and Jennings’s childhoods are characterized by instability. This creates a conviction in them as adults to use their position in life to give voice to children suffering in foster care.
- Three Little Words on SuperSummary
Reading Questions Answer Key
PROLOGUE-CHAPTER 4
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. At the orphanage, children wait in numerous ways: They wait for their parents, they wait for new foster parents, or they wait for the next click from Sister Frances. Although he only just arrived, Jennings hates his new home. (Chapter 2)
2. The Carpenters do not want to be parents; they simply adopt Jennings for the money granted to support fostering. As such, they treat Jennings poorly. Jennings attempts to run away and accidentally breaks a window. After this incident, the Carpenters decide to send him back to the orphanage. (Chapter 3)
3. The first rule, according to Mark, is to avoid friendships because any bonds between friends will inevitably be broken, as the children are adopted and sent away. This soon happens with Stacy. (Chapter 4)
CHAPTERS 5-7
Reading Check
1. The Korean War (Chapter 5)
2. Stevie’s mother is dead and his father has alcoholism. (Chapter 6)
3. George (Chapter 7)
Short Answer
1. Jennings’s mother explains Jennings’s first stay at the Home of the Angels only vaguely, saying that she was sick and could not take care of everyone. (Chapter 5)
2. Doggie is a stuffed animal in the Home of the Angels that comforts Jennings. Most stuffed animals are locked up at night at the Home of the Angels (one reason for the title of the memoir). At St. Teresa’s, stuffed animals are again locked up, but Jennings is able to keep Doggie because a kind nun, Sister Ann Catherine, allows Doggie to stay under his pillow. Over the course of these experiences, Jennings knows that Doggie can be taken away from him by the nuns, one example of how small comforts are denied to Jennings and the children. (Chapter 6)
3. Jerome is 11 years old and has spent his entire life in the hospital until now. Jerome tells Jennings that he didn’t hate it at the hospital, because it was the only home he ever knew. (Chapter 7)
CHAPTERS 8-10
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. Miss Keller humiliates Jennings and calls him a “really stupid kid” for not knowing how to add fractions. Instead of teaching him how to complete the problem, she punishes him by forcing him to try to do problems at the board, in front of the class. (Chapter 8)
2. Donald is rude to Jennings. For example, on their fishing outing, Donald does not help Jennings learn to fish, and he tricks Jennings into agreeing that he will tell others he had the smaller catch (the shark) so that Donald can claim Jennings’s larger catch (the fish). His interactions with Donald show that Jennings is gullible and struggles to connect emotionally with the people around him. (Chapter 9)
3. Jennings’s family forgets his birthday, and Sal is transferred to a new bus route; additionally, Jennings is beginning to understand the extent of the unhealthy conflicts and problems in his family. Jennings runs away to the zoo, where he takes food from the trash can at the zoo restaurant. (Chapter 10)
CHAPTERS 11-13
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. Sal tells Jennings to keep making friends and connecting with people, even if they do go away. Sal’s message is that better to be open to the possibility of friendship rather than closing oneself off. (Chapter 11)
2. Jennings describes the Brooklyn shelter as an ugly building with unattractive tile and metal doors. Its interior has a large dormitory that reeks of urine and bug spray. (Chapter 12)
3. Jennings and Stacy talk about how people are afraid of love; they also talk about how people are afraid to express love, like their mother. This is an important moment for Jennings because it shows that, despite everything that happened to him, he is still open to finding a way to love those around him. (Chapter 13)
CHAPTER 14-EPILOGUE
Reading Check
1. Ronny (Chapter 14)
2. He asks if Thanksgiving has already passed. (Chapter 15)
3. He joins Alcoholics Anonymous. (Epilogue)
Short Answer
1. Jennings tells Kevin to eat, sleep, remember his number, and have patience. Most of all, Jennings advises Kevin not to spend his time thinking about home. Jennings considers this “paying it forward” for what Mark did for him. (Chapter 14)
2. The Dailys take care of Jennings for the next two days, buying him all new clothes. They also take him to the movies and treat him to a turkey dinner with cranberry sauce to make up for his missing Thanksgiving. Best of all, Officer Daily finds Sal and reunites Sal with Jennings. (Chapter 15)
3. Jennings embraces the role of caretaker by adopting Carolyn, a child in foster care. He notes that she is one more “animal” that they will not cage up at night. (Epilogue)
Unlock all 63 pages of this Study Guide
Plus, gain access to 9,150+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features: