Sees Behind Trees Questions
1.Cultures often have distinct “rights of passage” that mark the transition
from adolescence into adulthood. What did boys in this tribe have to do to
become a man? Do we have any of those “rights of passage” in our culture?
What are they?
2.Who taught the boys in the tribe how to shoot the bow and arrow?
3.What problem did Walnut have?
4.What did Walnut’s mother teach him to do?
5.Who was the weroance? What was her role in the tribe?
6.How did the boys get their grown-up names? How were the names determined?
7.If you were given a new name based on your abilities or accomplishments,
what would it be and why?
8.What do you think were some of the values of the tribe based on their
customs, relationships, and interactions? (You might have additional
thoughts about this as we progress through the book.)
9.Why do you think Frog’s new name was Three Chances?
10.How and where did Sees Behind Trees find Diver’s needle?
11.Do you think Walnut’s father cared for him? What does he do to show that?
12.Sees Behind Trees questioned what it meant to be grown up. What were his
answers?
13.What do you think it means to be grown up?
14.What did Gray Fire ask of Sees Behind Trees?
15.What is the significance of the land of water?
16.What does the quest for the land of water symbolize?
17.What had once been Gray Fire’s gift? What caused him to lose it?
18.Why was Sees Behind Trees so shocked to find strangers?
Why did he fear them?
What did Gray Fire mean when he said “Remember, to them we are the
strangers”? p. 66
What things did they first find in common with the strangers?
What did Sees Behind Trees learn from the strangers?
19.What happens when they find the land of water?
20.Who does Sees Behind Trees find and help on his way home?
21.Why did Otter say she needed Gray Fire?
22.How did Gray Fire’s sister affect his life?
23.What did Sees Behind Trees mean when he said “The day I received my new
name, I had no idea how many trees there were, and how much there was to see
behind each of them”? p. 101
