All the Light We Cannot See

Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.

Part 0, Chapters 1-8

Reading Check

1. What is the setting of this novel?

2. What does Marie-Laure find in her model house?

3. Who does Werner’s radio remind him of?

Multiple Choice

1. Why does the author begin the novel toward the end of the war?

A) Doerr wants to start his novel in an unusual way.

B) Doerr wants readers to wonder how the characters got to be where they are.

C) Doerr doesn’t think the war is the most important part of the story.

D) Doerr wishes to set the tone of the novel with the violence of the siege.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Marie-Laure have a miniature version of her city?

Part 1, Chapters 9-31

Reading Check

1. Where did Marie-Laure’s father work?

2. Where does Werner grow up?

3. What does Marie-Laure’s father make her every year for her birthday?

Multiple Choice

1. How does Marie-Laure’s father help her to learn about the world?

A) by placing items in her hands to identify

B) by getting her a tutor

C) by making her find her way home without a map

D) by lecturing her about different aspects of the world

2. What does it suggest about Werner that he is able to repair the radio?

A) He understands the radio manual.

B) His father worked on radios.

C) He is very smart and good with technology.

D) He will do anything for his sister.

3. What is significant about the radio messaging from the government before the war begins?

A) It foreshadows the growth and support of the Nazi regime.  

B) It foreshadows Werner’s role in the war.

C) It reminds Jutta and Werner of their parents’ deaths.

D) It reminds Jutta and Werner they both will have to work for the government.

4. Why does Werner destroy his radio after meeting Herr Siedler?

A) He now wants to join the Reich.

B) He is fearful it will be discovered.

C) He is reminded too much of his parents.

D) He thinks it brings him too much hope.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is the Sea of Flames?

2. Why is Werner afraid to work in a mine?

3. Why do Werner and Jutta enjoy the science radio program?

4. Why doesn’t Marie-Laure’s father think that there will be another way?

Part 2, Chapters 32-36

Reading Check

1. What does Marie-Laure hold in her hand?

Multiple Choice

1. What most accurately describes what is happening in this set of chapters?

A) Marie-Laure escapes the Hotel of Bees with a jewel while Werner and his companions are trapped.

B) Marie-Laure remains under her bed, but Werner and his companions manage to escape the Hotel of Bees. They leave Marie-Laure behind.

C) Marie-Laure pulls herself out of her shelter. Werner and one of his companions are injured. They are all trapped.

D) Marie-Laure tries to protect herself from the bombing; Werner is shell-shocked. Marie-Laure flees to the cellar, holding her puzzle box. Werner and his companions are trapped.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is happening in Saint-Malo?

Part 3, Chapters 37-61

Reading Check

1. Why does Werner go to Essen?

2. Why is Jutta upset with Werner?

3. What happens to Marie-Laure’s father?

Multiple Choice

1. How does Marie-Laure bond with Etienne?

A) They read together and imagine far-off places.

B) They go for long walks, and he helps her to navigate Saint-Malo.

C) They discuss the horrors of war, and Etienne shares his experience.

D) They sit in a contented silence together each day listening to the water.

2. Why is it significant that Marie-Laure’s grandfather recorded science lessons on the gramophone?

A) It reminds Marie-Laure and Werner that learning is important to their family.

B) It helps Marie-Laure to think about what she wants to do with her life.

C) It harkens back to the recordings of Henri’s lessons that Jutta and Werner listened to on the radio.

D) It remind both Werner and Marie-Laure that all good things must come to an end.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What happens when Marie-Laure and her father reach the museum director’s friend’s house?

2. Why are radios significant in this book so far?

Part 4, Chapters 62-67

Reading Check

1. What does Marie-Laure find remaining in the house?

Multiple Choice

1. Why does Werner think he and his companions are still alive?

A) They were able to get out of the hotel.

B) They need each other together to continue to survive.

C) They still have to make up for all that they’ve done.

D) They have worse fates ahead of them.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Who is coming into the house?

Part 5, Chapters 68-95

Reading Check

1. Why is Birds of America forbidden?

2. Where does Madame Manec take Marie-Laure?

3. What is Jutta’s job now?

Multiple Choice

1. What is the most likely reason Werner throws water onto the prisoner even though he doesn’t want to?

A) He believes he is trapped in his role, just as the prisoner is trapped in his.

B) He secretly wants to but is afraid to admit that he is a bad person.

C) He hopes he will be praised by his superiors at school.

D) He wants Jutta to like him.

2. Why does Marie-Laure’s father lie to her about the conditions in the work camp?

A) He is afraid a German will see his letter.

B) He writes it as part of a coded message to her.

C) He doesn’t want her to worry.

D) He never knows which letter will be his last.

3. Why does Madame Manec tell Etienne about the frog being cooked when heat is slowly applied to cold water?

A) She believes heat is slowly being added to her pot, and she won’t survive without him.

B) She believes he is the frog and that the Germans will kill them slowly.

C) She believes they need to protect Marie-Laure from the pressure of German occupation.

D) She believes that he needs to trust her more.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why is Frederick such a poor marksman?

2. What does Madame Manec do for her community?

Part 6, Chapters 96-100

Reading Check

1. Where does Marie-Laure hide?

2. Who dies in this section?

Multiple Choice

1. What is similar about Werner’s situation in Saint-Malo and his life before the war that Doerr references in this section?

A) He always has his sister to support him.

B) He is still able to build a radio out of scraps.

C) He is hopeful.

D) He believes in the German cause.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Marie know that Von Rumpel will not leave the house?

Part 7, Chapters 101-120

Reading Check

1. With whom is Werner reunited?

2. Where do the jewels for Von Rumpel come from?

3. What does Marie-Laure receive for her 16th birthday?

Multiple Choice

1. What is the most likely reason Etienne decides to pass messages for the resistance?

A) He is afraid people will not protect Marie-Laure if he does not.

B) He is secretly working for the Germans now that Madame Manec is dead.

C) He is hopeful it will help to bring Marie-Laure’s father home.

D) He is willing to take up Madame’s legacy because it’s what she would have wanted.

2. Why does Von Rumpel wish to find the Sea of Flames so badly?

A) He is greedy and believes that it is rightfully his.

B) He is wishes to use it to win the war.

C) He is a believer in its power, thinking it will cure his cancer.

D) He is hoping to please Hitler by finding it.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Etienne set up warning bells?

2. Why does Etienne think it is only a matter of time before someone finds him?

Part 8, Chapters 121-128

Reading Check

1. How much power is left in Werner’s batteries for his radio?

2. Who hears Marie-Laure’s radio transmission?

Multiple Choice

1. Who reminds Marie-Laure not to make noise?

A) Madame Manec

B) Her father, in a hallucination induced by hunger

C) Etienne, via a recorded radio transmission

D) Werner

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Marie-Laure read the book over the radio?

Part 9, Chapters 129-147

Reading Check

1. Who was the final diamond carrier?

2. What does Marie-Laure do with the bread when she believes she is cornered by the German soldier?

Multiple Choice

1. Why does Werner begin to think he is not real?

A) He has forgotten what his sister sounds like.

B) He no longer recognizes himself.

C) He sees visions of a girl who was killed.

D) He dreams about Frederick.

2. Why does Etienne leave the house?

A) Marie-Laure does not return home on time, and he needs to find her.

B) He decides to flee when Marie-Laure doesn’t return.

C) He discovers Von Rumpel has learned about the radio.

D) He is afraid it is going to be bombed.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why can’t Werner report the Frenchman he hears broadcasting?

2. How does Marie-Laure realize she needs to open the puzzle of Etienne’s house?

3. Where does this section end? Why is it significant?

Part 10, Chapters 148-165

Reading Check

1. What song does Marie-Laure play over the radio?

2. What does Marie-Laure give Werner when they part?

Multiple Choice

1. What does the broadcast of the music inspire Volkheimer to do?

A) throw down his weapons

B) try using a grenade to free himself and Werner

C) stand up to Von Rumpel

D) confide in Werner

2. Who inadvertently starts the fire?

A) Marie-Laure

B) Volkheimer

C) Werner

D) Von Rumpel

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Werner tell Volkheimer he purposely misled his unit about the source of the broadcasts?

2. What does Von Rumpel believe is Werner’s mission when he sees him in the house?

3. Why does Werner ask for a page from Birds of America?

Part 11, Chapters 166-167

Reading Check

1. Where does Jutta work as Berlin is bombed?

2. Who does Marie-Laure meet again when she returns to her childhood home?

Multiple Choice

1. What does Marie-Laure’s desire to go to school indicate about life after the war?

A) She will never stop looking for her father.

B) She needs to accept that life must go on, and she is getting older.

C) She needs to learn all that she can to work at the museum to honor her father’s legacy.

D) She wishes to remember those that she has lost, including Werner, who loved to learn.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What is the effect of the final days of the war on life for Germans?

Part 12, Chapters 168-177

Reading Check

1. When does Part 12 take place?

2. Who does Jutta receive an unexpected visit from?

3. Where is the Sea of Flames at the end of the novel?

Multiple Choice

1. Why does Jutta never discuss the war?

A) She still blames Werner for leaving her.

B) She has blocked it out and can’t remember what happened.

C) She doesn’t want her son to know such violence.

D) She doesn’t think she will ever heal.

2. Why is it important that Max is the one to discover the small house found in Werner’s belongings is actually a puzzle?

A) It is a reminder of Werner’s curiosity and love of learning passed down through his nephew.

B) It is a sign that there is still a mystery to be solved.

C) It is a symbol of innocence.

D) It is a warning that someone will always be after the Sea of Flames.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Jutta worry about Max’s accent in Saint-Malo?

2. What might this flashforward in time suggest about war and memory?

Part 13, Chapters 178

Reading Check

1. When does Part 13 take place?

Multiple Choice

1. What statement does Michel make about his video game that could be considered a metaphor for life after the war?

A) “I can always begin again.”

B) “Battles are always harder at higher levels.”

C) “You’ll always be given new challenges.”

D) “War never really ends.”

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What connection does Marie-Laure see between technology and those who died during the war?