77 pages 2 hours read

Rebecca Roanhorse

Trail of Lightning

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2018

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.

CHAPTERS 1-6

Reading Check

1. To whom was Maggie apprenticed?

2. What is Maggie’s occupation?

3. What does Neizghání compare evil to?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Maggie mean when she says the Diné have already survived an apocalypse 100 years before?

2. What is k’é, and why is it so important?

Paired Resource

To Combat COVID, Fort Lewis College Embraces Navajo Principle of Kinship

  • This news article illustrates the importance and pertinence of Indigenous cultural knowledge in addressing the challenges of the future.
  • Shared themes include Familial Obligations and Kinship.
  • Even though she claims to reject traditions, how might Maggie benefit from k’é in this post-apocalyptic future, and what does she lose by rejecting it?

CHAPTERS 7-10

Reading Check

1. What resources does the Tribal Council control?

2. Rather than climate change, what did Maggie’s nalí (paternal grandmother) think caused the Big Water?

3. To what theme does Black Mesa connect most directly?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.