Yang the Third and Her Impossible Family

Discussion Questions

1. What are Holly’s two problems and how does Mary try to help? Pg 74

2. Why is Mrs. Hanson doubtful about Mary’s offer? Pg 75

3. Do you think Mrs. Hanson will ask Mrs. Yang to play for Holly’s tryout?

4. What does Mary discover about Holly that surprises her? What does this suggest to you about
their friendship? Pg 76

5. What were Mary’s motivations for suggesting that her mother be Holly’s accompanist? Pg 76

6. Is Fourth Brother really sensitive to how Mary feels? How do you know? Pg 77

7. How do you know that Mary wishes her family would act more American? Pg 77

8. How can you relate Mary’s life to a juggling act? Pg 78

9. Did you predict that Mrs. Hanson would ask Mary’s mother to play for Holly? What do you think
will happen when Holly and Mrs. Yang play together? Pg 78

10. How do you know that music is important to the Yangs? What might this have to do with the
reason Mary and her brother are hiding Rita? Pg 79
 11. Why does Fourth Brother knock over the music stands? Pg 79

12. What does Mary mean on page 81 when she says that, At the end we all clapped politely, but
nobody was fooled?

13. Should Mrs. Hanson have realized that the Yangs weren’t insulting her and Holly? Pg 82

14. What does Mary learn from the confusion between yes and no? Why do you think the author
included this event in the story? Pg 83

15. What does the song “Yes!! We Have No Bananas” have to do with what happened between the
Yangs and the Hansons?