61 pages • 2 hours read
The Fault in Our Stars
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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 1-3
Reading Check
1. What illness does Hazel suffer from?
2. What book does Hazel ask Augustus to read?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Hazel hate going to the support group?
2. Why does Augustus hold cigarettes?
3. What is the significance of the little girl asking Hazel about her tubes?
Paired Resource
“The Fault in Our Stars Interview - John Green (2014)”
- This 5-minute video is an interview with author John Green about his process and inspiration in writing The Fault in Our Stars along with insights about the main characters.
- Students may connect the theme Sentimental Cancer Narratives to the author’s message in this interview.
- How did Green’s experiences contribute to the plot and characterization of The Fault in Our Stars?
CHAPTERS 4-6
Reading Check
1. How does Augustus tell Isaac to express his pain and rage?
2. What does Augustus request for his “wish”?
3. What surgery does Isaac undergo?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does the ending of An Imperial Affliction bother Hazel?
2. Why does Hazel decide that she cannot pursue a relationship with Augustus?
- This established organization is similar to the Genie Foundation described in the novel. The site provides various accounts of the organization’s accomplishments and additional resources.
- What is the intended impact of the Make-a-Wish foundation? How might the goals of the organization impact a variety of individuals in addition to the child with an illness?
CHAPTERS 7-9
Reading Check
1. What causes Hazel to be sent to the ICU?
2. What may be causing Hazel’s deterioration?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What is Hazel’s reasoning for not allowing Augustus to visit her while she is in the ICU?
2. Why do Augustus and Hazel sell the swing set?
3. Why does Hazel lash out at the girl in her support group?
CHAPTERS 10-13
Reading Check
1. How might the reader describe Van Houten’s manners?
2. What is revealed about Augustus’s condition in Amsterdam?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How did Augustus’s old girlfriend influence his view on life?
2. How does Van Houten respond to Hazel’s questions about his book?
3. Why does Hazel now believe she was wrong to try to prevent Augustus from loving her?
Paired Resource
- This poem by E.E. Cummings speaks about the connection between two individuals and the idea that love transcends physical boundaries, mirroring the love story between Hazel and Augustus in the novel.
- Shared themes include The Heroic Observer.
- How does this poem parallel Augustus’s and Hazel’s feelings for one another? Could this poem be written by one or either of them? Explain.
CHAPTERS 14-17
Reading Check
1. What is the “mission” Augustus, Hazel, and Isaac go on together?
2. How does Augustus describe himself in the sculpture garden?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Hazel’s father dislike An Imperial Affliction? How does this relate to his views of the universe and The Heroic Observer theme?
2. How is Augustus’s personality demonstrated through how he plays video games?
3. Why does Hazel yell at Augustus regarding the obituaries?
CHAPTERS 18-20
Reading Check
1. According to Augustus’s father, what does Hazel bring out of Augustus?
2. How does Augustus feel regarding his family waiting on him hand and foot?
3. What do Isaac and Hazel attend in the Literal Heart of Jesus?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does Augustus’s experience at the gas station break away from the Sentimental Cancer Narrative idea?
2. How is “The Last Good Day” convention described by Hazel?
“The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams
- This short poem briefly describes a wheelbarrow with specific, descriptive detail. Hazel recites and adds to this poem as Augustus is taken to the hospital.
- Why might Hazel have chosen to recite this poem, and how do her added lines contribute to this meaningful moment?
CHAPTERS 21-25
Reading Check
1. How does Hazel rate her pain at the news that Augustus has died?
2. What does Hazel place in Augustus’s casket?
3. What does Hazel’s mother reveal to her?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does Hazel’s perspective of Van Houten change?
2. How does Augustus explain Hazel’s “true heroism”? (Chapter 25)
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- Shared topics include illness, friendship, and self-discovery.
- Me and Earl and the Dying Girl on SuperSummary
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Reading Questions Answer Key
CHAPTERS 1-3
Reading Check
1. Hazel has thyroid cancer that has spread to her lungs. Her lungs were damaged by tumors and by pneumonia when she was 14, so she carries an oxygen tank with her and receives oxygen through a cannula to her nose. (Chapter 1)
2. An Imperial Affliction (Chapter 2)
Short Answer
1. Hazel finds that the discussions of faith and positivity around cancer to be sentimentalized and fake. (Chapter 1)
2. Augustus holds unlit cigarettes in his lips as a metaphor for being close to Death without allowing harm to befall him. (Chapter 1)
3. Hazel appreciates the little girl’s directness and wishes more people would be more comfortable with asking questions and unafraid of her condition. (Chapter 3)
CHAPTERS 4-6
Reading Check
1. Break Augustus’s old basketball trophies (Chapter 4)
2. A trip to Amsterdam for Hazel (Chapter 5)
3. Removal of his remaining eye (Chapter 5)
Short Answer
1. The story ends midsentence because the narrator dies or becomes too ill to continue the story; as a result, Hazel does not know what happens to the other characters. (Chapter 4)
2. Hazel feels is it is irresponsible for her to date anyone, because it will cause more pain when she passes. (Chapter 6)
CHAPTERS 7-9
Reading Check
1. Fluid buildup in her lungs (Chapter 7)
2. Phalanxifor, the drug keeping her tumors from growing (Chapter 8)
Short Answer
1. Hazel is disheveled and suffering, and she does not want Augustus to see her this way. (Chapter 7)
2. The swing set reminds Hazel of the good times with her parents prior to her cancer diagnosis, causing her sadness. (Chapter 8)
3. The girl praises Hazel for her strength, which Hazel finds disingenuous. The rest of the group pities her, causing Hazel more frustration. (Chapter 9)
CHAPTERS 10-13
Reading Check
1. Rude (Chapter 12)
2. Augustus’s cancer has spread. (Chapter 13)
Short Answer
1. Augustus’s girlfriend turned angry, vindictive, and negative due to her brain tumor, so he decided he would be positive and optimistic instead. (Chapter 11)
2. Van Houten states that the characters do not exist outside the marks on a page, so he cannot and will not answer her questions. (Chapter 12)
3. Hazel realizes that she, too, has fallen in love with a “grenade” (someone who is terminally ill) and would not give up her love for him, and vice versa. (Chapter 13)
CHAPTERS 14-17
Reading Check
1. Egging Isaac’s ex-girlfriend’s house (Chapter 14)
2. Like a skeleton, in reference to one of the sculptures (Chapter 15)
Short Answer
1. Hazel’s father views the novel as inauthentic and defeatist. He believes that the universe wants to be noticed and rewards intelligence and observation. (Chapter 14)
2. Augustus is determined to save people and sacrifice himself, much like how he is in reality. (Chapter 16)
3. Augustus states that he wishes to have done something with his life that the newspaper could express when he dies, and Hazel takes offense, saying that she, his family, and the world would have to be enough. (Chapter 17)
CHAPTERS 18-20
Reading Check
1. His humor (Chapter 19)
2. Hazel sees that Augustus thinks this behavior is degrading and that he is exhausted by it. (Chapter 19)
3. Augustus’s “prefuneral” (Chapter 20)
Short Answer
1. Hazel reflects that in many cancer narratives, the individual with the terminal illness is portrayed as positive and dignified all the way until the end; however, at the gas station, Augustus is visibly upset, covered in vomit, and broken down. (Chapter 18)
2. For “The Last Good Day” convention, those with increasingly debilitating cancer symptoms toward the end suddenly plateau for a couple of hours to allow them some respite. Hazel considers this one of the better conventions of “the cancer kid genre.” (Chapter 20)
CHAPTERS 21-25
Reading Check
1. 10 out of 10 (Chapter 21)
2. Cigarettes (Chapter 22)
3. Hazel’s mother is earning a master’s degree in social work and wants to counsel families of cancer patients. (Chapter 24)
Short Answer
1. Hazel learns that Van Houten had an 8-year-old daughter who died of leukemia, and he wrote An Imperial Affliction for her. (Chapter 23)
2. While some people try to make a mark on the world—even by possibly hurting others—Augustus says that Hazel steps lightly, creating no harm to anyone. (Chapter 25)
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