the best christmas pageant ever

Page numbers are approximate and may vary between book editions.

Section 1

1. How does the narrator describe the Herdman kids?
   pg. 1
2. Why was burning down the tool house a “blessing in disguise”?
   pg. 3
3. Why did Miss Brandel pass Claude to the 2nd grade even though he didn’t even know his colors or the ABC’s?
   pg. 7-8
4. Why do the Herdman children have to look after themselves?
   pg. 14
5. How does Mother get stuck directing the Christmas Pageant?
   pg. 16
6. What does the narrator’s brother, Charlie, say he likes best about Sunday School?
   pg. 20
7. What does Charlie tell Leroy that makes the Herdman children want to come to church?
   pg. 21

Section 2

1. What kind of girl does Mrs. Armstrong say should play Mary?
   pg. 27
2. Who volunteers to be Mary in The Christmas Pageant?
   pg. 29
3. Why does Alice think Imogene should be put out of the pageant?
   pg. 34-35
4. What does Reverend Hopkins say to all the people who are complaining?
   pg. 37
5. What is the lie that Mother tells in church?
   pg. 39
6. What is the only thing the Herdmans know about Christmas?
   pg. 40
7. Name one thing about the Christmas story that upsets the Herdman children?
   pg. 47

Section 3

1. When Mother finishes telling Father about the rehearsal, what does she say about the Herdman children?
   pg. 50
2. What do the Herdmans do to find out what happened to Herod?
   pg. 50
3. When Imogene grabs the narrator at recess, what does she want to know?
   pg. 50
4. Why do the Herdman children want Herod to be a character in the Christmas pageant?
   pg. 52
5. What does Alice tell Imogene that the angel says to Mary about her baby’s name?
   pg. 64
6. What causes Mrs. Homer McCarthy to call the fire department?
   pg. 66
7. What turns out to be the “one great big sinful thing” Alice tells her mom about?
   pg. 68

Section 4

1. What does Mother say she might do when the pageant is over?
   pg. 70
2. What does the Narrator’s father say the song Away in a Manger always starts out sounding like?
   pg. 71
3. What did Ralph and Imogene look like when they walked through the door to the stage?
   pg. 72
4. Gladys is the only one in the pageant who has a speaking part. What does she say?
   pg. 74
5. What gift do the Wise Men (Leroy, Claude, and Ollie) bring to the baby Jesus?
   pg. 75
6. Why doesn’t the narrator want the pageant to end?
   pg. 77
7. What does Imogene do that is “absolutely unexpected” at the end of the play?
   pg. 77