66 pages • 2 hours read
Donna Barba HigueraThe Last Cuentista
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2021A 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 1-8
Reading Check
1. In what state is the spaceship launch site located, where Petra and her family will evacuate Earth?
2. Petra deduces that the Lead Monitor must be a member of what group?
3. What is the first story that Ben reads to Petra in her semi-stasis state?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What is the myth of Halley’s Comet, as told to Petra by her grandmother, Lita?
2. As Petra learns on a TV show about the Collective, how do they intend to create permanent peace among humanity?
3. What gift does Ben give to Petra for her 13th birthday? What eventually happens to Ben?
Paired Resource
“Donna Barba Higuera on Her Family’s Storytelling Influence”
- In this 3-minute video interview for AdLit, the author describes how her parents and grandmother helped her develop a love for daydreaming and storytelling.
- Stories, especially fairy tales and/or cultural oral histories, reflect a community’s group consciousness, and as such is related to themes around Individual Versus Group Consciousness.
- In Chapters 1-8, how does the author establish that stories are a very powerful force over group consciousness? How does the Collective seek to harness the power of stories for their own purposes?
CHAPTERS 9-16
Reading Check
1. Petra thinks back on the summer she turned 12, when her father took her to Rockhound State Park. What was the purpose of visiting there?
2. Who are Petra’s two pod mates?
3. Whose conversation does Petra overhear revealing that if Sagan is unable to sustain life, they may need to travel for another 200 years?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Upon waking up from her stasis state and being able to speak, what is the difference between the first words that Petra says compared to what she thinks?
2. Why is Voxy fascinated by Petra?
3. Why does Nyla see Earth’s destruction not as a tragedy but as an opportunity?
Paired Resource
“Why My ‘Last Cuentista’ Protagonist Is Visually Impaired”
- The author explains in this School Library Journal article why it was a significant choice to make Petra a character who is visually impaired.
- Petra’s retinitis pigmentosa gives her a unique understanding of human differences, which is connected to the book’s messaging around Individual Versus Group Consciousness.
- What are the personal reasons that led the author to be concerned with the representation of people with impaired vision? How is this reflected in the character of Petra?
CHAPTERS 17-21
Reading Check
1. Upon landing on Sagan, what task is Petra, Rubio, and Feathers assigned for the day?
2. When Petra and the group return to the shuttle after their initial exploration of Sagan, what happens to Len?
3. Why is Suma put back into stasis?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What story of Lita’s inspires Petra as she plans her escape from the Collective? How does this story affect her plans?
2. What is the fate of the character Glish?
3. In the bedtime cuento that Petra tells Rubio and the other Zetas, what happens in the story and what is its moral?
Paired Resource
- In this 4-minute video interview for Chronicle Books, the author describes the origins of The Last Cuentista, as well as the big questions that animated the story as she wrote the book.
- The author explained that, in characterizing Petra, she sought to answer the question: When leaving Earth, what are the things we cherish the most? What would we miss the most? These questions relate to The Heart’s Memories.
- Have you considered how you would feel if you were in Petra’s shoes and had to quickly flee the Earth? What would you want to be sure to take with you?
CHAPTERS 22-25
Reading Check
1. Which book of Javier’s does Petra find in the hidden room behind Javier’s sleeping cell?
2. What tips Petra off that Epsilon-5 is actually her brother Javier?
3. What object triggers Epilon-5’s childhood memories to come rushing back?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. As Voxy explains to Petra, why was he so happy to stumble upon a book?
2. How does Petra come to the realization that Nyla intends to poison the remaining First Arrivers on Sagan?
3. How does Petra thwart Nyla’s plan to exterminate the remaining First Arrivers?
Paired Resource
- National Geographic interviews four storytellers in different mediums (photojournalism, audio, and illustration) and asks why they find stories important.
- As Bill McQuay points out, certain stories communicate common feelings from generation to generation. As a link from past to present, storytelling is deeply related to the theme of Past Versus Future.
- Why do each of the four storytellers find stories to be so important? Do you think Petra would agree with them? Why or why not?
CHAPTERS 26-30
Reading Check
1. In Petra’s reprogramming dream, whom does the librarian in the holographic library look like?
2. When Petra returns to consciousness after her reprogramming, who is standing over her?
3. What member of the Collective was a stowaway on Petra’s escape shuttle?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. As Petra is being escorted to the pod for her reprogramming, she tells Nyla that the Collective will fail. What reason does she give for believing this?
2. What act of self-sacrifice does Javier make for Petra, which he believes will make their parents and ancestors proud?
3. What is the ultimate fate of the First Arrivers? How did they avoid being poisoned by the toxins in the Collective’s drones?
Recommended Next Reads
The Giver by Lois Lowry
- In this Newbery Medal-winning classic, 12-year-old Jonas lives in a dystopian future where no one thinks or asks questions—until one day, Jonas begins to unlock the complex, dark secrets behind his fragile community.
- Shared themes include Individual Versus Group Consciousness.
- Like the Collective, Jonas’s community decides that individual difference is dangerous; their conformity is enforced through rules, norms, and rituals.
- The Giver on SuperSummary
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
- Binti is an Afro-futuristic work of YA speculative fiction. In it, Binti is the first of her people—the Himba—to be offered a place at the prestigious Oomza University, the finest college in the whole galaxy. In this coming-of-age story, Binti realizes that knowledge comes at a cost.
- Shared themes include The Heart’s Memories.
- Binti and Petra are both motivated by an intense desire to preserve and honor their history and culture.
- Binti on SuperSummary
Reading Questions Answer Key
CHAPTERS 1-8
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. Lita tells Petra that Halley’s Comet is really a blind fire snake in the sky, trying to reunite with its mother, Earth. Unfortunately, the comet will strike Earth in this process. (Chapters 1-4)
2. The Collective believes that differences among groups caused humanity to become selfish, thus creating war and poverty. By eradicating all diversity, the Collective intends to create permanent harmony in the world. (Chapters 1-4)
3. Ben gives Petra the gift of a Cog containing a number of stories, which will be uploaded into her system: The stories include a collection of mythology from around the world, as well as the works of contemporary fantasy authors. Eventually, Ben is overpowered by the Collective, who decides that he needs to be “purged” for uploading these stories into Petra’s system. (Chapters 5-8)
CHAPTERS 9-16
Reading Check
1. Look for some special rocks (Chapters 9-12)
2. Zeta-3 and Zeta-4 (Chapters 13-16)
3. Crick and Nyla (Chapters 13-16)
Short Answer
1. Because she was conditioned to do so, Petra says aloud that she is named Zeta-1, that she is an expert in botany and geology, and that she’s here to serve the Collective. Internally, however, she thinks to herself that her name is Petra Peña; she states the date she left Earth (July 28, 2061) and then the current year (2432). She vows she will do whatever it takes to find her family. (Chapters 9-12)
2. Voxy is fascinated by Petra’s freckles; he has never seen freckles before. (Chapters 13-16)
3. Nyla sees Earth’s destruction as an opportunity because in the new world order, not a single memory of any of the Earth’s conflict will live on in human consciousness. The Collective has made sure that even the memory of war, starvation, and conflict have all been eradicated. (Chapters 13-16)
CHAPTERS 17-21
Reading Check
1. To collect air, soil, water, and plant samples (Chapters 17-19)
2. His skin is covered in boils. (Chapters 17-19)
3. To be reprogrammed (Chapters 20-21)
Short Answer
1. Petra thinks of Lita’s story about the brave princess. The princess was a heroine because she saved others; this inspires Petra that she needs to make sure that Rubio, Feathers, and the other Zetas come with her. (Chapters 17-19)
2. Glish complains about some of the Collective’s rules; he is overheard by Nyla and Crick. They summon a member of the Collective Petra dubbed “the Prawn,” who whisks Glish away. (Chapters 20-21)
3. A poor old couple who shares food with a beggar, who rewards them by telling them about a cave with a treasure jar inside. Before they can get the jar, an evil neighbor steals it; the jar, however, is filled with poisonous insects. The evil neighbor throws it through the old couple’s window. Magically, the next day, the bugs turn to diamonds. The moral of the story is that good deeds are rewarded, and bad ones are punished. (Chapters 20-21)
CHAPTERS 22-25
Reading Check
1. Dreamers (Chapters 22-25)
2. A birthmark on his thumb (Chapters 22-25)
3. When Petra reads him his old copy of Dreamers (Chapters 22-25)
Short Answer
1. Voxy was delighted to experience, via the book, a world where people are different from each other. In that world, they are also free to do as they please. (Chapters 22-23)
2. Petra notices that all the toxic plants that she has collected are gone. When she discusses this with Epsilon-5, he mentions that Nyla required him to work on a special project to extract toxins from plants. (Chapters 22-25)
3. Petra convinces Nyla that she can improve upon the plant toxin formula, as prepared by Javier. She then inserts ingredients into the formula that render the toxin inert. (Chapters 22-25)
CHAPTERS 26-30
Reading Check
Short Answer
1. Petra realizes that the Collective numbs themselves to erase who they really are, but no amount of programming and reprogramming will stamp out loving and caring for one another. (Chapters 26-28)
2. Javier tells Petra that he will not be joining her and the rest of the Zetas as they escape the Collective. He plans to remain behind because this will give Petra and the rest of the Zetas a better chance at survival. (Chapters 26-28)
3. The First Arrivers survive the Collective’s attempts to wipe them out via a drone strike. Petra realizes that Javier, having stayed back, found a way to neutralize the toxins in the drones, thus allowing the First Arrivers to live. (Chapters 29-30)
