Make sure you've read the book before attempting to answer the questions. Print a copy of this assignment when you are finished.
Here's an excerpt to help with your review of the story.
I, Juan de Pareja
de Trevino, Elizabeth Borton
Newbery Award Winner
Readability: 7
Newbery Award Winner
Setting: 17th Century Spain
Main Character: Juan de Pareja, age 5 to adulthood.
"I have often had flashes of news in advance of their happening, and that cross frightened
me. The very next morning I was painting the same cross on our door, and before the day was
over, Mistress was being prepared for burial. I could not hear the tolling of the sad bells as
she was taken, for I, too, had fallen sick most suddenly and was past all thinking. I suffered
dreadful hallucinations, drenching sweats, and horrible retchings. How long I was at the point
of death, I have no idea. All I knew, upon awakening to my senses, was that I had been abandoned."
Juan de Pareja is a Negro, born to slavery. His first master and mistress die with the plague, and Juan is inherited by the court painter, Diego Rodriquez de Silva y Valazquez. Juan becomes a very much-trusted servant of the great Diego. He learns to mix and grind paints, prepare canvasses, and arrange materials for the artist. He also begins to do some painting for himself, which is forbidden by law because he is a slave. His master gives him his freedom so that he will not be imprisoned.
Those two, who begin in youth, as master and slave, continue as companions in their maturity and end as equals and friends. At the death of Diego, Juan assumes his rightful place as an artist of great ability.
Questions:
1. What is this story about?
2. Who was Diego's benefactor?
3. What special gift did Lolis, Juan's wife, have?
4. Explain Juan's concern about the painting he did.
5. Which character in the story do you admire the most? Why?
