1. Why do you think the author told the story of the Holocaust in this symbolic way? Who is this story directed to?

2. Why do you think the Terrible Things take away the animals one group at a time?

3. In an allegory, people, places, and events are used as symbols. What can the clearing in the woods stand for? What about the different animals? The Terrible Things?

4. What kind of excuses do the other animals offer to explain the fate of each group as it is taken away? How do these reactions help the Terrible Things?

5. How are the Terrible Things described? What verbs are used to describe their actions? How do the descriptions affect your feelings about the Terrible Things?

6. During the Holocaust, terrible things were done by real people, people with faces, names, and life histories. Why do you think the author shows the Terrible Things as anonymous?

7. What choices do the animals in the clearing have when the Terrible Things come?

8. What would you say to Big Rabbit’s statement, “We are the White Rabbits. It couldn’t happen to us”?

9. When the Terrible Things come for the rabbits, what do the rabbits do? What choice does Little Rabbit make? Why? What does this tell you about the Terrible Things?

10. Little Rabbit hopes someone will listen to him. Why might no one listen?

in Terrible Things

Why do the Terrible Thing take away animals one at a time?When the terrible things first came for the creatures with feathers on their backs, the animals who didn’t have feathers showed the terrible things that they they had none, while the birds tried to fly away. When the terrible things caught the birds and took them away, the other creatures were thankful that the terrible things did not take them, and they didn’t really care that the birds were taken.