Krik? Krak!: Between the Pool and the Gardenias

by Edwidge Danticat
In this short story collection, award-winning writer Edwidge Danticat explores everyday life in Haiti.

Here are links to our lists for the stories in the collection: Children of the Sea, Nineteen Thirty-Seven, A Wall of Fire Rising, Night Women, Between the Pool and the Gardenias, The Missing Peace, Seeing Things Simply, New York Day Women, Caroline's Wedding, Epilogue: Women Like Us, In the Old Days
10 words 81 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. mahogany
    a shade of brown with a tinge of red
    Bright shiny hair and dark brown skin like mahogany cocoa.
  2. rupture
    separate or cause to separate abruptly
    Her hands were bony, and there were veins so close to the surface that it looked like you could rupture her skin if you touched her too hard.
  3. crafty
    marked by skill in deception
    My enemies were many and crafty.
  4. embroider
    decorate with needlework
    The child was wearing an embroidered little blue dress with the letters R-O-S-E on a butterfly collar.
  5. cherub
    an angel portrayed as a winged child
    Like a tiny angel, a little cherub, sleeping after the wind had blown a lullaby into her little ears.
  6. palatable
    acceptable to the taste or mind
    She was like the palatable little dolls we played with as children—mango seeds that we drew faces on and then called by our nicknames.
  7. terrace
    usually paved outdoor area adjoining a residence
    Monsieur and Madame sat on their terrace and welcomed the coming afternoon by sipping the sweet out of my sour-sop juice.
  8. bourgeois
    conforming to the conventions of the middle class
    They liked that I went all the way to the market every day before dawn to get them a taste of the outside country, away from their protected bourgeois life.
  9. voodoo
    a religion practiced chiefly in Caribbean countries
    “She’s probably one of those stupid people who think that they have a spell to make themselves invisible and hurt other people. Why can’t none of them get a spell to make themselves rich? It’s that voodoo nonsense that’s holding us Haitians back.”
  10. conch
    an edible tropical marine mollusk or its large spiral shell
    The large television system and all those French love songs and rara records, with the talking drums and conch shell sounds in them.
Created on Mon Sep 10 13:14:31 EDT 2018 (updated Tue Sep 11 14:49:55 EDT 2018)

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