The Dubious Pranks of Shaindy Goodman: Chapters 6–10

by Mari Lowe
Despite living in what she describes as one of the most Jewish towns in the United States, where her sixth grade class is the nicest of the school, Shaindel Goodman decides to join her neighbor in setting up pranks on other students.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–5, Chapters 6–10, Chapters 11–16, Chapters 17–23
40 words 9 learners

Learn words with Flashcards and other activities

Definition First
Print Flashcards

Other learning activities

Answer a few questions about each word. Use this to prep for your next quiz! Compete with other teams in real time to see who answers the most questions correctly! Test your spelling acumen. Read the definition, listen to the word and try spelling it!

Teaching tools

Create and assign quizzes to your students to test their vocabulary. Assign learning activities including Practice, Vocabulary Jams and Spelling Bees to your students, and monitor their progress in real-time.

Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. willowy
    slender and graceful
    Gayil is tall and willowy, unmistakably pretty.
  2. discernible
    perceptible by the senses or intellect
    My hair is a boring brown, and it curls in no discernible pattern and frizzes up even in a ponytail.
  3. resentful
    full of or marked by indignant ill will
    “She never really got into it, so they’ve just been sitting in her closet. She gets everything first,” I say, and I try not to sound too resentful.
  4. understatement
    something said in a restrained way for ironic contrast
    “Two older sisters and three younger ones mean that we just pass them down as we grow out of them. It must be nice to just have the one sister. Different,” she says, the understatement of the year.
  5. airily
    in a manner that is overly casual or lacking seriousness
    Gayil shrugs. “She’ll be fine,” she says airily.
  6. prone
    having a tendency
    It’s not what I’d expect from perfect Gayil, who is known for being all the things that embody our community: giving and thoughtful and polite and never prone to gossip about her friends.
  7. perpetually
    without interruption
    Temima shakes her head, sniffling back her perpetually runny nose in the process.
  8. muster
    summon up, call forth, or bring together
    It’s Tzivia who is looking at me, her blue eyes concerned, and I muster up all the acting skills that I’d gained from my two-line performance in the camp play.
  9. guileless
    innocent and free of deceit
    Her face is guileless, politely skeptical of Rena’s accusation, and I admire Gayil’s acting ability again.
  10. tic
    a usually unconscious habit or quirk of speech or behavior
    But there is a tic in her jaw when she speaks, a frustration that she doesn’t name.
  11. undercurrent
    a feeling or tendency that is not explicitly expressed
    We busy ourselves with our projects, but there’s a strange undercurrent in the room, a sudden distrust as classmates stare at each other.
  12. grim
    harshly uninviting or formidable in manner or appearance
    Mrs. Teichman is grim faced, and she glances around the room with a sweeping, stern gaze. She’s the kind of principal everyone’s afraid of, even though she isn’t mean, just strict.
  13. orientation
    a course introducing a new situation or environment
    At our junior high orientation, she talked about consequences so forcefully that Temima cried.
  14. regal
    belonging to or befitting a supreme ruler
    “Good middos doesn’t just mean well-behaved,” Mrs. Teichman clarifies. “It means that Bais Yaakov girls carry themselves differently. You are all regal princesses,” she says, and this is a speech we’ve heard before.
  15. warily
    in a manner marked by keen caution and watchful prudence
    “They’re not wasps,” Gayil says when I look warily at it.
  16. resounding
    characterized by loud, deep sound
    Mrs. Teichman comes in, and she says, “No more,” in that resounding, terrifying voice.
  17. saute
    fry briefly over high heat
    “I could use a hand with setting the table for tonight,” Ema says, and I obediently set the table, cut up onions, and then sauté vegetables for the chicken soup.
  18. yarmulke
    a skullcap worn by religious Jews, especially at prayer
    Some have huge front yards, little boys with yarmulkes playing soccer and baseball on their lawns, but others are small and shabby, sporting cars in the driveways with battered bumpers and plastic taped across the back window.
  19. challah
    (Judaism) a braided loaf of white bread containing eggs
    The smell of challah and chicken soup is everywhere, drifting through the streets like Rosh Hashanah has already begun.
  20. emblazon
    decorate, adorn, or inscribe with a design
    Slowly, stores begin to emerge from the housing like the first blooms after winter: a narrow shop emblazoned with the words SOCKS4U; a house with the name of a charity organization over the door; and then a street of stores and parking lots, loud and busy and bursting with people.
  21. rueful
    feeling or expressing pain or sorrow
    We glide together through the parking lot, keeping time with each other, and she says, “I always feel so rude when I’m rollerblading in the grocery store. But at this point, it feels like every kid over a certain age is doing it.” She looks rueful.
  22. scraggly
    lacking neatness or order
    “Careful on those Rollerblades,” he says, rubbing the side of his scraggly beard.
  23. harried
    troubled persistently, especially with petty annoyances
    We’re making our way through the vegetable aisle, moving slowly between harried shoppers seizing last-minute parsnips and carrots for soup.
  24. subtle
    difficult to detect or grasp by the mind or analyze
    “I bet you were one of these,” I say, plucking a fruit labeled Horned Melon from a box. “Subtle but vicious.”
  25. exude
    make apparent by one's mood or behavior
    I stand a little straighter, relieved that I’m not alone when Gayil sees me. I do have friends, I try to exude, and then I grin at Gayil and start to move toward her.
  26. diminutive
    very small
    Tzivia shrugs, her diminutive frame shifting with the movement.
  27. overture
    a tentative suggestion to elicit the reactions of others
    It sounds almost like an overture, and I hesitate, torn. On one hand, I never get invited out.
  28. behest
    an authoritative command or request
    Sometimes, over the years, I would invite a girl over for Shabbos at my mother’s behest.
  29. demure
    shy or modest, often in a playful or provocative way
    She puts her hands on her lap, demure and mocking, and bats her eyelashes at me.
  30. inadvertently
    without knowledge or intention
    “Gayil isn’t fake. She’s not perfect either.” I think about the way that she’d inadvertently hurt Rena, that first prank.
  31. cynical
    believing the worst of human nature and motives
    “I got it. I’m just too cynical for my own good.”
  32. staid
    characterized by dignity and propriety
    We’re staid and we work hard and we stay out of trouble, most of the time, and that’s enough for us to fit in fine in Fairview, just like everyone else.
  33. cadence
    the rhythmic rise and fall of the voice
    The words of our prayers vary minimally from shul to shul, but each davening experience is all about other things: the cadence of the singing, the speed at which prayers are read, the number of children there, or the length of the rabbi’s speech.
  34. dubiously
    in a doubtful manner
    “I’m not hungry either,” I say quickly, at once self-conscious about my weight.
    Gayil eyes me dubiously. “You must be,” she says. “It’s been hours.”
  35. aggrieve
    cause to feel distress
    “My mother does that too! She doesn’t check for holes though.” She gives me an aggrieved sigh.
  36. logistics
    supplying an operation with labor and materials as needed
    “I have to figure out the logistics, but I have something in mind.”
  37. regard
    look at attentively
    “No one thinks about me. I’m invisible, remember?”
    Gayil regards me steadily.
  38. self-effacing
    reluctant to draw attention to yourself
    “I have nine siblings,” she says, and it’s self-effacing. “I’m one of a horde of Fairview kinderlach. The only people I can count on to remember me are my friends. My friends are my life,” she says.
  39. lament
    express grief verbally
    In the summer, I’d lamented it more than once—had watched Gayil stroll into a bunkhouse of fifteen girls, eight of them strangers, and win over every single one.
  40. pinnacle
    the highest level or degree attainable
    Gayil is the pinnacle, the girl who everyone strives to become.
Created on Sat Mar 30 15:02:45 EDT 2024 (updated Sun Mar 31 14:50:09 EDT 2024)

Sign up now (it’s free!)

Whether you’re a teacher or a learner, Vocabulary.com can put you or your class on the path to systematic vocabulary improvement.