Not Nothing: List 2

by Gayle Forman
Twelve-year-old Alex volunteers at a senior living facility and meets 107-year-old Josey, who tells Alex his story of surviving the Holocaust. From this, and with the help of a new friend, Maya-Jade, Alex begins to believe that he can "rise to the occasion" of his own life.

This list covers vocabulary from "Not Believing"–"Freedom!"

Here are links to our lists for the book: List 1, List 2, List 3, List 4, List 5
15 words 23 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. comprehension
    an ability to understand the meaning of something
    The boy was silent when I finished talking, the kind of silent that if you didn’t know better you might mistake for lack of interest or comprehension.
  2. snippet
    a small piece of anything
    Neither of those was the case. He was interested. And he understood more in that short snippet than he ought to have. He knew what it was like to lose a mother, even if his hadn’t died. He knew what it was like to live with a relative who didn’t want him.
  3. atrophy
    undergo weakening or degeneration as through lack of use
    Twice a week for the past five years, I’d visited Julio in the PT room, where he had done his best to keep my atrophying muscles from disintegrating.
  4. mutism
    the condition of being unable or unwilling to speak
    But we had never exchanged a word. He’d seen my file, which claimed that I had stroke-induced mutism.
  5. compensation
    the act of making amends for service, loss, or injury
    Leyla knew that a good apology had to name the wrong and offer some compensation, and she could help with part of it.
  6. baklava
    dessert made of flaky pastry, nuts, and honey
    If you prepared a baklava with love, it could do the heavy lifting of an apology.
  7. annex
    take territory as if by conquest
    Adek and I attended the same university, and I found him outside the library, lecturing to a trio of enthralled young ladies about the dangers facing our neighbor Czechoslovakia now that Germany had annexed Austria.
  8. meager
    deficient in amount or quality or extent
    “Don’t speak of what I said to you. I cannot bear the shame. I would apologize, but words are too meager. There is no excuse for it. Firing me only begins to right the wrong.”
  9. humiliate
    cause to feel shame
    “If you knew it was so bad, why did you say it in the first place?”
    “I don’t know. I was angry. And humiliated, and it was the first word that flew to my lips. My uncle…” She looked down. “He says that. Not that it’s an excuse. But it was why I reached for it.”
  10. communist
    a socialist in favor of collectivism in a classless society
    There were so many things I might have done in that moment. I could have marched upstairs and informed my father that our new seamstress was not only a bigot, but she was also a communist. I might have taken my suit and gone on my date and never seen Olka again. But for some reason I did something else, something that would save my life, over and over.
    I asked Olka to teach me to sew.
  11. bat mitzvah
    a traditional coming-of-age ritual for Jewish girls
    “Imagine the history he’s lived through. The stories he has to tell.” She sighed. “I tried to do video interviews with the residents. I thought it would make a good bat mitzvah project.”
  12. racism
    discriminatory or abusive behavior towards another people
    “Lydia thinks it’s racism. That Dickie’s kids don’t approve because he’s white and she’s Korean, and she said that she thinks that Ginny herself wouldn’t have approved of it herself when she was younger, but that maybe that’s how it is when people get older.”
  13. transgression
    the violation of a law or a duty or moral principle
    “No, Jozef.” She looked up, her eyes clear and blue and deep. “When you forgave me my transgression and then asked me to teach you to sew, and now when you offer to teach me German…” Her voice faltered for a moment before she cleared her throat. “It’s as if you’ve invited out my better self and, in doing so, invited me to rise to the occasion, rather than sink to it.”
  14. soliloquy
    a dramatic speech giving the illusion of unspoken reflection
    It was such a strange little soliloquy, but I could feel her sincerity, her meaning, her gratitude.
  15. trajectory
    a progression or course of events, actions, or developments
    So many people had asked so little of Olka’s better self, had expected even less. But I’d let her teach me to sew. And now I offered to teach her German. She said yes to both, altering the trajectory of both our lives.
Created on Wed Aug 20 19:40:15 EDT 2025 (updated Fri Sep 19 11:38:17 EDT 2025)

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