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Restart · Garden Heights
Part 1
for Restart · Part 1 · Chapters 1–4
8 Parts40 min
What Happens in Part 1
Chase Ambrose wakes with no memory of himself and discovers, piece by piece, that the boy everyone remembers was a feared bully.
Waking Up BlankChase Ambrose, thirteen, wakes in a hospital with no idea who he is; the crying woman beside the bed is his mother. He fell from the roof of his own house, and besides a concussion and a dislocated shoulder he has retrograde amnesia — his speech and skills work fine, but his personal past is gone. One image survives: a small girl, about four, in a blue dress, whom nobody can identify.
Shoshanna's FuryAcross town, Shoshanna Weber refuses to feel sorry. Her twin brother Joel was tormented for years by Chase and his football friends Aaron Hakimian and Bear Bratsky; after a cherry bomb — a powerful firecracker — wrecked Joel's piano recital, the Webers sent him to Melton Conservatory, a music boarding school he hates.
A Stranger's TrophiesHome again, Chase wanders a bedroom crowded with football trophies he cannot remember winning and learns he was captain of the state-champion Hiawassee Hurricanes. His hard-driving father, Frank, a former football star himself, mostly wants to know how soon Chase can play again; Frank's young wife, Corinne, keeps their little daughter, Helene, carefully out of reach.
Yogurt and LockersThe day before school, Shoshanna runs into Chase at the frozen yogurt shop; when he smiles like a stranger, she upends her cup over his head and storms out. On his first day of eighth grade the crowd parts and students flatten against lockers; only Aaron and Bear greet him like a king. In the lunchroom, Brendan Espinoza of the video club — a longtime target — cuts the chicken for his sling-bound arm and realizes the amnesia is real.
What We Will Learn
Section
What you will practice
Vocabulary
Memory, injury, and a poisoned reputation: amnesia, concussion, retribution, notorious, genuine…
Literary Elements
Rotating first-person narrators who contradict one another, dramatic irony that lets readers outrun the hero, and characterization built from other people’s flinches
Cross-Curricular
The neuroscience of memory — what a brain injury can erase, what it almost always spares, and why doctors test the two separately
Chapter Summary
Ch.
What happens
Chapter 1
Chase Ambrose — Chase wakes in a hospital bed knowing nothing, not even his name. His mother supplies it; Dr. Cooperman supplies the rest: a fall from his roof, a concussion, a dislocated shoulder, and acute retrograde amnesia. All that remains of his past is one image — a little blond girl in a blue dress. Home again, Chase explores a bedroom full of trophies he cannot remember winning, and his father, Frank, mostly wants to know when he can play football again.
Chapter 2
Shoshanna Weber — While the town clucks sympathetically over Chase’s fall, Shoshanna seethes. Chase and his friends drove her twin brother, Joel, out of town — a cherry bomb at his piano recital was the last straw — and Joel is now miserable at Melton Conservatory. The day before school starts she meets Chase at the frozen yogurt shop, and when he smiles at her she empties her cup over his head.
Chapter 3
Chase Ambrose — Chase’s first day of eighth grade at Hiawassee Middle School, and he walks it as a stranger to himself. Hallways empty around him, younger kids press themselves flat against the lockers, teachers are carefully polite — and only Aaron and Bear, his old partners in trouble, welcome their captain back.
Chapter 4
Brendan Espinoza — The lunchroom, mapped by a kid who knows every clique in it. When Chase struggles one-handed with his tray, Brendan — once a favorite victim of Chase’s crowd — nervously cuts up his chicken for him, watches the blank courtesy that comes back, and realizes the amnesia is genuine.
Part 1
Vocabulary
Study 10 key words from Chapters 1–4, then answer each question.
📚Knowledge Bank · Words With Visible Parts
Linguistics · Medical Word RootsChase’s diagnosis sounds mysterious until you take the words apart, because medicine still speaks ancient Greek and Latin. Amnesia joins the Greek prefix a-, meaning without, to the root mnesis, memory — the same root hiding inside mnemonic, a trick for remembering. Retrograde is Latin: retro- means backward, so retrograde amnesia is loss that reaches backward into the past instead of forward into new experience. Concussion comes from concutere, to shake violently — an accurate picture, since the brain floats in fluid and a hard fall slams it against the skull. Even hospital began as the Latin hospes, a guest, which is why hospitality is its cousin. Roots repay collectors: once you know that a- means without, you can unlock atypical, anonymous, and apathetic without a dictionary. Every technical word in this novel is a small machine with visible parts, and reading the parts is a skill that no fall from a roof can erase.
amnesian.Ch.1
The loss of memory, often after an injury or illness
“The fall left Chase with amnesia instead of broken bones.”
concussionn.Ch.1
A brain injury caused by a blow or violent shaking
“The doctors watched his concussion as closely as his shoulder.”
disorientedadj.Ch.1
Confused about where you are or what is happening
“Chase woke disoriented, unable to supply his own name.”
tormentv.Ch.2
To cause someone repeated suffering on purpose
“Chase’s crowd had tormented Joel for years.”
retributionn.Ch.2
Punishment handed out as payback for a wrong
“For Shoshanna, the yogurt was retribution, not rudeness.”
reputationn.Ch.3
The opinion people generally hold about someone
“His reputation entered every room a step ahead of him.”
memorabilian.Ch.1
Objects collected and kept because they recall past events
“The bedroom was a museum of football memorabilia.”
notoriousadj.Ch.2
Widely known for something bad
“The trophies belonged to the most notorious bully in school.”
intimidatev.Ch.3
To frighten someone into backing down or obeying
“One look from Chase used to intimidate an entire hallway.”
genuineadj.Ch.4
Real and sincere; not faked
“Brendan decided the amnesia was genuine.”
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
🧠Knowledge Bank question
1The Knowledge Bank explains that the word amnesia joins the prefix a-, meaning ‘without,’ to a Greek root meaning ___.Ch.1
2A ‘concussion’ is a brain injury caused by a blow or a violent shake.Ch.1
3Someone who is ‘disoriented’ feels ___.Ch.1
4‘Retribution’ means ___.Ch.2
5Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.2
Word choices:tormentretributionamnesiagenuine- some words will not be used
Joel finally escaped years of by leaving town.
Shoshanna wants , not a reunion.
6‘Notorious’ means widely known for something bad.Ch.2
7Your ‘reputation’ is ___.Ch.3
8‘Memorabilia’ are objects ___.Ch.1
9Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.1–3
Word choices:memorabiliaintimidatedisorientedreputation- some words will not be used
His shelves sag with football he cannot explain.
One glare used to half the hallway.
10Something ‘genuine’ is fake and put on for show.Ch.4
Part 2
Comprehension
Show you understood what happens in Chapters 1–4.
🧠Knowledge Bank · The Injury That Chooses
Neuroscience · Retrograde AmnesiaWhen Chase’s head struck the ground, the damage was oddly selective. He lost his own history — friendships, quarrels, the boy he had spent thirteen years becoming — yet he can still talk, read, walk, and work a fork with his one good arm. Doctors call this pattern retrograde amnesia: the erasing of memories formed before an injury, while the machinery of daily life keeps running. The reason is that the brain keeps no single master recording. Memories of personal events, called episodic memories, lean heavily on the hippocampus — a seahorse-shaped structure deep in the brain that bruises easily when the brain slams against the inside of the skull. Language, general knowledge, and practiced skills are stored more widely, across older and tougher networks. A hard blow can therefore wipe the diary while sparing the dictionary and the toolbox. That is why nobody at the hospital is surprised that Chase speaks perfectly: what the fall took was not his mind but his past.
🧠Knowledge Bank question
1According to the Knowledge Bank, Chase can still talk and read after his fall because ___.Ch.1
2How was Chase hurt?Ch.1
3Chase’s one surviving memory is of a little girl in a blue dress.Ch.1
4Why was Joel Weber sent away to Melton Conservatory?Ch.2
5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events. Number 1 = what happens first.Chapters 1–4
Chase wanders a bedroom full of trophies that mean nothing to him.
Brendan cuts up the chicken on Chase’s lunch tray.
Chase wakes in the hospital unable to supply his own name.
Shoshanna’s frozen yogurt comes down on Chase’s head.
Aaron and Bear welcome their captain back on the first day of school.
6Shoshanna forgives Chase as soon as she hears about the amnesia.Ch.2
7What fills Chase’s bedroom when he returns home?Ch.1
8How do most students react when Chase walks the halls again?Ch.3
9Brendan Espinoza decides that Chase’s memory loss is real.Ch.4
10What does Shoshanna do when she meets Chase at the frozen yogurt shop?Ch.2
Part 3
Literary Elements
Understanding HOW and WHY Gordon Korman tells the story across Chapters 1–4.
🎙Knowledge Bank · A Novel Built From Testimony
Authorial Craft · Rotating NarratorsGordon Korman (author) builds Restart out of testimony. Each chapter is headed with a student’s name, and that student tells events in first person — Chase, then Shoshanna, then Chase again, then Brendan. No narrator sees everything, and no narrator is neutral: Shoshanna’s chapter drips with fury, Brendan’s with nervous comedy, Chase’s with pure bewilderment. The design solves a problem built into the premise. Chase cannot introduce himself, because he no longer knows who he is; the one person a first-person novel usually relies on is suddenly the least reliable source in the school. So Korman (author) turns the reader into a jury: we collect each witness’s version, allow for each witness’s bias, and assemble a Chase that no single chapter contains. As you read, watch what each voice cannot see. The gaps between narrators are where this novel does its real work.
Rotating Narrators
Each chapter is handed to a different first-person witness — Chase, Shoshanna, Brendan — so the truth arrives in biased installments that no single voice controls.
Dramatic Irony
Readers learn from Shoshanna what kind of boy Chase was while Chase himself is still guessing — his politeness plays out against our knowledge.
Indirect Characterization
Korman (author) never announces that Chase was a bully; emptied hallways, wary teachers, and a cup of frozen yogurt deliver the verdict instead.
🧠Knowledge Bank question
1According to the Knowledge Bank, the rotating chapters turn the reader of Restart into ___.Ch.1–4
2Readers discovering Chase’s past before Chase does creates ___.Ch.2
3Dramatic irony happens when readers know something a character does not.Ch.2
4Revealing who Chase was through flinches and emptied hallways is ___.Ch.3
5Fill in each blank with the correct literary term.Ch.1–4
Word choices:narratorsironyflashbackrhyme- some words will not be used
Korman’s chapters pass among several first-person .
Knowing what Chase cannot know creates dramatic .
6Indirect characterization means the author states outright what a character is like.Ch.3
7The little girl in the blue dress works in Part 1 as ___.Ch.1
8Rotating narrators let readers compare how different characters see the same events.Ch.1–4
9Because Chase narrates his chapters in first person, the reader ___.Ch.1
10Fill in each blank with the correct literary term.Ch.1–4
Word choices:characterizationnarratorsuspensesimile- some words will not be used
Fear in the hallways is indirect of the old Chase.
Each chapter heading names its .
Part 4
Think Deeper
Four deeper challenges — no single-word recall. Read, weigh the evidence, and reason it out.
⚖Knowledge Bank · Is Chase Still Chase?
Ethics · Repair vs. PunishmentChase’s question — am I still the boy who did those things? — is one philosophers have debated for centuries. John Locke, an English thinker of the 1600s, argued that personal identity rides on memory: you are the same person as your past self only if a chain of memory connects you to him. By that standard, the bully died on the lawn and a new boy woke up in the hospital. Critics answered with hard cases. Thomas Reid, a Scottish philosopher, imagined an old general who remembers being a young officer but not a schoolboy — is he the schoolboy or not? And there is a practical objection Shoshanna would raise: Joel is still exiled whatever Chase remembers, so the debt survives the debtor’s forgetting. Hold both views as you read Part 1. The novel keeps asking whether a person is a set of memories or a pattern of choices.
Imagine waking up in a strange bed with a strange woman crying at your side, and realizing the problem is worse than not knowing where you are — you do not know who you are. Your own name has to be handed to you like a borrowed coat. Now imagine that the next discovery is worse still: as the pieces of your life are returned to you — your school, your team, your two best friends — every clue says the person you used to be was someone to fear. A girl you have never met, as far as you know, empties her frozen yogurt over your head. Kids press themselves against lockers to stay out of your path. Teachers greet you with careful, watchful politeness. Gordon Korman (author) opens Restart with the rarest of second chances: a bully who gets to meet himself from the outside. Part 1 is Chase Ambrose learning, one flinch at a time, what everyone else already knows.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1Claim: “In Part 1, Chase learns who he used to be from other people’s reactions, not from his own memory.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence
2Evidence of who Chase was, or Evidence of who Chase is now? Tap each detail to send it left or right.Sort into two
◄ Evidence of who Chase wasEvidence of who Chase is now ►
3Match each cause to its result. For each cause, pick its result.Cause & Effect
A fall from the roof injures Chase’s brain→
A cherry bomb wrecks Joel’s piano recital→
Chase’s old reputation enters school with him→
Chase treats Brendan like a friendly stranger→
🧠Knowledge Bank question
4Fill both blanks to complete the reasoning.Build the Argument
The Knowledge Bank explains that John Locke tied personal identity to , so by Locke’s standard the bully who fell from the roof .
Part 5
Standardized Test
Amnesia, Minus the Movies · Reading & Vocabulary · SAT & TOEFL-style practice
Read the passage — the highlighted words are tested — then answer. Tap an answer, then tap it again to confirm.
SATCentral Ideas — the passage's main point
SATInference — a conclusion the passage implies
SATAuthor’s Purpose — what the author wants to achieve
SATWords in Context — a word's meaning in this passage
TOEFLFactual Information — a fact stated in the passage
TOEFLVocabulary — a tested word's meaning here
Amnesia, Minus the Movies
In the movies, amnesia follows convenient rules. A character bumps his head, forgets an entire life, and wanders into a new town; two hours later a second bump brings everything flooding back. Screenwriters love this premise because it lets a story erase a person and then rebuild him right on schedule. Doctors who treat real memory loss wince at nearly all of it.
Genuine amnesia after a concussion — a hard knock to the head — usually takes one of two forms. Retrograde amnesia erases memories laid down before the accident — most often the recent past, since older memories tend to be more durable. Anterograde amnesia is trouble in the other direction: the injured brain struggles to store new experiences, so yesterday’s hospital visit never gets filed at all. What almost never vanishes is knowledge that has nothing to do with personal events. A patient who cannot recall her own graduation can still speak in full sentences, read a menu, ride a bicycle, and name the capital of France, because skills and general facts are kept by different brain systems than the story of one’s own life.
The rest of the movie version collapses just as quickly. Real patients may wake disoriented, unsure where they are, yet they rarely forget their own names for long, and no reliable medical report describes a second blow that knocks memories back into place — a new impact only adds damage to a brain already compromised. Recovery tends to be slow and partial rather than instant and total. The truth is less cinematic but far more interesting: memory is not one recording that a knock can eject, but a set of separate systems, and an injury can shatter one of them while leaving the rest entirely intact.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1What is the main idea of the passage?SAT · Central Ideas
2According to the passage, retrograde amnesia mainly erases ___.TOEFL · Factual Information
3According to the passage, what almost never vanishes after a head injury?TOEFL · Factual Information
4The passage implies that a patient who forgot her own graduation could still ___.SAT · Inference
5According to the passage, anterograde amnesia means trouble ___.TOEFL · Factual Information
6The author mentions riding a bicycle and the capital of France in order to ___.SAT · Author’s Purpose
7The author would most likely call a film in which a second bump restores memory ___.SAT · Inference
8In the passage, concussion most nearly means ___.SAT · Words in Context
9In the passage, disoriented most nearly means ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary
10In the passage, intact most nearly means ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary
Part 6 · Optional
Creative Writing
A bonus challenge to practice your English. Take your time and have fun with it.
About This Section
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 1 “The Person Others Would Describe”
Chase has to learn who he is from the outside — from trophies, flinches, and a cup of frozen yogurt. Imagine you woke up tomorrow with no memory of yourself. Using only what your family, friends, and classmates would say and do around you, describe the person you would discover. What evidence would you find in your room? Which reactions would surprise you? 6–10 sentences. End with one thing about yourself you hope the evidence would show.
You can start with: “The first clue to who I was sat on the shelf above my bed...”
0 / 40 words minimum
🗣 Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)
No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Gordon Korman. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Gordon Korman’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.
