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Copywork
About This Passage
These two sentences show L'Engle building a whole mood with craft worth studying: a simile (the furnace 'purred like a great, sleepy animal'), semicolons that link parallel images, and a long closing sentence that swings from the cozy room to the storm outside and back. The passage also marks Meg's inward change — the fear she felt alone in the attic is 'subdued by the familiar comfort of the kitchen' (criteria A, B, C, and D).
The curtains, red, with a blue-and-green geometrical pattern, were drawn, and seemed to reflect their cheerfulness throughout the room. The furnace purred like a great, sleepy animal; the lights glowe...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
In your own words, tell the story of this chapter — the stormy attic, the warm kitchen, and the strange visitor. Which moments felt most important, and how do you know they mattered most?
Discussion Questions
- In the attic Meg calls herself 'a monster' and 'an oddball,' but her mother tells her she is 'much too straightforward to be able to pretend.' Why do you think Meg and her mother describe the same girl so differently? Use details from the chapter to explain each view.
- L'Engle opens the book with 'a dark and stormy night' and fills the attic with 'wraithlike shadows.' How does the author use the storm to shape the way we first meet Meg? Point to details in the chapter that show why she might have begun this way.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Moved swiftly, driven along by the wind.
Item 2
A calm, peaceful, untroubled state of mind.
Item 3
A soft, steady, glowing light.
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Critical Thinking
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