Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
This passage is a miniature lesson in how Kate DiCamillo builds a whole emotional world out of observed details. Notice the rhythm: she opens with a short declarative claim ('I had never before in my life seen a dog smile'), then immediately tests it against evidence ('but that is what he did'). This is how honest thinking actually works — claim, doubt, confirmation. Then she slows down with the physical description ('pulled back his lips and showed me all his teeth'), so that by the time the reader gets to the wagging tail and the cascading oranges, we have already made peace with the improbable idea that this dog is a person. The cascading-produce sentence is worth copying for its structure alone: three nouns in a row without commas before 'and' ('tomatoes and onions and green peppers'), which is a rhetorical figure called polysyndeton. Polysyndeton makes a list feel endless and slightly chaotic — perfect for a scene where a grocery store is coming apart.
I had never before in my life seen a dog smile, but that is what he did. He pulled back his lips and showed me all his teeth. Then he wagged his tail so hard that he knocked some oranges off a display...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell the chapter, then identify the sentence in it that you think does the most work — the sentence without which the chapter would not function — and explain your choice.
Discussion Questions
- DiCamillo opens her novel with a single compound sentence that tells us Opal's full name, her father's profession, the errand, the items requested, and the outcome. Nothing in that sentence is thematic — it's just logistics. Yet most serious readers would say it is one of the best opening lines in middle-grade fiction. What is the opening sentence actually doing, if not announcing the theme? What does it trust the reader to recognize?
- Opal refers to her father as 'the preacher' even when no one else is around and no one is listening. The word is not a joke or an insult — she uses it gently. Is Opal distancing herself from her father, or is she HONORING him by calling him what he does? What in the chapter makes you certain?
+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide
Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
a rhetorical figure that repeats conjunctions — usually 'and' — between items in a list, slowing the list down and making it feel larger or more overwhelming
Item 2
a sentence type that states something as fact, as opposed to asking, commanding, or exclaiming — the default sentence of plain prose
Item 3
unlikely to happen or be true, but not impossible — the kind of thing that requires explaining to be believed
+ 5 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
+ 6 more questions in the complete study guide
Get the complete study guide — free
Sign up and get your first book with every chapter included. Copywork, discussion questions, vocabulary, and critical thinking.
Sign up free