Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
This passage was chosen because it is the exact piece of long-ago information that Sachar uses to explain why Stanley and Hector were not bitten by the yellow-spotted lizards in their hole. Sam is telling three men how to drink onion juice to make lizards stay away. Copying these two sentences slowly lets young readers notice that the answer to ‘why were the boys safe?’ was already hidden in the book before the scary night even happened.
Sam gave each man two bottles of pure onion juice. He told them to drink one bottle before going to bed that night, then a half bottle in the morning, and then a half bottle around lunchtime.
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
In three or four of your own sentences, tell a grown-up what happens in Chapter 49. Be sure to mention Sam the onion man, Walter, Bo, and Jesse; the BMW car ride with Ms. Morengo, Stanley, and Hector; the news that Stanley’s father invented a product that smells like peaches; and the very first drop of rain falling into the empty lake.
Discussion Questions
- Sam tells Walter, Bo, and Jesse to drink onion juice the night before they go hunting — ‘You got to get it into your bloodstream. The lizards don’t like onion blood.’ What in the story, when you think about Stanley and Hector eating onions for days, helps you see why the yellow-spotted lizards did not bite them?
- Zero tells Ms. Morengo, ‘I stole the sneakers,’ and she answers, ‘I didn’t hear that. And I advise you to make sure I don’t hear it again.’ How do you know that Ms. Morengo is being kind to Hector — and that she is telling him, without saying so, that he does not need to get into more trouble?
+ 2 more questions in the complete study guide
Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
A glass or plastic container used to hold a liquid like juice or water
Item 2
To swallow a liquid through your mouth
Item 3
The dark part of the day, when most people sleep
+ 5 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
+ 4 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