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Copywork
About This Passage
This is the pig lullaby — the song Madame Zeroni taught Elya, carried across the ocean, and turned into English rhymes by Sarah for her baby Stanley. Copy it line by line, keeping every comma and the long stretched-out 'moo—oo—oon.' Notice that both animals in the song are wishing: the woodpecker wishes the tree were softer, and the wolf cries to the moon for what it cannot have. A song full of 'if only' is a song about wanting — and this family has been singing it for over a hundred years.
“If only, if only,” the woodpecker sighs, “The bark on the tree was as soft as the skies.” While the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely, Crying to the moo—oo—oon, “If only, if only.”
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Tell the two stories of this chapter, taking turns the way the book does: Stanley digging his first hole, and Elya carrying the piglet up the mountain. Then tell where each story ends — Stanley climbing out of his hole, and Elya sailing away from his promise. What part of the chapter shows the two stories belong together?
Discussion Questions
- When the shovel bounces off the hard ground, Stanley thinks, 'It wasn't defective. He was defective.' Then he finds a crack, jumps on the shovel blade with both feet, and thinks, 'For once in his life it paid to be overweight.' How does Stanley go from feeling broken to finding his own way to dig? Use the chapter's words about the crack and the jump to explain why that moment matters so much to Stanley.
- Madame Zeroni's plan sounds impossible: carry a pig up a mountain every single day. But she explains it: 'It will get a little bigger, but you will get a little stronger.' Why does the plan work? What part of the chapter shows Elya growing stronger without even noticing it?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
A sore bubble of skin that forms where something rubs too long
Item 2
A baby pig
Item 3
A very tall hill of rock and earth
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Critical Thinking
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