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Copywork
About This Passage
Officer Tomilello holds a small internal court. The four-line dialogue with himself demonstrates the basic discipline of a fair judge: separating 'strange' from 'wrong.' Kate DiCamillo grants him a clearly visible interior process, which is the only way the reader can see fairness happening.
'Is it illegal to take a pig for a ride?' Officer Tomilello asked himself. 'I don't believe it is,' he answered himself. 'It is unusual,' he continued. 'Unusual does not equal illegal.'
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize the chapter and explain what Kate DiCamillo wants you to notice about Officer Tomilello.
Discussion Questions
- Officer Tomilello holds an internal court — asking and answering his own questions. Kate DiCamillo could have just had him pull the car over. Why does she pause to show his reasoning?
- The officer makes a small but precise distinction: 'unusual does not equal illegal.' This is the basic move of every fair judge. Compare it with Eugenia in book 1, who refused the same distinction. What is Kate DiCamillo claiming about justice?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
the careful reasoning by which laws are applied to particular cases
Item 2
the act of marking one thing as different from another
Item 3
not common; departing from the normal
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Critical Thinking
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