Mercy Watson to the Rescue — Chapter 1

Narration Prompt

Summarize the chapter's narrative arc, then identify the central tension Kate DiCamillo is dramatizing and evaluate whether she handles it honestly.

Discussion Questions

1. Kate DiCamillo opens an entire children's series not with action but with a SONG sung to a pig. The form is closer to liturgy than to narrative. What does the writer commit herself to by opening on a hymn? What kind of book has she promised the reader, even before the first event has occurred?
2. The Watsons sing the language of devotional poetry to Mercy: 'brighter still is our darling one... oh our mercy shines so bright.' This is the rhetoric of medieval hymns to a beloved figure. Is Kate DiCamillo trading on the gravitas of religious love poetry without earning it, or is she making a quieter argument that ordinary domestic love and devotional love are continuous traditions of the same act?

+ 2 more questions in the complete study guide