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Copywork
About This Passage
Kate DiCamillo turns the entire chapter on the word 'however.' One conjunction divides the human reaction (fear) from the porcine one (appetite), and the chapter builds its comedy out of that single grammatical hinge. This is how a small word can do enormous structural work.
Mercy, however, was not frightened. Mercy was hungry. 'Oink,' said Mercy again. She moved to the end of the bed. Boom. Crack. The bed fell a little further into the hole in the floor.
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize this chapter, then explain what you think the author most wanted the reader to notice or feel. What techniques did the author use to push you toward that response?
Discussion Questions
- Chapter 2 set up dramatic irony — the reader knew the bed would fall. Now chapter 3 delivers the disaster. Did the warning in chapter 2 make the disaster more or less satisfying when it arrived? What does this tell you about why writers prepare readers for events instead of springing them?
- Mr. Watson responds to the crisis by trying to TAKE CHARGE — 'I know exactly what we must do.' But his plan immediately contradicts itself ('don't move' AND 'call the fire department'). What is Kate DiCamillo saying about how panicked people speak? Is she mocking Mr. Watson, or recognizing something true?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
a contrastive conjunction; the formal sibling of 'but,' used to mark a sharp turn
Item 2
filled with sudden fear; the past participle of 'frighten'
Item 3
the act of removing someone from danger; from Old French 'rescourre,' to recover
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Critical Thinking
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