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Copywork
About This Passage
Selected for the moment that captures the chapter's central problem: Owl can see his feet, knows they are his feet, covers them again, and is immediately scared. The passage shows that fear and knowledge can occupy the same mind without one canceling the other. Notice how Lobel uses repetition ("bumps, bumps, bumps") to mark the moment when Owl gives up on reasoning and lets the panic speak.
All Owl could see at the bottom of the bed were his own two feet. "But now I am cold," said Owl. "I will cover myself with the blankets again." As soon as he did, he saw the same two bumps. "Those bum...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
In your own words, tell the story of this chapter. What were the most important moments? What made them important — and how do you know?
Discussion Questions
- Owl tests whether the bumps are alive by moving his right foot, then his left. The bumps move correspondingly. He has the data he needs, and he still concludes the bumps are something other than his feet. Why does Lobel give Owl the test AND have Owl ignore what the test reveals? What is this telling us about how fear handles evidence?
- After Owl pulls back the blanket and confirms the bumps are his own feet, he covers up again — and is immediately scared again. Argue what Owl WANTS at this point in the story. Does he want safety, certainty, comfort, or something he himself cannot quite name?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Small raised places on a surface; in this chapter the literal lumps in the blanket and the figurative shape of fear that survives reasoning.
Item 2
A soft cloth covering for a bed; the surface that hides Owl's feet and lets his imagination turn them into something other than feet.
Item 3
Hard to understand or unusual; the adjective Owl applies to the bumps because he cannot bring himself to see them as what they are.
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Critical Thinking
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