Owl at Home — Chapter 4

About This Passage

Selected because Owl reaches a small philosophical conclusion through pure exhaustion. The first three sentences are a quiet syllogism (when up, not down; when down, not up; therefore, very tired). The fourth sentence is the elegant resolution: sitting in the middle. Notice how Lobel turns a children's story about a stairway into a small treatise on accepting limits without surrendering them. The copywork lesson is in the parallel sentence structures ("When I am up... When I am down...") and the way Lobel allows physical exhaustion to produce intellectual insight.

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

1. Owl tries to solve his problem by speed: if he runs fast enough, he reasons, he can be in two places at once. Why does Owl frame the problem as a problem of velocity? What does this reveal about how he thinks problems are usually solved?
2. Each time Owl reaches one end of the stairway, he calls out to himself at the other end — and gets no answer. He concludes from each silence that he is not running fast enough, never that the problem has no solution. What does this stubborn self-faith tell us about Owl, and is it admirable, foolish, or both?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide