Preview
Copywork
About This Passage
Selected because Lobel closes the entire book with a quiet image of one-sided friendship that has somehow become consoling. The phrase "good round friend" is among the strangest in children's literature — Owl thanks his friend by mentioning its shape, as if the geometry were the affectionate thing. The closing sentence ("Owl did not feel sad at all") refuses any larger claim and resolves the book on the smallest possible note of contentment. The mechanical lesson is in the four short declarative sentences that build to the final negation.
"Moon, you have followed me all the way home. What a good round friend you are," said Owl. Then Owl put his head on the pillow and closed his eyes. The moon was shining down through the window. Owl di...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
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?
Discussion Questions
- Owl decides almost instantly that the moon is his friend. The decision is not based on conversation, shared experience, or anything the moon has done. Argue what this kind of unilateral friendship reveals about Owl's understanding of what friendship is and whether the chapter takes Owl's understanding seriously or treats it as a sweet mistake.
- The moon cannot know Owl. The moon would have shone that night whether Owl was watching or not. Yet the chapter treats Owl's gratitude, sadness, and joy about the moon as real. Argue whether a friendship that exists entirely in one party's experience is genuinely a friendship, or whether the word "friendship" requires reciprocity to apply.
+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide
Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
The literary device of treating a non-human thing as if it had human qualities; what Owl does to the moon when he thanks it for following him.
Item 2
The exchange of goods, services, or feelings between parties; the quality usually thought necessary for a true friendship — and the quality conspicuously absent from Owl's friendship with the moon.
Item 3
Describing one-sided relationships in which one party knows and feels close to another party who does not know them; the contemporary term for the kind of relationship Owl has with the moon.
+ 5 more vocabulary words in the complete study guide
Critical Thinking
+ 6 more questions in the complete study guide
Get the complete study guide — free
Sign up and get your first book with every chapter included. Copywork, discussion questions, vocabulary, and critical thinking.
Sign up free