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Copywork
About This Passage
This passage is the chapter's small science of how a strong wanting can shut down a person's ordinary warning system. The boys are physically miserable — packed together, unable to breathe — but the promise of a country with no schools is enough to silence the discomfort. Copying it slowly forces the eye to notice what kind of consolation can persuade children not to feel pain that is really happening to their bodies.
The carriage was filled with boys between eight and ten years of age, packed like sardines in a box. They were so closely huddled together that they could hardly breathe. But no one said "Oh!" No one ...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Tell the chapter back from the moment the carriage arrives silently with twelve donkeys in white kid boots, through the boys' chant of "Come with us and always be happy," through Pinocchio's three sighs and his choice to ride a donkey, through the donkey's whispered warning, through the arrival in the Country of Playthings, ending with the five months of nothing but play and Pinocchio waking surprised one morning.
Discussion Questions
- The carriage arrives "without making the least noise" because its wheels are bound with tow and rags, and the trip happens at midnight, and the boys all stop noticing the discomfort of being packed together. What is the chapter telling us about a kind of trip that has to be silent, dark, and uncomplained-about in order to happen at all?
- When Pinocchio first refuses, only Lamp Wick urges him. Then four boys join. Then ALL the rest of the boys say "Come with us and always be happy." Pinocchio says he begins to feel as if he were being pulled by his sleeve. What does the chapter want us to understand about the difference between being argued with and being chanted at?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
A long-eared animal smaller than a horse, often used to pull carts; the carriage in this chapter is pulled by twenty-four donkeys wearing white kid boots — a clue something is unnatural about them.
Item 2
Small fish packed tightly in flat tins; the chapter says the boys were "packed like sardines in a box," comparing them to fish that have no room to move because they are already on their way to be eaten.
Item 3
Having accepted something difficult without complaining; the boys are made happy and resigned by the thought of a country with no schools, even though their bodies are uncomfortable.
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Critical Thinking
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