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Copywork
About This Passage
This passage marks the moment when the chapter introduces its only adult voice — the calm, knowledgeable Dormouse who will name what is happening. Notice how Collodi sets the scene first (cries from below, a neighbor coming up, a small but kind question) and only later delivers the diagnosis. Copying it teaches the rhythm of how serious news is often delivered: a quiet entrance, a careful question, then the truth.
At the sound of his heartrending cries a Dormouse, who lived on the first floor, entered the room. Seeing the marionette in great anguish, he asked eagerly, "What is the matter, my dear little lodger?...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Reconstruct the chapter from the moment Pinocchio scratches his head to the moment the driver knocks at the door. Be sure to include the basin scene, the dunce cap, the visit to Lamp Wick, the matched lies, the laughter, and the transformation.
Discussion Questions
- The Dormouse tells Pinocchio that boys who hate books and teachers and spend the whole day enjoying themselves end up becoming little donkeys. Why do you think Collodi chose donkey-fever as the punishment instead of some other shape — a stone, a pig, a stick? What does the donkey shape say about what these boys lost?
- Pinocchio says, "The fault, believe me, is all Lamp Wick's," but the Dormouse asks back, "Why did you follow the advice of a bad friend?" Examine what the Dormouse's question is teaching Pinocchio about responsibility. Whose fault is the donkey-fever, and why?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
very deep pain of mind or body; what Pinocchio is feeling when the Dormouse comes in.
Item 2
a person who rents a room in a house owned or shared by someone else; the Dormouse calls Pinocchio his dear little lodger.
Item 3
an official rule or order, often given by a king or court; the Dormouse says it is a written decree that lazy boys turn into donkeys.
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Critical Thinking
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