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Copywork
About This Passage
Selden paints the inside of Sai Fong's shop in one long sentence by listing what Mario sees and smells: silk robes, chopsticks, laundry packages, shelves, chairs, faint incense. The sentence works because each item is specific — no general words like 'things' or 'stuff.' Copy it slowly. Notice how the writer turns a whole room into one reading experience by picking the right details.
Mario had never seen such a cluttered room it was a jumble of Chinese odds and ends everything from silk robes to Chopsticks to packages of hand laundry littered the shelves and chairs and there was a...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Summarize Chapter 6 as a journey: Mario rides the subway to Canal Street, walks through Chinatown looking in shop windows, meets Sai Fong on the doorstep, enters the cluttered shop, learns the Shishwai story, buys the pagoda cage, receives the fortune cookie, and returns home. Then, at night, Chester tells Harry and Tucker about the trip, Tucker tries the pagoda, and everyone sleeps. What are the two halves of the chapter, and how does the second half answer the first?
Discussion Questions
- Sai Fong tells the story of Shishwai — a truth-speaking wise man turned into a cricket by the High Gods. How does the story change the way Chester hears his own chirp, and what evidence in the chapter shows that Chester takes the story personally?
- Mario's fortune cookie reads 'Good luck is coming your way. Be ready.' Sai Fong explains it as 'always be ready for happiness.' What's the difference between waiting for good luck and being ready for it, and why does the chapter end with this particular lesson?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Filled in a messy, crowded way with many small objects.
Item 2
A confused mixture of different kinds of things piled together.
Item 3
A sweet-smelling substance that gives off fragrant smoke when burned.
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Critical Thinking
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