Chapter 2

Lily's Crossing

Trailblazers · 4th–6th

Copywork

She didn’t want to look at the neighbors, who were waving at them and the piano and the rusty truck, probably thinking they were crazy.

She didn’t open her eyes when Gram began about the report card. She could feel the vibration of the motor, and hear the man in front singing, “ ‘They’re either too young or too old,’ ” and Gram humming along.

Read both passages aloud. Each one begins with “She didn’t.” What is Lily shutting out each time?

For the educator Two short passages from the ride, in story order: three sentences in all. The first is one sentence from just as the truck starts off. It sets “who were waving” off after a comma, joins three things with “and” and no commas (“them and the piano and the rusty truck”), and ends on a phrase after a comma, “probably thinking they were crazy”. The second is two sentences from the end of the chapter, after the truck has turned toward the bridge. Its first is plain. Its second holds a song inside what Lily hears, so it needs a quotation inside a quotation: double marks outside, single marks inside, with the comma tucked inside both. Both passages begin “She didn’t”, with “didn’t” as a short form of did not; the writer opens both the same way. The vocabulary words “rusty” and “vibration” come from these passages, one from each. The talk prompt asks what Lily shuts out each time: the neighbors and their waving, then Gram’s talk about the report card. A student may add that with her eyes shut Lily still feels and hears everything around her. The neighbors’ “crazy” is only Lily’s guess.

Discussion

Narration Tell back moving day in order, from the report card in Gram’s hand to the tires on the bridge.

1. Lily is sure Gram will say “the whole thing was a disgrace.” Is that what Gram thinks, or what Lily thinks?Character

2. The old movers joke and sing while they work, though both their sons are away in the war. What might the joking do for them?Inference

3. Lily plans to say nothing if Gram asks where the card is. What is she counting on?Moral reasoning

4. Lily guesses the waving neighbors think her family is crazy. How fair is that guess?Inference

Make a Connection Think of a story, or a time in your own life, when someone put a worry out of sight. What happened to the worry after that?

Vocabulary

Crossword

1

2	3	4

5

Across

Across 1. The whole length of time something lasts; the old movers will run the business until the war is over.
Across 2. A quick, steady shaking you can feel, like the rumble of the truck's motor under Lily.
Across 5. To lift something heavy up into the air, as the movers do with the piano.

Down

Down 3. The smooth, creamy white coating on old piano keys, here chipped off two of them.
Down 4. Covered with the reddish-brown crust that old metal gets, which makes the truck look shabby to Lily.

The words in the chapter

duration they were keeping the business going for the duration of the war.
vibration She could feel the vibration of the motor, and hear the man in front singing, “ ‘They’re either too young or too old,’ ” and Gram humming along.
hoist Gram was frowning, watching them hoist up the piano with a bowl of flowers still on top.

rusty She didn’t want to look at the neighbors, who were waving at them and the piano and the rusty truck, probably thinking they were crazy.
ivory It stood there in the hall, huge, with round glass stains on the top and two of the keys missing the ivory.

Critical thinking

1. Lily thinks her mother would never have cared about report cards. Then why does she put the card so far from the star?

2. The truck is still rusty after it turns the corner. What has changed for Lily?

3. When Lily hides her report card, is she escaping her trouble or just carrying it along?