Lily's Crossing

Chapter 24

Patricia Reilly Giff · Trailblazers 4th–6th

Teaching Companion Print Adapt for your student

Copywork

And twenty minutes later, they were huddled around the table, hair damp, but wearing dry clothes, with Gram’s knitted afghans around their shoulders.

She looked like herself, stern, frowning a little. But then she put her hand on Lily’s cheek.

Everyone sits close at the table, wrapped in Gram’s knitted afghans. What does that picture tell you about Gram’s kitchen tonight?

For the educator Two passages, three sentences. The first opens the chapter’s calm. It begins with a time phrase and a comma, “And twenty minutes later,” then gives the main action, “they were huddled around the table.” After that it keeps adding pictures, each after a comma: “hair damp,” “but wearing dry clothes,” and “with Gram’s knitted afghans around their shoulders.” The words “hair damp” make a picture with no verb at all. The second passage is Gram, just after she says “It was so hard.” One plain statement, “She looked like herself,” is followed by two short pictures after commas, “stern” and “frowning a little.” The next sentence turns on its first two words, “But then.” The talk prompt is about the afghans. Leave the stern, frowning face for the second discussion question, which comes back to it. One student may say the kitchen is a safe place again, warm and close after the cold water; another may say it shows Gram’s care, given in things and not in words, the way she later brings out the violin. Either is good if it points to the page. The vocabulary words huddled and stern stand in these passages. Leave the hinge alone here, since whether letting Poppy go was worth it is the last written question.

Discussion

Narration Tell back the chapter in order. Start with dry clothes in the kitchen. Stop with Lily’s last thought in the boat.

Lily says slowly, “It was my fault.” What difference does Albert’s answer make? Moral reasoning
Right after “It was so hard,” Gram looks stern and frowns a little. What is that frown about? Character
Albert gets two or three notes into Nagymamma’s favorite waltz, and Lily remembers her library book. Why does Giff stop the song there? Author's choice
Lily says, “I know where my father is.” How much of that is knowing, and how much is hoping? Inference

Make a Connection Think of a story, or a time in your own life, when someone gave up something big for a person they loved. What changes when the one they loved finds out how hard it was?

Vocabulary

huddled: they were huddled around the table, hair damp, but wearing dry clothes Crowded close together, the way people sit when they are cold or have had a fright.
stern: She looked like herself, stern, frowning a little. Serious and strict-looking, not soft or smiling.
sloshing: She sank down on the wet seat, her feet sloshing in the water. Splashing about in water with a wet, slapping sound, as Lily’s feet did in the bottom of the boat.
censors: He promised I’d know where he was, that he’d tell me without the censors knowing. People in wartime who read soldiers’ letters and cut out anything secret.

Critical thinking

Gram talks about Nagymamma, then Albert’s mother and father, then Poppy. Whose choice is most like Poppy’s?
Gram says letting Poppy go was “so hard,” but “worth it.” Is she right?