Lily's Crossing

Chapter 25

Patricia Reilly Giff · Trailblazers 4th–6th

Teaching Companion Print Adapt for your student

Copywork

They watched the main street of Paris, the Champs Elysées, filled with two million people, old women with white hair, men with flags, children, and nuns. Young women were throwing kisses at the American soldiers, who were riding on tanks covered with flowers.

Then the tricolor, France’s flag, went up on the cathedral, and people began to sing the French anthem, the “Marseillaise.”

Giff lists old women, nuns and men with flags in the Paris crowd. Why name so many kinds of people?

For the educator Two passages, three sentences, both from the newsreel. Both teach one move: naming something, then naming it again after a comma. The first passage does it with a place, “the main street of Paris, the Champs Elysées,” and then lists the crowd, one kind of person after another, each after a comma, from “old women with white hair” to “nuns.” Its second sentence adds a picture with “who”: the soldiers, “who were riding on tanks covered with flowers.” The second passage does the renaming twice, “the tricolor, France’s flag,” and “the French anthem, the ‘Marseillaise.’” Point out that the song’s name has its own quotation marks, and the period goes inside them. The talk prompt is about the long list. One student may say Giff names so many so that the whole city seems to be there, old and young; another may say it makes the crowd feel too big to search for two faces. Either is good if it points to the page. The vocabulary words cathedral and anthem stand in the second passage. Leave the hinge alone here: whether the friends know or only hope that Ruth and Poppy were there is the last written question.

Discussion

Narration Tell the chapter back in order. Start with Lily counting the days on her fingers. Stop with her plan under the first star.

Albert only raises his eyebrows. A little later, Lily answers him as if he had spoken. What does she think he said? Inference
Lily can’t finish her sentence about next summer. Soon after, the mailman says what next summer will bring. Why does Giff put them so close together? Author's choice
On the screen, the French crowd shouts “Merci,” and Albert whispers “Köszönöm.” Who is Lily thanking when she says “Thank you”? Theme

Make a Connection Think of a story, or a time in your own life, when someone got angry and could not say why. How did they find out the reason?

Vocabulary

spidery: Albert had showed her the creased scrap of cardboard with spidery black writing before he copied it carefully Thin, scratchy and crawling across the page in long, fine lines.
clutching: Next to her, Lily could see Albert clutching the arms of chair. Holding on very tight, as if afraid to let go.
cathedral: Then the tricolor, France’s flag, went up on the cathedral A large and important church, like the great one in Paris.
anthem: people began to sing the French anthem, the “Marseillaise.” A country's own song that its people sing with pride.

Critical thinking

Lily wonders if Albert will ever come back. Why does she want to give him one of her mother’s stars?
After the newsreel, Lily says, “But we know they were there.” Do she and Albert really know it, or do they only hope it?