Print at 100% scale on letter paper, with no added margins.
Lily's Crossing
Trailblazers · 4th–6th
Why does Lily go to Albert after the plane passes, when she has spent all afternoon hiding from him?
The tension Hidden behind the rusty fence, Lily imagines Albert reaching for “his revolver with the silencer”; minutes later she is the one grabbing his arm and saying “It’s all right” while his hands tremble.
Watch Lily’s case against Albert come apart piece by piece, and notice what she does once it has.
The chapter takes one Monday afternoon in Rockaway during the war. Lily puts on her sunglasses and sailor hat, slips a lipstick into each pocket and sets out to spy on Albert, the boy staying with the Orbans. She counts her case on her fingers: he came in the middle of the night, he has a foreign accent, and she cannot keep track of him. She follows him to the beach and hides under the boardwalk behind a rusty wire fence while he spreads out Mrs. Orban’s blanket. Waiting, she tells herself not to think about Poppy, who has gone away, and to think about Gram instead. Gram is fourth on her problem list, after Lies, Daydreaming and Friends, and Lily thinks of moving her up to first. But Gram’s mumbled words about the goodbye Lily missed bring Poppy back: she has woken two days running with a pain in her chest, and has mailed him a long “I’m sorry” letter to a strange address. Albert begins to write. Lily creeps closer, picturing herself as a spy who gets shot and wins a medal, and reads “Dere Ont Eva and Onkl Emery”: just a letter, from a worse speller than she is. He turns, she starts an excuse, and a trainer plane roars in low over the beach. When it has passed, Albert is staring at the sky with his hands trembling. Without thinking, Lily grabs his arm and tells him it is all right, that she saw the star on the plane. He does not look at her. She remembers he has caught her spying again, and she walks home red in the face, sure she will stay away from him all summer.
Before reading, ask the student what a spy in a movie does, and what a spy hopes to find. Then read aloud from the start to “She’d win a medal.” Ask what Lily expects to see on Albert’s paper. Read on to the end, and have the student listen for each clue that turns out to be something ordinary, and for what Lily does once the plane has passed.
Retell The student tells the chapter back in four parts: the disguise and the three clues; the wait under the boardwalk, with the problem list, Gram and the letter to Poppy; the crawl toward Albert and the letter on his pad; the plane, the comfort and the walk home. Look for the order, and for the student placing Lily’s thoughts about Poppy where Giff puts them, in the middle of the spying.
Imitate the author After copying, the student writes three or four sentences of their own: one person imagining something dramatic about another, then the plain thing that really happens. Ask for one sentence that strings two actions together with a comma, the way Giff writes “reach into the bag, pull out his revolver,” and one that opens with a short phrase set off by a comma, like “Without thinking,” before the main action. Look for commas placed where a reader would breathe.
Debate Take sides on the last written question. First list from the chapter the reasons Lily might go to Albert: what she knows about the plane that he does not, what she sees in his face and hands, her own fear a minute before, the goodbye she missed. Then ask which reason weighs most. The student argues one side and you argue another. Look for a student who uses the hiding and the comfort together, and who can say what the other side would say. Keep the red face and the walk home in the talk; do not let the answer become that they are friends now.
Purpose Close with the two kinds of danger in this chapter: the danger Lily imagines, with a revolver, a silencer and a medal, and the danger Albert seems to feel when a harmless plane comes in low. Ask why Giff lets the spy game run so long before something real breaks into it. Leave open what Albert has lived through and whether Lily will ever spy on him again; the chapter tells neither.
Easier Read aloud together from “Lily backed against the boardwalk steps” to the end. Retell what the plane does, what Lily sees in Albert, and what she says to him. Talk through the fourth discussion question, then answer the last written question aloud.
On level Talk through all four discussion questions in order, then have the student write answers to the three written questions in complete sentences, each with a reason and a line from the chapter.
Harder Lily has mailed Poppy a long “I’m sorry” letter, and the secret paper she spies on turns out to be a letter too. Ask the student to write a paragraph on why Giff might put two letters in one chapter, using only what this chapter shows and making no guess about who Eva and Emery are.
1. Lily tells herself, “Don’t think about Poppy. Think about Gram instead.” Why is Gram easier to think about?Character
What it asks It asks about one turn in Lily’s thoughts while she waits under the boardwalk. She has nothing to do and “certainly wasn’t going to hang around Gram’s house,” since she is “hardly talking to Gram since the night before Poppy left.” Then she stops herself: “Don’t think about Poppy. Think about Gram instead.” She pictures Gram fourth on her problem list and thinks of moving her up to number one: “It would serve her right.” The trick does not hold for long. Thinking of Gram brings back Gram’s mumbled “ . . . terrible that you didn’t come back to say goodbye to your father,” and with it the pain in her chest and the goodbye she missed. The question asks why one hard thought is easier than the other. It also opens the first half of the hinge: the spy game, too, keeps Poppy out of her head.
Gram is someone to be angry at. With Gram, Lily can feel she is the one who was wronged, and she can punish Gram on a list. With Poppy, the only person to blame is Lily herself.
It would serve her right.
Lily knew it was terrible, she didn’t need Gram to tell her that.
Gram is here, and Poppy is gone. Lily can still do something about Gram, even if it is only moving a name on a list. About Poppy she can do nothing now. A few minutes would have changed it, and those minutes are over.
And now maybe she’d cross the whole thing out and move Gram up to number one.
Just a few minutes would have made all the difference.
A strong answer A strong response might say Gram is easier because Lily can be angry at her: moving Gram to number one “would serve her right,” and anger is easier to carry than the guilt she feels about Poppy. Another might say Gram is still here to be dealt with, while with Poppy it is too late: “Just a few minutes would have made all the difference.” A thoughtful student may notice that the trick fails almost at once, because the first thing Gram says in Lily’s memory is about the goodbye. Look for a reason tied to the list and to the pain in her chest.
2. When Lily sees the paper is only a letter, she lets out her breath. What is she letting go of?Inference
What it asks It asks about the moment the spy case breaks. Lily has crawled around the fence “an inch at a time,” thinking “If he heard her, if he turned around . . .” Then she reads “Dere Ont Eva and Onkl Emery,” and for a moment thinks “A secret code maybe.” Then she knows: “A letter, just a letter, not a spy thing at all . . .” She frowns, “feeling the disappointment,” and then “She let out her breath.” Fear and letdown meet in that one breath, and the question asks what goes out of Lily with it. Once the spy is gone, there is only a boy on a blanket, which sets up the last written question without asking it. Right after the breath, “He heard her and turned.” The card says nothing about who Eva and Emery are; the chapter gives only the greeting.
The fear. Sneaking up on a spy is scary, even in a game. She has been creeping so he will not hear her or turn around. A letter has no danger in it, so she can breathe again.
Lily crawled around the side of the rusty fence an inch at a time.
If he heard her, if he turned around . . .
The spy game itself. The case she counted on her fingers is gone, and so is the hope of catching “a real one.” The breath comes with the disappointment, not after it.
She frowned, suddenly knowing what it was, feeling the disappointment.
Albert could really be a Nazi spy . . . not a chance-in-a-million spy like Mr. Egan, but a real one.
A strong answer A strong response might say Lily lets go of fear: she has crawled “an inch at a time,” afraid he will hear her and turn, and a letter holds no danger. Another might say she lets go of the spy game itself and the hope of “a real one,” which is why she feels “the disappointment” at the same moment. A thoughtful student may say it is both at once, relief and letdown in one breath, and may notice that right after it, “He heard her and turned.” Look for the moment before the paper and the moment after it used together, and for no guess about who Eva and Emery are.
3. Lily is caught, and she starts a lie: “I lost my, um . . .” Why does Giff cut the lie off right there?Author's choice
What it asks It asks the student to notice where Giff breaks off a sentence. Lily is caught: “He heard her and turned. Good grief.” She starts an excuse, and before she can finish it, “she heard the noise.” The lie is never finished. “Lies” is first on Lily’s own problem list. The next words she says to Albert are “It’s all right” and “It wasn’t a Nazi. I saw it.” The question asks what the chapter gains by never letting her finish the excuse.
So that Lily’s first real words to Albert are true. The lie never gets out. What comes out instead is comfort, and every word of it is true. For a girl with “Lies” at the top of her list, that matters.
It came after First: Lies; Second: Daydreaming; and Third: Friends, need.
“It’s all right,” she told him.
To leave Lily with no excuse. She never gets to explain why she was there, so when the plane is gone she is still a girl caught spying. That is the thought that sends her home red in the face.
He heard her and turned.
He followed his paper across the beach, and suddenly she remembered he had caught her spying on him again.
A strong answer A strong response might say Giff stops the lie so that the next words Lily speaks to Albert are true: “It’s all right,” and then “It wasn’t a Nazi. I saw it.” That matters with “Lies” first on her list. Another might say the break leaves her with no excuse, so once the plane has passed she remembers he “had caught her spying on him again,” and her face goes red. A student may also say the plane simply comes the way real noise does, without waiting. Look for the lie and the comfort set side by side.
4. After the plane, Lily tells Albert “It’s all right” twice. Then she says, “It wasn’t a Nazi. I saw it.” Who needs to hear that most?Character
What it asks It asks about the words Lily says once the plane has passed. She grabs Albert’s arm: “It’s all right.” Everything goes still, and she says it again, then adds “It wasn’t a Nazi. I saw it,” and draws a circle in the air for the star. Albert says nothing in the whole chapter, and nothing about Nazis. Lily is the one who spent the afternoon picturing “Nazi Spy Albert,” and her own heart is still pounding when she steps back. The question asks whom those words are really for. It feeds the last written question without asking it: if part of the comfort is for Lily herself, that is part of why she goes to him. The card does not say why Albert fears planes, and it does not say her words helped him; he “didn’t look at her” and “wasn’t listening.”
Albert. The first “It’s all right” does not reach him, so she tries again with proof. She saw the star on the plane, so it was not an enemy. She is giving him the one fact he is missing.
She made a circle with one finger.
He didn’t look at her.
Lily herself. Albert never said a word about Nazis. Lily is the one who has pictured a Nazi all afternoon, and her own heart is still pounding. Saying “It wasn’t a Nazi” out loud calms her as much as him.
If Albert, Nazi Spy Albert, turned, he’d reach into the bag, pull out his revolver with the silencer.
She could still feel her heart pounding.
A strong answer A strong response might say the words are for Albert: the first “It’s all right” does not reach him, so she adds proof, the circle she makes with one finger for the star, and still “He didn’t look at her.” Another might say they are for Lily too: Albert never mentions Nazis, she is the one who pictured “Nazi Spy Albert,” and when she steps back she can “still feel her heart pounding.” A thoughtful student may say they are for both at once. Look for the second “It’s all right” and Lily’s own heart used together, and for no claim that the words helped Albert.
1. Lily pictures Albert shooting her, and she thinks, “Never mind.” What does that daydream give her?
What it asks It asks about the daydream Lily has while she creeps toward Albert. “She pictured herself as an undercover agent.” If he turned, he would pull out “his revolver with the silencer.” “He’d shoot her, of course. Never mind. It was for the good of the country. She’d win a medal.” She is calm, even pleased, about being shot. The student has to say what that picture does for her. The chapter gives two things to set beside it: the goodbye she missed, which she has woken up aching over for two days, and, minutes later, a real plane so loud she feels it in her chest. The question gets at what the spy game is for, which the last written question needs: once real fear arrives, the daydream has no room left. The card makes no claim that Lily has given up spying for good.
It makes her a hero. In the daydream she is brave and useful, doing something for her country, and she wins a medal. That is a long way from the girl who did not go back to say goodbye.
It was for the good of the country.
If only she had gone home on Saturday morning, or even to the railroad station.
It makes danger easy. In her head, being shot is “of course” and “Never mind,” a danger she can start and stop. When the real plane comes, it is nothing like that. She can feel it shaking the boardwalk and her own chest.
He’d shoot her, of course.
The noise grew louder, so loud she could feel the boardwalk tremble with it, could feel the vibration in her chest.
A strong answer A strong response might argue the daydream makes Lily a hero: she is shot “for the good of the country” and wins “a medal,” far from the girl who wishes she had gone “even to the railroad station.” Another might argue it makes danger easy: in her head, being shot is “of course” and “Never mind,” but when the real plane comes she feels the boardwalk tremble and the noise in her chest. The best answers give two reasons from the page, answer the other side, and may say the daydream works only until something real comes.
2. Lily counts out three clues that Albert is a spy. By the end of the chapter, how many of them still hold up?
What it asks It asks the student to line up Lily’s clues against what she really finds. Her case: “One, he had come in the middle of the night; two, he had some kind of foreign spy accent, and three, she couldn’t keep track of him.” This afternoon she follows him easily to the beach. The blanket is Mrs. Orban’s; Lily has seen it “on the wash line a hundred times,” so it is nothing suspicious. The secret paper is a letter. The plane is “only a trainer plane from the navy yard,” and “Albert couldn’t know that.” Nothing in the chapter explains why he came in the middle of the night. The student decides which clues fall and which still stand, and may notice that a clue can be a true fact and still not prove a spy. The card makes no claim about why Albert fears planes or what he has lived through; the chapter shows only his fear.
None of them. Each clue falls apart when Lily gets close. She tracks him with no trouble, the blanket is a neighbor’s, and the paper is a misspelled letter. Up close he is a frightened boy, not a spy.
She’d seen it on the wash line a hundred times, so there wasn’t anything much suspicious there.
A letter, just a letter, not a spy thing at all . . . just that he was the worst speller in the world, worse than even she was.
Two still stand as facts. He did come in the middle of the night, and he does have an accent. What falls is the word “spy.” Up close, the new boy cannot know what Lily knows about the plane.
One, he had come in the middle of the night; two, he had some kind of foreign spy accent, and three, she couldn’t keep track of him.
But Albert couldn’t know that.
A strong answer A strong response might argue none hold up: she follows him with ease, the blanket is Mrs. Orban’s, and the paper is “just a letter,” so up close the spy is a boy with trembling hands. Another might argue two still stand as facts, since the chapter never explains the middle of the night and he still has his accent, but they no longer prove a spy: they now point to a boy who is new here and “couldn’t know” the plane is “From the naval base.” Look for each clue checked against a detail, and for no story about Albert’s past.
3. Albert’s pad blows away across the beach. Why does Lily go to Albert after the plane passes, when she has spent all afternoon hiding from him?
What it asks It asks the whole question of the chapter. All afternoon Lily hides: behind the mailbox, under the boardwalk, behind the rusty wire fence, crawling “an inch at a time” so he will not turn around. She pictures him shooting her. Then the plane comes in so low the boardwalk trembles, and Lily is frightened too, her heart thumping. When it is gone she knows it was “only a trainer plane,” but she sees Albert’s “blue eyes huge,” “the pad gone out of his hand, blowing across the beach,” and his hands trembling. The paper she crawled an inch at a time to read is getting away, and she does not chase it; she goes to him. “Without thinking, she went toward him, spitting out sand, wiping her eyes on her sleeve.” She grabs his arm and says “It’s all right” twice. The student weighs why she goes to him, and holds what comes after: he does not look at her, she steps back, and she walks home red in the face. The card does not explain Albert’s fear with a backstory, and it does not say they are friends now.
His fear is real, and it is bigger than her game. Lily knows what he cannot: it was only a trainer plane. Seeing his face, she forgets that he is a suspect and she is a spy, and she goes to him before she can think about it.
But Albert couldn’t know that.
Without thinking, she went toward him, spitting out sand, wiping her eyes on her sleeve.
She knows that fear from the inside. A minute before, her own heart was thumping and she was backed against the steps. And for two days she has woken up aching over the few minutes she did not give Poppy. This time she is right there, and she gives them.
Lily backed against the boardwalk steps, her heart thumping in her chest, her head bursting with the sound of it.
Just a few minutes would have made all the difference.
A strong answer A strong response takes a position, gives reasons and answers the other side. A student might argue that Albert’s fear is too real for the game to survive: Lily knows it was “only a trainer plane,” Albert “couldn’t know that,” and she goes to him “Without thinking,” before she has time to decide. Another might argue that Lily knows this fear from the inside, since her own heart was “thumping,” and that after two days of waking up aching over the minutes she did not give Poppy, she gives these. The best answers also notice that the moment does not last: he never looks at her, and she walks home sure she will stay away. Look for no story about Albert’s past and no claim that the two are friends.