Invite students to tell about someone who has traveled to faraway places or done interesting things.

With this strategy, students learn to recognize important characteristics of the text. Remind students that every fiction book has these elements. Ask questions to help them identify these characteristics. Encourage them to use text evidence to support their answers.

Who are the characters in the book? Tell about one of the main characters. What kind of person is the character based on what he does or says?

Where does the story take place? How does the setting change at different parts in the story?

What is the problem in the story? How is the problem solved?

Remind students that they can use clues from the story and what they already know to make an inference. Challenge them to make inferences to answer these questions.

Why do you think Miss Rumphius’s back stopped hurting her?

Why did people start to call Miss Rumphius “That Crazy Old Lady”?

Miss Rumphius felt tired so the Bapa Raja invited her to rest.

Miss Rumpius scattered seeds all over the country so lupine flowers grew everywhere.

How are Grandfather, Miss Rumphius, and Alice alike? What do they have in common? How are they different? 

How did Miss Rumphius and her grandfather make the world beautiful?

Model reading an important part of the text (such as pages 26-27 that tell how Miss Rumphius finally achieved her goal of making the world more beautiful) with feeling.

Possible words from this text include: 

P. 6 carving 
P. 15 fetched 
P. 24 scattered, flung, tossed

Ask students to identify compound words from the text. Reinforce that each compound word is made up of two words. When these words are joined, they make a new word. Provide examples from the text such as these:

P. 4 grandfather 
P. 16 everywhere 
P. 22 afternoon 

Ask students to continue to look for examples of compound words in their reading.