Wednesday 22nd April 2020 Reading Comprehension

Complete the tasks below that link to the novel ‘Rumblestar’ by Abi Elphinstone.

Task one Look at the front cover.

 What do you think the book will be about?  What things can you see on the front cover?  What genre do you think the story will be? Why?  What do you think Rumblestar is about?  Who could the characters on the front cover be? Why are they important to the story?

In the prologue of the story, you will be introduced to two mythical creatures that originate from Greek mythology.

Phoenix Harpy A phoenix is a legendary bird born out of In mythology, harpies were frightful fire. It was said to have red and gold creatures that were part woman and feathers and it is believed that at the part bird with sharp claws and a beak. end of their life, they set on fire and from Harpy is a Greek word for ‘snatcher’ and the ashes, a new phoenix was born. were originally seem to have been wind spirits.

Task two Read the prologue and answer the questions on the next page. All questions relate to one of the VIPERS skills that we have used in class. Write the answers on a separate piece of paper and discuss the answers with a parent.

Vocabulary Infer Predict Explain Retrieve Summarise

R 1) How do adults think the world began? V 2) What does ‘notoriously’ mean? I 3) Why did the phoenix weep 7 tears? V 4) What does it mean to ‘conjure’? R 5) What magic did the golden feathers possess? Give two examples. R 6) What would happen if the Unmappers stopped sharing magic? R 7) Who are the Lofty Husks? I 8) Why are the Lofty Husks a good choice for leaders? Give two reasons. V 9) What is an ‘era’? I 10) Why do you think Everdark is so named? V 11) What does it mean if something goes ‘awry’? R 12) What happened when the phoenix died? 13) How is Morg a bad character? Support your answer with evidence from E the text. R 14) Where does Smudge live? V 15) What does it mean if you ‘heeded’ something? R 16) What does Casper do every morning before breakfast? 17) Choose a word to describe Casper Tock. Use evidence from the text to I justify your choice.

Task three Summarise

Summarise the history of this world in one paragraph (no more than 6 sentences).

Predict

What do you think will happen in the next chapter?

Find out what happens in the next chapter: listen to the audiobook on this website! https://www.worldbookday.com/stories/rumblestar-by-abi-elphinstone/

Scroll down and towards the bottom of the page, you can listen to each chapter. Start with Chapter 1 and see if your prediction was correct. Listen to the rest of the chapters if you would like to continue the Rumblestar adventure…