Skill and Form Number: Literary Elements #1

Literary Elements

A Tidal Tale
by Anne LeMieux

Sarah sat on the edge of the wooden dock, dangling her feet in the chilly water. The summer sun warmed her back.
Her sailboat, Whisper, bobbed quietly against the dock.
"Ten knots out of the south. Perfect." She stepped across the dock and into her boat.
Whisper strained against her dock lines almost as if she were answering.
"You can't go sailing, Sarah. Mom's not home," called Jimmy, Sarah's eight-year-old brother, from the shore.
"I know!" Sarah said. "Leave me alone, please."
"Just one quick sail around the cove," she thought. "I can't tell Mom if she's not home."
Her conscience bothered her, but Sarah pulled her life jacket out from under the seat and strapped it on. Then she took the mainsail from its sail bag and hoisted it up the mast. It flapped and fluttered in the breeze. After untying the dock lines, Sarah pushed Whisper away from the dock and jammed down the centerboard. Whisper's jaunty white sail caught the wind, and she was sailing.
With one hand on the tiller to steer and the other holding the mainsheet rope to trim the sail, Sarah balanced her weight to keep Whisper on an even keel. Over the waves she skimmed. Glints of sunlight bounced off the water's rippled surface as Whisper's bow sliced through the sea.
Sarah laughed aloud. The wind rushed against her face. Beneath her feet, she could feel the water gurgle as they surged forward. It was as if she and Whisper were one, a creature of sea and air.
Clang! Clang! The sound of the big red bell buoy echoed across the water. It marked the channel, a safe passage between rocks and sandbars out to the Atlantic Ocean.
She was outside Crab Cove now. The wind began to weaken, then disappeared. Whisper's sail drooped listlessly. The little boat drifted in the water, motionless.
"Uh-oh," Sarah muttered. She reached under the seat for the small oar, and started paddling back. After a while her arms grew stiff and sore, but the shore didn't seem to be getting any closer.
Sarah realized that Whisper was being carried backward, in the direction of the ocean. "The tide!" she gasped. When the tide went out, it sent millions of gallons of water draining into the Atlantic, and it created powerful currents, too strong for even an adult to row against. She and Whisper were caught in one now.
"If the wind would only come back," Sarah thought desperately. With a little breeze, she would be able to sail against the current. Remembering an old sailor's superstition, Sarah tried to "whistle up the wind." But her mouth was so dry with fear that she managed only a few weak "phweets." She and Whisper were going to be washed out to sea!
The rumble of a motor in the distance caught Sarah's attention. It was a lobster boat. She stood, braced her feet, and holding the mast with one hand, waved frantically with the other.
They saw her! As the boat approached, Sarah recognized her neighbor Mr. Garner at the helm, and beside him, her brother, Jimmy. They pulled up alongside, and Jimmy threw Sarah a line, which she secured to a cleat on Whisper's bow. Then she climbed over the side of the rescue boat, and they chugged slowly toward shore.
"Thank you for coming, Mr. Garner," Sarah said. Her voice was shaky.
"Got to watch your tides, Sarah," Mr. Garner said kindly. "Especially in an offshore breeze. Dies right out when you get away from the land. You might have been in a heap of trouble if young Jim hadn't come to fetch me."
Copyright (c) 1999 by Highlights for Children, Inc., Columbus, Ohio.

1. What is the main conflict in the story?

A. Sarah and Jimmy don’t get along very well.

B. Sarah struggles with whether or not to obey her parents’ rules.

C. Sarah wants to compete in the Junior Sailing Club's championship and needs to practice.

D. There is no conflict in the story.

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2. What is the best way to describe Jimmy?

A. impatient

B. cautious

C. a tattletale

D. whiney

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3. Consider the plot of the story. How would the story be different if Jimmy hadn’t gone to warn Mr. Garner?

A. Sarah would have kept drifting out further into the ocean.

B. Sarah would have been able to row herself back to shore.

C. The story wouldn’t have been any different.

D. Sarah’s parents would have taken a boat out to find her.

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4. What is the best way to describe Sarah?

A. obedient

B. impatient

C. generous

D. courageous

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5. Who is the narrator in the story?

A. Jimmy

B. The narrator is unnamed.

C. Sarah

D. Mr. Garner

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The Missing Balloon Pin
by Ian McMahan

The balloon was as big as a building.
My cousin, David, had invited Jordan and me to a balloon rally. We crossed the meadow.
Jordan said, “Carol, maybe you could spot a new mystery from up there.”
I like mountains. I don’t mind airplanes. I also love solving mysteries—but not while I’m dangling from a bag full of hot air.
“I’ll just watch,” I said.
David and his friends were unfolding a huge cloth. Ropes attached it to a wicker basket.
David’s jean jacket had embroidered patches on it. His cap was covered with enamel pins shaped like hot-air balloons.
“Meet Zach and Annette,” he said. “Zach’s crewing. Annette’s driving the chase car.”
“Paul,” David called to another guy.
David took off his cap and pointed to a pin attached just above the bill. It was a bright green balloon with the word Earthquest below it. I noticed another pin just like it that was red.
“A green Earthquest pin is rare!” Paul exclaimed.
“May I see?” Zach asked. David tossed him the cap.
Annette explained, “Collecting pins is a big hobby, and that one’s hard to find.”
“Inflation time,” David said.
“I’ll help,” Paul said. “What about tomorrow?”
“Zach’s crewing for me the whole meet,” David replied.
Zach and David wheeled over a big fan. Once the balloon was filling with air, David started the propane burner. Soon it was swaying over our heads. David and Zach climbed into the basket.
“Preflight check,” David said. “Zach, try the rip line.”
Zach tugged at a dangling rope.
“No, not the turning vent line,” David said. “The red rip line.”
Zach looked confused. He pulled on another rope. “This one?” he asked.
David unhooked the anchor ropes. “Where’s my cap?”
It was on the ground. I handed it to David.
“My green Earthquest pin’s gone. Zach, give it back!” David growled.
“I didn’t take it,” Zach said.
I searched the grass. The pin wasn’t there.
“All I did was look at it,” Zach insisted. “Then, I put the cap down.”
“Carol, you’re the detective,” Jordan said. “Can you figure it out?”
I thought about everything I had seen and heard. There must be a clue somewhere.
“I can prove Zach is innocent! Which rope has red paint on it?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Zach said. “I’m color-blind.”
“Zach couldn’t have taken the green pin. To him, it looked like the red one. Annette wasn’t near the cap,” I explained.
Paul reached in his pocket and handed David the pin. “I wasn’t going to keep it. I wanted to get you angry at Zach so you’d let me crew tomorrow.”
“See, Jordan?” I said. “I can find plenty of mysteries to solve on the ground.”
Copyright (c) 1998 by Highlights for Children, Inc., Columbus, Ohio.

6. What is the main conflict in the story?

A. A pin goes missing, and no one knows who took it.

B. Carol is scared of hot-air balloons, and the gang tries to calm her down.

C. Zach wants to crew for David, but David turns him down.

D. The story has no conflict.

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7. What is the setting of the story?

A. the inside of a hot-air balloon in the sky

B. a hot-air balloon rally in a meadow

C. a campsite where environmental challenges take place

D. The story has no setting.

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8. How is the conflict resolved?

A. Jordan thinks that Carol took the pin.

B. Carol figures out that Zach took the pin.

C. Carol figures out that Paul took the pin.

D. Carol thinks that Jordan took the pin.

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9. Who is the narrator in the story?

A. Jordan

B. David

C. Carol

D. The narrator is unnamed.

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10. What is the best way to describe the narrator?

A. observant

B. hopeless

C. slow

D. panicked

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Answers

1. B
2. B
3. A
4. B
5. B
6. A
7. B
8. C
9. C
10. A

1. Sarah struggles with whether or not to obey her parents’ rules.
2. cautious
3. Sarah would have kept drifting out further into the ocean.
4. impatient
5. The narrator is unnamed.
6. A pin goes missing, and no one knows who took it.
7. a hot-air balloon rally in a meadow
8. Carol figures out that Paul took the pin.
9. Carol
10. observant

Explanations

1. There is more than one conflict taking place in the story, but the main conflict is with Sarah trying to decide whether or not to break her parents’ rule. The passage states, “Her conscience bothered her." Her disobedience creates all of the events that get her in trouble.

2. Jimmy, Sarah's little brother, is very cautious because he knows Sarah is thinking about sailing and disobeying their parents' rule. He knows Sarah will go sailing anyway, so instead of going back inside, he goes to the neighbor's house and warns Mr. Garner. If it hadn't been for Jimmy being cautious, Sarah might have drifted further out to sea.

3. It’s clear that Sarah isn’t very experienced when it comes to sailing. In fact, Mr. Garner says, “Especially in an offshore breeze. Dies right out when you get away from the land. You might have been in a heap of trouble if young Jim hadn't come to fetch me."

4. Sarah is quick to take her boat out even though her parents told her she isn't supposed to without an adult present. Despite this, she jumps at the chance to go sailing when her parents are gone, and she almost pays a price for it.

5. The story is told from the third person omniscient point of view since the narrator in the story knows about everything that is happening and is able to tell the audience what the characters are doing and thinking. However, the narrator isn't given a name.

6. There are a few conflicts in the story, but the main one is that David's pin goes missing, and no one knows who took it. It angers David, and David takes it out on Zach because Zach is the last person to have seen it.

7. All of the action takes place at a hot-air balloon rally in a meadow; however, the balloon never takes off. There are a few people crowded around the balloon, and this increases the chances for conflict.

8. Carol is able to figure out that Paul took the pin even though everyone thinks it was Zach since Zach was the last person to see the pin. Carol realizes that Zach is colorblind and wouldn't know what color the pin is.

9. It's clear that the narrator of the story is Carol based on the second, third, and fourth sentences of the passage. They read, "My cousin, David, had invited Jordan and me to a balloon rally. We crossed the meadow. Jordan said, 'Carol, maybe you could spot a new mystery from up there.'"
We get to see the story through Carol's point of view.

10. Pay attention to the way Carol acts. She notices everything. When the pin goes missing, she remembers everything that took place and is able to put the pieces together to figure out Zach is colorblind, and Paul was the one who took David's pin.