Read historical fiction with illustrations

key notes:

Sometimes authors don’t explain everything that you need to know in a story. So, you may need to make guesses, or inferences, about what happens and why. Making inferences will help you understand the whole story, even the things that the author doesn’t say openly.

Learn with an example

🐵Read the first part of the story.

Egg Hunt

• The screen door swings open. Elias and Abigail run down the stairs of the front porch of their farmhouse.
• They stop in the dirt farmyard where a few chickens peck at the ground. Elias pulls some breadcrumbs from his pocket and feeds them to his favourite chicken.
• ‘You’re going to miss me when I leave to become a blacksmith, won’t you, Dottie?’ he coos as the hen eats from his hand. ‘But luckily Abigail is going to learn how to collect eggs. The best egg hunter in East Anglia is going to teach her.’
• Abigail rolls her eyes. Her brother loves to talk about how good he is at everything.
• ‘Collecting eggs is an important job, and it might be hard for you at first,’ Elias tells Abigail. ‘But maybe someday you’ll be almost as good as me!’
• ‘Finding eggs every morning can’t be that hard,’ Abigail replies.

What does Abigail probably think about Elias?

• She thinks that he brags about himself too much.
• She thinks that he will be a great blacksmith.
• She thinks that he can help her learn to collect eggs.
• She thinks that he is better than her at farm chores.

In the story, Elias calls himself ‘the best egg hunter in East Anglia’. He also says that ‘maybe someday’ Abigail will be as good at collecting eggs as he is. Abigail rolls her eyes because her brother always talks about how good he is at things.

Sometimes, people roll their eyes when they think that an idea is silly or they have heard it many times before. So, you can guess that Abigail thinks that her brother brags about himself too much.

🐵Read the first part of the story.

Summer in the City

• Walt opened his eyes. He had dreamed he was hearing his rooster crow, but it was really a car horn honking. He climbed out of bed and looked out the window at Youngstown, Ohio in America. The road outside his aunt and uncle’s house was already full of cars. Where do all of these people need to go so quickly? Walt thought.
• When Walt had arrived for the summer, Alfie had told him that everyone in cities owned their own cars⁠—⁠even the babies! His older cousin often made up stories to joke with Walt. But looking at the number of cars outside, Walt wondered if this one was true.
• Walt thought about his parents. They had probably already milked the cows and were eating a quiet breakfast. It was 1920 in both places, but Youngstown felt like a new and noisy future.

🐵 Where does Walt normally live?

• in a flat
• near the sea
• in a big city
• on a farm

In the story, Walt thinks he hears a rooster and mentions his parents milking the cows. He is also not used to all of the people and cars in the city.

Roosters and cows are usually found on farms. Also, someone who is used to living on a farm might find it very different to be in a city. So, you can guess that Walt normally lives on a farm.

🐱 Read the first part of the story.

Leaving Ireland

• My family and I were sitting around the dinner table. Mother had made boiled cabbage again. I tried not to make a face.
• ‘Peggy, remember when we used to get potatoes every day?’ my little sister, Mary, whispered to me.
• I did remember. But last year, a terrible disease destroyed most of the potato crops in Ireland. The disease turned the potatoes black, and then we had nothing to eat but cabbage. Sometimes we would go to sleep without eating anything at all.
• ‘I have some important news,’ said Father. ‘Next week we’re leaving Ireland.’ Mary and I were too surprised to speak.
• ‘Where are we going?’ my brother, Cormac, asked.
• Father’s eyes brightened, and he smiled for the first time in a long time. ‘To America.’

What is the most likely reason why Peggy’s family is leaving Ireland?

• They are tired of eating potatoes in Ireland.
• They have friends in America.
• There isn’t enough food in Ireland.
• The weather in Ireland is too cold.

In the story, Peggy says that the potatoes in Ireland have been destroyed, so all they have to eat is cabbage. Peggy also says that sometimes her family goes to sleep without eating anything.

When people go to sleep without eating, it usually means they don’t have enough food. So, you can guess that Peggy’s family is leaving because there isn’t enough food in Ireland.

let’s practice!

Read the first part of the story.

The Rocket

My dad drove for hours down the coast of Florida in the USA, mostly in the dark. It was way past my bedtime when we arrived, but neither of my parents seemed to care. We parked next to dozens of other cars and got out.
‘Linda, look!’ my mum said.
I turned to see where she was pointing. Apollo 11 was across the water, a few kilometres away. My parents had shown me pictures of the rocket in the newspaper. But it gave me chills to see it in person. It stood still and silent, lit up with enormous lights. I couldn’t believe that tomorrow morning, on 16 July 1969, it would take three men to the moon for the first time.
All around us, people were talking, laughing and sharing food. I felt like I was at a big party with people I had just met! I wanted to stay up forever.