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The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane · Garden Heights
Part 3
for The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane · Part 3 · Chapters 9–12
8 Parts40 min
What Happens in Part 3
The net belongs to Lawrence, an old fisherman, who carries the mud-caked rabbit home to his wife Nellie in their small cottage by the sea. What follows would once have outraged Edward: Nellie sews him a garment — a dress — and gives him a new name, Susanna. But something in Edward has changed. Day after day he sits in the warm kitchen while Nellie bakes and talks, pouring out her sorrows — the children grown and gone, the son the sea took — and Edward finds himself doing what he never did on Egypt Street: he is attentive. He listens. In the evenings Lawrence carries him to the beach and names the constellations burning over the water, and the rabbit who once loved only mirrors discovers he cares for these two tender, weathered people. Then the couple’s grown daughter Lolly visits, sees a doll in a dress at her mother’s table, and is filled with disgust. When the visit ends, so does Susanna’s life: Lolly discards Edward — straight into the rubbish.
What We Will Learn
Section
What you will practice
Vocabulary
Words of the cottage: mend, tender, sorrow, attentive, constellation, discard…
Literary Elements
The motif of names, irony, and the theme of listening
Cross-Curricular
How the night sky is mapped, and what a fishing cottage’s day was like
Chapter Summary
Ch.
What happens
9
Hauled Ashore — Lawrence the fisherman carries the strange catch home to Nellie.
10
Susanna — a sewn dress, a new name, and a warm seat in the kitchen.
11
Listening — Nellie’s sorrows by day, Lawrence’s constellations by night — and a rabbit who finally pays attention.
12
Lolly — the grown daughter’s disgust; the visit ends with Edward in the rubbish.
Part 1
Vocabulary
Study 10 key words from Chapters 9–12, then answer each question.
🧠Knowledge Bank · Nets, Tides, and the Catch
Geography · A Fishing Village’s DayThe old man who pulls Edward from the sea is a fisherman, and his whole life is ruled by the water. Fishermen like Lawrence rise before dawn, read the tides, and sail out to lower their nets where the fish gather. The sea decides everything: a good day fills the nets, a rough day sends the boat home empty. Their small cottages sit close to the shore so the boats are always near. When Lawrence carries Edward home tangled in his net, the rabbit enters a world of salt, rope, and patient hard work. Knowing this helps you picture the simple, weathered kindness of the couple who take him in. To live by the sea is to live by its endless, changing rhythm.
cottagen.Ch.9
A small, simple house
“The fisherman’s cottage stood by the sea.”
mendv.Ch.9
To repair something torn or broken
“Lawrence mended his nets by the fire.”
garmentn.Ch.10
A piece of clothing
“Nellie sewed the rabbit a garment — a dress.”
tenderadj.Ch.10–11
Gentle and loving
“Her hands were rough but tender.”
sorrown.Ch.11
Deep sadness
“Nellie’s sorrows filled the warm kitchen.”
attentiveadj.Ch.11
Paying careful attention
“For the first time, Edward was attentive.”
constellationn.Ch.11
A named picture formed by stars
“Lawrence named each constellation over the water.”
hearthn.Ch.11
The fireplace floor; a home’s warm center
“Susanna kept her seat by the hearth.”
disgustn.Ch.12
Strong dislike; revulsion
“Lolly stared at the doll with disgust.”
discardv.Ch.12
To throw something away
“Lolly discarded Edward with the rubbish.”
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
1A small, simple house is a ___.Ch.9
2To ‘mend’ something is to tear it apart.Ch.9
3A named picture formed by stars is a ___.Ch.11
4Someone ‘attentive’ pays careful attention.Ch.11
5Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.10–11
Word choices:garmentsorrowcottagetender- some words will not be used
Nellie sewed the rabbit a — a dress with a hem.
She poured out her while the bread baked.
6Deep sadness is called ___.Ch.11
7To ‘discard’ something is to keep it safe forever.Ch.12
8Gentle and loving describes hands that are ___.Ch.10–11
9Fill in the blanks with the correct words.Ch.11–12
Word choices:attentivediscardhearthconstellation- some words will not be used
Susanna kept a warm seat by the .
Lolly chose to the doll with the rubbish.
10Strong dislike, close to sickness, is ___.Ch.12
Part 2
Comprehension
Show you understood what happens in Chapters 9–12.
🧠Knowledge Bank · What Kindness Sets in Motion
Reading Skill · Cause & EffectA good reader watches how one thing leads to another — that is cause and effect. In the fisherman’s cottage, Nellie treats Edward with warmth: she dresses him, sits him at the table, and tells him the story of her life. Each gentle act is a cause, and it produces an effect deep inside Edward — slowly, for the first time, he begins to care about someone other than himself. Trace that chain as you read: warmth in, tenderness out. This is how the book quietly shows a heart changing, not with a sudden burst but through many small kindnesses adding up. When you spot a cause, always ask what effect it will ripple into, because that is where the real growthhides.
1Who pulls Edward out of the sea?Ch.9
2What new identity does Nellie give the rabbit?Ch.10
3Edward is too outraged by the dress to notice anything else.Ch.10–11
4What does Nellie share with Edward as she works?Ch.11
5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events in Chapters 9–12. Number 1 = what happens first.Ch.9–12
Lolly visits — and discards Edward with the rubbish.
Lawrence carries the muddy rabbit home from the nets.
Nellie sews a dress and names the rabbit Susanna.
Lawrence names the constellations over the night water.
Edward listens, attentive, to Nellie’s sorrows.
6Lawrence shows Edward the constellations above the sea at night.Ch.11
7How does Edward’s behavior in the cottage differ from Egypt Street?Ch.11
8Who is Lolly?Ch.12
9Lolly is charmed to find a doll at her mother’s table.Ch.12
10How does this part of Edward’s journey end?Ch.12
Part 3
Literary Elements
Understanding HOW and WHY Kate DiCamillo tells the story across Chapters 9–12.
🧠Knowledge Bank · A Heart Begins to Turn
Literary Craft · Dynamic CharacterA dynamic character is one who truly changes over the course of a story, and here we watch Edward begin to turn. The proud rabbit who once cared only for his fine clothes now listens to Nellie, worries for the old couple, and feels something warm stir where there had been only cold china. This is the heart of the whole book: Edward is not the same creature at the end of a chapter that he was at the start. Authors use dynamic characters to show that people — and rabbits — can grow. So keep a mental list of the ‘old Edward’ and the ‘new Edward,’ and watch the gap between them slowly widen. A changing heart is the truest sign of a living character.
Motif of Names
A repeating element — every rescuer renames Edward, and Susanna is the first self that love builds.
Irony
The proud gentleman in silk ends up in a hand-sewn dress — and is better for it.
Theme of Listening
Love’s first skill — Edward’s heart grows exactly as fast as his attention.
1Every rescuer giving Edward a new name forms a ___.Ch.10
2Fill in the blank with the correct literary term.Ch.10–11
Word choices:ironythemesettingsuspense- some words will not be used
The proud gentleman thriving in a hand-sewn dress is .
Listening as love’s first skill is the part’s .
3Edward accepting the dress and the name shows his vanity is ___.Ch.10–11
4The kitchen scenes work because Edward can listen but never interrupt.Ch.11
5Nellie telling her sorrows to a china rabbit is moving rather than silly because ___.Ch.11
6The constellation scenes give Edward — and the reader — an image of ___.Ch.11
7A motif appears once and never returns.Ch.10
8Fill in the blank with the correct literary term.Ch.10
Word choices:motifironyimagerydialogue- some words will not be used
A repeating element that gathers meaning, like the new names, is a .
9Lolly’s disgust — reasonable to her, catastrophic to Edward — shows the journey’s dangers are often ___.Ch.12
10Ending the part at the rubbish bin — right after Edward learns to care — teaches the story’s hardest rule: ___.Ch.12
Part 4
Think Deeper
Four deeper challenges — no single-word recall. Read, weigh the evidence, and reason it out.
🧠Knowledge Bank · Learning to Love Again
Social-Emotional · Opening Your HeartNellie and Lawrence have known sorrow of their own, yet they open their home to a battered china rabbit, and their gentleness invites Edward to open, too. Opening your heart means letting yourself care, even knowing that caring can one day hurt. For Edward, this is brand new: he lets these old people matter to him, and their love begins to fill the empty place inside. But the book is honest — when Lolly throws him away, that fresh tenderness makes the loss ache all the more. Still, the lesson holds: a heart that has learned to love is richer than one that stayed safely shut. To let others in is a brave and beautiful risk.
Think back over the cottage days. A muddy treasure rides home in a fish basket. A grieving mother sews it a dress and a name, and talks the quiet out of her kitchen. An old man holds a china rabbit up to the burning constellations as if introducing old friends. And a rabbit who once loved a mirror finds, to his astonishment, that he loves two weathered people — just in time to lose them to a stranger’s disgust.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1Claim: “In the cottage, Edward learns to care about someone besides himself.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence
2Edward’s life as Edward, or Edward’s life as Susanna? Tap each detail to send it left or right.Sort into two
◄ Edward’s life as EdwardEdward’s life as Susanna ►
3Match each cause to its result. For each cause, pick its result.Cause & Effect
A lonely kitchen needs a listener→
A fisherman knows the night sky→
Edward finally pays attention→
Lolly finds a doll at her mother’s table→
4Fill both blanks to complete the reasoning.Build the Argument
DiCamillo lets Edward’s happiest chapter end in a rubbish bin because , which shows that .
Part 5
Standardized Test
The Oldest Map in the World · SAT & TOEFL-style practice
🎯 You already have the skills from the sections above — this is just a fun way to meet real SAT & TOEFL-style questions. Read the passage (the highlighted words are tested below), then answer the questions below. Tap an answer to select it, then tap it again to confirm — you can change your choice until you confirm.
Long before compasses and satellites, travelers steered by the sky. A constellation is a pattern agreed upon in the stars — a hunter, two bears, a crown — and the agreement is the point: if every sailor sees the same pictures, every sailor can trade directions. The most useful star of all barely moves. The North Star hangs above the North Pole, so a traveler who finds it has found true north — and can navigate onward with nothing but eyes and memory. Fishermen were among the sky’s most faithful readers. Working dark water before dawn, a fisherman learned the stars the way city people learn streets: which pictures rise where, season by season, and how high they stand above the horizon — the line where sky meets sea. To such a reader the night is not empty; it is signed and labeled. Teaching someone the constellations was passing on a family treasure: the whole sky, handed over one picture at a time.
Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.
1In the passage, a constellation is ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary
2Why is the agreement about star pictures ‘the point’?TOEFL · Rhetorical Purpose
3What makes the North Star so useful?TOEFL · Factual Information
4In the passage, to “navigate” means to ___.SAT · Words in Context
5How did fishermen know the stars so well?SAT · Detail
6In the passage, the “horizon” is ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary
7What does the passage compare a fisherman’s star knowledge to?TOEFL · Factual Information
8What does the passage call teaching someone the constellations?SAT · Detail
9How does the passage connect to Chapter 11?SAT · Text Connections
10For a wanderer like Edward, the stars offer a quiet promise: ___.SAT · Inference
Part 6 · Optional
Creative Writing
A bonus challenge to practice your English. Take your time and have fun with it.
About This Section
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 3 “The Listener in My Kitchen”
Nellie tells her sorrows to a rabbit who cannot answer — and it helps. Write about a listener of your own, real or imagined: a pet, a toy, a tree, a patient grandparent. What would you tell them this week, and why does saying it out loud matter? Write at least 40 words.
You can start with: “I do my best talking to someone who never says a word…”
0 / 40 words minimum
🗣 Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)
No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Part 3 Complete!
You finished Chapters 9–12 of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.
Here are your auto-graded results:
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points out of 100
Your Writing
Your writing was checked automatically for length, spelling, grammar, and whether you included the key parts of the scene. Scroll back to Part 5 anytime to read your feedback and improve your work.
Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Kate DiCamillo. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Kate DiCamillo’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.
