The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane · Garden Heights

Part 8

for The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane · Part 8 · Chapters 26–27 & Coda · Final Part

8 Parts40 min

What Happens in Part 8

Bryce comes to the shop for one long goodbye, and then Edward — restored, gleaming, renamed nothing at all — takes his place on a shelf among the dolls to await a customer. The shop years are their own schooling. A haughty fashion doll sniffs that no one wants a rabbit; Edward, heartsore, is tempted once more to close for good. But beside him sits a doll a whole century old, her paint worn soft, her wisdom gentler than Pellegrina’s: open your heart, she tells him. Someone will come. But first you must open your heart. When a child carries her away to a new life, Edward makes his choice: he opens, he hopes, he stays faithful to the promise through season after season. And then the Coda: a woman steps into the shop, a small daughter named Maggie at her hand — and the woman looks at the rabbit and says the name no one has said in twenty years. Abilene. The journey ends where it began — in the arms that loved him first — and this time, the china rabbit loves back. A homecoming, complete.

What We Will Learn

Section	What you will practice
Vocabulary	Words of waiting and return: restore, haughty, century, wisdom, await, homecoming…
Literary Elements	The wise elder, the coda, and the full-circle ending
Cross-Curricular	What a coda is in music, and why endings echo beginnings

Chapter Summary

Ch.	What happens
26	The Shelf — Bryce’s long goodbye; shop life among the dolls; a haughty neighbor and an old temptation to close the heart.
27	The Old Doll’s Words — a century of wisdom: ‘Open your heart. Someone will come.’ Edward opens, hopes, and waits through the seasons.
Coda	Someone Comes — a mother and her daughter Maggie; a name spoken after twenty years; the homecoming.

Part 1

Vocabulary

Study 10 key words from Chapters 26–27 & Coda · Final Part, then answer each question.

🧠Knowledge Bank · Mapping Edward’s Travels

Geography · The Whole Long JourneyAs the story closes, it is worth tracing on a map just how far Edward has traveled. He began in a house on Egypt Street, sailed across the ocean, and sank to the seabed for many long months. A fisherman’s net lifted him to a seaside cottage; a garbage dump and a dog led him to the railroads, where he rode the rails with hoboes through Depression-era towns. A garden, then the city of Memphis, then a doll mender’s shelf came next. Edward’s journey stitches together ocean, countryside, and city into one long thread of American places. Seeing the whole route at once helps you feel the true weight of his adventure — and why the ending feels less like an accident than a long-awaited homecoming.

Visual AidThe whole long journey, stop by stop

Diagram for the Knowledge Bank on mapping Edward’s travels. The nine boxes are the stops the Knowledge Bank lists, in order, from Egypt Street to the doll mender’s shelf, and the labels beneath group them into the ocean, countryside, and city the Knowledge Bank says the journey stitches together. It is a strip, not a real map, and it does not show distances. Notice how many stops lie between the first box and the last — that is the weight of the homecoming.

Stops as listed in the Knowledge Bank. Drawn for Garden Heights Academy.

restorev.Ch.26

To bring back to good condition

“The mended rabbit was fully restored.”

haughtyadj.Ch.26

Proud, and scornful of others

“A haughty doll sniffed at the rabbit.”

centuryn.Ch.27

A period of one hundred years

“The old doll had lived a century.”

wisdomn.Ch.27

Deep understanding earned by long life

“Her wisdom was gentler than Pellegrina’s.”

awaitv.Ch.26–27

To wait for something to come

“On the shelf, Edward awaited a customer.”

hopev.Ch.27

To want and expect good to come

“He chose, at last, to hope.”

faithfuladj.Ch.27

Steady and true in trust

“He stayed faithful to the promise.”

customern.Ch.26

A person who comes to buy

“Every customer might be the one.”

recognizev.Coda

To know someone seen before

“The woman recognized him at once.”

homecomingn.Coda

A return home at long last

“The Coda gives the journey its homecoming.”

ⓘ 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.

🧠Knowledge Bank question

1According to the Knowledge Bank, Edward's journey stitches together ___.Ch.26

2A ‘haughty’ person is humble and warm to everyone.Ch.26

3A period of one hundred years is a ___.Ch.27

4To ‘await’ something means to wait for it to come.Ch.26–27

5Fill in each blank with the correct word.Ch.26–27

Word choices:wisdomcustomerhaughtycentury- some words will not be used

Her was gentler than Pellegrina’s.

Every who entered might be the one.

6Steady and true in trust describes someone ___.Ch.27

7A ‘homecoming’ is a departure into exile.Coda

8To know someone you have seen before is to ___ them.Coda

9Fill in the blanks with the correct words.Ch.27–Coda

Word choices:hopehomecomingfaithfulrestore- some words will not be used

Edward chose, at last, to .

The Coda gives the journey its .

10Deep understanding earned by long life is ___.Ch.27

Part 2

Comprehension

Show you understood what happens in Chapters 26–27 & Coda · Final Part.

🧠Knowledge Bank · Love Finds Its Way Home

Narrative Logic · Love Finds Its Way HomeHere at the end, gather up the theme that has run through every chapter: that an open, loving heart is worth all the pain it costs. Edward began cold and proud, was broken open by loss after loss, and slowly learned both to love and to be loved in return. Now, in the doll shop, an old doll tells him that someone will surely come — and when a woman named Abilene finally lifts him up, grown and holding a child of her own, the whole long story clicks into place. Trace how each owner added one more piece to this single idea. A theme is proven not by one scene but by a pattern across the whole book, and this pattern points steadily toward a heart at last made whole.

🧠Knowledge Bank question

1The Knowledge Bank says the book's theme is that ___.Ch.26

2What does the haughty fashion doll tell Edward?Ch.26

3Edward’s other neighbor is a doll a hundred years old.Ch.27

4What is the old doll’s counsel?Ch.27

5Write the numbers 1–5 in the boxes to show the correct order of events in Chapters 26–27 & Coda. Number 1 = what happens first.Ch.26–Coda

The century-old doll counsels: open your heart.
A woman and her daughter Maggie enter — and Abilene says his name.
Bryce says a long goodbye, and shelf life begins.
A haughty doll sneers; Edward is tempted to close his heart.
Edward opens his heart and waits, season after season.

6The old doll is bought and carried away before Edward.Ch.27

7How does Edward answer the old doll’s counsel?Ch.27

8Who enters the shop in the Coda?Coda

9The woman in the Coda is Abilene, grown up.Coda

10How does the story end?Coda

Part 3

Literary Elements

Understanding HOW and WHY Kate DiCamillo tells the story across Chapters 26–27 & Coda · Final Part.

🧠Knowledge Bank · The Journey Comes Full Circle

Literary Craft · Character Arc & ResolutionA character arc is the full path a character travels from beginning to end, and Edward’s is now complete. Remember the proud, unfeeling rabbit of Chapter 1? Compare him to the Edward who weeps, hopes, and longs to be found. The resolution — the part where a story’s troubles finally settle — arrives when Abilene, all grown up, walks into the shop and knows him at once. Notice how the ending echoes the beginning: he returns to the very person who first loved him, but now he can love her back. Authors shape arcs like this so we can measure how far a character has come. A story feels truly finished when its ending answers its beginning and the circle gently closes.

The Wise Elder

The counsel-giver at the crossroads — a century-old doll whose one sentence unlocks the ending.

Coda

Music’s name for the gathered ending — old themes return transformed when the shop bell rings.

Full Circle

Ending where it began, changed — Abilene’s arms, reached the long way around.

🧠Knowledge Bank question

1According to the Knowledge Bank, the resolution arrives when ___.Ch.27

2Fill in the blank with the correct literary term.Coda

Word choices:codafull circlesuspenseimagery- some words will not be used

A gathered ending where old themes return transformed is a .

Ending changed in the very arms where it began is coming .

3How does the old doll’s sentence complete Pellegrina’s whisper?Ch.27

4Edward opening his heart BEFORE anyone comes is the ending’s crucial order of events.Ch.27

5The haughty doll and the old doll beside Edward form a final ___.Ch.26–27

6Twenty years passing before the reunion makes the ending feel ___.Ch.27–Coda

7A full-circle ending returns a changed character to an original place or person.Coda

8Fill in the blank with the correct literary term.Ch.27

Word choices:wise eldercodamotiftheme- some words will not be used

The counsel-giving figure at the story’s crossroads is the .

9Abilene recognizing Edward — not Edward signaling her — keeps the ending true to the book’s rule that ___.Coda

10The journey’s five names ending in the ORIGINAL one — Edward — suggests that ___.Coda

Part 4

Think Deeper

Four deeper challenges — no single-word recall. Read, weigh the evidence, and reason it out.

🧠Knowledge Bank · The Courage to Be Found

Social-Emotional · Opening Your Heart AgainIn the doll shop, a wise old doll gives Edward the book’s greatest lesson: he must be brave enough to hope again, to keep his heart open for the one who will come. After so much loss, that is the hardest thing of all — to risk loving when you know how deeply losing can hurt. Yet Edward chooses it, and because he does, he is ready when Abilene at last appears. This is the tender heart of the whole miraculous journey: a life closed against love is a kind of sleep, while a heart that dares to stay open can be found, and healed, and made whole. The bravest, most beautiful choice we can ever make is simply to keep our hearts open.

Black-and-white photograph of a young woman at a long worktable dressing baby dolls, with several finished dolls lying and standing around her under tall factory windows — Photograph of a worker dressing dolls at a doll factory in Holyoke, Massachusetts, taken by Lewis Hine between 1936 and 1937. Finished dolls lie and stand along the table, waiting to be packed and sent to shops. The *Knowledge Bank* says that in the doll shop a wise old doll tells Edward the book’s greatest lesson: to be brave enough to hope again and keep his heart open for the one who will come. These are factory dolls, not the shop where Edward waits, and none of them can think or feel. Notice how many wait together on one table — every one of them is for someone who has not arrived yet.
Dressing and packing dolls, American Character Doll, Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1936–1937; photograph by Lewis Hine, U.S. National Archives. Source: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Think back over the shelf years. A boy’s goodbye through a shop window. A neighbor’s sneer, and an old, old voice answering it with the only advice the whole journey has been building: open your heart. Seasons turn in the glass; customers come for others. And then a bell, a small girl, and a grown woman’s voice saying a name the rabbit thought the sea had swallowed — and the longest journey in the shop walks home in a child’s arms.

Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.

1Claim: “Edward earns the reunion; the Coda is not mere luck.” — choose the two details that best prove it.Claim & Evidence

2The haughty doll’s way of waiting, or The old doll’s way of waiting? Tap each detail to sort it — tap again to switch sides. You can keep tapping to change your answer.Sort into two

◄ The haughty doll’s way of waitingThe old doll’s way of waiting ►

3Match each cause to its result. For each cause, pick its result.Cause & Effect

Pellegrina’s whisper named the flaw→

The haughty doll tempts Edward to close→

Edward opens and keeps hoping through the seasons→

A grown woman hears her old name in her heart→

🧠Knowledge Bank question

4Fill both blanks to complete the reasoning.Build the Argument

The Knowledge Bank says the old doll's lesson is , because a heart that stays open .

Part 5

Standardized Test

The Tail of the Music · SAT & TOEFL-style practice

The Musical Meaning of a Coda

When a great piece of music seems finished, listeners sometimes hear something more: the coda. The word is Italian for 'tail,' and composers use it for a closing passage that arrives after the final movement has said its say. A coda's work is remembrance: it gathers the piece's great themes — the melodies the whole work grew from — and sounds them one last time, often slower, brighter, or changed in key. In that changed return, the listener hears at once how far the music has traveled. Storytellers borrowed the word, and the tool. A novel's coda stands apart from the final chapter — a leap in time, a change of voice — and lets the tale's themes echo once more in new circumstances: a homecoming, the child grown, the house revisited, the question answered at last. Done well, a coda is not an extra ending but the true one — the moment a story turns to its listener, sounds its deepest note again, and lets it ring.

Original passage written for Garden Heights — not a quotation from the novel.

1What does the Italian word ‘coda’ mean?TOEFL · Vocabulary

2When does a musical coda arrive?TOEFL · Factual Information

3In the passage, a homecoming is ___.SAT · Words in Context

4How may a coda change the themes it repeats?SAT · Detail

5What does a good coda let the listener hear?TOEFL · Factual Information

6How does a novel’s coda often stand apart?SAT · Detail

7In the passage, to “echo” a theme means to ___.TOEFL · Vocabulary

8What does the passage say a well-made coda truly is?SAT · Central Ideas

9How does the passage connect to Edward’s final chapter?SAT · Text Connections

10Insert Text (TOEFL). Look at the four squares [1]–[4] in the excerpt below. They show where this sentence could be added:
“That is why a coda feels less like an addition than like a promise kept.”

A coda arrives after the music’s seeming end. [1] It gathers the work’s themes and sounds them once more, changed. [2] The listener hears, in that return, how far everything has come. [3] Storytellers borrowed the tool for their own endings. [4]

Where would the sentence fit best?TOEFL · Insert Text

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 8 “My Coda”

Write the coda of an adventure of your own — real or imagined. Leap ten years forward: where is everyone now, what small object survives from those days, and what old theme sounds one last time when two characters meet again? Write at least 40 words.

You can start with: “Ten years later, the bell over the door still made the same bright sound…”

0 / 40 words minimum

🗣 Teach It · Just for Fun (optional)

No right or wrong — 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 8 Complete — You Finished the Book! 🎉

You finished Chapters 26–27 & Coda · Final Part — the final part of The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

Here are your auto-graded results:

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Teach it to someone

The best last step is to teach it. In your own words, explain what happened — retell a favorite scene, teach a character’s big choice, or sum up the main idea for a parent, friend, or classmate. When you can teach it clearly, you truly own it.

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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.