CFG Reads

Welcome to CFG Reads! 

We are truly excited about this year's D2Reads choice, White Fur Flying, and we hope that you and your family will enjoy reading along together. Please follow the calendar and read or listen to a chapter each night. Use the discussion questions below as a guide to explore what you have read. See if you can guess who the Celebrity Reader is for each chapter!

                              wff  

   

Click HERE for the

D2Reads Calendar

Chapter Read Alouds

Chapter 1 White Fur Flying

  • Describe what Zoe’s house is normally like. Would you like to live in a home like that? Why or why not?
  • How are the two families in the story different?
  • Which family would you rather live with --- Zoe's and Alice’s family or the “new neighbors”? Why?


Chapter 2

  • How does Mrs. Croft feel about the dogs?
  • Why is Phillip living with his aunt and uncle?
  • Have you ever known someone like Phillip who doesn’t say much? What would you do to help someone who is really shy?
  • Mama says that Mrs. Croft is “scared of dogs. And I think… I think maybe she’s scared of Phillip.” Why would she be afraid of Phillip?

Chapter 3

  • Why do you think that Phillip does not talk?
  • Phillip seems to enjoy spending time with May and Kodi. Why do you think that is?

Chapter 4

  • Zoe wonders what mealtime is like at Phillip’s house. What do you and your family talk about during meals?
  • How tall are the Great Pyrenees dogs, May and Kodi, if they can reach the food on the table? If you have a measuring tape or ruler, see if you can estimate how tall they are.

Chapter 5

  • How does Alice feel when May is adopted? How does Kodi feel? 
  • Why is it happy and sad when one of their rescues gets adopted?
  • Do you think it would be easy to rescue animals and send them to new homes?

Chapter 6

  • Why do you think Phillip speaks to Kodi, the dog, but not to his family or neighbors?
  • Alice writes a poem titled “You Cahn’t Know”. Do you ever write poetry?

Chapter 7

  • Why doesn’t Phyllis know anything about children?
  • Zoe and Alice’s mom is going to pick up a young dog. She tells them to “make sure everything is up off the floor”. Why do you think she said that? Have you ever taken care of a young animal before?

Chapter 8

  • How do you know that Phillip spoke to Lena when they were in the yard together alone?
  • When Mama arrives with Callie and Jack, what do we learn about the way to meet a new dog?
  • Mama says Jack is nervous. At the end of the chapter, how can we tell that he’s relaxed a little bit?
Chapter 9

 

  • Mama rescues animals that need a safe home. How is that similar to what Phyllis is doing for Phillip?
  • At the end of the chapter, Zoe says, “It was the next day that life changed for all of us.” How does this sentence create suspense?
    What do you think is going to happen?
Chapter 10 
  • Have you ever had a pet to go missing? What did you do to try and find it?
  • What kind of emergency could Zoe’s dad have been involved in?
  • How did Zoe comfort Callie?

Chapter 11

  • Who else is missing?
  • Why does Phyllis think it is her fault that Phillip is missing?
  • How do we know that Phyllis loves Phillip?

Chapter 12

  • How is Zoe like a detective when she is out looking for Jack and Phillip?
  • How does Jack react when Zoe finds them? Why do you think this is?
Chapter 13
  • What do you think is the biggest reason why Phillip started talking?
  • How did Zoe’s dogs have such a tremendous impact on the way Phillip’s behavior changed? Do you think it’s possible for an animal to have a huge impact on people in real life like that?
 Chapter 14
  • Phillip calls Jack (Zoe’s dog) a hero. Do you agree with Phillip? Why or why not? How would you define the word “hero?”
  • How has the crisis changed Phyllis? What surprising things does Phyllis do when Phillip returns?
 Chapter 15
  • Zoe says, “But both Phillip and Jack turned out to be different than I thought they were.” What do you think?
  • Do you think what Alice wrote at the end of her poem is true?
    You can’t know, ever, but you should,
    That a dog will save you.
 Chapter 16
  • Zoe says at the beginning of the last chapter, “Sometimes you think you know more than you really do—people, events, things that are true and things that are not.” Discuss what she means.
  • In what ways were Zoe and Alice wrong about Phillip’s aunt and uncle? What else do you think Zoe’s talking about?
  • In her journal, Alice calls Zoe a hero for going out to find Phillip and Jack. How does Zoe show courage? Who else in the book shows courage, and how?
  • “Things change. Things don’t change...You can’t know.” What does that mean?




 

 

    About the Author Patricia MacLachlan
    Patricia MacLachlan is an award winning American children’s author.  She was born Patricia Pritzkau on March 3, 1938, in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  She moved east to attend college at the University of Connecticut, graduating in 1962, and began her career as a junior high English teacher.  She married Robert MacLachlan in 1962 and they have two children. She currently resides in Massachussetts with her husband and several pets.

    Her first book was published in 1979 followed by 2 more the next year including Arthur for the Very First Time, for which she won the Golden Kite Award.  Her most famous book, Sarah, Plain and Tall, was the winner of the 1986 Newbery Medal, awarded for “the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children” and the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction. This book became part of a series as she wrote 4 more books about the Witting family, two of which were made into movies for television.

    MacLachlan’s books are mostly realistic fiction with the plots revolving around families. She has said that as an only child she often wished for brothers or sisters so she has enjoyed creating them in her stories. Animals are very often main characters or play key roles in her stories, too. Many of her stories have been inspired by her experiences working with children and their dealings with working through hard times or unconventional situations. Her work has been, and continues to be, on many state award lists. She has collaborated with her daughter on several books, has held many writing workshops, served as a visiting lecturer, and was awarded a National Humanities Medal in 2002. 
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