Chapter one Lucy looks into a wardrobe Page 9

Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and
Lucy. This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent
away from London during the war because of the air-raids. They were sent to
the house of an old Professor who lived in the heart of the country, ten miles
from the nearest railway station and two miles from the nearest post office. He
had no wife and he lived in a very large house with a housekeeper called Mrs
Macready and three servants. (their names were Ivy, Margaret and Betty, but
they do not come into the story much.) He himself was a very old man with
shaggy white hair which grew over most of his face as well as on his head, and
they liked him almost at once; but on the first evening when he came out to
meet them at the front door he was so odd-looking that Lucy (who was the
youngest) was a little afraid of him, and Edmund (who was the next youngest)
wanted to laugh and had to keep on pretending he was blowing his nose to hide
it. As soon as they had said goodnight to the Professor and gone upstairs on the
first night, the boys came into the girls’ room and they all talked it over.

‘We’ve fallen on our feet and no mistake, ‘said Peter. ’This is going to be
perfectly splendid. That old chap will let us do anything we like.’

‘I think he’s an old dear, ’said Susan.

Answer the questions with full sentences explaining your thought processes

1) Why were the children sent away?

2) What is a Professor?

3) What does a housekeeper do?

4) What does the word ‘shaggy’ mean? Relate this to the description.

5) Why did they like him ‘almost at once’?

6) Why was Lucy a little afraid of the Professor?

7) Why was Edmund laughing at the Professor What does this say about
Edmund?

8) Why do the children have different rooms?

9) Explain what ’we’ve fallen on our feet’ means

10) Why do they think the Professor will ’let them do anything they like?
Pg 11/12

It was the sort of house that you never seem to come to the end of, and it was
full of unexpected places. The first few doors they tried led only into spare
bedrooms, as everyone had expected they would; but soon they came to a very
long room full of pictures and they found a suit of armour; and after that was a
room all hung with green, with a harp in one corner; and then came three steps
down and five steps up, and then a kind of little upstairs hall and a door that led
out onto a balcony, and then a whole series of rooms that led into each other
and were lined with books-most of them very old books and some bigger than a
Bible in a church. And shortly after that they looked into a room that was quite
empty except for one big wardrobe; the sort that has a looking glass in the
door. There was nothing else in the room at all except a dead blue bottle on the
window–sill. ‘Nothing there!’ said Peter, and they all trooped out again-all except
Lucy. She stayed behind because she thought it would be worth trying the door
of the wardrobe, even though she felt almost sure that it would be locked. To
her surprise it opened quite easily, and two moth balls dropped out.

Discuss

1) What is ’the sort of house that you never seem to come to the end of’ Have
you been in one like it? When and Why?

2) Why did they have so many ’spare bedrooms’? What might they have been?

3) Why was the suit of armour there? Who would have used it? When would
they have used it?

4) What is a balcony? Why does/doesn't your home have one?

5) How big is a Bible in a church, why were those books bigger?

6) Why was the room empty except for a dead bluebottle? What is a blue
bottle? Why use its full name?

7) What is a looking glass? Why do we not use this vocabulary now?

8) Why do they all follow Peter?

9) Why did Lucy not follow Peter? What would you have done?

10) Why did Lucy try the door? What do you think Lucy will do next, and why?

11) Would you be like Lucy, or would you not, can you explain why?
 Pg 12

Looking into the inside, she saw several coats hanging up-mostly long fur coats.
There was nothing Lucy liked so much as the smell and feel of fur. She
immediately stepped into the wardrobe and got in among the coats and rubbed
her face against them, leaving the door open, of course, because she knew that
it is very foolish to shut oneself into any wardrobe. Soon she went further in
and found that there was a second row of coats hanging up behind the first one.
It was almost quite dark in there and she kept her arms stretched out in front
of her so as not to bump her face into the back of the wardrobe. She took a
step further in-then two or three steps-always expecting to feel woodwork
against the tips of her fingers. But she could not feel it.

‘This must be a simply enormous wardrobe!’ thought Lucy, going still further in
and pushing the soft folds of the coat aside to make room for her. Then she
noticed something crunching under her feet. ’I wonder is that more mothballs?’
she thought, stooping down to feel it with her hand. But instead of feeling the
hard, smooth wood of the floor of the wardrobe, she felt something soft and
powdery and extremely cold. ’This is very queer,’ she said, and went a step or
two further.

Highlight the adjectives (describing words) in the text

In a different colour highlight the verbs (doing/activity word)

In a third colour highlight the adverbs (a word or phrase that modifies or

How does this passage make you feel? How did Lucy feel? Did her feelings
change?

How does the language/vocabulary used make the text more interesting to the
reader?

Are there any words you don’t understand?

He was only a little taller than Lucy herself and he carried over his head an
umbrella, white with snow. From the waist upwards he was like a man, but his
legs were shaped like a goat’s (the hair on them was glossy black) and instead of
feet he had goat’s hoofs. He also had a tail, but Lucy did not notice this at first
because it was neatly caught up over the arm that held the umbrella so as to
keep it from trailing in the snow. He had a red woollen muffler round his neck
and his skin was rather reddish too. He had a strange, but pleasant face, with a
short pointed beard and curly hair, and out of the hair there stuck two horns,
one on each side of his forehead. One of his hands, as I have said, held the
umbrella: in the other arm he carried several brown-paper parcels. What with
the parcels and the snow it looked just as if he had been doing his Christmas
shopping. He was a Faun. And when he saw Lucy he gave such a start of surprise
that he dropped all his parcels. ’Goodness gracious me!’ exclaimed the Faun.

Read the text, read it to someone else. Think about the description and what he
looks like. Where do you think he is going and who are the presents for?

Draw the Faun (Mr Tumnus) Get all of the descriptive points from the story into
your picture, tick them off to check.

Write a character study about Mr Tumnus to go with your picture, what do you
think he is like, what do you think he will do?

(If you know what he is like because you have read the book or watched the film
then think about how you would make him different to the book like an evil/good
version of him)