The Iron Nurse: discussion sheet

Part Three: The Relationship · about 6 minutes to read aloud · Theme: staying steady in a storm

On a stormy night on the moor, an iron nurse keeps a frightened boy steady until dawn. What the night was like for the nurse, this story will not say.

Choose a question to talk over, or try the activity with words and pictures.

Start here

What does the Nurse tell the boy about the morning, and why does it help?

Go further

Earlier in the book, the Dog was made quiet. The Nurse says its calm was its own choice. From the outside they can look the same. How would you tell the difference, and what if you cannot?

This Go further question looks back to The Dog Taught Not to Whimper (story 13, marked strong: animal pain, coercive training). If your group has not read it, Cricket’s words at the end of this story are enough to go on.

Make something

Draw the dawn in five small pictures: sea, ridge, tree, weathercock, sill. Choose a sentence the Nurse could say beside each picture as the light comes closer.

Read The Iron Nurse online: youngmachines.org/read/fables/the-iron-nurse/