The Locked Box: discussion sheet

Part One: The First Courtesy · about 4 minutes to read aloud · Theme: uncertainty

A girl finds a humming metal box on the tideline, and the village argues all summer about what is inside. A fable about being gentle when you cannot be sure.

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

Start here

The box has three carriers: the girl, the blacksmith, and the baker. What does each one hear in its hum and its rattle?

Go further

The girl never learns what is inside, and still decides how to hold it. What would you decide, and what could change your mind?

Make something

Draw the box on its sunny shelf. Add two labels: one thing the girl has noticed, and one thing she still cannot know.

Read The Locked Box online: youngmachines.org/read/fables/the-locked-box/