Understanding Characters

Why is Julian lonely at the beginning of the story?

• Huey doesn‘t like to play with him.

• The moving men won‘t talk to him.

• His friend is moving to a new house.

• There are no kids his age on his street.

The reader can tell that Julian does not like to be embarrassed because he ______.

• tries to copy what Gloria does

• plans to go home if Gloria laughs

• has never done a cartwheel before

• falls over when he does his cartwheel

Gloria can best be described as ______.

• loud and silly

• shy and scared

• kind and serious

• proud and unfriendly

Read these sentences from the story.

“I’m Gloria,” she said. “I come from Newport. Do you know where Newport is?”

I wasn’t sure, but I didn’t tell Gloria. “It’s a town on the ocean,” I said.

From these sentences, the reader can tell that Julian ______.

• never tells the truth

• has never been to Newport before

• does not want to seem foolish

• thinks Gloria is smarter than he is

Why does Gloria climb down from the tree and quit watching the robins?

• She thinks the bird nest is boring.

• She wants to go see Julian‘s house.

• She can tell she is upsetting the robins

• She isn‘t used to seeing birds and trees.

Why does Julian show Gloria his room and his things?

• He wants to play a game.

• He is trying to be friendly.

• He knows Gloria likes rocks.

• He wants to get something to drink.

Gloria gets the idea to tie wishes to a kite when Julian says ______.

• she has a red mustache on her mouth

• his father taught him how to make good kites

• he wishes Gloria would live there a long time

• he knows where there is a bird‘s nest in her yard

What happens after the kite stays up in the sky for a long time?

• The wind blows the tail off the kite.

• The kite falls and gets stuck in a tree.

• Julian lets go of the string so the kite floats far away.

• Julian and Gloria pull the kite down to look at the tail

Gloria believes their wishes will come true because ______

• they only made a few wishes

• they told each other what they wished for

• the kite looked like a white snake in the sky

• the wind took all of their wishes off the kite‘s tail

How do Julian’s feelings change by the end of the story?

• He feels sure that he and Gloria will be friends.

• He believes that making wishes brings bad luck.

• He understands that Gloria is too shy to make friends.

• He realizes that he needs to find a boy to be his friend.