What non-realistic elements occur in these stories? What do these elements seem to represent? What are some patterns that you notice in the use of non-realistic elements from story to story? How would you summarize the purpose of the non-realistic elements that Russell includes in St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves?

Teaching Suggestion: The time required for this prompt can be reduced by allowing students to work with a partner or in small groups. Even if you choose to have students answer individually in writing, they might be allowed to discuss their ideas and share evidence with a partner or small group prior to writing. If your students will struggle to synthesize evidence from all ten stories, you might instead ask them to choose a single non-realistic element, explain what it represents, suggest how it is similar to another such element in the collection, and then offer a theory about its purpose.

Differentiation Suggestion: English language learners, students with dyslexia, and students with attentional and executive function issues may struggle to review enough text to effectively answer this question for the book as a whole. Instead of requiring them to answer based on all ten stories, you might choose a subset of stories for them to use as the basis for their answer to this prompt.