Down behind our place flows the muddy old river. I often go there after school and watch the sticks and leaves drift sluggishly past.
One time I found a plastic drink bottle stranded on the green slime.
Noticing something different about the bottle, I fished it out. Cutting the bottle open, I pulled out a piece of paper. On the paper was written this letter.
125 Riverside Road
Wakanui
New Zealand
Dear friend,
If you find this letter please write to me. I have brown hair and am 9 years old. Please write to me, specially if you live in Australia or America. I don't have many friends here.
Love from
Amy Brown
"What a laugh," I thought. Amy Brown lives just up the river from us. She's in my class, too. Amy is strange and she really doesn't have many friends. She's often away from school, and the kids only take notice of her if they want to tease her, or want something from her, like money for ice blocks.
I put her letter in my pocket to show it around at school.
But by the end of the week that letter was still in my pocket. I supposed that really, like Amy, I was a bit lonely, too. Or perhaps I just didn't have enough courage to be that mean.
What about her letter?
On Saturday morning I got another empty drink bottle and poked her letter into it. I screwed the top tightly on and biked down the road carrying it.
From the old wharf by the factories, I threw the bottle far out into the tide. The water there was swift enough to carry it out to sea at least.
That was last year.
Amy is still in my class and she still seems lonely. I haven't heard about the letter. But then, that sort of mail can take ages to get to Australia or America.
Source: School Journal, Pt 3, No. 1, 1991. Learning Media. Illustrated by Sarah Mathieson.
Personal mail
This task is about making inferences by identifying information in a story.
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Read the story "Personal Mail" and follow the instructions below.
Read each sentence below and circle whether it is true or false. On the lines below each sentence, write some words from the story that help show whether the sentence is true or false. The first one has been done for you.
”Down behind our place flows the muddy old river.”
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a) The boy in the story lives near a river.
True / False
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Its true because the river is behind his house.
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b) The water in the river flows quickly.
True / False
Its false because the river flows smuggle not quickly.
c) When the boy first reads the letter he thinks it is a bit of a joke.
True / False
Because he says what a laugh.
d) The reason the boy decides not to show the letter around at school is that he is worried he will get into trouble.
True / False
Its false because the boy in the story feels lonely to.
e) The boy has lots of friends.
True / False
Its false because the boy in the story feels lonely to.
f) The boy throws the bottle out to sea because he thinks it will have a better chance of floating to another place than it will in the river.
True / False
Because of the tide.
g) The boy is the sort of person who notices how other people are feeling.
True / False
Because he knew how Amy Brown was feeling.
h) The boy never tells Amy about finding her letter.
True / False
Because the boy felt lonely to.
i) The boy wants to believe that the bottle will arrive in Australia or America.
True / False
Because it could land anywhere.
j) Briefly describe a time when you felt a bit like the boy in this story.
I felt lonely when my friends did want to play with me.
