Instructions
- Use this worksheet while reading Over the Moon by Natalie Lloyd.
- Answer questions in complete sentences unless the directions say otherwise.
- Support important answers with a page number, chapter, or short quotation from your edition.
- Complete the sections in order. The questions begin with basic understanding and move toward analysis and personal application.
- If your edition uses different page numbers, record the chapter instead.
Learning Goals
By completing this worksheet, you will:
- Identify important characters, settings, events, and conflicts.
- Explain how a character changes throughout the novel.
- Analyze themes, symbols, mood, and the author’s use of language.
- Support ideas with evidence from the text.
- Connect the novel’s ideas to real-life situations.
Section 1: Before Reading
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The title Over the Moon can suggest excitement, wonder, dreams, or something impossible. What do you predict the title will mean in the novel?
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Based on the title and the cover of your edition, predict two possible conflicts.
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What qualities might help a person face danger, uncertainty, or change? Circle three.
courage loyalty curiosity honesty patience hope
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Write one question you hope the novel will answer.
Section 2: Story Checkpoint
Complete this section after reading the novel. Use brief notes first, then expand your answers if needed.
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Who is the main character, and what does the reader learn about this character early in the story?
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Where and when does most of the story take place? Describe the setting using at least three details.
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What problem or situation begins the main conflict?
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List three important events in the order they occur.
Event What happens? How does this affect the story? Example The main character faces an unexpected change. The character must make a difficult choice. 1 2 3 -
What is the turning point, or moment when the direction of the story changes most significantly?
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How is the main conflict resolved? If the ending leaves some questions unanswered, explain which ones.
Section 3: Character Evidence
Choose four characters from the novel. Record a trait, an action or quotation that shows the trait, and what you learn from it.
Example: A character shows courage by continuing to help others even when afraid. This reveals that courage can include acting despite fear.
| Character | Trait | Action or quotation from the novel | What does this reveal? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Example | Courage | Helps someone despite being afraid | Courage means acting even when a person feels fear. |
| 1 | |||
| 2 | |||
| 3 | |||
| 4 |
Answer the following questions.
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How does the main character change from the beginning to the end of the novel?
Beginning: _____
End: __
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Which character has the greatest influence on the main character? Explain why.
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Choose one character whose actions surprised you. What did the character do, and how did you react?
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Do you think the main character makes a wise decision at the climax? Support your answer with evidence.
Section 4: Conflict and Choices
For each type of conflict, decide whether it appears in the novel. If it does, give an example. If it does not, write “not a major conflict.”
| Conflict type | Example from the novel |
|---|---|
| Example: Character versus self | The main character struggles with fear or doubt before making an important decision. |
| Character versus self | |
| Character versus character | |
| Character versus society or rules | |
| Character versus nature or the environment | |
| Character versus the unknown or supernatural |
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Which conflict is most important to the story? Why?
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Choose one important decision. Complete the chain of consequences.
Decision: __
Immediate result: __
Later result: __
What might have happened if the character had chosen differently?
Section 5: Setting and Mood
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Describe the setting in five words or phrases from the novel.
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Choose two setting details. Explain how each detail affects the mood or the characters’ choices.
Setting detail 1: ___
Effect: ____
Setting detail 2: ___
Effect: ____
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Circle the moods that appear in the novel. Add one mood of your own.
mysterious hopeful frightening lonely joyful tense
My mood: __
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Select one scene that creates a strong mood. Identify one word, image, or detail the author uses to create that mood.
Scene: _____
Mood: __
Author’s detail: ___
Section 6: Theme and Symbolism
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Match each possible theme with the statement that best explains it.
Theme Statement 1. Hope A. People may discover strength when they work together. 2. Belonging B. A difficult future can still be faced with courage and imagination. 3. Friendship C. A person’s true home may be connected to love and acceptance. 4. Courage D. Doing what is right can require action even when fear is present. Answers: 1. 2. 3. 4.
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Choose the strongest theme in the novel. Write a theme statement, not just one word.
Weak answer: Courage.
Stronger answer: Courage means choosing to act for what matters, even when the outcome is uncertain.
My theme statement:
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Identify one symbol, object, place, animal, or repeated image in the novel. What might it represent?
Symbol: ____
Possible meaning: __
Evidence: __
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How does the title connect to the novel’s events or message?
Section 7: Vocabulary in Context
Choose five unfamiliar or interesting words from the novel. Use context clues and a dictionary if needed.
| Word | Meaning in the novel | Clue, synonym, or sentence |
|---|---|---|
| Example: determined | Refusing to give up | The character continues despite several setbacks. |
| 1 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 3 | ||
| 4 | ||
| 5 |
Choose one word from your table and write a new sentence that shows its meaning.
Section 8: Evidence-Based Responses
Answer each question using the CER structure:
- Claim: State your answer.
- Evidence: Refer to a scene, action, or quotation from the novel.
- Reasoning: Explain how the evidence supports your claim.
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Is the main character more shaped by personal choices or by outside forces? Explain.
Claim: _____
Evidence: __
Reasoning: ____
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Does the novel present the unknown as mostly dangerous, mostly hopeful, or both? Explain.
Claim: _____
Evidence: __
Reasoning: ____
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Which relationship in the novel is most important? Explain how it affects the plot or the main character.
Claim: _____
Evidence: __
Reasoning: ____
Section 9: Real-World Connection
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The characters must respond to problems they cannot fully control. Describe a real-life situation in which people must make good choices during uncertainty.
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What lesson from the novel could help someone facing a difficult change?
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Imagine that you are advising the main character before the climax. What advice would you give, and why?
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Create a “courage plan” for a difficult situation. Include one goal, two actions, and one person or resource that could provide support.
Goal: __
Action 1: __
Action 2: __
Support: ___
Optional Challenge
Choose one task.
- Write a paragraph explaining how the novel would change if it were set in the present day.
- Compare the main character at the beginning and end of the novel in a T-chart.
- Write a review of the novel for a reader who has never heard of it. Include a summary, evaluation, and recommendation.
- Rewrite a key scene from another character’s point of view. Preserve the important events but change the narrator’s thoughts and observations.
- Explain whether the ending is satisfying. Use at least two pieces of evidence.
Final Reflection
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What was the most important lesson you learned from Over the Moon?
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Which character, event, or image will you remember most? Why?
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Rate the novel from 1 to 5 stars and justify your rating.
Rating: ⭐ _____ / 5
Reason: ____
Answer Key
Section 1: Before Reading
- Answers will vary. A strong prediction connects the title to a likely idea such as hope, wonder, ambition, escape, or an unusual event.
- Answers will vary. Accept predictions that are logically connected to the title or cover.
- Any three qualities may be selected. Courage, loyalty, curiosity, honesty, patience, and hope are all reasonable choices.
- Answers will vary.
Section 2: Story Checkpoint
- The main character is Mallie Ramble. Strong answers identify her as a young protagonist facing major changes and dangers while trying to understand her place in the world.
- The story takes place in a harsh, isolated, fantastical western setting associated with Coal Creek and the surrounding wilderness. Accept answers that accurately describe the setting in the student’s edition.
- The main conflict begins when Mallie’s life is disrupted by dangerous forces and she becomes involved in a larger struggle involving the town, the moon, and the unknown.
- Answers will vary in wording. Events should be accurate, placed in chronological order, and connected to their effects on the plot.
- The turning point occurs when Mallie must make a significant choice that moves her from reacting to events to taking purposeful action. Accept a specific, text-supported event from the student’s edition.
- The conflict is resolved when Mallie and her allies confront the central danger and act with courage, loyalty, and hope. Accept explanations that accurately describe the novel’s ending and acknowledge any remaining questions.
Section 3: Character Evidence
- Mallie changes from a vulnerable and uncertain girl into a more confident, courageous, and purposeful person who is willing to protect others and make difficult choices.
- Answers may identify a friend, ally, family member, or other influential character. The response must explain the relationship’s effect on Mallie.
- Answers will vary, but the selected action must be supported by the novel.
- Answers will vary. Full-credit responses include a clear opinion and accurate evidence from the climax.
Section 4: Conflict and Choices
- All five conflict types may appear, depending on how the student classifies events. The central conflicts are generally character versus self, character versus society or controlling forces, and character versus the unknown or supernatural.
- Answers will vary. A complete response identifies a decision, an immediate consequence, a later consequence, and a plausible alternative result.
Section 5: Setting and Mood
- Answers should include accurate details such as the isolated town, harsh landscape, mining community, wilderness, darkness, or fantastical elements.
- Answers will vary. Strong responses explain how the setting creates danger, isolation, mystery, wonder, or a sense of possibility.
- Moods may include mysterious, hopeful, frightening, lonely, joyful, and tense. Other text-supported answers are acceptable.
- Answers will vary. The response must connect a specific author’s detail to a mood.
Section 6: Theme and Symbolism
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- B 2. C 3. A 4. D
- Answers will vary. A strong theme statement expresses a complete lesson about life and is supported by events in the novel.
- Answers will vary. Accept symbols such as the moon, the landscape, a significant object, or a repeated image when the explanation is supported by the text.
- The title connects to the novel’s ideas of hope, wonder, dreams, longing, and reaching beyond ordinary limits. Accept other text-supported interpretations.
Section 7: Vocabulary in Context
Answers will vary. Definitions must fit the word’s meaning in the novel, and example sentences must show correct usage.
Section 8: Evidence-Based Responses
- Strong answers usually explain that Mallie is shaped by both personal choices and outside forces, but her decisions ultimately show her developing agency. Evidence should refer to specific challenges and choices.
- The strongest answer is usually “both.” The unknown creates danger, but it also creates wonder, possibility, and opportunities for courage. Text-supported answers choosing one side may also receive full credit.
- Answers will vary. Full-credit responses identify a relationship and explain its effect on Mallie or the plot with evidence.
Section 9: Real-World Connection
- Answers will vary. Examples may include moving, natural disasters, illness, conflict, financial hardship, or starting at a new school or job.
- Answers may focus on hope, courage, friendship, belonging, resilience, or making responsible choices during uncertainty.
- Answers will vary but should be practical, compassionate, and connected to the novel.
- Answers will vary. A complete plan includes one realistic goal, two specific actions, and a useful source of support.
Final Reflection
Answers will vary. Responses should show thoughtful reflection and refer to the novel rather than giving only a one-word answer.