Reading Comprehension: A Penny A Day by Walter de la Mare

The rich descriptive language in this gentle fairy-tale by classic children’s author Walter de la Mare is balanced by a simple and unique story. Read a page a day and answer five reading comprehension questions in a notebook of your own (29 pages and 145 questions in total). If your child is ready to read more advanced English, but not old enough for the mature content of classics like Treasure Island, ‘A Penny A Day’ is a good choice.

Excerpt:

‘Whenever Griselda had time to herself, which was very seldom, she
would climb up by the broken weed-grown steps to the very top of
the Castle tower, and sit there looking out over the green cliffs and
the vast flat blue of the ocean.

When the sea-winds had blown themselves out she would search
the beach for driftwood in the thin salt spray blown in on the wind,
the only human creature to be seen. And the sea-birds would scream around her while the slow, toppling Atlantic breakers shook the earth with their thunder.’