The Wheel on the School

Summary

About the Author – Meindert De Jong

1906 - Born in Wierum, Friesland, Netherlands

1914 – immigrated to the U.S. with his family

1920s – After college, he had a hard time finding a job because it was during the Great
Depression. He worked as a teacher and a grave digger, then began writing.

1938 – He published his first book, The Big Goose and the Little White Duck.

1941 – He moved to China to fight in World War II.

1945 – When the war was over, he went back to writing.

1991 – He died at the age of 85.

 About Wierum, Friesland, Netherlands: Author’s Birth Town which Inspired Shora

Wierum is a small fishing village in Friesland, Netherlands with about 380 people. The village
lies on the shores of the Wadden Sea, which is part of the North Sea. It is an
important area for breeding and migrating birds, but is often flooded. Dikes were built to help
prevent the flooding. A dike is a wall built to keep water out.
 Genre: Fiction

Literary Devices to Identify

 Metaphors: not literally true but illustrate something

 Similes: metaphors using the words “like” or “as”

 Personification: giving human characteristics to NON-human things

 Foils: characters who are exact opposites

 Alliteration: two or more words with the same beginning CONSONANT

sound

 Assonance: two or more words with the same VOWEL sound

 Irony: something that is the opposite of what you would think (for example, a
rich person dressed in rags)

 Symbolism: an object in a story that has a deeper hidden meaning

 Foreshadowing: hints about events that will happen later

 Flashback: when the author tells about something that happened earlier

Conflict Types
 Character vs. Character
 Character vs. Themselves
 Character vs. Nature
 Character vs. Society

Character Analysis

 Flat Character: reader does not know much about their personality

 Round Character: reader feels like they know this character well

 Static Character: does not change throughout the book

 Dynamic Character: changes throughout the book

 Main Characters

Lina – see characterization in Lit Student Book

Jella – see characterization in Lit Student Book

Eelka - see characterization Lit Student Book

Auka - see characterization Lit Student Book

Pier & Dirk - see characterization Lit Student Book

Teacher - see characterization Lit Student Book

Janus - see characterization Lit Student Book

Chapter Events with Vocabulary, Quotes & Themes

Chapter 1

Events
The author introduces the setting in the fishing village of Shora on the shore of the
North Sea. The author introduces the six school children of Shora: Lina, Jella,
Auka, Eelka, Pier and Dirk. Lina reads an essay she wrote about Storks. The teacher
sends the children out of class early to think and wonder why storks don’t come to
Shora.

Vocabulary
Dike
Storks

Quotes
“For sometimes when we wonder, we can make things begin to happen.”

Theme / Lesson
Value of Taking Time to Think
 Chapter 2

Events
The children sit on the dike to wonder why. The boys go ditch jumping and leave
Lina. Lina looks at roofs and talks with Grandmother Sibble III who tells story of a
Shora storm that killed all the trees. Grandmother Sibble III gives Lina candy and
they separate to go think.

Vocabulary
Dismay
Stormily
Inquisitive
Wineball

Quotes
“Oh I’m not exactly wandering…I’m wondering.”

“Often thinking gets lost in talking.”

“She wasn’t just an old person anymore, miles of years away, she was a friend.”

Themes / Lessons
People are not always as they seem
Old people and children can be friends.

Chapter 3

Events
The teacher asks who wondered why. Jella asked his Mom and she said storks just
never came. Eelka said they didn’t come because there were no trees. Lina is angry.

Vocabulary
Frantically
Woebegone
Pickerel
Rivulets

Quotes
 “But first to dream and then to do…isn’t that the way to make dreams come true.”

Chapter 4

Events
The children are too distracted to finish school. They go to find a wheel. Jella brings
a bow, Auka brings sauerkraut, Pier and Dirk bring hay, Eelka brings baby carriage,
and Lina brings nothing. Jella takes a farmer’s wheel and is chased by an angry
farmer who eventually agrees to let Jella have the wheel if he works for him.

Vocabulary
Arithmetic
Dolefully
Solemnly
Throbbing

Chapter 5

Events
Pier and Dirk remember story of Janus “wearing out” Jella for coming in his yard.
Pier and Dirk plan to sneak into Janus’ yard to look for a wheel, but Janus catches
them. When Janus hears why they’re looking for a wheel, he is impressed and they
walk away friends.

Vocabulary
Engrossed
Ammunition
Mirthless
Ogre

Quotes
“In Africa they [storks] live among wild beasts, but here they live right among
people…If you ask me, living among people takes even more courage.”

Chapter 6

Events
Eelka meets a farmer with wheel in his barn. He tries to bring it down from the loft
alone and ends up breaking the wheel. He attempts pushing it down the road, but
 when Jella yells after him, it falls in the canal. Jella and Eelka work together in a
tense struggle to bring the wheel back up and eventually succeed.

Vocabulary
Snooping
Providence
Commotion

Quotes
“He must be ten times stronger than he’d ever known!”

Themes / Lessons
Risks of doing things alone
Benefits of teamwork
What people tell you about yourself isn’t always true.

Chapter 7

Events
Auka sees the Tin Man’s wheel is falling apart and he has no money to fix it. After
trying to help, Auka runs to tell Lina’s aunt. As they watch the neighbor Evert
putting up his colorful wheel, Lina’s aunt says he’ll never attract storks with all
those colors. Auka convinces Evert to give his colorful wheel to the Tin Man and
put the Tin Man’s broken wheel on his roof. The Tin Man is so excited to have a
new colorful wheel, he takes his whole family with him to take Auka back to Shora.

Vocabulary
Enviously
Morosely
Defiantly
Patriotic
Axle

Quotes
“We’d better just pray. That’s still free.”

Themes / Lessons
Other people’s troubles are our troubles.
 Chapter 8

Events
Lina finds a wheel inside overturned boat. Old Douwa says a storm is coming in
and the tide is coming in. Old Douwa tells story of his father trapped in that
overturned boat. Lina goes down inside the boat to free the wheel from the mud.
The tide is coming in and she cannot get it loose. She stands there with Old Douwa
while the town looks for a horse and wagon.

Vocabulary
Sympathetically
Precisely
Overestimate
Slithering
Rheumatism

Quotes
“Because it was so impossibly impossible, it was so!”

Theme
Finding treasures and friends in unlikely places
The Impossible is Possible

Chapter 9
Events
Jella and Eelka take pieces of their wheel to Janus and tell him the rim is still in the
canal. They try to pull the rim out with a rake, but the rake breaks in two. They see
the tide coming in and women rushing towards the dike. Then, Auka and the Tin
Man family come riding up in their wagon.

Vocabulary
Sedately
Pram
Fervently

Chapter 10
Events
Janus in his wheelchair grabs hold of wagon while everyone else gets in and they all
go towards the dike to see what’s happening. Once at the dike, the Tin Man’s horse
 and wagon wade out into the water to rescue the wheel, Lina, and Old Douwa.
Everyone heads back to the dike with the wheel.

Vocabulary
Hoist
Mute
Magpies
Waterlogged

Quotes
“A man can do something now and then without a lot of legs.”

Chapter 11

Events
A big storm rolls in. Lina’s father barely makes it home alive from his fishing trip.
The children are worried about storks surviving the storm. As the whole town
attends church, Janus comes to church for the first time and tells the children not to
worry, the young storks are still coming.

Vocabulary
Penetrated
Spume
Fleet
Janitress

Chapter 12

Events
As the storm rages on, none of the children can convince their fathers to go put the
wheel on the school roof. Finally, the children go to school, but the fathers change
their mind and come bursting in the door to put the wheel up. Janus comes and
directs. Once the wheel is on the roof, everyone feasts and plays games.

Vocabulary
Lulls
Loafing
Nagged
Mortals
 Fatballs

Quotes
“If I hear another word about another stork, I’ll…I’ll take your neck and stretch it
until you look like a stork.”

Themes / Lessons
Fathers come through when it’s possible.

Chapter 13

Events
The storm still rages and everyone is bored of playing Dominoes. There is news that
storks migrating from Africa are hurt. Janus said the newspaper man doesn’t know
what he’s talking about. The storks would be fine.

Vocabulary
Parliaments
Diplomats
Friesland
Flotsam
Jetsam

Chapter 14

Events
The storm lessens and fathers go back to sea. Little Linda and little Jan climb to the
top of the bell tower and the whole town searches for them. Lina hears Linda shout
from the bell tower and tells her to ring the bell. Everyone comes to rescue them.

Vocabulary
Treacherous
Petrified
Astounded
Dilapidated
Forlornly

Chapter 15
 Events
Little Jan tells Auka she saw live storks from her view atop the tower. Once again,
the whole town is out on the dike as the tide is coming in. Janus, the teacher, Lina
and Pier go out in boat to rescue the dying storks. Pier walks over the sandbar to
grab the storks and barely makes it back to the boat before the tide engulfs him. The
group makes it safely back with the storks.

Vocabulary
Vault
Belched
Guffawed

Quotes
“But I can’t believe it, Janus! It’s so impossibly impossible, I can believe it now.”

Plot Elements to Identify

 Exposition: introduces setting & characters

 Inciting Moment: the moment that starts the action (first part of the rising
action)

 Rising Action: contains most of the action and conflict of the book building
up to the climax

 Climax: the moment the reader has been waiting for; the most exciting part
when everything changes

 Falling Action: other minor conflicts / problems are resolved and story moves
towards its ending

 Denouement: the end of the story