Luna’s world is different from our own in important ways, and a big part of her process of growing up has to do with discovering and learning about her own magical abilities. Since none of us will have this experience, is her story relevant to our lives in any way? What about Luna’s story is “universal”—that is, how can her story apply and appeal to everyone?

Teaching Suggestion: Younger readers sometimes struggle to see the universal in the particular. Practicing the skill of seeing the universal foundations underneath the specific trappings of one particular story—especially when that story is fantasy and far removed from ordinary experience—will help them identify with and extract meaning from future texts. If students are not already familiar with the idea of the coming-of-age story, this is an ideal time to introduce this term. You can extend this conversation by asking students what other works of fantasy with universal ideas they have read, watched, or played.

Differentiation Suggestion: Literal thinkers may struggle to generalize from the specific elements found in the novel. You might lead the class through one example, modeling your own thinking for them, before they attempt to work on the prompt themselves. For instance, it may be true that no one in the real world will ever be a young witch struggling to get clear information from an older witch about her secret past and magical abilities—but most young people experience something similar as they struggle to gain access to more information about the world as they mature.