Teacher’s notes
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The Troy Stone
Stephen Rabley
Background and themes
Dreams and reality: When Mark wakes up he thinks he
has been dreaming. But he does not throw away the yellow
stone because part of him still believes his experience is
real. Sometimes dreams and reality mix together and are
difficult to separate.
History: The story of the Trojan Horse is a famous story
from ancient European history. Life for young boys in
those times was harder than today. And people fought wars
with strength and cunning, not with scientific weapons.
Clever plans: The Greeks play a clever trick on the
Trojans to win the war. They have planned every part of
their attack carefully.
Summary
The Troy Stone is a fictional story about a young boy,
Mark, and his adventures in Troy. He travels back in
time and experiences personally the famous story of the
Trojan Horse. The story begins with Mark and his family
enjoying their holiday together in Turkey. Today they
are visiting the famous old city of Troy. It is very hot and
Mark becomes tired. He decides to rest under a tree. There
he sees an interesting yellow stone and he picks it up.
Suddenly, Mark sees a bright white light. He travels back
in time thousands of years to ancient Troy. His clothes
have changed from modern clothes to the clothes of
the ancient Greeks! He meets a man called Andros. The
Greek army are building a huge horse – the famous Trojan
Horse. They cannot find a good stone for one of the
horse’s eyes. So Mark offers them his yellow stone. They
are pleased to have the stone and they thank him.
Later, Mark talks to an interesting old woman about the
war between Greece and Turkey. The old woman tells
Mark about Helen – the beautiful wife of a Greek king
who was captured by a Trojan prince. ‘Come and see me
again,’ the old woman says.
The next day the Greeks give the Trojans the horse as
a present – but Mark and some Greek men are hiding
inside it. The Trojans go to bed, and the men jump out of
the horse and open the city gates. There is a battle. The
whole Greek army is in Troy and the Greeks are winning.
Mark sees a beautiful woman running away from the fire
– Helen of Troy! But then some Trojan soldiers want to
kill Mark. ‘Stop,’ he says. ‘Please don’t kill me.’
Suddenly, Mark wakes up. He is under the tree in Troy in
modern times. He buys a souvenir from an old woman.
‘Come and see me again,’ she says. Was Mark dreaming or
not?
c Pearson Education Limited 2008
Discussion activities
Section 1
Before reading
1 Discuss: First, ask the students to look at the picture
on the front cover for one minute, then tell them
to cover it. Ask them to tell you what they can
remember. Elicit as much vocabulary as possible
(e.g. big horse, boy, men) and supply new words as
required (e.g. soldier, ladder, wood(en) ). Ask what
the different people are doing (e.g. Some men are
building a horse).
2 Discuss: Put the students in pairs and ask them to
look at the pictures on pages 1–7. Ask them to guess
what happens in the story up to that point. Go round
and supply vocabulary where necessary, then invite
several pairs to share their ideas with the class.
After reading
3 Role play: Ask the students to role play a
conversation between Mark and Andros. Refer them
to the text (pages 5 –7) but encourage them to add
their own ideas. Their conversations should have three
stages: 1 Mark meets Andros and Andros gives him
instructions; 2 Andros shows Mark the wooden horse;
3 Andros explains the problem (this is slightly
different from the text) and Mark offers the stone.
Section 2
Before reading
4 Discuss: Ask the students to close their books. Invite
the class to guess what is going to happen next, and
how the story will end. Have students make notes.
Then ask them to look at the pictures on pages 8 –15.
Were their ideas correct?
After reading
5 Write: Students practise telling their ‘alternative
stories’, using their notes from activity 4.
Students write and illustrate their ‘alternative stories’.
Vocabulary activities
For the Word List and vocabulary activities, go to
www.penguinreaders.com.
The Troy Stone - Teacher’s notes
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