Guinea Pig

This passage describes a girl's feelings about the death of her pet guinea pig.

Lexile Level: 530L

Categories: People & Places Animals & Nature

Minnie's guinea pig died. So her father gave her a box of candy. She asked him why he would bother. He told her that he thought the chocolate might soothe her grief. She told her father that candy does not revive guinea pigs. She found it sad that at his age he did not understand the nature of death. Later he brought home a second guinea pig. Again Minnie asked him why he did this. He said he wanted her to see that life could be renewed. Life moves on. She told him that she had already understood this. After all, the school bus arrived right on time the day her guinea pig died. Its yellow paint was an insult to the darkness filling her mind. Now she had this new guinea pig to care for. She would have to feed it. She would have to watch it. And she would have to care for it and grieve for it when it died.