Book-to-Skill Pairing: Wonder (Mini Questions + Writing Prompts)

Stories are one of the best ways to train exam skills — without it feeling like exam prep.

Wonder is especially useful because it naturally builds the skills most papers reward: inference, viewpoint, evidence, and clear writing.

Related guides: English & Verbal Reasoning · 11+ Prep · Books & Reading Lists · All blog posts

Why Wonder works so well

• Multiple viewpoints: children practise seeing the same event from different perspectives (huge for inference).
• Emotion + motive: kids naturally ask “why did they do that?” which is exam-grade comprehension thinking.
• Evidence is built in: you can easily point to a line, detail, or action to justify an answer.
• It’s readable: chapters are short enough to keep a daily streak going.

How to use this (the coach way)

Keep it light: read a chapter, then do one prompt. You’re building habits, not setting homework marathons.

• Read: 10 minutes (or 1 chapter).
• Choose: 1 prompt only (comprehension OR writing).
• Stop early: finish while it’s going well so tomorrow is easy.

5 comprehension prompts (that map to exam marks)

Pick one after each chapter. Encourage full sentences when possible.

• Goal: What does the character want right now — and why?
• Change: What changed in this chapter (event, relationship, mood)?
• Inference: What is implied but not directly said?
• Evidence: Which detail in the text supports your answer?
• Prediction: What do you think will happen next? What makes you think that?

Make answers stronger with one sentence stem

“I think this because…”

This is the language exam papers reward: a claim + a reason + evidence.

3 writing prompts (high impact, low friction)

Keep writing short: 5–8 sentences is enough.

• Two perspectives: Describe one moment twice — first from Character A’s view, then from Character B’s view.
  Skill trained: viewpoint, tone, empathy, inference.
• Letter: Write a letter to a character (advice, encouragement, apology, or questions).
  Skill trained: structure, clarity, audience awareness.
• Mood shift: Rewrite a scene with a different mood (make it funny, tense, hopeful, or eerie).
  Skill trained: vocabulary, style control, descriptive writing.

Try this next

Do one prompt per day for a week.

• Keep it to 5–10 minutes.
• Finish on a win.
• Consistency matters more than length.

One good prompt a day builds the exact thinking and writing exams reward.

If your child needs short, repeatable structure around this, pair it with: The 10-Minute Focus Routine.

And if you want more inference practice that feels like a game, use: Mystery Books for Inference.