Hi Everyone!! This article will share Dear Mum Summary Questions & Answers.
In my previous posts, I have shared the questions & answers of A Pod of My Own and The Puddle Monster so, you can check these posts as well.
Dear Mum Summary & Questions & Answers
- Canary – a songbird with yellowish-green feathers
- Grubby – dirty; unclean
- Have a fit – get very angry
- To lie low – to go into hiding; keep out of sight
Dear Mum Summary
This poem is written by Brian Patten and is about the naughty things done by a child when his mother had gone out. He had broken the cup and the vase which were brought by his mother’s grandfather from China. However, the naughty child says that he could not understand how this had happened? He says that he didn’t turn on the tap but water started to overflow mysteriously. He himself had taken the jam and put the jam stain on the kitchen wall but to his mother, he says that these mysterious things happened on their own and there were some ghosts in the house. So, this poem is about the innocence of a child and how he tries to hide from his mother about the mischievous things that he has done.
Dear Mum Questions & Answers
Question 1: Do you get any clue about the structure of the poem from its title? Explain.
Answer: Yes, the title gives us the clue about the structure of the poem. The letter is addressed to ‘Mum’ so we can assume that it is written by a child and a child always writes when he has done some naughty things.
Question 2: What happened to the blue vase? Was the vase precious to the mother? Why?
Answer: A crack appeared in the blue vase. Yes, the vase was precious to the mother because her great-great granddad had brought it from China.
Question 3: Where was the cat? How do you think it got there?
Answer: The cat was inside the washing machine. According to me, the child must have put it in the washing machine.
Question 4: Whose footprints were there on the new white carpet?
Answer: The child’s muddy footprints were there on the new white carpet.
Dear Mum Questions & Answers
Question 5: Why was there a strange jam stain on the kitchen wall? How do you think did it happen?
Answer: The strange jam stain on the kitchen wall was the handprint of the boy. The boy must have eaten the jam with his hand and without washing his hand he must have placed his hand on the wall.
Question 6: What do the muddy footprints on the carpet suggest?
Answer: The muddy footprints on the carpet suggest that the boy came inside with muddy feet and stepped on the carpet without cleaning his feet.
Question 7: Was the house really haunted? Why do you think so?
Answer: No, the house was not really haunted. All the strange things that the child wrote to his mother in the letter were actually done by him.
Question 8: What did the child do after so many things had gone wrong?
Answer: The child went to his granny’s house after so many things had gone wrong.
Dear Mum Questions & Answers
Question 9: Why do you think the child wrote a note to his mother?
Answer: The child wrote a note to his mother because he knows that his mother will get very angry when she will see the condition of the house.
Question 10: Did the boy play indoors? Support your answer.
Answer: Yes, the boy played indoors. He broke a cup, damaged a vase, turned the tap on, left a jam handprint on the wall, dirtied the carpet and so on. All of these prove that he was playing indoors.
Question 11: Write True or False:
(a) A crack appeared on an old red vase – False
(b) The sink mysteriously overflowed on its own – True
(c) A cup went and broke itself on purpose – True
(d) The cat managed to turn on the washing machine – True
(e) A jam-stain appeared on the living room wall – False
(f) It took a while to get the canary out of the vacuum cleaner – True
(g) Muddy footprints appeared on the new brown carpet – False
(h) The poet went to his grandmother house – True
So, these were Dear Mum Summary & Questions & Answers.