Same Author, Same Characters is a free printable Grade 3 English worksheet on finding what two related stories share and change, aligned to Common Core standard RL.3.9. It prints 2 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions, 24 of them with different questions, so no two pupils in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.
Set 5 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.
Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. 24 of these 25 sets ask different questions — this skill does not have 25 questions to give. The rest reorder them, so no two pupils have the same paper in front of them.
Same Author, Same Characters
RL.3.9
NameDate
Read the text, then answer the questions.
1.Read the text, then answer the questions.
The Fox and the Well
A fox leaned too far over a well and fell in. The water was shallow, but the walls were smooth and far too high to climb.
He was still sitting there when a goat came by and looked down.
"Is the water good?" asked the goat.
"The best I have ever tasted," said the fox. "Come down and see."
The goat jumped in. The fox climbed onto the goat's back, sprang out, and trotted off.
"Wait!" called the goat. "How do I get out?"
"You should have thought about that," said the fox, "before you jumped."
1. How is the fox like Anansi?
2. How is the goat's fate different from Anansi's?
2.Read the text, then answer the questions.
The Violin in the Loft
Nobody in our family plays anything. So the violin in the loft was a mystery for eleven years.
Then Great-Aunt Sylvie came for Christmas and saw the case on the table. She went very quiet.
"That was my brother's," she said. "He played in a café in Marseille before the war."
She opened it. Three strings had gone, and the bridge lay loose in the bottom of the case.
She did not play it. She held it under her chin for about ten seconds, put it back, and closed the lid. Then she asked for more potatoes and did not mention it again.
1. How does this story's ending differ from "The Last Letter"?
2. How is this story like "The Last Letter"?
LessonPrint · RL.3.9 · Set 5 · free to copy for classroom use
Answer key — Same Author, Same Characters
Set 5. Prints on its own sheet.
1.1. Both use a clever scheme to get what they want at somebody else's expense. 2. The goat is trapped by trusting somebody else; Anansi is trapped by his own greed.
2.1. This one closes the subject — Sylvie shuts the violin case; that one opens it up, and the letters are posted. 2. Both are about an object — a violin, a shoebox of letters — that carries somebody's history.
Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RL.3.9 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.