Fact, opinion and character

Fact or opinion? A detective's whole job is telling them apart.

• A fact can be proved true or false.
• An opinion is a belief, feeling or judgement; it cannot be proved.

Facts from the story:

• 'Encyclopedia's father was the Chief of Police.'
• 'Two masked men held up the Diamond Mart on Sixth Avenue.'
• 'Nolan and Davenport had met while both were in prison in South Carolina.'

Opinions from the story:

• 'Everyone thought that Chief Brown must be the smartest police chief in the country.' (The clue: 'everyone thought'.)
• 'Leroy's friends said he was like a library and computer rolled into one.'
• 'Chief Brown's hunch was that Davenport and Nolan decided to hide the loot.'

A hunch is a strong feeling, not evidence. That is why Nolan was never arrested: the police had hunches, and the clerk was not sure enough to testify.

Mrs Brown, notice, explained the separate words instead of decoding the hidden message.

Character. The story never tells you what Leroy is like. It shows you, and you work it out:

• 'He read more books than anyone in Idaville, and he never forgot a fact' → knowledgeable;
• 'Encyclopedia never spoke of the help he gave his father' → humble;
• 'Encyclopedia sat quietly. He knew his mother and father were discussing the case for his benefit' → a keen listener;
• 'Usually he needed to ask only one question to solve a case' → clever.

Three of these four are about what he does not do: he does not boast, he does not interrupt, he does not ask a second question.

Only give a character a trait the text gives evidence for. The exercise also lists 'gentle', but nothing in the story shows it.