Chapter 4...
Key Vocabulary:
1. gluttonous
2. skippers
3. hookah
4. harbour
5. plunged
Extension: hassled, deckhand, apprehensively
Focus Questions:
1. Why do Dora and Abel care for Mad Macka?
2. Why did Abel keep Blueback a secret? What does this tell you about his connection to him?
3. How has the emotion of the chapter changed from start to finish? Use some key vocabulary to support your answer.
Extension:
a) What is the connection between Dora and the skippers of each boat?
b) Why did Dora assume Mad Macka had been taken by a shark?
c) Why do you think Dora was so calm, despite knowing that Mad Macka had died?
Summary:
Abel tries to swim with Blueback everyday during spring and as summer approaches he knows the tuna boats and other visitors will be coming to the bay and he is worried about Blueback. As boats came and went Dora (his mother) tells them about Blueback and that he should be left alone. They all respect her and agree. When she tells old Macka he laughs and tells them he knows him and he will be safe. Skippers talk about Abel and the fish and the stories grew. Seasons passed and Abel was old enough to take the dinghy out himself to swim with Blueback, sometimes he sat on the jetty and watched Old Macka working the abalone lines, divers usually work in pairs but Macka works alone in his yellow boat with the compressor running to provide his air, Dora worries about Macka but he prefers to work alone. One season Abel was in the vegetable garden when he saw Macka’s boat and it was silent, the lines were out but the compressor was silent and Abel knew that was bad news. He called his Mum and they got in the boat and raced out there, she tells Abel to stay in the boat, the compressor is out of fuel and has stopped. Abel is terrified that it has been a shark and it will get his mother too. She comes back to the surface and tells him to help her pull him in, it seems he has had a heart attack down there and lay helpless until the air ran out.
1. gluttonous
2. skippers
3. hookah
4. harbour
5. plunged
Extension: hassled, deckhand, apprehensively
Focus Questions:
1. Why do Dora and Abel care for Mad Macka?
2. Why did Abel keep Blueback a secret? What does this tell you about his connection to him?
3. How has the emotion of the chapter changed from start to finish? Use some key vocabulary to support your answer.
Extension:
a) What is the connection between Dora and the skippers of each boat?
b) Why did Dora assume Mad Macka had been taken by a shark?
c) Why do you think Dora was so calm, despite knowing that Mad Macka had died?
Summary:
Abel tries to swim with Blueback everyday during spring and as summer approaches he knows the tuna boats and other visitors will be coming to the bay and he is worried about Blueback. As boats came and went Dora (his mother) tells them about Blueback and that he should be left alone. They all respect her and agree. When she tells old Macka he laughs and tells them he knows him and he will be safe. Skippers talk about Abel and the fish and the stories grew. Seasons passed and Abel was old enough to take the dinghy out himself to swim with Blueback, sometimes he sat on the jetty and watched Old Macka working the abalone lines, divers usually work in pairs but Macka works alone in his yellow boat with the compressor running to provide his air, Dora worries about Macka but he prefers to work alone. One season Abel was in the vegetable garden when he saw Macka’s boat and it was silent, the lines were out but the compressor was silent and Abel knew that was bad news. He called his Mum and they got in the boat and raced out there, she tells Abel to stay in the boat, the compressor is out of fuel and has stopped. Abel is terrified that it has been a shark and it will get his mother too. She comes back to the surface and tells him to help her pull him in, it seems he has had a heart attack down there and lay helpless until the air ran out.