IMPORTANT: Comprehension questions will be in chronological order as you read through the story. Page numbers are approximate, and will vary with different editions of the book.
Section 1: Chapters 1 – 3
Vocabulary
- bulwarks: an extension of a ship’s sides above the level of the deck
- decipher: to convert a text written in code, or a coded signal into normal language
- dissipated: to disperse or scatter
- insatiable: (of an appetite or desire) impossible to satisfy
- preen: (of a bird) straighten and clean its feather with its beak
- quay: a concrete, stone, or metal platform lying alongside or projecting into water for loading and unloading ships
- scallywag:a person who behaves badly but in an amusingly mischievous rather than harmful way; a rascal
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
- Fourteen of them there were, each one light blue with a smart white stripe along the bulwarks. (Chapter 1, pg. 1)
- Often he would be sitting so close to the message that by the time we got there his ever-wagging tail had scattered the shells so far and wide, leaving us the problem of trying to make sense out of the few surviving but barely decipherable letter. (Chapter 3, pgs. 34 – 35)
- Thin wisps of smoke rose from the chimney pots at each end of the cottage only to be whipped away at once and dissipated by the wind. (Chapter 2, pg. 24)
- His appetite for news became more and more insatiable. (Chapter 3, pg. 37)
- They simply ignored us, and cruised serenely around the pool, preening themselves. (Chapter 1, pg. 2)
- The day after the fire, Charlie was sitting on the quay when he felt someone behind him. (Chapter 2, pg. 18)
- “Proper young scallywag his father says he is and I can believe it…” (Chapter 2, pg. 13)
Comprehension Questions
- Gracie and Daniel are unable to sail their boats in their regular pool as a flock of menacing swans had taken over the pond and they were not prepared to share with the children. (Chapter 1, pg. 2)
- Gracie and Daniel know not to go to Rushy Bay but they are compelled to go there because it is the only place to sail their boats. (Pg. 6 – Chapter 1)
- Gracie is encouraged not to turn back when heading up Samson Hill as she has her best friend on earth, Daniel, and her best friend in Heaven, God, by her side so surely nothing could go wrong. (Chapter 1, pg. 9)
- Daniel finds his and Gracie’s boats on the beach beside some orange shells that say, Z.W. (Chapter 1, pg. 11)
- Father tells Gracie a childhood story about a day he will never forget because it was the day he dared his friend Charlie, to go to Samson and that night his family’s house was burned to the ground. (Chapter 2, pg. 16)
- When Gracie’s mother asks her a question and she doesn’t have to lie she is glad as her mother, unlike her father, knew her well and knew when she was lying. (Chapter 2, pg. 21)
- The message made from shells invites the children stay and play on the beach as it is as much theirs as his (the Birdman). (Chapter 2, pg. 23)
- Gracie obliterates the message that Daniel writes to the Birdman because he wrote both their names and her father told her the Birdman places spells on people. (Chapter , pg. 25)
- The Birdman carves a cormorant for Daniel and Gracie and so they decide to make him a wooden boat called, Woodcock. (Chapter 2, pg. 29)
- When Gracie asks her father about the possibility of war, he told her it was all nonsense and that even if there was war it would not touch them on Bryher. (Chapter 3, pgs. 33 – 34)
- As Gracie and Daniel get to know the Birdman it becomes clear to them that he wanted to ask questions not answer them. (Chapter 3, pg. 36)
- Daniel says it is odd that the Birdman only seems to go out in his boat during bad weather. (Chapter 3, pg. 40)
- Everyone has attended a meeting at the church because news has arrived that war has started. (Chapter 3, pg. 42)
Section 2: Chapters 4 – 6
Vocabulary
- exuberance: the quality of being full of energy, excitement, and cheerfulness; ebullience
- flotsam: the wreckage of a ship or its cargo found floating on or washed up by the sea
- levity: humor or frivolity, especially the treatment of a serious matter with humor or in a manner lacking due respect
- omnipotent: (of a deity) having unlimited power; able to do anything
- resolute: admirably purposeful, determined, and unwavering
- seething: filled with or characterized by intense but unexpressed anger
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
- All the joy and exuberance he breathed into our lives at home vanished during that first year of war. (Chapter 6, pg. 76)
- We scoured the beach together, picking over the flotsam, hoping against hope we would not come across what we were now both expecting to find, the shattered and torn timber of the Birdman’s boat. (Chapter 4, pg. 45)
- “This is a serious matter, Mr. Jenkins, not a matter for levity.” (Chapter 5, pg. 64)
- Like some omnipotent Greek god, he pushed and wheeled the great armies to and fro across the blackboard, forecasting with great conviction our inevitable and total victory. (Chapter 6, pg. 77)
- If at first the Birdman could not understand – and he often did not – then Daniel would persist resolutely until he did. (Chapter 6, pg. 81)
- Many of the men, father amongst them, were neck high in the seething sea throwing hooks and anchors over the jammed timbers to pull them apart. (Chapter 5, pg. 62)
Comprehension Questions
- Daniel is convinced that the Birdman has not returned from his nighttime sail to the island as when they pass by his house there is no smoke coming out of his chimneys and in the past there has always been smoke. (Chapter 4, pg. 46)
- When Daniel and Gracie enter Birdman’s house, they are surprised to see the entire room is covered by a trestle table filled with unfinished and completed carvings and sketches of birds. (Chapter 4, pg. 48)
- When Birdman finally meets the children, he tells them that he was afraid that they would never come and visit him. (Chapter 4, pg. 52)
- After the storm has passed Birdman hurries back to the island as he has to milk the goats, feed the chickens and he was afraid Friend would wander off looking for him if he was gone too long. (Chapter 4, pg. 54)
- Birdman tells Daniel and Gracie that if they want to tell him something they have to write it down or draw it. (Chapter 4, pg. 57)
- Birdman gives the children a gift of a carved crying gull with a fish at its feet as token of their first visit. (Chapter 4, pg. 59)
- The people of the island make a living by what they grow, fish, make, and find washed up on the beach. (Chapter 5, pg. 61)
- Mr. Jenkins tells the Preventative officer that he and the people of Bryher are law-abiding citizens. (Chapter 5, pg. 65)
- The laughter in Gracie dies when the Preventative officer asks to look at the roof as that is the secret place where she has hidden the cormorant that the Birdman gave her and Daniel. (Chapter 5, pgs. 68 – 69)
- Gracie’s father takes her out fishing less and less because it is dangerous out in the sea with roaming German submarines. However, Gracie knows the real reason is he wants to be alone. (Chapter 6, pg. 77)
- Mr. Wellbeloved tells the children that they can help the soldiers fighting in the war by making blankets and socks for them. (Chapter 6, pg. 78)
- Birdman warns the children that the island is filled with ghosts and is cursed, so they should stay away from the island. (Pg. 84 – Chapter 6, pg. 84)
- When Gracie’s father tells her mother he has signed up to fight she is worried about his safety. (Chapter 6, pg. 87)
Section 3: Chapters 7 – 9
Vocabulary
- ember: a small piece of burning or glowing coal or wood in a dying fire
- flail: to wave or swing; to flounder, struggle uselessly
- monosyllable: using brief words to signify reluctance to engage in conversation
- raucous: making or constituting a disturbingly harsh and loud sound
- shroud: a thing that envelops or obscures something
- toil: work extremely hard or incessantly
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
- Each new settling of the burning embers sent an explosion of sparks high into the sky until all that was left was a perfect circle of glowing embers. (Chapter 8, pg. 104)
- He did have to let go of Daniel but then he just held me out at arm’s length and laughed at me as I flailed pathetically, my arms too short even to reach him. (Chapter 9, pg. 132)
- He hardly ever spoke to me and when he did it was in monosyllables, and he kept looking around him all the time as if he were expecting something to happen. (Chapter 9, pg. 126)
- It was they who announced the dawn even while it was still dark, filling the air with their raucous racket. (Chapter 8, pg. 109)
- The fog though seemed to obscure and shroud the sounds of the sea just as it was hiding the islands that we knew lay all around us. (Chapter 7, pg. 99)
- So to that end she toiled all day and every day working up the fields and planting, bringing in the seaweed to dress the flower pieces and often going out lobster fishing alone in the boat whilst I was at school. (Chapter 7, pg. 90)
Comprehension Questions
- Mother insists that while she toils all day doing both her and father’s chores, Gracie attend school. (Chapter 7, pg. 91)
- The only thing that keeps Gracie’s mother from despair are the letters she receives from Gracie’s father. (Chapter 7, pg. 92)
- Birdman keeps his word to Gracie about being a father to her while her father is away by acting as a guardian angel and placing food items such as bread, potatoes, eggs, milk and sometimes honey on their doorstep. (Chapter 7, pg. 93)
- Gracie and Daniel don’t see the bad weather coming their way because they are so intent on their fishing. (Chapter 7, pg. 97)
- Daniel thinks that the island they landed on during the night is Samson. (Chapter 7, pg. 103)
- After seeing the fire Gracie thinks Birdman might have been signaling someone out at sea and is possibly a smuggler. (Chapter 8, pg. 105)
- It is the terns who determine when it is morning on the island by filling the air with their squawking. (Chapter 8, pg. 109)
- Gracie believes that the beautiful spear shaped horn on the mantelpiece is a unicorn horn. (Chapter 8, pg. 114)
- The thought of food banishes the thought of thirst and exhaustion from Gracie’s mind. (Chapter 8, pg. 116)
- When they return home, the children expect an angry welcome full of questions. (Chapter 9, pg. 119)
- When Gracie returns home her mother tells her she can do without many things, but she can’t do without her. (Chapter 9, pg. 123)
- Tim accuses the Birdman of being a spy and Daniel of being a friend of a spy. (Chapter 9, pg. 130)
- Gracie and Mother receive the dreadful news that father is missing in action. (Chapter 9, pg. 135)
Section 4: Chapters 10 – 12
Vocabulary
- crescendo: the highest point reached in a progressive increase in intensity of sound
- galvanize: shock or excite someone into taking action
- incredulous: unwilling or unable to believe something
- rampage: to rush around in a violent and uncontrollable manner
- smother: to cover someone’s nose and mouth so that they are unable to breath
- wallow: (chiefly of large mammals) to roll or lie relaxed in mud or water
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
- There was nothing there but the sound at first, a curious roaring and crying from the open sea beyond Popplestones that became a crescendo of thunderous snorting and whistling. (Chapter 10, pg. 155)
- Somehow, mother had galvanised the whole island into action. (Chapter 11, pg. 166)
- They all stood looking incredulously at the Birdman and the whale, at Daniel and me, whispering anxiously amongst themselves. (Chapter 11, pg. 159)
- He rampaged around the island like a wild thing and I found him stretched out on the bed in the Birdman’s cottage, his tongue lolling out of his mouth and dripping. (Chapter 12, pg.179)
- She hugged me to her so long and so hard that she almost smothered me. (Chapter 10, pg. 138)
- On the Birdman’s advice we left her there wallowing in the shallows for some time, giving her time to regain her strength, to feel her buoyancy. (Chapter 11, pg. 168)
Comprehension Questions
- Gracie believes she is the cause of her father’s death because she went to the forbidden island of Samson and had brought the curse of Samson on the family. (Chapter 10, pg. 136)
- Tim has devised a plan for a dawn attack on Birdman to drive him from the island. (Chapter 10, pg. 144)
- When the children find Birdman on the beach he is attempting roll over a large whale like creature back into the sea. (Chapter 10, pgs. 145 – 147)
- According to Birdman’s mother Samson Island was cursed because the people had massacred the whales. (Chapter 10, pg. 150)
- Big Tim compares the whales to the timber that washes up onto the beach. (Chapter 10, pg. 155)
- Mr. Wellbeloved says that the whale that has washed up onto the beach is a narwhal. (Chapter 11, pg. 159)
- When Big Tim tries to justify his actions toward Birdman, Gracie’s mother stands up for Birdman and tells of his kindness toward she and Gracie. (Chapter 11, pg. 163)
- After Daniel explains the curse to the islanders, he offers them proof by telling them he has seen the horn on Mr. Woodcock’s mantelpiece on Samson Island. (Chapter 11, pg. 165)
- Mother galvanizes the islanders into action to save the whale. (Chapter 11, pg. 166)
- Birdman notices that the whales don’t like fire and suggests that the islanders walk out into the sea waving flaming wood to encourage the whale to leave. (Chapter 11, pgs. 170 – 171)
- As the children leave to go home, Birdman tells them the curse is over and all will be well. (Chapter 11, pg. 172)
- Gracie and Mother see father coming up the path. (Chapter **, pg. 178)
- Everyone is convinced of the truth of Birdman’s story when the well on Samson fills once again and everyone drinks from it. (Chapter **, pg. 180)