Chapter One

Vocabulary:  consuming, copilot, drone, shattering, rudder, banked, lurched, lashed, wincing, hokey, spasm, jolts, thrumming

Enrichment:  Write a short biography on Gary Paulsen and present it to your classmates.  Make sure to include a discussion on some of his other books.

Where do you find oil fields in Canada?

What are the symptoms of a heart attack?  Interview a doctor or nurse about how a hospital initially deals with a patient who is admitted to the emergency department and diagnosed as having a heart attack.  Did any of their answers surprise you?  Explain.

Create a title page for your novel study guide.

Pretend that you are Brian and that you also managed to save some paper and a pencil in the crash.  Keep a daily journal about what happens during your ordeal.  Make sure to include "your" emotions and feelings about this experience.  At the end of the novel reread the journal to see how your opinions and feelings have evolved.

Chapter Two

Vocabulary:  turbulence, procedures, C.P.R., ultimately, swooped, altimeter, headset, wrenching, static, transmission, frustration, throttle, hurtling, rebelled, clearing, intervals, visualize

Enrichment:  Interview an experienced pilot to out what the procedures are in a small plane if the engine has stopped.  If possible have a pilot read the novel and discuss how accurate the details are about the plane and how it handles.

In a small group discuss the emotions you might feel if you were in a plane about to crash.  Would you have done anything differently from Brian Robeson?

Chapter Three

Vocabulary:  dramatically, wallow, coarse, spiraling

Enrichment:  Brainstorming with a small group of students, design or invent devices which either avert plane crashes or at the very least increase the chance of passenger survival.  Illustrate your designs and describe to the class how they work.

Research the author, Gary Paulsen, and assume his character as you allow your classmates to interview you.

Chapter Four

Vocabulary:  hoarse, throb, pulsed, mound, grunting, scrunched, clammy, haze, hordes, spat, swarm, collapse, moderately, hummocks, ridge

Chapter Five

Vocabulary:  foul, wither, murky, teetered, trickle, reduce, extensive, amphibious, motivated, stranded, asset, slewed, sloshing

Enrichment:  Discuss the power of positive thinking.  Do you think you are a mainly a positive or negative thinker?  Explain.  Discuss with your classmates a time when positive thinking has benefited you.
Make a list of people you know and then divide them into two groups--optimists and pessimists.  Decide which group you would prefer to have as friends.  Defend your position.

Research and describe how animals use various types of body language to signal fear or anger.  Make a brief presentation to your classmates.

Chapter Six

Vocabulary:  lean-to, braces, diminish, pulverized, lushly, pace, interlaced, twinge, initial

Enrichment:  Find a book and/or internet site to research some of the many birds that are indigenous to the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, Canada.  Many sites also include the sounds of these birds.

Chapter Seven

Vocabulary:  abdomen, jolts, doubled, vomit, diarrhea, peck, vicious, whine, welted, matted, slits, self-pity, receded, maroon, pits, tart, numb, crude, weathertight, gorge, wuffling, trotted, patch, pouch, drenched, rivulets, seeping, tangy

Enrichment: Research bear attacks.  How would you protect yourself from a bear attack?  Playing dead is often suggested as a method of dealing with a bear attack.  Can you think of occasions when this method might not work?  Are certain species of bears more likely to attack and hurt you than others?  Explain.

Write a short report on protecting yourself from bear attacks and make a report to your classmates.  Invite someone into your class who has experienced a bear attack.  Explain why it is so important to protect the bears from encroaching human settlements.

Chapter Eight

Vocabulary:    musty, slithering, skittered, bulk, rasping, gingerly, quill, smear, doze, initial, segment, gestures, scootched, wince, staff, lance, granite, imbedded

Enrichment:  Research the porcupine.  Can a porcupine throw its quills?  Why are quills so important to the porcupine?

  Many native artisans use quills when making their crafts.  Try to locate some examples and show them to your classmates.  Research other ways the Natives made use of the porcupine quills.

Chapter Nine

Vocabulary:  ignite, tinder, kindling, sputtered, haunches, exasperation, clump, shredded, tendrils, flammable, wad, smoldered, Cro-Magnon, oxygen, mass, consuming, gratified, brace, flue

Enrichment:  Some people argue that fire is the greatest invention of civilization.  Defend their position.  Act out a scene where a group of primitive people discovers fire for the very first time.
What are some of the other greatest inventions of all time?

Chapter Ten

Vocabulary:  smeared, banked, eddied, dusk, coals, sloshing, dormant, craved, intensity, pyramid, raw, convulse

Enrichment:  Research various types of turtles native to British Columbia. Where in North America can one expect to find snapping turtles.  Find some information and photographs about these animals on the internet and share them with your classmates.

Some turtles are protected by government regulations.  Find some examples and explain why the government has decided to protect them.

Chapter Eleven

Vocabulary:  staggering, bluff, gnarled, crayfish

Enrichment:  Some experienced outdoor advocates recommend an axe be taken on a camping trip as opposed to the more "dangerous" hatchet.  Explain why some people may feel the hatchet is more dangerous.

Some individuals argue that a hatchet with its shortened handle is more likely to strike you if the blade is accidentally deflected while chopping wood.  Such accidents could prove fatal on a wilderness trip.

Chapter Twelve

Vocabulary:  flailing, primitive, propping, tapered, two-prong, crude, lunging, thrusting, telegraphed, speckled, persistent, swiveling, waggle

Enrichment:  Camouflage is used by both people and animals.  Research how camouflage helps animals and also why humans have opted to use camouflage.  With a small group of your classmates make as long a list as possible of the various ways that civilization utilizes camouflage.

Chapter Thirteen

Vocabulary:  tension, measured, gutted, funk, punky, extent, hummock, refracts, exulted

Enrichment:  Pretend that you are lost in the wilderness and stumble across a cabin with a satellite telephone.  Who would you call and what would you say?

Chapter Fourteen

Vocabulary:  rectify, vital, creatures, influence, fragment, confines, devastating, sulfurous, corrosive, seared, impaired, carp, wove, mesh, propped, manure, bearings, enclosure

Enrichment:  Pretend you are part of a research group designing survival kits for hikers who may become lost in the wilderness.  What items would you include and why?  Once you've designed your product create a poster advertising your product.  You may also take a photo of your survival kit and design a website for it.

Chapter Fifteen

Vocabulary:  journal, saliva, chattered, bounded, insane, sarcasm, streamlined, stabilize, fluttered, fragile, dung, banded

Enrichment:  List reasons why some people choose not to eat meat products.  Some nutritionists argue that meat is unhealthy for the human diet.  Explain why you agree or disagree defending your position.  Prepare some vegetarian diets for your classmates to taste.  Some people not only refuse to eat meat products but also choose not to eat dairy products.  Conduct some research to find out why.

Chapter Sixteen

Vocabulary:  tattered, pitch, shaft, retrieved, wrenched, column, spout

Enrichment:  Many people in contemporary society view hunting as a gruesome form of bloodsport.  Why do most indigenous cultures such as First Nations people view hunting as an important part of their life despite the fact that most are now able to purchase all their foods at grocery stores?

Chapter Seventeen

Vocabulary:  refine, fish pen, ruefully, cluttered, stymied, wisps, rivets, fuselage, hatch, murky

Enrichment:  Using the internet, research how to build a raft.  With some of your classmates build a model of your raft.

Chapter Eighteen

Vocabulary:  stabilizer, elevator, frenzied, swiveled, stale, propel, substantial, surging

Enrichment:  Brian describes a gruesome scene of a decomposing body in the plane's wreckage.  Explain why this gruesome scene is an essential part of life's cycle and consider the alternatives.

Chapter Nineteen

Vocabulary:  butane, rummaging, encased, drone

Enrichment:  Write an alternative ending to this novel.  Make sure to consider the numerous possibilities.  It need not be a happy ending.

Epilogue

Vocabulary:  unwittingly, transmitter, virtually, consumed, lean, marvelling, furor, predators

Enrichment:  Research the Cree Indians in Canada.  In many Cree communities today, Cree is the spoken language of the natives.  Research the Cree language and Cree syllabics.  Cree is considered by some academics to be the lingua franca for many other native groups whose own mother tongue has disappeared.  Explain the term "lingua franca" and research native languages in Canada to see if you agree.

As of 2005 many native children living in communities in Northern Ontario along the James Bay Coast still speak Cree in their homes and with their friends at school.  In small groups discuss how First Nation cultures such as the Cree may have managed to retain their language while many other native groups have lost theirs.  Communities along the coast where Cree is still spoken as a first language include: Fort Albany, Kashechewan, Attawapiskat and Fort Severn to name but a few.

Copyright 2003