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Copyright 2001

Created by Brian Thornton
Click here for more information Capo Creations, Box 1411, Haileybury, Ontario, CANADA. POJ 1KO

Phone: 705 672-5737

Not to be used or copied in any manner without specific written consent of the publisher
All Rights Reserved

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The Incredible Journey

Novel Study Guide

Sheila Burnford

 

Answer all questions in sentence form.

Chapter One

  1. Briefly describe the setting.
  2. Who is John Longridge?
  3. List some of the wild animals found in this region of Canada.
  4. Who were the Oakes?
  5. Why did the dog prick up its ears when John Longridge broke (opened) his gun?
  6. Who actually owns the animals?
  7. Why is John Longridge looking after the animals?
  8. Explain the significance of the cat knocking over the paperweight.

Vocabulary: sprawling, concessions, virgin, amphibious, solitude, migratory, austerely, domestic, accord, sapphire, translucent, profile, irrepressible, contrition, scandalized, stealthily, reproof, sybaritic, parody, reprieve, enticed, assented, sedately, aloof, hearth, appalled, prelude, languished, incessant, moped, stolidly

Enrichment: Create a title page for your notebook.  Illustrate a bookmark to use with your novel.

Write a short biography about Sheila Burnford.  Why might she have chosen to write a story about animals?  What are some of the other books that she has written?

 

Chapter Two

  1. What is meant by Indian summer?
  2. Why did Longridge have no worries about leaving the animals alone outside?
  3. Why does Longridge suddenly feel foolish as he waves to the animals?
  4. Explain how Mrs. Oakes concluded that Mr. Longridge had taken the animals with him to Heron Lake.
  5. Why did the Labrador always run by the left shoulder of the bull terrier?
  6. Why does Luath turn off into the pinewood beside a creek?
  7. What is clear and certain in the young dog's mind?

Vocabulary: solitary, muzzle, conveyed, gesture, adjacent, receding, wistfully, placid, consoled, brittle, gait, flagging, verge, acute, wary, instinct

Enrichment: Pretend that the animals can talk.  Write a short conversation involving all three of the animals.

Conduct a mini debate as to whether dogs or cats make the best pets.

 

Chapter Three

  1. What is the crunching sound that the terrier hears in the morning?
  2. What was the cat's second meal of the day?
  3. Why would the Labrador retriever have to be on the verge of starvation before it would kill for food?
  4. Describe Tao's tactics when attacking the bear cub.
  5. What funny thing happened when the mother bear (she-bear) took a swipe at the cat?
  6. Who finally convinced the mother bear to leave?
  7. Describe how Tao helps his old companion Bodger.

Vocabulary: carcass, ravenous, gullet, retched, appease, trio, concealed, reassurance, daintily, withered, heredity, ancestors, abhorrent, vermilions, derelict, tottering, plaintive, undaunted, indignity, transfixed, dislodge, adversary, distraught, tactics, stanch, galvanizing, convulsive, grotesque, harlequin, succulent

Enrichment: Research how to protect yourself during a bear attack.  Locate stories on people who have actually been attacked and survived.  Invite someone into your classroom who has actually experienced a bear attack.

 

Chapter Four

  1. What was the first thing that the ravenous Labrador tried to eat?
  2. What did the old terrier catch scent of that it was unable to ignore?
  3. Describe the group of people that the dog had detected.
  4. How did the Indian boys react initially to the old white dog as it approached their camp?
  5. Explain how the old woman used the cattail roots.
  6. How did the young dog signal the terrier and cat that it was time to move on?
  7. According to the ancient Indian woman, who was the old white dog?

Vocabulary: forage, droppings, gashes, lunge, ambling, silhouetted, immersion, squelch, tantalizing, somber, ruddy, parched, chaff, eddy, stern, grimace, rebuked,crestfallen, paroxysms, strident, mirth, fretted, derision, impassioned, skeptical, mortal, succored

Enrichment: Locate some Indian folktales and share them with your classmates.  Write one of your own native folktales.

Be a storyteller.  Tell a native folktale to a group of your classmates without relying on any props.  What are the characteristics of an accomplished storyteller?  Act out or dramatize a particular scene from one of these stories.

 

Chapter Five

  1. Provide evidence that winter is fast approaching.
  2. What distance did the animals normally cover in one day?
  3. Describe what happened when the two dogs attempted to pry the lid off the garbage can at the abandoned cookhouse.
  4. How does the reader know that the old man enjoys and respects animals?
  5. What disaster strikes as the cat and Labrador retriever are crossing the river?

Vocabulary: endurance, disposition, famished, skitter, lodestone, nomadic, debonair, compensate, Michaelmas, flourished, clamorous, complacent, marauding, bracken, connoisseur, hobbled, deference, chided, fastidiously, decreed, diffusing, plumage, furtively, amicably, debris, flanks, requiem

Enrichment: Describe the various ways that animals prepare for winter.

Write a short character sketch of the eccentric old man who befriends the animals.

Depict a scene from one of the chapters in the book.

Research Michaelmas.  What is it and who would celebrate it?

 

Chapter Six

  1. Describe the Nurmi family.
  2. Why didn't the Nurmi family have any pets?
  3. What convinced Reino that the cat was deaf?
  4. What books did Helvi borrow from the library?
  5. Why does Helvi have to translate the books for her parents?
  6. Explain the significance of Helvi noticing that the fur below Tao's ears was soaked.

Vocabulary: encroaching, hewn, frugal, Finnish, solitude, heralded, bedraggled, betraying, frail, dishevelled, spasm, pulsate, vivid, kennel, incongruous, vantage, harrow, undeterred, vigilance, mosaics, lustred, bequeathed, zealous, regal, condescension, pungent, enigma, sinuous, impulsively, desolation, wraith

Enrichment: Research Siamese cats and make a short presentation to the class.

 

Chapter Seven

  1. Explain why the dogs were low in spirit.
  2. Why did the black collie give chase to Luath?
  3. Why was Bodger forced to intervene?
  4. Where did the two dogs spend the night?
  5. Describe the Labrador's encounter with the porcupine.

Vocabulary: apparition, avowed, feline, capitulated, sallied, tolerant, homage, conquerors, initiate, slain, vulnerable, elongated, apprehensively, voraciously, arrogantly, reptilian, dervish, incredulously, culprit, jaunty, insolence, morale, outcroppings, molybdenum, pliant, barbed, embedding

Enrichment: Make a large "missing" poster of the animals.  Display the posters in your classroom.

Assume one of the roles of the characters in the story (even one of the animals) and after thoroughly researching the role, field questions from your classmates.

 

Chapter Eight

  1. Why was the cat now able to see so many animals in the forest?
  2. The author mentions that Tao enjoyed "the dog's silent frustration".  Do you think this is possible?  Explain.
  3. What are the two coincidences that saved the Siamese cat from the lynx?
  4. How does Tao express his final contempt for the large cat?
  5. What are the golden and white figures that Tao spots across the valley?

Vocabulary: detested, baleful, scrutiny, inquisitive, obscurity, disdain, loping, excreta, poseur, bobtail, wanton, malicious, venomously, perilously, impetus, saplings, malevolent, tawny, engrossed, parallel, contempt, meandered, raucous, questing

Enrichment: Write a rhyming poem describing the wanderings of the animals.  Draw an illustration to accompany your poem.

 

Chapter Nine

  1. Why was the forester shocked to see the three wandering animals?
  2. Why did the young dog leave the bush for a quiet country road?
  3. Describe the reaction the white terrier received when it scratched at the door of a small white cottage.
  4. Why were James and Nell Mackenzie well used to animals?
  5. How was James Mackenzie introduced to the Labrador?
  6. How did Mackenzie help the Labrador?
  7. How did the animals manage to escape their confinement in the stable?
  8. Why would the last part of their journey be the most perilous?

Vocabulary: intact, unscathed, gaunt, sublimely, hamlet, implicit, primeval, merged, mutinous, porcine, defiantly, hideously, overtures, baffled, pedestals, cornucopias, artillery, ingratiating, gargoyle, proffered, bland, pretext, sinister, indefatigable, disreputable, recumbent,iridescent, tableau, punctures, travesty, emboldened, skirmishes, lair, dispersed, replete, doting, kneaded, laggard

Enrichment: Research various types of retrievers and then make a short presentation to your classmates.

Animals must be specially trained to act in movies or films.  Research how these animals are trained and what special techniques are involved.  Relate your own experience, if any, training a pet to obey basic commands or do special tricks.

 

Chapter Ten

  1. Trace the most likely route an ocean liner might follow from England to Montreal, Canada.
  2. Who were the passengers on the ship?
  3. Why were John Longridge and Mrs. Oakes both feeling miserable?
  4. What flash of insight does John Longridge have?
  5. List the people that Longridge talked to in his attempts to trace the route the animals might have followed.

Vocabulary: panorama, reunion, bleak, despair, disparate, immense, rationally, oppressive, grieving, stricken, forlorn, gallivanting, ominous, dismay, despondent, dejectedly, diffidently, recluse

Enrichment: Conduct a pet day with the permission of your teacher and principal. Bring your pets to school for a couple of hours and discuss proper care of domestic pets.  If this isn't possible arrange to visit a local humane's society facility or even a pet store.

Discuss various organizations responsible for the care and protection of animals.  Debate which are more important-- humans or animals.

Should animals be used for medical research which benefits humans?

 

Chapter Eleven

  1. What news made Peter smile for the first time?
  2. Explain how Elizabeth's attitude was the complete reverse of Peter's.
  3. What news did James Mackenzie have for the Hunter family?
  4. What did the Hunter family decide after looking over the last leg of the route that the animals must follow?
  5. Why did Longridge decide to pay a visit to the Hunters?
  6. Why was Elizabeth reluctant to agree to John Longridge's suggestion?
  7. Who realizes that Elizabeth's hearing is still young and acute enough to hear the noise of bats and other things lost forever to adults?
  8. Why did John expect the photo of the whisky-jack to be very blurred?
  9. What animal suddenly came joggling along out of the bushes?
  10. Who darted past John Longridge as he was half way down the trail?

Vocabulary: coincidental, harvesting, distressed, surly, conjured, unrepentant, unquenchable, tactful, penitent, truant, pored, qualms, dreading, accustom, precarious, stubble, martyrdom, diligent, poignant, humiliation, subtly, discordant, ecstatic, inarticulate, vestige, pandemonium, rebuff, wending, prised, surreptitiously, nautical, tangle, agile

Enrichment: Write a book review for your school library. Your may even wish to submit it to your local community newspaper.

Pretend you are writing a letter to Sheila Burnford.  What questions would you like to ask her about the story?  What would you like to tell her about your own experience reading the story?

Write a different ending for the story or add a chapter of your own.

Write a one or two sentence summary for each chapter.  Study from this when preparing for your novel test.

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Copyright 2001


Created by:
Brian Thornton, Capo Creations, Box 1411, Haileybury, Ontario, CANADA POJ 1KO

Not to be used or copied in any manner without specific written consent of the publisher All Rights Reserved