SKELLIG #3
Written by David Almond
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When you work:
- Use full sentences in every answer
- Check the story carefully for your answers
- Be ready to explain your answers
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Week 3 – 4/5: Chapters 32 to 46
Chapter 32:
1. Why does Michael say that Doctor Death would never grow wings? He said it because Dr. D was cold dry and as pale as death.
2. What does Doctor Death tell Michael about Ernie Meyers (previous owner of the house)? He told him that Ernie was old and seeing things.
3. Why did Michael lie to his father about his sleepwalking? He lied because he thourt it would sound weird.
Chapter 33:
1. How do Coot and Leakey act differently to Michael when he goes back to school? They act like he is not really there friends.
2. Why do they do this? Because he has been away and ben with Mina.
3. How have the things that Michael has been doing and learning out of school affected the things that he does and says in the classroom? Help???????
4. Why is Michael trembling? Because the baby might be in trouble.
Chapters 34 and 35:
1. What has Mina learned about Skellig while Michael was at school? She has learned that Skellig is going away soon.
2. PREDICT: Why do you think that Skellig wants Michael to keep coming to see him? Because he is going away soon and wants to speed heaps of time with Michael
3. Mina drops the pellet from Skellig in a bowl of water. What does this tell us about him? He loves nature
4. What do you now think that he is? I Think he is an angle. Why? Because He has wings
Chapters 36, 37 and 38:
1. What are some of the things that Michael has to be happy about in his life? He is happy that he has Mina asd a friend and it is spring.
2. What are some of the things that Michael has to be worried about in his life? The baby and his Dad is stressed.
3. Retell the myth of Persephone in less than 40 words. Once upon a time there was a woman who was forced to marry. At winter and artom time she stays in the underworld because it is dark and cold but in summer and spring she comes slowly up to the world.
4. Explain why the author is writing about fledglings, spring and the myth of Persephone? Because it is almost time for Skellig to go.
5. Where do you think that Skellig has gone? He has gone to heaven.
6. Why has he gone there? Because He is an angle.
7. Michael can no longer feel the heart. Because they are operating on the hart. Why is this significant? because he could her the baby's heart and now he can't because they cut it open.
Chapters 39 and 40:
1. On page 142 the author wrote ‘Miles above, a great heavy bird flapped across the blue’. How is this important to the story? I think it is important because It will lead something to skellig somehow.
2. What is ‘over’? The operation and the baby's little nightmares
Chapter 41:
1. What was the ‘dream’ that Michael’s mother had? Skellig was making the baby have wings.
2. What did Skellig do to the baby? Turn her into an angle.
3. How did Michael’s mother know that the baby would be all right in the operation? because she was a little fighter
4. Why was Dr McNabola so impressed with Michael? Because he knew so much.
Chapter 42:
1. What have we learned about Skellig in this chapter? he is going away and that he did go to the baby.
Chapter 43 and 44:
1. What was the message that Skellig left for Michael and Mina? thank you. S
2. Why were there three feathers inside the heart? so they can give on to the baby.
3. Why did the owls give presents to Michael and Mina? because they helped skellig
Chapters 45 and 46:
1. Why did Michael put the feather under the baby’s pillow? So she could have good dreams
2. What made Michael’s mother catch her breath when Mina showed her the drawing? he looked like the person in her dream.
3. Why do you think they called the baby Joy? because she bring joy to the family.
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DISCUSSION for Sheet 3
The author included images for spring / fledglings / cats / Persephone. what do you think he was foreshadowing?
Mina’s mother said this about William Blake
‘The kind of thing William Blake saw. He said we were surrounded by angels and spirits. We must just open our eyes a little wider, look a little harder’.
What do you think the author is suggesting?
How and when can we use this in our lives?
What is the underlying message of the story?
EXTRA for EXPERTS:
Find out more about William Blake
Ask Mr M for ways that you could use multiple intelligences with this story.
