The Floating Island (34 page)

About this Guide

The information, activities, and discussion questions that follow are intended to enhance your reading of
The Floating Island.
Please feel free to adapt these materials to suit your needs and interests.

Writing and Research Activities

I. Real-World and Magical Entities

A. In the course of his journey Ven Polypheme sees, meets, or is told about many intriguing creatures, places, and things that the king eventually describes as pieces of the magical puzzle of the world. Some of these entities come from the real world, such as Megalodon, or from real-world myths, like the merrow, while others are totally products of the author’s imagination. Make a list of the wonders Ven sees, and divide the list into three columns—real, myth, and imaginary. Then look them up on the Internet to see if you are right. You may be surprised how many of the “magical” things that Ven sees actually have a basis in real life.

B.
Oliver Snodgrass tells Ven a story about how some people say the world was made when he explains the origins of the Floating Island. Do you know any other stories about the way the world came to be? Most cultures have their own explanations of how the world was made. Go to the library or the Internet and look up some of the cultural tales about creation. How are they similar? How are they different?

C.
Dill is the tart spice that is used to make rye bread and pickles. When McLean introduces some of the Spice Folk to Ven, they seem to have personalities that mirror the name of their spice, like Dill and Fennel, who are mischievous. What sort of personality would a fairy named Rosehip have? How about Mustardseed? Make a list of spices from your spice rack or from the Internet, and decide what kind of personalities their fairies would have. Taste some of them. Choose one and draw that fairy.

II. Different Races and New Families

A.
Ven explains the way Nain name their children. He is proud of being named for Magnus the Mad. Were you named for anyone or for a special reason? Write down your name(s) and look up the meaning on the Internet or in the library. Does it fit you? See if you can figure out what Polypheme means by looking up the parts of the word (
poly
and
pheme
) as well as the whole name on the Internet.

B.
Throughout the book, we see people of different races being suspicious of one another. The merrow is very distrustful of Ven when she thinks he is human; the woman on the road is horrified to hear that there are Nain nearby. Why are people suspicious of those who are different? Examine your own thoughts. Have you ever been suspicious of someone of a different race? Why?

C.
Some of the races that are mentioned in
The Lost Journals
are the Gwadd, like Saeli; the merrows and selkies, like Amariel; the Lirin, like McLean; the Kith, like Galliard; and, of course, the Nain, like Ven. Make a list of the different characteristics of these races. For instance, the Gwadd are shy and don’t like to talk. Could this be because they are so much smaller than everyone else and feel vulnerable? Which races have things in common? And which of the Five Gifts of the Creator—wind, water, fire, earth, or starlight (ether)—does each race seem most like?

III. The Sea

A.
Doing something “to the bitter end,” being left “high and dry,” or “on an even keel” are all expressions from the sea that are used in everyday life. Research other sea-based expressions and see if you are using any that you didn’t even know were from the sea.

B.
The sea has served to inspire a vast amount of poetry throughout time. Read some of these famous poems about the sea: “Sea Fever,” by John Masefield; “Break, Break, Break,” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson; “Christmas at Sea,” by Robert Louis Stevenson; or “Casabianca,” by Felicia Hemans. What sort of images do they all have in common? Then write your own poem about the sea, whether or not you have ever seen it.

Questions For Discussion

1.
The story opens with Ven writing a letter from jail. Why do we sympathize with him instead of thinking he’s a robber or murderer? We start the story in the middle, before we know who everyone is. Does telling a story while looking back allow us to change our opinions of people in the story as we read?

2.
The sense of not belonging is shared by many individuals. Too tall, too short, too thin, too big, too young, too dark, unfortunately our sense of being unique bumps right into our wish to belong to a group. How do you cope with that conflict? Ven is a Nain, and therefore an outsider, but in the human city his family is almost its own colony. What kind of group within a group do you belong to? Are there times when we belong in groups we might not want to belong to?

3.
Ven receives two gifts early on—the albatross feather and the jack-rule. The idea of “a feather in his cap” usually means an accomplishment, something to be proud of. The feather is one of those details that might have been overlooked if the story just unfolded from beginning to end. Is the reappearance of the albatross throughout the story what makes his first meeting important? The jack-rule turns out to be a kind of graduation gift. What kinds of gifts do you think Pepin gave his other children?

4.
Whose fault is it that the ship was lost? Later in the story we discover that it was a planned, not random, attack, but at the beginning, who do you blame for the loss of the ship and crew? Ven refuses to let Amariel or the captain make him feel better about the ship and men he thinks he destroyed. We, the readers, understand both that he had no choice and that it’s likely they would have been destroyed by the pirates anyway. What about Ven makes him hold onto the feeling of being responsible?

5.
Amariel says, “You’re welcome. Good-bye,” several times. If she leaves, it’s likely Ven will not survive. Why is she so eager to leave? How does Ven convince her to stay? Which of Ven’s friends has the most curiosity besides himself?

6.
Notice how the stories Amariel tells are very different from Ven’s. It’s not just because they come from different places, but because they see the world differently. Would someone from a snowy place and someone from a very hot place have the same difficulty? How hard is it for people who have very little in common to be friends?

7.
A number of children in the story—Char, Ida, and Cadwalder—don’t know very much about themselves because they are orphans or abandoned. What would it be like to have no idea where you came from? Or when your birthday is? Or what your real name is?

8.
If you had the chance to be the king’s Reporter, would you take it? Where would you go?

Free Curriculum

Available September 2006 at
www.venpolypheme.com

A free curriculum with integrated subject areas will be available for download upon publication of the book. The series-specific teachers’ materials are cross-curricular, with customizable exercises and lesson plans in varying degrees of difficulty for different grade levels. Subject areas covered include Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, Geography, Science, and Art, with mini-curricula in Nautical Studies, Mythology, Environmental Science, and Music. The curriculum also includes comprehension and discussion questions listed chapter by chapter.

I would like to thank the many archaeologists, anthropologists, language experts, and museum curators who assisted in the restoration of the first of the Ven Polypheme journals, especially:

Dr. Winifred Biggles Frumpton, for sharing her secret recipe for removing sand stains

Mrs. Pickles Butterworth-Smythe, for granting me access to her wonderful collection of Gwadd art

Sir Ambrose Dillwopper, for his kind encouragement

Godric Meanfilly, Esq., for his research into the legalities of reprinting ancient Nain texts

Ms. Susan Persimmon Chang, Project Director, for her exquisite management of the archaeological dig, as well as the publication of these historic findings

Mr. Brett Helquist, for his superior expertise in art preservation, without which all of Ven’s sketches would be nothing more than old, dirty confetti (smelling of stale seaweed)

Dr. Parsifal Booh, documentarian, as well as his wife and her twin sister, cultural researchers Beatrice (Bea) Biddie and Barbara (Barb) Biddie-Booh, Department of Nain Studies, University of Vaarn, Professors Emeritae. As they came out of retirement to consult on this project, I want especially to thank the old Biddies

Betty Senwod, Artist-in-Residence, Lirin Conservatory of Native Art, for her expertise in tribal drawing and rituals—with thanks for bailing me out of jail that time after the Toockus Ruckus ceremony Joe Fish, for, well, whatever he feels he deserves thanking for (there, happy now??)

S. Uther Twaddle, Ph.D., research scientist, Marincaer Maritime Institute

Infamous archaeologist and Site Director Samot E. Snave, for all his inspiration

And you, the reader, for helping to keep the magic of the world alive.