Chasing the Nightbird

 
Book menu for Chasing the Nightbird by Krista Russell

ISBN of edition I read:  9781561455973 (hardcover).

This historical fiction won the 2012 Massachusetts Book Award in the children's/young adult category. Set in 1850s New Bedford, MA, this quick read is filled with the serious business of slave fugitives, whaling, and child labor. Yet, Russell's tale also offers wonderful humor and wit.

Food mentioned in Chasing the Nightbird:
Roast beef and fried potato, 3
Plum duff, 3, 76
Chachupa, 16, 19, 122
Salthorse, 54
Fish stew, 81

Great vocabulary in Chasing the Nightbird :
bilgy, 1
offing, 1
doffed, 3, 18
landlubbers, 3, 7, 11, 14, 23
roil, 5
visage, 7
waylay, 10
bilge, 11
berth, 14
mete, 27
dissonant, 30
leviathan, 57
caul, 60
stevedore, 86
addled, 93
scrimshawed, 109

Literary elements in Chasing the Nightbird :
Personification: page 26 - "Tall windows were menacing mouths with rows and rows of teeth."
Simile: page 33 - "A boy with skin dark as a moonless night at the equator smiled at him."

Discussion questions for Chasing the Nightbird :
1. Each chapter begins with the name and image of a marine knot. How does each knot relate to the novel and to each chapter?

2. Which of the whaleman's "commandments" is your favorite? Which helped Lucky the most?

3. In the first paragraph the narrator explains the belief of seagulls possessing the souls of dead sailors. Whose soul might Delph possess?  What is this seagulls significance to Lucky and his story?

4. Why do think the author named her main character "Lucky"?  What significance does the name "Fortuna" have?

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Why Read Moby-Dick?

Book menu for Why Read Moby-Dick? by Nathaniel Philbrick

ISBN of edition I read: 9780670022991 (hardcover)

Food mentioned in Why Read Moby-Dick?:
Chowder, 23

Books/Authors mentioned in Why Read Moby-Dick?:
William Shakespeare, 3, 5, 6, 44, 61-62, 70
     MacBeth, 85
     King Lear, 85 
John Milton, 3
Virgil, 3
Washington Irving, 4, 5
James Fenimore Cooper, 4, 5
William Cullen Bryant, 4
Edgar Allan Poe, 4
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 4, 5
Charles Dickens, 5
Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 5
Ralph Waldo Emerson, 5
Nathaniel Hawthorne, 5, 43, 66, 70, 107, 115, 118, 121, 123
     The Scarlet Letter , 5, 43
     The House of the Seven Gables, 5, 44
     Mosses from an Old Manse, 44, 124-125
Joseph Conrad, 6
William Faulkner, 7
Ernest Hemingway, 7
John Steinbeck, 7
     The Grapes of Wrath, 7
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn / Mark Twain
The Great Gatsby  / F. Scott Fitzgerald, 8
The Catcher in the Rye / J.D. Salinger, 15
Herman Melville
     Pierre, 49, 122
     Redburn, His First Voyage, 66
     White-Jacket, 66
     Billy Budd, 78, 126
     Typee, 95
Leaves of Grass / Walt Whitman, 87
The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex / Owen Chase, 101
Friedrich Schiller, 126

Movies mentioned in Why Read Moby-Dick?:
Jaws, 33
This is Spinal Tap, 40  

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Moby-Dick

 
Book Menu for Moby-Dick, or,  The Whale by Herman Melville

ISBN of edition I read: 0142000086 (150th anniversary ed, paperback)

I just finished Moby-Dick yesterday.  It was my very first time reading it and am very proud of myself for having completed the task.  It's been on my to-read list for a while.  I never could have tackled this in high school.  It is not an easy read but I found it to be beautifully written.  Very lyrical.  I found the occasional stage directions interesting.  One of my favorite lines is "to write a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme"(page 497). Next up for me: 1) a whale watch, 2) a trip to New Bedford, and 3) a trip to Nantucket!

Food mentioned in Moby-Dick :
Pea coffee, 11
Dumplings, 16
Coffee, 35
Hot rolls, 35
Beefsteaks, 34-5
Coconut water, 65
Chowder, clam or cod (Chapter 15)
Grog, 177
Doughnuts, 326
Foie-gras, 327
Cogniac, 351
Bordeaux wine, 445
Hot rum toddies, 480
List of ship's food/drink, 486-7

Books/Authors mentioned in Moby-Dick: (a selection)
William Scoresby, 145-6, 290, 292 
   The Northern Whale-fishery (and many others)
Thomas Beale, 146
    The Natural History of the Sperm Whale...
Frederick Debell Bennett, 146
   Narrative of a Whaling Voyage Round the Globe...
J. Ross Browne, 290
   Etchings of a Whaling Cruise
James Colnett, 290
   A Voyage for Whaling and Discovery...
Bernard Germain, 287
   The Natural History of the Ordinary Cetacea or Whales
William Shakespeare, 379
Blaise Pascal, 465
Jean Jacques Rousseau, 465
Francois Rabelais, 465

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