NAME:
The Guardians of Ga’Hoole Book One: The Capture by Kathryn Lasky
Chapters 1 -2
Vocabulary:
nocturnal reverberate
resented legend
imperceptible gnarled
rapturously embedded
protruded dumbfounded
gizzard ominous
meticulous usurp
disdain
Questions:
1. Describe the dangers that face a young owl who tries to fly before it is ready.
2. Cite the page number(s) from the novel where this information can be found.
3. Foreshadowing in literature refers to the hints or clues an author provides to suggest what will take place in the story. What do you think the following passage from Chapter 1 foreshadows?
There was always one difficult one in a brood, but Kludd was more than just difficult. There was something…something… Mrs. Plither thought hard. Just something missing with Kludd. Something rather unnatural, un-owlish.
4. Rhyme is the repetition of accented vowel sounds and all sounds following them, in word close together in a poem. The many purposes of rhyme in poetry include building rhythm, lending a songlike quality, organizing the poem, providing humor or delight to the reader, and aiding memory. End rhymes are rhymes at the ends of lines. Reread the Centipede Song on pages 11-12. List all the end rhyme pairs from the song.
5. Inference is a conclusion that can be drawn from hints, clues, or other information. Read the following passage from page 13. What can you infer is the reason for the shortage of food?
Food is scarce in Tyto this time of year… A huge orange moon sailed in the autumn sky.
6. Reread pages 15 -16. In your opinion, what caused Soren to fall from the hollow in his tree home?
7. What do the words and actions of Kludd on pages 18 – 20 tell you about his character?
8. What do you predict will happen to Soren, based upon the events of Chapter 2?
Chapters 3 – 4
Vocabulary:
interminable - Being or seeming to be without an end
thrummed - To speak, repeat, or recite in a monotonous tone of voice
flanking – The right or left side of a military formation
haggard – Wild and difficult to manage
alighted – to come down and settle
outcropping - To stick out above the soil, as rock formations
humble - Marked by meekness or modesty in behavior, attitude, or spirit; not arrogant or prideful
quickened - To make more rapid; accelerate
Use these vocabulary words in sentences of your own.
Discussion Questions:
1. Soren says “He would forever regret calling out those words,” on page 24. Why will he regret calling out for Mum and Da?
2. Based upon Soren’s reaction to his grown up captor calling him stupid on pages 25-26, what can the reader infer about Soren’s relationship with adult owls up to this point?
3. Soren meets Gylfie, an elf owl in Chapter 3. Read the information on owl identification attached. Using a Venn Diagram, compare and contrast the barn owl and the elf owl.
4. At the end of chapter 3, the author writes “But the second Soren said those words he felt a weird queasiness. He almost knew. He just couldn’t quite remember, but he almost knew how it happened, and he felt a mixture of dread and shame. He felt something terrible deep in his gizzard.” What do you think Soren “knew”?
5. When you read in Chapter 4 “We discourage questions here as we feel they often distract from the Truth,” and again on page 38, paragraph 5, how did you feel about these statements?
6. Skench talks about the “higher good.” What does the “higher good” mean? What does it mean to Skench?
7. What is the author’s purpose in italicizing “But my name is Soren. It is the name my parents gave me,” on page 34, chapter 4?
8. What is the tone of Gylfie’s statement, “They’re moon blinking us”? What do you think “moon blinking” is? Is it a good thing or a bad thing for these young owls?
9. A hymn is a song or ode in praise or honor of God, a deity, a nation, or an organization. Soren listens to the words of the hymn sung buy his captures on page 27. Are his captures singing this hymn to God, a deity, a nation, or an organization? What is an Alma Mater?
10. Personification refers to a literary device in which an author grants human characteristics to nonhuman objects. Find two examples of personification on page 24.
11. Onomatopoeia is the use of a word whose sound imitates its meaning. Find an example of it on page 26.
12. A metaphor is a comparison between two unlike things.
It was almost as if the shine of the full moon that sprayed its light over half the glaucidium became a sharp silver needle stabbing through his skull and going straight to his gizzard.
What is the shine of the moon being compared to?
What does this metaphor reveal about how Soren feels at this moment?
Chapters 5 – 6
Vocabulary: Draw a line from each word on the left to its definition on the right.
A. endearment 1. To sever or interrupt the connection of or between
B. succulent 2. Full of juice or sap; juicy
C. niche 3. An expression of affection
D. disconnected 4. A cranny, hollow, or crevice, as in rock
Questions:
1. What is the purpose of having the kidnapped owls repeating their real names many times, then stating their assigned number once? Cite the passage from the story that supports your response.
2. What purpose does calling the kidnapped owls orphans serve the owls in charge of St. Aegolius Academy?
3. What is the shocking realization that Soren must face at the end of Chapter 6 regarding his fall from the hollow? Cite at least one passage from Chapters 1 – 5 that foreshadows this realization.
4. Predict what you think will become of the newfound friendship between Gylfie and Soren.
5. Conflict, or the clash of opposing forces, takes many forms in literature and often provides the excitement in the novel. In the chart below, give examples of each kind of conflict as seen in chapters 5 – 6.
ConflictPerson vs. Person
Person vs. Nature
Person vs. Self
6. Point of View in literature refers to the person telling the story. There are three possible points of view in a novel:
· First Person narrator who, as a character, tells the story as he or she experienced it
· Third Person limited narrator who knows what one character is doing and thinking
· Third Person omniscient narrator who know what all the characters are doing and thinking
Which point of view has this author chosen? What are the advantages and limitations of this point of view?
7. The setting of a novel refers to the time and place the events occur. Some novels have a single setting; some have more than one. What is the setting(s) of this novel?
Chapters 7 – 9
Vocabulary:
Often in the fantasy literature genre, an author creates new words to fit the new world created in the story. Using chapters 1 – 9, find 6 new words created by Kathryn Lasky for The Capture
and write their definitions, using the word in context to help determine its meaning.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Questions:
1. Explain how Gylfie uses what he learned from her father about the moon and stars to protect themselves from moon blinking.
2. What is the author telling us when she rights on page 57 “A new light began to glimmer in Soren’s eyes”?
3. Personification is a figure of speech in which an author grants lifelike qualities to non human objects. For example:
There were no leaves, no mosses that he could see, no grasses – none of the soft things that wrapped the world and made it tender and springy.
What is being personified?
What does this use of personification reveal of Soren’s feelings about St. Aggie’s?
4. On page 59, Soren reflects on his father’s “species sensitivity.” What is species sensitivity as discussed in this passage?
5. A simile is a figure of speech in which two unlike objects are compared using the words “like” or “as.”
Soren felt the soft yellow glow of her eyes…The yellow light turned a bit hard like glinting gold.
What it the yellow glow of her eyes being compared to?
What mood does this simile create?
6. Repetition is the use, more than once, of any element of language – a sound, word, phrase, or sentence. In poetry repetition often involves the recurring use of words, images, or devices. A refrain is a repeated line or group of words. Reread the song on pages 62 – 63. What refrain is repeated? What words are rhymed in the song?
7. What was Soren’s punishment for asking the question “What are flecks?”
8. Irony is a contrast between expectation and reality. What is the irony of “laughter therapy”?
9. Reread the story of the Legend of Ga’Hoole on page 14.Why did Soren’s request to hear a story about the Legend of Ga’Hoole cause Aunt Finny to faint?
Chapters 10 - 13
Vocabulary:
Context clues provide information from the reading that identifies a word or group of words. Write the meaning of the underlined word based upon the context clues provided.
1. Glyfie, you are just a short time from being fully fledged – look at you. (pg 76)
2. Then her father has stopped and, in a musing tone of voice, said, “Funny isn’t it, how all our strongest feelings come through our gizzards…” (pg 77)
3. They moved around me as if I were a part of the stone wall that jutted out. (pg 83)
4. They held their breath, fearful that their ruse would be discovered.(pg 88)
5. And Soren, of course, was struck by the bittersweet memory of his father complimenting Kludd after his First Bones ceremony. (pg 90)
6. “In these situations, Soren, you have to look on the bright side – no pun intended,” Gylfie said as she looked around and saw moonlight bouncing off every surface. (pg 92)
7. She seemed blithely confident that when the time came for them to fly they would…(pg 99)
8. But then again we do not have the qualifications, the obvious talents of you.
Questions:
1. Find an example of onomatopoeia on page 75.
2. At the start of chapter 10 Gylfie and Soren are discussing the Great Scheme. What is it? Why do you think they chose this name for it?
3. “For the first time, there was hope in the dark eyes set like polished stones…” is an example of what literary device?
4. Complete the following analogy:
gizzard is to an owl as ______is to a human
5. Idiomatic language is an expression peculiar to itself grammatically or that cannot be
understood if taken literally (e.g., Let’s get on the ball.). When Gylfie says “If I escaped
without you, my life would not be worth two pellets.” Underline the idiomatic language in the quote, then give an equivalent idiom in human terms.
6. From the passage below, predict what could be worse than moon blinking:
Soren, something worse than just moon blinking young owls is going on here. I just sense it. Something very bad. Something that could destroy all the kingdoms of all the owls on earth.
7. In Chapter 12, Gylfie and Soren experience moon scalding, which would force their memories out and forever change them. What saves them from this situation? Why?
8. Allusion is an implied or indirect reference in literature to a familiar person, place or event. Reread the last line on page 99 through the first paragraph on page 100. What is the allusion?
9. Predict what you think Gylfie and Soren will find in the eggorium and the hatchery.
Chapters 14 - 17
Vocabulary:
A synonym is one of two or more words in a language that have highly similar meanings (e.g., sorrow, grief, sadness). Draw a line from each word in column A to its synonym in column B.
A B
1. appalled A. shocked
2. aghast B. slap
3. loathsome C. simultaneous
4. cuff D. strengthen
5. coincide E. dismay
6. synchronize F. agree
7. invigorated G. offensive
Questions:
1. To Paraphrase is to restate text or passage in other words, often to clarify meaning or show understanding. Reread the last paragraph of page 106 through the middle break on page 107. Paraphrase the directions given for working in the eggorium.
2. Placing together characters, situations or ideas to show common or differing features in literary selections is known as comparing. To look at the differences of characters, situations, or ideas is contrasting. Reread the hatching of Eglantine on pages 2 – 5 and the hatching in the eggorium on page 111 - 112. Compare and contrast the two hatchings.
3. Sometimes an author uses dialogue to explain words in the text. How does the author use dialogue on page 113 to define the word “infiltrator” and “revolution” on page 115?
4. The method an author uses to reveal characters and their various personalities is called characterization. Evaluate the author’s revelation of Hortense in chapter 16. What do we learn about this character?
5. After reading Chapter 17, how did you feel about what happened to Hortense? Did the author do a good job of helping you, the reader, connect with her character and her situation?
6. The next chapter (18) is titled “One Bloody Night.” Based upon the events of chapter 17, predict what might happen in chapter 18.
Chapters 18 – 21
Vocabulary:
Many content specific terms related to owls are listed in these chapters. Generate a list of all words specific to owls that you find in chapters 18 – 21.
Questions:
1. From page 133, generate a list of the ways Soren was practicing for flight, even though he was not flying.
2. Compare your prediction of the events of chapter 18 to the actual events.