Vocabulary
DAILY DOUBLE!! Cleverness or inventiveness
Ingenuity
Why did Garvey and Edwin threaten to take Cole back to Minneapolis?
Cole does not seem truly ready for change.
Why does Cole leave the space for healing blank on his totem?
Cole must help Peter before he can truly heal.
What is different about the second time Cole watches Garvey and Edwin leave him alone on the island as compared to the first?
The first time Garvey and Edwin left him, Cole blamed everyone else for his problems and had no intention of staying on the island. Smoldering with rage, Cole then set all of his supplies on fire. The second time Garvey and Edwin leave, Cole feels fear instead of anger. He wants to make things right and knows this is his last chance.
Who does the anger dance?
Cole
To hold back or restrain someone, or one's self, from doing or saying something
Stifle
When Cole learned to soak in the pond by himself this suggests that he...
Has found a way to calm himself.
Edwin agrees to listen to Cole's idea about how to help Peter because...
Peter has tried to kill himself twice.
When Cole finds a huge piece of driftwood washed up on the shoreline, he has two different ideas about what he can do with it. What are they and which does he choose?
Cole’s first thought is that he could use the driftwood to carve his own totem. It then occurs to him that he could carve the driftwood into a canoe, which he could use to get off the island. He decides to carve a totem. To prevent himself from changing his mind, Cole uses a hatchet to carve deep into the wood so it would be impossible to turn it into a canoe.
Who resists the temptation to run away?
Cole
To frown or scowl
Grimace
Why did Garvey give Cole a knife?
Garvey thinks carving will help Cole heal and discover himself.
DAILY DOUBLE!! What animals swam by Cole in the pond?
A fish and a beaver
Describe Cole’s Christmas on the island.
Cole cuts down a small pine tree to use as his Christmas tree and decorates it with little bits of aluminum foil. He sits alone on Christmas Eve and wonders if there is anyone in the world thinking about him at that moment. When he tells Edwin about this a few days later, Edwin reminds him that he has more than most people in the world do, and not to drown in self-pity.
DAILY DOUBLE!! Who ends his Spirit Bear dance with a joke?
Garvey
Being alone or lonely
Solitary
DAILY DOUBLE! Why did Cole decide to use the log he finds as a totem pole instead of a canoe?
Cole is slowly starting to mature.
Full of uncontrolled emotion; panicky
Frantic
While Cole is serving his sentence on the island, how is Peter doing?
Peter is slipping deeper and deeper into depression. He has trouble getting out of bed and his doctors have him heavily medicated. Peter’s periods of depression get so bad that he tries to end his own life twice.
Who has lost all hope?
Peter
In a way that shows unwillingness or hesitancy
Reluctantly
Why is Cole able to see the Spirit Bear on the beach?
Cole makes himself completely still and calm.
Difficult to handle or manage; cumbersome
Awkward
DAILY DOUBLE!! Edwin tells Cole that he cannot truly heal until he discovers “one thing” for himself. What is that one thing?
Cole must learn how to forgive others and himself. He tells Edwin that anger allows others to control him, but forgiveness offers him the opportunity to control himself. But he goes on to say that there’s still something missing. Being sorry or asking for forgiveness isn’t enough. Cole believes he cannot heal until he figures out a way to help Peter heal.
Which character is often skeptical of Cole?
Edwin