On the Blue Comet by Rosemary Wells - Candlewick Press Discussion Guide Resources & Answers
Candlewick Press Discussion Guide: http://www.candlewick.com/book_files/076363722x.bdg.1.pdf
Author: Rosemary Wells Official website: http://rosemarywells.com/ Illustrator: Bagram Ibatoulline Official website: http://authors.simonandschuster.com/BagramIbatoulline/18797387/biography
1. Oscar’s mother was killed in an explosion at Lucifer Fireworks, Cairo, IL when “a bolt of walking lightning shot right through the shipping-room window, stopping at the clock and sizzling into a box of Roman candles near her chair.” (p 2) Walking lightning: images http://www.dl-digital.com/lightning.htm Discovery Education: Lightning video http://app.discoveryeducation.com/player/view/assetGuid/D07E96B5-DFEC-403C-A20707F100112E03 Oscar’s dad does not want to move because his wife had “fixed it up so pretty when [Oscar, Jr] was a baby” (p 2) “What I was really doing was closing my bottom eye and starting with my top eye into the carriages of the passenger cars … [i]n this way, everything on the layout came to life, and I was no bigger than the people and the trains and the buildings that stood in miniature before me.” 2. Crash of 1929: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1854569,00.html 1929 Overview: http://app.discoveryeducation.com/player/view/assetGuid/18B5F295-84714932-95A7-B2DB961141D6 1929 Almanac (prices): http://app.discoveryeducation.com/player/view/assetGuid/475ED91F33F9-4CBE-810E-5425E99E32B8
Information compiled by Melissa McDonald, MLS, Melissa_A_McDonald@mcpsmd.org
On the Blue Comet by Rosemary Wells - Candlewick Press Discussion Guide Resources & Answers 3. Unemployment rate: The percentage of the total labor force that is unemployed but actively seeking employment and willing to work. (source: www.investopedia.com)
Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/cps/cps_htgm.htm Unemployment rate as of September 2012: 7.8% 4. Definition of mortgage (Source: www.dictionary.com) an agreement under which a person borrows money to buy property, esp a house, and the lend er maytake possession of the property if the borrower fails to repay the money
Definition of dust bowl (Source: www.dictionary.com)
1. 1. An area where vegetation has been lost and soil eroded, esp. as a consequence of drought or unsuitable farming practice. 2. 2. An area, including parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and northern Texas where windstorms caused severe soil erosion in the 1930s. 3. Dust Bowl video: http://app.discoveryeducation.com/player/view/assetGuid/0257D50C-7C38400D-B01B-7A6AA6D1D46E Farmers to California: http://app.discoveryeducation.com/player/view/assetGuid/98ADC4AE17E4-4193-BCA5-30CF16A00886 Mr. Applegate (p 36-38) former high school math teacher in Searchlight, TX - “A year ago, Mr. Hoover’s recession hit Texas badly. Everybody up and went away. They closed the school. I lost my job, so I came here to see if there was any work.” (p44) “Poetry gets you through the hardest times, Oscar. It’s like tonic,” Mr. Applegate told me. “The world has forgotten poetry and how it heals the soul and body, too.” 5.
“If” by Rudyard Kipling: Inspired by failed British raid against the Boers in 1895 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1146109/The-remarkable-story-Rudyard-Kiplings-If-swashbuckling-renegade-inspired-it.html Reading of “If” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tK4HDCIr_E8 (Read by Tom O’Bedlam)
6. Definition of declamation (from www.freedictionary.com) - noun 1. A recitation delivered as an exercise in rhetoric or elocution. 2. a. Vehement oratory. b. A speech marked by strong feeling; a tirade.
Information compiled by Melissa McDonald, MLS, Melissa_A_McDonald@mcpsmd.org
On the Blue Comet by Rosemary Wells - Candlewick Press Discussion Guide Resources & Answers Definition of declaim (verb) 1. (Literature / Rhetoric) to make (a speech, statement, etc.) loudly and in a rhetorical manner 2. (Literature / Rhetoric) to speak lines from (a play, poem, etc.) with studied eloquence; recite3. (intr; foll by against) to protest (against) loudly and publicly 7. Traveling through time: (p 83-87) time pockets/ negative velocity theory: “… if you were to sit in our make-believe rocket ship and it went from east to west, you’d fly into tomorrow.” “You’re forgetting the international date line … no one knew how to contain the endlessness of time, so they made a seam around the surface of the world.”
Albert Einstein: http://einstein.biz/ Physicist known for E=mc² http://www.biography.com/people/albert-einstein-9285408
Albert Einstein. (2012). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 02:27, Dec 26, 2012, from http://www.biography.com/people/alberteinstein-9285408.
Theory of Relativity: (physics) the theory that space and time are relative concepts rather than absolute concepts (Source: www.thefreedictionary.com)
Discovery Education: http://app.discoveryeducation.com/player/view/assetGuid/6BD4F88448E9-479E-B266-1FED25CFE257 http://www.fearofphysics.com/Relativity/relativity.html Abraham Lincoln: The Ford’s Theatre http://www.fordstheatre.org Oscar’s age in Los Angeles, California: 21; In Cairo, IL: 11; in NYC: 6 LA to IL= approx. 1642 miles; IL to NYC = approx. 855 miles http://www.distance-cities.com/
8. What makes Dutch take notice of Oscar? The newspaper articles Who is the real Dutch? Ronald Reagan (graduated from Eureka College in 1932) “if you meet a man with a firm handshake and a steady eye, you can usually trust him, unless he’s a politician.” (p 113) Do the articles change in a significant way? Yes: Triple Crime Spree! Christmas Eve Massacre! Murder! Robbery! Kidnapping ! (p 111) Christmas Eve Massacre Reward (p 118) Angry Banker Doubles Reward for Massacre Info! Boy Still Missing! (p 130) Missing Ten Years…..Surfaces in Beverly Hills (p 214) Kidnapped Ogilvie Boy Found in Hollywood! (218) Double Crime Spree Goons Nabbed! (p318) Triple Crime Spree - Mr. Applegate killed instantly in the first article ---- In last article – double crime spree (no murder) . A completely different guard, George Perkins, was hiding in the bathroom. We can presume that the message Claire left for Mr. Applegate in the Poetry book was found in time. (p 326) Information compiled by Melissa McDonald, MLS, Melissa_A_McDonald@mcpsmd.org
On the Blue Comet by Rosemary Wells - Candlewick Press Discussion Guide Resources & Answers
9.
World War II Chief Allies: USA, Russia, Great Britain & France Fighting against: Japan, Germany, and Italy Draft: Compulsory (required, mandatory) enrollment and induction into the military service.
10.
Timeline 1931-1945: http://sp.uconn.edu/~wwwcoh/TIMELINE.HTM 1941- FDR http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/franklindroosevelt polio, 1931- Herbert Hoover http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/herberthoover
11.
Dad: “something about me wasn’t squared up” (p146) Dutch: “in his eyes” (p186) Mr. H: boy’s style haircut/ cowlick goes down when a boy hits puberty (p194-5)
12.
Mr. H is Howard Hughes: http://www.biography.com/people/howard-hughes-9346282 China invaded by Japan in 1931 and 1937 Star stone is Cinnabar(?)http://www.webmineral.com/data/Cinnabar.shtml
13.
10 years in the future; California more liberal (open to new ideas) than Illinois which is more conservative. Claire’s parents – boarding school, dance lessons, debutante, marry rich boy, etc
14.
Claire – free to be her own person, public school, trains Doll – doesn’t want it – wants train instead Longing means yearning desire for something 15.
Coin came from Mr. Applegate in 1931 – glued to a string so that they could reuse it to turn on train.
Information compiled by Melissa McDonald, MLS, Melissa_A_McDonald@mcpsmd.org