The Body Guide for home reading 2011

The body: guide for home reading

Chapter 1
“The most important things are the hardest things to say” do you agree with this idea? What is difficult for the narrator to say?

Chapter 2
Describe the tree house, the gang and the activities they did there.

Chapter 3
1-Who had disappeared?
2-What did they do about it?
3-What do you think might have happened to the boy?

Chapter 4
1-Why does the narrator say that Vern is stupid?
2-Why was he digging?
3-What had happened with his map?
4-What do you think had happened to the jar?
5-Who was Charlie Hogan? What did he say about the missing boy?
6- What can´t the members of the gang tell the police?
7-What did Vern do after hearing their conversation? Would you have done the same?

Chapter 5
1-What was his friends´reaction to the news?
2- What plan did they work out?
3-What information do you get about their parents? What about Chris´s father in particular?

Chapter 6:
1-Why does Gordie think that for his parents one gift from God was enough?
2-Why does he think of himself as the invisible man?
3-How did Gordie feel about his brother?

Chapter 7
Who brought the gun?
What happened?
Did Chris do it on purpose? Was he “as innocent as a baby”?

Chapter 8
What happened at the railway?
What did Teddy enjoy doing? What is your opinion of his behaviour?
What was Gordie’s attitude to the situation? Would you have done the same?

Chapter 9
What did they do at the dump?
Who is Chopper? Who is Milo? What were the rumours about them? Were they true?

Chapter 10
What happened between Teddy and Milo?
What was Teddy’s reaction? How did he feel?
What would you do if someone said something like that about your father?

Chapter 11:
1-Someone in this chapter says “Talk is cheap”. What do you think this person means? When would you use this expression?
2-Who said each of these sentences and why?
· “I´m a baby –cry, right?”
· “I didn´t either love or hate my father ,who had never beaten me, as far as I could remember”
· “Are you saying you want to go back?”
· I didn´t imagine then that in about a dozen years I’d turn a simple example of the night-sweats into about a million dollars”
· ....was the hardest guy in our gang, but he was also the guy who made the best peace”


Chapter 12 :
2-Explain these quotations: Who said this? When? Why?
*Teddy’s eyes were shining: this was better than lorries
*But if a train comes, there´s nowhere to go, he said. He wasn’t looking at Teddy, he was looking down at the river.
*I had to go on. If I turned back, I’d be a pussy for life
*I have never been as frightened as I was at that moment. I thought of Ray Brower and that Vern and I would soon be joining him
*They were both mouthing a single word and the word was JUMP!

Chapter 13:
1-How did Gordie feel and why?
2-How did the children feel in connection with school? Do you have the same feelings about school and summer holidays?( Pg 34- last Paragraph)
3-“ By next June it’ll be all over between us” Why do you think Chris made this prediction?
5-Do you agree with these ideas?
Rank them :
completely agree 1
partially agree 2
agree 3
partially disagree 4
completely disagree 5

Ø Friends drag you down
Ø Gordie’s dad doesn’t hit him, but that is even worse because he has put him to sleep
Ø Chris was bossy and seemed to be more mature than the rest.
Ø Chris felt discriminated at school
Ø Chris thought teachers decide on your future career, not you.
Ø Your friends are like drowning guys who are holding on to your legs. You can’t save them. You can only drown with them.

6-Complete this statement made by Chris: I wish I ............


Chapter 14:
When the night came, what did the children do in the middle of the forest?
What did Gordie do to entertain them?

Chapter 15:
What did they decide to do as they were afraid?
What did Gordie dream?


Chapter 16:
1-What did Gordie find when he woke up and went to the railway tracks?
2-Was this a bad experience? Why / not?

Explain this quotation:“Its hard to make strangers care about the good things in life”

Chapter 17:
1-What happened when they saw the stream?
2- What was the matter with the water?
3- How would you have felt if you had been in the stream?

Chapter 18:
1- What was the matter? What did they realise as they were walking?
2-How did they feel and why?

Chapter 19:
Explain this quotation: “if we hadn’t walked along the tracks maybe Chris and Teddy and Vern would still be alive today”
Who were also going to see the body?

Chapter 20:
1- What was the weather like?
2- What did they see? Where?
3- What did Gordie notice about the shoes?
4- What did they do with the body?

Chapter 21:
1-Who arrived?
2-What happened?
3- Why did the gang want the body?

Chapter 22:
1- What did Chris do to stop them? Do you think he was brave?
2- The members of the gang were extremely angry. What do you think they will do to them later?

Chapter 23.
1-why did they need to look for the cartridges?
2-What could have happened to Ray Brower according to what they see?
3-What was missing in the scene? What may have happened to it?

Chapter 24:
1-Why does Gordie think that “Love has teeth”? Do you agree?

Chapter 25:
1-When Gordie returned home, what was his mother’s reaction? Was that what you expected?

Chapter 26:
1-How did the gang take revenge? 2-Why is this chapter called “some people drown”?

Chapter 27:
What happened to each character later in life?
Which of the predictions made by Gordie became true?