Walri

We are cruel, cruel parents.

You see, we give the kids summer reading assignments AND make them answer questions about the books.  Hard questions that make them consider, like, people's feelings and stuff.

This summer Claire is reading a collection of four different books about young people living on their own. Hopefully Claire's take away will be to appreciate the cooperative nature of life in a family/community/our world rather than learning how to run away from human interaction...

Anyway, Claire was particularly resistant the day she answered some questions for the book "Island of the Blue Dolphins." Check out her responses to these questions:

What good luck contributed to the main characters survival?

Karana was lucky that there were whale ribs to build her fence even though she still could have built a very strong fence out of many more things. For example, sticks, tree trunks, branches, boards from canoes too big for her to use; would you like me to tell you the fifteen million other things I can think of???!!! She was also “lucky” (according to you, Dad) that she had walrus tusks to build her spear even though she still could have built a very strong spear out of many more things. For example, sticks, tree trunks, branches, boards from canoes too big for her to use; would you like me to tell you the fifteen million other things I can think of???!!!

What human realities does the author explore (love, fear, trust, etc.)? Give examples of how they portray them.

Trust is explored because Karana trusted Rontu and Rontu-Aru that they wouldn’t run away or attack her. Loneliness is explored because Karana has no one to talk to through the entire story except a dog and two birds. Grief is explored because she is sad that her brother dies. 
P.S. In my life story, boredom and annoyance are explored because I do not like answering these questions!!! :(

Later, Claire had second thoughts about her first response and re-wrote it:

What good luck contributed to the main characters survival?

Karana was lucky that there were whale ribs to build her fence because whale ribs are much stronger than most of the other resources. You also wouldn’t find whale ribs very often even if you’re on an island like that. She was also lucky that she had walrus tusks to build her spear. She could have built a fairly strong spear out of many other things, but walrus tusks are by far the strongest. She was also lucky because the walruses (walri, whatever you want to call them) didn’t see her when the bulls were fighting or that they weren’t there when she was getting the tusks. If they had seen her she would have gotten really hurt. 

I didn't tell her to re-write it, she just felt guilty I think.  I was kind of proud of her for improving it, but I had also thought her first response was hilarious.  I was really glad I had copied down her smart-alec first response before she changed it!