Blueback

By Tim Winton

This Term’s novel work will have a focus on:

Summarising
Exploring your reactions and interests
Developing your ability to form opinions about
characters and themes in a novel
Developing your knowledge of the sea
Developing your word knowledge

You will create a Blueback photo album

according to the following instructions:

TASK 1: Cover page: You will create a cover page for your photo album using
the written names of fish mentioned in the novel, especially the first few chapters.
Accompanying some of the names you need to put pictures. We will book the library for two
sessions in order for you to look up books and use the internet. You may sketch, trace, or
print out pictures, but be sure to know which fish is which! Take care to design an appealing
album cover.
Hint: page 8, 62-3, 133, and 149-50 are good! /5

TASK 2: Summaries: You will demonstrate and develop your

summarising ability this term, by writing a summary for each chapter. The skill will be to
write a summary in only one or two sentences. When you summarise, the skill is to:
Only include important/main details
Leave out minor details
This will be the 2nd and 3rd pages of your photo album. You will need to calculate according to
the size of your Chapter heading and handwriting, whether you will need more than two
pages. There are 16 chapters, so you will need to write 16 summaries. We will do the first
three summaries together. If you are away from school and miss a summary, you must catch
up either in the next class, or at home. /16

TASK 3: Developing your word knowledge:

The 4th page of your photo album will be a “Word Collection” or “Word bank” page.
This is for you to fill up with words that you find interesting or new. Make this page
 look like a poster for interesting words. You must find at least two words from each
chapter. /3
You will also be learning about three language techniques – similes, metaphors,
personification. This will be done on a sheet handout. /5

TASK 4: Chapter work: For this section of your photo album, you will
be alternating between Picture pages and written-answer pages. All your answers MUST
be in full sentences (that means NO sentences starting with “Because…”) Also, DO NOT
begin your answers with “it” “he” “she” – write the name of the character, make it clear
who/what your are talking about.

Note: if a question asks for a certain number of sentences in your answer, you will have
points deducted if you write less. Some questions are THINKING questions, and
require you to look beyond your first thoughts, into a deeper understanding.
Make sure you number your answers according to the numbers given on this sheet.

Chapter One
1. Picture page! Collect 4 or more quotes which help build up a picture of the
mother. Now use these quotes to draw a picture of her. Put in a “talking caption” of
something she might be saying to Abel. /3
2. Why are they collecting abalone? /1
3. How are they careful to protect the abalone population when they fish? /1

Chapter Two
4. Why do you think there is no body buried under Abel’s father’s cross? /1
5. Picture page! Use pages 19 & 20 to draw how you imagine Longboat Bay to
look /2

Chapter Three
6. Picture page! Draw a picture of Abel daydreaming as he writes out his
punishment lines.
/2
7. What things can you learn from the rings in a karri tree? /3
8. Some people say that daydreaming is a sign of a rich imagination. Do you agree
with this, or do you think daydreaming just means that the person is easily distracted
from what is going on in front of them? (THINKING QUESTION: your answer
must have at least four sentences). /4
9. Look up the meaning of these words in the dictionary, then write your own sentences
using the words in a meaningful way:
- dinghy - sediment - luminous
- Jetty - Pilchards - mantelpiece /6

Chapter Four
10. Would you say that everyone should experience
being on a boat on the sea at least once in their life?
Why/why not? (THINKING QUESTION: your
answer must have at least four sentences) /4
11. What colour is Mad Macka’s boat? /1
 12. Mad Macka valued his solitude (time alone) more than his safety. Do you enjoy
have time by yourself or are you the kind of person who always wants friends and
family around you? (2 or more sentences) /2
Chapter Five
13. How old was Abel when he went away? /1
14. Describe the town Abel moves to. (page 52) /2
15. When was the last time you felt homesick? What did you do to feel better? /2

Chapter Six
16. Why is Abel’s mum worried about the new abalone diver? p59 /1
17. What does Abel’s mother tell him about the Jackson family? p62-63 /1
18. Write down anything you know about your family history, where they originated
from and what they did. /2
19. Look up these words in the dictionary and copy down the meanings.
20. - Wily - gluttonous - catamaran
21. - Grouse - shrine - plankton /6

Chapter Seven
22. Why is Costello so deeply disliked? /2
23. What would you have done, in Abel’s position, watching Costello haul up net after
net of fish? /2
24. List all of the possible things that could have gone wrong when Abel and his mother
went out on the sea to stop Costello. Come up with at least 15. /4

Chapter Eight
25. What happened to Costello?
/1
26. Write a paragraph of what Abel might have written in his
diary after seeing the shark dying, and being able to do
nothing. (minimum 6 sentences) /4
27. What did Abel learn at the end of the chapter? /1

Chapter Nine.
28. How did Abel feel at school? (first page) /1
29. Use the Venn diagram page to make a comparison of how the business developers
saw Longboat Bay compared with how Dora and Abel Jackson saw it. Think about
what the developers valued compared to what the Jacksons valued. /3
30. Write down some of the things developers thought tourists could do in the Bay /3
31. What are some of the annoying things that started to happen? /3
32. Why does Abel describe the “sea, the bush, the house” as being “like food” to Dora?
/2
Chapter Ten
33. What did Abel wish Blueback could tell him? /1

Chapter Eleven
34. What does Abel go to university for and why does Dora
find this funny? /2
35. Who does Stella have to share Abel with? /1
36. Do you think it is possible to have a relationship with an
animal as strong (or stronger) than a relationship with a
person? (THINKING QUESTION: your answer must
have at least four sentences). /4
 37. Stella says “You seem to be able to talk to each other without saying anything”.
What does Dora Jackson reply? /1
38. Picture page! Draw a ‘photo’ of the feast they have after their dive. See p113 for
the details.
/2

Chapter Twelve.
39. What jobs do Abel and Stella have? What does this job entail? /2
40. Why does Abel’s mother say in her letter that she is worried? What is she worried
about? Why is she worried about that, what could it lead to? ((THINKING
QUESTION: your answer must have at least four sentences) /4
41. Picture page! Use the description on page 119 to draw the burning oil tanker
and the surrounding oil slick on the ocean. /2
42. Write a definition for: a)atolls b)estuaries /2

Chapter Thirteen
43. What strange things happened each season? /3
44. Describe the destruction of the storm /2
45. Picture page! Draw what Dora Jackson sees after the storm (pg 125) /2
46. What does Dora decide to do for the bay? How? /2
47. What is the outcome? /1

Chapter Fourteen
48. What happens to Abel’s mother when she falls? /1
49. Why does she cry? /1

Chapter Fifteen
50. What does the story Abel’s mother tells about when he was a baby tell us about the
Abel and the sea? /1

Chapter Sixteen
51. Who does Abel think knows the secrets of the sea? /1
 Blueback
Language Sheet
Language Glossary:

IMAGERY – the writing creates a picture in the reader’s mind. For example, “The yellow flower
was bending with the wind” Colours are useful for creating imagery.
SIMILES – comparison – when one thing is compared to another thing, using the words “like” or
“as”, for example, “The Year 7’s are as hard-working as bees making honey”. Similes create a
strong picture in your mind (imagery)
METAPHORS – comparison – when one thing is compared to another thing, but NOT using the
words “like” or “as”, for example, “The Year 7’s are busy bees”
PERSONIFICATION when things that are NOT human, are given human qualities, for example,
“the river was angry” – anger is a human emotion, water does not feel angry, but the use of
personification makes the river more animated, the words create a strong picture in our mind
(imagery)
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE – when the objects are NOT really there. Figurative language
includes metaphors, similes, and personification. In the example of the Year 7’s and the bees, the
Year 7’s were really there (literal language), but the bees were not really there (figurative).
LITERAL LANGUAGE, in which words mean exactly what they say: the objects are really there.
"He ran like a hare down the street" is the figurative way to describe the man running and "He ran
very quickly down the street" is the literal way to describe him.

Using the glossary above, label these following examples. Tell me what is literal and what is
figurative. Then tell me if it’s simile or metaphor, and whether there is personification. The first
one is done for you:

Example from Blueback Literal Figurative simile?

metaphor?
personification?
“a cloud of bubbles swirled around him, bubbles are pearls are it’s using a
clinging to his skin like pearls.” pg5
really there not there simile
“where his mother was already gliding
like a bird” p6
“she looked like a scarred old seal in there is no
that thing.” p6
seal there
“the shellfish grew round and silver, like
tiny hubcaps” p7
“above them, on the rippling shiny the boat is
surface, the boat hung like a kite” p23
really there
“if you cut down a karri tree…you
could..see… the good years written into
its heart.” p28
“the ducks…looked like silly fat
businessmen in white suits. They shook
their heads like bankers.” p30
“His mother floated nearby, her hair like
kelp above her.” pg 31
“her red fins flashed like a siren light.”
pg 44
“a cloud of gulls hung over the two
boats” pg 45
“the old fish’s eye was like a turning
moon.” p53
“Blueback flitted around them, insistent
as a dog at the dinner table.” p60
“he felt like…a bubble on the sea, left
by a breaking wave, here for a moment,
and then gone.” pg67
“through the wobbly glass of the waves”
p68
“he saw the sun melting like butter.”
p68
“Blueback swam down to his crack in
the reef and looked out with moon eyes”
p70
“Bubbles smoked back from his head so
that he looked like a dragon.” p80
“He was as big as a barrel.” pg 80

“Took off like a rocket.” p84

“It swam like a ghost of itself.” p90

“To them [Longboat Bay] was a

goldmine, a fortune waiting to be made.”
p97
“She was stubborn as a tree, and just as
strong.” p99
He looked as fat as an opera singer.”
pg112
“He still felt like a boy with a snorkel”
p117
“Surf hammered against the shore and
chewed it away.” p124
“[The whale bones] stood like posts and
broken teeth and tombstones where the
storm had exposed them” p125
“She floated in Longboat Bay like
seaweed” p128
“his tail swinging like a gate.” p129

“her hair was white as the sand on the

shore” p144
ANALOGY compares two things, which are alike in a number of ways. We often use analogies to
help our own understanding of difficult ideas. For example,
and he makes an analogy between a karri tree, and people’s stories.

p21 she said every engine was just a puzzle to solve (analogy)

familiar as old friends (analogy) p 31

they tied his mind up in knots p33

in his high school years Abel felt like he was holding his breath p95

home throbbed in him like a headache p53

 Chapter 9, Questin 29 Venn Diagram

DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES OF LONGBOAT

BAY
How the developers see Longboat How the Jacksons see Longboat Bay.
Bay. What do they value? Can you What do they value?
think of similarities
between the way the
Jacksons and the developers
see Longboat Bay?