Chapter Define undulate, epitome and sidle. Add each to your Vocabulary and Fact list. 2. Add jellyfish and sea trout to your Animal list.

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1 Chapter 9 1. What happened to Mike Kelly s family? 2. Tell, in your own words, what happened in this chapter. 3. What do you think will happen next? 4. Using a field guide and other available resources, learn about one of the animals on your animal list that you haven t already researched. Then, either write a report, make a mini-poster or create a mini-book about the animal. Don t forget to sketch a picture of the animal. 7 Chapter What made Fog Benson and the other men go to Ben s shed? Why did they want to do this? 2. The townspeople say Ben must go. Do you agree? Why or why not? 3. Locate and label Ketchikan on your outline map of Alaska. 4. Can you think of another solution to the problem of Ben living in the town? 5. Now that you know more about Mike Kelly, has your opinion of him changed? 6. What do you think will happen to Ben now? Chapter Locate Siberia on a world map or atlas. 2. Define jaunty and add it to your Vocabulary and Facts list. 3. Research and learn about sleet. Create a Venn diagram comparing sleet and snow. 4. Research short-wave radio. Why were short-wave radios used instead of telephones? Are short-wave radios still used now? Research and find out. Then write a paragraph about it to add to your Vocabulary and Facts list. 5. What is a minus tide? Add this information to your Vocabulary and Facts list. 6. Locate and label these places on your Prince William Sound map: Macleod Harbor and Garden Cove. There is no actual Dutch Harbor, but there is a North Dutch Harbor which you can locate and label. Chapter What is shale? Add a description of shale to your Vocabulary and Facts list. 2. Define riffle and add to your Vocabulary and Facts list. 3. Locate and label Anchorage on your outline map of Alaska. Locate and label Hinchenbrook Island on your Prince William Sound map. You might also see Hinchenbrook spelt Hinchinbrook. 4. Locate Seattle on a map of North America. 5. Add beluga whale to your Animal list.

2 Chapter The author writes that when the Andersens first load of fish is ready, the cannery s tender brailed eight thousand fish from the trap. What is meaning of the word tender in nautical terms? What is the meaning of the word brail? Define these and add to your Vocabulary and Facts list. 2. Add deer to your Animal list. 3. Add kelp, seaweed and scrub brush to your Plant list. 8 Chapter You already know that Mud Hole Jones knows about Ben being on the island. Do you think Ben is still safe? 2. What do you think will happen next? 3. Locate and label St. Elias Range on your outline map of Alaska. Chapter Define undulate, epitome and sidle. Add each to your Vocabulary and Fact list. 2. Add jellyfish and sea trout to your Animal list. After-Reading Comprehension Discussion 1. Every story has a protagonist (the main character who wants something). Who is the protagonist in Gentle Ben and what does he or she want? 2. Every story also has an antagonist, the people or things opposing the protagonist. Who/what are the antagonists in Gentle Ben? 3. There are four kinds of conflict in literature: person against person, person against nature, person against society and person against self. Which of these conflicts can you identify in Gentle Ben? Give examples of the conflicts you have identified. 4. Most stories have two kinds of characters dynamic characters and static characters. Dynamic characters change over the course of the story but static characters do not change over the course of the story. Think about each of the following characters and decide if each is dynamic or static and what made you decide that: Mark, Mark s mom, Mark s dad, Clearwater, Mike, Fog Benson, Mud Hole Jones, Peter King. 5. Taking turns, have everyone who has read or heard Gentle Ben tell the plot of the story. One person starts and each person adds to the story. Continue taking turns until the entire story has been told. Enrichment Activities 1. Write a review of Gentle Ben on 2. Take a quiz on Gentle Ben at 3. Write an additional chapter set 2, 5 or 10 years later. 4. Write an acrostic poem, using Ben or Gentle Ben as the subject.

3 5. Try clams or salmon, if you haven t in the past. 6. Research the surname Andersen and its origin and add the information to your Vocabulary and Facts list. 7. Using descriptions given in the book, create a picture of what the tundra looked like in the spring. 8. Take a trip to a zoo to observe bears and other wildlife up close. 9. Take a trip to an aquarium or a pet shop to observe fish up close. 10. Create a poster, mini-poster or collage of all the animals or plants of the tundra. Use images from the computer, cut-outs from magazines, your own illustrations, photographs from a zoo or aquarium trip, or other sources. 11. Watch some episodes from the television series Gentle Ben. Discuss the similarities and differences between the book and the television series. Then, write a compare and contrast essay OR create a Venn diagram comparing the two. 12. Watch Gentle Ben: The Movie and discuss the similarities and differences between the book and the movie. Then, write a compare and contrast essay OR create a Venn diagram comparing the two. 13. Complete the Bear Comparison Chart from the back of the study guide. The chart compares the three bears that are native to North America the Alaskan Brown Bear (urus arctos), the American Black Bear (ursus americanus) and the Polar Bear (ursus maritimus). Make a copy for each student, as needed. 14. Mark s mother makes a raisin pie. Find a recipe for raisin pie and make one. 15. Turn over some rocks in your yard or a park and see what is living there. Often times, you will find insects and worms. Do this with caution, though, because occasionally, you could come across a small snake. Sketch a picture of what you find under the rocks and add the sketch to you notebook. 16. Mark fed the leftover bread to the gulls in Orca Bay. Save some bread or purchase a loaf of marked-down bread and feed some waterfowl like ducks and geese at a local pond or lake. This is great fun for all ages! Remember to take pictures to add to your notebook! 17. Using available paper, draw a life-size Gentle Ben and affix the drawing to a wall. Then, have each person stand in front of Ben while someone marks the paper with each person s height. This will give you an idea of how large Ben really was. 18. Watch videos on Search for the following: bear fight, salmon run, brown bear, common eider, harlequin duck or seining. Please remember that these videos are not censored in any way. Always, always, always preview for images, language and violence before showing to your children, even your older children. You can use the Advanced search option which will allow you to set filters, but I still recommend previewing all videos. 19. Some zoos and other reputable sites have live webcams of their animal residents. Do an internet search to locate those of interest to you and your family. And again, remember to preview for images, language and violence before showing to your children. 20. If your family keeps a timeline of history, add the following dates to your timeline: Walt Morey s birth and death dates, the approximate years this story would have taken place and the year Gentle Ben was published. 9

4 10 Answers to Comprehension Questions Chapter 1 1. The setting is Alaska. 9. Ben is 5 years old. No, he isn t full grown. 13. The author wrote that Mark s mother was not in the yard or in the kitchen window and that she had not waved to him on his way home from school for several weeks. He had a vague feeling that somehow this fact was important and he worried about it for a moment. This is a foreshadowing a hint that Mark s mother knew about Ben. 14. For the teacher s knowledge, Jamie is Mark s brother. Your students may or may not have concluded this yet. Chapter 2 6. Mark s father is feeling several different emotions. He is angry that Mark s mother allowed Mark to be so close to Ben and because she didn t tell him about what was going on with Mark and Ben. He is scared about the prospect of losing Mark to tuberculosis. He is sad because he is reminded of Jamie, who has only been gone for two years. 7. Mark: lonely, thin, brown hair, brown eyes, 13 years old, pale, caring, kind. Mark s mother: shining black hair, pretty, small-boned, lightly-tanned, thoughtful, strong-willed, determined. Mark s father: blue eyes, blond hair, tall, wind-tanned, heavy boned, weather-browned face, quick-tempered, protective. Fog Benson: dirty, quarrelsome, loud, a suspected thief, mean. Chapter 3 5. Ben didn t go off into the mountains because he was a tame bear. He had lived most of his life in a shed and hadn t been taught by his mother about living in the wild. Chapter 4 4. Mark s dad changed his mind because he wanted to keep Mark from getting sick, too, and was willing to take the chance that owning Ben might save Mark s life. Your students may have other reasons. If they do, discuss them and ask your students to explain their reasons. Chapter 6 2. Clearwater is a man who works on Far North. But he is more than that. He is also like a member of the family. He is older than Mark s dad. He had been on the crew of Mark s grandfather s boat, which is how Mark s dad knew him. Clearwater was the best man at the Andersens wedding. The author wrote that Clearwater had been in the North for sixty years.

5 7. Mark could feel empty for several reasons. First, he has not ever been away from his mother before. Second, he has never been away from Orca City before. Third, he has to leave Ben behind. Leaving these things behind leaves an empty space in Mark because they are all such important parts of his life. Also, Mark doesn t feel that he has a close relationship with his father, so he may be feeling that emptiness, too. Chapter 7 3. Mark s father went to the store in Butteville. This is known because Mr. Ames, the storekeeper, started to say something that Mark s dad had said about Ben, but Mrs. Ames quickly interrupted and Mark didn t notice what was said. 5. Mike Kelly: large man, coal-black hair and brows, broad face, black eyes, cold and unfriendly 6. Answers will vary, but the actual reason is that Mike Kelly had listened to what Mark s dad had said about Dr. Walker s fears about Mark getting sick and it softened Mike s heart. Chapter 9 1. Mike s wife and son had gone on vacation to a lake without him. While there, they went out in a rowboat and something happened. The boat was found but his wife and son were never found. Chapter Fog Benson was going to make Ben drink a bottle of beer, just like he had done with Ben when he was a cub. The men went because Fog wanted to show his friends he was the one who had trained Ben, not Mark. Fog didn t like it that people thought Mark was a better bear trainer than he was. Answers to After-Reading Comprehension Discussion 1. Mark is the protagonist and he wants Ben as a pet. 2. There are several antagonists in this story: Mark s dad, the townspeople, Mud Hole Jones and Peter King. 3. There are several answers here for each kind of conflict but these answers are not exhaustive. Your students answers may vary from these. Person against person: Mark against his dad, Mark against the townspeople, Mark against Mud Hole Jones, Mark against Peter King, Mark s dad against Fog Benson, Mark s mom against Mark s dad and Mark s dad against Mike Kelly. Person against nature: Mark s dad and Clearwater against the storm, Arnie Nichols and Sonny against the storm. Person against society: Mark and his family against the townspeople. Person against self: Mark against himself when secretly visiting Ben and when deciding to have Arnie Nichols take Ben away to an outside island. Also, Mark s dad against himself when he was deciding about buying Ben for Mark and when he knew something had to be done with Ben after Ben attacked Fog Benson. 11

6 4. Dynamic characters: Mark, Mark s dad, Mike, Peter King. Mark matures and realizes that he has to let Ben go. He accepts responsibility on the boat and takes wonderful care of Ben. Mark s dad is able to get close to Mark, something he might have been afraid to do since losing Jamie. He also becomes and advocate for Ben, instead of continuing to see him as just another bear. Mike realizes he has to go back to Seattle and face the loss of his family. His relationship with Mark softened his heart. Peter King sees that there is more value in seeing animals alive and in their own habitat than in just seeing their skins or bodies after taxidermy. Static characters: Mark s mom, Clearwater, Fog Benson, Mud Hole Jones. Mark s mom is kind, caring, and supportive throughout the story. Clearwater view of Ben changes but his character doesn t. He is strong, no-nonsense and confident. Fog Benson remains unsavory throughout the story. He is mean, money-hungry and a thief. Mud Hole Jones doesn t change either. He agrees to take Mr. King sightseeing instead of hunting only because it is financially good for him to do so. 12 Other Books You Might Enjoy Big Red by Jim Kjelgaard Hatchet by Gary Paulsen The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O Dell Little Britches by Ralph Moody* My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George Rascal by Sterling North* Sign of the Beaver by Elizabeth George Speare Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls *Current or upcoming titles from the Nature Study and More series from Orrin Street Press.

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