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It’s 1918. Pam Lowder and her papa raise the best homing pigeons on the North Carolina coast—homers with the rare ability to fly at night. While Papa’s away in World War I, a stranger with a foreign accent comes to town. Soon pam’s best birds start to disappear, and Pam is sure the stranger is stealing them. Instead, she finds evidence of something much worse. Could the stranger be an enemy spy, threatening everything Pam holds dear---even Papa? |
| Talking About the Story |
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Currituck was situated on a river and a sound, near deep woods and swamps. Many plot elements in the story depend heavily upon the setting. Talk about ways in which the author uses setting to advance the story’s action.
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Create a geographical profile for Currituck. Talk about how geography might have affected life in Currituck. Consider transportation, ways people make a living, settlement patterns, housing, food, etc. Compare life in Currituck to life in your own town or city. |
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Even though Mr. Arminger spoke with a German accent, he told Pam he was "as American as she was, yet his cultural heritage was very different from Pam’s and it made him an object of suspicion and distrust. In what ways did his cultural heritage set him apart, make him appear strange and foreign? Even though Pam thought of him as a foreigner, she believed he understood her like no one else ever had. Why did she believe this? How did it affect their relationship? How did it affect the events in the story? |
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Ours is a country made up of many diverse immigrant groups, each bringing with them their own culture and customs. Talk about the ethnic/immigrant groups in your area and how each has contributed to your community. |
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What was the secret weapon Mr. Arminger was developing? Why do you think his experiments were classified? What might have happened if news of his experiments had fallen into the wrong hands? Why do you think he chose to trust Pam with his secret? |
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In the story, Mr. Conner Eagles calls Mr. Arminger’s truck "a new-fangled contraption." What are other instances of emerging technology we see in the story? |
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Compare the technology of 1918 to our own modern technology. Talk about ways in which technology was changing, or had already changed, the lives of Currituck residents and how modern advances in technology are changing your life. Discuss whether these changes are for the better or the worse. |
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When Papa left for the war, Mama had to go to work in Mr. Bagley’s drug store. While this helped the family economically, it brought about other hardships for Pam. What were they? |
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When Mattie said she "hankered for" what Pam had, Pam immediately thought in terms of economics---money---and answered that her family wasn’t that much better off than the Suggses. Yet there are quite a few instances that demonstrate how the Lowders were better off. See how many you can find. |
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Compare and contrast the economic situation of the Lowders, the Suggses, and the Bagleys. Think in terms of ready money, employment, resources vs.needs, housing, education, food, clothing, and opportunities for the future. |
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Explain what Mama meant by the following: "Funny how quick that German spy business settled down once [Mr. Arminger] commenced to spending good American dollars." Why do you think Mr. Arminger’s spending money in the community had an effect on what people thought of him? Was this right or wrong? Why? In what ways does economics(money) affect the way we think about things? Are there good reasons for this? What are they? Do you think kids are as susceptible to this influence as adults are? Be honest with your answers. |
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Pam seemed surprised that Mattie considered her privileged, especially after Henry had called her family "poor." Talk about how perceptions of "rich" and "poor" are relative. Have there been times when you’ve felt rich? Poor? Why do you think you felt that way? |
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Why did Mama refer to Henry Bagley as "an affliction Pam would have to bear"? Do you think Henry was a bully? Talk about how Pam handled her conflicts with Henry. What would you have done in Pam’s situation? How did Henry’s nasty behavior toward Pam backfire on him? Have you ever had to face a bully? How did you handle it? |
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Mama thought Mrs. Suggs had been wrong in not allowing her children to go to school, yet Mrs. Suggs felt schooling would be a waste of time for them since they could never hope to be anything more than tenant farmers. Who do you think was right? Why? Discuss whether or not education is important for its own sake. |
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During a war, a government will often use people’s fears and prejudices to heighten patriotism and instill support for the war effort. What instances of this do we see in the story? Do you think the government’s tactics were right or wrong? What similarities/differences do you see in our government’s modern-day response to national threats like Sept. 11 and the invasion of Iraq |
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Writing About The Story
In a mystery, the author must include clues to tip off the reader so the reader has a chance to solve the mystery along with the sleuth. And of course the sleuth must discover clues that will eventually lead to him/her solving the mystery. But the author also uses false clues called "red herrings" to throw the sleuth---and the reader---off the trail so that the solution won’t come too easily. Now that you know the conclusion of the story, go back and see if you can identify all the clues the author gives, as well as the red herrings. (Were you tricked by the red herrings?) Now plot out the story in a time line, adding in the clues and noting how each piece of evidence builds upon the last. Then write your own mystery, using clues and red herrings.
Pretend that you are Pam, writing a letter to Papa telling him about the events in the story. Be sure to use the first person "I" and describe the events as if they have happened to you.
At the end of the story, the mystery of the missing pigeons has been solved, yet there are some loose ends involving the characters that are not tied up; the author has left them to your imagination. Predict what happens to some of the characters after the close of the story and write an epilogue (a short concluding section) of your own. Some questions you might want to consider: Does Papa come home safely from the war? Is Henry punished for his nasty trick on Pam? Does he ever stop being a bully? What happens to Mattie and Buell? Does their father come home safely? Does Pam end up going to high school? How does Pam’s helping Mr. Arminger change her life?
In The Night Flyers, several of the characters---including Pam---do things that would be considered by most people to be unethical: lying, stealing, disobeying parents, deceiving people. Sometimes the characters rationalize---make excuses for---their behavior; sometimes they simply decide to take the consequences for their behavior; other times they try to escape the consequences. Choose an instance where a character acts unethically and examine his/her motives. Write about it. Then tell whether you think the character’s behavior was justified and tell why or why not.
Henry Bagley is the antagonist of the story ---the antihero---to Pam’s protagonist. He is also an unsympathetic character, a character portrayed in such a way that the readers probably will not like him or her. Yet, as we know, there are always two sides to every story. Choose a scene from the book where Henry and Pam clash and rewrite it from Henry’s point of view. Does it change the way you feel about Henry? About Pam?
The author of The Night Flyers writes the dialogue of certain characters in dialect, words and pronunciation used only in a particular area or culture. This is often done to better define a character. Since a reader obviously can’t hear the characters speak, speech patterns are suggested in the dialogue by techniques such as word choice, figurative language, slang, and use of proper or improper grammar. Compare Pam’s way of speaking with Alice Bagley’s or with Mattie’s, then look at the following characters and tell how their speech patterns help characterize them:Pam, Mattie, Alice, Mama, Mrs. Bagley, Mr. Arminger. Write a story where one or more of your characters has a distinct way of speaking.
Choose a scene from The Night Flyers and rewrite it as a play, with dialogue, stage directions, props, etc.
Choose a scene or a moment from The Night Flyers where a character expresses intense emotions, then write a poem about it. You may write in first person, as if you were experiencing the emotions yourself, or in third person. You may even want to write about an instance where you have experienced the same emotions as the character does. You may write either a concrete poem or a haiku. |
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| Learning More |
Pam had a map of Europe tacked on her bedroom wall to show the movement of American troops across England and France. Some of the places on the map were Chateau-thierry, Soissons, Catigny, Belleau Wood. These are all places where battles took place in World War I. Find out where these places are. Make a map like Pam’s for your classroom with battle sites marked by blue stars. See if you can discover the sites of other battles and add these to the map. Choose one of the places to research. Find out about the geography of the area, the history, the culture, and the people. Can you find information about the effect of the war had on the people who lived there?
Research World War I. Find out how it started and how the United States got involved. Why was World War I called the Great War? What is Armistice Day, and why was it so named?
The Pennsylvania Dutch, or Amish, were immigrants who came to the United States from Germany, beginning in the 1700’s, to escape religious persecution. The Amish are one of the few immigrant groups who have managed to maintain a distinct culture in America’s melting pot. Find out more about the Amish people, their lives, their religious beliefs, their traditions, and their culture.
Tenant farmers, or sharecroppers, like the Suggses were once the backbone of farming in the American South. Find out more about the sharecropping system and the part it played in American agriculture. Trace the history and development of agriculture in our country, and look at the effect geography, economics, and politics had on that development. See if you can discover some famous Americans who began life as tenant or "dirt" (subsistence) farmers.
Research the Lusitania. Compare its sinking to that of the Titanic. Try to find out whether divers have discovered the wrecksite and whether they have been able to retrieve artifacts from the wreck. If so, where are these artifacts exhibited? What do the artifacts reveal about life in the early part of the last century?
Homing pigeons played a vital role in World War I. Find out more about the role animals have played in warfare throughout the ages. |
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Reading More
Here are some books you might enjoy on related topics.
Fiction:
Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon, by Dhan Gopal Mukerji (Newbery Award, 1927)
Proud To Be Amish, by Mildred Jordan
Apple in the Attic: A Pennsylvania Legen, by Mildred Jordan
Nonfiction:
Chanco: A U.S. Army Homing Pigeon, by Helen Orr Watson
The Pigeons That Went to War, by Gordon Hayes
The War Animals, by Robert Lubow
Sharecroppers: The Way We Really Were, by Roy Taylor
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Chapter One
suppress
dirt daubers
expeditionary
doughboy
nary
locust
stile
adamant(ly)
Hun
bob(bed) hair
brogans
Chapter Four
overcast
sluggish(ly)
horde
canker
censor(ed)
tussling
Chapter Seven
lolling
irked
pursed
concoction
croup
riptide
persimmon
forlorn
Chapter Ten
foliage
assassinate
drone
sinister
kindling
lumber(ed)
ruckus
Chapter Thirteen
cower(ed)
sedge(d)
plight
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Chapter Two
beckon(ed)
tote
linger
seine
refrain
Chapter Five
toiletries
provoke(d)
wrath
flounce(d)
flit(ted)
Chapter Eight
inhuman
berate(d)
brindled
incriminat(ed)
defy(ing)
desolate
Chapter Eleven
unflappable
dupe(d)
confidential
alibi
topographical
baffle(d)
sneer
deject(ed) |
Chapter Three
haunches
consent
courtesy
beholden
Chapter Six
ulimatum
unfurl(ing)
agitate(d)
animated
vaulted
exile
Chapter Nine
cicada
logic
hoist
apprehension
shirk(ing)
hummock
covey
jostle(d)
Chapter Twelve
zealous
cockleburs
menacing(ly)
rile(d)
plummet(ed)
chide(d)
snobbish(ness)
emerge(d) |
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