Away with the Birds

The blurb on the back of the book and the picture on the cover give some clues about the story. You can also read a Review of the book.

Challenge 1. See if you can guess what the story is about. Do you think Sebastian will come across some problems? What do you think they might be? How do you think it will end? What does the title mean? Discuss your opinions with others in your team.
Email your team's answers to the Away with the Birds Mailing List - away@teacher.schools.net.au

Challenge 2. In Chapter 2, Mr. Neary gave Seb some tips on racing pigeons. See if you can find them and make a list. Read about training Homing pigeons and see if you were right.

Challenge 3. Read the article on Homing Pigeons What did the Greeks use them for? What other ancient race of people trained homing pigeons?
Email your answers to Away with the Birds Mailing List away@teacher.schools.net.au

Challenge 4. Imagine you are Mr. Neary. Write about your feelings on moving to the Retirement Home and being no longer able to look after your pigeons when they have been a major part of your life and company for you in old age. Think about why Mr.Neary put his name down for the Retirement Home. Do you think he had many choices?

Some Retirement Homes allow old people to keep their pets as long as they are small dogs or cats. Do you think Mr. Neary should have been allowed to take his pigeons?
Post your ideas to Away with the Birds Mailing List - away@teacher.schools.net.au

Challenge 5. Seb had some problems making new friends at school. What do you think were some of the mistakes he made?

Seb also learned a lot because of the pigeons but it wasn't just knowledge about keeping them and racing them. What do you think were the most important lessons he learned?

You can read the author profile of Errol Broome and see how the author goes about creating her stories and other books she has written.


Pigeon loft

Picture credits: animated pigeon and pigeon loft from Homing pigeon webquest: (http://www.can-do.com/uci/ssi2000/pigeons.html)

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