Chapter 1:
In Chapter 1, we have been introduced to the three main characters in the book, the setting and also the relationship that exists between the characters.
• Abel Jackson, is a ten year old boy who loves the sea, “Abel loved being underwater” (Page 5, and is an excellent diver and “could never remember a time when he could not dive” (Page 5). His mum is his teacher, “Everything he knew on land or under the sea he learned from her” (Page 6). He searches for abalone with his mum around the front of Robbers Head. This is where he meets the biggest fish he had ever seen, thinking it is a shark, for the first time. Initially, he was scared and feared for his life, “He whirled around to see a huge mouth and eye the size
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Blueback is more interested in stealing crayfish from Dora than seeing Abel and Dora when they return to Robbers Head; however Abel has not lost interest “Let’s go back down, “said Abel, still tingling with excitement (Page 21).
Chapter 3:
Abel goes to school, however, couldn’t stop daydreaming about Blueback, “Just imagine all the things he’d seen!” (Page 26) .He also realised his years were secret, a mystery, and wondered if when a fish died all those years just vanished.
-That afternoon, Abel and Dora head out to see Blueback. Blueback hovered around them, checking them out and interacted with Abel in a playful manner.
That evening Abel decided, “One day, I’ll study fish until I know what they think, I’ll become an expert” (page 29).
Abel’s dad died at thirty-two (Page 50) when Abel was two years old. He was killed by a tiger shark when he was pearl diving. An old peppermint tree, near the orchard, was a place Dora visited to cry, think about and remember her husband.She kept a candle, some pearl shells and a dolphin he had carved from driftwood there. The tree was used as a shrine to his
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He did not want to go and leave behind his whole life and everything he knew, especially his mother and Blueback. “He’d just have to count the weeks till the holidays” (Page 47). He belonged at Longboat Bay and believed he would “wither up and die away from this place” (Page 48).
Abel did not like the big town and felt “hemmed in” (Page 48). He felt uncomfortable and trapped with the crowds of people, the constant noise and fast pace of everyone around him. “Home throbbed in him like a headache” (page 49).The only time Abel felt free was when he slept and he dreamt of Blueback. Once, he dreamt that Blueback lead him deep into the water where he saw many drowned people including Mad Macka and his dead father.This dream disturbed Abel.
Dora wrote letters and sent coral and shells to Abel. He often held a shell to his ear and closed his eyes and let himself believe that he could hear the sea to that he could escape from where he was and return to the sea. He longed to return to the ocean.
Chapter 6:
Abel returned home during the summer school holidays. His mum met the bus and he was so excited to be home. “As they came out of the forest and onto Jackson land he hooted and crowed” (Page