Yearling, The - Study Guide

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Pulitzer Prize Winner 1939, Lewis Carroll Shelf Award, Main selection of the Book of the Month Club in April 1938. It was the best-selling novel in America in 1938, selling over a quarter of a million copies. It has been translated into Spanish, Chinese, French, Japanese, German, Italian, Russian and 22 other languages. 

In contrast to the quiet, peaceful lives of the Baxters, their nearest neighbors, the Forresters, are loud, argumentative, and prone to being troublemakers. Jody finds their zest for life and their free and easy ways appealing. But relations between the Baxters and the Forresters are strained when Penny and Jody intervene in a fight between Lem Forrester and a friend of the family.

When the Baxters' hogs go missing, Penny and Jody venture into the scrub to search for them, suspecting that the Forresters are responsible. On the hunt Penny is bitten by a rattlesnake and nearly dies. While he is recovering from the snake bite, Penny allows Jody to take in a motherless fawn and raise it as a pet. Jody names the fawn Flag, and the deer becomes Jody's constant companion.

When reality strikes, and the family finds themselves facing hunger because of the deer, Jody must make decisions that will take him through the passage from boyhood to manhood.

Through Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Pulitzer Prize winning tale, students will learn:

Background Information:  Learn more about Florida in the late 1800s, tourism, and the rapid economic growth as agriculture booms.

Author Biography

Vocabulary words used throughout the novel, utilizing a variety of activities to stimulate retention and growth.

Literary Techniques: Setting, dialect, characterization, mood, personification, antonym, synonym, simile, metaphor, in context, comparison, foreshadowing, tone, theme, conflict, title, coming-of-age.

Moral Lessons and Character Values: Family, natural law, time alone, time in nature, controlling your tongue, good & wise behavior, loyalty and friendship, fear, sorrow, fighting, reconciliation & forgiveness, revenge, prodigal son, putting childish ways behind, growing up.

Activities and Writing Assignments: Mapping, history of Florida research, geography, hurricanes, bears, muzzle-loading rifles, research sink holes or whooping cranes, write a poem.

Suggestions for Further Reading:  We include an in-depth reading list of more plays by the same author(s) and other books that tie in with, or are similar to, The Yearling. Movie suggestions included.

All of the unit lessons are written from a Christian perspective!

Features and Benefits of the study guide

 Printed Workbook Format

• Large 8.5x11 format is convenient to read and easy on the eyes
• Every question has plenty of whitespace for student’s answers
• Encourages neat and clean handwriting practice
• Easily transports without the need for a laptop or other expensive equipment
• Provides a permanent record of the student’s work
• Convenient, removable answer key included for the teacher!

 CD Format

• Provides the study guide in universally compatible PDF format (works on Mac AND Windows)
• No costly software purchases necessary
• Our Interactive Study Guide should be opened with the FREE Adobe Reader program. With the interactive feature, students have the capability of entering their answers directly on the computer and saving their work in progress.
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• Or choose to conveniently print what you need, when you need it:
  • Print the whole guide at once
  • Print single lessons or pages as the student completes them
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• Easy to use with multiple students
• Complete separate answer key file included for the teacher!