Reading Group Guide

Lifeboat 5

By Susan Hood

About This Book

Lifeboat 5 is a meticulously researched historical novel-in-verse that recounts the true survival story of fifteen-year-old Bess Walder and fourteen-year-old Beth Cummings. During World War II, both girls are selected to be evacuated from London to Canada on a repurposed passenger ship. Once onboard the SS City of Benares, the two meet and quickly become best friends. When their ship is hit by a German torpedo, they survive by holding on to their lifeboat and to each other in the rough, icy ocean.

In poems that capture the immediacy of every moment, Susan Hood’s novel speaks to the power of courage, hope, forgiveness, and, most of all, friendship.

Note to Teachers: Lifeboat 5 has a companion book, Lifeboat 12, which tells the story of one of the only other lifeboats that survived the attack on SS City of Benares: the boat carrying Ken Sparks, Derek Capel, Howard Claytor, Paul Shearing, Billy Short, and Fred Steels. You may wish to read both books for a fuller understanding of the attack on the evacuation ship and the children who survived.

Discussion Questions

1. The first section of the book is titled “Enemies.” Who are the enemies that Bess worries about? What do you think she means when she says, “It’s not safe inside. / It’s not safe outside.”? (p. 3)

2. How is Bess’s experience in the orphanage and on the ship different from her brother Louis’s experience? Do you think the difference has to do with the fact that she is a girl or that she is older? Use evidence from the text to support your answer.

3. What do Bess and Beth realize they have in common? Have you ever experienced a time that you met someone and knew right away that you would be friends. How did you know?

4. Describe the first days of life on the ship. How do the crew members treat the children on board? Support your answers with examples.

5. Explain the evacuation drill that the children practice regularly onboard the ship. How do you think practicing the drill makes them feel? Why is it important to practice how to respond in emergencies?

6. Whose perspective is the poem “Unwelcome Visitors” (pp. 55-56) written from or about? Explain your answer.

7. Juxtaposition is a literary term for placing two things next to each other for contrast. Susan Hood juxtaposes the way the Nazis are attacking the Allies with the way that other girls at school bully Bess and Beth. Why do you think the author wants the reader to think about bullying in this way?

8. What is different about the experience that Colin Richardson, the boy that Louis meets when he is exploring, is having on the ship? How do you feel about the fact that some children’s families were able to purchase their way onto the evacuation ship? (pp. 68-71)

9. What about Michael Rennie impresses Bess and Beth? Describe what happens to Michael. What makes him a hero?

10. Reflect on the role Bess’s shabby green robe plays throughout the novel. Why is it important to her, and how does it relate back to Bess and her emotional state or character development? Consider specific mentions of it on pages 40, 88, 120, and 192 for examples.

11. Why are the children allowed to take off their life jackets? (pp. 85-87) Irony is a literary term describing when what happens in the opposite of what you expect. What is ironic about the timing of the decision to let the children sleep without life jackets?

12. How is the actual emergency evacuation different from the evacuation drills that the children practiced? What does Bess see when she finally reaches the deck of the ship? (pp. 103-105)

13. Discuss the role of hands throughout the story. Think beyond being a body part, but more symbolically, and how that imagery is represented across the novel. How are they represented as tools for work, play, comfort, and survival? What other concepts could hands be used to represent? Look for references of hands and the messaging they allude to throughout the book.

14. Imagery is a literary term for descriptive words that appeal to the senses. Find examples of imagery in the description of what Beth and Bess experience as they are in the lifeboat and as they cling to it for survival. Find words that describe what the girls see, smell, hear, taste, and feel.

15. Several times, the evacuees sing songs to lift their spirits: “We’ll Meet Again” (p. 31), “Wish Me Luck (As You Wave Me Goodbye)” (p. 53), and “Rule, Britannia!” (p. 161) How does music impact you emotionally? What songs do you listen to when you need to be encouraged, comforted, inspired, or relaxed?

16. How do Beth and Bess help each other (physically and emotionally) while they are waiting to be rescued? What happens to Louis during the evacuation? Who helps him survive?

17. Explain what gives Bess hope as she waits to be rescued. Why is hope necessary for survival? Why do you think the poet Emily Dickinson compares hope to a bird in her famous poem, “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers”? https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42889/hope-is-the-thing-with-feathers-314

18. As Bess waits for rescue with Beth, what does she realize about the girls who bullied her at school? What does she realize about herself? (p. 154).

19. How does the form of the poem “Sorcery” help convey a shift in mood? (pp. 179–182)

20. The second to last section of the book is called “Elegy,” a word for a song or poem of sad remembrance for the dead. (pp. 195–214) How are the poems in this section different in tone from the poems in the previous sections of the book? How do you think Bess has changed because of what she has been through?

21. The final section tells the reader what happened to Bess and Beth after they grew up. What parts of their lives in this section surprised you? Susan Hood titled this last section “Empathy,” a word that means the ability to understand or share the way another person feels. Why do you think having empathy might help someone be able to forgive?

22. Susan Hood’s book contains resources and research about the SS City of Benares. What sources did Susan Hood use to research the book? Why do you think she included quotes from real survivors of the CORB program? How does knowing that the events in the book really happened change the way you feel about the story? After reading this book, what would you like to know more about?

Primary and Secondary Sources

This book provides an exceptional resource for getting students to think about primary and secondary sources. Guide students through the list of resources (pp. 231–242) that Susan Hood used to write her book. How many of these sources are primary sources? How many are secondary?

Help students select a current or recent historical event and locate both primary sources (photographs, interviews, video, documents) and secondary sources (articles, commentary) about the event. In the style of Lifeboat 5, adapt this research into a poem that includes at least one direct quote from someone who experienced the event.

Extension Activities

1. In the Poetry Notes (pp. 229–30), Hood explains that while most of Lifeboat 5 is written in free verse, all the poems use poetic devices and several are written in specific poetry forms. As a class, work together to create a glossary of poetry terms that you find in the book, including examples from the text. Then select one of the poems written in a specific form and analyze the way that the form of the poem adds to the poem’s effect or meaning. Consider the layout of the different poems, as well as their shapes on the page, and what they might reflect about the story or the characters.

2. Throughout the novel, Susan Hood uses slang expressions that were popular in England during the 1940s. Using context clues, try to determine what the words mean. Create a dictionary of these British slang expressions and their meanings, and list slang expressions from today that have similar meanings:

a) knackered (p. 16)

b) ruddy (p. 23)

c) full of beans (p. 25)

d) jolly (p. 41)

e) crikey (p. 45)

f) Bob’s your uncle (p. 49)

g) cheesed off (p. 49)

h) Cheerio (p. 52)

i) chin wag (p. 61)

j) larking about (p. 74)

k) dishy (p. 79)

l) cheeky (p. 79)

m) daft (p. 79)

n) blimey (p. 84)

3. Bess and Beth tell each other about their first experiences with evacuation during the war. (pp. 77–79) Research child evacuation during WWII. Why were children separated from their families? Where were they sent? What was the experience like? After you have researched the topic, imagine that you were a child being evacuated during the war. Write a letter home to your family letting them know that you arrived safely and describing your journey and new home.

4. When the girls in Bess’s room unpack their belongings, they each have a single item that they were allowed to bring to remind them of home. (pp. 38–41) Write a descriptive essay about the one object that you would pack to remind you of home if you had to leave everything else behind. Include a detailed description of the object and explanation of why it is important to you.

5. Onboard the SS City of Benares, the children are amazed by the abundant selection of food. (pp. 44–49) During WWII, food was rationed: people were only allowed to purchase small quantities of specific foods. Why do you think the government needed to limit the type and amount of food available to citizens? Using the library and trusted internet sources, research rationing during the war in England and America and prepare a presentation explaining how rationing worked. What foods would you miss the most if you could only eat the food in rations?

6. Bess tells Beth that she wanted to be a Wren (pp. 79–80): a volunteer with the Women’s Royal Naval Service. Research the role that Wrens played during WWII. What other organizations in England offered roles for civilian volunteers during the war? Choose one and create a poster, radio advertisement, or short film to recruit volunteers. Include any special requirements (age, education, etc.) and a description of the position’s duties.

7. During WWI and WWII soldiers and civilians responded by writing poems: a genre known as War Poetry. Read some of war poems written during this period. Using examples from Lifeboat 5 and some of the poems that you read, write an argumentative essay about why poetry is a particularly effective way to convey the experience of being in war.

8. Much of the crew of the SS City of Benares was made up of Lascars: a name used for Southeast Asian sailors who worked on ships. Susan Hood writes about these sailors in the section “About the Lascars” on pages 242–3. As a class, brainstorm a list of questions that you have about these sailors, then divide up the questions and research the answers. Share the results of your research with your classmates, or if you had difficulties finding information about them, discuss as a class why that might be so.

Note to Teachers: If you have computer access, you may want to create a class website or sharable document that compiles the questions and answers.

9. When she learns about icebergs, Bess relates them to herself, saying: “People will discover that, / like the icebergs, / there’s more to me / than meets the eye.” (p. 84) Create a visual map of yourself: What parts of you are visible to others? What parts are beneath the surface? While there are many ways to create a visual map, you might want to consider making a collage or mosaic with pictures and words. What did this activity teach you about the importance of not judging people based on outward appearances?

10. Lifeboat 5 opens with a quote from Mahatma Gandhi: “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” Consider this quote in the context of the last two poems in the book, “Sisters” and “The Problem of Forgiveness.” (pp. 217–222) How does forgiving the German soldiers that attacked her ship impact Bess? Write a personal essay about a time that you made the choice to forgive someone. How did practicing forgiveness make you stronger?

Note: All page numbers refer to the hardcover edition of this title.

Guide prepared by Amy Jurskis, English Department Chair at Oxbridge Academy.

This guide has been provided by Simon & Schuster for classroom, library, and reading group use. It may be reproduced in its entirety or excerpted for these purposes. For more Simon & Schuster guides and classroom materials, please visit simonandschuster.net.