Part 1
Sophie is a thirteen-year-old girl adopted into a big, loud family, and she is about to do something wild: sail across the whole Atlantic Ocean, from the coast of the United States to England, to meet her grandfather Bompie for the very first time. Her boat is the Wanderer, a forty-five-foot sailboat, and her crew is all family — three uncles (steady Dock, gruff Stew, and gentle Mo) and two cousins (bookish, fact-quoting Brian and joking, big-hearted Cody). The whole voyage reaches us through two journals kept side by side, Sophie’s and Cody’s, so we hear the same events from two very different minds. Some of the men doubt that a girl — and a dreamer at that — belongs on so dangerous a trip. Stranger still, Sophie loves to tell Bompie’s old stories, tales in which young Bompie always tumbles into water and is pulled out, even though she has never once met him, and the family cannot explain how she knows them. As they load the Wanderer and take her on a shakedown cruise to test every rope and sail, Sophie feels the sea already calling to her — thrilling, and a little frightening at once.
| Section | What you will practice |
|---|---|
| Vocabulary | Setting-sail words: voyage, hull, crew, shakedown, orphan… |
| Literary Elements | Two first-person journals, the Wanderer as a symbol, and a hidden past |
| Cross-Curricular | The parts of a sailboat and how a crew readies her to sail |
| Ch. | What happens |
|---|---|
| Chapters 1–4 (Preparations) | The Dreamer Sets Out — Sophie, adopted and thirteen, prepares to sail the Wanderer to England to meet Bompie; the family puzzles over how she already knows his stories. |
| Chapters 5–14 (Shakedown) | Testing the Boat — the crew takes the Wanderer on a shakedown cruise, learning her ropes and sails, and Sophie tells the first Bompie story, in which young Bompie drives a car into a river. |
Part 1’s words launch a voyage: a family crew readies the Wanderer’s hull and sails, runs a shakedown cruise to test her, and carries an orphan girl toward a grandfather she has never met. Before the Wanderer can cross an ocean, her crew must know every part of her by name, because on a boat the right word at the right moment can save a life. A sailboat starts with the hull, the curved outer body that floats and keeps the sea out. Beneath it hangs the keel, a heavy fin reaching down into the water that keeps the boat from tipping and stops the wind from shoving it sideways. Rising in the middle is the mast, the tall pole that holds the sails, and swinging out near its foot is the boom.
Together, these meanings give the episode verbal precision.
ⓘ The vocabulary words in this list are selected to help you understand and complete this workbook. Some may not appear verbatim in the original novel.
The narrative traces the launch: a dreamer adopted into a sailing family, a boat named Wanderer made ready and tested, two cousins’ journals, and the puzzle of a girl who knows a grandfather’s stories without ever having met him. Chapters 1–4 (Preparations): The Dreamer Sets Out — Sophie, adopted and thirteen, prepares to sail the Wanderer to England to meet Bompie; the family puzzles over how she already knows his stories. Chapters 5–14 (Shakedown): Testing the Boat — the crew takes the Wanderer on a shakedown cruise, learning her ropes and sails, and Sophie tells the first Bompie story, in which young Bompie drives a car into a river. Sophie is a thirteen-year-old girl adopted into a big, loud family, and she is about to do something wild: sail across the whole Atlantic Ocean, from the coast of the United States to England, to meet her grandfather Bompie for the very first time.
The resulting chain can be read as a coherent sequence.
- They load provisions and ready the Wanderer.
- Sophie tells the first Bompie story, about a car in a river.
- Sophie is adopted into a large sailing family.
- The crew plans a voyage across the Atlantic to Bompie.
- The crew takes the boat on a shakedown cruise.
Part 1 sets three tools working: a story told through two diaries (dual narration), a boat whose name mirrors its heroine (symbol), and clues about a hidden past dropped early (foreshadowing). The boat is named Wanderer, and the name is no accident — it is a symbol that points straight at Sophie. Cody observes that Sophie seems to have more than one side to her: a bold wanderer who longs to rush out to sea, and a quiet watcher who holds back, guarding something she will not name. This wanderer-versus-watcher pattern is a motif that returns again and again. The sea itself works the same double way in the book — it calls to Sophie like freedom and adventure, yet it also frightens her for reasons she cannot yet explain.
The chosen technique controls the reader’s viewpoint.
Two journals, a boat named for restlessness, a girl who knows stories she should not, a sea that both calls and frightens. Notice that this story is told through TWO diaries at once — Sophie’s and Cody’s — a craft choice called dual (or alternating) narration. The same events reach us twice, filtered through two very different minds: Sophie the dreamer, who feels everything deeply and hides as much as she reveals, and Cody the joker, who watches the family sharply and often sees what Sophie cannot admit. Creech uses the two voices as a kind of stereo: where Sophie’s journal leaves a gap or a mystery, Cody’s fills it in, and vice versa. Keep both narrators in view. When Sophie insists she is fine, watch what Cody notices instead — the truth of this book often lives in the space between the two journals.
A defensible conclusion requires balanced judgment.
Picture the dock on the morning they leave. A forty-five-foot boat rocks against the pilings, her hull scrubbed, her sails bagged, her lockers packed with provisions for weeks at sea. Around her moves a crew that is really a family — three uncles arguing over ropes, one cousin quoting facts no one asked for, another cracking jokes to hide his nerves. And in the middle of it stands a thirteen-year-old girl who was once an orphan and is now a daughter, listening to the water slap the hull as if it were speaking only to her. She tells a story about a grandfather she has never met, a boy who fell into a river long ago, and no one can say how she knows it. The sea glitters, wide and open and waiting. Sophie cannot wait to run to it. She also, somewhere she will not look, is afraid.
Before the Wanderer could cross an ocean, her crew had to know every part of her by name, because on a boat the right word at the right moment can save a life. A sailboat begins with the hull, the curved outer body that floats and keeps the sea out. Beneath the hull hangs the keel, a heavy fin reaching down into the water; it keeps the boat from tipping over and stops the wind from shoving it sideways. Rising in the middle is the mast, a tall pole that holds up the sails, and swinging out at its foot is the boom. The front of the boat is the bow and the back is the stern; face forward, and the left side is port while the right side is starboard.
The sails are the engine of a sailboat, catching the wind to push the boat along. The large sail behind the mast is the mainsail, and the smaller triangle in front is the jib. To steer, a sailor turns a wheel or pushes a tiller, which swings the rudder, a flat blade at the stern. Learning these words is the first job of any new crew, and it is why sailors take a boat on a ‘shakedown’ cruise — a short practice run to test every rope, sail, and fitting before trusting them far from land. On the open Atlantic there would be no dock to return to and no one to ask, so even a dreamer like Sophie had to master the boat’s whole vocabulary.
This writing task is optional and is not part of your auto-graded score. The feedback below checks only the basics — length, spelling, and grammar — not whether your ideas are right or wrong. It is meant for classroom discussion and creative practice, so feel free to use your imagination!
Writing Task — Part 1 “Toward Someone I’ve Never Met”
Sophie sails a whole ocean to meet a grandfather she has never met, carrying stories about him in her heart. Write about a person you have long wanted to meet or know better — a distant relative, someone from your family’s past, or someone you admire. Why do they matter to you, and what would you want to say or ask? 6–10 sentences. End with what you hope meeting them would feel like.
No right or wrong — close the screen and tell someone nearby what happened in this part. Can’t find anyone? Tell yourself out loud. The moment you teach it, you truly understand it.
Part 1 Complete!
You finished Chapters 1–14 of The Wanderer.
Here are your auto-graded results:
Your writing was checked automatically for length, spelling, grammar, and whether you included the key parts of the scene. Scroll back to Part 5 anytime to read your feedback and improve your work.
Independent study guide by Garden Heights. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Sharon Creech. Contains original analysis only; no text from the novel is reproduced. Reference text: This workbook follows Sharon Creech’s classic text (the standard Puffin edition sold worldwide). Revised 2023 UK editions change some wording and may not match the vocabulary studied here.