TEACHERS NOTES

Vulture’s Gate

Vulture’s Gate is richly layered with complex ideas about law and order, the future, science, reproductive technology and gender relations. Students will find philosophical and political challenges lie beneath the action and drama of the story.

Vulture’s Gate is a recommended text to support the teaching of sustainability in the Australian National Curriculum.

Judith Way, a teacher-librarian with a Graduate Diploma of Children’s Literature and a Master of Arts, has prepared an insightful set of teacher’s notes.

Material Downloads

Vulture's Gate Teachers' Notes

Sovereign Hill Notes

Linked Resources

Dr Charlotte Beyer of the University of Gloucestershire has written an essay on Vulture’s Gate which is included in The Age of Dystopia: One Genre, Our Fears and Our Future, published by Cambridge Scholars Press, Dr Beyer notes in her abstract:

Since dystopia reflects the fears of society as a whole, this book will have broad appeal for any reader, and will be particularly useful to teachers in a variety of settings, such as in a high school or college-level classroom to teach dystopian literature, or in a comparative literature classroom to show how the genre has appeared in multiple locales at different times. Indeed, the book's interdisciplinary nature allows it to be of use in classes focussing on politics, bioethics, privacy issues, women's studies, and any number of additional topics.

Behind The Book: Vultures Gate

Featured

India Dark, The Four Seasons of Lucy McKenzie, The Lilliputians, Vulture’s Gate, Zarconi’s Magic Flying Fish, Bridie’s Fire, Becoming Billy Dare, A Prayer for Blue Delaney, The Secret Life of Maeve Lee Kwong, Walking Home with Marie-Claire, Children of the Wind Series, Strangers on Country, Kids Who Did, Topsy-turvy World, A Penny to Remember, The Red Camel, The Clever Cats Book Club, When Billy was a Dog, Eat the Sky

Watch this space

India Dark, The Four Seasons of Lucy McKenzie, The Lilliputians, Vulture’s Gate, Zarconi’s Magic Flying Fish, Bridie’s Fire, Becoming Billy Dare, A Prayer for Blue Delaney, The Secret Life of Maeve Lee Kwong, Walking Home with Marie-Claire, Children of the Wind Series, Strangers on Country, Kids Who Did, Topsy-turvy World, A Penny to Remember, The Red Camel, The Clever Cats Book Club, When Billy was a Dog, Eat the Sky

Teachers on Vulture’s Gate in the Classroom

With hints of Mad Max, and Z for Zachariah, the story is original and involving, with two very strongly delineated main characters, and I can see it working well as a class novel with middle school students.

Fran Knight, Children’s literature specialist

This novel covers the science fiction/fantasy genre and would be ideal for good readers of 12 plus. Ideal for small group discussion with capable readers who are prepared to think beyond what is immediately obvious and challenge themselves to deep, critical thinking tasks. This book would greatly complement a SOSE unit about “The Future” or simply be an excellent class novel for slightly older readers.
You will still be thinking about this story long after you have turned the final page.

Francesca Ann Massey, Exeter Primary School, Tas

t would be an excellent book to read aloud to an old enough group (as determined by the teacher). There would be issues in every chapter to stimulate discussion, debate or written opinion pieces. Obvious themes emerging include the breakdown of law and order, the human need for freedom, balancing order and freedom in our own society, benefits of totalitarianism for the colonists, the emerging character of Roc and his motives and methods of leadership, the importance of trust in relationships between Bo and Callum or between Roc and his boys, explaining the changing behaviour of Callum’s ‘father’ Rusty, projecting a future for those who escape aboard the Bouboulina, speculating about changes to order and control following the destruction at the colony.

Stephanie Hanscamp, Mountain District Christian School, Vic