The Explorer

How does Katherine Rundell use imagery and personification to turn the Amazon rainforest into a living force or character? How does the rainforest setting inform the story’s themes and develop its human characters?

Why is it necessary for the children to spend a few days on their own, learning to survive and understand the jungle, before they meet the explorer? How might the story have played out differently if he had found them on the plane?

What kind of person is the explorer, and how does his initial unfriendliness belie his true character? What kind of mentor is he for the children, and in what ways do the children also serve as mentors or teachers for him?