Orbiting Jupiter: Chapters 1–3

by Gary D. Schmidt
When twelve-year-old Maine farmboy Jackson Hurd meets his new foster brother, another middle schooler whom others see as trouble, he learns what it means to have someone's back.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–3, Chapters 4–6, Chapters 7–9
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. bale
    a large bundle bound for storage or transport
    In the Big Barn, Joseph and I tore up three bales and filled the bin—I told him you have to fill the bin in the Small Barn for Quintus Sertorius first because he’s an old horse and doesn’t like to wait and then we went back to the cows in the tie-up to milk.
  2. frustrated
    disappointingly unsuccessful
    So he was terrible at milking. And even though I kept rubbing her rump while Joseph was being terrible at milking, Rosie got pretty frustrated, and finally she kicked over the pail because Joseph didn’t have his leg out in front of hers.
  3. peak
    the highest point of something
    The peaks to the west were lit up and spilling some of the light down their sides and onto our fields, all harvested and turned and ready for the long winter.
  4. tabby
    a cat with a gray or tawny coat mixed with black
    Everywhere in the gray yard, color was filling in—the red barns, the green shutters, the green trim on the house and the yellow trim on the chicken shed, the orange tabby clawing into the fence rail.
  5. suit
    be agreeable or acceptable to
    “Suit yourselves,” he said. “It’s twenty-one degrees out there.”
  6. exhaust
    gases ejected from an engine as waste products
    And then the bus was nothing but rising exhaust down the road.
  7. tardy
    after the expected or usual time
    This means a tardy for both of you.
  8. slat
    a thin strip of wood or metal
    Now most of the wooden slats were broken through and a gate with a Bridge Out sign stopped traffic.
  9. principle
    a rule or law concerning a natural phenomenon
    He did go to eighth-grade pre-Algebra with Mr. D’Ulney because he was great at math, but Mr. Collum wouldn’t let him into his eighth-grade science class, so we were lab partners in Principles of the Physical World.
  10. counseling
    something that provides direction or advice
    My mother took him to counseling a little while later, and when they drove off, his eyes were closed.
  11. apparatus
    equipment designed to serve a specific function
    When we got to the apparatus unit in the middle of November, Coach found out Joseph could do stuff better than any of the other eighth graders.
  12. pommel
    a handgrip that a gymnast uses when performing exercises
    Vault over the pommel horse? Easy. Joseph added a twist.
  13. crow
    brag openly or dwell on with satisfaction
    It was Joseph’s third smile. Sort of.
    “Don’t crow,” said Coach. “All you did was beat a legless old man by two seconds.”
  14. theorem
    a proposition deducible from basic postulates
    “Can you prove this theorem?” he said.
  15. stall
    a compartment where an animal is confined and fed
    We were getting ready to milk, and I was cleaning the stalls in the Big Barn when suddenly he was right next to me, standing by the manure traps.
  16. manure
    any animal or plant material used to fertilize land
    “You have him shoveling manure, too? Is that what you get out of this? A bunch of kids who have to shovel manure for you?”
  17. diesel
    an internal-combustion engine that burns heavy oil
    Its windows were all fogged up, but I could hear Mr. Haskell yelling at John Wall over the diesel to Close That Window, Close It Right Now—because John Wall had opened it to throw a snowball he’d smuggled aboard.
  18. clamber
    climb awkwardly, as if by scrambling
    Even the Alliance was frozen white, and maybe that’s why Joseph dropped his backpack on the road, clambered into the high snow, and headed down to the river.
  19. skid
    slide without control
    He shoved against his back foot and skidded along the ice, heading up the river.
  20. current
    a steady flow of a fluid or gas
    You can’t believe how strong the current was under the ice, even just up to my knee.
  21. bank
    sloping land, especially the slope beside a body of water
    Joseph’s whole body was up on the ice now. He bellied up to the bank and rolled over onto the snow.
  22. jagged
    having a sharply uneven surface or outline
    Maybe it was because of the freezing water, but for the first time, I could see his scar clearly. The white line dragged down from under his right arm, then jagged along his whole side and into his sweatpants.
  23. lurch
    move abruptly
    I got on, and the bus lurched ahead.
  24. prop
    support by placing against something solid or rigid
    In the back, Joseph sat with Octavian Nothing propped up against the seat ahead of him.
  25. perimeter
    the boundary line or area immediately inside the boundary
    “You ever do something like that again, I am personally going to kick you around the perimeter of this gym.”
  26. pelt
    rain heavily
    Then he rubbed the fog off the windows and watched the snow pelt the church and gather beneath the hems of its white skirts.
  27. hazy
    filled or abounding with fog or mist
    At night, the stars were razor sharp. At dawn, the sunlight went straight up in a hazy column.
  28. withers
    the highest part of the back at the base of an animal's neck
    Out in the Big Barn, the cows moved closer together in the tie-up to stay warm, and in the Small Barn, Joseph and I spread a heavy wool blanket over Quintus Sertorius, who shivered his withers at first, then tossed his head and nickered and stamped his front foot.
  29. nicker
    make a soft sound characteristic of a horse
    Out in the Big Barn, the cows moved closer together in the tie-up to stay warm, and in the Small Barn, Joseph and I spread a heavy wool blanket over Quintus Sertorius, who shivered his withers at first, then tossed his head and nickered and stamped his front foot.
  30. raspy
    unpleasantly harsh or grating in sound
    He leaned into the curves like he loved the raspy sound the blades made.
Created on Thu Oct 13 14:26:33 EDT 2016 (updated Wed Aug 09 12:10:18 EDT 2023)

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