A Field Guide to Getting Lost: Chapters 21–27

by Joy McCullough
When her divorced father and his widowed mother start planning family dates in Seattle, Sutton Jensen (a nine-year-old girl who loves science) and Luis Paz (a ten-year-old boy who loves writing) must figure out how to get along.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–7, Chapters 8–12, Chapters 13–20, Chapters 21–27
35 words 7 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. outlier
    a person or thing that does not conform to a norm
    But logic didn’t always work. Sure, it could be relied on most of the time, but there were outliers.
  2. flit
    move along rapidly and lightly; skim or dart
    He was quiet for a minute, except for a tiny yelp Sutton thought might have been caused by a ladybug flitting past.
  3. wistful
    showing pensive sadness
    Was his dad around? Something about the wistfulness in his voice right then made her think maybe he wasn’t.
  4. sinister
    wicked, evil, or dishonorable
    This wasn’t a magical land and there was no sinister force trying to curse them.
  5. expanse
    a wide and open space or area, as of land, sea, or sky
    Eventually the westbound trail brought them to a clearing that overlooked Puget Sound, a huge expanse of water between Seattle and the Olympic Mountain range.
  6. grizzled
    having gray or partially gray hair
    He was so busy dancing around, he nearly crashed into a grizzled old man with an intricately carved walking stick.
  7. intricate
    having many complexly arranged elements; elaborate
    He was so busy dancing around, he nearly crashed into a grizzled old man with an intricately carved walking stick.
  8. quirky
    strikingly unconventional
    Even though this guy was obviously a quirky local, like the lady at the farmers’ market who spun dog fur into yarn and sold scarves and mittens, even Sutton had to admit the man could have leapt off the pages of one of Luis’s stories.
  9. inadvisable
    not prudent or wise; not recommended
    “Inadvisable,” he finally said. “Given current wind conditions, I fear you’d be blown straight out to sea.”
  10. flail
    thrash about
    With all of Luis’s flailing, it took Sutton a minute to even see the bee.
  11. seasoned
    rendered competent through trial and experience
    With the hand-eye coordination of a seasoned video-game player, Sutton’s hands shot out and trapped the bee between her palms.
  12. gravely
    in a serious or solemn manner
    “He’ll die now,” she said. “They can’t live without a stinger, you know.”
    Luis nodded gravely.
  13. jut
    extend out or project in space
    Sutton looked at her palm. The sight of the stinger jutting out made her a little woozy.
  14. fumble
    feel about uncertainly or blindly
    He fumbled around in his pack and came out with his first aid kit.
  15. grim
    filled with melancholy and despondency
    Sutton gave a grim nod. “Well, no more map,” she said.
  16. novelty
    originality by virtue of being refreshingly new
    Luis had been so focused on the novelty of his mom dating that it hadn’t even occurred to him that there could be more changes ahead.
  17. bound
    move forward by leaping
    Luis hopped off the bridge and bounded over.
  18. squelch
    the noise of soft mud being walked on
    Sutton had completely forgotten the throbbing pain of the bee sting on her palm, the squelch of her soaked shoes, even the terrifying passage over the bridge they had crossed.
  19. rickety
    inclined to shake as from weakness or defect
    Without Luis, she would probably still be sitting in that clearing, or she’d be stuck on the other side of that rickety bridge.
  20. disperse
    move away from each other
    “We’re so sorry,” Martin said after the park rangers had gotten their statements and the search party had dispersed.
  21. guffaw
    laugh boisterously
    He guffawed so loud, Luis and his mom probably heard him in the car behind them.
  22. crucial
    of extreme importance; vital to the resolution of a crisis
    Luis was finishing up the crucial scene where the Whitlow School students freed their Alistair Academy rivals from the control of the Dark Force, when his mom stuck her head into his room.
  23. exasperated
    greatly annoyed; out of patience
    First he’d talked to Sutton, but she’d gotten exasperated with his insistence on giving the robots personalities and opinions.
  24. tendency
    an inclination to do something
    “If I recall correctly from when we served on the fall carnival committee together, Sawyer’s mom has a tendency to run late.”
  25. bureau
    an administrative unit of government
    She laid a brochure on the couch between them. It said The Greater Seattle Bureau of Fearless Ideas.
  26. informal
    not officially recognized or controlled
    But her dad had said he couldn’t possibly ignore the most important day of the whole year, the day that marked the birth of his brilliant daughter, so they’d decided to have an informal, totally-not-official, not-birthday birthday get-together.
  27. prospect
    the possibility of future success
    Mrs. Banerjee’s knee was miraculously healed by the prospect of cooking for a crowd, and she sent Sutton as her gofer between the apartments all day, since she had things baking in the ovens in both her apartment and theirs.
  28. vie
    compete for something
    Not so long ago, Riley felt like her fiercest rival. Sometimes she still would be, when they were vying for the top spot on their robotics team.
  29. momentous
    of very great significance
    They’d seen each other a couple of times in the weeks since the hike, but suddenly a family gathering like this one—even if it was a not-birthday—felt momentous.
  30. intertwine
    spin, wind, or twist together
    Mr. Wong looked at the little pile of fluff intertwined with Freckles on the bench.
  31. unauthorized
    without official permission or approval
    “See? No birthday paper.” He set it on a table with a few other unauthorized presents.
  32. saffron
    aromatic dried stigmas of a crocus flower, used as flavoring
    She then went on to describe the two other Indian dishes—rasmalai, paneer balls in a sugary, creamy sauce; and jalebi, a sort of funnel cake soaked in saffron sugar syrup.
  33. flush
    turn red, as if in embarrassment or shame
    “Thank you for inviting us,” Luis said. “I hope your dad didn’t make you.”
    Sutton flushed. She couldn’t blame him for thinking that, but she wished he hadn’t.
  34. fundamental
    any factor important to the understanding of a subject
    The grown-ups had drifted over, drawn to the technology none of them understood. (Mrs. B understood the fundamentals, but when she’d taught computer science, a single computer had been the size of Sutton’s bedroom, so it was understandable that she marveled over the tiny bot.)
  35. forge
    come up with after a mental effort
    Just sitting here under the hazy Seattle sky, the same sky as the one a world away where Sutton’s mom was tracking penguin migration, she was adapting. She was forging new paths.
Created on Thu Mar 16 15:35:11 EDT 2023 (updated Sat Mar 18 10:59:39 EDT 2023)

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