Michael Heskiel's Readers Journal #3

September 14, 2011

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,
     In the book Fear, edited by R.L. Stine, I've read another story that I like a lot.  It is, "Shadow Children" by Heather Brewer.  Here's a passage from it on page 101:

     "It stretched out its hand again, caressing Jon's hair the way someone might pet a puppy.  Dax jerked Jon from it and glared.  It met his gaze with its shadowy eyes, blinking like it couldn't possibly understand why he wouldn't want it touching his brother.  "You cannot escape."

     Dax gripped Jon to him, standing holding his brother as tightly as he could without hurting him.  He looked at the Jon-thing and tightened his jaw.  "Watch me." "

     I picked this passage because it's scary and courageous at the same time, and I kind of like that mixture.  If it was me had to deal with shadow children I'd be too scared to do anything.  This passage is important because without it Dax and Jon would never had gotten out of the cave.

     My two before reading strategies were to skim and scan the story and find figurative language.  The during reading strategies I used were seeing how the figurative language in the story was used and trying to guess what happens next.  I used the after reading strategies were reviewing what I had read to help with the second strategy, comprehending the story.

     The genre of the story is horror because it has monsters and the supernatural in it and horrible things can and do happen to the characters.  And there are no happy endings. Dax is the protagonist, the Shadow Children are the antagonists.  At the beginning of the story, Dax does not believe in the Shadow Children, by the end of the story he's scared of the truth.  He seems like a real person, so I would say he is a round/dynamic character.  His motive is to save his brother from the Shadow Children.  

     The story takes place in two places, Dax's home and the cave of the Shadow Children.  Every piece and layer of the cave is made of Shadow Children.  The story doesn't talk about the time, weather, or social conditions, but it takes place at night and it's cold.

     The story starts when Dax and Jon's bedroom get invaded by the Shadow Children when their night light goes out.  The rising action begins when Dax loses Jon and continues when Dax falls into the cave of the Shadow Children when looking for his brother.  The climax happens when Dax faces the Shadow Children trying to save his brother.  The falling action comes when Dax and Jon run out of the cave.  There really is no  resolution because while Dax has his brother, it seems that the Shadow Children do too.

     There was no other conflict in this story.  The main conflict is external.  It's Dax against the Shadow Children, character versus supernatural.  The tone of the story is definitely scary!  The mood is dark because you don't think there is going to be a happy ending and there isn't one.  The moral of the story is be afraid of the shadows.

     The story is told from Dax's point of view because he is the one telling the story.  This is a short story, so the pattern of organization is none.  Dax just starts tell the story and it goes from there.  I think the author's purpose for this story is to scare and entertain you.  The author's perspective is that she is wrote story to entertain readers and make money.  Some figurative language that I found were:  "Jon screamed.  And it wasn't one of those little-brat screams for attention.  He sounded terrified.  Like his life depended on someone hearing and responding to his terrified shriek."  Another one is, "A small trail of colored dust, shimmering and full of light, floated in the air between Jon and the monster that was mimicking his form."  Another one is, "The floor shrank until there was only and island of shadow left."  Here's another one, " Dax pulled himself free from the hole, his muscles burning."  And my last figurative language, "Shadow lurked in his eyes - the darkest that Dax had ever seen."

     I thought it was very good story.  The is a lot of very intense moments.  I was surprised to find out that the cave was made out of Shadow Children.  I  enjoyed the parts that Jon would run away, because they would make an imitation Jon.

     I would recommend this story to anyone who enjoys horror and suspense.  I give the story four stars out of five because the story was good but the author could have used more descriptive words that I could understand.  

  

Your student,

Michael Heskiel