Reader's Journal #10, Spaceships and Spells, edited by Jane Yolen, Martin H. Greenberg, & Charles G. Waugh

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

                I read the book Spaceships and Spells edited by Jane Yolen, Martin H. Greenberg, & Charles G. Waugh.  It is a collection of short stories.  Here is a passage from one of the stories, “Watch Out” by Bruce Coville.

                “As he turned to his wife, he pulled a sheet of paper from his pocket.  “look at these directions,” he said.  “Read the last paragraph to me.”

                It was his wife’s turn to sigh.  “I don’t have to read it,” she said.  I know it by heart:  ‘Once and object is placed in the Cave of the Gnome, it can never be returned.  So please be sure to use only objects that have no real value.”

                This passage is important to the story because it shocks the reader, for up to this point, we thought this magic trick wasn’t real magic.

                My reading strategies for before, middle and after are to read the synopsis and understand the book.  Two, understand meanings of words I did not know.  And three, to comprehend reading so that I could write a Reader’s Journal.

                The genre of this book is short fantasy fiction.  There are many characters in the stories of the book.  The settings were from everyday places to castles and dragons’ dens.   Due to the fact that there are a lot of stories, the plot structure is short fiction.  The exposition, rising and falling action all vary from story to story.  There are many conflicts in the stories.  For instance, the conflict in “Watch Out” is character vs. the supernatural.

                The tone and mood of the stories I have read is mostly mysterious.  Each story has a different moral.  As an example, in “Watch Out,” the moral is always read the instructions.

                Each story has a different author’s point of view and perspective.  In the stories I have read, I have only read literal language and have not seen any examples of figurative language.

                I would rate this book so far two out of five stars because it is really not my cup of tea, but has good parts here and there.  I would recommend this book to people who like a lot of fantasy and science fiction in short stories.

Sincerely,

Michael Heskiel