Top Ten List

1. David – he is the main character so he is obviously very important. In the beginning of the book I didn’t really like him because he was really annoying with his stupid routines that didn’t work and as the story went on he didn’t seem as weird and I started to relate with him.
2. David’s mom – if she wouldn’t have died David’s dad wouldn’t have moved to his new wife’s house and David would have never been hit by the plane and he wouldn’t have been knocked out and went to this land and then the book would have been about nothing. So she is very important.
3. David’s family – David’s family is very important because they piss him off which makes him go to the garden where he gets hit by the plane. Also when he is in this imaginary land he uses his family situations to make decisions about the things he is going through.
4. The Crooked Man – The Crooked Man is the main antagonist in the story. Without him David would have made it to the king’s castle in like 10 minutes, found out it was fake, and left the imaginary world. But instead the Crooked Man messes with him and “antagonizes” him making for a nice attempt at a good story.
5. Theme – The only real theme I found in this book is that life sucks and that you just have to make the best of it and try your hardest. Because in the book David doesn’t always get what he wants but he works through it and gets through the day which to me is a good message.
6. Quote - “Then find routines that allow you to feel secure when they are done. You told me that you have a new brother: look to him each morning. Look to your father, and your stepmother. Tend to the flowers in the garden, or in the pots upon the windowsill. Seek others who are weaker than you area, and try to give them comfort where you can. Let these be your routines, and the rules that govern your life.” (p.94) this was a good quote in the book because this was a theme for the rest of the book and the woodsman said it and in my opinion he helped David the most when he was lost in this imaginary world.
7. Setting – The setting of the entire book except two or three chapters is in like three days in this imaginary world of all these weird animals. This is frustrating because the author sums up the rest of his life in one chapter.
8. Style – The book is written from David’s perspective which was also boring to me. But that’s what it was.
9. A reoccurring theme in the book is that David keeps going to all these great lengths to find his dead mother and he keeps thinking she is alive so he never stops trying.
10. I am out of things to write about...

Week 7

Overall I didn’t really like this book because it was just a bunch of fairytales that I have already heard before so it bored me. Also it had a bad ending. He finds out the book of lost things he is looking for is just a kid’s book of drawings, the woodsman apparently never died he wakes up from being unconscious and they sum up the rest of his life in 2 chapters which is weird for how long the book is. After he wakes up his step mom has a miscarriage, his dad divorces the girl and he is miserable the rest of his life. Then before he dies he crawls back in the whole in hopes of going to this imaginary land after death. I think this is a terrible ending because he’s obviously not going to go to this land, he’s dead. And what book ends up with the main character dying? I really hated this book.

Week 6, post 1

Malevolent: wishing evil or harm to another or others; showing ill will. Page 261
Entity: something that has a real existence. Page 243
“They have forgotten you,”…”This was once your room, but nobody comes in here now. Your father did, in the beginning, but then he resigned himself to the fact that you were gone and found pleasure instead in his other child and his new wife. She is pregnant again, though she does not yet know it. There will be a sister for Georgie, and then your father will have two children once more and there will be no need for memories of you.” David hears his mother's voice say this and this is important because he is losing hope that he will ever get back or find his dead mom.

week 4, post 2

This book is interesting. I like it more then most books I have read in school but if this wasn’t for school I would probably stop reading this book. The reason I am kind of bored with this book is because it’s just a bunch of fairy tales put together into one book and I have heard all these things before. But it is kind of different because its like David is you and you get to go through all these fairy tales and almost interact with them because as David goes along he changes the stories up a little bit. As I am reading this book it just occurred to me today that David isn’t just weird and is imagining these things, I remembered that he got hit by a plane and he probably got knocked out or killed. So the story is making a little more sense to me now.

week 4,post 1

Scabbard: a sheath for a sword or the like. Page 169
Chasm: a yawning fissure or deep cleft in the earth's surface; gorge. Page 176
An emerging theme a saw in this section is a crooked and evil man is trying to screw David over but he’s telling him all the things David wants to hear, like that he could have his family back. So David is having an internal conflict with himself right now trying to figure out what to do and I think this is going to affect him throughout the rest of the book.

week 3, post 2

The third section in my book was quite eventful. It started off with them leaving the Woodsman’s cottage and being chased by wolves in the forest in the middle of the night. When they arrive at the end of the forest they reach a canyon type thing and there are two bridges. They have to solve the trolls riddle to figure out which one is the safe bridge. When they are about to cross the bridge the wolves and loups catch up to them and the Woodsman sacrifices his life fighting them off to save the boy. Now that David is across the bridge he is alone and doesn’t know where to go, so he just follows the path. A little while later he trips over a dwarf. And then the story of the seven dwarves comes along. But in this story they are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 because the seventh one moved away to live with his parents.

week 3, post 1

“The Woodsman locked the cottage, then laid his hand flat upon the door and he lowered his head, as though praying. He looked sad, and David wondered if, for some reason, the Woodsman thought that he might not see his home again.” (p. 100). I chose this quote because it was and good example of foreshadowing. In the end of the chapter the Woodsman gets killed by wolves and loups. (Who are wolves that cross breed with humans). And a big theme I can see is that the entire book is based on other fairy tales that have been made into the imaginary world David is now in.