A Tale of Highly Unusual Magic
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Matt
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Jan 25, 2016 06:03AM
We have not started reading the book yet, we will start reading tonight 1/25/15.
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The author's introduces the storyworld by describing two different places, where two different stories are taking place at the same time. There are two different sets, Texas and Pakistan. She describes the Aunt’s house in Texas as it looking like it was from a horror movie, and the author doesn't describe the house in Pakistan very vividly, but does describe the library.
The story is written in two points of view - switching between two different characters in first person and second person. We know it switches between two different characters in first person because two different character are narrating every other chapter. We think the author did this so we can have different perspectives on what happening in two different places that will eventually come together. We know that it is also in second person because the author is narrating some of the story. We think they did this so the author can explain some unclear details included in the story.
The author establishes mood by using specific triggers like imagery, sensory, and description. One major mood is creepy, when she opens up the book and a complete story was written. She does this because she wants to introduce the book, and the story in a suspenseful way.
The author gives one of the main characters Leigh a sense of uneasiness when she questions was it going on with the book. She has just seen a really pretty moth and is fascinated by it. Soon after she lets the moth go she opens the book to see the words “Wasn’t that beautiful”. Leigh's tone suddenly changes from fascinated to scared like she had just gone crazy. Her tone of voice and her inner thoughts changes because of this passage.
There are some major parts in A Tale of Highly Unusual Magic that determine its genre. The first major part is that both girls find the same book in opposite sides of the earth. then it becomes fantasy when a story is magically written after the few words the Kai wrote. The book fits the genre of fantasy because it has magical elements.
The author leaves the meaning and story behind the book ambiguous. She does this purposefully to leave a sense of mystery behind the book and why it turned up in both of the girls possesion. As of right now the book is ambiguous, but as we read on hopefully the writer will reveal the meaning and turn this into temporary ambiguity.
The story world in the book has many different settings, themes and sets. These sets include the shopping mall, the cemetery and the characters houses. The story takes place in present day Texas and soon switches over to Pakistan. Since the story takes place in present day, there is modern technology. Which means the characters are civilized and have cell phones, computers, and other technology.
Leila wasn’t sure how to handle the suspicious actions that the book was doing. To handle this she decided to try to burn the book - so she wouldn’t have to deal with it anymore. This lead to a big consequence, a big fire in the house, with the book untouched. Not only was the book untouched but more suspicious writing was in it reading, “You could not see the damage the fire had caused, but it was there.”This left Leila with more suspiciousion, and the book like it was never even put 10 feet near fire.
A mundane action in the book was when Leila gets up from her bed and puts the “The Exquisite Corpse” back into the library. This mundane action contributes a lot to the story and to the character. By putting the book away, Leila shows how she has been scared by the book and its magic. But when she does this seemingly useless action, the book comes back to her room. This shows how the book changes the development of the plot, the reader wouldn’t have known about if Leila didn't put the book away.
An action because of the setting is Kai and Leila constantly having to put the Exquisite Corpse back in its place. If the circumstances weren’t this magical book appearing in random places very often, they would not have to go out of their way to make an effort to put it back. This action really causes the book to stand out to us as the reader and helps bring out the fantastical elements of our story.
we believe that the emerging theme is that everything happens for a reason
The story ended with an epilogue. We think the ending worked because it is inspirational but still connected to story. It ended with a symbol that life will get better as it goes, just like the book. This inspirational aspect described the story's ending but worked with the fantastical elements of the story.
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