Sabiha’s Comments (group member since Nov 08, 2016)

Sabiha’s comments from the 833 Reading Responses group.

What patterns occur in the book?

In the fantasy novel Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge, the theme don’t trust people easily is demonstrated through the patterns in the book. The character Triss throughout the book has been experiencing strange things that occur in her family and outside. Ever since she woke up from her accident, she herself felt like she was an unknown stranger no matter how much her parents consoled her and tried to help her recover her memory. Her sister Penn, who hates her more than anything, was not much of a big help either. The patterns were such as her ending up in the woods in her sleep, her porcelain doll Angelina snapping at her, Violet when she stopped yelling at Triss’s father once she glanced at Triss, and Penn’s odd behavior around her. However, when Triss was trying to save Penn in one moment of the book, Penn had abandoned her and left Triss alone, slowly getting trapped into the vines of the a tree. “‘Penn! Don’t leave!’. It was no use. Penn had run off into the mist, and the vines of the trees were slowly capturing Triss. Ready for her death, Triss screamed in response, for trusting those who had just now betrayed her,” (153). As a result of listening to the tailor who had told her to run after Penn, even though he himself was a stranger, Triss had now ended up digging her own grave. Compared to normal people, we tend to trust people with sugarcoated words very easily. Just like Triss had with the tailor who had seemed decent with his fun treats and cake for Triss, but at the end he ended up being part of a conspiracy. The theme of don’t trust people easily is demonstrated through the patterns in the book.

What is the purpose of the secondary character?

In the fiction novel Slated by Terri Terry, the secondary characters are present in the story in the book to add suspense as they are odd and suspicious. Ever since Kyla came back from the hospital, she hasn’t gotten any freedom with the never ending Levo. There are many more Slateds, but they aren’t as different as Kyla, or at least treated as different. Amy, her sister, seems nice enough as she was also Slated, but everyone admits that Amy and Kyla were nothing alike. Their mom is hard to understand which is why she’s called “dragon”, her dad never really present at home even on his day offs, and even the cat Sebastian is suspicious himself. He was affectionate most towards Kyla. There is a teacher who follows Kyla around at school to check up on her as she needed “special treatment”. Kyla’s thoughts about this were “Why is it that the hospital was more comforting than home? Ms. Ali won’t even leave me, Ms. Penny always avoids my questions, Doctor Lysander in general is creepy, Mom seems to hate me and the only thing I have left is Sebastian,” (94). As result of all the character’s odd ways, the main character starts to doubt herself wondering if she wasn’t normal. Being Slated is probably the cause of this, but most Slateds are treated normally, as it went by the laws.

“How do the secondary characters impact the protagonist?”


In the fantasy book Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, Jacob’s grandpa, the secondary character affects him by leaving clues about his death which then leads Jacob into a whole new world where he learns more about himself, and his peculiarity. Jacob’s grandpa has always seemed to be a bit of a burden to his family as his age started to take over his mentality, or at least that’s what Jacob’s parents would think. Jacob had a special connection with his grandfather as the stories his grandpa would tell him about this mysterious land where ghosts and children with superpowers existed. They were just stories at first, until Jacob actually got to see what the stories were like in real life. And so the connection severely affected him once his grandpa died. His grandpa had told him to give a letter to a bird in the loop on the other side of the old man’s grave. This made no sense to Jacob until he ended up in Wales, where he has actually found his second home. With Miss Peregrine. On page 247, Jacob says “I’d always known I was strange. I never dreamed I was peculiar. But if I could see things almost no one else could, it explained why Ricky hadn’t seen anything in the woods the night my grandfather was killed… I wasn’t crazy or seeing things or having a stress reaction; the panicky feeling when I saw them was my gift.” This moment of realization is important as it shows how if his grandfather hadn’t played a role in Jacob’s life, then Jacob wouldn’t have ever learned about his gift of seeing things no one else could see. As a result, this not only gives him the answers as to why he felt that he was strange, but to embrace his gift and use it in the future. All those therapies would no longer be needed, because he found out his gift, all thanks to his grandfather and his peculiar gift.