The Dreamwalker’s Child
In the book The Dreamwalker’s Child by Steve Voake, I think the themes of the story are; Love is always important, and you will always find it, and; Don’t always stay in your comfort zone. One of the things about love in the book, was Sam’s dad, Jack Palmer, grew up without love, but when he grew up he found love:
“Before he met Sally [Sam’s mom], Jack had never found it easy to say the things he felt. He had been brought up to believe that shows of affection were a sign of weakness… His mother and father had been big on teaching him the values of strength and independence, and they rarely cuddled him or held him close.”
I think that passage is important, because it shows that love can always be found. Another part of the book says that Odoursin used to be a good person, until his brother passed away. That shows how much Odoursin loved his brother. I also think that it was good that Sam went on his journey, and out of his comfort zone, because he had a great time with his new (and only) friend, Skipper, and he saved the world. In a passage of the book, Sam was complaining that he wanted to stay in the bug world, so I think that shows that he really had a great time.
One setting in this book is in Vermia, in the marshlands. The land of Vermia is in the unnamed bug world, where Sam was transported to. In my mind, I imagine Vermia as a dark, scary, and dirty place. Here is text from the book where Sam lands in the bug world:
“He could see that he was surrounded by flat marshlands which stretched all the way to the horizon. Pools of leaden water lay in grey pockets and green vapours rose like ghosts from the damp bogs around, curling up to meet the yellowish mist that hung in the heavy clouds above giant reeds.”
I chose Vermia, because it has a very descriptive setting, and it really matches the people who live in it; Odoursin and his men.
In my story, an archetypal character is Sam. Sam is the protagonist, because he is the one who stops Odoursin from killing human kind, and he is the main character. [And main characters usually are the protagonists]. Sam is a special character because he is the dreamwalker’s child, yet he still acts normal and looks normal. I also think Sam is really great because he never believed he could stop Odoursin, but at the end, he ended up stopping Odoursin.
A symbol in this story is Odoursin’s red eyes. Odoursin’s eyes represent a evil, because red is an evil color. I think Steve Voake purposely made Odoursin have red eyes to show how abnormal and terrible Odoursin is. Though eyes aren’t really known for symbols, sometimes the eye colors in books show personality. For example, if an author describes someone with baby blue eyes, they’re not usually mean, bad person.
My main character, Sam, faced many internal and external conflicts in the story, examples of these were:
External
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Internal
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Sam gets captured in a jail cell in Vermia.
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He was scared, confused, and stressed.
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Sam meets Skipper! Skipper is a young, smart girl that loves to fly [wasps, mosquitoes, etc.]!
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He feels relieved, happy, and thankful for hope of escaping.
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Sam and Skipper escape from captivity in Vermia. Sam and Skipper escape by flying a wasp.
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He feels jubilant!
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Goes back into his normal, human body.
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Happy about being back and okay, but sad about having to leave Vahlzi and Skipper.
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Sam and Skipper stop the mosquitoes from killing all the humans on earth.
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He is amazed, and happy.
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I chose those events because they were one of the most important parts of the book. Those events also show how many great, amazing things Sam did.
One element of fantasy in my book was personification. The bugs were talking, and acting just like humans. Another fantasy element was small people. Skipper was smaller an ant, and Sam was shrinked to the same size as Skipper! The last fantasy element was that there was a bug world, and bugs could go to earth and back to the bug world by the holes in the bug world that go to the earth.
Connections I made with The Dreamwalker’s Child were that in the book The Hobbit. The main character in The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins, and Sam both ended up going on a journey out of their comfort zone, and they both didn’t expect it… at all! This book had a similar theme to The Dreamwalker’s Child, because one of my themes were; Don’t always stay in your comfort zone. I think that this theme works for both books, because after Blibo’s and Sam’s adventures, they ended up looking back at their adventure as a great experience. I think that the difference between The Hobbit and The Dreamwalker’s Child, is that The Hobbit’s main theme was hope.
