Fantasy Reading Response - The Dreamwalker's Child

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	Internal
Sam gets captured in a jail cell in Vermia.	He was scared, confused, and stressed.
Sam meets Skipper! Skipper is a young, smart girl that loves to fly [wasps, mosquitoes, etc.]!	He feels relieved, happy, and thankful for hope of escaping.
Sam and Skipper escape from captivity in Vermia. Sam and Skipper escape by flying a wasp.	He feels jubilant!
Goes back into his normal, human body.	Happy about being back and okay, but sad about having to leave Vahlzi and Skipper.
Sam and Skipper stop the mosquitoes from killing all the humans on earth.	He is amazed, and happy.

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.

Historical Fiction Reading Response - A Diamond in the Desert

A Diamond in the Desert by Kathryn Fitzmaurice

We read the book A Diamond in the Desert by Kathryn Fitzmaurice. The book was about how Tetsu, a 12 year old boy, and his family went to a Japanese internment camp in Gila River after Pearl Harbor was bombed. His family had to go the the internment camp because they are Japanese. The story shows what Tetsu went through, his everyday life, and what friends he made in the internment camp. Also, later on, the people in the internment camp made a baseball diamond (or baseball field), and it also shows Tetsu’s love for baseball.

I think the big ideas are hope and love. The theme for hope is: Never lose hope, because everyone still has a chance. I think this is the theme for hope, because Tetsu and the people in Gila River never lost hope for a better life, and at the end, Tetsu was freed with family. This is a passage where I think Tetsu and Kimi both had hope, “Please feed Lefty. From, Kimi.” I took it to the recreation barrack and asked around for an envelope.” I think this shows how Tetsu has hope that Mr. Bobkin, his neighbor, found his dog, Lefty, and it shows this because he asked everyone for an envelope. I think the theme for love is: You can take everything away from someone, but you can’t take away love. While moving to Gila River, Tetsu lost his home, his dog, his friends, and his belongings, but he didn’t lose his love. This is a part of the book where Kimi got hurt, and Tetsu was showing his love: “Mama and I sat across from each other for two days in the infirmary, waiting for Kimi to wake up.” This shows how he loved Kimi so much that he waited for her for a whole two days.

The non-fiction resources I used were Youtube, books, and Google. For Youtube, we found videos about the Japanese Internment camps. We used the book I Am an American by Jerry Stanley. This book put small stories about some things people went through, and it also helped us understand the situation. Google helped by giving a lot of facts about Japanese internment camps.

From the book I Am an American, I learned why the Japanese were treated really bad. I found out that they were sent to internment camps because Japanese warplanes bombed a US Navy Base in Pearl Harbor, and I didn’t know that before. Videos on Youtube helped me understand what people went through during the Japanese Internment. Sites on Google showed me timelines of the Jaanese Internment, and showed me what parts of the book were true. In the book A Diamond in the Desert it mentioned that Eleanor Roosevelt visited Gila River, but I was unsure, so I searched it up on Google, and found out that Eleanor Roosevelt really DID visit Gila River.

In the story A Diamond in the Desert, I think Tetsu had the power because he was the one who told the story, and also he got us to care about him and his story. Tetsu was also the only one who shared inner his thoughts: “I could not think about the little girl named Akiko anymore, and how she fell into the water.” I think this is a bit special because Tetsu didn’t say this to anyone, and only the reader knew what he was thinking. Overall, I think the Americans and soldiers had the power because they could control the Japanese, and make them do what they wanted the Japanese to do. The Americans made the Japanese go to internment camps after Pearl Harbor was bombed, and they also emotionally made Japanese feel like outcasts, “- even Marty Burns, the shortstop on my team that I’d known since first grade-their faces said: I can see you’re Japanese. And those pilots who bombed Pearl Harbor, maybe one of them is your brother or your uncle-how are we supposed to be sure? You’ve got no choice but to leave, because we’re not buying your papa’s crops or letting him head up our community. We’re not letting you play first anymore.” This is what Tetsu said how Americans acted.

Another person that had the power was Kimi. She had the power of love throughout the whole book. She cared for everyone. This is a passage of the story where Kimi got angry because Tetsu brought home a rattle from a rattlesnake, “When Kimi saw the rattle that evening, she sat up from her cot where she’d been resting with her cardboard box of lizards next to her. ‘Where’d you get this?’ she asked. ‘We had to kill it. I would’ve bit me.’

Tears came to her eyes.” This shows that Kimi care for everyone. Even rattlesnakes.

The only voice and opinion we heard was Tetsu’s side of the story. The story was written in Tetsu’s point of view, so the reader knew Tetsu’s thoughts, and what he was going through. The voices we didn’t hear were the Americans, the soldiers, and the other people in Gila River Internment camp. I think they should have put more point of views, so we know thoughts of different people.

A character relationship that changed were between Tetsu and George. At first when George first met Tetsu, George wasn’t very nice to him. They met at block 67, and George didn’t make a good first impression, “‘Where are you going?’ the oldest one [George] asked me. He smirked and showed me a broken front tooth. He looked like the fighting type. ‘Nowhere,’ I said. He squinted at me, spit in the dirt by my shoes, and the dust swirled up behind him like it was getting out of his way. ‘You’re coming with us to the canal,’ he said.” This is the part where George and Tetsu first met, and George was bossing Tetsu around. Later on in the story, George and Tetsu became really close friends. George was probably Tetsu’s closest friend. They did many things together, like how they both were looking for Horse together, “After dinner, George and I headed to block 67, but found nothing.” I also think that they have a similarity, they both care for their friends… In this case, they cared for Horse. Another time, Kimi’s fish died, so George and Horse showed their respect, “Horse came with George and me to the pet cemetery.” I think this shows how close Horse, George, and Tetsu are.

My big takeaway is all the history I learned from reading and researching this book. I learned about the Japanese Internment camps, the Pearl Harbor bombing, and how the Americans treated the Japanese. This book helped me realize and understand how the Japanese felt while they were in the internment camps. I think the themes my group and I learned were things that could apply in my life today. Hope and love are important. Also, like Kimi did, we should learn to love EVERYTHING.