Stolen Children

Reader’s Journal #7

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,                                                                               10/11/11

I just finished reading Stolen Children by Peg Kehret.  I enjoyed this book a lot.  At the beginning of this book it was sad because Amy’s dad died in a car accident and she had never said sorry to her dad about not being responsible.  At the end, this book was a little bit scary.

            The protagonist of this book is Amy.  The antagonist of this book are Hung and Smokey.  The foil characters are Jane and Kendra.  They were in a cabin in the woods.  It was sunny.  Hung and smokey were poor and wanted more money, so they kidnapped Kendra and Amy which is the conflict.  The main conflict was man vs. man and it was external.  The genre of this book is mystery.

            First, Mrs. Edgerton asked Amy if she could babysit Kendra because Mrs. Edgerton was going to the hospital for five hour.  Mrs. Edgerton leaves and closes the door.  Amy forgets to lock the door because she was giving Kendra ice cream.  Amy falls asleep for an hour and a half and Kendra sleeps for two hours so she thinks she woke up in time.  She goes upstairs to check on Kendra and couldn’t find her after searching the whole house.  Then heard an engine and ran out because she thought  it was Mrs. Ederton.  But instead there was a white van and she saw Kendra inside.  Amy and Kendra went to a cabin in the woods.  They would send videos to show the Edgerton’s that they are ok.  Amy and Jorja played a game that included clues and the person has to guess what they are trying to say.   Well Amy would say clues like remember Mrs. Cara, Mr. White and Mrs. Van to explain that they have a white caravan.  Then they were finally found and they got home.

            The tone and mood of this book is scary.  The theme and moral is if you are babysitting, always lock the door and pay attention to who your babysitting.  The author’s point of view is third person.  The pattern of organization is cause and effect.  The author’s purpose was to entertain.  Five types of figurative language I found in this book we similes, metaphors, hyperbole, irony and analogy.

            Two strategies I used before reading this book was skim and scanning and asking questions.  Two strategies I used while reader were answering my questions and summarizing each chapter.  Two strategies I used after reading writing my reader’s journal and summarizing the whole story.

I would rate this book a 10, 1 being the lowest, and 10 being the highest.

                                                                                                Sincerely,

                                                                                    Your favorite student Erika Alban