5th post

"There was another little stand of trees, and I ran into that, and out the other side a moment later, around the gazebo, headed for some more trees, saw an archway- and lost track of where I was.
Oh, yeah, I thought, those arches the lilac committee put up. I knew it wasn't the one near my house, all the way across the park, but assumed they must have put up a bunch of them, never mind that Highland Park was across the street, not on Westfall Nursing Home grounds.
I sped through the arch- which sure looked like granite, though I knew it couldn't be- and there were a lot more trees on the far side, for which I was grateful. I zigzagged, watching the ground so I wouldn't trip over tree roots, and wondered if now was the time to try hiding. I couldn't hear Julian anymore, so I glanced over my shoulder.
Not a sign of him.
Of course, not a sign of the arch, either.
Or the wall.
Or the nursing home.
And there were a lot of trees.
A whole lot.
Even when I looked over the tops of my lenses.
I was in a forest. Not a wooded yard. Not a park.
A freaking forest (Velde 91-92)."

I think in this passage is about setting. Wendy, the main character, obviously takes her time to explain that there is a change of setting/scene from a suburban neighborhood to a forest- and she's freaked. Wendy describes the setting not with an enormous amount of describing, but just enough so that the reader gets a mental picture.

Questions: Why take the time to describe a forest? Why put the scene that follows in a forest and what does the setting that the scene takes place in have to do with what Wendy learns in the end? Haha- I would be freaked too if I suddenly ended up in a forest out of no where...

Fourth post...

My passage:
"But I wasn't even on South Avenue or Robinson or any street I recognize. As I fell, my face approaching the pavement- slowly enough to notice things in a surreal way, but too fast to do anything to prevent imminent impact-I glimpsed unusual cars. I mean, I'm not an expert on cars or anything-I classify them by color rather than make- but these were all big and rounded in an old-fashioned kind of way that just screamed, 'Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!'
Yet another wrong thing was the people I caught sight of on my way down. A man in an ugly tweed suit, wearing a hat and carrying a big satchel, turned from the doorbell he was about to ring and gawked at me. And there were several women- all dressed in pastel dresses that were buttoned and formfitting on the top, with really full skirts that came below their knees, not a pair of pants or shorts among them. The women, too, wore hats-not like sun hats or rain hats or winter hats, but these itty-bitty why-bother? hats with flocked netting coming over their foreheads- giving the impression they all had really nasty collections of freckles, warts, and birthmarks. One of the women had a little girl with her, also wearing a hat, and- as she watched my endless fall- the mother grabbed hold of her child and spun her around to protect her from seeing me flattened and/or splattered. Woman and girl were both wearing little white gloves (Velde 116-117)."

I think this passage helps develop setting because as Wendy is about to get hit by a car she is describing the things around her and what she sees, what the people look like, and even the personality or culture of the place she finds herself in. I wonder why though, the author would bother to explain/describe such a short scene in the book? What does this time warp have to do with anything? I guess if you think about it- maybe the author described the setting because she wanted the readers to get a good idea of the culture that Wendy's grandmother is surrounded by. Later in the book- Wendy's grandmother becomes more important to the story line as Wendy wishes more and more that she could be like her grandmother. Another way to look at it might be that the author what the reader to see the culture difference between Wendy and her grandmother's times or maybe because Velde wanted the reader to experience a culture shock.

Questions: Still wondering- is it really possible to make such glasses that let you see things that are normally visible to the human eye? Do other creatures such as that blue trouble-making creature or the "old witch" exist in the real world? Did the author have a reason for writing the book about creatures that supposedly don't exist to make people more thoughtful of their surroundings or others? Is the "lesson learned" of the book supposed to teach the reader to be more respectful of others that are completely different from them, no matter who they are or what they look like?

Third post...

How and why Wendy matures: Passages...
"I didn't own sunglasses because, in Rochester, there's only about five days in the whole year that you need sunglasses- and the majority of those days are for snow glare rather than actual sunlight. The eye doctore had offereed my a pair of construction-paper-and-plastic-film sunglasses about as classy as the ones you get at the 3-D attractions at Disney World, except without the Disney characters. You'd think for what an eye doctor charges, he could give you glasses that don't look as though they cost about fourteen cents a gross (Velde 6)."
This is Wendy at the beginning of the story- sarcastic, unthoughtful of others, oppionated, etc. One of the typical views people think of when they think of teenagers.
Another passage:
"'She hasn't chosen this,' Julian said. 'Sometimes bravery and strength and goodness just aren't enough.'
It wasn't like I was greedy. It wasn't like I expected she should live forever.
'And I don't know about your father, but I suspect if he's chose a life without you, it was not an easy choice; and it was probably not a choice against you, but for something else.'
Sometimes, I reminded myself, you just have to let go.
I rubbed the tears away. I would do the right thing, I decided: I would forgive my father for choosing another woman over my mother and me; I would forgive my mother for choosing another man after my father and in addition to me; I would forgive my grandmother for leaving me; and I would forgive myself for not being the person I wanted to be, though I would try harder to be that person (Velde 270)."
Now, this is Wendy almost at the very end of the book. Here she sounds forgiving, kindhearted, sincere, loving, etc. She sounds like everything she wasn't in the other passage. In the second passage, Wendy recognizes that everything won't stay the same her whole life and that there is nothing she can do to control other people's choices- when at the beginning of the book she had been the total opposite. She didn't like that her mother had chosen to remarried, she didn't like that her grandmother was dying right in front of her and that for both of these things there was absolutely nothing she could do (in other words she was fighting a losing battle). At the end of the book on the other hand, she realizes that she can't do anything to change what's happening and what's occuring around her except for herself and she accepts that.
-katthegreat08

2nd post...

My passage:
""We'd better stay disguised, don't you think?" Eleni asked Tiffanie. "In case we run into any other people?"
I wanted to add, you might want to pick a look that's less attention grabbing, but I didn't have a chance.
Eleni continued, "Unless keeping up with the spell tires you or weakens you."
I would have thought of that first part, eventually, but never that last part, proving yet again how much smarter than me my grandmother was. And more considerate. Without even having to stop to think about it. (Velde 204)

This passage has to do with theme because at this point in the story, Wendy is starting to change and realize what she can do to make herself a better person. She does this by being the stereotypical teen and compares herself to her "grandmother" who is coincidentally the same age that she is in the story (Wendy had accidentally traveled back in time and found her grandmother during the 1950s when her grandmother was 16 or 17- around the same age has Wendy). This is the turning point for Wendy where she's realizing who she is now and who she wants to be like (her grandmother).

Ok, I know I shouldn't have done this- but I've read the whole book now... So I guess what I'll do is read more books now and maybe put up another 2 or 3 posts on this book before I start another book. Anyways.

Questions:
What do the glasses and the weirdness with the magical creatures have to do with Wendy becoming a better person? Why in the world would the author choose this kind of setting? Why does Wendy always say demeaning things about herself, or think them?

First post...

Chosen passage:
"One way to look at what happened is that everything is the fault of my optometrist and his enthusiasm for those miserable eyedrops that make your eyes supersensitive to light. But if I've learned on thing from all this, it's that there's generally more than one way to look at anything.
So, from the beginning, a few points to remember:
1) Without glasses, I can't see farther away than about a goot and a half beyond the tip of my nose.
2)Glasses may improve someone's seeing, but they've never improved anyone's looks.
Sure, parents, grandparents, and eyeglass salesmen will assure you that you're cute as a button with your glasses on- if what you want to look like is a cute button, though that's not my idea of a big selling point. But in any case, what's the first thing a movie director does to a gorgeous actress when he needs her to look plain for a role"(Velde 3)?

I think that this passage helps develop characterization because in this whole passage, it's just the main character talking. That's it. By the time the reader finishes reading the first chapter of the book, Wendy (the main character) lines up to be a typical teenage rebel who doesn't like the looks she's stuck with nor her surrounding family.

Questions from reading: How is it possible for glasses to make someone who's probably legally blind see let alone see wierd creatures, dead people (ghosts), etc? -Personally I think that would be really cool if that was possible and if it was, sign me up! Next question: Does the main character, Wendy, seriously not have anything else besides cute boys on her mind? Is there such a thing as a parallel universe that exists in our world and if so how? How were these glasses created? Whose were they originally?

-katthegreat08

The Official Choice Is:

I choose "Now You See It..." by Vivian Vande Velde to read. So there.
-katthegreat08