My Proud Piece!

      Back in Term 1 I did a novel study on The Watcher. At first I struggled with getting full marks on my reading responses but after awhile I was able to meet all the requirements and achieved 100%! That's why I chose my response on The Watcher as my proud piece because I'm very proud that I improved so much on my reading responses. Furthermore I really enjoyed reading The Watcher, it was truly a splendid read!

The Watcher By: Margaret Buffie

Literacy Circles Meeting #3

Pages 179-260

Summary:

Emma puts all the events that have happened lately together and arrives with the conclusion that Summer is the child; not her. That night, even though her Mom made her promise not to, Emma goes to her Dad’s henge. She places the amethyst stone on the socle and a light illuminates the entire field. A thing comes from it and goes to town, Emma doesn’t know what she did. The next day when her Mom and Dad head to the market in town Emma goes too. She drags Summer with her into town, telling their parents that she’s on an errand for Poppy Maxim. They go MacIvor’s ice cream shop and Emma has a talk with Mr. MacIvor (Larry’s Dad and Ina’s husband) but he reveals to her nothing about the child and what Ina did. Emma spots Huw in town but she escapes to Tom’s home before he finds them. Tom explains to her that Summer’s the child and that if they don’t get her back to Argadnel she would die. Tom tells Emma that they can’t trust anyone; not Fergus or Huw. Tom helps Emma and Summer hide from Huw and they go to the henge (the circle gate). Tom leaves to keep an eye out for Huw; leaving Emma to protect Summer. While Tom is gone Keir arrives and Emma, in order to protect Summer, puts around them a protective box. The others arrive too; Fergus, Branwen, Mathus. Fergus orders Mathus to remove Emma’s protective box but he is unable to because Emma’s too strong. Then Letonia comes because she saw Huw chasing them. Emma loses her concentration and Summer disappears. Huw tries to get Summer but Tom manages to save Summer. Keir kills Tom and the Game ends.

Epilogue

Fergus and Queen Rhona stop fighting and Summer (now Queen Elen) gets better after going back to Argadnel. Emma’s Dad is unable to go there and Emma’s Mom misses him. Emma’s now the agent of the people of Argadnel, and Branwen is Fergus’s faction. Queen Rhona’s representative is a guy named Bedeven. Emma spots a large white owl with a heart-shaped face, just like the one Tom used to be.

Response:

      

       The last section of The Watcher was really mind blowing. All the mysteries were uncovered and I finally understood. The Watcher was good read but I wish that I was able to understand it sooner so I could appreciate reading it more.

       The ending and epilogue of The Watcher was sad. Tom died and Emma’s family didn’t get a happy ending; they were separated from Letonia’s husband. Though, at the very end Emma sees a big owl with a heart-shaped face. I think the owl she saw was Tom because when he was alive he would turn into a barn owl so that he could watch over Emma. Tom’s like her Watcher (he used to watch Emma and her family) and I think he really cared about Emma because he helped her during her most desperate time. He died protecting Summer. I was a bit confused when Tom turned out to be Tamhas because Tamhas was hardly mentioned. I was not surprised that he wasn’t actually Tom because almost everyone else turned out to be a different person; Poppy was actually Fergus, Janet was Mathus, and Albert was Branwen. I could have never guessed that Janet was actually Mathus and that Albert was actually Branwen because for some reason I always make the assumption that they have to be the same gender. Mrs. Gray mentioned that there’s a sequel to The Watcher I want to read but I also hope that’s happier then The Watcher. In the sequel I hope to find out if Tom is dead or alive.

       When Emma lost her concentration on her protective box Summer suddenly disappeared. A large moth appeared and Huw tried to get it but then Mathus acted as if he threw something and the moth turned into a yellow mouse-like thing. Before Huw could capture it Tom (in his owl from) scooped it up but after Keir shot him he turned back to a human and Summer appeared in his arms. I think that Summer was the moth and the mouse-like thing because they were all trying to capture it. What I didn’t get was how Summer turned into the moth. Tom mentioned to Emma that Mathus has the ability to turn others into different forms (he turned Fergus into Poppy). What I’m confused about is the fact that Mathus has the ability, probably not Huw, although he is a Druvid too. Though, if only Mathus has that ability it wouldn’t make any sense because during the time when Huw was trying to lure the moth towards him he said that he has it in his cunning eye. Plus only after Mathus made that throwing motion with his hand, did the moth turn into the mouse-like creature. I think what happened was that Huw first turned Summer into a moth, then Mathus turned her into that mouse-like thing, but when Tom was shot Mathus probably lost his concentration and Summer turned back into a human.

       I predict that Emma’s real appearance is that reflection she saw in the Plexiglas stones at the henge because she’s a Watcher-not a human (Mathus mentioned that Watchers are strange singular beings) so maybe in more ways then one she’s different from the average human. Emma obviously has many special abilities; she was able to travel from world to world without portals, make herself invisible, and she was able to create a protective box. It wouldn’t be so strange if she had a different appearance because she’s already strange enough that she has all those powers.

PQP for Out of the Cold

Dear Norah McClintock,

I really liked Out of the Cold. I think a big reason why it held my interest from beginning to end so well is because I never knew what was going happen next. Robyn kept on finding clues, bit by bit to uncover the mystery of Mr. Duffy’s true identity but there was never a time where I could actually guess the ending of the book. The suspense never seemed to end and because of that I never wanted to put the book down. While I was reading it I could tell that the plot for Out of the Cold was very carefully planned. From how Robyn found her first clue; the picture of young Mr. Duffy and his old St. Mark’s school ring to finding Franny Braithwaite and discovering Mr. Duffy’s true identity. I really liked how sometimes there were parts in the book that took you by surprise. Like when the man in the black toque suddenly mugged Robyn and when the real reason of Mr. Duffy’s death was revealed. It was also neat how the murder had lots of covered up histories behind it because that just made Out of the Cold more splendid to read.

Although most of the mystery is solved at the end there were still some things left unclear. For one thing how did Mr. Franklin keep Max drinking? Mr. Franklin didn’t even use any violence and some how even though and Max really missed Franny and he probably wanted to see her right away he kept on drinking. Even though I’ve never drinked wine I think that after a person drink a lot and starts feeling drowsy that person should start realizing that and would take some precaution for himself. That little bit in the book confused me and I think it would be less confusing if you could perhaps add a bit into the story talking about how Mr. Franklin kept Max drinking. A few days before he died Max seemed to have recovered some of his memories from the past but he never went to any one for help. He could have gotten the police to investigate but he didn’t do anything. He didn’t even ask the police for help to find out how he ended up with such sever head damage. Instead he went to Mr. Franklin, who, just a few days earlier tried to steal his locket and ring from him. This was kind of confusing to me because if I was Mr. Duffy I wouldn’t ask someone who tried to steal my most precious things from me for help. Why did you choose to make Max go to Mr. Franklin? Why didn’t you make Mr. Franklin hire someone to kill Max? Is it so Max’s death could all be blamed on Mr. Franklin? I think if you made Mr. Franklin hire someone to kill Max Out of the Cold would be a better good book and much less confusing.

Out of the Cold was a really good book to read but at times before the mystery started I found myself a little bored. There wasn’t any humor and I think that maybe a few light jokes would have made reading the book even more interesting. This book was really sad because Mr. Duffy had such a sad life. He didn’t do anything horrible or mean to anyone but because of Mr. Franklin he didn’t get to watch his daughter grow up and he spent almost half of life living on the streets by himself. That’s why adding more happy parts to his life and giving the book some comedy would make the reader feel less sad and depressed. I haven’t read lots of murder mysteries but I think that there are times when readers want a break from reading about solving a mystery so adding more information about Robyn’s personal life and how she’s cooping with her own issues would also make Out of the Cold a better book.

Sincerely,

Alice