The Fire
Within by Chris D’Lacey is a fantasy novel. The story takes pace in the
Pennykettle house, the college and the library gardens. Liz Pennykettle, Lucy
Pennykettle and David Rain are the main characters in the novel. The novel
begins with a kid named David that is 16 who goes to college and needs a place
to live. He finds a house on Wayward Crescent and moves in as a tenant. The
owner of the house is Liz Pennykettle and her daughter Lucy who is roughly the
same age as David. Liz earns a living by making special clay dragons and then
selling them. The dragons come to life if the owner makes a connection with it.
The
story centers around the relationship between the dragons their owners. Gadzooks
is David’s dragon that the pennykettles made for him and helps David write his
book. When David gets mad at Gadzook, the dragon shed fire tears and almost
dies from not being loved. Friendship
and love are important themes in the novel. Throughout the story I could see a
very deep connection between characters and dragons.
Another
main theme theme is good versus evil. Mr. Henry Bacon is an evil neighbour who hated
an injured squirrel with a missing eye named Conker that he brought it into his
house. Right before Mr. Bacon was going to kill Conker David came in and saved
Conker from his death for Lucy. Conker was Lucy’s best friend. He was a
squirrel that has only one eye and was always around Lucy.
The author did an amazing job describing the characters. Although
the descriptions of the settings were very good, the story would have been more
interesting if there were more places. I found the story was a bit confusing at
times because too many things were happening at the same time. D’Lacey did not
do the best job with building excitement through out the story, it remained at
the same level the whole way through.
Over all this story made me really think about the connection
between all the characters and how well they get along and make their way
through the novel. It is fantasy but the relationships are real and love is
necessary for all relationships to survive.
Dear Adam,
ReplyDeleteI liked your review, it was very nice. My first question for you is: “What impact did Liz and Lucy’s friendship with David have on David’s character development throughout the story?” As a follow-up question: “Does this friendship between Liz, Lucy and David impact David’s actions throughout the story?”
Best Regards,
Carter Whyte
Dear Carter Whyte,
DeleteLiz and Lucy made David nice, kind and part of their family. David was very eager to please them so he can fit in with their family. One way that Lucy and Liz's friendship effected David's actions is when he wrote his story for Lucy as a birthday present for her. Liz and Lucy also gave him a dragon to raise which he named Gadzooks.
With All Regards,
Adam Shaaban
Dear Adam,
ReplyDeleteI have read your book review and it was very well written. But can you tell some character traits about Lucy Pennykettle and David Rain? What emotions do you think the author was trying to inspire to the reader and why? Thank you and your review was great!
Sincerely,
Habin Choi
Dear Habin Choi,
DeleteLucy is a eleven year old who is curious, spontaneous, friendly, energetic, creative and very inpatient. On the other hand David is kind, gentle, polite, quiet, introverted, gets along with people and has very good imagination. The author was trying to make Lucy a very likeable person almost like an energetic little sister that gets into everyone's business. Meanwhile David is more mysterious and you can not tell what his next action is going to be but ultimately we root for him because he is a good guy.
With All Regards,
Adam Shaaban
Dear, Adam
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed reading your review. I was wondering if you could give a brief example of how good versus evil plays a part in the theme of the story, how does it effect the characters?
Your Truly,
Devlin
Dear Devlin,
DeleteGood versus evil is an important theme in the novel. The evil is David's anger when he made his dragon Gadzooks not loved so then he ran away dying slowly for not being loved. The good is when David has empathy and love towards other creatures like the dragons and squirrels. In every character in this novel their is good and evil within them.
With All Regards,
Adam Shaaban
Dear Adam,
ReplyDeleteI would have to say after reading this book it was definitely not great. You task is to provide 3 strong adjectives along with an example for each that would help promote this novel in a more positive light.
Sincerely,
Mr. King
Dear Mr. King,
DeleteImaginative. This novel is all about using your imagination to picture these interesting clay dragons that come to life through strong emotion.
Magical. Liz and Lucy have special powers that create dragons. The dragons them selves have magical powers through their fire tears.
Emotional. David loses his friend in a moment of anger which he deeply regrets. He then makes up for it by dreaming of a fire tear which rekindles Gadzooks spark. Gadzooks helps David finish his book.
Best Regards,
Adam Shaaban
Dear Adam,
ReplyDeleteDavid Rain is the main character in this novel. Can you please provide 2 external traits and 3 internal traits for David. Make sure you support all 3 internal traits with evidence from the novel.
Thank you
Mr. King