This book has a collection of short stories. Each one has their own lesson it has taught me. The first one is called, The Too-Clever Fox, which taught me about twists. I’m not the greatest at showing twists and shocking the reader but this short story shocked me. A fox is trying to help this girl from her brother but the twist happens and no one sees it coming. The twist was right in front of us through and the writer effectively revealed this, “Did you ever notice the sled?” Koja clawed at his thoughts, looking for sense. / Sofiya had sometimes trailed a sled behind her to carry food to the widow’s home. / He remembered now that it had also been heavy when she had returned. / What horrors had she hidden beneath those woolen blankets?” (73).
The next short story, When Water Sang Fire, this taught me how to help with writing effective imagery. This story used music to help with creating an image in your head about that these characters are doing. Something about using two different senses (sound and sight) mixed together created the perfect imagery for this scene. “Ulla let the song rise, and a series of slender, pearly arches began to form on the craggy plain. / The melody moved in simple escalating then descending scales, creating symmetry for the sparkling paths that spread below them, and soon the new paths and colonnades formed the shape of a great flower with six perfect petals that radiated from the plain’s center.” (202).
The last short story, Little Knife, taught me on how to write an evil main character. You don’t think the main character is a villain or evil but at the end it shows the true evil and greed of this character. He wants to marry this beautiful princess but he needs this magic river to succeed but takes it too far. “Now slice through the ground and fetch me the coin, Little Knife, or what good are you to me?” (133). Though at first you want to sympathize with him, overtime, his greed overcomes him and I thought that was effective because you don’t know that he is evil but his abuse of the magic river shows his true evil almost like a seven deadly sin of greed. Every person has it and this short story has a natural evil to it and could happen to anyone.
The next short story, When Water Sang Fire, this taught me how to help with writing effective imagery. This story used music to help with creating an image in your head about that these characters are doing. Something about using two different senses (sound and sight) mixed together created the perfect imagery for this scene. “Ulla let the song rise, and a series of slender, pearly arches began to form on the craggy plain. / The melody moved in simple escalating then descending scales, creating symmetry for the sparkling paths that spread below them, and soon the new paths and colonnades formed the shape of a great flower with six perfect petals that radiated from the plain’s center.” (202).
The last short story, Little Knife, taught me on how to write an evil main character. You don’t think the main character is a villain or evil but at the end it shows the true evil and greed of this character. He wants to marry this beautiful princess but he needs this magic river to succeed but takes it too far. “Now slice through the ground and fetch me the coin, Little Knife, or what good are you to me?” (133). Though at first you want to sympathize with him, overtime, his greed overcomes him and I thought that was effective because you don’t know that he is evil but his abuse of the magic river shows his true evil almost like a seven deadly sin of greed. Every person has it and this short story has a natural evil to it and could happen to anyone.