13/02/13 Skellig Journal Entry 1

13 February 2013 12:50

Writing Style Tier 2 " I found him in the garage on a Sunday afternoon''(1).This clearly hooks the reader in at the first sentence, it makes the reader wonder about who is "him". It makes the reader curious about the situation that he is facing, in this case he finds someone or something in his garage. This is the first sentence of the book and it doesnt clearly describe who the narrative voice is so it makes the person wonder more. Usually in other books the first sentence tells about the character or characters whilst this book it goes straight into the plot and they explain briefly about it. "The others were inside the house with Dr.Death, worrying about the baby'' (1).The reader would probably be wondering why the doctor would be called Dr."Death" because that would be a rather unusual name for someone. The reader would probably be thinking, "Does he/she have something to do with death? Or either "Does he/she have characteristics or body features that are like death?" Another hook in the sentence is about the baby, the questions that may pop in the reader's mind is who is the baby, what happened to the baby and how did that happen. These questions would be unknown until the reader reads on and finds the answer in the book. "He was lying there in the darkness behind the tea chests, in the dust and dirt. It was as if he'd been there forever. He was filthy and pale and dried out and I thought he was dead. I couldn't have been more wrong. I'd soon begin to see the truth about him there'd never been another creature like him in the world" (1). This supports the first sentence , " I found him in the garage on a Sunday afternoon", however it still did not specify what he was and why was he there. There was still a big range of possibilities and the only way to find out is to continue reading. This is very effective because when the reader finds out about what "he" is and who "he " is, it would be hard to stop reading because they are already in the plot.

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15/02/13 Skellig Journal Entry 2

15 February 2013 08:27

Setting Tier 2 The physical setting affects the plot and characters because if Michael wasn't in that scene he would not have met the mystery man. Everythinging in the book is connect to each other such if he wasn't curious of the actual setting in the first place then the whole plot or situation would not occur. This quote clearly explains that he is very curious about what is in the garage, "I finished the Coke, waited a minute, then went down to the garage again. I didnt have time to dare myself or to stand there listening to the scratching. I switched the flashlight on, took a deep breath, and tiptoed inside" (7). In this quote it clearly explains that he is curious of the sound, which then if he wasn't then again, the whole plot wouldnt start and he would not have found Skellig. If he did what he was told since his parents did not want him to go in the garage because it would break down anytime, as seen in this quote here: ''I was just going to slip inside when I heard Mum shouting at me. 'Michael! What are you doing? ' She was at the back door. 'Didnt we tell you to wait till we're sure it's safe?' I stepped back and looked at her'' (4). In an alternate way, if the builders took down the garage before Michael had found Skellig, then Michael may have never got a chance to meet Skellig or someone else with maybe bad intentions will. This clearly clarifies that time and the setting matters a lot because these things keep the story going and so that there are interesting events in the book as now.

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22/02/13 Skellig Journal Entry 3

22 February 2013 10:10

Point of View Tier 2 This book is written in First Person, and it is in Michael's perspective. We only know what Michael knows which we cannot see what the other characters are doing. We would miss how Skellig is feeling and what he is doing at the moment. As it is said here " He laughed but didnt smile." this makes you wonder why he didnt smile because when someone laughs it is usually because of something positive, but when someone smiles it also leads to something positive. It is weird how when someone laughs they dont smile, this then makes the reader think about why. I think that how David Almond writes it in First Person makes Skellig the mystery, if it was written in 3rd person omniscient, then we would know about what is Skellig thinking. This then would ruin the whole book because Skellig is the actual mystery and is one of the main characters that make this book enjoyable. Then there would be no mystery and the plot would change.

Generate your own questions Tier 2 What would you think Michael would do if someone else with bad intentions to Skellig found out about him? I think that whatever problem there is Michael would always try his best to solve it and there is a high chance that Skellig will get his way out of the problem. However the real problem is that Skellig has arthritis which can make his movements very slow and painful. This is a big problem since Skellig would not be able to move away from danger that quickly so that he can escape, this would result in a big problem if someone with bad intentions found him and used him as something that he does not feel comfortable with, such as an experiment to see who he is, where did he come from and what he is. This then would lead into bigger trouble because humans would discover Skellig's race , if he had any creatures that are like him that is left in this world, and maybe force them to do something. However, as David Almond wrote the book, it did not have any more consequences like this so in my opinion, the book seems too good to be true.

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15/3/13 Skellig Journal Entry 4

15 March 2013 10:22

Author's Choices Tier 2 I think that David Almond uses the concept of ambiguity so that the novel is vague and it is hard for people to guess. This is a quote that states about how the author chooses ambiguity. " 'This is the pellet I brought out from the garage,' she whispered. 'There are dozens of them in there, Michael.' 'It came from Skellig,' I whispered. She nodded. 'What does it mean?' She shook her head. 'What is he?' There was nothing more I could say " In this quote, it states that Michael and Mina aren't sure about what Skellig is and why there are a lot of pellets in the garage that, in this case, can only cause by owls. I think that David Almond chooses the concept of ambiguity so that the reader would ask a lot of questions to themselves. This would make the reader want to know more so that they continue reading. There would always be a state when the point of the novel is in climax and instead of dying down, the climax leads to another question or questions which would also start another climax. The novel would be a lot different if it wasn't ambiguous because everything would be set to point in which the reader cannot think outside the box about the novel. The book would not be that exciting since it is clearly identified in the book that there is only one "clear" way where the story would go. It would probably make the book very straight forward and the reader would just think that this is just a typical book about someone finding a creature and they become friends. This is still quite vague but if the author limits down about what the creature is, why it is in the garage, where is it from, etc. Ambiguity allows David Almond to write about different things that somehow are related to each other, but instead of explaining he wants the reader to explain the situation to themselves. The vagueness of the book would create many ideas of how the book would end and when the book is about to end, they would maybe receive an answer about the whole novel. This would create tension for the reader to read on because this would lead to if what the reader assumed was right or wrong.

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20/3/13 Skellig Journal Entry 5

20 March 2013 12:38

Tier 2 Characterization Mina is a very strong minded girl who is very cheerful and has opinions that may be different from everyone since she is home schooled. She is quite honest and expresses her opinion out without really think about what the other characters would feel towards that idea. On page 109, it was written about Mina that,
" Her eyes were cold as she stared down at me from the tree. Her voice was sarcastic and singsong: " "Thank God I was never sent to school, To be flog'd into following the style of a Fool." This is indirect characterization that David Almond has written since he wanted to get the idea of Mina despising and really hating school in a poem by William Blake. I think that he used the idea of Mina saying a William Blake poem since Mina and William Blake were kind of a like. They both hated school. Another quote that supports the idea that school is a waste of time is ,'' 'My mother educates me,' she said. 'We believe that schools inhibit the natural curiosity, creativity and intelligence of children. The mind needs to be opened out into the world, not shuttered down inside a gloomy classroom ' '' (49). This is supports the idea of why Mina despises school since, in my opinion, her mother has brought her up with that idea of school, however she developed it further into something that her mother may or may not have taught about which is her feelings towards despising school. I think that this makes the idea stronger since Mina has added a third person into this conversation. However her mother respects Michael's opinion about school, in this quote Another example that fits indirect characterization is " I felt Mina tremble. Her palms began to sweat." and "I heard Mina stifle a cry, I felt her hand stiffen. I pulled her closer" (74). These 2 quotes shows that Mina is scared not through words but through her body language and how she responds to something. In this case is when she first see/is going to see Skellig. She is quite nervous so her response or action is shown in this quote. Michael is a very helpful person that is quite kind. He does not treat Skellig as a person that is lower than him, judging on his appearance that he had first seen of him. He is also strong minded and thinks that school is better than being home schooled, which contradicts Mina's way of thinking, as seen in the quotes above. Michael is a very curious boy , since his curiosity led him to find Skellig. As I said before, this is a very vital scene since it starts the whole plot of the book. On page 7, this quote clearly identifies that he is quite patient in a level until his curiosity led him to do something, "I finished the Coke, waited a minute, then went down to the garage again. I didnt have time to dare myself or to stand there listening to the scratching. I switched the flashlight on, took a deep breath, and tiptoed inside."

This quote is indirect characterization since David Almond did not write straightly that Michael is curious about the garage, however, he had described Michael's actions that lead towards the idea of curiosity. I think that it is quite hard to find direct characterization since the book is quite vague and the writing style that David Almond use clearly shows the concept of ambiguity since it does not exactly write or answer questions that we thought it would, such as in other books, things that we were wondering before such as about the characters would be answered somehow but David Almond does not give us a clear answer about who and what Skellig is. Although David Almond makes his sentences very strong, clear and straight forward, he somehow makes the story vague even though the sentences that make up the story is quite completely the opposite. I think that his sentences are short, clear and very descriptive, maybe that is why the novel seems vague.

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22/3/13 Skellig Journal Entry 6

27 March 2013 12:46

Writing Style Tier 2 Please check the attached hard copy of the activity.

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27/3/13 Skellig Journal Entry 7

27 March 2013 12:45

I think that the most important theme in this book is ''It's important to appreciate or notice things that others don't, this is because everyone has different opinions and abilities to concentrate on something.'' That something may be very important to someone in particular whilst in another person's perspective it may not be. These things in life that maybe little things, some people cherish greatly since it may mean something very important to that individual. Such as Mina, who notices things about birds even if it may seem irrelevant to Michael, who takes quite sometime to identify the little chirping of baby birds whilst Mina was the one who told Michael about it. On page 59, it clearly describes about how Mina instructs Michael to listen for a noise and concentrate, '' 'Listen deeper, ' she said. 'Listen harder. Listen for the tiniest sweetest noise.' '' This also states towards the theme of the book since Mina appreciates the sound of the blackbird chicks chirping since she used the word ''sweetness'' in this case, this word explains the faint chirping of a blackbird which Mina finds very beautiful. She has asked Michael to find the noise and appreciate the knowledge that a little thing in this word can be important. Michael at first, did not find or identify the sound that Mina had told him about but as he listened deeper he had heard the faint chirping. This may not mean a lot to him before but know it has somehow given him power, as said in this quote, ''Once I'd found it, and knew what it was and where it was, I could hear it along with all the other, stronger noises. I could open my eye. I could look at Mina. Then I could close my eyes and hear the blackbird chicks cheeping in the nest. I could imagine them there, packed close together in the nest '' (60). I think that we should cherish every little thing in life because those things maybe quite important in the future. Another example is that if Michael did not notice the sounds from the garage which, his family dismissed the idea of the surrounding because they were busy with Michael's sister, later leads on to finding Skellig, then the whole plot would not have actually started because that part is one of the biggest parts that actually lead into the story.

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Skellig Journal Entry 8

27 March 2013 12:44

Conflict Tier 2 I think that the main conflict in this book is the how Michael copes with this situation about his sister in the hospital which leads on to may be hallucinating on something, in this case, maybe Skellig. Although I think that Skellig is real, Michael somehow uses Skellig to cope with himself mentally, with the stress around him. You never know if Skellig is real or not because it may have been a figment of imagination that Michael uses to help himself get of the trouble thats around him. Since Skellig somehow leaves when his sister gets better as seen in this quote,''The baby soon came out of her long sleep and she got stronger and stronger, They took the wires and tubes out of her and they switched of the machine. The bandages on her chest were smaller and smaller'' (171). Then later after that on page172, it identified that Skellig has left by an engraving that he had written along with 3 white feathers, '' Then we saw the outline of a heart scratched into the floorboards beneath the arched window. Just outside the heart was scratched, Thank you, S., and inside were three small white feathers.'' This may be a coincidence, it may be not. I think that the conflict in this novel is ''internal conflict'' since, in a general statement, Michael has to cope with himself about the situation about his sister's crisis at the moment because there is a lot of possibilities that she may not survive and that everyone is fussing about her and he thinks -without realizing- that he should be worried too. As far in the book, Skellig has somehow made his problems lessen since he took his mid about his sister, Joy, and into how he could help Skellig survive. Since I feel that at the beginning of the book the most parts were about his sister and since this book is in Michael's perspective, this is probably what is going through Michael's mind at the moment. As you gradually reach the end, there are not that much things about his sister than before since this must mean that his mind had developed into a better state without stressing much about his sister.

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