I just finished this book, and I enjoyed it, however it was not what I expected. From the cover and description on the inside jacket, I was not expecting any supernatural themes. It wasn't until about 3/4 of the way through that I finally accepted that the explanation to all Miranda's mysteries were allowed to be supernatural.
So here's my question: did the author intentionally de-emphasize the supernatural element as a way to keep the readers wondering? Because if she had wanted to make it clear, surely either the description on the book cover or something in the first fourth of the novel would have suggested the possiblity of supernatural occurences.
The thing that makes the supernatural seem foreign is while it is rarely mentioned in the beginning of the novel, Miranda shows little surprise when it turns out to be the explanation to all the strange events. She does not question the explanation. It would make more sense if either the supernatural had been an element all along, or if we were able to see the character deal with her realizations about the supernatural world. It would have made the story more believable, given it more depth.
I wanted to offer my criticism first because anytime I read a novel, I want to approach it critically. Sometimes I blindly enjoy media without taking the time to analyze what makes it good, and how it could be improved. I do not want it to sound like I didn't enjoy the novel. Props to Brooke on the pick, I think it was great. The author has a nice writing style, and the story is very accessible. It was a short read, and kept my attention the entire time. I could see how this would be a great book for 5th or 6th graders. I really like how they present and wrestle with the concept of time. That is an interesting concept for anyone to consider, and it is a healthy theme to present to kids at a young age. The book lightly touches on the subject in a way that young readers can understand. It is likely to provoke their own thoughts on the matter.
Comments (2)
Happi, I really like the questions you ask. I completely agree with you about how the supernatural aspect of the novel did not really play a part until the very end. I guess there were a few conversations within the text about time travel to kind of hint at the story's ending, but it certainly was not an overarching theme within the text. I guess that's kind of what makes it interesting because the ending was sort of a shock, but I can also see where that would be disappointing because the ending is explained supernaturally and then they all live happily ever after. What is also interesting to me is how Miranda was exposed to supernatural occurrences through literature within the book itself... she was reading a book that discussed time travel, so it's a clever way of hinting at that aspect without blatantly discussing the possibilities of time travel within Miranda's life. I think the author intentionally withheld any straight forward conversations about time travel and supernatural happenings directly applying to Miranda's life in order to give mystery to the storyline.
I also like the way that you said that teaching this book would be an effective way to discuss aspects of time. I had never really thought about that before. To have kids at a young age contemplating time and what they will do with their lives and things like that is very important and this book certainly gets their mind working in that direction. I think your reflection is very insightful and I'm glad you enjoyed reading the book!
Posted by Brooke Estridge | April 20, 2010 1:55 AM
Posted on April 20, 2010 01:55
I think there is little mention of the "super natural" aspect because that would immediately tie the book in to the genre of fantasy, and it is not one. It can also be argued that nothing super natural occurred in the book. I suppose the best way to put it is that there is an aspect of sci-fi, but it is not really what's important to this book, what is important, and what the author wanted stressed are relationships, you know, it's not an adventure story. The time aspect works as an interesting plot mover, but strictly speaking has little to do with the book's themes.
Posted by Troy FIss | April 22, 2010 4:50 PM
Posted on April 22, 2010 16:50