Fantasy Reading Response

The Dreamwalker's Child

In the book The Dreamwalker’s Child by Steve Voake. The big idea is POWER. The themes of the story are first, power can be very dangerous. This is because the antagonist, Odoursin has the power to tell the people in Vermia to do anything. For an example, he told his council to get Sam because he’s the dreamwalker’s child. A quote for my evidence is ‘get him, Odoursin shouted. They ran around the room’. I think this theme is important since Sam knows this he tries even harder to get away from Odoursin because he could just easily get Sam with all this power.

Another big idea is LOVE. The theme is love can make us a better person. I think this because Sam came back to earth to see his parents because he loved them so much. It would make Sam’s parents depressed for the rest of their life if he didn’t come back. A quote to prove my point is ‘I knew that you would come back, she said softly’ Sam’s mom was saying this to him when he came back to earth. This really shows how much Sam’s mom really wanted him back badly.

One setting is Vermia. I think Vermia is the most important setting because that is the setting where the antagonist meets the protagonist. Vermia is the city that is ruled by Odoursin, the antagonist. The land of Vermia is the bug world. I imagine Vermia as a dark, dirty and scary place. Here is my text evidence: ‘He could see that he was surrounded by flat marshlands which stretched all the way to the horizon. Pools of leaden water lay in grey pockets and green vapours rose like ghosts from the damp bogs around, curling up to meet the yellowish mist that hung in the heavy clouds above giant reeds’.

An example of an archetypal character was Odoursin. He is the antagonist of the story. This is because he threatened Sam that he would feed him to the dogs if he didn’t admit that he was Sam. A quote for my evidence is ‘don’t lie, or else you’ll be the dog’s next meal, growled Odoursin’. Odoursin is really wants to get Odoursin and that’s why I think he is so evil about it. I think Sam knows Odoursin will do whatever it takes to get him after that incident. So, he must have something very important that Odousin wants.

Symbolism was present in this story when we met the antagonist, Odoursin. Odoursin had red eyes. Red is an angry and evil color. Which shows Odoursin is very evil. I think the author put this in the book for the symbolism. My text evidence is ‘What scared Sam most was his red eyes’. The part in this quote when it says ‘what scared him most’ shows that Sam was really scared because there were other things unusual about him.

My character faced many internal and external struggles in the story, examples of these were Sam was too scared and confused if he should tell Odoursin that he was Sam or trust Skipper and not tell Odoursin. Luckily, Sam didn’t tell Odoursin and trusted Skipper to help him. Sam’s external conflict was that he couldn’t get back home to earth. But, Skipper helped him get back home even though it dangered her life. Sam’s other external conflict is that he has to get away from Odoursin because Odoursin will kill him.  

Elements of fantasy in this story were one, when Sam was biking and he fell off the bike. He had two bodies but he was in the one that’s not in Earth. Two, Sam and Skipper were flying in bugs. Three, bugs were more big than them. Four, there are talking bugs. All of these are fantasy elements because they could not happen in real life.

Connections I made with other books I have read were Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. This book had a similar theme, love can make us a better person and power can be dangerous because Ella loved the prince so much that she would not marry him because she thought it would put him in great danger since she has a spell that makes her obey every order no matter what. This shows that Ella loved the prince so much that she was a good person to deny his proposal or else he would of died. But, luckily the spell  broke afterwards. Everyone had the power to give Ella any order and she would have to obey it even if it was to chop her head off. So, it was very dangerous for Ella.