Prompt: Simile Overload

Description is necessary to establish setting and characters, but it can sometimes be boring.  One of the ways to shake description up is to use metaphor or similes.  Describe a character’s physical appearance by using as many metaphors or similes as you can.

What did you come up with?  Were two similes too much?  How about three? Four?

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Review: Thirteenth Child

Patricia C. Wrede takes us back to the early 1800’s on the United States’ western frontier in Thirteenth Child (April 2009; Scholastic; $16.95), but adds a twist.  Steam dragons, woolly mammoths and other magical creatures threaten western settlers, and each settlement has their own magician to conjure protection spells against the wild beasts, while everyone east stays protected by a wall of magic, the Great Barrier.  Thirteenth Child is the first book in a planned trilogy featuring the narrator, Eff Rothmer, who is the thirteenth child of a seventh son, and her twin, Lan, who is a seventh son of a seventh son.  Magic lore and superstitions say that Lan will have enormous power and do great deeds, but Eff will bring disaster to her entire family and eventually “go bad.”  Their parents, disgusted by the misconception, decide to move out west to give the twins a fresh start.  What magical adventures and challenges await Eff and Lan?  Well, many adventures await, but you’ll have to shift through a lot of summary to get to them.

Wrede is no stranger to young adult fantasy novels.  She wrote the Enchanted Forest Chronicles which includes the fun filled Dealing with Dragons.  So, why so much summary in Thirteenth Child?  The book does span 13 years of Eff’s life from 5 years old to 18 years old, which would be hard to do without some summary, but the amount Wrede uses bogs down the first 3/4s of the book.  Also, Eff acts more as an observer than an active heroine, which is an accurate image of women during the 1800s but becomes frustrating and boring.  The real action doesn’t start till page 229 in Chapter 21 when Eff finally starts off on an adventure past the Great Barrier, and that’s when the reader will fly through the last nine chapters.

The next two books in the Frontier Magic trilogy should be full of scenes and less summary, because Wrede has already extensively built the world and provided full backgrounds on the characters in Thirteenth Child.  Plus, Wrede presented an exciting magic filled ending that hooks the reader into wanting more.

Enchanting Rating: 2 out of 5

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