Chapter Six Synopsis of Discussion
Week of August 12, 2007
Chapter 6 – Barn News
How interesting that Miss Hickory doesn't even appear until the last page or
so of the chapter! And she sure isn't very pleasant. I wonder why the author
felt the need to write this chapter? It seems like it should be in another book--although
it is very pleasant. I would have had her choose the apple tree Miss Hickory
was nesting in I think!
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That chapter threw me too. It seemed like a story within a story, but
that device isn't used elsewhere in the book so it seems out of place. It's
not something that Miss Hickory ever becomes involved in. I doubt modern publishers
would include it. I've been rereading some English adventure books I used to
love as a girl - they're actually quite badly constructed in terms of introducing
characters, flow etc.
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Yes, I did notice that sort of thing in other old books--I wonder when it became the style to write for children? Maybe this was still the 'infancy' of it.
Miss Hickory seems to lurch sometimes, storywise--especially when you
compare it to other books written in the same time period.
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Poor Miss Hickory. Much as she enjoys her nest in the apple tree, she is terrified at the same time of Squirrel coming after her head. She can’t get a decent night’s sleep. Then Mr. T. Willard-Brown appears over the edge of her nest and terrifies her even more. Strange she didn’t go with him to see Cow. This was kind of a weird chapter.