Reader's Journal-     Fiction

#6                                                    Reader’s Journal                                              10/4/11

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

            For the past two weeks, I’ve been reading the book, CLOAKED by Alex Finn. Since this book has a total of three hundred and forty one pages, I just finished reading it after already doing a readers journal on it last week. The genre of this book is fairy tale. Fairy tale is a type of subgenre, which falls in the category of folktale. It includes many magical elements such as a princess, a prince, and a bad guy/girl. This book was written to be a contemporary fairy tale of many books and stories. I can relate this book mostly to another fairy tale known as “The Frog Prince.” Also, I noticed that the author included many quotes from other fairy tales at the beginning of many chapters. Most of those quotes were written from the fairy tales: The Elves and the Shoemaker, The Frog Prince, The Valiant Tailor, The Six Swans, The Golden Bird, The Salad, The Fisherman and His Wife, and The Firebird and the Grey Wolf.

             The characters I have encountered while reading are Victoriana, Bryan, Meg, Philip, Bruno, Todd, Fox, Sieglinde, and Johnny. Victoriana and Johnny are both protagonists and described as round characters. Johnny is the main character who is seventeen years old and is poor, working in a shoe repair shop that his parents own. He lives in a small apartment with his mom; his dad disappeared when he was little. Victoriana is a princess with a French-like accent and is one of the main characters. Bryan and Meg are his best friends, being foil characters. Philip is Victoriana’s brother, who is turned into a frog by a witch named Sieglinde. He is a protagonist and a foil character. The witch, named Sieglinde is a foil character and is the books main antagonist. Bruno, Todd, and the Fox are all foil characters.

            A quote out of the many that sparked my interest most is located on page 75.  “I’m still wearing the cloak, so I wish myself back home. As soon as I do, I’m there in the kitchen. My mother sort of starts when I appear. She stammers, unable to speak. “ It’s real,” I tell her, “All of it.”                                                                                

I chose this quote because it really amazed me that the magic cloak ended up being real! When this passage stated that the cloaked worked, it really made a difference in the book! After this, he now believes the princess and doesn’t think she’s so crazy anymore. This has significance to the book because now that he knows magic is real, he accepted the quest the princess gave him and agreed to find her brother that has been turned into a frog by the witch.

            The setting of the book is in Florida and mostly takes place in South Beach, Key West, the hotel, and Zalkenbourg. The weather conditions are hot, humid and sunny, since the books setting is in Florida. The social conditions are that magic is real even though no one believes in it. The tone is to be worried and suspenseful. The mood is mysterious and curious. The theme is to always believe in the impossible and that love conquers everything/everyone. The moral is to never give up and to try your best! The point of view is written in first person, in Johnny’s perspective. Also, the pattern of organization was chronological order because all the events took place in order of time. The author’s purpose was to entertain and the author’s perspective was subjective and biased on fairy tales! The conflict is man vs. man and external because Johnny is against Sieglindle while completing the quest of finding Victoriana’s brother, the prince. Sadly, there was absolutely no figurative language I could find while reading this book. I was very surprised of not reading any because this book was so good and I was able to locate everything else!

            The plot structure was extremely interesting throughout the book! The exposition started off with Johnny working at the shoe shop. He later bumps into princess Victoriana at a hotel and plans on meeting her again. The rising action is when Victoriana tells Johnny that he needs to find her brother, which has turned into a frog. Then, Johnny gets convinced that magic really exists and he went to Key West to find Phillip. The climax, kept me concerned when Sieglinde (the witch) traps Johnny so that he could not help the princess turn the prince back into “human form”. Surprisingly, Meg comes to rescue him and they succeed in a crazy mission. In the falling action, it ends up that in order for the “frog prince” to be transformed into the prince again is if someone kissed him. Later, Meg ended up kissing him so that they can go back to Florida and give him to Victoriana. Then finally, in the resolution, Johnny changed his mind about marring/ being with Victoriana and he ended up having a relationship with Meg!

            There were many strategies I used before, during, and after reading this book. Before reading, I asked myself questions on what I thought the climax and resolution would be. Also, I determined if the book was “just right” for me and my conclusion is that it was. While reading, I reread parts I was confused about. Like for example, at times in the book when Victoriana spoke, she had a French accident, saying the words, “bruzzer” “wiz” “Oui” “zat” etc. so I paused sometimes and reread, trying to figure out what she means. Also, I answered my questions as I got closer and closer to the end of the book. After reading, I thought about the literary elements that might have changed or got added to. Also, I gathered all the story’s literary elements and used them to write this readers journal.

            All in all, this book was truly amazing! I rate this book a 9-10 because it kept me interested and turning the page! It also gave me different emotions as if I was a character in the book! I am so glad I ended up choosing to read this book for my readers journal instead of any other. Finally, I would defiantly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in fairy tales!

Love,

Joelle Ben-Nissan