Welcome to Extension Reading
Silver Donkey
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Focus questions
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Focus Questions - Use of LanguageLanguage
There is strong use of figurative language such as metaphors and similes in this novel. In terms of the children, most similes and metaphors refer to animals, such as ‘wild as kittens born under stables’ (p6); ‘as if the sisters were fleet butterflies’ (p6); (p7) ‘stepping from the shadows like fawns’, Coco has a ‘sparrow’s quick eyes’ (p7) and hair ‘like a black poodle’(p8); ‘following the voices as if they were birds’ (p9); the girls waited, ‘tense as cats’ (p10). You can find more in the story as you read the novel. * How does this animal imagery cause us to react to the girls and ‘see’ them? * What does it suggest about them? * What does it suggest the author thinks about animals and children by putting them together? There are many other examples of figurative language not related to the children, such as the glimpse the children have of ‘the fascinating silver thing’, ‘gleamy as a fishhook, hidden as a jewel’ (p11) * What affects do these similes and metaphors have on the reader? * How does it help us to visualise more easily what the writer is trying to convey? |
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