We enjoyed reading “The owl who was afraid of the dark” by Jill Tomlinson. The story is about an owl called Plop and Plop has a problem. He is afraid of the dark and owls are night birds so he has a real problem.
Plop wants to learn about the dark so he sets on a journey to learn more. First he meets a boy collecting sticks for a bonfire. That night he sees fireworks, flying saucers, sparklers and realizes that dark can be exciting. Throughout his journey Plop learns that dark can be kind, necessary, fascinating and beautiful. He meets an astronomer who shows Plop different stars through his telescope and realizes that dark is wonderful. Finally Plop meets a cat called Orion and they go up on a roof top and gaze at the stars. Plop has lost all his fear of the dark by now and knows that dark is beautiful. He goes home and eagerly flies away hunting with his mum and dad that night.
We loved the pictures the author painted in this novel. She creates a picture of fireworks as “a fountain of dancing stars”. She draws different types of nights;”hot scented summer nights”, “breathless thundery nights which are suddenly slashed with jagged white lightning” and “snow blankets icing the houses and trees”. We loved the way she used words especially adjectives and adverbs.
The book is funny also .Plop meets a girl with a pony tail and tells her she is not a real girl as girls have not got tails.l. She says he is not really an owl as he does not make the sound owls make. She learns that there are two types of owls; the barn owl and the Tawny owl. The Tawny owl makes Tu-whit-awoo sound while the barn owl makes Eeeek sound.
We all agreed that the book was a happy ,exciting and funny read and we all will definitely read more of Jill Tomlinson’s books.
Rang II
February 13, 2013
