I touched Skyler’s hand, my fingers traced the splinters of bone and shreds of skin. Then voices came up again, loud and urgent, someone’s keys jingling, while I stepped forward and touched Skyler’s hand, I didn’t know what I was doing, even Dean asked me that, What are you doing, but I didn’t answer because there was too much in me to speak: I felt the prickly growth of the grass in the lawns all around, as if it was my skin, the beat of the night-bird wings as if I was the one flying, the creaking suck of the trees breathing in the firework air as if the leaves were my own lungs, the drum of the hearts of everyone at the party. This paragraph is narrated from Noa's first-person POV (the book braids multiple voices together) and is the first moment he uses his gifts. When we reach the following passage, we already know there is something special about Noa, but we're not sure what. I'm interested in how the specific language choices make us understand those powers, creating a thrilling sensation and also resonating with the book's bigger themes. Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawai Strong Washburn is about a Hawaiian boy with special powers and the rest of his family.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |