SLJ Battle of the Books: Color

Christopher Paul Curtis is over at BotB, deciding whether Marching for Freedom or A Season of Gifts will move on. I love his justification not so much for which book goes forward but because Christopher Paul Curtis is so succinct in his writing. You might finish his passage and feel he skimmed a bit...read it again. He says so much more.

So here is my Fire quote for the day:

And then sudden pain, blinding and brilliant. Fire wrenched her head and fought against the healer, against Archer's heavy strength. Her scarf slipped off and released the shimmering prism of her hair: sunrise, poppy, copper, fuschia, flame. Red, brighter than the blood soaking the pathway.

One of the things I love best about this passage? Read it aloud. I love the way all those colors roll off your tongue and somehow dictate the pace at which you read. There are many parts of this book that I have read out loud to Adam simply because I know they're meant to be said aloud.

Color is huge part of Fire. I mean, sure, it means lots of bright language about color - nothing is ever red. It's fire and flame. There's lots of shimmering.

But don't be so quick to dismiss it (or compare Fire and her devastating beauty to a certain sparkling vampire).

I don't know if Cashore meant to do this, but I feel like she used color as a have-or-have-not in this world she created. Fire and her father Cansrel had it, and their color is a source of power, which they use in vastly different ways. Those without their monster color are weaker and can easily suffer by Fire and Cansrel. Likewise, Immiker is a Graceling. With two different colored eyes, he has a special power over others that, again, they're nearly powerless to defend against. Color becomes a metaphor for power - some have it, others do not.

Just a few more days left in BotB! Tomorrow is the day I am STOKED about (save the day when Fire comes back from the dead, of course) - Shannon Hale is judging the match of the graphic novels: A Storm in the Barn vs. Tales from Outer Suburbia! It promises to be good, good fun!

Game on!