“And then I heard a different noise. A strange noise. It was a faint, almost unnoticeable, knocking.
Knock, knock, knock.
I looked all around, then stood up with the book in my hand and leaned out the window to listen for the sound again.
Knock, knock, knock.
Louder now, but not form outside. I turned and faced the shelves of books and remained very still.
Knock, knock, knock.
The book I held slipped out of my hand and fell to the floor with a pop. I remained motionless, not even breathing.
Knock, knock, knock.
The sound was coming from behind my chair, from the other side of the secret door.”
-pg. 10, Beyond the
This quote added more suspense each time with the "knock, knock, knock" until the last sentence. It quickly grabbed my attention. I wanted to find out who's behind the secret door, and why. It's well written and used to grab the readers' attention.
“’Murphy the brave, at your disposal!’ said the squirrel on my back.”
-pg. 34, Beyond the
Somehow, I imagined Murphy, the lively squirrel that cannot sit still for one minute, to be jumping up and down instead of just saying it on Alexa's back since Murphy must be very hyper to talk to Alexa again! Patrick Carman added a bit of humor into the words that Murphy said. It seems like Murphy wants to be a little special helper to Alexa!
“’It’s your decision, Alexa,’ said John. ‘Either way, we have to be moving along. We can’t stay here any longer.’
My hand instinctively went to the leather pouch around my neck, and I felt the Jocasta hidden inside. The last Jocasta. It was in my possession, and Warvold wanted it taken somewhere for some purpose. If I returned to Bridewell, that something would be left unfinished, with terrible consequences I couldn’t begin to understand.
‘Lead the way,’ I said to John.”
-pg. 41, Beyond the
“‘There is one way that almost always works,” said Yipes, and then he knelt down next to Murphy and looked at us as if he were about to do something underhanded.
‘How is the nut?’ he asked.
‘Fine, thank you,’ said Murphy, though Yipes only heard him squeaking.
‘I’m so glad you’re enjoying it.’
Just then Yipes tapped Murphy upon the head, ran his hand along his back, and grabbed hold of his tail.
There is one thing a squirrel cannot stand, and Yipes had just perpetrated it on our little friend. Instinct will send a squirrel caught by the tail into a fit of biting scratching, and screaming, and Yipes was well aware of this. He quickly moved out in to the open, away from the bushes, and began swimming Murphy in circles over his head, which kept the sharp teeth from whipping around and finding his forearm. All the while Murphy was screaming his head off, and though this was not the loudest sound one might hear, a hawk has exceptional hearing (not to mention outstanding sight), and Squire dived into the ravine looking for a trapped squirrel almost immediately.
As soon as Squire started for us, Yipes stopped spinning Murphy, crouched near the ground, and let go of his tail. Murphy rolled several times and landed punch-drunk on his feet in the wide open. He wobbled back and forth and then fell on his side, the twirling having dizzied his mind.”
-pg. 76-77, Beyond the
I find this quote so hilarious that I had to chuckle. Murphy being so innocent yet tortured by Yipes so badly. When the author describes Yipes swinging Murphy, I imagine Murphy's teeth jutting out. And when he finally reached the ground, I think of stars around his head, and his eyes going in circles. However, without Patrick Carman's vivid description of the events, the event might as well be dull.
“Armon sat down among us and gathered his thoughts to speak a final time about the tins of the past. While he considered what to say, I watched the night sky with its countless stars and its moon, and I wondered about the universe and all that had been created, why the stars and the moon rose at night and the sun in the day, how vast it must be, how I could never understand the infinite measure of its size.”
-pg. 101, Beyond the
This paragraph shows Alexa's curiosity of the strange land and the history of where she travels now. It also leads the reader to really ponder about how big The Land of Elyon is. I thought of two possibilities:
1. Everything is controlled by Elyon, the creater of The Land of Elyon
2. The Land of Elyon is just like the Earth with itself rotating around the Sun, and moons rotating around the Land of Elyon.
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