Week 1- Entry A

Vocabulary-

(p 1) tenuous- lacking a sound basis, as reasoning; unsubstantiated; weak

(p 2) septuagenarian- a person of the age of 70 years or between 70 and 80 years old

Figurative Language-

1. (p 25) “Mad Max Marx, the Masked Manxman Axman.” This name of a killer uses alliteration because there is an “M” at the beginning of each word.
2. (p 25) “Nutty Nora Newsome, the Knife-Wielding Weird Widow from Waddersdon.” This name also uses alliteration because of the use of “N” at the start of each word.
3. (p 33) “The small rose had undergone a transformation within his hands. Where before it had been alive and beautiful, now it was withered and brown. Dead, dried and decayed, rotten as the evil soul of the Gingerbreadman.” The last sentence here is a simile because it uses the word “as” to compare the dead rose to the soul of the Gingerbreadman.

Quote-

(p 60) “He was silent for most of the journey, trying to think which was worst: being consistently trashed by the press, having a superior who didn’t trust his judgement, having a prime NCD case allocated away from him or enduing the ignominy of have a psychiatrist ask him pointless questions and ten going “Aha” in a quasi-meaningful manner.” Jack Spratt has a very complicated, difficult life but he still wants to find the Gingerbreadman even though no one believes he is capable of doing it.

Theme-

The theme of trust becomes evident at the beginning of the book. The protagonist, Jack Spratt, messes up one of his cases for the Nursery Crime Division concerning a wolf, Red-Ridinghood, and her grandmother. Jack screwed up the mission and didn’t save the grandmother from being devoured by the wolf. The next big case that comes into the station gets given to someone else because Jack’s boss no longer trusts him. It’s evident the Jack is brighter and more capable of the case than the man who got it. Because of one mistake, everyone loses all trust in Jack.