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The title of the story I read was December Stillness. This title fits the story, “December stillness, crossed by twilight roads, Teach me to travel far and bear my loads.” This quote was from “A casualty of the Vietnam War,” By: Seigfried Sassoon. Kelly, the protagonist, was doing a report on anything she could back up, and something interesting. Her choice was to interview this old vet that was homeless, and never talked to anyone. All he did was sit in the public library and kept to himself. “Mr. Poland wanted to talk to me about my current issues paper. He says I can’t prove God is dead, I have to write about something more concrete.” “’I just thought of a topic for my report. I’m going to write about the homeless. I can start right here in Adelphia.’ I pointed my pen at the bagman who was now nodding off, his head almost touching his book. ‘I’m interviewing him.’” It fits because this story is about the Vietnam War and how it has affected people. “It would show people the war wasn’t over, not yet, not while people like Mr. Weems were still suffering and dying because of what happened to them in Vietnam.” Mary Downing Hahn was the author of this book, December Stillness. She is a children’s librarian who lives in suburban Maryland. She grew up in Guilford Road in College Park, Maryland. She loved playing with the children around her block. The played games like “Mother May I.” Hahn was a child who loved to read and draw in her spare time. She disliked reports because of all the directions to follow. Mary didn’t like writing but liked making up stories. She drew the stories using pictures. When she was thirteen she began her first actual book, Small Town Life, although it was never finished. She lives with her husband, whose name is Norman, and her cat named Holmes. Mary has two daughters who are away at art school. Their names are Kate and Beth. This story is not just the time and place; it’s more the mood of the story, and the characters. The mood is interesting and confusing at the beginning, which makes you curious, and you have to keep reading. The setting also sets the mood of the story. The setting adds to my understanding that it helps develop mood and affects the story later on. This story took place at the library, Kelly’s house, and her school. It took about a month to unfold. December Stillness was in the present. “When we all laughed, the clerks at the library checkout counter looked up and frowned. I knew they were thinking, ‘Oh, no, not that bunch. There goes our peace and quiet.’” “As we left school, we cut across the soccer field to take a shortcut home through the woods. One of the nice things about a planned community like Adelphia, maybe the only nice thing, is the open space concept, the brainstorm of one of its developers. The builders had to set aside areas of woods and fields for tot lots and footpaths, and, as a result, you can walk for miles with nothing around you but trees and squirrels and an occasional groundhog or possum.” The protagonist in this story is Kelly McAllister. She’s a teenager who loves art, hates school, and enjoys doing and wearing things other teenagers would consider weird. The author describes her physically by, “Julie who of course is truly into fashion, ran a practiced eye over my paint-splattered sweatshirt, faded jeans, and worn-out running shoes. She watched me pull on my father’s old army jacket and wrap a long striped scarf around my neck. ‘Right,’ she said. ‘Color coordination explains it all.’” “A senior might have been able to get away with a little impudence but not a lowly ninth grader, especially one he’d just called a super underachiever in our last interview.” Mary Downing Hahn describes Kelly by what she thinks and feels by, “I ran after them, dodging the cars. I still felt awful, but I was glad Keith didn’t think I was totally weird. No matter what Julie and Courtney and Doug said, people like Mr. Weems needed somebody to care about them. Like whales and baby seals, they couldn’t survive without help.” “Everything in my whole life was wrong. Mr. Weems hated me, Mrs. Martin hated me, Julie and Courtney and Doug hated me. Even my own father hated me, and maybe my mother too. The only friend I had was Keith, but he was too much in love with Julie to be any real help.” “I stared at him, too scared to move, and he threw the magazine at me.
Approximate Word count = 3131
Approximate Pages = 12.5
(250 words per page double spaced)
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