Genre
Middle Grade / Realistic Fiction
Setting and Context
Set in an unnamed town in southwest Ohio.
Narrator and Point of View
First-person narration by twelve-year-old Melody Brooks.
Tone and Mood
Playful, Bleak, Frustrating, Resilient
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: Melody Brooks; Antagonist: Cerebral palsy
Major Conflict
Melody is getting older and wants to be able to take care of herself without being much of a burden. She convinces her parents to allow her to attend a summer camp, face the challenges, and make friends like the rest of her peers.
Climax
The climax reaches when Melody plays balloon ball for the Falcons and grabs the balloon.
Foreshadowing
The moment with the firefly in the opening foreshadows Melody going out into the world spreading her ‘wings’.
Understatement
N/A
Allusions
“Just as the last notes of that song were ending, Cassie shifted to “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” We sang even louder, really feeling the words, “Oh girls, they wanna have fu-un/Girls just wanna have fun!”
Imagery
“I pulled roughly away from my mother, rolled back to my room, and grabbed the specially designed remote from its place on the side of my bed. Dad had set it up so it was on a coiled cord that couldn’t really fall far from my reach. The buttons were huge. Penny loved it because it was perfect for her chubby fingers. I turned the TV on, clicked on a music channel, and turned it up loud. Mom came in a little later and asked if I was hungry. I turned up the music even louder and she tiptoed out.”
Paradox
N/A
Parallelism
“What if I get hurt? What if nobody likes me? What if somebody laughs at me? What if they don’t understand what I’m trying to say? What if there are bugs in the beds?”
Metonymy and Synecdoche
“Or the secret ingredients in the grease that’s used in fast-food places”
Personification
“She’s still clunky, but now she’s smaller, faster, and even waterproof, like an iPad that took its vitamins.”
