In The Night Garden

  In the Story The Night Garden, Valente includes many different characters with many different personalities in all of the stories, some good and some evil. But what i like most about her writing is how she puts all of the personalities of the characters and makes a connection to all of them through out the all of the stories. The short story i enjoyed the most was The Goslings Tale.

In the short story, The Gosling's Tale, The goose has to deal with being an outcast. The Goose knew she was not a bird, she just tried to fit in with the others that were "normal." Being an outcast she had to teach herself how to survive because without no mother or friends, eating and living was an everyday struggle . That all changed one day when " A bird bigger than any other, bigger than a falcon, found me up in my tree, my wings pulled up over my head." the Firebird inquired what was wrong and offered her the opportunity come with him so neither of them would be alone. The Goose lucked out but the Firebird, who is also known as the "Zhar-Ptitza" and they were "the best of all possible birds. I really enjoyed how the Firebird opened up the the goose and put the goose under its wing. He cared for the goose showed her and helped her learn new things while also telling her stories. I enjoyed how the Firebird took on as a leader and looked out for the Goose. In addition, I feel that I can relate to the Firebird my my life by being a leader and captain in hockey for many years of my life. Similar to what the Firebird had done for the goose, I had to take first year teammates and take them under my wing showing them the ropes and daily routines. For example, I would drive some of them home because they were not old enough to drive and i also would invite them to hangout with me and the older guys on the team to help them, make them feel welcome, and introduce them to new people so they could make new friends.

not only can i relate myself to the Firebird, i can also relate our group discussions in class. During our group discussions we always have five main contributors to the discussion. These five help and guide the others would do not contribute as frequently (myself included) by simply asking our opinions of the topic at hand. I believe this helps in the way that it breaks the ice to the quite people in class (and to the people who may not have read) by them showing their interest in our opinions. Them asking us questions gets us involved and makes up more involved in the discussions.