Wild Magic  by Tamora Pierce

Synopsis:
    The book started off with Ouna Chamtong, of the K’miri Raadeh, looking for a assistant to help her take her animals south. She then decided to take Daine as her assistant. At the beginning of the journey, Ouna discovers Daine’s talent to communicate with animals and harness their minds. Together, they helped each other throughout the journey and the bond of friendship then built up between them.

    The story ended off in a joyous mood as all her friends showed their love by asking her to live and stay by them. Daine was overwhelmed by her friends’ love for her and accepted the offers gratefully.



Plot Structure and Development
    Thirteen-year-old Daine became an orphan when bandits came to her village and killed, and consecutively burned down the whole village. After that, Daine became mad. She went entirely wild and behaved like an animal. She lived and walked on fours with the wolves, talking and helping the wolves as if she was part of the pack. The pack also treated her like one of them. People called her monster. Fortunately, she was saved by Cloud, her pony, when he pulled her up on her hind legs and let her alone when she could stand. Because of this, she remembered that she was human again.

    Due to her shameful past, she never told her friends about her background until she finally picked up her courage to do so. Throughout the journey to the Rider’s castle, she made friends with Numair the Mage, Alanna the Lioness, the King and Queen themselves and a lot more others. Her friends helped her to find new strength in herself, develop her precious wild magic inside her, which she never discovered before. With this magic, she saved her friends from death several times learned how to heal animals with it. She fought with stormwings, ribid bear and gained all sorts of experience.

QUOTE:
“Daine’s mind filled with vines of sparkling light wrapped in darkness- or was it the other way round? When the space between her eyes was full, the magic spilled out of her.”

SETTING
fantasy world of Tortall
The setting is of an amazing place which is created through imagination by the author. This place features lots of exciting and wonderful places which includes The City of the God's which is the oldest and best place for the teaching of magic in Tortall, due to the magical aura that surrounds the city for miles and Snowsdale, the little mountain village that used to be home to Daine, Sarra and her Grandfather, before she came to Tortall with Onua as the housemistress's assistant.

The places are magical which stirs up the reader’s emotions while reading the book and carries the reader along as the story goes on. The setting fits neatly into the plot as they are both closely-related to fantasy and creates a “home” for the plot to progress and then end on a joyous mood.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tamora Pierce was born on December 13, 1954 and moved around a lot as a child. Her and her family spent 6 years in the Francisco Bay Area and the rest in Fayette County, in Western Pennsylvania.

It was her Dad who started her off writing, when she was in the sixth grade. By the time she was in seventh grade, her parents had divorced and she was hooked on writing. As well as her own fiction, Tamora also wrote poetry, plays and comedies. As she grew older she put her writing aside and filled the gap by writing articles for the school paper.

When she left school she studied psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, and working part time and in the summer, usually in jobs that would help a career in social work.

Then in the summer before her junior year  she wrote her first short story, since tenth grade. A year later, she had sold her first short story. As a result of this in her senior year, Tamora took up a writing course. Her writing teacher, David Bradley, suggested she tackled a novel. Whilst looking for a subject, she remembered the ideas which has resulted in stories when she was younger - teenage heroines. And so, she began her first sword and sorcery novel.

Instead of finishing her psychology degree, Tamora drifted through rent paying jobs, until her Father and Stepmother invited her to go and live with them in Idaho. There she worked as a housemother in a group home for teenaged girls. At this time she was sending out a 732 page novel called 'Song of the Lioness'. But the director of the home thought parts of it were inappropriate so she edited it and told Alanna's story to her girls.

Later on, Tamora moved to Manhattan, to get a publishing career started. Her agent suggested she turned the novel into four books for children. When Jean Karl, at Atheneum books saw the manuscript she agreed to take her on.

Whilst Tamora was rewriting Alanna's story, she worked as a secretary and helped to start a radio comedy and production company. She wrote, directed and acted there and also met an actor/video maker called Tim Liebe. He asked her to marry him in front of the audience and she said "yes". Soon after, he started his own writing career and now is a regular contributor to paper and online magazines.

She lives with her husband, her three cats (Scrap, Vinnie, Ferret), two budgies (Zorak and the Junior Birdman) plus any other animals rescued from the park.

Tamora says in her Biography she leads a hectic life but writing has it's rewards: books, traveling to new places and getting letters from people which tell her now her books make a difference for someone.

STYLE OF WRITING
The language of the book also provides vivid imaginations in the mind and still leaves endless room for your imagination to expand Weather Daine can discover and make full use of her wild magic or not creates an air of suspense which urges readers to carry on.

MOOD AND ATMOSPHERE
 The mood of the book differs greatly from time to time. Whenever trouble is near, the tension slowly builds up and prepares the reader for the excitement and thrills. However, there are also many light-hearted moments when all the friends get together and get to understand each other better.The bond between them thickens and it is then when the atmosphere of the story becomes relaxing and joyous.

CHARACTERS
The fascinating creatures existing in the book came in forms and characters of all varieties that made the book really interesting to read. Numair the Mage, Alanna the Lioness, the King and Queen themselves and a lot more others  helped Daine to find new strength in herself, develop her precious wild magic inside her, which she never discovered before. Daine herself is overflowing with the wild magic inside her and the power so owned are fascinating and beautiful.


OPINIONS
I think that this is a truly amazing book. The story focuses on a young girl as the main character, which is very closely related to my heart. This made it easier to understand Daine’s situation, feelings and actions.
 .
I feel really glad for Daine when she finally got the love of other and opened up her true self. She had worked hard for everything and deserves what she received in the end. Her friends were very supportive in whatever she did and understands her.
 
Daine is a fabulous girl with extraordinary magic in her. I really envy her powers and all the special attention she receives. Her love for animals and the way she handles animals with ease earned my admiration for her. When she gathered her courage to open up about her past, I thought it was very brave of her to do so as her friends could have despised her past and leave her.
 
Generally, this book is great and definitely worth reading as the plot, characters and settings touches one’s heart deeply.


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