Emily's Book Blog
Wait till Helen Comes
By: Mary Downing Hahn
Plot
Exposition: The story takes place out in the country in a church with a graveyard in the backround.
The characters that are introduced are Molly, Heather, Michael, Jean, and Dave.
The protagonists are Molly and Michael
The Antagonist is Heather
Rising Actions: The problem is that Molly and Michael's mother married Dave, Heather's dad and Heather doesn't like Michael or Molly at all.
The characters that are involved with the problem is the Whole Family.
The details that further complicate the problem is that the whole family now has to get used to living together as one and outin the country with no neighbors.
Climax: The turning point of the story is that Heather meets a ghost names Helen and Heather thinks that Helen is the only one that loves her.
It impacts the outcome because she goes out in the middle of the night every night to the graveyard behind their house just to hang out with Helen.
Falling Action: The Solution is carried out by that Helen drowned so she takes Heather to the house where she died and she tried to drown Heather so they could be together forever.
After the Climax Helen and Heather become best friends.
Resolution: The problem was handled because Molly followed her to the house where Helen took Heather to drown her and she saved Heather before she drowned.
At the end all of the characters are happy.
Vocabulary Words
Slyly: Stealthy, Insidious, or secret.
Strode: Simple past tense of Stride
Quavering: To Shake, quiver, or tremble
Reluctantly: Unwilling; disclined
Boxwood: the hard fined, grained, compact wood of the box shrub or tree
Weary: Physically or mentally exhausted by hard work
Toil: The extent of loss, damage, suffering, ect., resulting from some action or calamity
Serenely: Calm, peaceful, or tanquil
Figurative Language
Personification:
The trees were swaying in the wind as if they were hula dancers
The wind was howling as if it were a wolf in the night
Similes:
Helen was as ghostly as a wraith
Mom was being as sweet as candy to Dave.
Alliteration: none
Metaphors:
Quavering out of her skin
Comparison Essay
Number the stars compared to Wait till Helen Comes
When you hear the two titles of the books you might think there are no similarities between the two, but once you read the books then you will realize that there are some similarities between the two. But there is one major similarity, and that is that they both have the key theme of friendship. In Number the Stars Annemarie does everything she can to save/help Ellen so the Nazi’s don’t take her away to concentration camps. She risks her life so her friend doesn’t get taken away. In Wait Till Helen Comes Heather does everything Helen tells her to do so that they can remain friends. She goes out every night in the middle of the night just so she can hang out with Helen. If that is not friendship then nothing is.
The Author in each book approaches the theme of Friendship in a different way. In Number the Stars the author approaches friendship as you would normally think friendship is, but a little more intense. In this book the author makes the two girls friends that have known each other forever, and they would take a bullet for each other. But in Wait till Helen comes she approaches friendship in a completely different way. In this book the author has one of the girls do whatever the other one tells her to do just so they can stay friends. This is still a type of friendship, but just the bullying way of friendship. In the two books the authors take completely different directions with the theme friendship.