Sweet Dreams Finders Keepers ( Novel Analysis )

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About the Book and the Author :

Title : Sweet Dreams, Finders Keepers, by Jan Washburn.

About the author : Jan Washburn began writing young adult novels when she was teaching junior high school in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. At that time her three children were all teenagers and competitive swimmers and her husband was a swim coach. In her first published novel, "The Family Name", her heroine overcame injuries by practicing to be a competitive swimmer. Jan wrote the book by hand while she sat in her car at the Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, waiting for her children to finish swim practice. In addition to many poems, articles, and stories in national magazines, Jan wrote two more young adult books: "The Secret of the Spanish Treasure" (a mystery set at a summer camp), and "Finders Keepers" (the search for a fortune in rare stamps). After she retired, Jan lost touch with teens. Her newest book, "More Than Great Riches", is an inspirational romantic suspense, set in Plymouth County Massachusetts where Jan grew up.

Publisher : Cloverdale Press, Inc.

Date Published : April 1994

Number of pages : 170

Genre : Fiction (romance)

Difficulty:

a) Language:

- There were many unusual words and complicated sentences but I could predict the meaning by adjusting with the context of the sentences but if I couldn’t find the meaning, of course I looked up in the dictionary. Maybe the difficult words that I could not understand were about 35% up to 40%.

- In the plot or point of view, I could understand well. There is no difficulty in understanding the plot of this story.

b) Plot or Point of View:

Plot : flash-forward

Point of view : The author used multiple points of view, she used the first and third point of view in the story. She used “I”, “you”, “she”, ”he”, “they”, “them”, “Laurie”, “Matt”, “Gramps”.

Key elements of the plot:

The plot of this story is “Flash-forward” because the story always tell the next story, means never tell again the past story. According to Mochtar Lubis (1981:17), there are five parts of plot structure:

1) Introduction

The main characters:

- Laurie Adam : She is a sixteen- year- old senior high school student. She has good talent in singing. She is beautiful, diligent, smart, and hard working. She is the member of drama club in her school.

- Matt Harding : He is a hard working boy and he’s handsome. He must work to pay his brother’s school and also for paying his family’s necessity because his father is disabled and his mother couldn’t let him alone in the house.

- Gramps Allerton : He is a rich old man. People call him as an accentric and weird person because he always uses a Bible verses in communicating and writing an important message that everybody couldn’t understand it except Matt. He is very kind and charitable. He loves animals.

- Jane Gardner : She is Laurie’s best friend. She is very understanding but sometimes she rather forces. She has high intention.

- Elaine Desmond : She is Laurie’s classmate but she is jealous to Laurie because she doesn’t have what Laurie has.

- Mrs. Lawrence : She is Gramps’ daughter, she is very strict, cruel and greedy.

Conflict:

- Gramps or Mr. Allerton had a good and deep relationship with Matt, they are good friend. Gramps believed Matt. When Gramps condition was bad and had to get heart operation, his daughter, Mrs. Lawrence, came to him and called a lawyer to manage his properties, she wanted to take all of his properties. Gramps knew his daughter’s characterstic that she was very greedy. So, he wrote the legacy letter in the Bible verse that everyone didn’t understand except Matt and Laurie. He gave Matt a hidden worth treasure. It needed hard efforts and rose a crucial problem with Mrs. Lawrence.

Setting:

- The setting of this story told very clearly, the readers will be able to understand well. The setting of the story were mostly in the school, in the office of Song- A- Gram where Laurie worked, in the Mr. Allerton or Gramps’ House, in the hospital where Gramps hospitalized, in the Laurie’s house, and in the police office.

2) Problem explanation:

- Laurie had a good chance to be the main actress in her Drama Club My Fair Lady but she could not although she expected it so much. She had to earn much money for her dream to join in Operation Save in St. David, South Africa. It was rebuild schoolhouse. So, she looked for a job and she got it. She worked in Song- A- Gram, it’s a song message delivery. In this stage, the problems started. When Laurie delivered Song- A- Gram in Mr. Allerton’s house where Matt lived there to help Mr. Allerton to keep his animals, there was a big problem. She sang the song that hurted Gramps or Mr. Allerton feeling. She mentioned the wrong age in his birthday, she told it older than the real age. This made her ashamed and guilty. As a good friend, Matt felt this was strane. Laurie impossible did it. Then, he met her to know the right. Elaine Desmond had sent that song to be delivered by Laurie without Laurie’s and her chief’s knowing. It was to make Laurie ashamed. Laurie couldn’t bear it then she tried to reply Elaine’s tricky treatment whenever she did it to her so it made Elaine more jealous. By this accident, Laurie and Matt became closer and closer, also for Gramps they became good friends.

3) Climax

- When Gramps was drop and had to have heart operation, her daughter Mrs. Lawrence came from Boston. To know the Gramps’ condition, she called a lawyer to manage Gramps’ properties to displace all of his properties to her. But, Gramps didn’t want to give her all so he wrote the legacy letter in the Bible verses that he often did with Matt. He wanted to give Matt a very important thing to him because he had helped him to keep the animals, his house and care him. Gramps was very proud of him because of his hard work, his strong persistence, and his want to be veterinarianist. That’s why he gave him this hidden worth treasure. Matt and Laurie looked for that Bible verses in Laurie’s father’s studying room. After knowing that meaning, they investigated the treasure at Gramps’ house directly but they didn’t find it yet. The next day, Laurie got the solution, she looked for the meaning in the other Bible translator because different translator will have different meaning. When Matt and Laurie looked for that treasure in gramps’ house again, this time they got it. A treasure in a hole in wall, it was a Hawaiian stamp that costed 3,500 dollars. It could fulfill Matt’s education and his family’s necessity. They were very happy, unluckily, Mrs. Lawrence knew it then phoned the police and Matt was arrested.

4) Anti- Climax

Laurie couldn’t bear Matt arrested, she told her parents what happened then asked her father, Mr. Adams, to help Matt. Mr. Adams was a lawyer too. He called an intelligent lawyer to handle this problem.

5) Problem Resolution

Matt told the truth to the lawyer and gave the original proof of Gramps’ legacy letter in the Bible verse. This helped him to be free. Matt got what should he get from Gramps and he thanked to Gramps of his kindness. He also thanked to Laurie who was very smart in looking for the meaning of the Bible verses. Because of this, their relationship became closer as a boyfriend and girlfriend. Also, Laurie could earn money for joining the Operation Save that she wanted and she could join in her Drama Club to be the main actress in My Fair Lady.

Reaction to the novel:

I enjoyed reading this novel so much because the story was interesting not boring. The story was told in sequence and provided the challenges to learn the new verse of the sentences. It contained of many good values in the daily life such as being hard working, honest, never give up, trying as maximally to reach our want.

I would read the book with the same author because I like her style in telling the story and her structures. It attracked my imagination.

I would recommend this novel to my classmate because it was very interesting and challenging. We could get the moral values in the story and apply in our daily life, also by reading this novel it will improve our vocabulary and style in writing.

One or two of the following topics:

1. Part of the book that interest me particularly:

I like in the last chapter that was very strained, both Matt and Laurie were confused to think of the meaning of the Bible verse and when they found it and tried to find the hidden treasure they were accused by Mrs. Lawrence stealling it, then Matt arrested.

2. One of characters that I like:

I am very interested in Laurie’s character. Here, she is smart, hard working, friendly, active, full of understanding and helpful.