Why the Bronze Pen is a Good Book for Children

The title of the book I’m reading is The Bronze Pen and the author is Zilpha Keatley Snyder. The Genre of The Bronze Pen is fictional. The setting that the Bronze Pen takes place in is the early 20th century in a tiny town with a variety of people and scenery. The place of the story would overall be in a close-knitted small quiet town where everyone knew and liked everyone besides a few. The time of the story would be in the early 20th century but no later than 2010.

The major character of The Bronze Pen is a 12-year-old girl by the name of Audrey Abbott. Audrey is the type of girl who is very shy at first but blossoms into a crazy adventurous spunky child with a very active imagination as many kids her age are. Audrey is a pretty plain jane with medium to long hair dark hair which is usually in a ponytail. She has dark pudding-like rich brown eyes that seem to go forever, she’s a medium to average height compared to the other girls in her school and town. Audrey is the daughter of Hannah Elgin Abbott is the main character of The Bronze Pen. Audrey is an only child along with this everybody has to rush home right after school to take care of her injured father so she didn’t have much of a life out of school you could say and doesn’t leave much time for friends. She writes stories in her notebook and dreams of one day becoming a writer.

A minor character that is more important than others is the old lady or creature in the cave. The “ Old lady” is a caped and cloaked figure and at times seems to shapeshift and turn different sizes in the back of the cave but you never seem to see this woman up close and in great detail. This woman is the one who gives Audrey the bronze pen which starts this whole mess. Another minor character is Audrey’s father John Abbott. John has a condition called “angina pectoris” which results from a condition called coronary heart disease an accumulation of plaque inside the coronary blood vessels that reduces blood flow to the heart. Before his illness john was a robust man and the editor of the Greendale Times but now he spends most of his days housebound and in bed.

At the beginning of the story, it starts with Audrey telling her parents about her meeting the old woman then it goes into details of how it happened. One day she was sitting outside in one of her favorite writing places or just places, in general, jotting down ideas and writing one of her newest pieces when she heard something moving around in the bushes in front of her and was surprised to see a white duck looking right back at her. The duck looked at her and almost what seemed to be nodding at her to follow it so she went with what she was feeling and followed the little duck. The duck goes off into the forest and she followed closely behind the white creature to a vine-covered cave on wild oaks bill somewhere she use to go with the Mayberry twins when she was sick some odd six-seven years ago. She ventured into the cave where she meets this old woman who claims to know her deepest fears and hopes. When she arrived home she tells her parent’s of her encounter with the woman, with her parents afraid that this woman could be homeless or injured they called the authorities but suspect Audrey is just using her overactive imagination but she knows what she saw is far from her imagination and is in fact real. When Audrey returns to the cave the creature is glad to see her and gives her as she claims an “ancient pen made from dark, almost rust-colored metal and covered with strange marks” and warned her to use it wisely and to good purpose.

Audrey soon realizes that when she uses the pen to write a new story she’s been working on about a girl who talks to animals, strange and abnormal things being to occur to Audrey. It started when she noticed the story she had been getting done writing a scene in her story with the pen and she hears a voice say “why'd you do that for?” and turns out to be Audrey’s dog, Beowulf, after she poked him. Audrey now found that she was capable to talk to animals or at least her dog for now just like the girl she had been writing about in her story. Later her bird Sputnik talked but in a different voice than usual because he’s a talking cockatiel which startled her for he could now talk to her too but in a more human-like voice. She realized that what she wrote came to life or come into a reality so she was very careful and the magic only occasionally feels fully integrated with the plight of Audrey’s family.

In conclusion, Audrey spent most of their time rushing home to care for her father which led to her focusing on what she loves to do the most. The writing was clearly her passion throughout the story and if she didn’t have this strong burning passion in her heart for writing, none of this would ever be a reality. Audrey followed a tiny white duck into the forest to the cave that started the whole mess she got herself into with the old woman and the magical bronze pen. Audrey went on to never using the bronze pen again because she had experienced firsthand the consequences that the pen can have.

In my overall opinion on The Bronze Pen by Zilpha Keatley Snyder is I genuinely enjoyed the turnout of how everything was laid out. I also enjoyed the flow of events and of everything that occurred through the book such as the part Audrey realizes everything she writes with the pen comes true. Although I didn’t like how it didn’t at least rarely mention other characters. I think the age group that would like this book is perhaps kids ages 9 - 12. I believe this age group would like this book is because in the book they go on an adventure along with showing some problems Audrey faces but in the end, it turns out good and works out.

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