52 pages • 1 hour read
Virginia HamiltonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
When Tappin says, “Bakon coleh / Bakon cawbey / Bakon cawhubo lebe lebe” (22), food appears in the dipper. The magic spell functions as a rule, and the rule creates predictable results—it establishes order. When Bruh Rabbit doesn’t know the rules for Sword and says, “Go-ee-tell” (32), he loses order, and Sword leaves him with nothing. Minus rules, destruction ensues.
In Part 2, when Anton says the spell that will turn him into any one of the four creatures, he’s exploiting a rule, a foreseeable outcome, that enables him to kill the girl in the moon tower’s father and marry the girl. Manuel uses the rules about riddles and the rabbits to get the king’s fortune, and Wiley and his mother seize the rules for Hairy Man to banish him. Wiley’s mother tells him, “Old Hairy Man won’t hurt you ever again. Because we did surely fool him three times” (103).
As in Part 1, when a character breaks a rule in Part 2, peril arrives. Little Daughter breaks her father’s rules about leaving the house and meets a wolf. Once she’s back behind the gate, the rules apply, and order and safety return.
In Part 3, characters bend or break the rules.
By Virginia Hamilton
African American Literature
View Collection
Allegories of Modern Life
View Collection
Appearance Versus Reality
View Collection
Black History Month Reads
View Collection
Books About Race in America
View Collection
Books on Justice & Injustice
View Collection
Books on U.S. History
View Collection
Challenging Authority
View Collection
Coretta Scott King Award
View Collection
Daughters & Sons
View Collection
Diverse Voices (Middle Grade)
View Collection
Earth Day
View Collection
Equality
View Collection
Fate
View Collection
Fear
View Collection
Good & Evil
View Collection
Grief
View Collection
Guilt
View Collection
Hate & Anger
View Collection
Loyalty & Betrayal
View Collection
Memory
View Collection
Middle Grade Nonfiction
View Collection
Mortality & Death
View Collection
Mothers
View Collection
Order & Chaos
View Collection
Power
View Collection
Pride & Shame
View Collection
Revenge
View Collection
Safety & Danger
View Collection
Short Story Collections
View Collection
Teams & Gangs
View Collection
Trust & Doubt
View Collection
Truth & Lies
View Collection