Dovey Coe
By Frances O'Roark Dowell
Summary
Book Cover
Author Frances O'Roark Dowell
Another Version of the Book Cover
Strengths
Weaknesses
I would say that the stories biggest weakness was the way it was worded. The style was a little old-fashioned of the wording was different than the way we speak today. Due to this, it was a bit hard to follow and to understand what was going on at some points during the book. It also bothered me a little bit by the way it was written. There was some words that were used that I didn't understand because these certain words don’t get used anymore. For example, one the first page the first sentence was, “My name is Dovey Coe, and I reckon it don't matter if you like me or not.” When I first read this, I thought this book was going to be very difficult to understand. While it became easier to read and understand overtime, I still had to look up what some of the words in the book meant.
Memorable Passage
“I thought he was going to kill you Dovey. It was the only thing I could do.” I found this part memorable because it came from a boy named Amos who became deaf at birth. When Dovey found out the Amos was deaf, she took it in her part to help him get through life. She taught him how to read and write, and taught him how to read lips so he could communicate with other people. When Dovey went to visit Parnell Carnway to retrieve Amos’ dog that Parnell had stolen, Parnell hit Dovey in the head, causing Dovey to become unconscious. When Amos went in search for his missing dog, he saw how Parnell had knocked Dovey how. He then grabbed a soda canister and hit it against Parnell’s head. Although Parnell died, Amos had saved Dovey’s life.
Synthesis
Recommendations
Although it won the Edgar Award, I don’t feel that this book is much of a mystery. That being said, I would most likely recommend this book to anyone who likes to read about drama. There was many exciting parts in the books and most of these parts had some sort of drama in it. Dovey Coe shares a lot of her opinions about other people. I think that this was the main reason why there was so much drama in the book. The detail was also very vivid and it was easy to understand, minus the wording.