Journal Entry #10

5

• The drunk and Ozzie are good friends now.
  
• Ozzie is in the convent and those killing words keep on haunting him.
  
• Ozzie has an uncle and he has come to see him!
  
• His uncle has told him that he has to kill him!
• The boy has died.
  
• Susan and Meredith came to a conclusion that Paul's story was fiction. But, Susan thinks Meredith is hiding something.
• Susan is very pensive and doesn't understand why Paul would have wanted someone to read his manuscript during this year, years after his death. I think it was for the next fader to read it and not make silly mistakes because he did say he would try to protect the next fader like his uncle Adelard didn't.
  

4

• Does Ozzie's uncle know where his father is?
  
• Will Ozzie hate this uncle and say it's too late I don't need you now?
  
• Why has he come to kill Ozzie?
  
• Does Meredith have the ability to fade?
  

3

• Forlorn (285): desolated; unhappy
  
• Hoarse (286): a harsh, low sound
  
• nimble (293): quick to understand
  

2

• "His voice was like a whisper in a cave, echoing and hoarse and raspy, filled with a terrible urgency" (286). Simile.
  
• "The convent loomed in the night like a dinosaur at rest, silhouetted against a sky bright with summer moonlight" (287). Simile.
  

1

• Fade leaves us with a very imaginative thought. So who's the next to fade and who's keeping the secret now?
  

Journal Entry #9

5

• Ozzie is the new fader!
  
• Ozzie doesn't seem too happy about his ability to fade as Paul did at first. Ozzie worries more about the bad things that can occur rather than living a fairytale life.
  
• His way of thinking has much to do with the way he was treated as a child. He does everything with caution.
  
• It is said that Ramsey is a town where there is now bad luck and they compare him to it.
  
• He has come across a man in the streets of Ramsey and he's telling him about the "haunted town". The man can barely walk and is holding a bottle in his hand. He is a drunk.
  
• A voice is telling Ozzie to kill! Deep down he knows it's not him.
  

4

• Is he going to stay in Ramsey?
  
• Can he just fade and appear back at another place without feeling tired?
• Since the drunk saw him fade, will he tell everyone?
  
• Will Ozzie end up killing the sister?

3

• Aura (259): a persuasive quality in the atmosphere
  
• Staggering (276): overwhelm
  
• Discordant (277): disagreeing
  

2

• "The morning aromas of coffee, bacon, and other fried foods wafted through an open window" (289). Allusion.
  
• "A sleepy town, a town that went to bed early" (268). Personification.
  

1

• The fade is getting to Ozzie! With the past on his mind and the ability to fade, Ozzie is not thinking the right way because he's now thinking about killing.
  

Journal Entry #8

5

• Now, the story about Ozzie is being told.
• Ozzie was a boy who had moved to lived with nuns in a convent because his stepfather use to beat him, his mother was a drunkie and he always heard strange noises from his parents and the beating the "man" did to his mother.
• One day, his mother was bruised up and bleeding. She came into Ozzies room and told him that she had to leave, but she would be back. She never did.
• When his stepdad found out she was gone he gave Ozzie the worst beating of his life.
• "Your Pa is poor and your Ma is a whore. That was the refrain he heard in school" (229). The kids stopped teasing him after his mom was already dead.
• I think Ozzie is the next fader! "He held up his hand and couldn't see his hand. Could see the room, the floor" (238).
• There's a stranger in town and he's looking for Ozzie!

4

• Why didn't she take Ozzie with her to protect him?
• Will Ozzie become a violent person with no feelings after everything he has been through?
• Is Ozzie the next fader?
• So, no one taught Ozzie how to fade?

3

• Convent (228): a community of people devoted to religious life under a superior
• Sniveling (233): to weep or cry
• Debris (242): the remains of anything broken

2

• "She was old herself, brown spots on the backs of her hands, face wrinkled like a crumpled paper bag" (229). Simile.
• "Until Ozzie fell asleep as cold dawn touched the windows" (231). Personification.

1

• Ozzie has learned to endure and is now beginning to have simptoms that Paul was having as he bagan his fade!

Journal Entry #7

5

• Now, the story is being told from Paul's perspective. He began by telling about the year (1963) and the place where he lived, Frenchtown.
• Paul tells that each generation has a touch of the personality and looks of the generation before. Such as his sister Yvonne, who "had a touch of Rosanna in her wild colors and easy ways with people" (197).
• Paul and Rosanna speak about Rosanna's pregnancy that no one knew about. She feels horrible because she doesn't know where her son is.
• Paul reminisces about the fade and how at first it was uncontrollable. There were many occasions where he had to excuse himself because he was going to fade. After a period of time, the fade began to "diminish" Paul.
• Paul begun to hate the fade. " 'The hell with the fade,' I cried repudiating this thing that had entered my life like something evil" (221).
• Paul promises himself that he will protect the new fader what his uncle Adelard didn't do for him.

4

• Did Paul ever grow any feeling for Yvonne just because she looked like Rosanna?
• Did his parents ever ask him why he had to excuse himself so much?
• Will the fade last him forever?
• How do the faders find out who the next fader will be?

3

• Contemptuous (193): scornful
• Famished (199): to endure severe hunger
• Virile (202): having the characteristics of an adult male

2

• "My father sat on the piazza bundled against the chill, the thin sunlight not warm enough to bake his bones" (193). Personification.
• "The first time I inhaled the aroma of turkey and stuffing in the kitchen on Easter morning, I threw my arms around my mother and kissed her firmly on the cheek and she shooed me away, the way she used to shoo us off to bed when I was a kid" (196). Imagery.
• "A futile love because she had disappeared from my life and the life of the family" (197). Man vs. Man.

1

• Now as an adult, Paul tells the story of his life and promises himself that he will protect the next fader because the fade gets difficult to deal with and can diminish an individual.

Journal Entry #6

5

• A new section of the book has started and everything will now be from Susan's point of view.
  
• Susan read a manuscript and it was about "the boy Paul and the fade and all the rest of it" (158). She is very confused, but interested and curious. Susan think she loves writing might thinks she might just be a pretender.
  
• The manuscript about Paul was sent to Meredith by Lionel many years before Susan found it. Paul sent it to him before his death. Meredith says that she is very troubled by it. Even though it doesn't seem so real, Meredith recognizes some of the people mentioned.
  
• Meredith has received a letter in the mail from her grandfather who was an investigator and Paul's family. He told her that the manuscript was fiction because fading isn't real.
  
• Besides the evidence they tried to give Meredith about the manuscript being fiction, she believes Paul was telling the truth.
  

4

• Why did the author decide to give the story from different peoples views?
  
• Will Susan tell about Paul?
• Since Susan wants to become a writer and she found a manuscript about Paul, will she publish it to become famous?
  
• Why did Paul reveal his secret?
• Will Meredith have the next fade?
• When Paul asked for his uncle Adelard in the photograph, his parents said it was a joke and the family would get nervous when speaking about it. Is Meredith's grandfather saying the manuscript is fiction so that she won't have the fade next?
  

3

• Chutzpah (159): audacity
  
• Astray (160): confusion
  
• Posthumous (162): occurring after one's death
  
• Wryly (186): misdirected
  

2

• "Meredith was as still as the crystal paperweight, shaped like a fawn, on the table next to the manuscript" (164). Simile.
  
• "My eyes are on fire" (180). Oxymoron.
  

1

• Paul left a story about his life behind and Meredith unlike others believe his story is true.
  

Journal Entry #5

5

• Paul sees LaBatt, his bully, bullying Joey. LaBatt is trying to take his money away, money from the paper route (job), that doesn't belong to him. All of the sudden, Paul feels out of breath and that's because he is beginning to fade! Paul takes this to his advantage and beats up LaBatt.
• After Paul beat up LaBatt, people gathered around to see what happened and Paul wanted to shout out that he was the one who did it. After a while of just watching, he thought about what he did and he was not a boy of violence. It's like the fade made him someone else.
• The "scabs" have come to town and the inhabitants are afraid.
• Paul is going to the shop with his dad and he tells him that there might be a fight!
• The fight went on and Paul prayed that his fade wouldn't fail him at this time. Paul's father got really hurt, but fortunately he would survive!

4

• Will LaBatt see him when he comes out of the fade?
• Well he change the way he acts towards everyone because he can now fade?
• What will Paul's mother do when she finds out Adelard passed the fade onto him?
• Will Paul try to hurt Toubert?

3

• Muckalize (132):a large number or amount
  
• Sinews (134): a tendon
  
• Decrepit (137):weakened by old age
  
• Surreptitiously (142): obtained, done, made
  

2

• "Dropping to the ground, moaning, flecks of foam spilling from his mouth" (134). Imagery.
• "Had i become brute" (135). Man vs. Man.

1

• Paul has learned to use his fade and now uses it more often.
  

Journal Entry #4

5

• Paul goes to church to confess because he feels that he has sinned. He's confessing about touching his Aunt's breast.
• Paul has now started High School. His teacher has taken his breath away!
• Uncle Adelard waits for Paul to teach him more how to fade. Adelard's uncle, Theophile was the on who taught Adelard to fade. So, fades are passed on from generation to generation.
  
• Paul asked Adelard why he decided to teach him how to fade and Adelard told him that his uncle Theophile told that the nephew with the glow around his body is the next one to be taught.
  
• Paul loves to write and was assigned to type a story. After he handed in the story, his teacher pulled him aside. She told him that the story was unacceptable and that she knows it's hard going from a parochial school to a public school. Also, that he should remove himself from chorus and just focus on his studies.
• Paul is thinking about what his uncle told him. Aldelard said that the fade wasn't a gift and Paul is starting to see where he's coming from.
• Paul feels something chasing him!
  

4

• Is Paul going to fall in love with his teacher now?
• Can it be a girl in the family that can be taught how to fade?
  
• Why is this teacher saying harsh things to Paul?
  
• Does Paul regret finding out the mystery of the family photograph?
  

3

• Teetering (97): to walk or move unsteadily
• Renegades (104): one who rejects a religion, alliance or group for another
  
• Turreted (117): a small tower, forming part of a large structure
  

2

• "My fate hanging in that pause, teetering as if on a high wire" (97). Simile.
• "My head danced with color and light and laughter and voices and ringing bells as I stumbled down the stairs that afternoon to meet my cousin Jules across the street" (104). Personification.
• "I did not know, like visiting a museum and being ignorant of the artists who created such works of splendor" (125). Simile.
  

1

• Paul is learning more about how to fade and the fade is no longer a mystery to him. He ponders as to whether it's a gift or not...