SYNOPSIS

This novel is a tale that is both funny and moving. Five children are stranded together for the night in a tower of creepy, dark old Harwick Hall. In that stormy night, the children uncover the story of Richard Clayton Harwick which is very disturbing. It is a tale of a boy who of many years ago learned what it was like to have a truly wicked stepfather.

Chapter 1
On a wild and stormy night, five students, Claudia, Colin, Ralph, Pixie and Robbo, are sent ahead on a school trip to Old Harwick Hall. Instead of taking the school bus with Miss O'Dell and their other friends, they have to ride on a minibus with Mr. Plumley, one of their accompanying teachers, to their destination. After arriving, they explore the building and find an old, hexagonal tower room with five beds in it. In the dark of the night, with no electricity due to the raging storm, Colin spots a door which leads to an old, abandoned room where they discover a diary of a young boy by the name of Richard Clayton Harwick. Prior to reading the diary, they wonder why they are put together in the minibus. They achieved the answer after eavesdropping on Miss O'Dell and Mr. Plumley's conversation - on Miss O'Dell's list, their names had ticks which indicate that they each had two different addresses on their permission slips, one for their mother's home and one for their father's home. Each child comes from a divorced family. Pixie reads Richard's diary out loud for the other children to hear.

Chapter 2
Richard Clayton Harwick's father is ill and this worries everyone in Harwick Hall. Before his death, he tells Richard to take care of his mother and sister, Lilith and Charlotte Harwick. After that, Richard not only feels sad for his father's death, but also because his father had only thought of his mother and sister instead of him until the end of his life. Later in the story, Lilith marries Reverend Coldstone, an anglican priest (he is not Catholic because he is not addressed Father, and he marries Lilith, Richard's Mother. Roman Catholic Priests cannot marry) who is cruel towards Richard but is very nice towards Charlotte. Richard is then sent to a boarding school called Mordanger School, where he is treated like a prisoner. He then decides to run away and sail all over the world. He comes back twice to Harwick Hall but never bothers to enter it or meet his mother and sister. He finally returns home after reading a print which states that solicitors have something to his advantage back home, discovering from a letter Charlotte had written before her death, that his family had been searching for him until the end of their lives and how Reverend Coldstone had turned out to be a very bad man. His decision of whether to stay or leave Harwick Hall remains unknown while leaving his green diary back in his tower room. Chapter 3 (Claudias story : Green Pyjamas) Claudia starts telling her story to the other children: Claudia's parents quarrel a lot until her father decides to take his things and move away to his mother's house. One night, there is a flood of phone calls, and for the first time, Claudia hears the name Stella, her dad's new girlfriend. After that night, Claudia's dad dare not visit nor come near the house anymore, but only talks to Claudia over the phone. On D-Day, Claudia meets Stella for the first time and thinks that Stella is a plain and mousy person. After a row with his mother, Claudia's dad then moves into Stella's house. Later, Stella gives Claudia a pair of beautiful green pyjamas as a late Christmas present even though Claudia is always rude and mean to her. One evening, Claudia's dad and Stella holds a dinner party to celebrate his thirty-seventh birthday. During the dinner, Claudia's dad's friends ignores Stella as they think that by doing so they would be loyal to Claudia's mum. Claudia felt sorry and went downstairs to thank her for the green pyjamas and thus making her point to the dinner guests that Stella is a wonderful person.

Chapter 4 (Colins story : The Bluebird of Happiness) Colins seems the saddest. He had someone he thought of as his father and now he misses him so badly that it hurts. Colins mother leaves the only father Colin has known, a man she lived with for many years, and in her attempt to create a new life for herself does not see that Colin has been torn from a man he loves. Colin loves his stepfather, but hasnt seen him for five years, and is obsessively determined to find him. Chapter 5 (Ralphs story : A Tale of Three Stepmothers) He has three stepmothers to deal with. All of them are different in their ways. In addition, he has a lot of stepbrothers, stepsisters, half brother and half sisters to accept in his life. Ralph cannot keep track of which parents house he should go to after school each day, so his parents develop a lunchbox system: the Dumbo lunchbox means Dads house after school: the Mickey Mouse one directs him to his mothers. Towards the end, we can see that he is anxiously waiting for his little half sister or half brother to be born. Chapter 6 (Pixies story : The Pains in My Life) Pixie has to deal with two really irritating sisters. She hates to go over her dads house twice in a month. She feels that everyone is pretending to be in a happy family when they are actually not. She has to deal with two really irritating stepsisters and father who pretends he does not notice how difficult things are for her. Soon, Pixie discovers that her stepmother and stepsisters arent any happier about the situation than she is. She learns to adapt to the situation. One of her step sisters teaches her mathematics and in return she tells ghost stories. Chapter 7 (Robbos story : Dumpa Problem) Robbo and his sister, Callie find that their half sister, Dumpa is the problem. Both their Mum and stepfather, Roy keep on arguing. The arguments are mainly due to Callie. Callie never seems to see eye to eye with Roy. Both Mum and Roy are committed with each other just because of Dumpa, their three year old son. Eventually, Callie moves out to her Dads place and that solves the problem.

THEMES

1. Dealing with adversities Young children and adults may find difficulties dealing with frustration, fears and sadness. 2. Think long enough before making a decision Richard Harwich made a rash decision to run away and that changed the lives of his stepfather, mother and sister. 3. Sibling rivalry Resentful step-siblings cause burden and hostility in a home. 4. Coping with change All pain eventually heals and that we have the power to change things for the better. 5. Being brave Characters like Claudia and Pixie are brave as they confess to their own rotten behaviour. 6. Dealing with Separation and Divorce It deals with a social phenomenon that many people are experiencing, the idea of a divorce as somehow horrible. Separation and divorce, and the events leading up to them, interrupts the stability and predictability that children need.

CHARACTERS
Rihard Clayton Hardwick 1. Rebellious 2. Sensitive and emotional 3. Works as cabin boy and later become a captain 4. Coward 5. Lost his father to an illness

Charlotte 1. Richards younger sister 2. Patient 3. Understanding 4. Positive 5. Like her new stepfather, Reverend Coldstone

Richards mother 1. Weak 2. Easily manipulated by Reverend Coldtone 3. Died of broken heart

Reverend Coldstone 1. Richards stepfather 2. Stern 3. Strict 4. Cold-hearted

Claudia 1. Her father had a girlfriend, Stella 2. Hate stella at first 3. Polite 4. Observant 5. Sympatheric

Stella 1. Kind 2. Friendly 3. Forgiving 4. Polite 5. Never give up

Colin 1. Never knew his dad 2. Likes his moms boyfriend 3. Did not give up easily

Colins mother 1. Had a boyfriend 2. Unreasonable 3. Selfish

Ralph 1. Had three stepmothers 2. Likes his third stepmother, Flora 3. Understanding

Howard 1. Ralphs stepfather 2. Has three children

Annable 1. Ralphs first stepmother 2. Ralphs dad let her have her way 3. Picky 4. Selfish

Janet 1. Ralph second stepmother 2. Very organized 3. Strict 4. Had rules for everything

Flora 1. Ralphs third stepmother 2. Closer in age to Ralph 3. Disorganised

Pixie 1. Her father remarried Lucy 2. Honest 3. Understanding 4. Tolerant

Robbo 1. Robbos parent split up when he was young 2. Able to tolerate with his stepfather 3. Intelligent 4. Caring

SETTING Time
1. The novel is set in the modern 20th century. 2. The story begins on a wet, rainy night with storms raging in the sky as the five main characters make their way ahead of their classmates to Old Harwick Hall for a week-long field trip.

Place

1. The story takes place in Old Harwick Hall which is a spooky Victorian mansion built hundreds of years ago. 2. It is described as 'absolutely private' and 'a towering mansion with dunce-hatted turret'. It has 'dark windows' and a 'huge oak and iron door'. 3. The Tower Room in Old Harwick Hall - a room equipped with beds pointing to the centre. This is the room where the five characters Pixie, Claudia, Ralph, Robbo and Colin first gather when they arrive. 4. A tiny room (' a tower off a tower') adjoining the Tower Room is where the characters discover a mysterious old diary belonging to Richard Clayton Harwick. The room is hidden by the frame of a bed but a pock-mark reveals its existence. The room is full of cobwebs and dust on the furniture. There are six vaulted windows, a lantern, candelabra, some books, cushions and a tiny carved wooden cow with three legs in the room.

PLOT

1. The novel is written in seven chapters. The first two chapters are without titles while the other five chapters consist of stories from the five main characters, Claudia, Pixie, Ralph, Colin and Robbo. 2. In the story, five schoolchildren spend the night in the creepy Old Harwick Hall, as part of a school field trip accompanied by their teachers. The schoolchildren do not really know each other, but the discovery of an old diary in the tower room find themselves coming closer together as they actually have a lot in common. The novel is written in an autobiographical style where the five main characters, Claudia, Pixie, Robbo, Colin and Ralph take turns to tell their five distinct stories step-bystep, story-by-story. They share stories of their stepfather, stepmother and step siblings frankly and openly and how they cope with their own situation. Their stories have a mixture of happy and sad endings.

MORAL VALUES

1. Family is everything
This is the main message in all the five stories from Claudia, Ralph, Colin, Pixie and Robbo. Love is the factor that binds the family together but sometimes the family unit breaks down due to a lack of understanding between parents. Most of the time, children are not prepared for such a situation and this lands them in an awkward and painful situation. It is important to minimize the impact of divorce on children and to make sure they do not feel unwanted or unimportant. Parents must always try to keep the family together despite the breakdown in their relationship.

2. Patience is a virtue
It is important to practice a lot of patience in difficult times. No parents would want a divorce if they can help it. Hence, everyone affected by a divorce must be patient and tolerant. Richard Clayton Harwick does not show enough patience when he leaves his family because he cannot get along with his step father. As a result of his action, his mother dies of heartbreak and his sister blames him for being selfish and cruel. In Pixies story, she does not show much patience towards her step siblings. She refuses to share her bedroom with Hetty. She is also hard headed and argues intensely with her step mother.

3. We must learn to adapt to new situations

Children from broken homes have no choice but to learn to adapt to new situations. This may be unfair to the children who seem to be the victim of circumstances beyond their control. However, in the five stories told, we learn that adapting is better than resisting although it takes a lot of patience and effort on the childrens part. Claudia shows she is a rational and sensible child to accept her step mother. Ralph, who has three step mothers, gets along with all of them despite their different personalities.

4. Dont give up hope

Colins story is the saddest of all. He does not give up hope of one day finding Jack whom he accepts as his own father. He saves all his money and plans to look for his dad when the time is right. Colin is a very determined person despite his young age. He knows what he wants. Robbo also hopes his sister Callie will accept their step father Roy. However, Callie resents Roy and decides to live with her real father in the end.

SEKOLAH MENENGAH KEBANGSAAN RAJA ALI KUALA LUMPUR

STEP BY WICKED STEP

NAME IC NUMBER CLASS TEACHERS NAME

: NABIHAH BT ABDUL KADIR : 950610-10-5846 : 5 AZAM : MRS MASLIZA