Whether you like suspense, adventure, or historical stories each story that you read involves the development of its characters. What does character development mean? Remember when you were younger and you didn't know how to do something like tie your shoes or share toys with your classmates when you were supposed to? Pretend that you are a character. As you grew older you learned how to tie your shoes and how to share your toys. The fact that you could now tie your shoes and generously share your toys meant that you had developed parts of your character such as skills and manners.
Now think of Harry Potter. How has his character developed throughout books one through five? How have his conversations and friendships with Hermione and Ron changed through their years at Hogwarts? As a character he developed a greater understanding of loving role models such as Dumbledore and Hagrid, sparked an interest in girls in the fourth book, and further developed his belief in honesty and fairness. Could Harry's character have developed into a different type of person? Yes, Harry could have sunk to the sneaky level of the Slytherins, but thankfully he did not.
Which magic charms do you think are the coolest and most interesting? What parts of the story had you flipping the page quickly to find out what happened next? I loved the Bogarts, Dementors, and more recently the TriWizard Tournament. Characters like Bogarts, Defense Against the Dark Arts Teachers, the TriWizard Tournament, and sports like Quidditch linked together make up a "story line".
What is a story line exactly? Let's take an example from the first book, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE. In the beginning we were introduced to Harry and his awful relatives the Dursleys. Next we watched as Harry headed off for Hogwarts on the Hogwarts Express. Once at Hogwarts Harry learned magic, bonded with Hermione and Ron, and faced obstacles such as hexes during Quidditch matches. In the exciting end, the villain of the story was revealed and we learned about he-who-must-not-be named. These events and the characters in them are the story line. In basic terms, the story line is the Beginning, Middle, Climax, and End. Every story or book you read has a story line.
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