An even more “useless” writing class｜Assignment 3: Thoughts after reading "Seaside Crow Island"

Course link: Copyright Center’s annual class: A more “useless” writing class

The fourth class of a more “useless” writing class is taught by copyright author Wang Maimai.

The content of the course is: Good stories look like interesting revelations about another life.

The creative assignment left this time is:

Please choose an interesting and enlightening novel and write a review after reading it. (Write down what is interesting about it and what enlightens it to you?)

"Crow Island" is one of the works of Swedish fairy tale grandmother Astrid Lindgren. The writing style of this work is relaxed and humorous, full of cheerful and rich seaside life atmosphere.

The story takes place on a beautiful island in Stockholm. The name of the island is Seaside Crow Island.

A father and his four children, whose surname is Melksson, are from Stockholm and come to the seaside Crow Island for vacation.

My father Melk is a less successful writer. He acted rashly and was easily impulsive. He had never seen the Seaside Crow Island and rented a vacation house there just because the island had a nice name.

The house Melk rented on Crow Island on the seaside was called Carpenter Manor. It was a red two-story house. The house was dilapidated from overuse by previous tenants and the roof leaked. It happened to be pouring rain on the first day they came.

The dilapidated house, the bad weather, and the unfamiliarity of the place all make me worry, will the Melksons' vacation be overshadowed by this?

However, the Melksons are more optimistic than I could have imagined.

Ma Lin, Melk’s 19-year-old daughter, is sweet-looking and is the backbone and pillar of the family. She had played the role of mother to the Melksson boys since the birth of their youngest brother, Peller, and the death of their mother.

Ma Lin asked Melk to light the stove, sent the boys to fetch water from the well, asked neighbors to help repair the broken window glass, and settled the family in an orderly manner.

Melk made another joke when he was lighting the stove: he closed the windshield, causing thick smoke to billow in the kitchen.

Fortunately, the hospitable neighbor Maita came over at this time and opened the windshield in time. Melk finally lit the stove and the kitchen became warm.

Maita brought them minced meat soup, which was like a timely help to the hungry Melksons.

The family spent the first night in a panic, but they were in a surprisingly good mood.

Melk weaves a beautiful love story for the origin of Carpenter Manor.

Marlene felt that no matter how dilapidated the Carpenter Manor was, nothing could stop her from starting a happy life at this moment, because it was summer.

Besides, she likes it here very much. She has never seen such a beautiful scenery: the calm water, the pier, and the gray stones on the shore are so charming. Outside the window, birds are singing, everything looks healthy, happy, and full of vitality, which makes people feel happy.

Ma Lin’s other two younger brothers, Yohan and Niklas, were full of novelty about everything here and planned to travel around the entire island the next day.

They are very eager to meet their neighbors Diddy and Freddy, who are the same age as them. They thought Diddy and Freddy were two young men, but they found out they were two girls.

But this did not stop Yohan and Nicholas from making friends with Didi and Freddy. They formed a secret foursome and stayed together throughout the summer. Of course this happened later.

The younger brother Peller has become friends with his neighbor's daughter Qiu Erwen, who is about the same age as him.

The father Melk in the story is so cute, he looks like an old kid. He is innocent and has no idea when things happen, and he often does bad things with good intentions. As long as he is around, there will always be jokes.

For example:

One day Melk wanted to give Marlene a surprise. He waited until everyone at home had left and then began to test his secret invention-a water diversion channel.

However, this project was not exactly what he expected! The sink had a crack and most of the water leaked onto the floor.

Melk came up with a very simple solution. The seams in the wooden sink will disappear as long as they are soaked in water. Therefore, he poured almost ten buckets of water into the sink at one go, hoping to keep the sink soaked in water.

However, the sink clearly worked better than Melk thought. Although most of the water leaked onto the floor, there was still plenty left, enough to fill the kitchen floor with water.

There are many funny things like this. For example, he took Yohan and Nicholas to go bass fishing, and he seriously boasted to the two boys about his superb fishing skills and experience. As a result, the two boys caught one bass after another, but he didn't catch any.

Later, in order to show off his "extraordinary" cooking skills, he cooked a pot of Mei's stewed seabass, but the seabass soup was so salty that even he could not eat it.

Although Melk is not very smart, he is very popular. Not only his children like him, but the indigenous people on the island also like him very much and regard him as a true friend. Why is this?

I think this is not only because he is kind-hearted and compassionate, but also because he has a true love for life and knows how to enjoy the beauty in life.

He is optimistic by nature. Although the Carpenter Manor is dilapidated, he still lives there happily and thinks about how to repair the manor every day to make his and his children's life here more comfortable.

He likes Crow Island on the seaside. He sincerely loves the beautiful scenery and charming scenery here, and has a sincere appreciation and gratitude for the simple folk customs here.

Children also love the seaside Crow Island, where they play to their heart's content and become close friends with the local children.

Melk has a burning love for his children. He often thinks about them and strives to fulfill their little wishes and make their childhood interesting and happy.

When the summer passed and the youngest boy Peller felt sad that his family had to return to Stockholm, he decisively rented the Carpenter Manor for the whole year so that he and his children would only have to live there. If you have time, you can go on vacation often.

Sure enough, the Melksons spent Christmas of that year and the following spring at the Carpenter Manor.

The cost of renting the Carpenter Manor for a whole year will be much higher, but Melk will not care about it, as long as the cost is something he can afford, and he is willing to be so extravagant in order for his children to be happy. In his mind, the children's happiness is more important than anything else.

Although such a father may seem a little confused on the surface, how can the children not feel his passionate love for them?

As Marlene once said to him:

"You have done your best, Dad. We have got everything good, interesting and wonderful in life. From you, It's all from you! You care about us, that's the only thing that makes sense.

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