‘You’ : second persona pronoun

→ universal experience, feeling included

‘Tana, Ethiopia, Khartoum, Aswan’ : listing

→ vivid image of Mrs Tilscher’s class

‘Skittle of milk’ : metaphor (bottles of milk = bowling skittle)

‘Chanted’ : (repeating continuously)

‘Laugh of a bell’ : personification

‘Running child’

→ joyful, exciting atmosphere

→ childhood innocence, carefree

‘Chalky Pyramids rubbed into dust’ : time passing, lesson ends

→ vivid image of the desert (dust = dryness)

‘The classroom glowed like a sweet shop’ : simile

‘Sugar paper. Coloured shapes.’

→ joyful atmosphere

‘Brady and Hindley faded, like the faint, uneasy smudge of a mistake.’

→ juxtaposition, contrast

‘Good gold star’: alliteration

‘The scent of a pencil slowly, carefully, shaved’ : sibilance

→ imitate sound, more rhythm

→ childhood innocence

‘the inky tadpoles changed from commas into exclamation marks’ : metaphor

→ time passing, growing up

‘commas, exclamation marks’ : school language

→ childhood innocence

‘Three frogs hopped in the playground, freed by a dunce, followed by a line of kids, jumping and croaking’ : action verbs

→ energetic atmosphere → child becomes naughty

‘jumping and croaking’ : onomatopoeia

→ imitate the frogs

→ change in voice during puberty

’feverish July’