Which description do you like the most?

Read these extracts from a selection of books and think about which one you like the most and why. Post an explanation of the reasons why you like your particular extract. Do comment on the writer's style and word choice.

Descriptions of Settings

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

Extracts from- ‘The Sorting Hat’

Harry had never imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands of candles which were floating in mid-air over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the Hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first-years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver. Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upwards and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars.

 Extracts from- ‘The Forbidden Forest’

The moon was bright, but clouds scudding across it kept throwing them into darkness.

They walked past a mossy tree-stump. Harry could hear running water, there must be a stream somewhere close by.

They walked on through dense, dark trees.

They walked for nearly half an hour, deeper and deeper into the Forest, until the path became almost impossible to follow because the trees were so thick.

Star Lord  by Louise Lawrence

Animals sensed things, but Rhys sensed nothing out there in the dark and damp, only the raw cold making his teeth ache and his nose run, and it was cards he had in his pocket but no handkerchief. The mist was lifting. He could feel the mountains rising dark beyond the black buildings, and the torch light was pale and pathetic. The fowl houses were padlocked, the shed where they kept the sheep feed was bolted, and there was nothing around the yard and outhouses. Nothing but wisps of white mist and his own breath curling. He was about to go back in when he saw Blod by the paddock gate, her eyes watching him. The silence between them was very sharp and still and the darkness spread and waited.

Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver

To the east, the sky was wolf grey. Thunder growled. In the stormy light, the trees were brilliant green. Rain in the mountains, thought Torak numbly. Watch out for flash floods.

He’d grown up in this part of the forest. Every slope, every glade was familiar. In the valley to the west was Redwater: too shallow for canoes, but good fishing in the spring, when the salmon come up from the Sea. To the east, all the way to the edge of the Deep Forest, lay the vast sunlit woods where the prey grow fat in autumn, and berries and nuts are plentiful. To the south were the moors where reindeer eat moss in winter.

Torak left the glade and plunged back into shadows beneath the trees.

He looked down into a narrow gully through which ran a small, swift river. He recognised it: the Fastwater. Further west, he and Fa often camped in summer to gather lime bark for rope-masking; but this part looked unfamiliar. Then he realised why.

   Some time before, a flash flood had come roaring down from the mountains. The water had since subsided, leaving a mess of wet undergrowth and grass-strewn saplings.

Shadowmancer by G.P. Taylor

Thomas knew that none of the villagers would come near the cave until All Souls’ Day, for fear of the Hob. He hurried down the track and through the wood. It was a gentle slope to the beach. Soon the tree cover would break open and he would have a view of Baytown and the coast.

   Suddenly he heard the sound of scratching against wood, like the noise of a large animal sharpening its claws. It rasped and chaffed at the bark of a tree to his right, higher up the cliff. He looked but could see nothing. Thomas knew there were no wild dogs in these woods, yet the sound came again, this time from behind him and getting closer. Whatever it was moved from tree to tree and scratched each one as it went by. It was like the sound of a farm cat scratching for mice at the barn door, only this time it was a louder and far bigger animal.