The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is about a teacher named Ichabod Crane. Ichabod loves listening to storys about the "Headless Horseman", a Hessian cavalryman who is said to have lost his head and now haunts Sleepy Hollow. He was buried in the churchyard and every night he rides to the battlefield on his horse searching for his head. Ichabod falls in love with Miss Katrina Van Tassel. She was the daughter of a wealthy Dutch farmer. Brom Bones also liked Katrina. Brom was very jealous of Ichabod. He was willing to do anything to ruin any chance Ichabod had with Katrina.

 

The characters in the book are Ichabod Crane, Katrina Van Tassel, Brom Bones and his gang, the Headless Horseman and the people lving in Sleepy Hollow. Ichabod is the main character. He was very tall and thin with a pointed nose and huge ears. He is the town school master. Katrina Van Tassel is a wealthy Dutch farmers daughter and is the prettiest girl in Sleepy Hollow. Brom Bones is very tough and has brown curly hair. But he is not mean. He likes to go to parties and tell stories and jokes. His gang is just the same way. The Headless Horseman is a Hessian cavalryman whose head was knocked off in the Revolutionary War. The people living in Sleepy Hollow are very superstitious and sometimes scare Ichabod with their ghost stories.

 It was a really good book. It was a mix of fantasy and reality. The book was very clearly written and easy to understand. The book was very detailed, but not to the point where it is boring to read. I really liked the story line and the personalities of the characters. It was interesting how all of the characters believed so strongly in this tale and others they had heard. The whole town loved hearing ghost stories and believed every one of them was true.

I used visualizing a lot because all the details in the book gave me a really good idea of what places looked like and the way people acted toward certain events in the book. I also made connections to his book and the other versions of the story I heard. This version was a little bit like a cliff hanger. Other versions I have heard tell you exactly what happened at the end of the book. But I have heard the story end different ways in almost every version.

Washington Irving wrote many short stories and biographies. He was born April 3rd, 1783. He was one of eleven children. He was also a historian and named after George Washington. He also wrote "Rip Van Winkle" and "Tales of a Traveller". Even though he had poor health, he kept writing. Sometimes he couldn't even walk. He died in November of 1859