Sketchbook of Impossible Things Symbol Analysis

At the beginning of the novel, Ally draws all of her mind movies in her Sketchbook of Impossible Things. She often does this to avoid having to do her difficult classwork, which turns the Sketchbook into a symbol for all that is hard or difficult in Ally's life: her inability to read, her isolation, and her poor performance in school. Most importantly, the Sketchbook represents Ally's fear and unwillingness to trust anyone else, as it's a place she goes to escape having to tell anyone that she can't read. As she works with Mr. Daniels and gradually grows more confident, she finds that she needs the Sketchbook less and less, as things that previously seemed impossible are suddenly within Ally's grasp. With this, the Sketchbook becomes a symbol of who Ally was before meeting Mr. Daniels and getting help with her dyslexia, when learning to read seemed just as fantastical as the worlds represented in her surreal drawings.