Teenage Dreamers by Phillip Tang

1. What are the first two sentences of the story and how do they create a tension in the story?

"My father had a sixth sense. He knew when people would die." This creates tension as you want to read more and see how this is relevant to the story. This is not an everyday thing for someone to know when people die and you want to read about the story this girl has experienced with her dad having a sixth sense. This also lets the reader know that the story will also be revolved a lot around death.

2. What has happened to the author’s father as a result of his wife’s death?

He has become 'obsessed' with a actor come singer 'Leslie Cheung'. After becoming infatuated with the singer the author has also noticed that his father has become very emotional being compared to as a 'school girl'.

3. How does the description of the father removing his hands from his face as ‘unmasked’ related to the seriousness of his following statement?

It shows that he needed to talk to his daughter with seriousness. He has taken his hands away from his face with all seriousness and then starts talking to the author about a man that he is obsessed with. This is why it shows how serious he is.

4. Consider how the father lives his life and conducts himself and the other people in the theatre for the film the author and his father are watching. How does this relate to the title of the story?

After his wife leaves him Phillip's father becomes extremely emotional and cries quite a lot whenever he hears Leslie's movies or songs. This relates to the title of the story 'Teenage dreamers' because he is crying in much the same way a teenage girl would cry over seeing a pop star that the loved. This is why the title of the story is 'Teenage dreamers' it is because her father is a lot like a teenage lover.