We Break the Twyford Code

 We met in the new Round Rock Public Library to discuss The Twyford Code, by Janice Hallett. All of us enjoyed the book! Thanks to Cindy for nominating it and presenting it, along with some treasure.

Question #1: The book format was transcripts of audio files, with dates when they were recorded. The question asked how we felt about the format when reading this novel. The transcription of the audio  files was supposedly written by the main character, who was dyslexic. An example of how audio files that tell the story were “transcribed” is that the name that should have sounded like “Miss Iles” looked on the printed page like the word, “missiles”. Numerous words were twisted like this. Joyce said it took her a while to get the connection between the written format and the probable sound and words behind the transcripts. Carla said she didn’t notice a problem about it. Ken said it slowed him down at first. We discussed some codes and cryptography we had seen and/or solved in the past.

Question #4 asked why Miss Iles, the Remedial English teacher for approximately 7^th or 8^th grade, was important to Steven, the main character. Lydia answered that the teacher was central to what Steven thought happened in the story. Lydia also mentioned how sad Steven’s childhood was and that Miss Iles was one of Steven’s supportive teachers and one of few people who were concerned with Steven’s welfare.

Here, Carla introduced ideas that incorporated the end of the book. She said that there were three stories in the book: the story Steven thought happened, the story the other kids from the English class thought had happened, and then there was the story Miss Iles told at the end of the book.

Cindy added that Steven was also hoping Miss Iles could help him get his grown son back to being interested in him. Cindy thought Steven made up the story and wrote the transcripts of supposed audio files to get his son interested in spending time with him.

Dennis said he could believe all three versions of the Twyford Code story. Carla  agreed, saying that at the end of the book, Miss Iles said that all three versions of the story could have been true.

The book followed a complex series of events and then shed doubt on the entire story by introducing the idea that Steven had created the whole story, complete with transcripts of supposed audio files, from his imagination. Cindy asked us to discuss whether we were disappointed by the book’s ending. Joyce felt manipulated. She said the book made the reader follow along and try to put the pieces together to find some fitting resolution, so when it turned out that the story was not real even in the book, the reader was likely to feel disappointed. Cindy wanted it to be real. Operation Fish was a real secret transfer of British gold over the ocean to store it safely in Canada during World War II, so, since the symbolism of artistic renditions of fish was incorporated into the story, Cindy felt better about the hoax aspect of The Twyford Code.

Question #9 listed a sentence from the book. By putting together the first letter of each word in the sentence, one would get the question, “Would you look for treasure?” We talked about the code and the treasure in the story.

The book helped us create a stimulating discussion. I thought it was a good meeting of minds!

I used an audio recording of the meeting to help me write this blog post. The final sentence on the recording was me saying that I wanted to get a photo of all of us. Then, I guess I forgot to get a photo! Maybe next time!