Book Review

Huffman, Hailey

November 3, 2016

English, Period 4

 

Speak

Laurie Halse Anderson

Fiction

198 pages

National Book Award Finalist, Michael L. Printz Honor Book, Edgar Allan Poe Award Finalist, Los Angeles Time Book Prize Finalist, Winner of eight book awards, Finalist for eleven more

 

 

          The novel, Speak by Laurie Halse Andersdon, is about a girl named Melinda Sordino’s first freshmen year going horribly wrong. She went to a end-of-summer party where something really bad happened to her involving a boy named Andy so she called the cops, causing the party to be busted and also causing everyone to hate her. She was miserable and she always said she was guilty but little do her friends know, she called the cops for a different reason other than calling the cops about the party, which was what her friends thought she did. She’s avoided by everyone and is bullied harshly. She tries telling one of her friends about what happened at the party but she doesn’t believe Melinda, causing everyone to hate her more. But when she not only speaks, but shows the truth, everything changes.

           This book made me feel all of the emotions, like sadness, happiness, and even confidence because when Melinda gained confidence, so did I because it was really inspiring. When she finally told her friends about Andy, they didn’t believe her until Melinda punched Andy in the face and the whole school knew what really happened at the party. This book is very mature so I do not recommend to people who are immature because this book contains a lot of serious topics. The end of the book was amazing, although they did leave a little bit of a cliff hanger, because it gives the readers some time to imagine of what Melinda said to the teacher when her art teacher asked about everything that is going on with her life.

“I have survived. I am here. Confused, screwed up, but here. So, how can I find my way? Is there a chain saw of the soul, and ax I can take to my memories and fears?”

Psihalopoulos, Stavros
Book Report 1
October 23, 2016
English, period 4

Book Review Blog
Book Information
"Walk Two Moons"
 Sharon Creech
 Mystery
 280 pages
1995 John Newberry Medal

1^st paragraph

The Novel "Walk Two Moons" is written by Sharon Creech, is about a thirteen-year-old girl named Salamanca Tree Hiddle. Her mother named her after an Indian tribe which her great-great-grandmother belonged too.  Most people called her Sal. She is determined to find her mother who left for Idaho and did not return.  Traveling from Ohio to Idaho with her grandparents, in search of her lost mother, Sal starts telling the story about Phoebe Winterbottom, who met a potential lunatic, received mysterious messages, and lost his mom. Beneath the story that Sal told, on the way to Idaho, is that her mom left to go to Idaho and hasn't returned. During the trip Sal had to drive her grandfather's car up a mountain. Her grandfather had to take care of her grandmother. Behind her, was a sheriff. The sheriff pulled her over and took her where her mom was. The sheriff told Sal that her mom was found dead on the mountain due to a bus crash. Then later that day Gramps wrote a note telling Sal where the motel was he was staying at. He told her that her grandmother had passed away at three o' clock in the morning. This was so sad for Sal. Sal and her grandfather flew back to Bybanks Kentucky where they lived on the farm. That is where they buried her grandmothers body in Aspen Grove where her grandparents were married.

2^nd paragraph   

 Some of the things I liked about the book is the mystery of the disappearance of Sal's mother. I enjoyed reading about their road trip as Sal and her grandparents went looking for Sal's mother. The story told about Phoebe Winterbottom meeting a potential lunatic, which was scary and then finding the mysterious messages sent to them. The mysterious message said, " Don't judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins". This related to the Phoebe story as well.Both of their mothers passed away. I didn't like the ending of the book because they found out that Sal's mom past away.  It got even sadder when Sal received a note saying where her grandpa was and that her grandma died at three o' clock in the morning. I related to this because my grandma is slowly dying from Alzheimers disease. Everyday I think what will happen to my grandma. I recommend this book, if you are into mystery and adventure, overall I do recommend the book for everyone.

Stevens, Faith

Book Prompt #1

English, Period 3

October 31, 2016

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas 

John Boyne

Historical Fiction

240 pages

Classic Novel

       The Boy in the Striped Pajamas written by John Boyne discusses about a nine-year-old boy named Bruno who comes home from school one day to his maid, Maria, packing his things in wooden crates. Bruno’s father got a promotion, so they had to move to Poland, Bruno does not like the idea of moving away from his friends but, he has no choice since his father was promoted to commandant. Once they get to the home it was not as exciting they thought it would be, in fact it was a little bit of a down grade. When Bruno got settled into his room he noticed a “farm” in the distance with people wearing “stripped pajamas” out his window. Bruno got bored so he asked a solder if he could make a tire swing, the solder yelled at a “farmer” and the “farmer” made him the swing, Bruno swung a little too high and fell off so the farmer helped him and bandaged him. The next day Bruno got bored and wanted to explore, so he went into the forest and followed a trail that led to the ”farm”. He met a little boy his age named Shmuel, and they became best friends. Ever since that day Bruno came back and they played games, and he fed Shmuel. Bruno soon found out that his father was a Nazi and that the people in stripped pajamas were Jews. Bruno’s mom had decided that this wasn’t a good place for a child to grow up and they were going to move on with out the father. Bruno decided to visit his friend one last time before he left.  Shmuel had lost his father and needed help finding him, he noticed you can dig a hole under the barbed wire fence, so Bruno climbed under the fence and borrowed clothes to look like a Jew. They walked around looking but couldn’t find him, and soon got herded into a chamber. They were forced to take their clothes off and they thought it was just a shower. But instead it was a gas chamber an they died together from the poisonous gas.

       I like how in the book Bruno and Shmuel know that they are supposed to be enemies but they don’t care because they are innocent. One day when Bruno visits Shmuel, Bruno says “We’re not supposed to be friends, you and me. We’re meant to be enemies. Did you know that?” I also like how the “farmer” helps bruno when he falls off the swing and Bruno keeps complaining but the “farmer” says , “Don’t make it worse by thinking it’s more painful than it actually is.” This was very good advise to Bruno at that time. I didn’t like the end of the book, but I also didn’t hate the end of the book. I didn’t like the end of the book because the two boys suffered a horrible death that they didn’t deserve . I sort of liked the end of the book because the father gets a taste of his own medicine. I would completely, no doubt, recommend this book to other readers over the age of thirteen because this was very intense to read, and to picture every little detail in my mind it is definitely a book i will never forget. If you like having a good cry once in awhile I think this book is for you. I would definitely recommend this book.

Pappas, Constantine

October 30, 2016

English, Period 4

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

Author: Mildred D. Taylor

Genre: Historical Fiction

276 pages

Newberry Award Winner

The novel, Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor is about an African American family named the Logans who lived in Mississippi during the Great Depression. The Logans, consisting of the four children, Stacey the eldest, Cassie the only daughter, Christopher-John and Clayton Chester (who goes by Little Man), Mama and the father,  and Big Ma their grandmother. The family all lived on a large 400 acre farm where they grow cotton. The children walk an hour each day to the all black school where their mother taught. On their route to school every day a bus full of white students passes them sometimes splashing mud onto the children, for the white kids’ amusement. The school the children attended was not as nice as the all white schools, they didn’t have buses and their “new” books from the school board were just raggedy used books that the white schools were done with. A little while later, Cassie, Stacey, and their friend T.J. go with Big Ma to the flea market in a nearby city where the boys eye a gun that they are interested in. When inside one of the shops the owner helps the white customers before them, this upsets Cassie and she confronts the shop owner which angers him and he starts calling Cassie the N-word and kicks her out of the store. While walking back to their wagon Cassie bumps into a white girl. The white girl gets very upset by this and her father pushes Cassie on the ground and demands she refer to his daughter as Ms. At the children’s school the school board hears Mama is teaching something that is different from what is in the book and is fired.  T.J. makes friends with two white boys who have him steal the gun with them and then almost kill him. Since the boys were not caught a group of white men including the boys attack T.J. and want to kill him. While this is going on the Logans cotton field caught on fire. Luckily the fire was put out before all the cotton burned but T.J. was put in jail where he will most likely be put to death.

I enjoyed this novel. I felt it was told very well and was strung together perfectly. I enjoyed how it slowly transitioned throughout an entire year without any large plot holes. What I wasn’t a big fan of was the amount characters in the book. The problem with this was an insignificant character would be mentioned in the beginning of the book and be brought up again at the end. It was hard to remember all of these characters since most were forgettable. I also was not fond of the lack of character development even with the main characters such as Cassie. I liked the ending of the story but I felt it ended right on the climax of the story with only a sentence or so to be the falling action. I would though recommend this book to other readers since it was very interesting and suspenseful.

Gorgy, Matthew

Book Review #1

November 1, 2016

English, Period 4 

The Great Fire

 Jim Murphy

 Non-Fiction

144 pages

 Newberry Medal

           The novel, The Great Fire, by Jim Murphy, is about a fire that happened in Chicago. The

fire started at the O’Learys’ barn. Their neighbor Pegleg was the first person to notice the fire and ran inside the barn to save the animals and to warn the O’Learys’ that their barn was on fire. The O’Learys’ other neighbor William ran to the drug store to turn on the fire alarm. But the owner of the drug store did not allow him to because he said all the fire trucks had left to another fire. The owner of the drug store said that he turned on the alarm after William left, but no alarm was recorded at the fire department. The fire started spreading through the neighborhood destroying everything.  The firefighters got the location of the fire and when they arrived it was the wrong location, and this kept happening. When the firefighters arrived to the right location the firefighters were exhausted from all the fires in the last couple of weeks. Because the firefighters were tired the did not have enough energy to stop the fire from spreading anymore. The fire was now spreading to North and East of Chicago. The fire grew so big the fire fighters could not put out the fire in the parts of the city that were already burnt. As the fire kept spreading it started to rain which gave everyone hope that the fire would go out. By the morning the fire that was destroying the city was out. The Chicago fire killed three hundred people. The people of the city got very mad at the O’Learys for starting the fire. In fear that people will kill them for starting the fire the O’learys left Chicago.

            Some good things I liked in the great fire was the action and the hope. An example of action in the book was when the fire was rampaging down the streets and the fire fighters were too tired to stop it from spreading to the rest of the city. An example of hope in this book is when it started raining and the people had hope the fire would go out. Some things I did not like in this book was the loss and fear. An example of loss in the book is people losing their houses and their lives. An example of fear is when the fire fighters could not stop the fire from spreading through the city. Another example of fear in the book is when the O’Learys left Chicago in fear that they were going to be killed. I liked the end of the book because the fire eventually goes out and there is no more loss or fear. I would recommend this book because of the action and hope. I would also recommend this because even if you don’t like action or hope it is an entertaining story to read.