Alexa Kiernan
4/23/2018 05:21:22 pm
Over spring break, I read the novel Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt. No, I hadn't read it before. And yes, it did indeed disappoint me. Just to give you an idea of exactly what a mean by disappointing, I would give this book no more than two stars, out of ten. I may very well have been one of the only people who disliked or even despised this book, but after reading Fahrenheit 451, it just wasn’t exciting. Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt was about a girl named Ally who has dyslexia. Before she was diagnosed by a rather compassionate teacher, she struggled in school and was always in the office. At one point, Ally thought that “[they] [should] hang up a banner that says Welcome, Ally Nickerson!” (Hunt 5). That line shows just how frequently she got in trouble. Ally’s new teacher, Mr Daniels, helps Ally learn how to read, this relieves Ally of many struggles that she is facing. Ally also had to deal with bullies, but there is apart of the topic of bullying that shows that people aren’t always what they seem to be. I would say that Ally could feel constantly under attack by people in her classes and her teachers, until mr. Daniels comes along. Ally befriends a science wiz named Albert, who is very kind to her, and they hang out often together. I would say that the theme of this novel was very clique, it was don’t judge a book by it’s cover, not very original yet fitting for this book. Another prevalent theme could be: great minds don’t think alike. I wouldn’t really recommend this novel to almost people, but if I had to, I would recommend it too people who enjoy reading pieces of realistic fiction literature. And yes, I understand that there are a plethora of people who consider this novel to be “life-changing” and the best book that they’ve ever read, but it just didn’t click with me. I read this in search of a short, easy read so that I wouldn’t have to do that much analyzing over break, and well, this novel did just that. It was approximately 270 pages, so you could read it fast if you were in a rush to read a book under time constraints. One thing that I liked about this novel was the use of vivid inner thoughts, as Ally does a myriad of thinking in her life. To conclude, I didn’t really enjoy this nivel, yet there are valuable lessons to take away from reading it, like how to deal with bullies and accepting others regardless of their differences.
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Shani Lynch
4/26/2018 04:27:46 pm
I have recently read the stunning novel, Gone Too Far by Natalie D. Richards. Gone Too Far is about girl who is a senior in high school and the school photographer, named Piper. Piper can’t wait to graduate and get away from her stereotypical high school. That is until one day she finds a mysterious notebook filled will the sins of her fellow classmates. It has pictures of different people with their eyes cut out, and the bad things that people have done. But whoever the author of the notebook is, used code names for the actually people who commited the crimes. Piper thinks the book is too good to be true, until the pretty, popular girl, Stella, shockingly dies after getting hit by a train right before an unpleasant tape of her was anonymously released. While everyone thinks that it’s suicide, Piper remembers Stella’s name from the book and suspects much worse. Piper is overloaded by the secrets from the students, she is getting curious and afraid. Then suddenly, Piper gets an unknown text message, daring her to make things right, “I know you wanted to help her. You still can” (Richards 48). All she has to do is send a name of someone, and make them pay. The first name she sends was a boy named Jackson, who was having an unpleasant, forceful, conversation with Stella just before she passed that day. The texter tells Piper that a takedown will occur tomorrow with Jackson, and she has to bring her camera for pictures. The takedown was security footage of all of Jackson’s horrendous moments. But the takedowns don’t stop there, the texter messages Piper again and asks for a names, and continually does this more often. Filled with fear, Piper keeps sending names slowly until the guilt inside her rots. Keeping the secrets ruined her, but the truth might kill her. People who were taken down included, a shoplifter, a bully, a cheater-popular kids with secrets. After the Jackson’s takedown he was not happy, Jackson said that who ever did it, he was legitimately going to kill them. Jackson was a very forceful and dangerous person that should not be messed with, which develops another conflict for Piper. Meanwhile, a popular football player, Nick, develops a liking for Piper. It’s the wrong time, just before college, and he’s popular-she not, so Piper tries to clear away. Her plan doesn’t come through when her double life, helping the texter, becomes too much and she only has Nick to turn to. Together, Nick and Piper team up to try and uncover who the texter is. The takedowns get even worse and worse as they continue to happen, and Piper realizes that this has gone too far. This originally was about vengeance for Stella, but it has turned into ruining careers, lives, and futures of not only the victims, but the people around as well. Piper is getting scared and uncertain, and decides to turn the texter in to the police. Just when she reaches the police station, she receives a texts saying that if she turns them in, he/she will reveal her fathers darkest secret that will make Piper’s family suffer. Piper now has to decide what do do before time runs out. I loved this novel so much, and rate it 10/10 stars, and it will definitely be one of my favorites. I thought the author did an amazing job keeping the texter anonymous, I could never figure it out, until when she revealed it at the end which left me in shock. I would recommend this novel to anyone who loves mystery, and a little romance. The author developed Nick and Piper’s relationship and the bond between Piper and the texter throughout the novel, which made me wanting to keep reading. This novel kept me on the edge of my seat the entire way through, and if you decide to read it, I hope it leaves you on the edge of your seat as well.
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Johnny Soucheck
4/26/2018 06:43:36 pm
I have just recently read the book, Hour of the Bees, by Lindsay Eagar. Hour of the Bees is about a girl named Carolina (or Carol for short) and her family, (Lu (Luis): her younger brother, Alta: her older sister, Raul: her father, and Patricia: her mother) to her grandfather's (Serge) sheep ranch to pack everything up and to sell the land. This wasn't Carolina's biggest idea, for she was gonna hang out with her friends at the pool and many other places. But, now her plans were gone because of Serge's dementia (causing him to have memory loss) after is beginning after Grandmother Rosa died 12 years ago, on the same day Carolina was born. This wasn't a problem until he got hurt from falling from a ladder and doctors told Raul that he couldn't live there anymore, as it was in the middle of nowhere. So they are gonna have Serge live at Seville, a assisted living facility that monitors the seniors living there. But, Serge keeps thinking Carolina as Rosa because of his dementia. He also become disillusioned to what gonna happen to him (like him thinking he will be put into a box and burned), has mood swings, and usually at times, yelling in broken Spanish that has no meaning as it's a garbled mess. He also says that the bees (that follow Carolina when she is alone) took the lake at the frontward (that isn't there) and left, causing a drought. But, he also tells these stories that "Once upon a time, there was a tree, bigger around than three men could hug. Its leaves were emerald green, the bark black. The tree's branches dipped and curved like a lazy river, and its roots kissed the shore of a green glass lake" (Eagar 83). The tree also had a village right next to it, were the villagers would never leave as the tree made them age slowly and they didn't die and they healed very quickly. That was until Rosa left, and all the other villagers did, except for Sergio and they became greedey. Then, "Once upon a time, there was a tree, and they were only supposed to use its bark. But they cut it down" (Eagar 175). As time goes on though, there is something wrong as it seems like stuff from Serge's story existed and there are the bees that are near a seed. Will Caroline find out the underlying truth under Serge's story? The theme of the book is to never believe that a story is always not true and to spend every moment in your life with reason.
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Jackson Hyman
4/27/2018 05:00:59 am
I had recently just read a book called, The Worst Night Ever By Dave Barry. This book was about a kid named Wyatt and his two friends Matt and Victor. Wyatt previously was a hero in Washington D.C. and this was in 8th grade, so his freshman year. By now he wasn't really a hero with the Bevins' around because they were the top dogs in Coral Cove. The Bevins' were bad kids, but everyone loved them even if they went to bully people such as Wyatt and Matt. One day in school Nick and Troy decide to bully Matt a little by taking his ferret(Matt had brought in his ferret to school for no apparent reason). Because of this Matt, Wyatt, and Victor had to think of a way to get Frank back. Later in the week they had gotten a video from Troy, showing Frank almost being bit by a snake. So, after Matt saw this he was furious and they needed to get Frank back, so they made a plan to cross the river by paddle board and Victor would hover above with his drone looking to make sure nobody could spot Matt and Wyatt. When they reached the Bevin Estate they would get off their paddle boards and go sneak inside the Bevin's house and take Frank. After this they'd get back on their paddle boards and ride away to safety. But the plan had kind of gone right and kind of went wrong. Matt had gotten his ferret back and they didn't get captured, but Troy and Nick knew that Matt and Wyatt were there because of security footage. Now Matt and Wyatt face a lot of talks with the police and being grounded, so when they here the news from Jon that the Bevins are going to harm the zoo by putting their deadly animals in the zoo. After this news Wyatt, Victor and Matt have to do something to stop all of the kaos to occur. They then make up a plan to stop the trucks from coming into the zoo and they place road stars under the trucks while they are stopped, then when the trucks move they will get punctured and leave the trucks useless. Then the police come and Nick and Troy are sent a disciplinary school in Maine or what they have done and Mr. Bevin was sent in jail for the crimes he had committed bringing the animals to the zoo to harm people. I think the theme if this book is to keep fighting for what you think is right. I think that this is the theme because Matt and Wyatt don't stop fighting when they get grounded and they make sure that the Bevins don't succeed in harming many people at the zoo. "'No,' [Wyatt} said. ' We'll be there.' 'We will?' said Matt. 'How?' 'I don't know,' [Wyatt] said. 'But we will'"(Barry 183). This shows that Matt and Wyatt both didn't stop pushing and wouldn't let the Bevins just take over the zoo with force. Overall, I would rate this book a 8/10 because of the many conflicts it has rather than just one main one and I would also recommend this to people who like a little of figuring things out and having to try and solve the conflicts, but also to people who like a lot of action.
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Patrick McGagh
5/2/2018 06:12:46 pm
To start off with, I have recently read the realistic fiction novel, The Wednesday Wars, written by Gary D. Schmidt. The main character, Holling Hoodhood, really goes through a lot during this year of high school and he realizes many things. This novel starts off with his English teacher, Mrs. Baker, being introduced and Holling just thinks that she hates him so badly. Holling also meets some new friends, including one of his friends who always likes to get on his teacher’s nerves, Doug Swieteck. Doug always finds a way to mess with his teachers, and he even wrote a book that included a list of 410 ways to make a teacher mad. Being the only student that is neither Catholic nor Jewish at Camillo Junior High, he is faced with the problem of having to go to his enemy’s room every Wednesday after school while the other students go to religion. Well, it's not really his enemy, but Holling gets this idea just because she corrects his grammar often, gives him extremely complex sentences, and also because she quizzes him on why he goes into her room on Wednesdays. He goes home everyday, explaining to his family why he thinks Mrs. Baker hates his guts, but no one takes it seriously and just says that she just has to get used to him. As time passes, Mrs. Baker tells Holling to do some different things on Wednesdays such as cleaning erasers and the coat room. October is a very busy month as his sister starts to quietly rebel against her father, and Mrs. Baker’s rats at home, escaped. As life continues, a water leak in Holling’s house starts to rot the ceiling, but he has received some news. He will be playing the part of Ariel in a production of Shakespeare. However, Holling feels that he would be made fun of by playing this role in the play. On the morning the school started again the week after the play, Holling found out that “Doug Swieteck’s brother got to Camillo Junior High early” just so he can put the embarrassing pictures of Holling up everywhere (Schmidt 103). The theme of this novel would be that friendship can help people persevere and get through their tough times. This is the theme because Holling develops a friendly relationship with his teacher and realizes how much his teacher has helped him.
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Tyler Buchenberger
5/3/2018 11:55:36 am
The Crossover, a powerful and action packed novel written by Kwame Alexander was an amazing book. That main character Josh Bell or Filthy is a boy in high school who is on the basketball team. Now he isn’t just any kid on the team, with his brother and him being the star players of the team and their dad being one of the greatest basketball players to play the game, he is pretty well known. Throughout this novel you get to go along with Josh and his team on their road to the finals. There are many conflicts along the way, not just including on the basketball court, but that is where one of them leads to. Josh’s brother meets this girl considered “Mrs. Sweet Tea”, and Josh isn’t to happy about it. Josh has to do most of the talking and all Josh’s brother ever does is hang out with Mrs. Sweet Tea. He thinks that his brother is acting weird because “he’s [there] but he’s not, he’s always smiling, his eyes get all spacey whenever she’s around and sometimes when she’s not even there”(Alexander 91). This leads to a big conflict and a schism in the brothers friendship. Josh grows more and more stressed out about this girl “stealing” his brother and he doesn’t know exactly what to do. This anger builds up and soon during the game he “[fires] a pass, so hard it levels Jordan, the blood from his nose still shooting long after the shot clock buzzer goes off” (Alexander 134). This conflict soon has many effects and the biggest one in his Josh’s eyes at first was being benched from the basketball team for a long period of time. He struggles, not being able to play basketball to get away from everything bad going on in his life. He soon realizes that this wasn’t the worst thing about what he did. He learns that his brother disliking him is a lot worse than being benched from the team. He would do anything to get their friendship back, but they now have other issues to deal with. Their dads health never was so good and he always would start breathing heavily. He never visits doctors even when he is having issues because he is scared of them because his father died when his life was in their hands. This causes there to be an issue because one day their father grabs a rebound and “screams loud, stands still, breath short, more sweat, grabs chest, eyes roll, ball drops, dad drops, [Josh] screams” (Alexander 195). All in all there are many conflicts throughout this novel and you have to read to see if things turn out in Josh’s favor and if he can fix these conflicts.
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Shani Lynch
5/7/2018 01:03:25 pm
I read the novel The Cabin, by Natasha Preston. The novel is about a girl named Mackenzie, who originally wanted to get away for a weekend, and stay at a cabin with her friends so she can let loose. But suddenly, she finds two of her friends, Josh and Courtney, murdered when she wakes up, and It’s clear that there is a killer among the five friends. The suspects are Aaron, Kyle, Megan, Mackenzie, and Blake. Kyle, Aaron, Megan, and Mackenzie have been friends since they were little. Then Josh’s brother, Blake, mysteriously showed up to spend time with his brother since their parent’s divorce. Blake’s mother loved Josh a lot more than Blake, and so Blake went with his dad. Everyone didn’t particularly like Josh, and Mackenzie was the one to show it most often. The police take matters into their own hands and start questioning the friends of their every move. Mackenzie finds out that the police are doing nothing to help solve the case and bring her friends to justice, so she decides to investigate herself. During her investigation, Mackenzie grows close to the outsider, Blake.They soon develop feelings for each other and team up to try and solve who murdered their friends. Mackenzie now trusts Blake more than she trusts her childhood best friends. Mackenzie’s big mistake was that she thought the killing was over. Blake’s uncle then got murdered, and everyone is getting paranoid. It doesn’t help that Mackenzie is getting threatening texts, that could potentially be the killer. Everything just isn’t adding up, and Mackenzie still hasn’t faced the fact that one of her friends is a murderer. As her friend’s darkest secrets start to spill out, she doesn’t know who she trusts anymore, “He was loyal and had morals. Or so I thought” (Preston 101). No one is innocent and the pressure is eating Mackenzie alive.
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Drew Gasperino
5/8/2018 11:29:07 am
For My first IRR, of this marking period I read the Historical fiction novel, May B by Caroline Rose. It was amazing book that will fill you with many different emotions and thoughts. This book takes place in the mid 1800's. May B's family (parents) need money because they are going through tough times. May's parents plan to send May away to work at a homestead/ farm 15 miles away this way the family will make some money. May despises this decision and tries to do everything she can in order to stay with her family. During one afternoon, Mrs. Oblinger the wife on the farm confesses to May B that she hates her life here on the prairie. She left a much bigger place in order to be with her husband ( Mr. Oblinger). She says that she would want nothing more than to go away. Within pages of Mrs. Oblingers confession, May goes from being a help at the house, into the only person in the house as Mr and Mrs. Oblinger abandon May with no preparation or plan of when they are coming back, leaving May in the middle of nowhere, 15 miles away from her home with a unfamiliar section of land between her and her family. This novel has many different conflicts each connecting to the next. A lot of May B’s conflict starts “ Before Ma ties my ribbon,[ May] [pushes] outside and [runs], [she] won’t go, [she] won’t go, [she] won’t go” (Rose 6). This shows the start a lot of the conflicts in the novel. Each conflict leads to the next. The theme of this novel is that perseverance can guide you through challenges.
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Drew Gasperino
5/8/2018 11:36:09 am
(full blog comment) My first IRR, of this marking period I read the Historical fiction novel, May B by Caroline Rose. It was amazing book that will fill you with many different emotions and thoughts. This book takes place in the mid 1800's. May B's family (parents) need money because they are going through tough times. May's parents plan to send May away to work at a homestead/ farm 15 miles away this way the family will make some money. May despises this decision and tries to do everything she can in order to stay with her family. During one afternoon, Mrs. Oblinger the wife on the farm confesses to May B that she hates her life here on the prairie. She left a much bigger place in order to be with her husband ( Mr. Oblinger). She says that she would want nothing more than to go away. Within pages of Mrs. Oblingers confession, May goes from being a help at the house, into the only person in the house as Mr and Mrs. Oblinger abandon May with no preparation or plan of when they are coming back, leaving May in the middle of nowhere, 15 miles away from her home with a unfamiliar section of land between her and her family. This novel has many different conflicts each connecting to the next. A lot of May B’s conflict starts “ Before Ma ties my ribbon,[ May] [pushes] outside and [runs], [she] won’t go, [she] won’t go, [she] won’t go” (Rose 6). This shows the start a lot of the conflicts in the novel. Each conflict leads to the next. Although, May B teaches many lessons, the theme of this novel that stands out most is that perseverance can guide you through challenges. This theme shows up many different times in the novel helping May get through her conflicts. One big moment when this shows up is when she has to make the long difficult journey to get home.
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Tristan Molinari
5/8/2018 01:47:08 pm
I have recently read the book "Runner" by Carl Deuker. The book starts out with the author talking about the hardships Chance has in his life. His family struggles to make money and keep up with the taxes and bills they have to pay. A little further in the book, you will start to hear about a girl named Melissa and her total opposite life style. Her life style is privileged getting what ever she want, but Chances lifestyle is more about making money to survive with his two parents. Just because Melissa is living the good life doesn't mean she doesn't have problems of her own. Her problem is trying to get into Stanford. Money can't buy you everything. Going back to Chances point of view, he goes a little to far to make money. He signs up for this job to pick up strange packages and deliver them, not knowing that he is working for an evil gang. So, it not all his fault. Throughout the novel, the author goes about comparing his life to her's while at the same time building up both of them to make it suspenseful. Also, because the author made the story in Seattle, Washington and in modern day time, the story was easy to understand for me. Overall, I think the theme of this book is that you should do whats right over doing whats wrong. I think this because the book is all about making those hard decisions and debating whether to do it the easy way or the hard way.
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Johnny Soucheck
5/17/2018 03:43:47 pm
I have just recently read the book Pax, by Sara Pennypacker and illustrated by Jon Klassen. This book is about because of a war in some country in an unknown time, Peter's dad is joining the military and Peter has to give up Pax, a fox who he found when it was a kit and as the only one that was still alive in the den after their mother and father dissapeared one day and Pax's brothers and sisters dying. After Peter (a 12 year-old boy who lost his mother from a car accident) has to give up Pax, he has to live with his grandfather. Even though of that, Peter has bad memories from his past and thinks about Pax, so he decides because of the stuff he did wrong causes bad things to go three hundred miles to get back Pax. He packs his things up, he heads off to get Pax. Meanwhile, Pax is trying to stay near the road, waiting for Peter to come back, but he can't and meets by accident Bristle (a fox who has a brother named Runt who survived after their mother was clubbed to death and getting stuck in a trap) who is pregnant. As time goes on, Pax meets Gray (a gray fox) and head towards south, until Gray dies from an explosion from the camp that there is many people coming to from the battlefield., and Pax comes back to Bristle. As that is going on, Peter almost gets into trouble. As here is stuck at a baseball field for a few hours, he continues to get to Pax, but he breaks his leg and goes into a barn. The next day, he woke up, and "A woman stood over [Peter], tossing a baseball into a glove. She wore patched overalls with faded bandannas knotted along the straps, and [the] [woman's] hair was a spiked mess that shook as she cocked her head to study [Peter]" (Pennypacker 67). Peter met Vola, a woman that was a veteran after fighting in a war who lives alone. From his broken leg, he is stuck there for about two weeks as his leg heals and finds out more about Vola. Will Peter make it to Pax, and will Pax survive? The theme of the book is the costs of war can be overcome with kindness and compasion from others.
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Jackson Hyman
5/17/2018 05:17:09 pm
I had recently just read a book called "My Side of The Mountain" by Jean Craighead George. This book started off with a boy named Sam Gribley making the decision of living in the woods for a while due to a reason unnamed. He has to learn to adapt to the forest and its full meaning, and what it is really like to live where you have to fend for yourself. Well his struggles from the start consist of lack of food and shelter. He then befriends a hawk by which he names Frightful. He gets used to his surroundings and trains Frightful to respond to his commands. After he gets used to gathering food and making himself a part of the ecosystem he makes a tree fort by which using his hatchet to dig deep into a tree to create a little shelter for him to make his home. Along his way of making a home, Sam comes across a weasel by which he names Baron Weasel and this new addition to Sam's animal friends, I guess you could call it that, is kind of annoying and takes advantage of Sam by taking some of the food Sam gathers and even teasing Frightful when she is on her lease. Sam soon discovers that during hunting season he can retrieve some of the kills that hunters either forget or had taken their eyes off of for a while. After he gathers some deer he makes some clothes out of the deer hide, and makes attachments for Frightful's so called gear. But making this clothing wasn't a very good idea because if Sam had gone out during the hunting season dressed as a deer he might be accidentally shot by a hunter be killed, so he stays inside for majority of the hunting season. He then gets some more deer for more clothes and uses the venison as a food new food source. When he soon realizes that winter is coming he had to make a fireplace and a chimney and stock up of food for warmth and the ability to stay inside for long periods of time. When winter comes Sam is prepared and realizes that winter isn't so bad after all and hr has a lot of fun being involved in nature and makes a few more friends out of birds. Sam then is known around New York and is repeatedly being interviewed and followed because he is a kid living alone in the woods. He then makes a friends named Matt Spell who is a reporter and is the only one to see Sam's home and wasn't to tell anyone about it. Finally, Sam reunites with his family and they all live in a new home they and made out in the woods nears Sam's little old home.
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Alexa Kiernan
5/17/2018 06:38:14 pm
I recently finished reading the magnificent novel entitled, The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. It is an iconic novel, and the main character, Holden Caulfield, is often referenced to as the pinnacle of teenage rebellion. It is authored from the perspective of Holden himself, and he writes from a sanatorium in California, as is his extremely mentally ill, and the reader can tell through a myriad of Holden’s thoughts that prove he is bipolar, depressed, and a plethora of others. He also uses teenage colloquial speech that was used at the time. The novel starts at a preparatory boarding school in Pennsylvania called Pencey Prep. He is soon kicked out, and told, “[that] [he] will be leaving Pencey, Wednesday will be [his] last day” (Salinger 17). Holden failed all of his classes and he has this cynicism that it's okay to slack off and rebel against authority. After Holden leaves Pencey, he goes to a nightclub and abruptly departs after finding a girl that his brother used to date. He boards a train to New York, and it now becomes evident how lonely Holden is. Contrary to Holden’s independant nature, he indirectly proves how he really longs for companionship.
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Drew Gasperino
5/18/2018 04:46:24 am
I read the novel House Arrest by K.A Holt. This novel is about a boy named Timothy who gets caught stealing a wallet. “A good kid caught doing a bad thing”. Tim gets put in house arrest for a whole year and has a probation officer. “It’s only a year. Only 52 weeks. Only 365 days. Only 8760 hours.Only 525,600 minutes. “House Arrest is in perspective of Tim in the novel that he is forced to write in. House Arrest shows many different strong conflicts to Tim. Timothy’s crime: charging $1,445 on a stolen credit card for a month of baby Levi’s medicine, which his mother can’t afford, especially since his father left. Levi gets sickness keep going on causing many other conflicts. At the beginning of the book, I did not like Timmy. I viewed this character as a troubled teen who deserved everything he got punished for. As I got further into the story my thoughts changed as I realized Timmy was struggling. Timmy as a character not only deals with everyday life as a teen but also issues of abandonment, life threatening illness, and poverty. Timmy transforms from a person who doesn't really care to a person determined to help others. A section from the text explains this all “Stealing is bad. Yeah. I know. But my brother Levi is always so sick, and his medicine is always so expensive. I didn’t think anyone would notice, if I took that credit card, if, in one stolen second, I bought Levi’s medicine. But someone did notice. Now I have to prove I’m not a delinquent, I’m not a total bonehead. That one quick second turned into juvie a judge- a year of house arrest, a year of this court-ordered journal, a year to avoid messing up and being sent back to juvie so fast my head will spin. It’s only 1 year. Only 52 weeks. Only 365 days. Only 8,760 hours. Only 525,600 minutes. What could go wrong“ ( K.A Holt) House arrest will teach you many different lessons. I would rate House Arrest a 5/10 stars because the ending was not the best and the book felt unfinished. Also, Tim, even when he has changed for the better, made some decisions that annoyed me as a reader. Still, I recommend this book to everybody, especially people who like quick novels filled with many different conflicts and emotions. I also think that people who like to learn about different issues would love House Arrest; you get to see issues in Timothy’s daily life that are big worldwide issues.
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Drew G ( addition that I forgot to add)
5/18/2018 04:49:21 am
House Arrest has a theme of to get to know someone before you judge them.
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Kara Cocozza
5/18/2018 05:33:53 am
Recently I have read the novel So B. It by Sarah Weeks. This book is about a 12 year girl with a mentally disabled mother. Heidi, the main character, has had Bernadette, or Bernie, in her life to help Heidi lead a normal life and to have someone take care of her mother. Bernie has assumed a great and important role in the main characters life, and always is there to lend a hand if necessary. With Heidi and her mother living together, and Bernie living next store, with a connecting door in both apartments, they never really lived a worrisome life. Overtime, the main character grew very curious regarding who her father is. Bernie and Heidi took time and worked very hard to find whatever they could dig up to find her father or any other family members. The one thing Heidi and Bernie found was a disposable camera, and that couldn't get them very far, but it sparked something with Heidi. Her mother has a very small vocabulary, and most of those words were made up. So the word Soof, especially had made Heidi think and feel that it that word meant something. After searching for so long she started to feel that it wasn't destined to be. She had a goal and she was going to accomplish it though Heidi is a very optimistic character. This quote here “So be it. In my mind the beginning of a life, especially if it seems destined to be a challenging one, deserves the most promising name you can come up with. A beginning kind of name. Like Dawn, Or Hope. Or Aurora.”, shows who Heidi is and how she thinks. She decided to travel, alone, for the first time to find her dad with the little information she had. In conclusion, this novel has a theme of Never give up, and just keep pushing. I would rate this book a 8 out of 10 because there were some slow moments, but overall it's an amazing novel. Also, So B. It is a quick read, but can hook you in. Heidi lived a life not knowing if she had family out in the world, and she never questioned it for so long. Read So B. It. Find out what happens to Heidi. Will she ever find her father?
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Nick Sullivan
5/18/2018 06:05:44 am
I have recently read the novel Loser, and it is very entertaining. It was about a boy named Donald Zinkoff who entered first grade as a very rambunctious, outgoing person. A lot of the kids saw him as a silly person and didn’t like him, so they used him as someone to make fun of. However, this does not affect him and he still acts himself, a carefree, fun boy. As the grade moves on, though, the people bullying him becomes more of a problem, and they start to affect him a little. Because of this, he tries to fit in more and do things like sports. However because he is not athletic at all, nor is he good at many other things, this just causes him more problems. Ultimately, his goal is to meet people who he can spend time with, and it is up to you to read to find out if this will happen.
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Julia Molinari
5/20/2018 06:45:48 pm
I have recently read the book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. This is about a young boy named Harry Potter, whose parents were some of the best wizards at Hogwarts, before being killed by Voldemort. After Harry was sent to his aunt and uncles, he was consistently mistreated and bullied by them. Harry still has a lightning-shaped scar on his forehead from that event of which Voldemort tried to kill him alone with his parents. Since he survived the attack as a baby, and also somehow deprived Voldemort from his powers, he has been famous in the wizard and which world ever since. The Dursleys never told Harry anything about his true self. So, after Hagrid gave him his acceptance letter to Hogwarts, Harry is surprised, yet absolutely eager to start his training. At Hogwarts, Harry meets his teachers, and becomes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The three of them accidentally find out that the potions master, Severus Snape, seems to plot on stealing something that is guarded by a three-headed dog. Nobody would believe some freshmen to have found out such important information, they take it on themselves to find out what Snape is up to. Their quest for the truth leads across many obstacles, from keeping up the everyday school life, a Quidditch match (Quidditch is a popular wizard sport), Fluffy, the three-headed monster dog, and quite some tasks one has to overcome to get to the guarded object.
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Tristan Molinari
5/20/2018 06:53:24 pm
I have recently read the book "Elephant Run" by Roland Smith. In 1941, Nick a fourteen year old boy is told by his mother that she was “sending [him] to Burma,” (Smith 4), to live with his father on his teak plantation because of the dangers of the London blitz. Unfortunately, shortly after Nicks arrival in Burma, the Japanese take over and infiltrate the country. Their plantation is overrun and turned into an operating center for the Japanese government. Nicks father is taken to a labor camp, and Nick is held prisoner, and forced to work on the plantation for his rivals. Thankfully, with the help of Hilltop, an ancient buddhist monk, Nick and Mya, who was an elephant handler on the plantation, manage to escape the plantation and try to break Nick’s father and Mya’s brother out. Using an elephant named Hannibal as their source of transportation, they travel through the jungle trying to find the solution to save Nick’s father and Mya’s brother, avoiding the enemy troops, and looking for allies that might be able to help them with their problem.
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Alyssa Buchanan
5/21/2018 06:11:18 pm
I have read Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. The life story of Jack, a dark skinned girl; born in Ohio; with a dream of the future. “I am born brown-skinned,” she says, on her second day of life, “black-haired and wide-eyed. I am born Negro here and Colored there and somewhere else, the Freedom singers have linked arms, their protests rising into song: Deep in my heart, I so believe than we shall overcome someday” (Woodson 4). The story of a small girl learning her way into life as a Negro and as famous people like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, John F. Kenny, Malcolm X, Ruby Bridges, and James Baldwin make their mark on America.
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Julia Molinari
5/30/2018 12:53:01 pm
11-year-old Hope struggles to live under the pressures of her verbally abusive mother. She's tempted to run away but instead stays in hopes of her mother understanding. She creates a point system, which is when she gets points whenever her mother bullies her, and throughout the book, she gains points from being verbally abused. She finds comfort and inspiration from Anne Frank, and find herself relating to her situation of hiding and feeling trapped, and gains support. She has been called stupid so many times she gets sick every time she hears the word. She can’t seem to do anything to please her mother, but she finds people to help her, like her teacher, her school counselor and classmate Brody. Hope gradually begins to believe in herself, even when her mother issues the cruelest punishment by not allowing Hope to participate in the Outdoor School program. Hope is able to confront her mother, and hopes she will change.
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Nick Sullivan
6/10/2018 11:39:20 am
I have recently read the novel The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt. In this novel the protagonist is an average boy named Holling. He attends Camillo Junior High in Long Island during 1967-1968, and faces trouble with his teacher, Mrs. Baker. This developed early, when on the first day of school she was taking attendance and found out that Holling is neither Catholic nor Jewish, which caused her to “roll her eyes” (Schmidt 4). This is quite a problem considering every other student throughout his school is one of these. Because of this, he does not attend religious classes on Wednesdays like his peers. Therefore he must stay with Mrs. Baker during this time. In the beginning of the school year, Holling would simply do chores for Mrs. Baker, such as cleaning the classroom and items. However, later on she begins to assign him Shakespeare plays to read. While Holling sees this as punishment at first, he soon finds it fun and interesting. Over time, their relationship begins to improve, and they learn more about each other. Holling finds out that she is a former Olympic athlete, and when he joins the track team at his school he is coached by her. As a result of this, he drastically improves and performs at a much higher level. This becomes one thing that helps Holling with trouble that he begins to experience. This time period is during the Vietnam War, and because of this lots of tension begins to build up in his house. Also, a Vietnamese refugee named Mai Thai comes into the school and is discriminated by classmates and even teachers because of how the war has affected so many people in a negative way. Holling and his older sister named Heather start to have conflicts with their father on his personality. He is not with the modern society, and doesn’t understand many cultural shifts. Also, it appears that all he has interest in and care for is his business. If you want to learn more about Holling and how he tries to fit in with the growing world, read this novel.
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Alexa Kiernan
6/10/2018 04:12:58 pm
I recently read the novel Turtles all the Way Down by John Green. The novel takes place in present-day Indiana, starring 16-year-old, anxiety-manifested Aza. Aza and her friend Daisy embark upon a journey that hopefully will allow them to own $100,000 for information regarding a billionaire's disappearance. The two sneak off to the billionaire’s construction property and meet Davis, a security guard. Davis and Aza create intimacy between themselves, eventually, Davis attempts to persuade Daisy and Aza to stop pursing their quest, and awards them with $100,000. Another plot in the novel contains vivid internal conflicts, which clearly depict Aza’s myriad of mental illnesses. Aza admits to feeling as if she lacks control of her own life at various sections of this novel. Aza gets into a car crash towards the end of this incredibly eventful read. She often ponders that there really isn’t anything exciting out of her world as she knows it or inside of it. Aza later realizes that “[her] know is not [her] forever”(Green 93). But when Davis moves to Colorado, she reflects on her life possibilities, which could include going to university out-of-state. Aza admits to being a threat to herself with intrusive thoughts, and she even drinks hand sanitizer.
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Kara Cocozza
6/10/2018 08:33:59 pm
Recently, I read the novel Orphan Island by Laurel Snyder. In this novel, the main character Jinny is one of the eight Orphans on the island. Every year, the oldest orphan on the island is taken somewhere on the boat that drops off the new youngest orphan. Jinny has never lived anywhere else except for the island and she was always happy to call the island her home. “Eight on an island, orphans all. Any more, the sky might fall". This is a rhyme that all of the children on the island have heard day in and day out. When Jinny had to say goodbye to someone that was one of her best friends, and who was the Elder for that year, she knew that she didn't and couldn't leave the island the next year since she was becoming the eldest on the island. As time went by she had many different experiences. She became a surrogate too the new child on the island, Ess, which means Jinny had to train Ess and raise her to survive and do well on the island. The main character comes to realize that as she takes care of Ess, she tended to get more and more controlling and she noticed that the other kids on the island felt that she always had to have things done her way. Nonetheless, Jinny wanted to stay on the beautiful island because that was the only place she ever called home. As the year passes by, it would soon come to the day that she would have to get on the boat and leave. Also, the Elder never knew where the boat was going to take them, so they thought of it as the great unknown. Jinny makes a bold decision, and all of her feelings that went through her head throughout her entire year as an elder, had led her to make this decision. Read Orphan Island to figure out what Jinny does, and how it will come too affect everyone around her. I would rate this novel an 8 out of 10 because it was a novel that kept me hooked, but there were some slow parts. I think the theme of this novel is, its hard to let go, because Jinny had such a hard time letting go and she didn't want to leave her only home and family.
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Johnny Soucheck
6/11/2018 05:16:53 am
I have just recently read the book, Some Kind of Courage by Dan Gemeinhart. In the book, it is about a twelve year old boy named Joseph Johnson who lives in Washington in October of 1890. He lives with Mr. Grissom after his mother and his sister died of typhoid and his father died after a carriage accident and told Mr. Grissom that Joseph will live with him. Mr. Grissom sold Sarah (a red and white painted half-wild Indian pony) to Mr. Bishop, a man who goes across the country buying and selling horses. Now, as Joseph leaves [thinking] “[he] would find [Sarah], and [he] would get [Sarah] back. [He] knew [he] would. Or [he’d] sure enough die trying” (Gemeinhart 7). As he travels along the way, he trips over Ah-Kee, a chinese boy who was separated from his family and trying to find them. As they travel, they get nearly killed by a bear, help an Indian who has a broken knee, and get a horse to borrow from betting in a race. They catch up to Mr. Bishop but find out that Sarah was sold to John Campbell who will sell it to Rasmussen in Walla Walla in seven days. Will Joseph get Sarah back, or will he never see her ever again? The theme of the book is a person can achieve their goals if they are brave and put their faith into it.
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Jackson Hyman
6/11/2018 11:59:46 am
I had just recently read a book called On the far side of the mountain by Jean Craighead George was about a kid named Sam and he lives in the forest, he had left his home to come and live in the forest to put himself to the test and see is he could survive. But this book is an add on to this past. He is now set with the challenges of surviving another year with his sister Alice. Along this journey he and Alice build homes and appliances for making their living together much smoother and happier, "' We cheered and clapped and danced. We had a rolling waterwheel'... 'The day was warm, and we ate outside watching the waterwheel turn. We all felt great pride and satisfaction'"(George 49). A main conflict is when Sam was just looking for some berries to make dessert, a man by the name of Leon Longbridge had came to find Sam and confiscate Frightful because she happened to be a endangered species. Sam had tried his best to try and get Frightful back, but the law was the law and he was harboring an endangered species. Overall, this book is about Sam's adventures without Frightful and how he and Alice will survive without an easy source of food. I think that the theme of this story is survival because Sam is attempting to push himself and survive without Frightful.
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Tristan Molinari
6/11/2018 06:56:47 pm
I have recently read the book 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne. This novel starts off with a first person point of view from the professor. He and his two friends Ned, and Couseil who was the professor's master, go on a boat trip to explore the open seas and maybe catch a monster. All of a sudden, they see a creature amerge out of the water. It’s glowing and as big as a mansion. They were shocked to see it. Than, they attacked, but than the mysterious monster attacked back and the “blast knocked several men over,” (Verne, 13). One of the men was the professor. Alone and scared, the professor clings onto life trying not to freeze or drown from the sea. He then feels a hand on his back. It was Couseil! After miles of swimming they than come upon Ned who was also flung off the boat. But he is on something. It was the creature! The professor and Conseil were both amazed. It turned out that it wasn’t a creature, it was a giant submarine. All three of them were let inside it and were left in a dark room for hours. After that they were led to another room where they would meet Captain Nemo who was the commander of the submarine. They eventually got settled into the submarine and each of them had their own cabin. They all were fed and clothed. It was a little creepy in the beginning but they eventually got used to it. The only thing was that they weren’t allowed to leave the submarine because Captain Nemo also lived inside of the anormas submarine and he wanted some other people to stay with him, besides his crew. The three of them were angry but they dialed down because it might actually be interesting exploring the sea and the giant submarine. The crew, Professor, Ned, and Couseil go on adventures in the deep sea every once in a while and sometimes they are allowed to go an islands if they are close to one. Everything seems to go smoothly, but when some of the crew members start to die, they realize how dangerous being in the submarine is. The three of them were going to escape. They have talked about this before, but this time they were actually doing it.
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Patrick McGagh
6/12/2018 06:12:16 am
I have recently read the action packed novel, This Is our Story, written by Ashley Elston. This novel is written in first person point of view, however the person who’s telling the story changes throughout this book. It is about five boys who went hunting the morning after a full night of partying. People drank alcohol, did drugs, and other dangerous things, but that wasn’t the worst part. With a couple of the boys dizzy that morning, after they went hunting, only four came out alive. One of them was “mistaken for an animal” and was shot with a Remington rifle (Elston 1). Grant, the person who was accidentally shot by one of his friends, now laid dead on the ground. The four boys that were still alive, Shep, Henry, Logan, and John Michael did not want to own up to this tragedy. When Kate Marino, a girl who works at the district attorney office, hears about this case, she was worried because she wasn’t so good at her job and mainly did this because it was an excuse to leave school early. Since this was the biggest case of the town, she handed it over to her boss, Mr. Stone. While they are investigating in this case, this news is spreading all over the town extremely fast. After a long time of investigating and after all of the boys get lawyers they go to court. Finally, in court, it was hard “to get full control of the room” because a lot of the boys were crying and yelling at each other (304). The theme of this novel would definitely be that people have to stand up for what they believe in, because some of the boys never just gave in to end the case early, and never gave up trying to fight for their own sake.
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Nate Richards
6/20/2018 06:12:55 am
This marking period I read the novel, Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. This is a memoir by the founder of Nike, Phil Knight. The memoir mainly focuses on how Knight founded his business. I thought this novel was very good, and it had a lot of character development and imagery. I would rate this book a 9.5/10. It was a very fun read for me, but I could understand if someone didn't like the memoir style. I think that the theme of this novel is to never give up. I would say this because Phil Knight had to go through years and years of struggles to even get his business up and running. I would say that this book was very good, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes realistic fiction. All in all, this book was very inspirational for me and everyone should read it.
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Nate Richards
6/20/2018 09:52:25 am
Recently, I read the novel Glimpse by Steven Whibley. This novel centers around a kid that is given a curse that allows him to see people 24 hours before they die. There are many conflicts and mysteries in this book, and I thought it was pretty good. I would rate it a 8.5/10 because it was a little cheesy and had a few small plot holes, but other than that it was a great story. I would say that the theme of this novel is to always notice the small things. In this novel, Dean is forced to nitpick everything about everyone's potential deaths and find how they will die. This will help him stop the death and save the person. All in all, I would recommend this book to less confident readers and fans of science fiction.
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