The plot of the story was always very clear because there were a lot of expositions. The theme and the tone of the book did not seem to be ambiguous at all. But the writing of the book had diction and syntax problems. The author made a lot of grammar and word choice mistakes. Hyperboles and ironies were not present in the book, since the book seems to be a verisimilitude. The book is not an allegory because the story did not have a symbol. But the book was a juxtaposition between a life with hidden roots and a real life.

In the beginning, his status at school acts as a factor of change. Like any other high school teenager, Tyler wants to be noticed and recognized. However, his status at school is not exactly what he wishes for. He is the kind of guy who perfectly camouflages with the background, making him unnoticeable. Tyler soon decides that in order to be noticed he has to take some action. Thus lead himself to spray-paint the walls off the school. Of course he gets noticed, but soon he realizes that he has bitten off more than what he can chew. He does get noticed by the girl of his dreams but his teachers lose all hope and trust on him which can kindle many changes in a teenagers mind.

Another, and more stronger factor of change is his relationship with his father. If your teacher and some of your school mates don’t trust or believe you and approach you with a lot of suspicion, it might hurt, but it is manageable, only because you know that you still have a home. And in that home you have a family that cares for you and believes in you. But when members of your own family lose hope on you and treat you like you were some useless being, what would you do? Where would you go? As Tyler Miller searches for an answer to this question he almost ends up killing himself. However, in a heart warming conclusion, the author shows how Tyler fights with the society, with his family and most of all himself, and how he goes through a life-changing metamorphosis.

As the boy grows both physically and emotionally during the summer before sixth grade, his mother and uncle finally reveal a family secret—Uncle Louis is really Grampa Louis.  Sonny’s mother was taken away from him as a result of laws exterminating Native Americans. Through his uncle’s teachings, Sonny learns the story behind his Native American heritage and claims his culture.  As the boy discovers his ancestry, his father makes peace with his Native American identity, as well.  Ultimately, the family gains strength from their shared secret.

At the beginning of the book, I found the book not very interesting. I thought that the actions and development of the story were too slow. I somehow stuggled to move on with the book. I always wanted to put it away. But something just told me not to give up. As the story went on, I found it more and more interesting. But another problem occured at end of the book. I thought that the actions were too fast, and that the ending of the book was too brief, sudden and undetailed. In conclusion, I can say that the book was not bad, neither good. I would not recommend it to anyone, neither unrecommend it. My opinion about this book is neutral. The good thing about the book, is that the book taught me that Native Americans were discriminated, which was something I never knew until I read the book.

The genre of The Call of the Wild is adventurous. The novel covers many themes and aspects of life which gives the novel itself a high literary value. The setting of the novel was in the late 1890s, Alaska and the Klondike region of Canada. In the beginning, the novel was set in California. The readers experience the novel through  Buck’s point of view, for the most part; the novel also shifts briefly into John Thornton’s. Despite that Buck is a dog, we see the human’s characteristics showed in him since he has a sense of shame, dignity and loyalty. The tone of the novel is heroic to describe Buck’s victorious battles and it is also romantic to describe the devotion between Buck and his last master John Thornton. The exposition of the novel was the gold fever along the West Coast of the US in 1897 which encouraged thousands of men rushing to the Northland which required huge number of sled dogs.

“There is an ecstasy that marks the summit of life, and beyond which life cannot rise. And such is a paradox of living, this ecstasy comes when one is most alive, and it comes as a complete forgetfulness that one is alive.” This line reflects directly to one of the themes of the novel which is the power of ancestral and primitive instinces within oneself. As Buck was chasing a rabbit, his old instincts urged inside him – the blood lust, the joy to kill – and Buck was unaware of all these instincts. However, for the first time he felt so alive. Buck is the protagonist in the novel as well as a round character. He is the most influential character. As Buck kindled the conflict between him and Spitz, the other dogs also changed their bahaviors towards Spitz. For example, Billie – the good natured dog – became less good-natured towards Spitz. Also, the other dogs in the team were less afraid to challenge Spitz’s authority and his punishments. What’s more, after becoming the leader of the team, Buck made the other members do things they did not do when Spitz was in charge and for that, the sled-team dogs became more disciplined. Buck brought major changes to the team and also to Francoise and Perrault – his first masters.The flat characters are dogs such as Dave, Sol-leks and Buck’s masters – Francoise and Perrault.

The motivation for Buck to stand up against Spitz was the desire for mastery and ruling which is  another big theme of the novel. Buck noticed that he had to do anything for survival, but he also wanted to become the leader. The antagonist is Spitz who is a fierce animal. He always tried to pick a fight with Buck regardless what is right or wrong.The climax point of the novel is when John Thornton saved Buck’s life from Hal’s cruelty. The novel also had parts that reached climatic point such as Buck’s battle with Spitz and Buck’s struggles during the journey with harsh, incessant conditions. Buck had several conflicts in the novel such as the competition against Spitz for leadership and his struggles for adaptaion. The irony used in the novel was the unexpected fighting skills and strength from Buch who was completely unexperienced in the wild that could matched SPitz’s, an experienced and practised fighter. Simile was used for comparison, “sons of the one mother though they were, they were different as day and night.” There are several symbols that express the novel’s main themes. For example, Buck’s traces represent the service for human that Buck had to suffer and as the story developed, John Thornton cut off Buck’s traces which represent Buck’s freedom from being a pulling servant for human and how he was more likely to be a companion rather than a servant.The diction was fairly challenging throughout the novel though it is a short novel.

I really enjoyed reading the novel and explore how Buck was struggling to determine his identity: whether he’s a tame dog that belong to the civlized world, or he belongs to the wild as his killing and fighting instincts gradually grew. It is interesting to read about dogs who have characteristics and personalities of their own and how most of them can think and feel. I really liked how Buck’s instincts became stronger and developed every day as he interacted with different circumstances but he did not notice. It’s like a secret and spontaneous growth inside him as he was spending time in the wild. What’s more, the novel has touching details that describe the devotion of human-dog relationship and it is very interesting and different to explore a story through a dog’s eyes.

As a young girl, Lucy Grealy had been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called Ewing’s Sarcoma. In order to contain the cancer, the doctors had removed one-half of her jawbone, resulting in a blatant distortion to the lower portion of her face. What had really caught on with me as a reader, was that throughout the entire section when Lucy had described her being in the hospital, and contending with the innumerable amounts of injections and operations, she had still not come to realize that what she had was potentially a terminal disease.

The dramatic irony in this situation, between what the readers knew when reading the book and what Lucy knew when going to the doctors, had portrayed a thorough emphasis on the youthful innocence of the child. I believe that this use of irony, was one of the more grappling hooks that had motivated me to read more and finish this honest account of the author herself when she was a child.

My second point, ambiguity, also plays a large role in the themes of this novel. Two examples when I see ambiguity being used by the author, was when Lucy recounts the occasions when her mother had reprimanded her for crying during her chemotherapy sessions— telling her that she was disappointed to see her daughter cry because of the injections, and also when Lucy admits that she felt utter despair when she visited her father only once on his dying bed at the hospital before he died.

These two examples combine together as one to illustrate the constant lack of communication among the family members (which also relates back to why Lucy did not know that she had cancer before), and how it had led them to much needless pain and anxiety to each other. I firmly believe that the ambiguous approach that the author used was to create a vast amount of tension between each individual family member, and to spark inquiry from the readers to make the novel more engrossing.

Autobiography of a Face was a intricately woven tale of a little girl’s battle between beauty and acceptance. A fantastic novel. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy indulging themselves in sincere reading on the nature of true life.

The Presence by Eve Bunting, though as a book of clichés, has something special. It probably drew me in, with that, before I decided to check the book out. The book had two different ways of story-telling: it started with paragraphs and paragraphs italicized that made me want to find out why! As it turned out, the italicized parts were told in third-person, where as the reader, you can see exactly what this “Presence” (ghost), Noah, does and has in mind, and what the truth is. The non-italicized parts, however, are told in 1st-person through the main character, Catherine’s eyes. This brought extremely evident dramatic irony; especially in the latter parts of the book where Noah has bad intentions toward Catherine, when Catherine herself is completely oblivious, and has the notion that Noah would be able to help her overcome her fears and guilt instead of harming her. The dramatic irony is present throughout the whole book through this kind of story-telling, from the beginning (where Catherine has no idea that Noah is not a living person yet) toward the end (where Catherine is unaware of Noah’s true intentions). As Catherine explores California (where she’s visiting) and slowly uncovers her faith and what Noah is truly about, the reader already knows everything and watches as Catherine falls into Noah’s traps – step, by step.

I’m not a big fan of this, though. Even though the two points of view offered an interesting way to look at the story, I wouldn’t say it was eye-opening; it was, to me, merely a poor escape by the author in an attempt to be able to let the readers know the truth without struggling with only using one point of view. I’d ask of such a book to be more creative, instead of resorting to this headache-inducing method of extremely long italicized paragraphs!

Conflict: Gene thinks that his friend, Phineas, does not want him to be on top of the school. Then, he pushes Phineas off the tree. That makes Phineas brake a leg.

Tone: “I did not cry then or ever about Finny. I did not cry even when i stood watching him being lowered into his family’s strait-laced burial ground outside of Boston. I could not escape a feeling that this was my own funeral, and you do not cry in that case.”

Personification: “In fact the stadium did speak powerfully and at all times, including this moment.”

Motivation: The reason why Gene pushes Phineas out of the tree is Gene thinks that Phineas does not want him to get better. His action is the motivation that makes  Phineas brake his leg.

Hale was suspected to be North Dakota because Susan found e-mails from Tankado in his computer. Phil Chartrukian, an NSA system security technician, was determined that there is a virus in TRANSLTR. However, Chartukian is later found murdered in the sub-levels of TRANSLTR, and his corpse caused a short circuit in TRANSLTR leading to failure in the cooling system. Susan assumes that Hale was the murderer, but Hale claims that he saw Strathmore killing Chartrukian. Hale tried to explain that the e-mails were in his computer because he was snooping on Strathmore, who was intercepting Tankado’s e-mail. Susan then used a tracer to find out who is North Dakota, and the result is that North Dakota and Tankado are actually the same person. Strathmore’s scheme was later revealed when he killed Hale trying to cover up any evidence of his work. Susan found out that Strathmore hired an assassin to kill Tankado and eventually David when he found the ring, which would accomplish his dream of a relationship with Susan. Strathmore also planned to break the Digital Fortress and release his own Digital Fortress chip so that the NSA can tap on every computer equipped with these chips. As more truths are being revealed, Susan also found out that Digital Fortress is not a code at all, it was actually a computer worm that would attack and break down NSA databank’s security, allowing anyone able to access to government secrets. With TRANSLTR overheating and blowing up, Strathmore was killed and Susan fortunately escaped. Later David finally got the ring and fought off the assassin, but it turned out that the ring was no use – it was just a bait to keep NSA busy. Eventually, the NSA disables the worm keeping the NSA’s databank safe. In the end, the NSA is back to normal again and Susan and David are also finally united.

I really enjoyed this novel because it had a very interesting plot. There were many exciting turning points in the story where truth and schemes are revealed. The results were also unexpected but thrilling, which made this story unique. One literary term used very efficiently is motivation. Motivation plays a big role in this story. Tankado’s motivation of creating the computer worm was that he wants to reveal to the world that NSA has the power to spy on everyone’s information. As a result of this motivation, NSA’s security was almost brought down. Strathmore also has many motivations for his schemes. Strathmore wants to be with Susan, so he sent an assassin to kill David, but failed. Strathmore also wants to create his own version of Digital Fortress so that he can have access to every computer with his chip. However, Strathmore’s plan has failed because Digital Fortress is actually a worm designed to attack NSA’s security.

Dave, who once was the ‘boy’ who was deprived of food and love, is now the ‘it’ and the punching bag of her sadistic mother—a punching bag who also receives stabs and is frequently locked in a bathroom to suffocate. This tragic life of his continues as the second half of the story progresses.

An account of child abuse, like Dave’s story, is most likely to tackle the theme of survival.  As with Dave, survival was also his motivation; the reason behind all his actions. He stole food from his classmates’ lunch boxes, he tried to grab any scrap of food left by his so-called “family”, he ate frozen and refrigerated hotdogs to appease his hunger and he carefully planned an attack to steal from a grocery store. Some of his ideas actually worked, but only temporarily. The only thing that he held on to was his desire to live.

As Dave struggles against the mad games of his mother, he experienced changes in both his way of thinking and his actions. Dave is an example of a round character. At first, he was shocked to see the drastic changes in her mother—from loving mother to a sadistic ‘monster’—and he did not know what to do. He cried, waited and hoped that he would wake up from this ‘nightmare’. He received evry slap and torture from his mother. But as the days progress, he realized that may be, this ‘nightmare’ would never end, so he got up on his feet, ready to do anything for his survival. He also learned new tricks, like not pleading for mercy (he knew that his mother enjoyed his pleads the most) and taking advantage of time, the longer the resistance, the lesser chance of him being killed. Also, at one point in the story, he lost faith in God and the courage to live. He appreciated every day because for him, every day that passes by is “one less day of his life”. He would die anyway, the only question was when. Throughout the story, Dave changed. He gained hope, lost it, and gained it again. But at the end of the story, the only thing that mattered to him was that he was alive, happy and free.

Dave Pelzer’s story is very alarming. While reading the book, a thought keeps on wandering around my head: I never thought that it [child abuse] could get this bad. Although there was an issue on how true Dave’s story was, I still consider the book as a mind-opener and I would recommend it to those people [inside lavish mansions and cars] who appear to go blind whenever an abused child passes by.

photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/47254383@N06/4342948749/sizes/o/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/art_of_siru/3351195176/sizes/o/

The Presence is supposed to be a “ghost” story, even though it didn’t seem that much of one at all – and this is explained in the beginning of the book where the narrator explained in third person that these “presences” didn’t like to be called “ghosts” (even though, ironically enough – probably to draw attention – the cover had “a ghost story” written in big letters on it). The plot isn’t too bad… but I might have to take that back as a second thought; it is full (I must stress this) of extremely over-used clichés: depressed “walking-cliché” girl meets charming, perfect boy, he likes her, while another (the “presence”, in this case) is after her as well, probably not with good intentions, girl is extremely slow, mindless and unaware of obvious danger, girl slowly falls for both boys somehow, gets in trouble, gets saved, …  And that one sentence could effortlessly sum up the whole book. The first chapter very easily gave out the ending – and I could just set the book down right now before finishing the last few chapters because the whole book has been anything but unpredictable. I just had to be such a critic for this book – it was awful. (I’m in awe of its 4.5 rating on Amazon.com, which is making me almost reluctant, but I stand my ground!)

Or maybe it’s just me. Really, it probably is.

Despite all of this, it was an okay read, in some ways. What I’d enjoyed about the novel is that it had a great deal of suspense despite for its predictability. That probably sounded awkward and paradoxical, but it’s exactly what it sounds like – the plot, as a simplified whole, was only another cliché. However, as you read, events don’t just swift by easily – somehow, somewhere, there is a sense of tension. It builds you up – whether or not you’d be disappointed by it. It angers you. It saddens you. It builds emotion; it gives you something to think about it the end. Even though the plot events could be confusing and misplaced, in all I think it was decent enough to keep you thinking and interested, which is probably one of the best things the author was at in this book.

I have some mixed feelings for the book, but in the end, I wouldn’t exactly recommend it, especially to older folks – as a little kid read, it would probably be fine (probably because they wouldn’t be nearly as critical as I am?). I get extremely discouraged by clichés like these, which is probably why. I mean – you could read it, and I don’t see much of a “why not” here if you were just looking for a quick (very quick!), decent read… but if you wanted something that was a worthwhile read – that sparks, that kindles something inside you – that keeps you thinking for days and days, that awakens you, that makes you think – wow! – then this book is not for you. The first book I read, Bone By Bone By Bone by Tony Johnston, on the other hand…

 The plot was the basis of the tone of this book which means the tone was depended which part I was reading. The overall tone of the “Dreamhunter” was depressing, anticipating, and frightening. First of all, it was depressing because Tziga is always busy with catching dreams that Laura missed her dad a lot and then he just suddenly disappears. Since the main character is sad most of the time, the tone of the book turns the same way. Second, anticipating. When Tzihga Hame disappears, when Laura travels around the Place alone to uncover the secrets, and when she tries to tell people about the truth by sharing nightmares, were exceptionally anticipating to the readers. These kinds of scenes worry the person who is reading. For the last, whenever some kinds of happenings occur, it’s just frightening no matter how small the event is. Basically, the tone of the book was not happy and cheerful throughout the book.   

 The “Dreamhunter” by Elizabeth Knox was not that great as I expected but I liked it. I would recommend this book to those people who just love reading and who enjoy reading fantasy books.

P.S. Happy Tet Holiday Mr. White and to all of English 10 classes

There weren’t much literary terms being used in the novel. But i found out that Ian, the main character, needed an anger management lesson. Everything people say to him was a hyperbole. He could hardly controlled his anger towards other people, even for a small thing they did. He kept on having thoughts that people were trying to harm him and his brothers, but actually they were trying to help him. There are 2 main characters in the story, Ian and Ian’s little brother, Sammy. Ian is the round character, his identification is fully shown by the author. As the story goes along, his feelings and thoughts changed. Sammy is the flat character, the author did not describe him much, and throughout the book, his thoughts did not change at all. He was the same person all the way through the book. The author used both of these terms in order for them to reflect each other and make the story more entertaining, one character changed while the other didn’t.

What i enjoy most about the story is that the main character is my age. I can understand what he is going through, i can feel his thoughts, and i know what the problems he was facing. Although I wouldn’t want to be in his situation. I feel lucky that i have a good life compare to most kids, and i feel sorry for Ian and those who don’t. What i learned from the story and is also theme, when you are young, everything seems like the end of the world, but it’s not. Take it easy, you got a lot of time to go, because one tiny wrong decision you make, can end up changing your whole life. If Ian didn’t hit the teacher, and if he didn’t escape to find his father, he would be moved to a different school and live the same, terrible life that he was living in. As he said, many bad things can lead to one good thing.

I recommend this book for any teenagers that are bored of video games and McDonalds.

Bone by bone by bone proved almost an excellent example. What was really interesting about the book, to me, was its point of view through which the story is told, and its stupendous usage of metaphors and similes! Because it is told through an almost ‘innocent’ child’s (David’s) eyes, the novel brings you to the world of hatred and discrimination like it was never told before. I read a similar book last year, called To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAM) by Harper Lee; it was told in little Scout’s point of view, which was as fascinating to me as it was to read Johnston’s rendition of this time period. Because it was not told through a victim’s voice, however, this point of view really shows us the madness that ruled the country in its true form by hearing it from an unknowing bystander’s. This way of telling the story is especially powerful, because these young white children were born oblivious to such prejudice. On the other hand, during this time period, I’d presume most grow into it as they are raised in biased families. In this novel, however, even though David grew up with his extremely racist father and great-grandmother, he’d met Malcolm, his colored blood-brother early in life; early enough that he had not grown into such hatred yet. As such, his friendship with Malcolm grew too strongly for him to be indoctrinated with racism. (In contrast, in TKAM, Scout was never raised in a racist family, and was taught by her father, Atticus, about human rights early in life.) Again, this is especially interesting because David was so young in the novel that he could not fathom why such horrible racism existed – the same attitude most of us bear for the segregation today. (Bonus points for the book for its completely exceptional similes, metaphors, usage of language, and symbolic meanings as well!)

In all, I’d say Bone By Bone By Bone by Tony Johnston was one of the best stories I’ve read. Not only because it gives such an enlightening and interesting view on the subject of segregation, but also because it was one of the most well-written novels I’d seen. The only thing that I was disappointed by, however, was the ending – the book does an excellent job of building up tension and thrill toward the ending, just for me to be let down! Don’t let this stop you, however, because maybe it’s just me being critical – see it for yourself. A good book is always a worthwhile read, and I can definitely guarantee that that is what this is.

 Lowry uses Jonas (the protagonist) to represent the themes of this novel: duty and human rights. He is assigned to be the Receiver of the community, one who receives memories from the Giver, one of the people who were able to feel emotions. His duties became significant as he was selected to carry on this career. Oddly enough, one of his duties was “Do not discuss your training with any other member of the community, including parents and elders.” This duty led to another theme of the book, loneliness. Because Jonas could not talk about his trainings of becoming the Receiver with anyone but the Giver, he was not able to contribute to the subjects his friends talked about – their trainings. Thus, he became lonely as him and his friends couldn’t communicate as well as they did before the assignments. Closer to the end of the novel, Jonas finds out what his dad’s actual job is as the Nurturer. Jonas feels that it is his responsibility to save his people from release, a term the people of the community used to refer to death. Most people of the community did not know what release was because they rarely had opportunities to witness the release, but Jonas being of high authority, was able to witness a baby’s release and felt aggrevated by the thought of killing. Jonas and the giver think of a plan to allow people to “feel” again, to see “color” again, to have choices again in their lives.

The author of The Giver uses the character’s point of view to deliver her message. She pictured her world of a utopia: no pain meaning no emotions, no color meaning no discrimination and judgement, no choice meaning order. However, she uses Jonas to convey to her audience that our world cannot consist of these things, our world is just how it is supposed to be. Our world has ups and downs, we feel joy and pain, but this is the way of life. Throughout the novel, Jonas understands this concept, and she uses point of view to emphasize this idea – the utopia may not be a utopia afterall, maybe our life is the version of our destined utopia.

The round character in this novel is Jonas himself. Lowry describes Jonas (an Eleven who turns into a Twelve near the end of the book) as having the traits of intelligence, integrity, courage and bravery. These traits were recognized in him by the Chief Elder as he was assigned as the Receiver. Jonas’ trait of courage and bravery is shown in this passage, “It was possible, what they had planned. Barely possible. If it failed, he would very likely be killed. But what did that matter? If he stayed, his life was no longer worth living. ‘Yes,’ he told The Giver. ‘I’ll do it. I think I can do it. I’ll try, anyway…’” This passage shows his bravery because Jonas is willing to risk his life to do what he thinks is right – to allow people to be able to feel emotions again. Like these passages, Jonas’ other characteristics are shown throughout the novel.

An example of a flat character in this book would be Lily, Jonas’ little sister. We do not know what type of person she is, we only know her age (a Seven who turns into an Eight near the end of the book) and her relation to Jonas. Occasionally, we were able to know how Lily felt that particular day during the evening telling of feelings. Other than these brief informations, we do not know much about Jonas’ little sister, Lily. Therefore, she is an example of a flat character.

The Giver is a magnificent book full of interesting ideas. It really makes the readers think about what life would be like if there were no differences, no choices, no feelings or emotions. Although life has its ups and downs, imagine life without all these traits. It seems as though there will never be a utopia. A utopia is merely an idea people have about a better life, but something that is not realistic.

What if our world had no such thing as emotions, or choice?  The Giver illustrates Lowry’s idea of a utopia. A world where two people were responsible for feeling emotions for everyone in their community including the past, where everything was well-organized, where family units were assigned, and where careers were chosen for the people. The Giver is a John Newbery Medal Winning novel by Lois Lowry; an allegory that is full of point of view, and descriptions of round character while still mentioning flat characters.

 Lowry uses Jonas (the protagonist) to represent the themes of this novel: duty and human rights. He is assigned to be the Receiver of the community, one who receives memories from the Giver, one of the people who were able to feel emotions. His duties became significant as he was selected to carry on this career. Oddly enough, one of his duties was “Do not discuss your training with any other member of the community, including parents and elders.” This duty led to another theme of the book, loneliness. Because Jonas could not talk about his trainings of becoming the Receiver with anyone but the Giver, he was not able to contribute to the subjects his friends talked about – their trainings. Thus, he became lonely as him and his friends couldn’t communicate as well as they did before the assignments. Closer to the end of the novel, Jonas finds out what his dad’s actual job is as the Nurturer. Jonas feels that it is his responsibility to save his people from release, a term the people of the community used to refer to death. Most people of the community did not know what release was because they rarely had opportunities to witness the release, but Jonas being of high authority, was able to witness a baby’s release and felt aggrevated by the thought of killing. Jonas and the giver think of a plan to allow people to “feel” again, to see “color” again, to have choices again in their lives.

The author of The Giver uses the character’s point of view to deliver her message. She pictured her world of a utopia: no pain meaning no emotions, no color meaning no discrimination and judgement, no choice meaning order. However, she uses Jonas to convey to her audience that our world cannot consist of these things, our world is just how it is supposed to be. Our world has ups and downs, we feel joy and pain, but this is the way of life. Throughout the novel, Jonas understands this concept, and she uses point of view to emphasize this idea – the utopia may not be a utopia afterall, maybe our life is the version of our destined utopia.

The round character in this novel is Jonas himself. Lowry describes Jonas (an Eleven who turns into a Twelve near the end of the book) as having the traits of intelligence, integrity, courage and bravery. These traits were recognized in him by the Chief Elder as he was assigned as the Receiver. Jonas’ trait of courage and bravery is shown in this passage, “It was possible, what they had planned. Barely possible. If it failed, he would very likely be killed. But what did that matter? If he stayed, his life was no longer worth living. ‘Yes,’ he told The Giver. ‘I’ll do it. I think I can do it. I’ll try, anyway…’” This passage shows his bravery because Jonas is willing to risk his life to do what he thinks is right – to allow people to be able to feel emotions again. Like these passages, Jonas’ other characteristics are shown throughout the novel.

An example of a flat character in this book would be Lily, Jonas’ little sister. We do not know what type of person she is, we only know her age (a Seven who turns into an Eight near the end of the book) and her relation to Jonas. Occasionally, we were able to know how Lily felt that particular day during the evening telling of feelings. Other than these brief informations, we do not know much about Jonas’ little sister, Lily. Therefore, she is an example of a flat character.

The Giver is a magnificent book full of interesting ideas. It really makes the readers think about what life would be like if there were no differences, no choices, no feelings or emotions. Although life has its ups and downs, imagine life without all these traits. It seems as though there will never be a utopia. A utopia is merely an idea people have about a better life, but something that is not realistic.

picture link:

http://www.ala.org/img/YALSA/edwards/the_giverSMALL.JPG

Like “The Kitchen’s God Wife”, several literal devices were being used in Steven Levenkron’s novel, “The Luckiest Girl In The World”. There are two types of literal devices that I want to point out in this blog post, which are ambiguity and situational irony.

Ambiguity is the quality or state of being uncertain especially from being obscure or indistinct. As stated in the previous post, Katie Roskova was a successful student who had a mental breakdown in school. As a result, Katie had to go see a shrink. In this particular story, the ending was ambiguous. Katie’s mother, Katherine was in rage because Katie started to ask questions about her father. Katie then “spaced out” in front of her mother and did the thing that she never wanted to her mother to find out. In the end, Katherine agreed to pay for Katie’s therapy with the shrink and Katie celebrated her birthday with her friends who were all patients of Katie’s shrink.

Certainly, we cannot say that the ending was not a “and they lived happily ever after” ending. The ending the neither sad nor happy. Katie was allowed to continue to see her shrink and she had true friends. We do not know that whether Katie will be recovered from her sickness. So, the ending was ambiguous because we do not know definitely if she will be a happy girl.

Secondly, situational irony is a contradiction of expectation between what might be expected and what actually occurs. Katie was trained by her mother since she was young because her mother wanted to be a successful figure skater; Katherine wanted Katie to be a star. They made many sacrifices. Katherine worked hard to earn money to pay for Katie’s skating teacher and Katie spent all her time on practicing, schooling, and doing homework. All of those efforts were made in order for Katie to become a champion figure skater. However,  Katie was under so much pressure that she had a mental breakdown in school. In the end, Katie’s skating coach resigned his post and Katie had to see a shrink regularly.

“The Luckiest Girl In The World” is a book for light reading but also has a taste of meaning in it. Try reading it someday if you have nothing to do or nothing to read.

Source of image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tanya77761/4092583734/

          After their windmill was destroyed, Napoleon declared it was Snowball who destroyed it and killed anyone who is related with him. I do not know if they were talking to the truth, but many animals confessed they were working with Snowball and got slaughtered. One of the commandment  “No animal shall kill any other animal” now reads: “No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.” Then Napoleon exploits the Hens by ordering them to lay a lot of eggs, and sells it to the humans for money. This foreshadows that Napoleon will become more and more like human. There was one more fight against the man and the humans when the windmill was again, destroyed and some animals were left dead. Not long after, pigs find a box of whisky and drinks it, and changes the commandment to   “No animal shall drink alcohol to excess,” from  “No animal shall drink alcohol”. When the animals got confused, squealer, one of the most devoted follower of Napoleon, and his practical spokesperson, persuades the animals that Napoleon is always right and it is their memory that does not remember properly. Napoleon orders them to build the windmill again, but decreasing the ration. Again, Sqealer succeeds in persuading the animals that this is more than they have got from Jones. But the pigs and the dogs increases the ration, and builds a ’school’ for its young despite lack of funds. When Boxer, a hard working stallion, shows a sign of sickness, they send him to be slaughtered, and tells the animal that he went to the hospital but failed to revive. Years pass, and animals were still hungry, but the dogs and the pigs were living a wealthy, comfortable life. They becomes more of a human, as they drink alchohol, sit in the chair, wears clothes, and walk in two feets. The sheeps were chanting “four legs good, two legs better” and the commandment “All animals are equal” was changed to “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”. The pigs coorperates with the humans, banning the hoist of the flag and use of the word “comrade”.

        That commandment is somewhat of a oxymoron, since you can’t be “more equal” than others, and it is also bit ironical. The protagonist is Napoleon which is a round charactor. There isnt really a conflict in this part of the novel, since it depicts a leader’s change and its affects towards the other animals. Lot of situational ironys when pigs were changing the commandments. I do not know much about russian revolution, but the book really talks about communist country is impossible, and the leaders will seize the chance and get more corrupt

“The Pearl” carries several meaning it wishes to convey to the readers. First is how greed or excessive ambitions can adversely affect the person and the other is the rejection from society. Because Kino continued to possess the pearl, he not only lost so many other things, but at the end, even got rid of the pearl with his own hands due to the burden and guilt he had to carry. If he had eliminated the pearl beforehand, he may have risked the life of Coyotito, but wouldn’t have lost so many other things. Secondly, rejection from society is an surging issue, even nowadays. Because of impoverishment, or low social rank, numerous people are continuously being outcasted from the larger part of society, just like how the doctor refused to cure Coyotito.

Besides some of the philosophical concepts it provides, “The Pearl” also carries some literary devices in the novel. John Steinbeck, despite writing a short novel, does very well with using imagery. It is quite typical to see similes or metaphors used in this novel. In addition, he isn’t frank with his writing. He uses many indirect characterizations and the characters in the novel are well described and identified through their actions or emotions.

“The Pearl” is truly an amazing book and Steinbeck is indeed a fabulous writer. Setting the values of the civilized world against those of the primitive and should indeed be read.

The story is told by Dolphin- a singular first person of view, which gives the readers a chance to be transferred back into a precocious ten years old girl. Everyone was once ten years old in their life, the book is written by the point of view where the readers can relate to. Dolphin’s narrator brings to the readers the feeling as if we can read her mind, and put ourselves in her situation and as if we would experience the struggle that she has to go through with her life. As the readers are in Dolphin’s mind, the flat characters  such as Dolphin’s classmate- Kayleigh and Yvone, who represent the people who Dolphin doesn’t pay much attention to, and that’s why they barely appear in the book. The round characters in the book, are those who Dolphin cares and loves such as Star and Marigold. Dolphin who is a round character and the protagonist, is at the stage where she learns more about life and prepares to become an adult, that’s why through out the story the readers can see her changing to somone more mature and responsible. 

As Jacqueline Wilson wrote the book, she is trying to show the readers different symbols, and the most important symbol for me is maturity and courage. Star and Dolphin are both at a young age where they need to be taken care and someone who teach them what’s right and wrong. On the other hands, Star is precocious when she has to take care of her mother and sister which is unfair to her. Although Dolphin is only ten but she decides to stay with her mom when Star withdraws from Marigold which symbols courage and responsibility. Through this symbol, Jacqueline wants to tell the readers that we can’t judge someone from their appearance. A ten years old or fifteen years old girls can sometimes be more mature than a thirty-three years old mother.  

The story traps the readers in with a multiple climaxes and conflicts that keep the readers attach to the story. The conflict between Star, Marigold and Dolphin through the story leads to many climax such as when Dolphin called the ambulance when Marigold painted herself with white paint. But somehow, the three main characters of the story- Dolphin, Marigold and Star always have a way to accept their circumstance and are tied back together in an odd and unfair life where they can find enough happiness.

I personally find “The Illustrated Mum” very enjoyable to read, different from other children’s books. A story with a strong moral, that leaves me an unforgettable memory and shows me a different way to see the pursuit of happiness that I have never imagined: you don’t have to live in a fairytale to find happiness, happiness is the simplest thing that can be found in your daily life.

Twisted is the story of Tyler Miller, an 18-year old high-school junior. Before spray-painting the front walls of his school with graffiti and spending the summer doing outdoor work to pay for it, Tyler was a perfectly camouflaged guy, who faded into the background. After the foul deed  though, things changed. While his new physique attracts Bethany Milbury- high-school queen bee, daughter of his father’s boss, sister of his mortal enemy, and his one and only crush, his new image attracts immense suspicion, and pressure from his family and teachers.

Though he gets noticed by his all time crush, the other 90% of Tyler’s life is completely messed up. And just when things couldn’t get any worse, it does. When he is accused of something he could have never done, and when is father has given up all hope on him, Tyler has only two choices- running away or military school. But what he actually chooses is something that’s not on the list-death.

As I posted earlier about the protagonist being in a cell with the most dangerous criminal ever in Scotland Yard, it is not exciting to be in one. Try putting yourself into that position. I can tell you that it is very dangerous to become friends with a convict in order to achieve a purpose: Bust the outer gang member, The Fence. The tone of itself is serious as it was for Nick to get framed to get into one of the maximum prisons available in that setting. These are the kinds of books that puts you up the edge of your seats whenever we read the climax of these crime stories. I can tell you that Anthony Horowitz is good at making climaxes as it made me think, :” OHHHH, so that was the reason why”.

Nonetheless, most of the book’s fascination come from the plot itself so not very many literary devices are used. There are a lot of conversation in the book but sometimes the tone and language of the characters are awkward and a bit unreal. Perhaps French grammar and vocabulary don’t work the same way as in English. However, onomatopoeia is used effectively. For example, “Argg” for roaring, etc. The diction of this novel is also extremely high. I don’t know some of the words in the book so sometimes I had trouble following the story. Also the point of view the author chooses to tell the story is effective. Seeing a technological under a scientist’s eyes and his great enthusiasm for adventure is perfect to guide the reader to a fictional world. Overall, 20,000 leagues under the sea is a great book and I enjoy reading it.

‘Twisted’ is not a ‘formal’ piece of writing that we can learn writing strategies or any remarkable rules of writing from. However, each genre and each book has its own style. This book somehow belongs to the side that is more ‘enjoyable’ and fun to read than educational but literary devices were used well through out the story.

‘Twisted’ is pretty much of a simple but true-to-life, straight-ahead story so there is no allegory or ambiguity in the book. There is an archaetype – teenagers, fighting against trouble, struggling to find themselves and be accepted and appreciate in their own cruel society.The protagonists of the story are Tyler, Hannah – his sister, Calvin/ Yoda – his bestfriend and Mr. Salvatore – his English teacher. To be honest, Mr. Salvatore is my favorite character of the entire book. He was first described as any typically bad teachers and Tyler truly detested him and his homework and we all have a feeling that he truly hates Tyler . Nevertheless, he eventually helps Tyler with his homework and cathing up. Also, he tries to understand Tyler and be sympathetic – which I think is very cook of an old teacher. Our antagonists here are the evil twins – Bethany and Chip, Parker, the football players who beated Yoda and probably Mr. Miller. It is pretty obvious why I listed the other guys as antagonists – because they are material and mean; they always want to hurt people and bully them; they think they are the best and everyone adores them. I still consider Mr. Miller as the villian type of guy because he is the cause for all the troubles in Tyler’s family. He is careless about his kids, always away and he never stops fighting with his wife. He affected Tyler and made him become a weak man. Fortunately, Tyler broke out of that cell and became a great man, a man he wants himself to be. The round characters of the book are Tyler Miller and his Dad – even though his Dad only changed at the end of the book, after having been fired by Bethany’s Dad. Flat characters are the rest of the people involved – Tyler’s Mom, Hannah, Calvin/ Yoda and the Mulburys.

The conflict of the book is majorly about Tyler struggling with his life. He has conflicts with his schoolmates, his parents, his teachers, his crush and also himself. Throughout the chapters, the use of simile for comparisons and oxymoron for any sarcastic contradiction is pretty common. The first climax of the book is when Bethany’s half-nakes pictures were posted and Tyler was pushed into troubles again. It seems like an outburst of every single terrible thing that Tyler has been through. When Tyler sprayed rumors on the school’s walls, his motivation was the desirefor popularity and peer pressure. When Tyler tried to suicide, he was strongly influenced by the bad lucks, confusion and depression. The second climax of the book was when Tyler’s Dad got fired because after it occured, his Dad changed and realized a lot more things about his own life. It also changed Tyler and the rest of the family. The story was told in 1st person point of view – which I think is absolutely suitable because it can clearly and vividly demonstrates Tyler ’s thoughts. ‘Twisted’ also has its certain versimilitude. It’s still basically an average, typical life of a high schoolboy, without any peculiar occurence so it is totally true and can surely happen in real life.

The story takes place within a Mexican community. Kino and Juana are couples who live in a modest house by a sea. One day, they face a terrible event when their son, Coyotito, is stung by a scorpion. Desperate to save their son, Kino and Juana find a doctor, but are dejected when the doctor refuses to help due to their insufficient amount of fund. Later that day, Kino searches out for a large pearl in order to pay for the cure and fotuanately, is able to find a humongous pearl. Therefore, the doctor provides medication for Coyotito, but many conflicts are aroused by this pearl. First, he encounters a thief, presumably the doctor, who attempts to steal the pearl which is buried in Kino’s house and after a violent struggle, Kino is left injured. Not only that, but Kino is filled with greed which leads him to beating his own wife for trying to get rid of the pearl because she felt the pearl was ill-willed. Afterwards, Kino is involved in another conflict with a group of men who tries to steal his pearl and later ends up murdering one of the men of the group. As if it’s resembling an omen, tragedy and conflicts follow the path of Kino, Juana, and Coyotito, as they possess the pearl.

“The Pearl” taught me many things, particularly in relation to the moral behaviors. This novel carries the theme of greed and how it can be detrimental if it is taken to an extreme point. The pearl found by Kino is the factor which causes Kino to become greedy, malicious, and vicious. Therefore, a lot of conflicts are also brought to his life. This reflects well back to the lives of many people. In the world, people have ambitions and certain ambitions aren’t always achieved positively. People use devious methods to obtain what they want and in this case, the pearl is the determinant which causes such excessive greed.

“The Pearl” is far more than just a portraiture of tragedy. It shows the extent of greed and all the kinds of atrocities it can bring when it is misused. “The Pearl” teaches the moral behaviors of human and it surely must be read by everyone in order to avoid such conflicts as Kino’s.

I am almost finished with this book, i just reading it 3 days ago and it was hard for me to put it down and do something else. This is a novel told in 1st person about a life of a 15-year old skater named Ian who is living a hard life. His mother is a drug addict and he doesn’t even remember his father’s face. He lives in a town called Morrison in the U.S, and he goes to a public school where all the teachers were giving him hell because he did not participate in any sport. One day, things went wrong, he was being expelled. Before he left, he broke one of the teacher’s jaw, instead of leaving peacefully, now he has to run away with his little brother. Run away to their father. From reading the 1st few chapter of the story, i think the theme is that one tiny decision you make can end up changing your whole life. One moment, one punch, Ian ended up losing his life, he had to ran away without knowing what tomorrow is going to be like. Many adventures are waiting for them in their journey find their father.

While I was researching about my book, I have foung out that my book has been adopted into a video game, it is a real-time-strategy game involving creating ant civilizations.

As I kept reading this novel, I always thought this book was similar with ‘The animal farm’ by George Owell, and ‘Lord of the flies’ by William Golding. Since the boys set themselves free from the adults through revolution, it seemed quite like the scene where the animals take over the farm from the farmer in ‘The animal farm’. Also, as the boys propose their own rules and obeyed them, this reminded me of a scene of  ‘The Lord of the Flies’ when Ralph calls an assembly and makes rules with his fellows. I believe this could be a literary device, an archetype since themes about rebelling and revolution are common among the books.

The most remarkable literary device is oxymoron of the title of this novel, ‘The Butterfly Revolution’. Generally, a butterfly symbolizes peace-like matters such as freedom, beauty, and etc. However, Revolution is contradictory to the word ‘butterfly’ because it generally gives an impression of violence and noises. Therefore, I think the title itself is an oxymoron. Also, since this book is in a diary form or narrative, there are lots of dramatic ironies in the plot. For instance, the narrator, Winston is a passive character who seems to support the revolution but he actually regrets what he is doing  and he sometimes thinks this is not just but he follows his leader anyway. Whenever he expresses his negative feelings about revolution, it is a a dramatic irony because other revolutionary characters do not know about his real thoughts about the revolution. Also, since any behavior of opposing the idea of revolution is illegal in the camp, I think it is fine to be a dramatic irony for his sake. However, there was a flat character, named Don Egriss who disagress with the ideas of revolution and he did not change his mind until the end.  The climax of this book is a situational irony when police officers hit the place and claim for arresting the leaders of the revolutions. All of the boys who were related to this revolution was arrested and their enjoyment was interrupted/terminated.

The theme of this novel is appearances contradict with reality in life because the camp seems normal summer camp but actually it is a revolutionary and rebellious boys’ camp. I think the author intended to express the idea that appearances and reality do not match often in real life and this is what I learned as I read through this novel.

After reading the book, I feel sorry for both of the characters. Because of misunderstanding, Gene does a terrible action that kills his best friends. The conflict in the book is when Gene thinks that Phineas tries to make him get bad grades. That separates them from best friends to enemy. At last, it cannot be fixed. Their friendship will never boned again.

The book tells us not to think bad about people, especially the one your relatives. One more thing is we should forgive people who make mistakes, and give them a change to fix.

At the beginning of the book, the plot seem to be ambiguous due to the lack of expositions, even though the diction and syntax are very clear and simple. But as the story went on, the theme and the tone of the story slowly unwrapped. Even though this book contains a lot of hyperboles and ironies and does not appear to be a verisimilitude, this book can be used as an archetype of symbolism. It is a juxtaposition between braveness and courage.

Dave Pelzer’s account of the severe child abuse began, quite unusually, with his ‘rescue’. He did not have a clue that it was his last day with his mentally-unstable and sadistic mother; his last day of  being a garage-resident; and his first day of freedom.

After his rescue, there was a flashback of how his days turned from the “good times”, to being deprived of food and being excluded from his family. At first, he was scolded the way any ‘bad’ boy would be, but as the days passed, Dave realized that the beautiful mother that he once loved is gone— he now thinks of her as a monster, as she played deadly games on him. In most parts of the story, the brutal-mother-versus-helpless-son conflict continues and worsens.

The story is told from a ten-year old Dave’s point of view. This is reflected in the diction in the story: simple words that are used by a child. Also, his way of thinking is simpler than most of the readers of the book, thus, a dramatic irony can sometimes be distinguished. This irony can be seen whenever Dave fails to comprehend why his mother was tormenting him. Of course, little Dave would focus more on his survival than waste time in thinking of why his mother wanted him to experience ‘hell’ why his brothers enjoy the luxury of being fed, dressed and most of all, loved.

After being deprived of food love, Dave’s ‘worst’ days are still yet to come.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dang_dang/3393843755/sizes/o/

By looking at my enthusiasm and love for this book, it is predictable that I am in total, complete love with the book! I have mostly enjoyed the suspense and action which occured often in the book In addition, I also enjoyed reading about how Eragon solved his way through certain enigmatic situations and handled his internal conflicts wisely. Besides the life of Eragon, the book also constantly switched the settings back and forth by showing Eragon’s current actions and later changing to a scene which occured within The Varden or Roran’s conflicts. This way, I was able to see the life of both Eragon and other characters, although it was fairly confusing to cycle through so often.

However, if there is something to be criticized from this novel, it is the lack of the effective use of literary devices. If I had to pick some out, it would be the use of imagery. In fact, Christopher Paolini has done very well by implementing the use of imagery when explaining the background of the novel. For example, the environmental features would usually be very detailed and would include methods of metaphors or similes to create a contrast between the environment and an object which is seemingly more familiar to the readers. Nevertheless, the novel still included very few examples of literary devices which would be the only and major flaw of this novel.

The novel is indeed an exciting story. It is more than just a story of fantasy, but it carries a large theme of heroism and responsibility as well as how to handle pressure. In the novel, it is well demonstated by Eragon how to carry on the responsibility despite the immense pressure on him. “Brisingr” is indeed a fabulous work of writing and I would recommend it to anyone of any age to read it what so ever.

        The story starts when the NSA’s (National Security Agency) 3 million super code-breaking computer (TRANSLTR) encounters an unbreakable code called “Digital Fortress”. After the discovery of Digital Fortress, Commander Trevor Strathmore calls in Susan Fletcher, a brilliant woman that is their head cryptographer, to crack the code. However, the word “unbreakable” does not exist in cryptographers’ vast dictionary due to the Bergofsky Principle, and both Strathmore and Susan knows that more clearly than anyone else. The principle was a cornerstone of brute-force technology; it clearly stated that if a computer tried enough keys, it was mathematically guaranteed to find the right one – as long as you have enough computer power and time. They know that TRANSLTR will always find the right key, unless the computer doesn’t know when it’s broken the code. Unless the computer guesses the correct key but just keeps guessing because it doesn’t realize it found the right key.

        As Strathmore and Susan searched for the source of Digital Fortress, they discovered that the code was written by Ensei Tankado, a former NSA cryptographer who was displeased with the NSA’a intrusion into people’s private communications. Tankado auctioned the code’s algorithm on his website and have his secret partner, North Dakota, to have a second copy to release it for free, in case someone wanted to eliminate Tankado. Abruptly, Tankado was soon discovered dead in Seville, Spain, of what appears to be a heart attack. Strathmore then sends David Becker, Susan’s fiancée, to Seville to recover Tankado’s ring that was thought to have the key to Digital Fortress. What David does not know is that there is an assassin following him killing everyone that heard about the ring and all traces. While David is racing against time and getting close to the ring, an astonishing truth was uncovered in NSA: a current cryptographer in NSA is North Dakota! Now Susan and Strathmore are facing a potential threat right in their own headquarter……

        There are endless of new knowledge flowing into my brain when I was reading this novel. I learned about the first and basic codes and how to decode them. This book also gave me many insights on how a secret organization works and their ways of dealing with threats – stay unseen and quiet. What I enjoyed most about this novel is that I enjoyed learning how codes work. I am a person that likes math and I am also interested in codes and code-breaking. There is always a thrill of victory when I solve a problem or break a code. The theme of this story is about governments’ surveillance on electronic information of citizens, and maybe even civilians using these technologies to obtain information illegally.

        The story uses a lot of literary devices, and one that is commonly used is foreshadowing and flashbacks. The novel started with short prologue telling Tankado’s death and his engraved golden ring. This foreshadowed that his death is important and that some unfortunate events might follow. The author also created great suspense throughout the story, which is one of the things that I really liked about. For flashbacks, it is used a lot when there was a need to explain what happened in the past. The flashbacks are well placed in the plot and it greatly improved my understanding of the story.

        Overall, I enjoyed reading the first part of the story and I want to read more in order to find out what happens in the end.

I was tired of reading deep books. As a result, I chose this book – “The Luckiest Girl In The World” by Steven Levenkron. However, the novel turned out to be not like any other teenage girls, high school novels. In fact, I find the story to be concise, addicting, and meaningful. I finished the book long before the assigned date; I just couldn’t put the book down.

Judging by its appearance, many may say that this is a book for girls. Let me say this – do not let one’s appearance deceive you. Katie Roskova, the protagonist of this novel, was a high school student whose grades were never below A- and was on her way to become a champion figure skater. It seemed like she was the luckiest girl in the world, Katie was pretty and popular. However, Katie had another side that she had been concealing from the world, a side that she cannot reveal to her friends and family.

I enjoyed reading this book because of reading the resemblance of Katie’s life to the lives of many teenagers, especially teenagers from Asian countries. Although Katie was a successful, good student, that wasn’t a life that she wanted. Katie was a contestant of a champion figure skater because it was her mother’s dream to be a successful figure skater when her mother was young. Katie’s grades were never below A- because she wouldn’t be able to study in her high school with a scholarship if her grades weren’t good.

Similar situations could be found in many families. Parents want their children to learn something, may it be a sport, a foreign language, an instrument, because that was what the parents wanted but couldn’t learn when they were young. They were using their children to complete their unaccomplished dreams. In addition, although Katie had been performing extremely well, she had the pressure of maintaining her grades in order to study in her school. This is also something that is happening in many households – children are asked to have good grades. Yes, as a student, it is our responsible and job to study, but learning then becomes uninteresting anymore! It was a necessity, and we’re learning not for the sake of learning, but the sake of our future and many, to please their parents.

After reading “The Luckiest Girl In The World”, I learned that it is very important to have a balanced life. Although Katie was very successful as a student, but she wasn’t a successful teenager. She was reclusive, she didn’t have any friends because she had to constantly practice for the championship competition. Friends are important, they play a very important role in our lives. If Katie had a friend that she could share her secrets, maybe she wouldn’t had a mental breakdown.

Last but not least, communication is also very important. I think that children should not be afraid to tell their thoughts to their parents, because parents do not always understand the difference between what their children want and what their children need. So, if the parent is doing something wrong without really knowing it, it’s our job as the child to tell them. After all, we meant no harm and our intention was good. Don’t you agree?

The second book of my Reader’s Workshop is called ‘Twisted’ – which I just happened to randomly found it in the library and was impressed by its remarkable cover and lavish reviews. ‘Twisted’ is basically a book that is written for teenagers, so I figured it would be a fairly interesting genre for me because it’s been a long time since I last read anything particularly written for young adults. The story is written by Laurie Halse Anderson, a multiple award-winning, New York Times best-selling who lives in New York. With all these features, the random book seemed attractive enough to me.

The story is about a highschool senior boy called Tyler Miller. His family has never been so happy – mostly because of his inconsiderate Dad. He was once a citizen of ‘Loserville’, the utterly unpopular and somehow considered pathetic type of guy in school. Finally, after suffering for years, he decided to have a ‘breakthrough’ by spray-painting terrible rumors about the principle of his school. Tyler was arrested afterward and was made to finish some service work. Nevertheless, he succeeded in the social side of his life. He receives a lot of attention from his fellow schoolmates when he returned to George Washington High. These people include Bethany and Chip Millbury. They are twins – Tyler likes Bethany, but Chip and Tyler are ultimate enemies that can tear each other into pieces at anytime. With the help of his bestfriend – Calvin/Yoda – and his freshman sister – Hannah, Tyler tries to get back to his normal social life and catch up with 5 AP classes. However, things don’t seem to be so fortunate for him. After a big house party, Bethany’s half naked pictures are posted online and Tyler was the best suspects. The whole school starts talking and spreading rumors, his family were put under extreme pressure, Chip and his friends have him beaten til almost death. Tyler struggles to find a way out of his messy life and gets very close to suicidal. Eventually, he manages to pull himself in and stands up to face his problems – from being prejudiced by his principle and teachers to talking to his Dad, sorting out the family business.

My favorite lines of the books are:

Why bother trying? What was the point? So I could go to some suck-ass college, get a diploma, march out into a job that I hated, marry a pretty girl who would want to divorce me, but then she wouldn’t because we’d have kids. so instead she’d become the angry woman at the other end of the kitchen table, and the kids would grow up watching this, until one day I’d look at my son and he’d look just like that face in the bathroom mirror?
If that was life, then it was twisted.

The theme of ‘Twisted’ are the nowadays life of teenagers, popularity, family/ relationships and  self-exploring. Family and relationships are also very important because they shape personalities. Life changes constantly and people don’t always treat you nicely. There is love and caring and understanding. But the social pressure are deadly – they can bring you up to be a hero, or brought you down to the deepest end of the Earth and treat you like a trashy creature. I have to admit that this is not such a tempting and challenging book. It still has its power to keep me reading, because I had already got into the story and I want to find out how Tyler was going to move on with his life. Still, I learned something from the book. I learn to stand up and do the right thing. I learn to be stronger and wiser, especially when it comes to peer pressure and any social conflicts. What I enjoyed most about the novel while reading it was how Anderson narrated the story. She’s a mid-age woman, but she knows a lot about young adults’ and high school life. Without noticing the author’s name, I would have thought that the story is written by a woman. She has this very strong, power and ‘manly’ voice. In most sections, there are italic parts where Tyler imagines things in his head and he is desperate to do them but couldn’t and I think this is also very unique and enjoyable.

In the second chapter, The Law of Club and Fang, Buck faced his first horrible days of the wild life. He witnessed the death of Curly, the female dog, whose face got “ripped open from eye to jaw” and then she got attacked by another thirty or forty huskies. The death of Curly had shown Buck that savegery does not only exist in men who have clubs in their hands, but also exists in the dogs themselves. Buck’s adaptation to the life of the wild showed as he learned to take things that did not belong to him. That was not the way he was raised and taught in Judge Miller’s place. Moreover, his instincts from the old ancestors urged within himself. In chapter 3, the conflict and competition to rule between Buck and Spitz reached the climatic point. They got into a fight over food. Since then, Buck kept threatening Spitz’s leadership by trying to protect other dogs from Spitz’s punishments or stealing Spit’z food deliberately. And that is as far as my reading goes.

The main themes of the book are the power of primitive instincts within oneself, the struggle for survival which can promote the savagery side spontaneously, the differences between the life in civilization and the life in the wild; and the competition for mastery or ruling. In a short book, Jack London was able to include a lot of themes which is interesting to read. The story was written in Buck’s point of view and most of the characters are dogs. However, through the eyes of Buck and other dogs, the readers can still feel the connection to the details of the book. For i haven’t finished the whole book, I look forward to see how Buck’s life will turn out. Can he resist his primitive instincts and return to civilization?

For my second book of reader’s workshop I chose “The Man in the Brown Suit” by Agatha Christie, the same author who wrote the first book that I read. I chose a book of the same author, because I really enjoyed the first book and I had a feeling that her other books would be quite interesting as well along with a plot containing an enigma. As far as I can tell Agatha Christie does not use hackneyed storylines in her book, which makes it worth reading.

I have not read much of the book, since the story’s opening chapters are not that intriguing. I had to re-read the chapters several times to understand the book. “The Man in the Brown Suit” is a story told in 1st person, in the point of view of the protagonist, Anne Beddingfeld. This book’s setting is similar to the one’s of “The Secret Adversary”, as the story takes place throughout England. The summary of the book states that, oddly enough, the stranger that caught her eye, hesitated in fear, and died on the rails of Hyde Park Underground Station. Even stranger though was the fact that the doctor in the brown suit that pronounced him dead had vanished into the crowd. In fact, Anne Beddingfeld felt even more suspicious when she found out that the doctor had a connection to the murder of a famous ballerina, a fortune in hidden diamonds, and a crime-lord embroiled in blackmail, with the worst one yet an attempt to take Anne’s life away. She tries her best to resist the temptation of an isolated mansion that could hold the key to the solution of this ludicrous enigma, despite the fact that Anne’s life may be at risk here.

Lucy Szabo, who is 16 years old, is going through a well recognized stage of oddity and isolation. She believes that no one understands her, and that no one ever can. Adding to the fuel, Lucy is tired of being “un-dead”, of having to check her blood sugar several times every day, and the her life starts sliding down a deep slope.

One of the obvious assets of this novel is the fact the it is written from the point of view of a teenager. I consider this to be an asset because  in this time period, which the computers rule, it is extremely rare to find teenagers getting hooked to a novel; however, a novel written with a point of view that they can relate to, teenagers are encouraged to read.

Another asset of this novel would be the story line or plot, with multiple climaxes, or high points, that keeps the reader spellbound to the book. Along with twists and turns the plot also shows the readers how the protagonist changes during the course of time. I found this to be an important factor to note as I find a novel with flat characters to be boring, which can be true with other teenagers of my age as well.

One of the major symbols of this novel would be “blood.” Its importance can be noticed as soon as one starts to read. Apart from being a part of the title itself, “blood” is the name of the first chapter of the book, and in turn also the first word of the story. “Blood is my friend”, she starts off,  explaining how she can “feel” the blood rushing through her veins, and how she’d die without it. But towards the end of the first chapter she finds herself contradicting herself. “Blood is my enemy”, she says. If one did not know that she was diagnosed with diabetes they would never be able to comprehend this paradox. This paradox creates sympathy in the readers mind as we realize that the one thing that keeps her alive is the one thing that “carries death to her cells.”

Finally, i found this book to be a crisp, alluring and inspiring read, quite different from a typical vampire novel. It is loaded with surprises, and interesting ideas that can shake you up and keep you pondering.

 First of all, the point of view that authors use in their book shape the thoughts of the readers. In “Dreamhunter”? Of course, yes. Elizabeth Knox used a third person point of view in her book, which is nothing special. I found it quite boring whenever I was reading long narrative parts (no offense to the author). However, there was a point of using the third person perspective. Because the book must tell about the story about Laura Hame and her families, Tziga Hame; her father, Grace Tiebold; her aunt, Chorley Tiebold; her uncle, and Rose Tiebole; her only cousin, in one book, Elizabeth needed someone to tell all stories. Then, eventually, one character can’t talk about other character’s action taking place because that character will be doing something else at the same time. I’m a very big fan of first person point of view but, well, there is always a reason for doing something.

 Most of the characters in the “Dreamhunter” are extremely sophisticated. Laura, Tziga, Grace, and Chorley. What about Rose? Let me tell you about those four round characters first. The definition of round character is the characters that are hard to summarize in one paragraph and have internal problems like real humans. Laura, her dad, her aunt, and her uncle are exactly like that. First, Laura Hame. She is fifteen-year-old girl who is shy and very dependent, but after she goes in to the Place, where all the dreamhunters enter to catch a dream, she becomes brave. There seems more in her (Since I didn’t finish the book YET). Tziga Hame is the greatest dreamhunter in the world. He seems unique in personalities even the characters in the book and I can’t figure out what he is up too and what he is thinking about (No dramatic irony there! :p). His secrets seemlike it’s a huge secret of the book that will ultimately solve the conflict! The third person is Grace Tiebold, she married Laura’s mother’s younger brother; Chorley Tiebold, and became Laura’s only aunt. She is also one of the famous dreamhunters who earns lots of fortunes by selling her dreams to people. She is very enigmatic. The narrator doesn’t really talk about her characteristics that the other readers might assume she is a flat character; but I think differently. In my opinion, she changes over time, especially whenever something happens in the story, she is the one who deliberately thinks about it and decide what to do to resolve it. She even decided to send her only daughter, Rose, to the boarding school so that she could take care of  Laura’s conflict. For the last, Chorley Tiebold is the uncle of Laura, and the father of Rose. He doesn’t like the system of dreamhunter but his wife, his brother-in-law and even his niece are dreamhunters. I don’t understand why he married her if he didn’t like the dreamhunters. Chorley also has a profound, thoughtful mind that he always think before acting or talking. He is very admirable. Finally, the only flat character in this book; Rose Tiebold. She is also fifteen, active, cheerful, friendly, and clever. She is popular among her friends too and Laura depended on her a lot before the Try. She controls herself well and most of the time she is mature. Rose tries to help her family especially Laura whenever she feels depressed. Basically, Rose Tiebold is one of the kind that always smiles, helps and a friendlycharacter. The story of the book, “Dreamhunter” by Elizabeth Knox is formed by the harmoniesand the conflicts that these characters create, which animates the story line vividly and interestingly.

 The conflict of this book that I found is the disappearance of Tziga Hame. I think there are more to it but, I just didn’t get to the part yet. Also, there is this one sand-man that Laura finds in the Place who introduces himself as a servant of the Hames. Thus, in a hope of  hearing news or evidence of the existence of Tziga Hame, Laura commands him to follow her. I believe that the sand-man holds a key to the secret and he would thrive to help Laura to find out her dad’s existence.

 So far, I’ve finished reading half of the book and it’s not that exciting as I expected. But, I like the idea of the book because I have never read such topic in my whole life.:)

The Giver

The suspense created by the author Lois Lowry was very dramatic. This intensity occured when Jonas (the main character) was about to be assigned his future career to serve this community of his. When it was his turn to go on stage and receive his assignment, the Chief Elder (the one in highest authority) had skipped Jonas. This unexpected misunderstanding kindled Jonas with emotions full of curiosity, panic, fear, and worry. The suspense was emphasized even further when the author mentioned how Jonas had felt, “Each time, at each announcement, his heart jumped for a moment, and he thought wild thoughts. Perhaps now she would call his name. Could he have forgotten his own number? No. He had always been Nineteen. He was sitting in the seat marked Nineteen. But she had skipped him.” This enunciation illustrated his state of panic, creating more intensity and suspense.

From the beginning of the novel, Lowry emphasizes the significance of word choice. In the first chapter, the author writes, “Thinking, still, as he wheeled his bike into its narrow port beside the door, he realized that frightened was the wrong word to describe his feelings, now that December was almost here. It was too strong an adjective. He had waited a long time for this special December. Now that it was almost upon him, he wasn’t frightened, but he was … eager, he decided. He was eager for it to come. And he was excited, certainly. All of the Elevens were excited about the event that would be coming so soon. But there was a little shudder of nervousness when he thought about it, about what might happen. Apprehensive, Jonas decided. That’s what I am.” From this example, the readers know exactly how the reader is feeling because the author uses a variety of adjectives and concludes with the exact adjective to describe how the character is truly feeling. Like this example, Lowry is very careful in her word choice, and is not at all ambiguous when describing a certain situation.

Through reading this book, I learned how to be more careful with my use of word choice, and how to deliver a clear setting,  and how to create a dramatic suspense. The factor I like most about this novel, is that the author ’shows’ the situation and events of the novel rather than merely ‘telling’ the audience what is going on. Readers are able to explore what the characters are thinking and feeling and are able to picture themselves as the main character as well.

Put yourself into the main character’s shoes! This is something you can do as you read The Giver, a classic; a novel that I recommend to others to read at least once througout their life.

picture link: http://daytondaily.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/giverbook1.jpg

If I use some of the literary terms that I learned, the protagonist of the book is Christopher, who wishes to solve the murder of Wellington. I think the antagonist of this book is his disorder, autistism. He fights with his disorder and his disorder is the obstacle of his life. The climax of this book was when he discovers that his mother isn’t dead, and when he finds out that his father had killed Wellington. I think Christopher is a flat character because he has two emotions sad and happy. When he sees the color yellow, he turns sad and angry, while when he sees the color red he becomes happy. He has a boring life because he always follows his daily routine. He needs an ordered and stable life to be happy and safe. The chapters were irony. The chapters are written in prime numbers, not numbers in order. I understand why this is because Christopher explains it in the story. But for the people who don’t read the book and just skims it through, they won’t understand why, and will think as an irony.

From reading this book, I learned how to use math and science in real life. I always thought science and math is a waste of learning as soon as we go out to the outside world, but after reading this book my mind changed. Christopher uses his math and science skills to understand the world around him. For example, when he was at the train station riding a train, he didn’t know when to get off the train, so he calculated all the time and estimated the time he should get off the train. This helped him safely reach his mother.

Overall, this book has events that made me have a thrill when reading it. The book has its moments where action and suspense take place and makes the reader sit up and read 5x more, just to get into the ending. I mean I did that and now I’m on my fourth book as the class is on their 2nd book only. Books like this should be read, but I advice readers who do not want to read boring introductory chapters, then don’t.

“The Illustrated Mum” portrays a family who struggle under hard circumstances and their strong willingness has made them to overcome all the obstacles ,and to be reunite as a family once again. This book taught me, no matter how old someone is, they can overcome the obstacles for their love one if they are really willing to. Jacqueline Wilson has perfectly transferred herself into a ten years old girls mind, as i read the story, i can picture myself in the scenario with the characters.  “The Illustrated Mum” with unexpected events lure me into an amazing story full of imagination and emotions. “The Illustrated Mum” is a book that i would recommend you to read, a book to be remembered.

After roughly half of the book, the story is at the point where the main conflict is still building and still at the point of anti-climax. To summarize the plot, the book starts off with animals overthrowing the human owner of the farm, Jones- this depicts Communist Government overthrowing the Tsar.  Right after the overthrow of Jones, the animals passed the resolution stating that all animals are fair, Seven Commandments for animals, and also they popularized the song ‘Beasts of England’ all over the country. The animal ‘troops’ worked hard, got same amount of rations and they were happy. The leadership, was controlled by the pigs. There were 2 dominant leader, Napoleon and Snowball, which representing Stalin and Trotsky in the Russian Revolution. Snowball happens to suggest the idea of constructing a windmill, and as he calls for a meeting, Napoleon, with some dogs, symbolizing the secret police of USSR, it brought up since the ‘overthrow’, kicks out Snowball from the farm, and he, by himself leads the construction. Also as he dominates the farm, he gets more foods than anybody else in the farm, suggessting the idead corruption of Communist government.

So, the whole book is based on allegory and personification. Also at the first 3 chapters the book depicted the conflict between human and the animals. But as the plot developes, it focuses more on the two pigs, Napoleon and Trotsky, and the rest of the animals. The takeover of Napoleon really bodes that, Napoleon will have more ‘rights’ than anyother animals and will control over them. It is Dramatically Ironic, that we know that Napoleon is really going to take over and dictate the farm and the other animals are not aware of it. The protagonist is somewhat equivocal, since the story reall focuses on everyone in the farm, but i think as the story unfolds it will be Napoleon, who can be also considered as the villain of the story. When Napoleon kicks Snowball out, he said that he is against the construction of windmill, and shortely after, he announced that every animal will be ‘working hard to build the windmill’, which is a paradox. I really look forward how will the story end!.

I chose this book because I was attracted to a statement written on the front page: “A classic in the tradition of Lord of the Flies”. Since I have read the Lord of the Flies by William Golding, I somehow felt familiar with this book and I was curious about how similar the plot of this book is with the Lord of the Flies. Also, the first name of the author was same as William Golding, the writer of the Lord of the Flies, so I thought it was a coincidence. Therefore, I picked this novel without any hesitation.

I’m enjoying reading this novel because it is in a diary form, just like the first book I read. While I’m reading it, I feel like I am reading someone’s diary secretely, and this is so exciting. Also, since the point of view of this novel is narrative, I can figure out everything about the narrator which is exciting as well, especially when he mentions about his crush in the girls camp. As I’m a teenager, I guess this is why I am so interested in this kind of crush-matter.

There are many liteary devices in the chapters I read. First of all, the symbolism of the term ‘revolution’ is revolt that teenagers have towards adults. Teenagers tend to disagree with their parents often because their ideas conflict frequentely and this novel presents this topic clearly. The conflict of this story is that boys’ disatisfaction about the rules of the camp and this could also be a motivation of the revolution. There is an oxymoron about the revolution when Frank, the leader of the boys said: “We will have a peaceful revolution.”(pg48) Revolutions in the past that I know of are usually violent and noisy, therefore the term ‘peaceful’ doesn’t match with the term ‘revolution’. Frank is the round character of this novel because the narrator mentions about him often in the plot and he is the most noticeable boy since he is the leader. The process of revolution is dramatic irony because I, the reader know that it is happening but the parents of the boys do not know yet.

The most remarkable literary device of this novel was a foreshadowing; the moment when all the butterflies in the forests flee away when boys are trying to catch them while they are hiking. The butterflies symbolize liberty and freedom and since the boys miss them, this foreshadows that their revolution will turn out to be a disaster at the end. Winston, the main character expresses his feeling about missing the butterlifes by: “I strongly felt like I was missing something valueable at that moment.” (pg 64)

From this novel, I learned that the real freedom is not what I gain when I break all of the rules I must obey because their ‘revolution’ is confusing some of the boys and they are already having conflicts about idea of the revolution. I concluded that the real freedom is acheived when the rules are accepted by the people, and when the people obey the rules perfectly, and I think this is the theme of this novel.

As the book ends with a bang  (Revelation of Aragons relatives) More mysteries such as this riddle :

“By beak and bone mine blackened stone, sees rooks and crooks and bloody brooks! While two share two, and one of two is certainly one, one might be two” Riddles such as grasped my attention, and fuel my thirst for the next episode.

Jean De Daumier-Smith is my favorite character in the short story, “De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period”. He is the protagonist and at the same time, the story-teller. The way he describes the events and people around him, from his point of view, is funny and amusing for the most part, but his frequent criticisms show his feeling of superiority over the people around him. What I liked about his story is the way he expresses his real thoughts and feelings and how he is so much like a ‘real’ person. When he was ‘crazy’ about Sister Irma (a nun, whose face he hasn’t seen) and her painting, his words were true and believable and as if you can feel his vulnerability and madness. “De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period” also shows vesimilitude through the story-teller’s tone and the expressions of admiration and self-discovery—emotions that we also feel.

 “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” has an interesting example of a conflict between man and himself. Seymour Glass and his wife, Muriel, are at a beach resort for their second honeymoon. It is indicated, by his unusual actions, that Seymour is experiencing some kind of a mental problem. He wears a bathrobe on the beach to hide his tattoo from people—a tattoo which he does not have. He is also disturbed by people staring at his feet and asks to himself, “what the hell is wrong with my feet?” He is fighting over his own mind and emotions—the conflict of the story. At the end, he is defeated, when he went to his wife’s room and sat beside her, and killed himself by a gunshot at his right temple.

“A few years before, it had taken her three days to dispose of the Easter chick she had found dead on the sawdust in the bottom of her wastebasket”. This is the last—and seemingly unconnected to the rest of the story—sentence of the story, “Just Before the War with the Eskimos”. Ginnie, who was waiting for her money from Selena, had a spontaneous talk with Selena’s brother. He mentioned about airplanes and “Joan the snob”, and gave Ginnie a half of a sandwich. Ginnie was so involved and caught up in the conversation that she realized something after that, and refused to take her money back from Selena, at the end. The last sentence of the story, about the Easter chick, is a comparison of the sandwich that Selena’s brother gave Ginnie. And that sandwich symbolizes the unexpected talk that they had, which Ginnie treasured a lot.

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/taniass/2487930389/sizes/o/

Theme: Surrender is a name of Gabriel’ s dog. The dog is a connection between Gabriel and Finnigan. Gabriel is a lonely boy. Nobody talks to him because he accidentally kills his brother when he was seven. Everybody call him a kooksville, even his parents do not accept him. Then, he meets Finnigan, a strange boy with long hair. They become friends, and Gabriel always shares secret with Finnigan. Understanding Gabriel, Finnigan revenges everyone in the village by burning every house. Even Gabriel knows that is Finnigan, he does not tell anyone. Then, when he sees that Finnigan is too dangerous, he decides to die to save the village. Because Gabriel promises that if he dies, Finnigan will die too, so he takes his death as a weapon to kill Finnigan. Gabriel sacrifices himself when he is only twenty.

Flashback: At the beginning of the book, Gabriel is about twenty years old. He is in the duration when he decides not to eat and drink anything. He remembers his past which is ten years ago.

Conflict: conflict is between Gabriel’s promise and his decision. On one hand, he tries to give Finnigan many chances. On the other hand, he sees that Finnigan may harm everyone he loves. At last, he decides to kill Finnigan.

Protagonist: Anwell and Finnigan

Simile: Anwell(Gabriel) is like an Angel, while Finnigan is like a demon.

            As Kyle started racing again, his life changed dramatically. No one expected Kyle to do well in the first returning race, but Kyle showed his strategic abilities during the first race and it surprised everyone. Now there is more pressure on Kyle, the car crew wants him to stay for more races while there is also a big musical performance coming up. Now Kyle had the feel to race again, he liked the thrill in the race and the attention that he is getting as a driver. Kyle suddenly became confused – what exactly does he want? Didn’t he just want to race once for his brother and then back to music? But now he also has a feeling that he also belong to the tracks. When Kris is finally recovered, the team had a second car. Kris and Kyle went on a trial run but it turned up to a competition. They started racing. First Kyle was behind but later passed Kris and pulled the car in. From this race it seemed that Kyle has surpassed his brother and it also showed his talent for racing. In the end Kyle decided that he will do both at the same time – music and racing.

            A writing technique used a lot in this story is imagery. The author used countless of descriptive languages during the races to make the image more vivid, to make the images connect together and form moving objects and eventually a movie. I think imagery played a big role in the story because it made the story clear in our minds. It lets us know what exactly is going on in the races. The imagery also created many thrills during racing throughout the book. A literary term that appears to me in mind when I read this story is round character. Throughout the story, Kyle has proved to be a round character. First Kyle was focused on music, but then he started to change as he begins to race again. Kyle later went through difficulties choosing which one is what he really wants. In the end, it was a surprised to me that he compromised and chose both music and racing.

            Overall, I think that this is a good book. It involved a lot of knowledge about racing and it also clearly portrays the races. It was also interesting to see how someone like Kyle had adopted to both music and racing. It was a hard job, but in the end he seemed to be in control of his life.

Before reaching the climax. there are conflicts between characters in the novel: Evelyn Howard has always been candid about her hatred and distrust towards Alfred Inglethorp who she thinks is a gold digger that goes after nothing but Mrs. Inglethorp’ colossal fortune. What’s more, she always keeps an watchful eye on Alfred most of the time. The ironic twist of the novel was that Evelyn assisted Alfred to murder Mrs. Inglethorp, the very person who she always watches after and takes care of. It all turns out that Evenlyn herself is also after the fortune. The motivation for Evelyn’s action is that she found out that Mrs. Inglethorp made a will in her favor and therefore she decided to go for the murder to save herself some time. There are three climaxes in the novel. The first one was the tragedy that happens to Emily Inglethorp. There were noises in her room and the next thing we know is she was found gasping for her last breaths in her room. That is the initial of all problems. The second climax is when Poirot made the decision to get Dr. Bauerstein arrested without any clear explainations. And last but not least is when Poirot clears Lawrence Cavendish from suspicion by proving it was, after all, Alfred Inglethorp who committed the crime, assisted by Evelyn Howard, who turns out to be his kissing cousin, not his enemy.

Flashback can be considered as one of the important factors that appear in mysterious crime novels. Flashbacks allow us to go back to previous events that has happened to make connections between details and evidences. Christie uses flashback during the inquest where each character were interrogated and asked to report where they were, what they were doing and when. This is most important to crime scene. The tone of the narrator remains pretty neutral throughout the novel.The language of the novel is fairly simple and not very challenging; the diction is easy to understand even though there are some SAT words that i found. There are lots of descriptions of the characters but i think the descriptions of Poirot is interesting, “his head was exactly the shape of an egg”. The simile kind of puts me off a bit but at least I still admire Poirot’s brilliant mind. Also there’s a hyperbole used for effect that describes how neat and clean Poirot was, “I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pian than a bullet wound”.

I like this novel because I like how Agatha Christie creates twists that are shocking, unpredictable but logic. It takes a brilliant mind to write these kinds of novels. It takes a brilliant mind to make all the connections in order to write a convincing, detailed case of murder and to solve it. However, as a crime novel, there is not many lessons to be learned unless we want to become a detective. It might sound cool at first but in reality, I don’t think i want to become a detective. However if I did become one, I would use one quote from Poirot as a lesson to kick off, “It is always wiser to suspect everybody until you can prove logically, and to your own satisfaction, that they are innocent.”

As a student of Saigon South International School, I would say that I write a lot. I write during Science, English, Writing Development, ICT, Spanish, History, and Geography. Other than that, I have a personal blog, where I write about special occasions in my life that I would like to share.

As a writer, I use many types of literary devices when I write. Sometimes, they were used intentionally; sometimes, they were just there naturally, appearing within the content of the writing. The most common literary devices that I used in my writing are diction, exposition, flashback, point of view, simile, symbolism, and theme. In my opinion, other than making one’s writing more interesting, literary devices also ensure that the writing is focused and doesn’t “wander” without any significant meaning.

Of course, a writer as famous as Amy Tan, used several literary devices to enrich her novel, “The Kitchen God’s Wife”. The first literary device that could be noticed by just reading the whole book and not paying attention to the details, is point of view. Written in first person point of view, unlike many other authors, Amy Tan chose to have two narrators in her novel, Winnie Louie (mother) and Pearl Louie (daughter). The book was introduced by the voice of Pearl, talking about her relationship with her mother that was full of secrets. After 1/10 of the book, Winnie became the narrator, telling her daughter about her secrets, starting from her life as a child in China. Then, the narrator switches back to Pearl after Winnie had finished telling Pearl all her secrets.

This is not my first time reading a book that changes its narrator from A to B then back to B again. The first time I encountered this literary device was while reading Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. Although both authors were using the same technique, the way that they used it was different. In Breaking Dawn, the narrator was changed from Bella Swan to Jacob Black, and the story was still going on, except that everything happening was seen through Jacob’s eyes and told through Jacob’s mind. On the other hand,  in “The Kitchen God’s Wife”, when the switch of narrator occurred, Winnie wasn’t telling about the current events that were going on. In fact, the whole portion of Winnie as a narrator was a flashback of her history in China, another literary device that Amy Tan had used extensively in this novel.

The literary device flashback basically dominates the whole novel. The significance of the flashback is that Winnie was telling Pearl her history in China, which was something that Winnie had been reluctant to tell Pearl all along. Winnie decided to tell Pearl the secrets that she had kept from Pearl because her best friend, Helen had threatened to tell her secrets to Pearl if she wouldn’t do so. After all the darkest secrets were told, after the flashback had ended, Winnie and Pearl had achieved a conciliatory state. All misunderstandings were resolved.

This also leads to the literary device – round character. Winnie Louie was the round character in this novel, and the readers were able to understand Winnie to the fullest because her entire life – from childhood to present – was being recounted in the flashback. Moreover, the readers were also able to see how Pearl views her mother. In brief, Winnie Louie was a multidimensional character, the readers knew almost everything about her.

You see, that is why I said that sometimes the literary devices just flow with the writing. If you are interested in reading about how China was from the 1930s to the 1950s along with a plot, maybe you would like to give this book a try.

Source of image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/w_yvr/38815183/

The story was told by a plural first person of view. The story is told twenty years after the actual suicides of the Lison’s sister actually happened by a group of boys who are obsessed with the five Lisbon’s sister. The fact that we only learn about the Lisbon’s sister not from a singular first person of view create a distance which allow us to view the story in a relatively objective eye. We are not in direct contact with the sisters which leaves us with our own opinion about why the sisters did what they did. Despite the point of view of the boys and the evidence around the sisters, the reason why the Lisbon’s sister chose suicide is left to the readers.Watching the Lisbon from a distance increase the mystery of the story, viewing the Lisbon’s family tragic end from a distance give the opportunity to the readers to have different perspective

The book wasn’t a fiction book, that’s why it contains  allegory that make the story of the Lisbon’s sister even more believable and tragic. Each sisters was symbol of different characteristic of adolescence such as: Cecilia “the odd one”, Lux “the free spirit”, Bonnie the “goody goody”, Mary “the poised and self-centured”, Theresses ” the intellectual one”, despite their difference but since they are sisters and living under the same circumstance, they share the same desire which is freedom and the same depression which lead to their tragic ends. The novel also reflects the belief of happiness of the american and the fact they pretend to be happy. The story takes place in a suburb where they don’t accept any tragedies, as Mr Lisbon was fired from the school after his daughter’s suicides, the neighbor tried to remove the fence to forget Cecilia’s suicide and when the Lisbon remained calmed with no disciplines about their depression toward the others.

Jeffrey Eugenides also used flat characters to make the Lisbons to stand out more and give the contrast between the Lisbons with the rest of the suburban. For example, the paramedics, Parkie Denton, Kevin Head, Father Moody, Hoe hill Conley were all mention once or twice in the story. The reason why these characters are introduced into the story because they are linked to the Lisbon’s sister and they are part of the remain evidence after the suicides.

There has always been a conflict between the Lisbon’s girl and Mrs. Lisbon from the begining to the end of the book. The conflict gets bigger and more intense through the story.Mrs.Lisbon has raised the sisters in a strict catholic family and isolated them from everything from boys to cosmetic. The conflict reaches its highest was also the climax of the story. The climax of the story was when the girls got to out of their house with boys for homecoming for the first but also the last time; where Mrs. Lisbon became furious and decided to lock the girls up in the house when all of the sisters come back to their house in time except for Lux.

“The virgin suicide” has perfectly portrays differents theme such as love, loss of dream, adolescence and the obssession of happiness. The combination of literary terms has made the book more interesting and convincing to the readers. One of Jeffrey Eugenides best book, The virgin suicide is a book to be remembered.

In the novel, like every other author, Conrad Richter tried hard to keep the readers interested throughout the whole book by creating many unpredictable events in the novel. The conflicts were just kept on coming at me while i read. The conflict between the whites and the indians, between the whites and True Son, and now the conflict between True Son and his own Indian’s tribe. Everyone turned out to be an enemy to one another.

And you can’t miss the point of views of the characters from the novels. True Son as an Indian doesn’t understand why white people must live in a small shelter while they have the whole world out there for them to live in. And the white people doesn’t understand why the Indians are living in the jungles along with the bugs and animals  and not in houses.  Everyone has their own point of view towards everything. True Son doesn’t understand why white people wear clothes and shoes and they don’t understand why Indian wear dress. Reading about their point of views was entertaining because you can see how big is the gap between the whites and the indians. I would recommend this book for everyone who has little time and looking for a short book.

This book is a detective fiction written by Agatha Christie who is known for successful detective novels. This story takes place throughout England and parts of Europe during the 1910s-1920s.

The plot of this story is that two young people, Tommy and Tuppence, decided to go on an adventure and offered their services through an advertisement which said — “Two young adventurers for hire. Willing to do anything, go anywhere. Pay must be good. No unreasonable offer refused.” Their first client, Mr. Whittington, offered Tuppence a job to go to Paris as an American woman named Jane Finn. Later on Tommy and Tuppence learn that Jane Finn is more than just an American woman, but a person who might have the secret draft treaty which can jeopardize England’s government. England’s destiny fall in the hands of Tommy and Tuppence.

This book uses descriptive diction,which helped me visualize what was happening in the story. There is not much use of personifications and metaphors. This story is told by a narrator but only a single point view is presented. I only experienced what the detectives Tommy and Tuppence thought or done. At first it seemed that there was a hyperbole in this story about Mr. Brown saying that he is the one criminal who is above everyone else, the one who never gets caught, the person who could just be about anybody, but as the story goes on, it does seem like he is the uncatchable mysterious one. Both of the protagonists, Tommy and Tuppence were motivated to start and continue their adventure. Their want for adventures was what started it all and later on curiosity played its part for the Young Adventurers to move on. (spoiler alert) In the end, I found ironic how the mysterious Mr. Brown was one of the best detectives in England, Sir James Peel Edgerton. The guy who helped Tommy and Tuppence to solve the mystery was actually the person who was behind this master plan. It gave me a bit of a confusion at first, but after thinking through, it all made sense. Being a detective is a perfect cover for a criminal, such as Mr. Brown.

In the end I enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend it. I think the way its written fits the story well. The narrator showing only one perspective (Tommy and Tuppence) made the story more appealing as I did not know what was happening with the criminals. It takes a while to get into the book, but it is worth the read.

The first thing that I would like to mention, is the protagonist and antagonist of the story—just to help make explanations clearer further on. It was evident that Werlin had used Matthew Walsh to be the protagonist of the novel, clearly expressing this through writing in the point of view of Matthew himself. In the novel, Matthew takes on a role of protecting his sisters from their abusive mother. Which leads us to the next portion of the introductory—the antagonist of the novel. Clearly, the antagonist is someone who strongly opposes to something or some one. In this case, the antagonist is Nicole Walsh (Matthew and his sister’s mother) as she is portrayed in the novel as a fairly aggressive, bipolar woman who regards her children as her own “property” rather than actual individuals.

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The entire novel actually starts out with Matthew writing a letter to his youngest sister Emmy telling her that he is about to recount, in this letter, about all the past events that have caused them to live the kind of life that they are living right now. He begins the story with the oldest memory he can remember, and that is how the story begins—with a flashback. Actually, I would say that the whole novel is a record of memories of the past told in the perspective of Matthew Walsh. The reason why I say this has been made very obvious through the narration of Matthew. Throughout the novel, Matthew would occasionally refer back to Emmy—asking her if she would remember certain memories and such, making it more believable that this is actually just the main character retelling what had happened before.

Speaking of something believable, I would have to strongly add that the tone of the author was crafted with great skill. When reading the novel, I noticed that the tone was not of someone who was in their late thirties, but more of someone who was in their early adolescent years. Such examples of this would be various syntax errors or occasional hyperbolic phrases to emphasize some extremities during some parts of the novel. So I think that the tone was really something that was exceptionally demonstrated by the author in this novel.

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This novel has a very clear example of what a flat character is, and what a round character is. Roberta O’Grady, also known as Aunt Bobbie to the younger children, is the definition of a flat character. In the story, she is quite simplistic and fictional, in a way that no one would pay much attention to her part in the novel unless it truly focuses on her. Aunt Bobbie remains the same throughout most of the novel, showing indifference towards the abuse of her nephew and nieces by their mother, her sister. However, towards the climax of the story, Aunt Bobbie finally comes to an epiphany that she must save her kin from the terrible mess her sister had created, showing a dramatic twist in the irony of the novel. Murdoch McIlvane, friend to the children and ex-boyfriend to Nicole Walsh, proves to be much of a round character. In the novel, he takes on many roles of being the hero, the friend, the boyfriend, and the perfect father. His motifs and attitudes in the novel show much development and intricacy. It is him that is the actual driving force of the novel to reach the climax, for when he saw what Nicole had been capable of, he decided to take action to protect the children from her.

Speaking of Murdoch McIlvane, in the novel he is perceptibly juxtaposed to the children’s father Benjamin Walsh. Benjamin, who had been driven out of the family by Nicole, lives alone and sends money regularly back to the family to help support his children. Albeit, he does not spend much time with them and does not act compassionate about the monstrous situation they are in—even though he is fully aware of what is happening inside the walls of Nicole’s territory. On the other hand, as mentioned before, Murdoch McIlvane acts as a loving father and friend to the children, giving them as much attention as possible. Irony has it, these two men eventually work together against Nicole Walsh to free the children of their mother’s custody.

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All in all, I truly believe that this story depicts a high level of verisimilitude—due to the fact that not only is the story believable, but also because of the tone of the author. I want to fully emphasize on tone, because this is the main stimulant that provides the basic foundation of how true I found this story was to real life, even though I knew it was fiction.

Pictures Cited:

http://www.coebrownacademy.com/images/2009SAA/images/Krystal%20Costa%20Dysphoria_jpg.jpg

http://www.mnn.com/sites/default/files/scared-kid.jpg

http://atlasnetwork.org/toolkit/wp-content/uploads/letter-writing.jpg

http://www.mscod.state.mn.us/cd/docs/RS_images/mentaldis.jpg

http://www.betterbaking.com/UserFiles/image/OLD%20LADY%20ROLLING%20DOUGH.jpg

http://s3.amazonaws.com/adaptiveblue_img/books/rules_of_survival/nancy_werlin

I think the main character, James Holland is a round character, over the course of the book, develop emotionally as tragic and suspense events unfold and his calm leadership during unfortunate times can help his crew and passengers confide in him to get the plane to safety. This book obviously has an protagonist, but the antagonist is quite unclear in the first half of the book. But during the end of the book, it turns out that the terrorist attack was planned by the CIA director trying to uncover a terrorist group that he was unable to bring an end to.

Literary devices play important roles in creating a good book or any other literature-related art forms. Stoker told the story with a very interesting and effective perspective and point of view – using first person narrations of multiple characters. ‘Dracula’‘s conflict can be basically summarized into a vampire trying to attack the clever and decent middle class of London. The tone of the book is dark, gothic and mysterious. There is also the device of dramatic irony, though only slightly. We readers can easily guess what and why things are happening. Allegory is a figurative mode of representation conveying a meaning other than the literal. In ‘Dracula’, I think that Stoker had used the ‘made up’ history of ancient Europe, the belief of Christianity and the so-called imagination of vampires to tell the story in an allegoric yet sarcastic way. The archetype or ‘cliché’ of vampires is also a great part of ‘Dracula’. This horror story is often compared to Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ as they were both written around the relatively same time – 1800s – and are both considered masterpieces of classic English literature. The image of vampires is also always explored and used in a lot of other books, plays and movies. The protagonists of the book are Jonathan, Mina, Professor Van Helsing, and Doctor John Seward. Vice versa, obviously, the antagonists are the vampires that mean harm to our characters: Count Dracula, his three women living in his Castle and Lucy Westerna – as she later transformed into a vampire herself. Throughout the story, round characters are Harker, Mina, and Lucy. The three of them had all encountered Dracula and changed after it. I would also consider Van Helsing and Seward as round characters as they play very important roles in the story, from helping and saving people to chasing Dracula. Dracula himself is also certainly a round character and all of the events of the story are caused or related to him. Flat characters are Holmwood, Morris, Lucy’s mother and the three vampires. They only play minor roles and their actions didn’t affect the story much. The three climaxes of the story include the part when Jonathan was attacked by the three women living with Dracula and he finally discovered who his client really was. The second climax is when Lucy had totally turned into a vampire and started to attack the children in London. The last climax is told close to the end of the book when Mina used her hypnotic ability to guide her men to chase and destroy Dracula. Some motivations of the characters’ actions are blood, grief, and the devotion to friendship, love and science. Without grief or the need of blood, Dracula wouldn’t have travelled way from Transylvania to London to hunt down the innocents. Without love, friendship and the intelligence or science knowledge, all men, especially Van Helsing and John Seward, wouldn’t be able to track Dracula and defeat him. However, the verisimilitude of Stoker’s Dracula is not too significant. I personally believe that such supernatural things like vampires can happen to our lives.

While reading, I find it very appealing that the story is told by different people and their different perspectives of the happening. That is what I enjoy most about the novel as it seems more real and vivid to me. Moreover, the character of Professor Abraham Van Helsing from Amsterdam is very interesting to me. He is not only a responsible doctor to his patients but also very enthusiastic, smart and caring. I have also seen the movie ‘Dracula’ (1992) after finishing the 1^st half of the book. I find it very different from what I’ve read. They created such a ‘lovely’ story and Dracula wasn’t a total evil after all. After reading the novel, I’ve learnt a lot about the history and society of London, England in the 1890s. I know more about the evil sides of people. I feel that Bram Stoker only used the image of a vampire to demonstrate the evilness, to show that there is also a part of it that lies within us. I learn more about love and friendship, also intelligence, thinking logically and acting fast. Without them, Dracula couldn’t have been defeated. Without them, we wouldn’t be here today – it has become some sort of instinct that everyone should have.

]]> http://blog.ssis.edu.vn/maivid/blog/2010/02/02/readers-workshop-book-1-blog-post-2-dracula/feed/ 0 http://blog.ssis.edu.vn/sonyae12/blog/2010/02/02/blood-and-chocolate-2/ http://blog.ssis.edu.vn/sonyae12/blog/2010/02/02/blood-and-chocolate-2/#comments Tue, 02 Feb 2010 14:42:58 +0000 MEom12 393.50

Blood and Chocolate seems to be a novel of great diversity regarding literary terms. Throughout the novel, there is great suspense, followed by the climax, intense conflicts, dynamic plot, illustrated imagery, and descriptions of flat characters as well as round characters. Annette C. Klause full of wild imagination has clearly delivered a fascinating work of literature, enriching the imaginations of her audience.

The suspense was created previous to the climax. This created more tension during the climax, exciting the reader furthermore. Klause usually created this suspense with questions, or thoughts that were roaming through the character’s head. For example, “But when she felt the first prickling of hair on her back she had a rush of doubt. What if he didn’t love her in her wolf-skin? Was ancestral hate ingrained too deep in them all?…” These questions when read by the audience acts as a motivation for them to keep reading. The readers want to have these questions answered and this creates suspense when read by the audience.

The climax was described in specific details. Vivian decides to show her true self to Aiden, the human who she was in love with. Aiden however did not recognize the beauty in the change, and fear overpowered him. Vivian tries to convince him that she is of no harm until she is left heart broken. Aiden cannot seem to accept Vivian’s true self, and is terrified by her presence.

“Look, I am lovely, she begged him. She whimpered and wagged her tail like a dog. He flung a mug at her head. No! she howled as it smashed on the wall behind her. He hated her. He loathed her. She brought him pain. She didn’t belong here. She didn’t belong anywhere. She had to get away.” (Klause, pg 169)

In this quote, there is a sense of imagery. The image of her wagging her tail like a dog can be illustrated in the reader’s mind, just as the action of Aiden throwing the mug at her and it smashing on the wall can be pictured clearly.

An example of a round character in Blood and Chocolate would be Vivian, the main character. Klause gives away a lot of information about Vivian, making her a round character in this book. “She was tall and leggy, like her mother, with full breasts, small waist, and slim hips that curved enough to show she was female. Her skin was gently golden; it was always golden, sun or not, and her tawny hair was thick and long and wild” (Klause, pg 12). Through this quote, Klause describes Vivian’s physical appearance and the reader is able to picture what she looks like.

In contrast, Klause also uses flat characters to make Vivian stand out more from the other characters in the novel. For example, Astrid, a female member of the pack. Klause describes Astrid in this manner, “When she tossed her head, her red hair flamed against the green curtains. With her sharp features and plump rear, she reminded Vivian more of a fox than a wolf” (Klause, pg 32-33). It is clear Klause has made a bigger emphasis when describing Vivian when compared with Astrid. Astrid is only described with the way she moves and part of her physical appearance while Vivian’s physical appearance is fully mentioned.

Utilizing these literary terms have made this novel more interesting and dynamic. The readers are able to picture the events, the characters, and the great suspense just makes them want to read even more. Portraying the life of a Loups-garoux (half man and half wolf), Klause definitely deserves a two thumbs up.

picture link:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6c/Blood_and_chocolateposter.jpg

Image URL:http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2726/4075853801_d08eb999ff_o.jpg

  The tone of the book changed a lot throughout the story. First, the greasers were careful but rebellious to the Socs who could jump them on anytime they felt like it. When Ponyboy and Jonny started to talk with the Socs girls, Cherry and Marcia, in the movies, they got along pretty well that the tone was very peaceful but somewhat uncomfortable for Ponyboy and Jonny because it was a strange thing to hang out with the Socs. But, after Jonny accidentally killed Bob, the Socs, the tone changed to terror. Both Jonny and Ponyboy were frighten that they might get caught and go into juvenile jail. Pushed by the guiltiness they felt, they decided to escape from the town untill the incident fades away. And toward the ends, the tone became more rebellious, confident but sad.

After finishing this book, I thought it was one of the best book I’ve ever read. I really recommend it to people! But I bet they have already read “The Outsiders” before. Anyway, the ending was extremely great that I got a goosebumps. I think that Ponyboy’s wish already came true because thousands and thousands of people read the book and know about the life of the greasers.

P.S. Also the fact that they watch the same sunset like the Socs.� Stay gold Ponyboy!

I think the plot is okay considering all the twists and surprises that went on during the later stages of the book. Made me like to read it more and wished that I just finished the book in one day so that I could know the ending. The tone of the book was serious and in some parts, it had some teen moments where this boy and girl gets tangled up and they like stare at each other for a long time… and you guys know what happens next *wink wink*. I would recommend this book to any young teen who likes suspense, action, and crime solving.

In this book, Stphen King really knows how to keep me interested all the way by using a whole lot of literacy devices. Metaphore is used a lot but it’s a little bit inapproriate for some people but humorous at the same time: “Murder is a worst kind of pornography.” Similies is also used effectively, combining with other devices (i.e. Hyperbole, personification, etc) “It was so quite that I could hear the house breathing.” The author uses hyperbole to keep the story entertaining and more interesting: ” Hot fingers touched my eyes and I almost screamed realizing it was sweat.” I guess that one is also similie too. Most of all, the title itself( bag of bones) is a smart similie that the writer uses a lot in the story as well. It refers to old people, specifiaclly Max Devore. He’s paralyzed, has breath oxygen every 5 minutes, even though his mind is still bright as the day light, he is a bag of bones, waiting for death to come. He is also the evil villain of the story, half way through the story, i just want to see him dead, then he actually died by drowning him self. At the end of the story I feel sorry for him.

Overall, it was a very good book, entertaining, thrilling. I really enjoy reading it.

While I was reading this book, I was always excited to read because the book was in diary form so it was similar with reading someone’s diary secretly. Also, since this story was told in narrative form, I was able to figure out what Leah (the main character) was thinking and all the secrests she had. Also, this is why it was easy to follow the story.

In the story, I found several literary devices. Firstly, since this story was narrative, I found a dramatic irony which means I knew some parts of the story more than the other characters For instance, after Leah and Clay (her best friend) had arguements about soccer, they temporarily stopped hanging out together. “I wonder if he wonders about me too. I wish I was brave enough to call him and apologzie…”(pg86) From this part, I knew she actually missed Clay, and Clay did not know. Second, the conflict was Leah’s dad’s cancer and her family struggling,  because it’s the one that reversed Leah’s life. Tone of this story was positive, happy, and bright at first but as soon as Leah’s father broke the news of his cancer, tone changed to dark, depressing, and sad. Climax of this story was when her father passed away eventually and this is when the conflict no longer existed. At the climax, Leah expressed her misery by hyperbole: “I bet I could fill an entire swimming pool with my tears.(pg186).

After I finished reading this book, I realized that the theme of this story is that life could be both simple and aggravating occasionally because Leah’s life changed over time. Also, I learned that with courage to overcome a problem, it is always possible to do so.

Reflection.

First of all, I really enjoyed this book, and I want to recomend it to everyone, no matter what age or gender. I think the main theme here is about growing up, and again, ‘growing up’ mentally has nothing to do with physical maturity. The book focuses on how the 2 men ‘grows up’, and adapt to the real world. This book, in a sense, has unclear plot line. It builds up to climax, as Fiona finds out about Marcus and Will’s relationship, and reaches the climax when Marcus says he need a father. But then, there is no more real plot line existing. I think the message of this book is that, you can’t live in this world alone. We need friends and people that we can get help when needed, and who can take care of you. It was kind of ironic for me that Will didnt fall in love with Fiona eventually. It was also ironic that, Ellie actually considered Marcus as one of her best friend. It was a great book to read, and his use of language really made it interesting. Point of view is third person narrative. There is no person versus person conflict, but characters rather faces internal conflict. There are little conflicts inside the book, such as Fiona not wanting Marcus to see Will, but the main conflict is inside the characters ; growing up. There is no juxtaposition or antagonists in the book.

The book is also made into movie, starring Hugh Grant

First time I went to the school library for the reading assignment, I already have a picture of the book that I wanted to read. I am the type of person who likes to read novel based on detective or espionage activity. I do enjoy Ian Flemming’s or Agatha Chrisse’s work. But that time the library happened to ran out of them. Having no other choice, I remember a novel by Anthony Horowitz titled Eagle Strike.

Eagle Strike is the fourth book in the Alex Rider series written by British author Anthony Horowitz. The book was released in the United Kingdom on September 4, 2003 and in the United States on April 12, 2004. It is set mostly in Southern France, Paris, Amsterdam, and London. During his France holiday Alex Rider encountered Yassen, assasin who is responsible for the death of his uncle. Alex later finds out the reason what Yassen up to in South of France is. Alex figure out that Yassen is pay by a billionaire named Damien Cray, famous singer from United Kingdom. What puzzled Alex is that, Sir Damian Cray is known for his generosity and famous for his alms giving activity.He tries to tell the M16 but they won’t believe him. Soo he decided to take down Damien Cray by himself. He then decides to attend to a show of Damien Craig’s and finds out he is making a new play station game. When it all finishes a Journalist dies in a car crash. Alex knows Damian is behind it. Alex goes to France and finds out from someone that they know Damien Craig is a killer and is in Amsterdam, but suddenly the man gets killed. Alex with Jack goes by train to Amsterdam. He then goes to the place where Damian Craig is. Alex gets into the building and then watches Damien Craig killing a man with thousands of coins. Damien Craig goes to Heathrow airport with Alex and takes a private plane and Damien sets of 25 bombs all too different places on theEarth. Alex and Sabina go on a plane. When Yassen refuses to kill Alex Damienkills Yassen then shots a bullet at Alex but Alex have a bulletproof jacket. Alex and Sabina fight Damien till he rolls out the plane. Yassen gets up almost dead and says toAlex “I worked with your father if you don’t believe me then go to Venice, find Scorpia and find your destiny”

After reading the book, i love the conflict between the promise and Gabriel’ s mind. Gabriel cannot keep silent and do nothing forever. At last, when he recognizes that he has to save everyone from Finnigan. Sacrifice is a noble action that he can do. That is not a stupid idea to die, because he promise that he will not tell anyone about Finnigan. I think that is the only way to keep his promise and kill Finnigan.In the book, there is some symbols. For example: the name Gabriel and Finnigan stand for angel and evil. The author uses those names to express the characters’ characteristics.

This book is a good one for everyone who wants to have a new adventure.

I personally love Lewis Carol for his eminent style of writing and his genial stories that totally sinks me in his books. Hindering my old memories of “Alice in Wonderland”, another ‘Alice story’,  I picked “Through The Looking Glass: And What Alice Found There. Lewis himself was a mathmetician, author, Anglican deacon, and a photographer. There is no doubt that Lewis is a skillful author, and all his imaginations are unique from many other writers, sometimes even thought as eccentric, we can suppose that Lewis’s stories are unique due to his multifacted proffessions and experience as a mathmetician, deacon, photographer, and an author. “The story takes place in the looking glass house, which Alice managed to go through.

From Lewis Carol’s genial skills of dragging readers in the book, the book is entertaining throughout the whole book. With a decent mix of interesting poems and stories, Lewis’s books are unutterable. Many famous poems like, Jabberkocky, Humpty Dumpty, Hunting the Snark, etc are presented inThrough The Looking Glass: And What Alice Found There. ” Also, his wordplay and nonsense literature are very commendable which is another factor that intricates readers in to the novel. It is also an another enjoyment to decipher his poems in his novels.

In many of the Lewis’s novels, raises many questions after finishing the novel. My questions were, “How did Alice go in the the glass house?” “Was it all an imagination of Alice and her kitties?” “Why did Lewis bring up the idea of chess in the novel?” “Did he have to publish his poems in mirror writing?” Many of them were left unanswered and gives some sort of an unsatisfactory, but I suppose this is an another enjoyment of Lewis’s book.

Unlike I expected, even the main character in “Alice in Wonderland.” was the main character, there wasn’t much similarities between the novels. Except the characters like Alice and Queens, Through The Looking Glass: And What Alice Found There” was written with a unprecedented topic. I commend to many people this book, I ensure, that this book will revitate the child in our slowly decaying mind.

The Mysterious Affair at Styles is the very first case that launched the career of Agatha Christie as well as Hercule Poirot, the legendary detective that appears in most of Christie’s novels. Crime novels are one of my favorite genres because most of these novels have surprising, shocking but entertaining twists. Crime novels keep us reading but they also make us look back on previous pages to find connections between details. In well-written crime novels, details are connected from A to Z, from the first page to the last page. This keeps us thinking while we’re reading; and the more we read, the more we want to explore. Crime novels maintain our curiosity at a very high level.

The setting of The Mysterious Affair at Styles is in England during World War I at Styles court. The major theme of the novel is criminal and mysterious. The language is simple and not challenging. We can spot some old language used in the novel  as it is written in 1916.

The case surrounds the Cavendish’s and a number of related people. Emily Cavendish is a wealthy widow who inherited a life estate and the majority of income of her dead husband. She remarried Alfred Inglethorp who is 20 years younger than her. For that, it is most likely for Alfred to be seen as a fortune-hunter. However, there are other people who also keep their inquisitive eyes on Emily’s fortune. Emily was poisoned one night and her husband was the prime suspect. Everything seems to stand against him. What’s more, he refused to give evidence to prove his innocence as well as his absence on the night Emily is poisoned. It is most certain that he is the murderer. However, under Poirot’s watchful eyes, there are details and evidence prove that the case is not as simple as it looks and there are other suspects that are likely to be involved. As a matter of fact, Poirot puts everyone under suspicion, from the servants to the stepsons. As I haven’t finished reading the book, I don’t have a slightest idea of who the murderer could be. As far as the novel goes, there are about 5 people that I suspect, but I have no choice but to keep reading and find out.

Hercule Poirot is a Belgian detective. He was described as “hardly more than five feet, four inches, but carried himself with great dignity”, “his head was exactly the shape of an egg…his moustache was very stiff and military.” It is agreeable that the descriptions do not quite leave us with an impression we expect from a detective. It is interesting to see how Agatha Christie insert one or two French words in most of Poirot’s conversation to remind us that he’s Belgian e.g mon ami, en voila une affaire, sacre, mesdames and messieurs..Hercule Poirot is a brilliant, confident man with sharp thinking. He pays attention to tiny details that no one will ever notice. The fact that the novel is written in first person through the voice of Lieutenent Hastings helps us to see things through normal eyes. This somehow also helps to increase the effect or impression we have on Poirot’s brilliant mind. For example, we would ignore the detail that Emily eats very little on the night she was poisoned because we think it has nothing to do with the crime. Poirot, however, thinks that detail contributes greatly to the plan of the murderer.

Making the importance seem unimportance and making the insignificance seem significance is one of the most effective way to make us want to read more. That is why I enjoy every page of the book. There are tiny little details that sometimes puzzle Poirot but make no sense to us. And the best part, as always, is to read Poirot’s explaination about events or things that confuse us to see how they are not non-sense any more. Also, I like how Agatha Christie drives us towards a certain direction or flow during the novel, then turn 180 degree and provides us with a unexpected, shocking but perfectly logical conclusions.

For the first assignment of the reader’s workshop, I chose the book Yellow Flag.

Professional car racing is the family business. It’s a legacy. However, there is an exception – Kyle. With his mother’s help he had avoided being drowned into the family business. Kyle is now focused on his music and the trumpet that he plays. Racing is his brother Kris’ business, not Kyle’s. All of Kyle’s goals and dreams for the future are clear and focused. Nevertheless, everything changed when Kris was injured when one of his opponents crashed into him intentionally after crossing the finish line. Without a driver for the upcoming race, the attention goes to Kyle for  a substitute. Kyle agrees to drive for one race – just to keep Kris’s seat warm……

So far from the novel, I have learned how important family businesses are for a family. Racing is a legacy to them, and it is their main source of income. I was also surprised that even high school students are racing in the United States. I also learned a lot about the components of a car crew and some of the strategies of car racing. What I enjoyed most about this novel is the thrill of racing. The writing gives me a vivid image of the cars and tracks and it even feels as if I was driving the car towards victory. Racing is a type of sport and I also enjoy sports as well, so I can understand some of the feelings that an athlete is going through. The theme of this novel is about whether to make a choice for yourself – music in this case – or for a greater cause – racing for the family. A literary device used in this novel for quite a few times is metaphor. For example, “The orange acid went back down and pooled in Kyle’s stomach.” The purpose for this literary device is to make the reading more interesting, and in most cases, it could also create a more vivid image in the reader’s mind.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book to this point. The story has a nice flow and keeps reader’s attention in focus. I look forward to reading more and finishing the book.

P.S. This post is for roughly the first half of the book.

Honestly I don’t like reading, but I do like reading books by Louis Sachar. Louis Sachar is my favorite author and I always look for books that he wrote. I’ve read most of the books that he wrote and this time I read the book called “Holes.” As always Louis Sachar didn’t disappoint me.

From reading this book, I learned that it is really important to be in the right place at the right time because Stanley made his life miserable by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I also learned not to act like everyone else. In the book, when everyone else was bullying a small boy named Zero, Stanley bravely became his friend and helped each other until they were released.

I think the main theme of this novel is fate. In this novel, the power of fate is huge, and it determines all the events that happen. Although Stanley believes that he is unlucky and is in the wrong place at the wrong time, the events in the book seem to be the result of fate. Each coincidence in the book, including the shoes that Zero stole flying off and hitting Stanley on the head and the two boys being friends with each other is so unpredictable to happen. How would you become friends with someone who made you get punished? I think it was Stanley’s fate to go to the camp and meet Zero.

The author used simile and metaphors to make the novel sound more realistic and true. I can imagine how the character is reacting because the author explains all the small details. For example
They were dripping with sweat, and their faces were so dirty that it took Stanley a moment to notice that one kid was white and the other black. (pg. 17)
Madame Zeroni had dark skin and a very wide mouth. When she looked at you, her eyes seemed to expand, and you felt like she was looking right through you. (pg. 29)

For the reader’s workshop in my English 10 class, I chose Agatha Christie’s book “The Secret Adversary”. It was recommended to me by a friend and I decided to try it out. “The Secret Adversary” is a detective fiction that takes place in throughout Britain in late 1910s early 1920s.

In this post I will focus more on the characters on the book rather than the plot itself, which I will talk about in my second blog post. The main characters of this book are Thomas Beresford (Tommy) and Prudence Cowley (Tupence), the young ordinary adults who just happened to be caught up in the action. Tommy is a young lad that thinks things through carefully and never misses the tiniest clue that passes by him. Tupence is a bright intelligent woman that sometimes gets too caught up in the action which leaves her in a tight situation, but at times her eagerness and want for adventure provides her significant clues. The couple became the Young Adventurers. Along with these Young Adventurers, a rich American, Julius P. Hersheimmer and England’s best crime detective, Sir James Peel Edgerton join together to stop a malevolence plan by the mysterious mastermind of all criminals — Mr. Brown. The name, feared by everyone, the one who no one dares to cross, the unknown appearance that could be just about anybody.

I found this book very interesting with a proper choice of characters who fit the story quite neatly. The build-up in each chapter that gives away little clues that made me wonder about the different possibilities/solutions to this crime. Also the rich use of vocabulary made it much easier to visualize the scene. I always felt the need to continue reading to find out what will happen next, to find out who the mysterious mastermind criminal Mr. Brown was.

The first book that I chose to read is ‘Dracula’, written by Bram Stoker in 1897. There are two reasons that explain why I picked this ‘ancient’ book. ‘Dracula’ can be categorized as horror and fiction – my favorite book genres. I find these books entertaining and educational – as I have to pay attention closely to the exciting story and the language used is usually somewhat complicated. Moreover, I have always been fond of classic books. They aren’t just simply well-known by also interesting and challenging and it’s a good way for me to built up my vocabulary knowledge. However, the only classic book that I had read is ‘Pride and Prejudice’ by Jane Austen because I find most of the books are too hard to read – while I prefer reading with a fast pace. Having read some first pages of ‘Dracula’, I found its language a little difficult but still suitable for me.

‘Dracula’ is told by its main characters through their journal and diary entries, telegraphs, phonographs and letters. The story first takes place in Transylvannia, Romania – where Count Dracula’s Castle is located. Jonathan Harker comes to the castle in order to help Dracula sells it and moves to London. After several days, by observing the Count’s weird actions, he realizes that he is practically imprisoned and soon, finds out that Dracula and his three women are vampires. Harmed and frightened by them, he suffered fear and brain-fever but still managed to return to London with the help of his wife – Mina Murray. Meanwhile, in England, a ship is wrecked – nothing is left but fifty boxes of earth and a wolf. Soon after rejecting two proposals from Seward and Morris, Lucy Westerna – Mina’s best friend – gets engaged with Arthur Holmwood. However, she starts to sleep-walk and has strange marks on her neck. At the same time, Dr. Seward’s patient – Reinfield – raves about the ‘Master’ and how he is willing to serve the so-called mysterious man. It did not take long for Van Helsing – Seward’s friend – and the fellow characters to figure out that all these obscurities are caused by Dracula. Later on, Lucy turns into a vampire and is destroyed, Reinfield dies and Mina is also turned into a vampire. The five men – Van Helsing, Seward, Harker, Morris and Holmwood – start chasing Dracula and finally success in tracking and destroying the devil in Transylvannia.

Personally, I think the themes of the novel are mysteries and brutality, logic and science, life and death, love and friendship, Christianity, and women. We all believe that such things as blood-sucking vampires can’t actually exist, people can’t change their forms and no one can live for centuries. Nevertheless, Count Dracula is a character that applies to all these unrealistic ideas. All of the events in the book are either directly or indirectly linked to the mysterious moves of Dracula. Professor Van Helsing and Doctor John Seward represent science. They are smart, logical and talented; they work hard and try their best to save lives. Life and death are also two considerably important themes. As the Count and his vampires try to take lives, other people – Van Helsing, Seward, Morris, Holmwood, Harker – fight their hardest to protect the lives of the ones they love. Love and friendship also play a significant role in the novel. The friendship of Van Helsing and Seward, the friendship of Mina and Lucy, the love between Mina and Jonathan, the love between Lucy and Arthur are all remarkable and they are all key motivations that lead to actions of the characters. The belief in God and His power to defeat evils is another essential topic that leads to the acts of the four men while trying to fight Dracula and protect Mina. I consider the danger that women have to face as a worth-noticing theme because throughout the story, women are always weak and defenseless. Lucy’s mother dies, Lucy herself suffers sleep-walking then turns into a vampire and Mina eventually was harmed.

In Bone By Bone By Bone, female author Tony Johnston writes about her experiences of growing up with her dad in the South. This book was a powerful reminder of To Kill A Mockingbird (TKAM for short) by Harper Lee, another book set during this racial segregation about sixty years ago. TKAM was what made me truly realize the depth of hatred that could be to people of different skin colors, and the issues of discrimination has ever since touched me in ways nothing else could. But it was not only that – Bone By Bone By Bone had me thinking after every page turned. People easily killed mercilessly everyday. Who, in their right mind, could do these things? Or is it that they were raised in such an era that instilled such hatred in themselves? Were people taught to hate? But Christianity was a dominant religion – a religion that taught of love. Then why? Did they think the colored were a whole different race? But was it then even still humane to act like David Church’s dad did? And even worse?

One of the factors I look for in a good book is the questions it raises within me. Books that make me wonder, that make me question things like global issues, humanity, the world – things that help me enrich my understanding and allow me to investigate the world on my own. And Bone By Bone By Bone does just that. David will take you through a world of his own; baseball adventures with Malcolm, learning bone names off of a skull that hangs by his bed in aspirations to become a doctor; witnessing deaths of the colored, the hatred of the Klan, and attending to his extremely racist great-grandmother’s needs. Every page turned is another adventure, another step, another eye-opening tale. This book will make you ask questions that you will never be able to answer.

A white boy named John Butler got lost from his parents when he was four during a battle between the whites and the Indians. He was adopted by an Indian warrior called Lenni Lenape. He was raised to think, feel, and fight like an Indian. He grew up calling himself “True Son.” He never imagined one day he would be taken back to his real parents. Now, at fifteen, the Indians had made a treaty and agreed to return all their white captives. True Son was in a horrifying situation that he didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t understand that his own race is the white people and no Indians. He was raised and learned to hate the whites, now he has to live, eat, think, and feel like them?

What i enjoyed most about this book is how interesting it is for True Son trying to get back to his own race. I am definitely on Indians’ side, they live and breathe with the nature. They don’t destroy it, they only take what they need. The whites were willing to start a war because they don’t like the Indians, they were racist. What I’m trying to write is the freedom of nature against the civilization of the whites. That this is a true story, these Indians once existed. They were wiped out by the whites, civilized arrogant people. The whites didn’t leave the Indians alone, they wanted to take the Indian’s nature and freedom away. They don’t accept any other race except theirs. While the Indians are willing to adopt members of any race in their culture as long as they are loyal, as we can see in True Son’s case. The Indians were attacked for no reason, the whites just felt like bullying another race that is different from them. I hope you realize what mankind is capable of doing, and what mankind is becoming. Mankind is the only race that kills for sports and fight for entertainment.

Honestly, “The Kitchen God’s Wife” was not a very enjoyable book. In fact, I was a little lost while reading it. There were two narrators, Winnie Louie, the mother and Pearl Louie, the daughter. The book began with the daughter narrating the story, then with one big whole chunk in the middle if the mother as the narrator, and finally, with the daughter narrating the story again till the end of the book. What had made me feel lost was the continuous story telling mode in the book. For example, the mother was telling the daughter her history. In her history, she was being told a story, and there was a character telling a story in the story. That, could be a little confusing for some readers.

Another factor that caused me to say “The Kitchen God’s Wife” was not enjoyable was that reading the book did not make me feel any positive feelings. However, I must say, it was a very addicting book. There were several times when I could not put down the book although I knew I had a pile of homework waiting for me. I just had to read, read, and read. I wanted to know what was going to happen next. It was not a book that could make me laugh, but a book that could make me muse, think, and reflect.

Winnie Louie said this about her uncle in Chapter 6, “I don’t know why he thought this was good, to imitate what foreigners did, as if everything Western were good, everything Chinese not so good.” (Tan par.4). I see this happen everyday, especially after I came to SSIS, that people are being westernized. Just like what Winnie Louie had said, as if one’s culture is not good enough, that one has to imitate others from another culture that one admires. Even in my home country, I have seen Chinese attempting to stop speaking their mother tongue and trying to speak and act like an American. Disgust – that is what I feel. I even feel sorry for them. Gradually, they might lose their culture and identity. Who will they become? They may not be a Malaysian Chinese anymore if they do not think, act and speak like one. They may not be an American either – how can they truly be one if they have never lived in the United States?

Allow me to explain myself. I reacted strongly with this quote because I am afraid of losing my identity as a Malaysian Chinese and my first language as Chinese – after living in Vietnam for one and a half years. Currently my brother has difficulties expressing himself by using Chinese in a complete sentence. It is extremely challenging for him. He had to – he must – speak in English in order to convey his thoughts. Would you allow something similar like that to happen to you?

“Brisingr” is based on a young Dragon Rider called Eragon who is given gifted with honor, pride, strength and his dragon, Saphira. However, he faces the burden of defeating the evil king, Galbatorix, who also used to be a prominent Dragon Rider, but was tainted after losing his dragon. Eragon forms alliance with the elves, dwarves, and a human faction called the Varden. With the alliance, Eragon and Saphira fights hard against the corrupted forces of Galbatorix, but faces a difficult challenge due to another Dragon Rider, Murtagh and his dragon, Thorn, who are aiding the legion of Galbatorix. Although Eragon and Saphira have the help of Roran (Eragon’s cousin), Oromis (Eragon’s master), Arya (a female elven warrior), and more, but the outcome of this war is unknown…

This novel taught me how to write creatively and also a large amount of vocabulary words, particularly related to the SAT. Christopher Paolini has a very distinct method of writing. He pays particular attention to the surroundings and the environments. Many objects are always written in detail which further refines the writing and allows the reader to know the information better. In addition to that, the plentiful SAT words in the novel also helps you to refine your vocabulary knowledge which will aid you well when taking the SAT.

The thrilling plot of the novel and the prospect of the outcome of the battle between Eragon and Galbatorix urges me to continue reading “Brisingr.”

Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger is, basically, a compilation of nine short stories told in nine, different points of view by nine different people. The stories vary in depth and style, just as a teen-aged-boy’s thoughts differ from that of a grown-up-soldier.

After reading all of the nine stories, I had three particular favorites: Just before the War with the Eskimos, The Laughing Man and De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period.

“Just before the War with the Eskimos” is a story about a simple scene, but has an interesting and note-worthy ending. The characters are not actually typical people—a middle-aged man who cut his finger, a girl who demands to have her money back from her tennis friend and a man who watched “Beauty and the Beast” for eight times. This is a story that some people (including myself) may find enjoyable to read.

A story within a story—that’s found in “The Laughing Man”. The unnamed narrator, who is part of the “Comanche Club”, talks about his chief and his story of the laughing man. The chief reads his story to the boys, part by part. The installments of the chief’s story were full of action and excitement, until his relationship with his ‘girl’, Mary Hudson, was broken. Again, like “Just Before the War with the Eskimos”, “The Laughing Man” has a significant and unusual ending.

“De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period” is an amusing story, narrated in a humorous and warm tone. The story is told from the point of view of a talented but showy artist who was ‘changed’ after encountering a nun’s painting. Most readers will enjoy this story for its style, tone and content.

Like my three favorites, the rest of Salinger’s nine stories are most likely to be enjoyed by readers because of its distinct style and its effective use of different people’s point of view.

photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mark-garrett/1422707794/sizes/l/

Most of the people who haven’t read this book called “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton will think that the title of this book only refers to the people who can’t get along with other groups. However, I think it is referring not only to the greasers who are poor, violent and ignorant but also to the Socs who are rich, and educated but spoiled by their parents and money. The reasons are simple. The greasers don’t have enough money to live a sufficient life that the Socs are living and it seemed like they don’t possess a power or an equal right as them. The greasers get jumped on by some violent and mischievous Socs and get hurt badly. Likewise, the Socs seemed they are not fully enjoying their lives. Even thought they already had everything they want, they wanted more and more. They couldn’t fulfill their needs. Their loaded school works and expectations from their parents were burden to them too. Thus, both of them were the outsiders. But, after all, the world that was described in this book had no real outsiders nor insiders, because just in a second, the greasers became heroes in the other side of the world! 

By the way, that part was the most interesting part for me when I read my novel, deciding who’s the outsider or not. 

There are several things that I learned from this book. First of all, the words greasers and Socs were very new to me. Also, the idea of gang that the greasers formed was exceptionally new too. Since, I haven’t deeply learned and heard about the activities that the gang of Ponyboy, Sodapop, Johnny, Darry, Two-Bit, Steve, and Dallas does were astonishing, thrilling and even scary. 

The theme that I found in this book was to give aware of the similaries that the poors and the riches share. They all seemed different because they have possessed very distinct objects and powers. However, the things they longed for, cried after, and smiled at were their peers and families, love and friendship.

The author used lots of metaphors, similes and imageries to show the readers what had happened and how the certain objects looked like. Therefore, it was easy to understand the events that happened in the book but some of the sentences were very wordy and hard to understand. In addition, the author put some slangs to emphasize the characteristics of the greasers.:)

As Matthew describes it, “Fear is your friend. When you feel it, act.” By this, he implies that many people act the way they do because they are submissive to fear— just like how a mother can pick up a whole end of a car when her baby is stuck underneath. It is the adrenaline rush powered by fear, that stimulates a person’s action. Throughout the novel, Matthew feeds off of this fear. causing him to make irrational decisions such as inviting a man into their family—potentially endangering both the man and Matthew himself.

“Protect the little ones” was the excuse that Matthew had used when he brought Murdoch McIlvane into the Walsh household. By inviting this man into the family, Matthew was lead to believe that he finally found sanctuary from his venomous mother. However this was not the case. Sadly, this was never the case. With much pain and anguish, readers will shed many tears in reading this horrific account of a young boy’s prevaricating actions to obtain the necessity that he needs to provide protection for his sisters and himself against their mother.

In my opinion, the reason why I enjoyed this book very much was because it was so realistic. Too realistic. Of course, many times when an author attempts to write a book in the views of a person that is other than them-self, they often do not succeed because of their different personalities and such. However, in this novel, Nancy Werlin had created such an eccentric piece of writing, that I almost believed that she was a young pre-pubescent child living under an abusive mother as well. Furthermore, it had lead me to open my eyes up to many children even nowadays, who experience a similar lifestyle to Matthew Walsh.

Engrossing from the start to the very end, I would truly recommend this book to those who know nothing other than the comfort of their own family.

Oh and remember, “In the end, the survivor gets to tell the story.” (M. Walsh, Matt’s Rules of Survival)

After looking around in the “Fiction” section for about 5 minutes, without any idea what  I was looking for, I came across Sweet Blood. The first thing that caught my attention was the title; the irony of the title. Whoever thinks blood is sweet, right? It instantly reminded of vampires. When I took it out of the shelf, it exposed its front cover to me. “A VAMPIRE NOVEL”, it said, just above the title. Then, I was pretty sure that this was another one of those dark magic, witchcraft related novels. However, when I looked at the summary printed at the back of the book, i came to know that this wasn’t just another vampire novel.

The author, Pete Hautman, had somehow discovered a way to connect vampirism to diabetes and infuse these two ideas together to form a unique, practical, and spellbinding novel.  So this book didn’t turn out to be exactly what i had expected. But this was what i liked about Sweet Blood. This novel completely changed my view on vampirism by introducing a real take on it.

I am a very practical person, who highly depends on science for explanations; but this novel has forced me to believe in creatures such as vampires. How? That, you will have to read and find out for yourselves. But just so you know, I wouldn’t bet that after reading this novel your ideas on vampires will remain the same.

As a read through the book, one of the things that always catches my attention, and is enjoyed is the use of  “The Ancient Language”. To sum it up, it is the oldest recorded language in history, invented by the elves who are immortal. This is the used language to by the characters to cast spells. I love reading and decoding this language, although i cannot speak it, I imagine it being a beautiful language , such as Latin. Some of my favorite words or sentences are Brisingr (fire), Skolir (shield) Zar’roc (misery).

Picture URL: http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n32/n162208.jpg

Overall, i liked the book, although the plot was not much of a difference to crime and suspense movies that I watch. I expected what will happen next, but it kept me thinking about the detectives finding proofs and connecting it together. Made me think about their logic and the evidence that they are showing and it got me thinking of what will happen next. The ending was great, but could’ve been better because I didn’t find the ending that much of an excitement, like is she/he going to die or would one of the four detectives be a victim of murder in one of the gang member’s hands? I think it’s a good book and I look forward in reading in some of Mark Delaney’s crime books or read other Misfits books.

The book is about a best-selling author Micheal Noonan at the peak of his career. He made million of dollar and is famous all over the world. Nonetheless after his wife Johanna died in a car accident while he was in a writer’s zone, he’d write ’til he melt or explode. Four years later, Micheal is still in grief because he thought that the death of Jo – that how he called her – was partly his fault and he missed her a lot  and he was having a writer’s block as well. When he tries to write something, his breathing goes harder, his heart beat went way up and there was a time he passed out. However, the story would come to another turning point, he meets a 20-year-old widow Mattie Devore and her daughter Kyra who were held in the grip of a poweful millionaire Max Devore whose purpose is to take his granddaughter away from Mattie. As Mike is drawn into Mattie and Kyra’s struggle, he falls in love with both of them.

What really keep me interested in the book is its strong language when it comes to describing Mike’s desperation and also a lot of adult stuff, making the whole story real and interesting. However, putting an  R-rated sign on the cover isn’t a bad idea at all. On the other hand, I learned from this story that money is just a non-factor when your loved ones gone. At the time Jo died, Mike was sitting on 20 million dollars and counting but it seems like he would rather be a beggar and has his wife back than living a fancy life on his own.

The book’s themes are the trials of the writing process (tMike Noonan had a writer’’s block), the conerns of day-today life, the power of memory and the ghosts lurking close behind the everyday. One of the literacy devices I noticed is metaphore, Stephen King uses a lot of metaphores in his books. Behind everyday conversation, jokes are some of King’s points of view on life itself. Also similies, there are many good ones in the book. These devices support the plot of the story and make it more detailed and  meaningful.

The book starts off by introducing a boy called Marcus, who is a ’stuffy youngster’ with odd personalities. He does not get along well with his classmates in school, dresses odd and ‘listens to Joni Mitchell’ unlike everyone; he is different. Furthermore, his mom is a hypochondriac. Then the book talks about a 36 year old man, Will Freeman (A lot of times, book switches the protagonist when chapter changes, except when two characters appears on the same chapter). He doesnt have a job, and he lives off by the loyalty he gets from his grandfather’s composition, Santa’s Super Sleigh. He first, appears to be an imprudent man by joining SPAT : Single Parents – Alone Together, just to meet a woman. Then coincidently Marcus and Will happens meet in the group’s picnic, and they get close as Will helps Marcus when Marcus’s mom, Fiona, tried to kill herself. As the story unfolds, Marcus and Will become close friends to each other. Will helps Marcus to fit into the school, and the world; He takes him to shopping, buy him a pair of shoes, advices on his hairstyle, and introduces him to new kinds of music, which later comes to be a source of Marcus’s and Ellie’s friendship. Marcus then wants Will to be a ‘father figure’ for him and makes Will’s days ‘full of life’.He also believes that Will can be Fiona’s partner and help her overcoming the depression…..

Reflection.
I really enjoyed the novel, since it is very easy-to-read-kind of a page-turner. I like the theme of ‘male-bonding’, when a boy and an adult man becomes good friends to each other, when they had no company of their life and helps out with each other’s lives. The language use was really pleasant, and somewhat ‘light’ which wasnt too serious and easy-to-read. I learned that friendship is really important, even when I was half way through the book; every person is not ‘an island’ and they shouldnt isolate themselves from the world. There wasnt much literary devices in the book.

“The virgin suicide” unlike other book, was something completly new and different to me. Each characters and the situation in the story was portrayed in a very plausible way by  Eugenides, which add more excitment and imagination into the story. All of this contributes to what i like the best of the novel which motivate me to keep on reading.

The story of a lost of dream, pain, desire for freedom, love, thoughprovoking lured me into a different world.

This book has taught me how to portray the character’s thoughts into the writing, while still making it sound interesting. Another way Klause made this novel so exciting was the fact that she “showed” rather than “telling”. It made me feel as if I was actually in the scenario. This contributes to what I love most about this novel. Often, I find myself feeling like I’m in the situation itself. This leads me to become ebullient in finding out about the imminent events that follow. This motivates me to keep reading.

Full of fantasy and magic, Blood and Chocolate continues to lure me into the endless romance, action and conflict.

picture: http://ccplic4teens.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/blood-and-chocolate-book.jpg

To Be A Slave- Reflection.

The book I read, “To Be a Slave” by Julius Lester, is about black slaves suffering pains and mistreatment by white Americans. It also introduces how blacks overcame the pain they didn’t have to face. The time period of the story is around American Civil War, which is around 19^th century. From this book, I learn t that mistreating people with no certain reasons or compelling others in doer to gain my own profit is not right thing to do. World should be balanced in terms of rights and treatments. It was very interesting to read about black slaves’ actual files during slavery and their griefs towards masters. There were many poems and short songs which slaves used to sing. They were very detailed and sophisticated, therefore, I could indirectly comprehend their sorrowful feelings and inner minds. There were lots of metaphors and similes that were used to describe slaves as an animal or monsters. For example, in page 58, “The blacks are my dogs, they should bow us until their heads touches their knees.” From this quote, the author used metaphor to depict slave as a dog and also showed imagery how slaves have to bow in order to illustrate the slaves’ low position. Lastly, the theme of this book is “Powerful people controls weak people”. Since, black Africans didn’t have enough power to rebel against Americans, they were threatened with whipping and killing. World is unfair for weak people, and very liberate for powerful people.