SSR

     The book  I chose was science fiction, Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien. It has 361 pages. In this futuristic dystopian society, there are those who live inside the wall, called the Enclave, and those who live outside the wall. The privileged, and the poor. The environment outside is harsh, and the people ave to fetch water from a well, and the air is dirty. The main character is a sixteen-year old girl named Gaia Stone who has a burned scar on half of her face. She learns from her mother who was one of the greatest midwives, and becomes a midwife also. However the first three children born of each mother must be taken and delivered to the Enclave where they join families. Gaia Stone's two older brothers were delivered to the enclave, where they lived. Gaia was not taken because the babies must be unblemished when delivered, her face was scarred. In memory of the eldest brother which was originally named Orion, each baby that Gaia or her mother helped birth, was marked with four dots in the shape of the star constellation. Suddenly her parents were taken into the enclave and never came out. She snuck inside the wall trying to find her parents. But when she discovers a pregnant woman being hanged in town, she speaks out. When the lady dies, she saves the unborn baby. She is discovered, and begins a terrible adventure. Discovering missing parents, translating codes, being hunted throughout the city, and falling in love is what makes a fantastic story.
     I recommend this book because it is truly intriguing. It is definitely a page-turner. It makes you feel certain types of ways which helps you relate to the characters. The story takes you to an entirely different world.

SSR Book Review

     The SSR book that I chose was Forgive Me Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick, and this tale (of 273 pages) is a fictional story that discusses social issues of the main character Leonard Peacock experiences. This book really throws you right into the thick of the story when Leonard Peacock amuses the idea of him killing his former friend Asher Beal with his grandfathers P-38 Nazi handgun, and he plans to shoot himself after. Before he proceeds to go off and hunt his prey and have a marvelous birthday he decides to give gifts, four gifts to the people that gave him some happinnes in life.(cough not his pigeon brained parents) The first gift was a Bogart hat to his next door neighbor who was like the father he never had, then the next was his college fund to his friend Baback (Iranian descent) in order to fund a no-profit charity by the name of True Democracy of Iran, later he gives his Holocaust teacher ,Herr Silverman, his granfather's bronze star from world war two, and finally his last gift was a silver necklace with a cross to his first kiss. In all honesty each of these encounters between him and these people is really heart warming as you discover how much they helped him to grow. In the beginning he started off as a traumatized kid who was mistreated by people he trusted, and eventually as he begins to think of the future of what he could be he begins he acquire some hope. What saves him more than anything (at least in my point of view ) are stories not some god or person, but something that doesn't even exist except on paper.

ssr log : reboot

my ssr book i chose for the first quarter was reboot by amy tintera. Reboot is a fictional sci fi action novel about  humans that die and come back stronger and faster. the long they stay dead before rising the stronger they are when they reboot. the protagonist is about a 17 year old reboot who is the strongest and fastest one of fall, wren, who was dead for 178 minutes. She trains only the best reboots but one day she has an odd encounter with an odd reboot, callum, who was only dead for a short amount of time before rising, 22 minutes to be exact,  which makes him the weakest at the facility where reboots are held as slaves. Wren has barely any emotion until callum. he pulls at her heartstrings and makes her fall for him. But callum has no chance of surviving at that facility, so out of love wren escapes with him. they believe they're out of danger but their journey's only begun.

Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl

The book I read this first quarter was called Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, and it was written by Jesse Andrews. There were 304 pages in the book.

 Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a Young Adult non-fiction book, and it's a story about him, and Earl... and a dying girl. Greg is the protagonist of this story, and Earl is his best friend. To start it off, Greg liked to be considered everyone's acquaintance in that he wouldn't be subject to being labeled as certain cliques and be liked by everyone. He even considered Earl his work partner for films even though they were best friends. This dying girl, Rachel, is one of Greg's friends he made from years ago to get close to a girl he had a crush on. They hadn't talked for years, and the last time they talked, they didn't end on good terms. Because of his attempt to get close to Rachel's "hotter friend", their parents assumed that they were good friends... and good friends do good things for each other. One day, Rachel is diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia, and his mother prompts him to rekindle with her and cheer her up. They didn't even like each other, but he is forced by his nagging mother to talk and make her last days good. Greg does go to her and talk to her. His awkwardness actually broke up some tension between them too because it makes them both laugh, and their friendship continually grows from the cracked union from years ago. Eventually, she meets Earl, Greg's best friend. Although Greg didn't like it when he talked about their films, Earl still spoke of the films they made. It was then that Rachel had enough friendshiply love for Greg to be advising him on his career opportunities. She told Greg to continue on film school, but would Greg still follow up on the words of someone who will soon come to pass?

I really liked this book because of the way it was written. The way it was written with a lot of slang in the way that young people would understand really helped me to connect with it. The antagonistic perspective of Greg throughout the whole story; however, just made me annoyed. Though sometimes it was funny, it was a bit annoying sometimes. I guess I was looking for a strong change of character because of Rachel's influence, like a love story, but this book showed to be realistic. In real life, most of the time, we don't change. Although you could, it's just difficult. In addition, I was expecting Rachel to be a huge grenade, a huge impact on everyone's lives, but in the end, she was just another cancer patient. She didn't end up being a person who made a great impact on the people surrounding her. That's also another reason why I liked this book. I thought it was going to be another love story where the guy wouldn't have forgotten the girl and continue to cherish her forever, living out her aspirations for them. In two words, I liked the difference it portrayed to others through it's realistic construction of a story.

Ssr Report Press play.

SSR Book report



Jaden Simpson
Ms.Colln


In Eric Devine's 365 page realistic fiction Press Play is about an overweight high school student named  Greg. Greg is known as an outcast who shows a passion for filming everyday events and uploading them. Greg only friend is Quinn who barely hangs out with Greg. The only time Greg interacts with Quinn is when they are training to help Greg lose weight. One of those days they hear screaming coming from the gym. What Greg and Quinn find is the lacrosse team hazing the freshman players. Greg quickly whips his phone out and records. Unfortunately, Greg cannot bring the video into the principal due to the principal making the upper-class players haze the lower-class. The worst part about it is Greg lives in a small town and the whole town are huge supporters of the lacrosse team. Greg also cannot upload the video because the principal has suspended Greg for recording other events like the cafeteria food being made with unwashed hands.

Greg and Quinn and their new friend Emily plan to show the hazing video to the whole school during a season opener assembly. Alva the captain of the team is unhappy with him being exposed and plots to get back at him. Although the outcome isn't expected.

What I really liked from the book is that it showed the point of view from both sides not just one. It explains the reason the hazing happens and how deep the scandal really reaches.

First Quarter SSR Book Review

       The book I chose to read for first quarter is called Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell.  It's genre, contemporary fiction, is different than from all the books I've read because it's based on what every teenager goes through today and shows what reality looks likes, nothing that seems like a fantasy in all of its 438 pages of words.  Its about a girl named Cather, whose whole world revolves around the Simon Snow fandom.  She bases her decisions around Simon Snow, she has a blog about Simon Snow, she has all the merchandise of the series that makes her the ultimate fan and has someone to share it with, her twin sister Wren.  Then, comes graduation and college, where her world seems to fall apart.  Her sister doesn't love Simon Snow as much anymore, she wants to live the college experience where Cather isn't around her all the time.  Now, Cather has to come face to face with the real world that isn't behind pages of books or behind a computer screen.
       I really enjoyed reading this book because it really shows what reality looks like.  What I mean is that throughout the whole story, it doesn't seem like any other fiction book where everything seems impossible like one story I know, where the girl always gets the super hot boy in the story because she's the super quiet nerd.  No, that doesn't happen in real life, this shows the struggle of college life, the confusion about liking a guy, and basically the reality of life.  What's also really cool is that the author adds snips of the Simon Snow story, that's actually a book she wrote, to show you why so many people in the story like the series and possibly get you hooked into it as well.  What I would've liked to see more of is from her sister's perspective, like how she came to the decision of leaving behind her sister in a fantasy world to come to reality and how she is being affected by her choice, that would've helped me enjoy it a little more, but it was really good either way

SSR Book Review

     The book I have chosen for this quarter of SSR is Roses written by Rose Mannering, which is a dark, and powerful retelling of Beauty and the Beast. The book's main protagonist bears no name, at the very moment of her birth she was abandoned by her mother left with only an amulet. The amulet is then discovered by the doctor, and leaves her on the steps of the House Of Rose in Sago. The mistress living there takes in the child but is horrified due to the fact that the young infant shows resemblance to someone who had abandoned her. The girl's freakish silvery skin, white hair, and amethyst eyes make others fear her. The poor thing is punished for everything she does all because she is different, her very existence is a crime to some people. She can no longer bear the abuse she receives and runs away and comes across a circus, as she enters the magic-beings claim that she is a true beauty, they then name Little Beauty. The cruel Mistress has found out about her whereabouts and goes to retrieve her, and succeeds. Tauntingly called Beauty she leaves Sago in a violent uprising that has been set to massacre all Magics and flees to the farthest point of the Western Realm. However Beauty cannot hide in the country any more, the State Officials find her and threaten to take her back. During a midnight blizzard she escapes and comes across an enchanted castle and a terrible beast who will bargain for her life. At first I had mixed feeling about the book, because I've read retelling's of other stories that weren't so great. In the end I am very pleased with the book, and I really enjoyed the fact that the author made the story of this fairytale their own version while they still incorporated elements from the original story such as they characters. Throughout reading this entire book I challenged myself to see how many similarities between the original and this version of the story I could find. I definitely recommend reading this book.

SSR Book Response

The book I read for this quarter was Thirteen Reasons Why, by Jay Asher. It contains 288 pages. This novel takes place in a small town named Crestmont. In the town, a girl has recently committed suicide. Her name was Hannah Baker. She left behind cassette tapes for the reasoning of her suicide. In total there is seven cassette tapes. One through six contains an A and B side. A friend of Hannah Baker named Clay Jensen receives the tapes she sent out. These people have either been good or affected her life. This book's downside is that it can get confusing between Clay and Hannah. When Hannah speaks Clay thinks along, but sometimes he would be thinking or doing something completely different from what Hannah is doing. I mean it's normal for people to do that, but it makes it more complicated in my opinion. If Hannah were to explain her own story and let Clay explain what he thinks about it after would be less confusing. At the same time, I understand that the author wants him to project what he thinks about what Hannah is saying. 

The main characters of this novel are very understandable to me in my opinion. Afterall though I'm a little depressed so I understand why. I just feel a little sad at the end on how many people have caused her to commit suicide. Life is difficult, but you shouldn't be dragged down by peers in your life. Those people wouldn't be any better than you if they keep doing the bad stuff in life. 

The Winner's Crime

The Winner's Crime, the second in "The Winner's Trilogy" written by Marie Rutkoski, is very good but made me really mad. The main plot is that a thriving country by the name of Herran is taken over by a huge empire by the name of Valoria. For ten years, the people of Herran, rich in culture but weak in defense, are used as slaves for the Valorians that now populate the country they once lived in. You are first introduced to the character Kestrel, the daughter of the Valorian general and the emperor's right-hand man. She is faced with the decision of either getting married or joining the military. She is extremely smart and her father wants her to become a strategist, but she doesn't want to go to war.

The next character you are introduced to is Arin, a slave who is specifically sold to Kestrel. She plays the piano and he is auctioned off with promises of a singing voice. Arin is one of the leaders of a conspiracy to overthrow the Valorians, and by being put into the general's home, he will have a good chance at getting valuable information. By the time the night of the official start of the rebellion arrives, the predictable happens and Arin and Kestrel have fallen in love.

The second book picks up after Kestrel has escaped to the capital after being taken "captive" by the rebels, after she returns to Herran as the fiancee of Valoria's prince; she also has with her a document that states that the Herrani people may live on their peninsula with Arin as the governor but they are still under rule of Valoria. In the second book, we learn that Kestrel made a deal with the emperor of the empire to ensure that the people of the country she loves (though more specifically Arin) are allowed to live in peace. She has her struggles of course, and Arin won't stop trying to find out the truth.

But what makes me so mad about this book is how it ends! I won't spoil any more of the series but, Arin is an idiot! Sure, he redeems himself, and the trilogy has a relatively happy (if not open and unanswered) ending. But how could he be so stupid?! She makes something blatantly obvious by not being obvious. She says she hates him and everything, but it's painfully obvious that she's lying and yet he doesn't understand! And then she writes a letter to tell him the entire truth (that she doesn't hate him but she loves him) and it gets hijacked by her father and the emperor.

Don't get me wrong, the books are great and it's a good series that I highly recommend. But how could one man be so incredibly dense? He's more dense than Jason from the Heroes of Olympus series. And that's saying something, because Jason has a severe case of density when it comes to girls. If you're okay with reading through how much of an idiot Arin can be (oooo, the last book gets me so mad) then I highly recommend this series. It is pretty good, has a good plot, and you can really visualize the fight scenes. It's no gold-star series, but it is good if you have nothing else to read.

SSR blog post- An Abundance of Katherines

An Abundance of Katherines is a young adult novel written by John Green. The story is written from the perspective of a teen, Colin Singleton, a child prodigy who was recently dumped by his nineteenth girlfriend Katherine. Interestingly all of his nineteen girlfriends are named Katherine. Colin and his friend Hassan decide to go on a roadtrip to get his mind of his ex. They meet Lindsey and her mother Hollis in Gutshot,Tennessee whom they stay with working for Hollis by interviewing citizens of Gutshot about the History of the town. Meanwhile Colin feeling that He is becoming a failure as a washed up child prodigy he decides to create a mathematical theory about how and why a relationship will end and who dumps the other and who gets dumped using all of his previous relationships to test it.  Throughout the story Colin tries to prove to himself that he isn’t a loser by creating the theorem, and trying to get over Katherine 19th. Colin and Hassan become closer with Lindsay while they are working on getting stories about the history of Gutshot.

What  I liked most about this story is the relatability with the main characters Colin. Colin during the story seems upset but also has a hints of optimism and self deprecating  humor. He always wants to achieve more with his life but also wants to fit in which makes you want to root for him. Green’s writing style makes you feel like you are a character in the story experiencing what the characters are experiencing rather than an onlooker,and  which is a big reason why I love this book so much. Some of the plot points were somewhat predictable; however, this is somewhat comforting you don’t have to worry too much about the characters fate you can focus more on the themes, tone, and characterization. An Abundance of Katherines underlying themes and relatable dialogue created a memorable story when I read it.

1st Quarter Book Review

     This quarter I read a book called A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'engle.  This book is fairly short 202 pages and the genre is sci-fi. This book was kind of interesting, its about a family of 4 kids and a mother and father. However the dad isn't in the picture because he disappeared ...literally. Meg is the main character, she is the eldest child and only daughter, she is very mature for her age however gets into a lot of trouble because people at school tend to give her a hard time because her dads absence. The book is mainly about finding her dad. Both her parents are scientists, however one day her dad mysteriously goes missing.  After having an odd experience with a weird old lady. Mrs.Whatsit,  Meg and her brother Charles realize she's much more than a creepy old lady. Meg, Charles and an unlikely friend Charles all go on a voyage through time with Mrs Whatsit to free her dad and defeat darkness. Personally, I didn't love this book. My expectations for it were too high because my fifth grade teacher recommended it and he recommended some pretty good reads. Overall the actual writing of it was good and but the plot and genre really did not make me feel connected, which is odd because the elements of it were really mysterious and unexpected. I would recommend this book to someone highly interested in science fiction novels, but for me, (a thriller fan) it was a little slow at the beginning and when I finally got into the book it was basically over.

Percy Jackson: Lightning Theif

🔱                                                                                                                                                           🔱

         For the first quarter, I decided to read Percy Jackson and The Olympians. This novel is written by Ricky Riordan. The genre to this 375 page book is fiction. 
   The main character is Percy Jackson. He is the son of Poseidon, God of the sea. In the book, Percy has been accused of stealing Zeus's master bolt, which is the most powerful weapon ever created, and he must return it by the summer solstice. If not, there will be a big war. The book starts out with Percy introducing himself and telling his story on how he learned he was a demigod (half human / half god). Before he even knows the truth about himself, he goes to an academy named Yancy. During his time at Yancy Academy, he gets into fights, fails in every subject except his Latin class, and sees his math teacher, a fury (a female creature of spirits, justice and vengeance), obliterated. After that, one of his closest friends, Grover who's a satyr, and Mr. Brunner (Chiron) take him to camp half blood where he trains in combat. At dinner, Hades showed up and threatened Percy to give him the bolt or he'd kill his mother. After hearing that, Percy decided to leave camp half blood to save his mother. On his way out, Grover and Annabeth (a daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle strategy) join him. Through his Journey, he goes through many battles and almost dies each time. How does his Journey end? Will there be a war with the gods? Read the book if you want to find out.
    I really, truly enjoyed this book because of the powers these demigods possess, and all the action. There was nothing in this book that I didn't like. 


Andres Boppell
Period.5
11/30/16
word count:293











         

Quarter 1 SSR Book Review

The book that I read for the first quarter of SSR was a fiction book called Ninth Grade Slays from the series The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod. Ninth Grade Slays was written by Heather Brewer and it contains a total of 278 pages which is not a lot. The main character of the book is a teenager named Vladimir Tod who in this book is in the ninth grade. He is not fully human, he is half human and half vampire. He is a vampire from his dad's side since he was also a vampire but died in a fire. Vladimir has a crush on a girl named Meredith and so does joss, the cousin of Vladimir's best friend but once he finds out he leaves her alone. Vladimir goes off for his vampire training and when he comes back Joss decides to tell him that he is a slayer or a vampire killer and that he has come to kill a vampire. At this point, it was obvious that the vampire that Joss had come to kill was Vladimir so I wasn't surprised when they found out. I do not really like reading books because they seem boring to me but his book was an exception since it was actually pretty interesting. I like these types of fiction books because they are not what we are living so it's like if I was learning from another culture or world. I would recommend this book to people who like good fiction books because this is a very interesting one.

First Quarter Book Summary

Fist Quarter Book Summary

                For this quarter, the book that I read was have a little faith by Mitch Albom. This book is a nonfiction book. Oprah said that this book was the best nonfiction book of 2009 so you know that this books is good. This book is sort of about religion but not fully; This book is about the author, Mitch Albom, going on an adventure and learning about two men, one man is an old man asking the author to do his eulogy which is basically a speech about a persons life when they die: and the other man is a drug addict with a cold heart, a daughter and wife, and a request to Jesus to save him even though he has sinned many times over and over and never changes. 

                 

                The old man asking Mitch to do his eulogy, is a rabbi named Albert Lewis Albert is a man of God and normally sends people off to Heaven. Mitch has to learn about this man and his stories as well as trying to find out answers to his questions about God. Mitch learns a lot of things from this man that changes Mitche's way of life. Mitch also has to learns about a drug addict that runs away from God  even though God has saved him many times. After Mitch has seen the world through both of the mens' eyes', Something unexpectedly happens that will change Mitch's life forever.

1st Quarter SSR Book Review

I chose the first novel of the Game of Thrones series, A Game of Thrones, by George R.R. Martin as my first quarter reading novel. The story has caught my interest in so many facets, it's simply amazing. The story is told through multiple perspectives, mainly the primary characters. Although the central location of the novel is never confirmed since it's told from multiple perspectives, the story itself takes place during a more medieval age, shortly after the age of the Dragons. It takes a twist on the traditional medieval kingdom setting by including a convoluted plot that runs throughout the novel in which multiple Houses, which belong to lords of certain realms, converge and divide to take the place of the late king, hence the name of the novel and series, A Game of Thrones.

This novel has quickly become a favorite of mine. I love how Martin utilizes the viewpoint of several characters to bring the story together from different angles. His writing technique is also rather awe-inspiring. He eloquently tells the story by using a European dialect of English to convey the setting to be located near the United Kingdom. But his eloquence is also conveyed in his use of descriptive words to paint a mental picture of each scene as seen by the characters in the novel, giving the story more depth. This novel has intrigued me and I'm anxious to continue the series quickly.

Quarter 1 SSR Book Review

          My first quarter book had 22 different stories. The book was The Sherlock Holmes Mysteries by Arthur Conan Doyle. This book has 523 pages. The genres for this book are mystery, classic, fiction, and short stories.
         This book is amazing because of how many different cases in each chapter. It makes you think about how the criminals did their crime. Most of the stories had a twist to it which got me hook on the book. Out of all the stories in the collection had to be The Red-Headed League was my favorite. The main protagonist in this story is Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock was having an conversation with a man named Jabez Wilson. As they were talking Wilson reveals that he was a pawnbroker and has an assistant named Vincent Spaulding. Vincent was a good worker but gets pay so little. He always goes to the basement to develop photos because he loved photography. One day Wilson gets a notice from Vincent about the red-headed league that they give lots of money. Wilson went to go apply for it and gets hired by a man named Duncan Ross .Wilson did it because can earn more money by copying pages from Encyclopedia Britannica. After 8 weeks Wilson finds out that the red-headed league dissolves. Everyone and Vincent vanish. Wilson tells Sherlock about it and starts investigating. Later on in the story Sherlock solves the case by realizing that the Red-headed league was fake the whole time. It was for Vincent to spend time digging a tunnel in the basement all the way to a bank that was near and able to rob the bank and get away with it. Sherlock Holmes and Watson makes a plan to capture them later on.
         The main character Sherlock Holmes is amazing. After he solves a case, it makes me think how does he do it. Sherlock Holmes is always unexpected about what he does and what hes thinking and has weird methods to solve a case. For example he couldn't solve a case so he told Watson to watch a movie with him like 20 minutes later he solves the case.
  

Impulse ~ (1st Quarter Book Summary)

Impulse by Ellen Hopkins is novel that consists of a total of 666 pages.  The story consists of three main characters Conner, Vanessa, and Tony who are placed in a institution for their mentally instability.  The novel consists of three P.O.V's for each character at the institution that enables the readers to understand why they came to Aspen Springs and their emotional struggle as they try to make themselves "whole." While in Aspen Springs Conner, Vanessa, and Tony encounter each other and become close while in the institution; learning from each others past experiences and moral thoughts. Their friendship helps them gain a better knowledge of life, and what life can be if you have a better mindset on your future and why things happen. I liked this book because it was poetic and intense. This book gave a insight of how people with depression feel and how it affects their life drastically . Overall, Ellen Hopkins is my top five authors and her writing skills are symbolic when it comes to a lot of mental illnesses. 

1st quarter SSR book review

     The book I chose for my 1st quarter reading SSR is Kizumonogatari (Wound Tale), by Nisioisin. It's a supernatural, comedy, tragedy light novel and is 344 pages long. The book is essentially a prequel to the Monogatari book series, explaining about how our main character, Koyomi Araragi, steps into the world of Ayakashi (the supernatural, aberrations). Everything started with his first meeting with the beautiful classmate Tsubasa Hanekawa, the perfect "class rep of all class reps." Araragi, a gloomy highschooler with no friends, due to a "certain"  turn of events, finds himself befriending Tsubasa Hanekawa. This in turn causes Araragi to stumble upon a dying vampire, the strongest of all aberrations, and what he did next has probably changed his ordinary mundane life to something that could be said to be anything but that.
     The main character, Koyomi Araragi, is pretty much like the typical harem protagonist, which slightly saddens me. He is a loner and a very gloomy person, saying that making friends will make him "lose intensity as a person." Yet somehow, he ends up talking to the beautiful school madonna and made friends with her. He is quite the normal person, yet too kind to a fault, as he was willingly giving up his life to save a dying vampire he just met. The plot points are consistent, predictable enough with experience, but still gives a fresh feeling to the genre of light novels. The occasional jabs at comedy was quite humorous, but can be cringey at times. I was very worried how this book was going to turn out as it was translated from Japanese, and the author is known for making difficult wordplays and full time references to the anime industry, so those who weren't very familiar with such topics will end up feeling very confused. The occasional "fanservice" was for me a little too much but understandable since Nisioisin was trying to mock the anime industry. This book turned out to be a great read for me and let me understand more about the main character's past before the world of the supernatural came to him. There are a multitude of eloquent uses of vocabulary in this book and I had to look up some of the words to try and understand the context. If I could, I would change some of the awkwardly inappropriate scenarios in this book and make it into something more meaningful and less embarrasing to read. That is my thoughts on the book Kizumonogatari by Nisioisin.

Finding Audrey SSR

The novel that I read for the first semester of SSR was Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella. This book is 286 pages and is easily one of my favorites it deals with very important topics such a mental health and the effects that bullying can have on a person. The genre of this book is realistic fiction, romance, and comedy.  The plot of this book is about a 14 year old girl named Audrey suffering with social anxiety disorder that seemingly disrupts her everyday life.  She is a prisoner in her home constantly has on her dark sunglasses because the though of making eye contact with anyone makes her nervous. Throughout the book you see her journey to recovery and although she does meet a boy named Linus it is in no way a cliche romance story. I really loved how the main character Audrey even not having met Linus yet still wanted to make the effort to improve her mental health. I also love that it sheds a light on mental illnesses and makes people aware of what someone going through that feels like.

Although the characters speak British the writing of the book is not complex. In terms of character development the main character definitely is a different person by the end of the book. If I had to change one thing about the novel it would have been to see Audrey's therapist perspective. One thing I didn't enjoy was at the end of the book I felt like it was left undone. It needed more closure in terms with dealing with a conflict surrounding the main character and the people who caused her anxiety. Overall I highly recommend this book to anyone.

Snow Falling on Cedars Review (QTR 1 SSR)

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson takes place nine years after WWII, 1954, in San Piedro. As much as the book is fiction, there are a lot of topics such as racism against the Japanese after the war. The genre is a historical novel. San Piedro is actually fake, but in the beginning of the book there is real-looking map that positions the island in the Washington peninsula (right by Canada), so I actually didn't realize the fake setting until chapter nine. The book is about a trial of a man named Kabuo who is being charged with murder against Carl Heine. Kabuo is Japanese and Carl is a white WWII veteran, but they are both fisherman and grew up together. Carl is a very dynamic character as he did not have any trouble with Kabuo before the war, has trouble with prejudice after the war, but then Kabuo proves him wrong.  Kabuo is a flat character described as a statue with cold blood who has always been prejudiced by white folk on San Piedro because of his Japanese heritage and this leads up to the climax when Kabuo and his family are virtually left homeless. He is ultimately saved by a reporter named Ishmael. Ishmael is the other of the two dynamic characters in the story because he has to deal with his past romance with Hatsue (Kabuo's wife who rejected him) and Ishmael then makes a last-minute decision to save Kabuo.

I think the author did a great job of giving specific details throughout the plot, in fact, he perfectly describes a relation of manhood and womanhood between Kabuo and Hatsue. However, the book was a little long for not very much of action: 460 pages divided into 32 chapters. There was a bunch of flashbacks and it kind of got boring because it would keep going back to events that had happened and, again, to the trial itself. Overall though, I guess the fact that kept my eyes glued to the book was the fact that I couldn't predict whether the ending was going to be happy, or sad, or just boring like the trial flashbacks.

Kimsour's Quarter Book Review ;)

     The book I read for this quarter is Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. The genre of this book is a novelty and consists of 434 pages. In this book it gives us a view of what life was like for a slave. Its mainly revolves around a slave Uncle Tom who has a wife and kids of his own but they owed their services to his master. He somewhat had a optimistic view of life as a slave. His master, Arthur Shelby, treated them with kindness and dignity. However, Arthur soon fell into financial troubles and he had the sell some of the slaves, Uncle Tom and Harry, another slave's son. It is within this decision is where the evil mortality of slavery starts to show. Uncle Tom was eventually sold and taken to auction throughout the Mississippi river where struggles between the love and despair in his life. Meanwhile Harry and his mother Eliza escape the South made the dangerous journey to North  risking their lives running from the slaves hunters and eventually Canada.

      The author did a great job in highlighting the morality of slavery in this book. Slavery doesn't care that a child needs the love and care of their parents. Its goes to great length just to separating families, dehumanizing the slaves and sell them off like properties. This is also one of the aspect of the book that is kind of draining to me when reading this book. I would have a great day until I read the part about brutal treatment of Uncle Tom by his later master, Simon Legree. Uncle Tom's character is seen as a flat character, he is a humble and kind person in this story which partly contribute to his downfall because he did not stand up to his masters. 

ssr blog

     The novel that I read for the first quarter of SSR was Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. Honestly, this book was a pretty interesting story that I would recommend to anyone looking to read a cute romantic novel. The story was much different than the usual cliche love stories that have been used so many times that they actually get quite annoying and boring. I am grateful that there were moments of humor included into it because it gives the story a more lighthearted mood which contradicts the circumstances of the characters. Overall, I enjoyed the book and hope that other people will end up reading it someday because it gives the reader insight on many aspects of life that we take for granted by integrating these lessons into an intriguing story.
     The genre of the book is romance. The main characters are Louisa Clark, the poor twenty six year- old caregiver, and Will Traynor, the 30 year- old patient who was paralyzed due to a spinal cord injury from a motorcycle collision. The two encounter eachother when Lou gets hired as Will's fulltime caregiver. At first, they are very apprehensive of eachother, but after a while, they develop a close relationship. Lou and Will go many places together because Lou is hoping to change his mind about an important decision by showing him that life doesn't have to end just because he's disabled. The story is basically just about her trying to make will change his mind by giving him reasons to wake up in the morning again. A theme present is that life isn't fair and that even if you don't know whether your actions will make a difference or if a situation is so messed up it seems impossible to fix, continue to put your heart into everything that you do because all that matters is that you give effort to try and make things right.
     The vocabulary used in this book is not too complex, and the writing style is casual given that the two characters are still young. however, there are many unusual expressions used, given that the story takes place in England. This helps make the story more comprehensible while still including different aspects of culture in England.

First Quarter Book Summary

First Quarter Book Summary 

      My book for the first quarter was something like Fate by Susane Colasan. There were 267 pages in this story and the genre of the book is romance. The main setting in the novel is in a high school. The main characters name is Lani and she’s a young teen who believes everything her horoscope tells her. She is also best friends with a girl named Erin and her friend Blake. The whole story focuses on mostly Erin, Jason, and Lani. Jason is Erin’s boyfriend and Jason and Lani secretly start having feelings for each other.

 The three characters Lani, Jason, and Erin are really good friends I high school but the conflict starts as Lani and Jason start having feelings for each other. Lani is afraid to date Jason because Jason is dating her best friend and she doesn’t want to ruin their friendship. Lani tries throughout the novel to keep her feelings for him a secret but her close friend Blake starts to notice how they are with each other. Jason doesn’t want Erin to hate either of them is he dated her best friend so they both decide to hide their feelings. Lani really likes Jason and she feels that horoscope is always right and it tells her to follow her dreams and she will be happy. Erin later starts to notice how much Jason and Lani hang out and how they look at each other. In the whole book Lani is trying to decide whether or not Jason is worth losing her best friend and if she should follow fate. 

Quarter 1 SSR Book Review

One of the novels I read in the first quarter of the school year was Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. This book is a young adult fiction set in 2011 in Nebraska. The story is about a girl named Cath and her twin sister Wren. Both twins are freshmen at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The book is mainly revolving around Cath. Cath is the total opposite of her sister Wren. Wren is all about the stereotypical college life: partying, drinking, and drugs. Cath, however, prefers to stay in her dorm room and read Simon Snow, which is equivalent to our Harry Potter. However there is a conflict occurring in her dorm room which is restricting her from reading her Simon Snow fan fiction. Cath's roommate Reagan and her friend Levi are causing some sticky situations. Another conflict in this book is that Cath is in a creative writing class and her professor hates the idea of fan fiction, which is all Cath writes. Her professor believes that fan fiction is plagiarism since it's essentially using another person's work. Another conflict would be her family. The twins' parents recently divorced and Wren is acting as if her mother never existed, while their dad is home alone. 

The main character, Cath, is a strong and independent character. Usually, with cliche love stories I am annoyed with the female protagonists because they all fit into the same stereotypical category as whiny and dependent. She stands up for what she believes in and doesn't care what other people think. I somewhat feel connected to Cath because she is nerdy, she fangirls about books, and she proves her point. The writing was simple, it was not hard to analyze which made it somewhat powerful. Most of the characters were dynamic and had much development through out the book. At the end of the story you could tell that the characters grew and matured. This defiently helped the story because without character development it would have been very bland. If I were to change one thing about the story I would ask the author to write from Wren's point of view. It would have been very interesting to see how the other twin felt about the different situations compared to Cath. 

          My first quarter SSR book was not a book in the traditional sense.  My book was Alfred Hitchcock's Tales To Send Chills Down Your Spine.  The reason it is not a book in the traditional sense is because it is actually 29 different stories by various authors. It is 343 pages, and spans a variety of genres; including horror, comedy, and mystery.

          There were many stories I enjoyed, and others I enjoyed less, but there was never one I didn't enjoy.  Most stories come with a twist, or some other kind of surprise.  Since there are many stories, I'll summarize my favorite one.  Man Bites Dogs was my favorite story in this collection, and despite the title, it is not about a man who bites dogs. The main character of this story is Andrew Gerber, a young man looking to become a newspaper writer. While waiting for a bus, a man named Cyril Flagg noticed Andrew's typewriter and hired as Associate Editor of The Dash, the newspaper of a small town.  One day, there is nothing to report about, and Mr. Flagg is very adamant in never, not once, missing an issue of The Dash.  And Mr. Flagg has the brilliant idea to make the news; something Andrew learns he's done time and time again.

          There were not many things I did not like about this book.  However, if I had to choose something, it would be the predictability of some of the stories.  Some, not many though, were somewhat predictable in their twists.  The characters in each story are all different, some are static, some are fluid, yet each personality adds more to the character and makes the story more interesting.

1st Quarter Book Review

For the first quarter,  the book I read was Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  The author of the novel is Seth Grahame-Smith and Jane Austen and there are many genres to this 319 page  novel, they are historical fiction, horror, thriller, and a bit of comedy.

This novel incorporates many important characters such as the 3 Bennett sisters, but Elizabeth Bennett is the main protagonist along with Mr. Darcy.  Mr.Darcy is a bit enclosed about his feelings, serious, and quick witted.  Ms. Elizabeth Bennett is smart, brave, strong, and cunning.  A lot of women empowerment is portrayed as Ms. Elizabeth Bennett fights off the zombies with her sisters.  As for Mr. Darcy, he has a hard time expressing what he feels towards Elizabeth, at first he talks about how manly and unattractive she looked.

Once he catches a glimpse of her fighting off the zombies bravely, Mr.Darcy begins to feel differently about her.  Ms. Bennett was able to hear what he had commented on her, so every time she ran into him, she felt anger and disgust towards him.  But deep down inside Ms. Bennett knew she loved him even after those rude words said by him, although she did not know how he felt about her, she was uninterested to know till later.  There is one suspicious man named Mr. Wickham that tries to captivate Elizabeth's heart, she was enchanted to talk to someone like him.  It was soon enough that she noticed there was a rather unpleasant history between Mr. Darcy and Mr.Wickham, rather they consider each other enemies. Someone is planning a mischievous scheme by involving zombies and who could that be?  

I did not like how the men in this novel just look at women by their beauty and not for their personality or actions. What I did like about the novel was that the three Bennett sisters took action and did not just sit around and wait for a man to protect them from zombies. Other than that, I thought this novel is fascinating because of the women appearing as strong figures rather than men always saving the day.

1st Quarter SSR Book Review

The book that I read for this quarter was a romance/coming of age book called Perks of Being a Wallflower written by Stephen Chbosky.  Using 224 pages, Chbosky tells the story of Charlie, who is a freshman in high school.  He tells his story through letters that give updates on his life during his freshman year.  Charlie is a antisocial guy who does not have a lot of friends, but quickly gains a strong friendship with two unusual friends.  They are brother and sisters named Patrick and Sam.  After learning more about Charlie, they become really close because of Charlie's understanding of everything and Charlie grows to like them because of their honesty and ability to have fun.  Charlie soon grows a liking for Sam who does not have the same feelings.  The story goes onto depict the feelings and conflict high school students go through as they try to find their identity and place in society.

I really liked this book a lot and I suggest that you all read it as well.  I loved how relatable the book was.  The problems and events that happen in this book may not be the same, but they are something that I can relate to.  It shows how we all have our own problems and that we all have to eventually deal with them.  Others may not deal with the same problems in the same way that we do, so we have to learn to understand them and not judge them for their way of doing things.  Also, I liked how much depth there was to the three main characters because it made it easier to connect with them, however I felt that there was not enough detail for the minor characters which made it a little more difficult for me to understand the book and relate with the characters.  One more thing that I did not like was how at times (not all the time) it was unrealistic and the events that happened in the book were very unlikely.  I did like how the format of the book was not traditional and was in the style of letters because it gave it a fun twist.  Lastly, the unpredictable plot points kept you guessing and wondering what would happen in the life of Charlie.

1st Quarter SSR book review

     My first quarter book was called The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. The 454 paged, historical fiction novel was oddly intriguing. Brown explores different themes and topics in Christianity that are frequently talked about, challenged, and misunderstood throughout his novel. 
      Although the story is focused on historical facts, Brown does a phenomenal job of hooking his audience back into the story with various twists in the plot. The main character of Brown's story is Robert Langdon. Robert was a professor in symbols and icons for Harvard University until one day was called in by the Paris police department to crack the code to the murder of the famous Jacques Sauniére. Jacques Sauniére was famous for his writings, books, and thoughts on the secret of the Holy Grail. Sauniére had knowledge about the Grail unknown to any other man. Since he had such important knowledge, Sauniére sought to the quickest way to preserve the secret. Before he died, he set up a series of codes for Robert Langdon and his granddaughter, Sophie Neveu, to follow in order to uncover his secrets. 
      Personally, I enjoyed this book because of the witty remarks made between Robert and Sophie. The fact that you never know what is going to happen is what is really unique about this book. Dan Brown does an exceptional job of involving his audience into the story. He uses french words to indicate if the speaker is french or if the characters or set in France. Finally, the thing that sets The Da Vinci Code apart from other novels, is that Brown takes his audience through the thought process of Robert Langdon. If Langdon ever connects two pieces together the audience is the first to know before any of the other characters. I had a really good experience with this book and I urge that you guys check it out as well.
      

       

[KC]: Quarter 1 SSR Book Review

Hi kids,

Here's your quarter 1 SSR assignment:

Step 1: Create a new POST in which you review the book that you read for the first quarter. If you read more than one book this quarter, you can choose any of them to review. In your review, be sure to clearly state the title, author, genre, and total page number of the book. Then, summarize a bit of the plot (but don't give away the major spoilers!) to give us some context. Next, discuss what you liked or didn't like about this book.
 - Feel free to use these questions to help guide you, but don't feel tied to simply answering them: How was the main character? Did you feel connected? Were the major plot points predictable? How was the writing? Poetic? Simplistic? Were the characters dynamic or static? Did that hurt or help the story? If you were to change anything about the book, what would it be?

Step 2: Once other classmates have posted their reviews, COMMENT on two other reviews. (Be sure to read the comments on your review as well and engage in conversations as necessary.)

DUE: Wednesday, November 30th.