Then, she blacked out. Visions flooded her mind. Carnivel tents, ragged magicians hats, and the storyteller. Buttons being sewn into her skin, and yarn being used as hair. All the memories came flooding back. The fiction book Conjured by Sarah Beth Durst takes place in the early 2000's in multiple worlds. The main character is Eve. Eve is a teen girl that doesn't have a past. She is in the witness protection program, because of her ominous past. The past that she doesn't even know about. Eve is strong-willed and independant. The central conflict is the cops trying to figure out what happened in Eve's past, but if Eve can't even remember her past, she can't be much of a help.. or so they think.
Theme Analysis: This book makes me think about injustice because of how the police and FBI can use people. You are a witness if you saw whatever crime took place. Because you were at the wrong place at the wrong time, you can be used for whatever purposes the police want to use you for. That could also make you a target. The witness protection program in this book is supposed to protect you and lead you to a better life, but what if you like your life the way it is. They police just assume you are a target, and they change your whole life around. You get a new look, a new name, and a whole new identity. At the end of this book, when they are done using Eve for information, they court rules to "dispose" of Eve. She was related to the case, therefore they think they can automatically dispose of her. That is injustice.
This book overall was a good read and I recommend it to eighth graders and up. For kids younger than that, some things in the book might be hard for them to understand.
Thursday, May 8, 2014
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
The Private Game
The London Games were going to be the same as every other Olympics. Or so they thought. The opening ceremony was about to start. When all of the sudden, shots are fired. Someone is killed. The book The Private Games by James Patterson is a young adult fiction book. It takes place at the 2012 London Olympic Games. Peter Knight, the father of kid twins, is the main character. He works for the F.B.I. and is determined to find the killer. The killer goes by the name of Cronus. Cronus: the Titan god of time and the ages. When mysterious letters from Cronus start coming in, things get creepy.
Knight needs to find the killer. More important to him though, is his kids safety. When one of the killers starts to get close to his children, he gets even more determined to lock away these monsters forever.
I think the most surprising aspect of this book is how long it took the F.B.I. to find the killers. Cronus was leaving clues everywhere, but the cops were totally oblivious. This book was very well-written and the author paid very good attention to details. Each chapter made you want to keep reading. When it ended, it was too soon. One thing it didn't like about the book was how the author had so many characters throughout the book. It made it confusing and hard to remember who was who. What I liked about this book was how it switched off from the killers point of view to the cops point of view every chapter.
I think that anyone from eighth grade and up should read this book. It's a thrilling, action packed book with a lot of drama and detail.
Knight needs to find the killer. More important to him though, is his kids safety. When one of the killers starts to get close to his children, he gets even more determined to lock away these monsters forever.
I think the most surprising aspect of this book is how long it took the F.B.I. to find the killers. Cronus was leaving clues everywhere, but the cops were totally oblivious. This book was very well-written and the author paid very good attention to details. Each chapter made you want to keep reading. When it ended, it was too soon. One thing it didn't like about the book was how the author had so many characters throughout the book. It made it confusing and hard to remember who was who. What I liked about this book was how it switched off from the killers point of view to the cops point of view every chapter.
I think that anyone from eighth grade and up should read this book. It's a thrilling, action packed book with a lot of drama and detail.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
The Book Thief
Liesel just wants the war to be over and everything to be right again. From the day she watches her own brother die, she knows she needs to do something. To fight back, even if it's only a small thing. Like stealing books. The book The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a fiction book based in Nazi Germany during the Holocaust. This book is not in a series. The two main characters are Liesel and Max. Liesel is a non-Jewish school girl that is not living with her family. She is harboring a Jew in her basement named Max. Max is a shy Jew who spends all of his time living in Liesel's basement.
The writers style was very sophisticated and very to the point, but at the same time he made it so you have to think about what you're reading. He uses a lot of metaphors, similes, and personifications. "The last time I saw her was red. The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places, it was burned. There were black crumbs, mad pepper, streaked across the redness." (Zusak, page 12) That passage makes you really think. It has smiles and metaphors. It's a little poetic,
even. The whole book is in the point of view of death.
I didn't like in the book that the chapters seemed to go on forever. For me, it was a little boring. The author did a great job of expressing emotions and making the reader feel like they were in the book.
The writers style was very sophisticated and very to the point, but at the same time he made it so you have to think about what you're reading. He uses a lot of metaphors, similes, and personifications. "The last time I saw her was red. The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places, it was burned. There were black crumbs, mad pepper, streaked across the redness." (Zusak, page 12) That passage makes you really think. It has smiles and metaphors. It's a little poetic,
even. The whole book is in the point of view of death.
I didn't like in the book that the chapters seemed to go on forever. For me, it was a little boring. The author did a great job of expressing emotions and making the reader feel like they were in the book.
Thursday, January 23, 2014
Mary Mary
Mary Mary by James Patterson is an intense book full of thrill and excitement. Someone is murdering Hollywood's greatest starts. People with the "perfect family." The killer goes by the name of Mary Smith. "ACT ONE, SCENE ONE, the Storyteller thought to himself, and couldn’t hold back a dizzying rush of anticipation. The truth was that ordinary people committed perfect crimes and perfect murders all the time. But you didn’t hear about it for the simple reason that the killers never got caught." (Page 1 Patterson.) While on vacation with his three kids, F.B.I. agent Alex Cross gets a phone call saying he needs to help investigate these tragedies immediately. When he gets back, his youngest son is gone. Alex realizes it's up to him to save the lives of innocent people and bring this killer to justice. When he is face to face with death, will he be able to stay strong and finish what he started, or give up and leave it to someone else.
My favorite character is Alex Cross. He is a single father of three, and at the same time he manages to be a F.B.I. agent. He is always filled with hope and never gives up. Even when it seems like nothing is going his way, he still sticks his head up and gets through the day. He has gotten through murders, his ex-wife's kidnapping, a divorce, and almost dying multiple times. He stays strong and helps the people around him.
I recommend this book to 14 year olds and up. It's a very good book, but there is a lot of murder. It also is pretty long and the words are pretty small. It would be hard for people under 14 to read. It has a lot of detail and sadness through-out the book, and younger kids wouldn't understand some things in the book. Anyone above the age of 14 should be able to read it just fine, unless you don't like murder-type books.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
The Dead and the Gone
He saw the asteroid coming. It hit the moon. In that moment, He realized his whole life was about to change forever.
In the book The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer, Alex Morales's life changes in front of his eyes. An asteroid hits the moon. The moon goes out of orbit, and everything changes.. for good. This takes place in 2003 in New York. It is the second book in the series The Last Survivors. The three main characters are Alex Morales, Julie Morales, and Briana Morales. Alex is a 17 year old kid. He loves school and is a straight A student. Julie is Alex's youngest sister. She is 12 and helps Alex with everything. Briana is the middle child. She is very weak by the middle of the book, so she can not do very many things.
"Alex confessed his sins, including homicidal thoughts, to Father Franco on Saturday and spent the rest of the day silently praying and fasting. He didn't eat again until mass on Sunday, and used the twelve flights of stairs he climbed by Bri's side to meditate on the twelve stations of the cross.
By Sunday night he'd made his plan. The only thing holding him back was his pride, and nowadays pride can kill.
He didn't think twice about the deceptions of Monday morning. Body shopping with Kevin, neither one of them doing much talking. Going back to the apartment with the little he had gathered."
This passage explains so much of the book in a few short paragraphs. He is fasting because he feels bad, but also because there is a shortage of food, due to the asteroid that hit the moon. There is rarely electricity, and that is why he had to walk up 12 flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator. Body shopping is stealing from the dead. Taking their belongings that could be worth something. This explains more than half of what the book talks about. It is written very thoughtfully and careful to detail, just like the whole book.
In the book The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer, Alex Morales's life changes in front of his eyes. An asteroid hits the moon. The moon goes out of orbit, and everything changes.. for good. This takes place in 2003 in New York. It is the second book in the series The Last Survivors. The three main characters are Alex Morales, Julie Morales, and Briana Morales. Alex is a 17 year old kid. He loves school and is a straight A student. Julie is Alex's youngest sister. She is 12 and helps Alex with everything. Briana is the middle child. She is very weak by the middle of the book, so she can not do very many things.
"Alex confessed his sins, including homicidal thoughts, to Father Franco on Saturday and spent the rest of the day silently praying and fasting. He didn't eat again until mass on Sunday, and used the twelve flights of stairs he climbed by Bri's side to meditate on the twelve stations of the cross.
By Sunday night he'd made his plan. The only thing holding him back was his pride, and nowadays pride can kill.
He didn't think twice about the deceptions of Monday morning. Body shopping with Kevin, neither one of them doing much talking. Going back to the apartment with the little he had gathered."
This passage explains so much of the book in a few short paragraphs. He is fasting because he feels bad, but also because there is a shortage of food, due to the asteroid that hit the moon. There is rarely electricity, and that is why he had to walk up 12 flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator. Body shopping is stealing from the dead. Taking their belongings that could be worth something. This explains more than half of what the book talks about. It is written very thoughtfully and careful to detail, just like the whole book.
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