Tuesday
Welcome!
Welcome to the Home School Santa Barbara Book Club. We meet every Thursday at 10:00 to discuss what we are reading. Students self select books, read a minimum of 100 pages per week, and prepare a "letter" to be read to the group each week. It is the theme of each letter that unifies our discussions. The basic themes cover character development, setting, plot structures, and personal response. Each student brings his/her book to club and reads the letter of the week. Discussion follows. Students are encouraged to self-evaluate their work; they are also given evaluative feedback from the group facilitator. The big idea in the Book Club is to read a lot, share with others, and get ideas for new reading material. It is our hope that a lifelong enjoyment of reading is developed. It's a good thing!
Free Choice Letter May 21, 2009
Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Dear Book Club,
The book I am reading is titled Lovely Bones and it is written by Alice Sebold. The novel Lovely Bones is about the murder of a 14 year-old girl named Susie Salmon living in Norristown, Pennsylvania. One day, Susie is walking home from school when a neighbor, named Mr. Harvey, lures Susie into his dugout saying that he’s going to show her something that he had built for her. When Susie gets in the dugout, Mr. Harvey rapes her and then he pulls out a knife and stabs her to death. After she dies, Susie goes to her version of heaven. Susie’s body is never found, but the police find her hat and her elbow in the cornfield near Susie’s house. Mr. Harvey takes Susie’s body back to his house and puts it into a safe and throws it into a sinkhole. Susie’s father then suspects Mr. Harvey killed Susie because he has been acting weird. Mr. Salmon hires detective Fenerman to solve Susie’s murder. Mr. Fenerman and Susie’s mom, Abigail, begin having an affair. Susie’s sister, Lindsey, then breaks into Mr. Harvey’s house and steals a picture of the dugout where Susie was killed from Mr. Harvey’s house but Harvey comes home and catches Lindsey but Lindsey is able to escape. Everyone thinks that Harvey killed Susie. Abigail leaves the family and moves to California. Susie’s dad has a heart attack and almost dies. Abigail and Susie’s dad eventually get back together and when Harvey tries to prey on another teenage girl Susie is able to use her powers in heaven to kill Mr. Harvey.
Mr. Harvey looks like an average white male with dark hair and glasses that his eyes peered out over. Mr. Harvey is about average height and he is a little bit overweight.
I would Mr. Harvey with the adjectives disturbed and selfish. Mr. Harvey is disturbed because of all the things that happened to him when he was a child. His mother used to teach him how to steal things from graves and his mother also used to tell him that dead people weren’t important to think about and that stealing things from dead people was alright. His mother also used to sleep with him and he was made fun of a lot because of this. He seems to have sexual thoughts about his mother but she doesn’t seem to stop these thoughts but makes them worse through the secrecy and her sleeping with him when he is older. He was even there when his mother ran some guy over because the guy was making fun of them for being cuddled up in a car.
Mr. Harvey is selfish because of all the things he does to people and doesn’t care about hurting them or their families. We know that Mr. Harvey killed lots of other young girls because Susie sees them all in heaven and Mr. Harvey has disturbing dreams about all these people that he killed. Mr. Harvey has to be selfish to act like this and not care about hurting other people. He is only thinking of what he wants and needs and not thinking of how his actions effect other people.
These characteristics are important to the story because without this there would be no murder and no story. I don’t like this character because he is sick but part of me feels sorry for all the stuff that his mother did to him. His mother made him sick and twisted and it’s not completely his fault he is this way but I still think that you shouldn’t rape people and kill people just because you had a bad childhood.
—Analiza Zungri (8th grade)
The Hand You’re Dealt by Paul Volponi
Dear Book Club,
The book I have currently finished is titled, The Hand You’re Dealt, by Paul Volponi.
It has 168 pages. When Huck Porter’s father suddenly dies, things don’t seem like they’ll ever make sense again. Huck's “best friend” thinks he should deal with it, and abandons him, and the girl he likes won’t give him the time of day. To make things worse, Mr. Abbott, a hungry card shark and Huck’s math teacher, now wears the poker winner’s watch that Abbott stole from his deathbed. Now Huck vows to get even no matter what it takes. The main character is Huck Porter, a seventeen year old boy, dealing with the loss of his dad. When Huck enters the poker tournament to win back the watch, he wears headphones, dark sunglasses, and a baseball cap, so none of the other players will recognize him or “read” him. One of the main personality traits of Huck’s, and one of the themes in the book, is vengeance. Because Abbott stole his father’s winning watch while he was dying, Huck spends all of his time watching Abbott, developing his poker skills, and dreaming of ways to get even with him. An example of this would be when Huck begins to watch Abbott in class, “Reading” him for signs of bluffing, and beginning to have daydreams of Abbott being respectful to him and his mother. On the other hand, Huck is very sensitive. His mother doesn’t have much money, working double shifts to make ends meet. Because the poker tournament is for 18-teen year olds and up, Huck lies to his mother, and this makes him very uncomfortable and guilty, like when his mother told him she knew he was at the rec-center, but for a different reason than playing poker, and after lying to her, Huck examines himself wondering if he’s doing the right thing. These personality traits are important to the story because without them, there would be no story. This is a coming-of-age book with poker, and was good until the end, which sucked. Huck’s a good character, and the only thing I dislike is that he gets into the game too much, and cant focus on the world outside. This book was okay, and even though I didn’t really understand all the poker terms, it was interesting for a quick read.
—Amariah Walton (8th grade)
Dear Book Club,The book I am reading is titled Lovely Bones and it is written by Alice Sebold. The novel Lovely Bones is about the murder of a 14 year-old girl named Susie Salmon living in Norristown, Pennsylvania. One day, Susie is walking home from school when a neighbor, named Mr. Harvey, lures Susie into his dugout saying that he’s going to show her something that he had built for her. When Susie gets in the dugout, Mr. Harvey rapes her and then he pulls out a knife and stabs her to death. After she dies, Susie goes to her version of heaven. Susie’s body is never found, but the police find her hat and her elbow in the cornfield near Susie’s house. Mr. Harvey takes Susie’s body back to his house and puts it into a safe and throws it into a sinkhole. Susie’s father then suspects Mr. Harvey killed Susie because he has been acting weird. Mr. Salmon hires detective Fenerman to solve Susie’s murder. Mr. Fenerman and Susie’s mom, Abigail, begin having an affair. Susie’s sister, Lindsey, then breaks into Mr. Harvey’s house and steals a picture of the dugout where Susie was killed from Mr. Harvey’s house but Harvey comes home and catches Lindsey but Lindsey is able to escape. Everyone thinks that Harvey killed Susie. Abigail leaves the family and moves to California. Susie’s dad has a heart attack and almost dies. Abigail and Susie’s dad eventually get back together and when Harvey tries to prey on another teenage girl Susie is able to use her powers in heaven to kill Mr. Harvey.
Mr. Harvey looks like an average white male with dark hair and glasses that his eyes peered out over. Mr. Harvey is about average height and he is a little bit overweight.
I would Mr. Harvey with the adjectives disturbed and selfish. Mr. Harvey is disturbed because of all the things that happened to him when he was a child. His mother used to teach him how to steal things from graves and his mother also used to tell him that dead people weren’t important to think about and that stealing things from dead people was alright. His mother also used to sleep with him and he was made fun of a lot because of this. He seems to have sexual thoughts about his mother but she doesn’t seem to stop these thoughts but makes them worse through the secrecy and her sleeping with him when he is older. He was even there when his mother ran some guy over because the guy was making fun of them for being cuddled up in a car.
Mr. Harvey is selfish because of all the things he does to people and doesn’t care about hurting them or their families. We know that Mr. Harvey killed lots of other young girls because Susie sees them all in heaven and Mr. Harvey has disturbing dreams about all these people that he killed. Mr. Harvey has to be selfish to act like this and not care about hurting other people. He is only thinking of what he wants and needs and not thinking of how his actions effect other people.
These characteristics are important to the story because without this there would be no murder and no story. I don’t like this character because he is sick but part of me feels sorry for all the stuff that his mother did to him. His mother made him sick and twisted and it’s not completely his fault he is this way but I still think that you shouldn’t rape people and kill people just because you had a bad childhood.
—Analiza Zungri (8th grade)
The Hand You’re Dealt by Paul Volponi
Dear Book Club,
The book I have currently finished is titled, The Hand You’re Dealt, by Paul Volponi.
It has 168 pages. When Huck Porter’s father suddenly dies, things don’t seem like they’ll ever make sense again. Huck's “best friend” thinks he should deal with it, and abandons him, and the girl he likes won’t give him the time of day. To make things worse, Mr. Abbott, a hungry card shark and Huck’s math teacher, now wears the poker winner’s watch that Abbott stole from his deathbed. Now Huck vows to get even no matter what it takes. The main character is Huck Porter, a seventeen year old boy, dealing with the loss of his dad. When Huck enters the poker tournament to win back the watch, he wears headphones, dark sunglasses, and a baseball cap, so none of the other players will recognize him or “read” him. One of the main personality traits of Huck’s, and one of the themes in the book, is vengeance. Because Abbott stole his father’s winning watch while he was dying, Huck spends all of his time watching Abbott, developing his poker skills, and dreaming of ways to get even with him. An example of this would be when Huck begins to watch Abbott in class, “Reading” him for signs of bluffing, and beginning to have daydreams of Abbott being respectful to him and his mother. On the other hand, Huck is very sensitive. His mother doesn’t have much money, working double shifts to make ends meet. Because the poker tournament is for 18-teen year olds and up, Huck lies to his mother, and this makes him very uncomfortable and guilty, like when his mother told him she knew he was at the rec-center, but for a different reason than playing poker, and after lying to her, Huck examines himself wondering if he’s doing the right thing. These personality traits are important to the story because without them, there would be no story. This is a coming-of-age book with poker, and was good until the end, which sucked. Huck’s a good character, and the only thing I dislike is that he gets into the game too much, and cant focus on the world outside. This book was okay, and even though I didn’t really understand all the poker terms, it was interesting for a quick read.
—Amariah Walton (8th grade)
Monday
Plot Letters (Character's Perspective) May 14, 2009
Lovely Bones by Alice SeboldDear Book Club,
The book I am reading is titled Lovely Bones and it is written by Alice Sebold. The novel Lovely Bones is about the murder of a fourteen year-old girl named Susie Salmon.
Susie is walking home from school one day when Mr. Harvey lures Susie into his dugout and then rapes and stabs her to death. After she dies, Susie goes to live in her version of heaven that looks like her hometown and high school. Only Susie’s hat and her elbow are found. Police suspect that Susie’s friend Ray Singh is the murderer but then figure out that he couldn’t have killed Susie. Mr. Harvey then takes Susie’s body and stuffs it into a safe and throws it into a sinkhole. Mr. Harvey keeps Susie’s charm bracelet and throws it into a field where a lake is being built. Susie’s father then sees Mr. Harvey building a tent and asks if he knows anything about Susie. Mr. Harvey’s answers make Mr. Salmon think that Mr. Harvey killed Susie.
Mr. Salmon then hires detective Fenerman to solve Susie’s murder and tells Fenerman that he think Mr. Harvey killed Susie. Fenerman then begins to question Harvey and Harvey tells Fenerman that he is building a tent to honor his dead wife Leah even though he told Mr. Salmon that his dead wife was named Sophia. Mr. Salmon is now positive that Mr. Harvey killed Susie.
Now everyone in the family begins to suspect that Mr. Harvey killed Susie. Susie’s mom doesn’t seem to really care though because she is having an affair with the private detective Fenerman. The daughter then sees the detective and the mother having an affair but she doesn’t say anything to anyone. Lindsey, Susie’s sister, then decides to try to find out whether Mr. Harvey killed Susie so she breaks into his house to try to find some evidence to give to the police. When she breaks into the house, she sees Susie’s ghost running around the house talking about all of the people that Mr. Harvey killed. Lindsey follows Susie up the stairs and finds a drawing of the dugout where Susie was killed. At that moment, Mr. Harvey walks into the house and hears a creaking up stairs. So Mr. Harvey runs up the stairs to try find out who’s up there and Lindsey jumps out the window and runs home with the drawing.
Mr. Harvey calls the police to tell them that Lindsey has broken into his house but the police have talked to Lindsey and know that she has a drawing of the dugout. Mr. Harvey says that he drew the sketch after she died so that he could help solve the murder. The police apologize to Mr. Harvey and he refuses to press charges against Lindsey.
Later, we find out that Mr. Harvey’s mom taught him that women and children are evil. He also used to play a game with his mom where he would steal things from dead people.
I think the climax of the book will happen when Mr. Harvey is found to be the murderer when Susie’s charm bracelet falls out of his pocket or something like that. I think the resolution will happen when Mr. Harvey is put in jail and Susie’s soul is allowed to go to real heaven and get away from this earth. I also think that Susie’s parents will divorce but they will be happier and the dad will be really happy because he worked so hard to figure out who killed Susie.
—Analiza Zungri (8th grade)
The Doll’s House by Katherine Mansfield
Dear Book Club;
I have currently just finished reading a short story, The Doll’s House, by Katherine Mansfield. It is about three sisters, Kezia, Isabelle, and Lottie Burnell who live with their wealthy family in a small town in New Zealand. After a family friend gives the Burnell children a present of a doll house, the girls go to school and start to brag about it. It wasn’t just any doll house, it was a magnificent doll house that was about four feet tall and five feet wide, and it had every thing in it from carpet in the drawing room to a stove and tiny plates and even a little oil lamp that looked almost as if you could light it. Their mother said that as long as the dollhouse was in the courtyard they could bring two of their friends from school everyday to come see it.
Now, this school that the Burnell children went to, was not at all the place their parents would have chosen had there been a choice, but there was none, for it was the only school for miles, and as a result, all the children from all the different family’s in the neighborhood went to the school-- from the judge’s son to the milkman’s daughters-- and there was sort of a status problem, but it had to end somewhere.
Hi! My name is Kezia Burnell. I am the protagonist and one of the main characters in this story. The antagonist is my society, the main setting is the town I live in, in New Zealand, the rising action begins when my sisters and I, go to school the day after we got our dollhouse, and during our recess gather everyone to brag about it, everyone that is except for the Kelveys. Lil and Else Kelvey were not allowed to play or even talk to us, just because they were very poor and rumor was that their father was in jail. The rising action continues when eventually all the girls at our school had seen our wonderful dollhouse except for the Kelveys.
The climax is when I see the Kelveys walking down the street and I have to decide if I should ignore them or ask them to come and look at our dollhouse. The resolution is when I take the risk of getting in serious trouble, and let the Kelveys into our courtyard to have a peek, and even though I get caught, I still feel like I did the right thing, for once I talked to them I realized that the Kelveys where very nice girls and should not be excluded from society. I predict that I will become very successful and wealthy.
Kezia Burnell
—Muhammad Mehai (9th grade)
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Dear Book Club,
I just started reading a three-hundred page book titled Flowers For Algernon, a novel by Daniel Keyes. I am currently on page one-hundred and thirty. Charlie Gordon was a mentally challenged thirty-two year old with an I.Q. of 62. He can barely read, write, or even talk properly. Until one day when he is chosen by a me and my team of scientists to undergo an experimental surgery designed to boost his intelligence. However, the surgery has only worked on a small white mouse named Algernon. After the surgery Charlie advances faster then we could have imagined. He advances so far that his intelligence surpasses our own. The experiment seems to be an amazing success until, Algernon suddenly deteriorates.
My name is Dr. Jay Strauss, I am the one who did the experiment on Charlie. Charlie is the Protagonist. He lives in a small apartment, and works at a bakery where he is treated very badly but is not smart enough to know. When I first saw him, I knew that he would be the one that we should use. He was not like rest, he wanted to smart. Once we knew we were going to use Charlie for the experiment, we started asking him to write a progress report every day. We also put him through some very simple tests. In one of the tests he had to race Algernon through a maze. And after a short time we were ready for the operation. At first Charlie was disappointed with the results because there was not immediately smarter. However, after short time his I.Q. level started climbing faster then we predicted. He started remembering his family and memories and even starts doing college level classes and books. He shocks the workers at the bakery by inventing a process designed to improve productivity. However, not long afterward, Charlie is fired from his job because the other workers are disturbed by the sudden change in him. Charlie soon becomes overwhelmed and confused by his knowledge and memories. And starts wondering if he should have done the surgery in the first place. This is the Rising to Action.
This is as far as I have read. I have not reached the Climax or Resolution yet, but I can feel the tension building. I predict that Charlie’s hardships will go on, but I am not sure what is going to happen after Algernon deteriorates. This is one of the best books I have ever read. It is very hard to predict but thats what makes it so thrilling. This a great book and a recommend it to all.
—Zane Christenson (9th grade)
Sunday
Character Letter (Character's Perspective) April 30, 2009
Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
The book I am reading is titled Lovely Bones and it is written by Alice Sebold. The novel Lovely Bones is about the murder of Susie Salmon, who is a fourteen year-old girl living in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Susie is walking home from school one day when a neighbor, named Mr. Harvey, lures Susie into his dugout saying that he’s going to show her something that he had built for her. When Susie gets in the dugout, Mr. Harvey asks Susie if she has boyfriend, Susie says that she does not. Then Mr. Harvey knocks her to the ground and begins to rape her after stuffing her hat into her mouth. After he rapes her, Mr. Harvey asks Susie if she loves him and then he pulls out a knife and stabs her to death. After she dies, Susie goes to live in her version of heaven, which looks like her old hometown and high school. In heaven, Susie meets her roommate and her counselor, who helps Susie adjust to her life in heaven. Susie’s body is never found, but the police find Susie’s hat and her elbow in the cornfield near Susie’s house. Police also find Susie’s books and her notes, which includes a love letter from Ray Singh. Police suspect Ray is the murderer but then figure out that he couldn’t have killed Susie. Mr. Harvey then takes Susie’s dismembered body back to his house (except for the elbow that he lost) and stuffs it into a safe and throws the safe into a sinkhole. We find out that Susie is not the only person that Mr. Harvey has killed. Mr. Harvey keeps Susie’s charm bracelet but later decides to throw it into a field where a lake is going be built. He does keep a charm that Susie had of a Pennsylvania Keystone. Susie’s father then sees Mr. Harvey building a tent and goes to help and to ask if he knows anything about Susie and Mr. Harvey’s weird responses makes Mr. Salmon think that Mr. Harvey killed Susie. Mr. Salmon then hires detective Fenerman to solve Susie’s murder and tells Fenerman that he believes Mr. Harvey killed Susie. Fenerman then begins to question Harvey and Harvey tells Fenerman that he is building a tent to honor his dead wife Leah. When Fenerman tells this to Mr. Salmon, Mr. Salmon remembers Mr. Harvey telling him that his dead wife was named Sophia. Mr. Salmon is now positive that Mr. Harvey killed Susie.
Susie’s physically appearance was like most missing girls from the seventies, she was a “white [girl] with mousy brown hair” (pg. 1). She was the oldest of the Salmon children and was beginning to look less and less like a child. Just before she was murdered by Mr. Harvey she commented on her looks by saying “[she]’d had older men look at [her] that way since [she]’d lost [her] baby fat, but they usually didn’t lose their marbles over [her] when [she] was wearing her royal-blue parka and yellow elephant bell-bottoms” (p. 8). Susie is also a cute girl, which we learn when Mr. Harvey says “you are very pretty” (p. 11) to Susie before he rapes and kills her.
Susie’s personality was one that was not very street smart but she was very compassionate. When Susie is being lured into Mr. Harvey’s dugout before she is killed, Mr. Harvey makes a comment that illustrates how Susie is not very street smart when he says “you should be more observant Susie” (p. 8). This quote shows us that Susie is not very street smart because she is not observant to the things around her. Susie’s compassion could be seen when Susie says she is not supposed to like Ray Singh because everyone though he looked like a freak but she like him anyway because he was “nice and smart and helped [her] cheat on [her] algebra exam” (p. 13).
These personality traits are important to the story for many reasons. Most importantly, if Susie was street smart then she would have never been killed by Mr. Harvey because she would have not gone with Mr. Harvey into the dugout by herself. If Susie was never killed by Mr. Harvey then there would be no story. It is also important to the story that Susie is compassionate and caring, I think, because it helps the reader feel really sorry for her and want her murderer to go to jail. If Susie was a horrible person then we wouldn’t really care whether she got murdered or not.
I like this character because she is powerful and trying to solve her own murder, which I think is really inspiring. I also like this character because she loves her family and I love my family and I can totally relate to this character for this reason. I dislike this character because she was not smart enough to figure out that Mr. Harvey was a total weirdo who was trying to kill or molest her. It drives me crazy to think that she was so stupid to not realize that she was getting herself into a dangerous situation.
Analiza Zungri (8th grade)
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Dear Book Club,
The book I have currently finished is titled, Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson. It has 278 pages. Wintergirls is about eighteen year old Lia, who loses her friend to anorexia and is battling the same disorder.
Hello, my name is Lia and I weigh 99 pounds. Me and my friend Cassie made a pact when we were younger to be the skinniest girls alive. So far I’m winning. People call me anorexic, but I never call myself that. I know by heart the calories of everyday food and I try to stay empty as long as I can without my parents finding out. Living with my father, stepmother and stepsister, doing this is easy. I don’t purge like Cassie did, but I exercise and eat very little. I don’t really have a description of my features, except for my height, which is short. I can be very self critical at times, as I edit my thoughts with crossed out lines and sentences. As in this paragraph on page 27; “ The air at the gas station is heavy with diesel and the smell of rancid deep-fryer fat from McDonalds next door. Five days ago I weighed 101.30 pounds. I had to eat at Thanksgiving (vultures all around the table), but since then it’s been mostly water and rice cakes. I am so hungry that I could gnaw off my right hand. I stick three pieces of gum in my mouth, throw out Emma’s potato chips, and fill the tank. I am disgusting.” My parents are unsupportive. They don’t understand that I’m strong, not dying. They say they want to help me, but they can’t do that if their looking in the other direction. Cassie haunts me at night, calling me her wintergirl, saying we're going to be together for New Years. I weigh 95 pounds. I want 85.
Another one of my characteristics is that I am sometimes guilty about “ being strong” and hurting people who try to help me, like I did with Emma. Page 226 “ The bathroom door swings open. Emma sees the blood painting my skin and the red rivers carved on my body. Emma sees the wet knife, silver and bone. The screams of my little sister shatter mirrors.” I obsess over my weight constantly. Ever since I was taken to New Seasons, my weight has been monitored by Jennifer. I hide coins in my bathrobe pockets during weight- ins, I lie out of habit, and my thoughts get more and more destructive as time goes by. In the end, I have to make a choice. To become thinner until I dissolve to nothing? Or to accept people’s help, even though I might not want it.
This book was very hard for me to read. Liaʼs not a character that makes you want to save her, at least not for me, but she’s a very real person, and the sentences are like poetry. This book is NOT for people who love happy ever-afters. Although Lia starts to make a recovery, you don’t exactly know if it’s for keeps. This book was one of the best, and I recommend it to all.
Amariah Walton (8th grade)
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Dear Book Club,
I just finished reading a ninety-page book titled The Metamorphosis, a novel by Franz Kafka. The book is about a young, traveling salesman named Gregor Samsa. He hates his job but continues it because he provides the only source of income for his family. However, one day when Gregor awakes, he finds himself transformed into an insect.
Before Gregor was transformed he was a fit salesman; he had to be for how much traveling he did. However, after he became a bug, he became a hungrier, dirty, cockroach. His body is brown with a hard shell on his back and a soft belly with six little legs. As soon as Gregor is transformed, he is very apprehensive. Without his income his family will all have to get jobs and might not be able to support each other. He is also worried what his family might do when they see his current status. Later he becomes more confident. In the beginning Gregor is almost unable to move because he cannot figure out how to move his body together. But after a little time he is able to move his body and even learns to crawl on walls and fit in smaller spaces and becomes more confident with his body and skills; however, when he tries to help his family he usually just makes things worse.
I like Gregor very much. I find him very honorable and nice. I feel bad for him later in the book as his father and his relationship declines. This book is very unusual because the climax comes very early in the book. It is a great book that has a very deep meaning. You can see a lot of Franz Kafka in this book. It is a must read, my only complaint is that it was so short. I recommend it to all.
Zane Christenson (9th grade)
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelo
Dear Book Club
The book I’m reading is called The Alchemist by Paulo Coelo. It is about a shepherd boy named Santiago (but the author just calls him the boy). The boy gives up being a shepherd to go on a search for treasure. On the way he meets people that give him clues about where his treasure is. He then goes to Egypt and meets the alchemist, but that’s as far as I've gotten.
He is a young man in his twenty’s he is physically fit and handsome. His personality is adventurous, intelligent, and good hearted. He gave up becoming a priest to be a shepherd boy so he could travel and see the world. This shows his love for adventure. He likes to read and he has a curious mind. This shows his intelligence. He helps people by warning then of a vision he had that they were going to be attacked. This shows his good heartedness. All of these characteristics motivate him to search for treasure and find his personal legend. I like that he is adventures.
Griffin Lounsbury (9th grade)
The book I am reading is titled Lovely Bones and it is written by Alice Sebold. The novel Lovely Bones is about the murder of Susie Salmon, who is a fourteen year-old girl living in Norristown, Pennsylvania. Susie is walking home from school one day when a neighbor, named Mr. Harvey, lures Susie into his dugout saying that he’s going to show her something that he had built for her. When Susie gets in the dugout, Mr. Harvey asks Susie if she has boyfriend, Susie says that she does not. Then Mr. Harvey knocks her to the ground and begins to rape her after stuffing her hat into her mouth. After he rapes her, Mr. Harvey asks Susie if she loves him and then he pulls out a knife and stabs her to death. After she dies, Susie goes to live in her version of heaven, which looks like her old hometown and high school. In heaven, Susie meets her roommate and her counselor, who helps Susie adjust to her life in heaven. Susie’s body is never found, but the police find Susie’s hat and her elbow in the cornfield near Susie’s house. Police also find Susie’s books and her notes, which includes a love letter from Ray Singh. Police suspect Ray is the murderer but then figure out that he couldn’t have killed Susie. Mr. Harvey then takes Susie’s dismembered body back to his house (except for the elbow that he lost) and stuffs it into a safe and throws the safe into a sinkhole. We find out that Susie is not the only person that Mr. Harvey has killed. Mr. Harvey keeps Susie’s charm bracelet but later decides to throw it into a field where a lake is going be built. He does keep a charm that Susie had of a Pennsylvania Keystone. Susie’s father then sees Mr. Harvey building a tent and goes to help and to ask if he knows anything about Susie and Mr. Harvey’s weird responses makes Mr. Salmon think that Mr. Harvey killed Susie. Mr. Salmon then hires detective Fenerman to solve Susie’s murder and tells Fenerman that he believes Mr. Harvey killed Susie. Fenerman then begins to question Harvey and Harvey tells Fenerman that he is building a tent to honor his dead wife Leah. When Fenerman tells this to Mr. Salmon, Mr. Salmon remembers Mr. Harvey telling him that his dead wife was named Sophia. Mr. Salmon is now positive that Mr. Harvey killed Susie.
Susie’s physically appearance was like most missing girls from the seventies, she was a “white [girl] with mousy brown hair” (pg. 1). She was the oldest of the Salmon children and was beginning to look less and less like a child. Just before she was murdered by Mr. Harvey she commented on her looks by saying “[she]’d had older men look at [her] that way since [she]’d lost [her] baby fat, but they usually didn’t lose their marbles over [her] when [she] was wearing her royal-blue parka and yellow elephant bell-bottoms” (p. 8). Susie is also a cute girl, which we learn when Mr. Harvey says “you are very pretty” (p. 11) to Susie before he rapes and kills her.
Susie’s personality was one that was not very street smart but she was very compassionate. When Susie is being lured into Mr. Harvey’s dugout before she is killed, Mr. Harvey makes a comment that illustrates how Susie is not very street smart when he says “you should be more observant Susie” (p. 8). This quote shows us that Susie is not very street smart because she is not observant to the things around her. Susie’s compassion could be seen when Susie says she is not supposed to like Ray Singh because everyone though he looked like a freak but she like him anyway because he was “nice and smart and helped [her] cheat on [her] algebra exam” (p. 13).
These personality traits are important to the story for many reasons. Most importantly, if Susie was street smart then she would have never been killed by Mr. Harvey because she would have not gone with Mr. Harvey into the dugout by herself. If Susie was never killed by Mr. Harvey then there would be no story. It is also important to the story that Susie is compassionate and caring, I think, because it helps the reader feel really sorry for her and want her murderer to go to jail. If Susie was a horrible person then we wouldn’t really care whether she got murdered or not.
I like this character because she is powerful and trying to solve her own murder, which I think is really inspiring. I also like this character because she loves her family and I love my family and I can totally relate to this character for this reason. I dislike this character because she was not smart enough to figure out that Mr. Harvey was a total weirdo who was trying to kill or molest her. It drives me crazy to think that she was so stupid to not realize that she was getting herself into a dangerous situation.
Analiza Zungri (8th grade)
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Dear Book Club,
The book I have currently finished is titled, Wintergirls, by Laurie Halse Anderson. It has 278 pages. Wintergirls is about eighteen year old Lia, who loses her friend to anorexia and is battling the same disorder.
Hello, my name is Lia and I weigh 99 pounds. Me and my friend Cassie made a pact when we were younger to be the skinniest girls alive. So far I’m winning. People call me anorexic, but I never call myself that. I know by heart the calories of everyday food and I try to stay empty as long as I can without my parents finding out. Living with my father, stepmother and stepsister, doing this is easy. I don’t purge like Cassie did, but I exercise and eat very little. I don’t really have a description of my features, except for my height, which is short. I can be very self critical at times, as I edit my thoughts with crossed out lines and sentences. As in this paragraph on page 27; “ The air at the gas station is heavy with diesel and the smell of rancid deep-fryer fat from McDonalds next door. Five days ago I weighed 101.30 pounds. I had to eat at Thanksgiving (vultures all around the table), but since then it’s been mostly water and rice cakes. I am so hungry that I could gnaw off my right hand. I stick three pieces of gum in my mouth, throw out Emma’s potato chips, and fill the tank. I am disgusting.” My parents are unsupportive. They don’t understand that I’m strong, not dying. They say they want to help me, but they can’t do that if their looking in the other direction. Cassie haunts me at night, calling me her wintergirl, saying we're going to be together for New Years. I weigh 95 pounds. I want 85.
Another one of my characteristics is that I am sometimes guilty about “ being strong” and hurting people who try to help me, like I did with Emma. Page 226 “ The bathroom door swings open. Emma sees the blood painting my skin and the red rivers carved on my body. Emma sees the wet knife, silver and bone. The screams of my little sister shatter mirrors.” I obsess over my weight constantly. Ever since I was taken to New Seasons, my weight has been monitored by Jennifer. I hide coins in my bathrobe pockets during weight- ins, I lie out of habit, and my thoughts get more and more destructive as time goes by. In the end, I have to make a choice. To become thinner until I dissolve to nothing? Or to accept people’s help, even though I might not want it.
This book was very hard for me to read. Liaʼs not a character that makes you want to save her, at least not for me, but she’s a very real person, and the sentences are like poetry. This book is NOT for people who love happy ever-afters. Although Lia starts to make a recovery, you don’t exactly know if it’s for keeps. This book was one of the best, and I recommend it to all.
Amariah Walton (8th grade)
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Dear Book Club,
I just finished reading a ninety-page book titled The Metamorphosis, a novel by Franz Kafka. The book is about a young, traveling salesman named Gregor Samsa. He hates his job but continues it because he provides the only source of income for his family. However, one day when Gregor awakes, he finds himself transformed into an insect.
Before Gregor was transformed he was a fit salesman; he had to be for how much traveling he did. However, after he became a bug, he became a hungrier, dirty, cockroach. His body is brown with a hard shell on his back and a soft belly with six little legs. As soon as Gregor is transformed, he is very apprehensive. Without his income his family will all have to get jobs and might not be able to support each other. He is also worried what his family might do when they see his current status. Later he becomes more confident. In the beginning Gregor is almost unable to move because he cannot figure out how to move his body together. But after a little time he is able to move his body and even learns to crawl on walls and fit in smaller spaces and becomes more confident with his body and skills; however, when he tries to help his family he usually just makes things worse.
I like Gregor very much. I find him very honorable and nice. I feel bad for him later in the book as his father and his relationship declines. This book is very unusual because the climax comes very early in the book. It is a great book that has a very deep meaning. You can see a lot of Franz Kafka in this book. It is a must read, my only complaint is that it was so short. I recommend it to all.
Zane Christenson (9th grade)
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelo
Dear Book Club
The book I’m reading is called The Alchemist by Paulo Coelo. It is about a shepherd boy named Santiago (but the author just calls him the boy). The boy gives up being a shepherd to go on a search for treasure. On the way he meets people that give him clues about where his treasure is. He then goes to Egypt and meets the alchemist, but that’s as far as I've gotten.
He is a young man in his twenty’s he is physically fit and handsome. His personality is adventurous, intelligent, and good hearted. He gave up becoming a priest to be a shepherd boy so he could travel and see the world. This shows his love for adventure. He likes to read and he has a curious mind. This shows his intelligence. He helps people by warning then of a vision he had that they were going to be attacked. This shows his good heartedness. All of these characteristics motivate him to search for treasure and find his personal legend. I like that he is adventures.
Griffin Lounsbury (9th grade)
Saturday
Book Review for Shelfari, April 23, 2009
The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell by John Crawford
Dear Book Club,
I just finished reading a two hundred and twenty page book entitled, The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell, a novel by John Crawford. It is a true story about a man named John Crawford who joined the National Guard to help pay for college. All he had to do was work one weekend per month and his college tuition would be free. However, newly married and two months short of finishing college, he was called to active duty and sent to the dirty rundown streets of Iraq. And one year of duty turned into the worst three years of his life.
John Crawford has many themes in the book: loyalty, survival and bravery. Loyalty is one of the main underlying themes which can be seen on every page, because no matter what rank you were every solider had to watch out for each other. Survival is demonstrated in every chapter. Every day John and his squad had to battle to survive from enemy ambushes, heat stroke, sickness and depression. During the book, after John loses one of his best friends in combat, he just about kills himself from depression. The negative mental affects of living in a state of war were just one more thing soldiers had to overcome to survive.
One of my favorite sections from the book is when John and his squad are watching a deserted chemical plant. Three men stood guard while the other three slept. However, the building was so big that three guys couldn’t effectively guard the whole area at once. John and two of his squad members had just got off guard duty and were trying to catch some “shut-eye”. There was a lot of wind that night, not to mention noise from helicopters and machine gun fire. They were all about to go to sleep when a big gust of wind came and one of the windows in the room shattered. Something small and round hit the ground and started rolling towards the soldiers. It was too dark to tell what it was but it was pretty clear to the men. The soldier sitting next to John yelled “GRANADE!!!!” and all three men dove for cover, hands overhead. After twenty seconds, and no explosion John got up to look at what ever it was. He poked it with his foot and then picked it up just to find a coke can that blew in the window when it broke.
John Crawford is an excellent writer. I have no complaints. You can almost feel the one hundred and twenty degree weather and smell the stagnant water in the street. Every chapter seemed to be more intense than the last. You got to know every one of his fellow soldiers as well as his enemies. You were able to see the good side and the bad side of things. His writing style made it very easy to read and made me not want to put down the book.
The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell is a great book. It is a very easy read as it is quite short, but it is one of the most intense books I have ever read. I was very disappointed when I finished it because it ended so soon. The writer nailed the plot, rising action, resolution and the climax. I did not find one problem with this book. This is one of my favorite books.
Zane Christenson (9th grade)
CRANK by Ellen Hopkins
Dear Book Club,
I read the book CRANK, by Ellen Hopkins. This book is about Kristina Georgia and how the drug crank (methamphetamine) changed her and her life. It all started when Kristina was sent to her father’s house in New Mexico. At her father’s house she meets Adam aka Buddy. Buddy introduces Kristina to the drug that would soon take over her life. Kristina called herself “Bree” to the new people she met. Bree was her alter-ego. Someone who was outgoing and carefree while Kristina was held back and shy. Bree fell in love with Buddy while she was in New Mexico, but eventually she had to go home back to Reno. They wrote letters but their love did not last. Bree found herself dating two guys, Brendan and Chase, in order to get her hands on crank. Chase and Kristina soon fell in love, but their love fell apart when Kristina was pregnant with Brendan’s baby and Chase left to college. During her pregnancy Bree has to face the facts that she can’t let crank control her anymore for her child’s sake.
I don’t have a favorite section of this book, but there are many dramatic parts including when Bree starts selling crank for the Mexican mafia. It’s crazy to think that an affluent fifteen year old girl can be selling drugs for a huge gang. Also, the first time Bree tries “The Monster” she does it with her slimy long absent dad. I can’t believe someone suffering from a major drug addiction could watch their daughter follow in their footsteps and do nothing about it.
I think that the main theme of Crank is that you shouldn’t take a drug that you know is bad for your body because you will become addicted to it and it will control your life and your morals. This book proves that point by showing how Kristina’s life starting spiraling downward the moment she let the monster, crank into her life. Kristina became addicted and the only thing that mattered to her was the rush crank gave her and how the drug affected her everyday decisions. Bree would do just about anything to get her hands on the drug.
I think that this book was very well written. It is written in journal entry –like poems (some poems, for instance, are written in two columns that can be read separately or together).The author uses extremely descriptive language with a lot of detail. This book shows how the main character Kristina, a strait A student that never gets in any trouble, develops into Bree, the exact opposite a fearless drug addict. There was not really much of a resolution to this story, so I am going to read the sequel to find out what happens to Kristina and her new baby.
I recommend this book to all teenagers. It’s a very depressing story but it is also realistic and very well written.
Tiffany Dunion (9th)
Dear Book Club,
I just finished reading a two hundred and twenty page book entitled, The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell, a novel by John Crawford. It is a true story about a man named John Crawford who joined the National Guard to help pay for college. All he had to do was work one weekend per month and his college tuition would be free. However, newly married and two months short of finishing college, he was called to active duty and sent to the dirty rundown streets of Iraq. And one year of duty turned into the worst three years of his life.
John Crawford has many themes in the book: loyalty, survival and bravery. Loyalty is one of the main underlying themes which can be seen on every page, because no matter what rank you were every solider had to watch out for each other. Survival is demonstrated in every chapter. Every day John and his squad had to battle to survive from enemy ambushes, heat stroke, sickness and depression. During the book, after John loses one of his best friends in combat, he just about kills himself from depression. The negative mental affects of living in a state of war were just one more thing soldiers had to overcome to survive.
One of my favorite sections from the book is when John and his squad are watching a deserted chemical plant. Three men stood guard while the other three slept. However, the building was so big that three guys couldn’t effectively guard the whole area at once. John and two of his squad members had just got off guard duty and were trying to catch some “shut-eye”. There was a lot of wind that night, not to mention noise from helicopters and machine gun fire. They were all about to go to sleep when a big gust of wind came and one of the windows in the room shattered. Something small and round hit the ground and started rolling towards the soldiers. It was too dark to tell what it was but it was pretty clear to the men. The soldier sitting next to John yelled “GRANADE!!!!” and all three men dove for cover, hands overhead. After twenty seconds, and no explosion John got up to look at what ever it was. He poked it with his foot and then picked it up just to find a coke can that blew in the window when it broke.
John Crawford is an excellent writer. I have no complaints. You can almost feel the one hundred and twenty degree weather and smell the stagnant water in the street. Every chapter seemed to be more intense than the last. You got to know every one of his fellow soldiers as well as his enemies. You were able to see the good side and the bad side of things. His writing style made it very easy to read and made me not want to put down the book.
The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell is a great book. It is a very easy read as it is quite short, but it is one of the most intense books I have ever read. I was very disappointed when I finished it because it ended so soon. The writer nailed the plot, rising action, resolution and the climax. I did not find one problem with this book. This is one of my favorite books.
Zane Christenson (9th grade)
CRANK by Ellen Hopkins
Dear Book Club,
I read the book CRANK, by Ellen Hopkins. This book is about Kristina Georgia and how the drug crank (methamphetamine) changed her and her life. It all started when Kristina was sent to her father’s house in New Mexico. At her father’s house she meets Adam aka Buddy. Buddy introduces Kristina to the drug that would soon take over her life. Kristina called herself “Bree” to the new people she met. Bree was her alter-ego. Someone who was outgoing and carefree while Kristina was held back and shy. Bree fell in love with Buddy while she was in New Mexico, but eventually she had to go home back to Reno. They wrote letters but their love did not last. Bree found herself dating two guys, Brendan and Chase, in order to get her hands on crank. Chase and Kristina soon fell in love, but their love fell apart when Kristina was pregnant with Brendan’s baby and Chase left to college. During her pregnancy Bree has to face the facts that she can’t let crank control her anymore for her child’s sake.
I don’t have a favorite section of this book, but there are many dramatic parts including when Bree starts selling crank for the Mexican mafia. It’s crazy to think that an affluent fifteen year old girl can be selling drugs for a huge gang. Also, the first time Bree tries “The Monster” she does it with her slimy long absent dad. I can’t believe someone suffering from a major drug addiction could watch their daughter follow in their footsteps and do nothing about it.
I think that the main theme of Crank is that you shouldn’t take a drug that you know is bad for your body because you will become addicted to it and it will control your life and your morals. This book proves that point by showing how Kristina’s life starting spiraling downward the moment she let the monster, crank into her life. Kristina became addicted and the only thing that mattered to her was the rush crank gave her and how the drug affected her everyday decisions. Bree would do just about anything to get her hands on the drug.
I think that this book was very well written. It is written in journal entry –like poems (some poems, for instance, are written in two columns that can be read separately or together).The author uses extremely descriptive language with a lot of detail. This book shows how the main character Kristina, a strait A student that never gets in any trouble, develops into Bree, the exact opposite a fearless drug addict. There was not really much of a resolution to this story, so I am going to read the sequel to find out what happens to Kristina and her new baby.
I recommend this book to all teenagers. It’s a very depressing story but it is also realistic and very well written.
Tiffany Dunion (9th)
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