Just Listen by Sara Dessen
Dear Book Club,
I have currently finished reading “Just Listen” by Sarah Dessen. It is 371 pages long and is about a 17 year old girl named Annabel. On the outside her life seems pretty good. She has a loving family, lives in a beautiful home, and is a successful teen model. But her junior year of high school is looking to be the worst year of her life. Her mother has been depressed since the death of her grandmother. Her sisters are not getting along and one of them has a dangerous eating disorder. Annabel wants to quit modeling, but is worried about telling her mother. And she has lost all her friends because of something that happened at the beginning of the summer party that she is unable to tell anyone about, even her family. The only person who talks to her is the one person she would have never imagined being friends with, Owen. He seems to be a loner with anger management issues and a strange taste in music. But there’s one thing he knows all about- how to be honest. Annabel and Owen become good friends and he may be the only person who could help her be honest about what really happened during the party that changed everything.
My name is Annabel and one setting from “Just Listen” is when I’m having dinner with my family. My older sister Kirsten had just come home for a visit from New York and we were all celebrating. I could feel the change in the air. My sister, Whitney had been recovering from her eating disorder and I could tell she was getting better. She was even cooking now. I could smell the saltiness of the stir fry she had made for dinner. My sisters were actually talking and getting along and this made feel very grateful and happy. I grabbed a bowl of the stir fry and it tasted even better than it smelled. Whitney was getting better and better at cooking. I loved our family dinner because we all got along but about a year ago everything had changed. My mom had become depressed and my sisters hardly ever spoke. But now I could tell that things were returning to normal.
In conclusion, I loved this book. It was a positive book and I would definitely recommend it for girls.
Jourdan Tappeiner (10th grade)
Austenland by Shannon Hale
Dear Book Club,
I have currently just finished reading “Austenland” by Shannon Hale it was about 200 pages long. “Austenland” is about a lady named Jane who is obsessed with Pride and Prejudice. When her wealthy aunt dies she leaves her a free trip to Austenland a resort where you relive the book. Jane is very excited about the trip. Once she gets there she soon finds out it is much harder to live in that time period then she had thought. She reads the rules of the resort and decides not to follow them. She ends up falling in love with the gardener instead of the gentle men they had picked out for her. Or so she thought. Through out the book she makes many mistakes that almost get her thrown out of the camp. She finds true love even though it takes her a while recognize it.
The setting I am going to describe to you is when the three couples decide to go on a walk with there assigned partners. I was walking with Mr. Nobley enjoying the beautiful gardens listening to the birds singing and hearing that wonderful sound my shoes and dress made when I walked on the yellow crunchy gravel. When all of a sudden Martin the gardener who I happened to really like was standing waving at me. I felt Mr. Nobleys arm tighten up and I knew there was trouble. Mr. Nobley had already told me not to talk to Martin. And of course I did not listen. My heart started to pound and I thought it was going to pop out of my chest, the other to couples were now a ways ahead of us. Martin was now running towards us and I could see Mr. Nobley's lips turn into one straight line I have learned that when this happens he is very angry. I tried to give Martin a mean look so he would go away but it did not work. It made him run faster. I could almost taste the worry I was feeling. I decided to just ignore him play dumb. I tried my best to lead Mr. Nobley on the trail and as we walked a way I could feel his arm loosen up but I could also feel Martin’s eyes on me I felt like they were going to burn a hole in my head. Well I hope he doesn’t think I don’t like him I guess I will find out after dinner…This setting affects Jane because she really likes Martin but has to ignore him because she could get kicked out of the resort. It affects the feeling and the mood because she does not know if Mr. Nobley will figure out how she knows Martin. I like the place where this takes place because it sounds very pretty and reminds me of one of the gardens at the Getty villa museum.
In conclusion, I have enjoyed this book very much, and am very happy with the ending. Through out the book Jane has many fun adventures and finds true love with the last person you would suspect. I would recommend this book to girls who have read Pride and Prejudice or if you have seen the movie.
Kori Gibson (10th grade)
Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke
Dear Book Club,
Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke is a 680 page book where I, Mo, and my family are transported through a book to a fantasized world ruled by evil and lavish kings. Suddenly I become one of the imagined heroes in the book and I do things I would never think of doing and I have to deal with heroic and dangerous situations.
Halfway through the novel I show my illegal face; you see I am considered a criminal by the government in this other world of the book because I perform illegal acts of kindness. At this point, turning myself into the authorities would free the children from slavery in the village, which resembled that from the Middle Ages. I rode my horse through the woods into the center of the rectangular plaza in front of the Castle of Night. I made sure to close my mouth, for the air tasted like smoke, and dust covered my tongue. The crowd gasped when they saw me and I heard them calling out for their children. Happiness was abundant, with hugs, smiles and laughter and screams of joy, but there was a deep and silent fear for me, their Robin Hood. When I showed myself in this setting, I created the beginning of the climax of the story, proving it to be crucial. I would have been captured by the worst villain and been executed immediately in any other location, whereas in the main plaza I was kept long enough to find my freedom. For the reader there is no happiness when I turn myself in at the plaza and this scene creates an immense amount of fear for my life, I am certain.
I would feel uncomfortable being a townsperson in the plaza but it wouldn’t be that bad. When I did show myself I felt extremely scared and was wondering why I got myself into this situation. A similar setting would be a strange event at a medieval village’s plaza where the village’s limited wealth was being badly traded.
The dangerous plaza scene was the start of the real plot and ended the long subplots written by Funke. This important setting is not very common but it probably has happened before. I enjoyed being exilerated by this section when I read about myself and appreciate it every time.
Sincerely,
Mo
Cheers,
Cody Leeds (8th grade)
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