Over the summer, you were asked to read at least two novels of your choice.
1) Briefly tell me what you read, including the titles and authors.
2)
I want to know what you liked about the books, what you learned and,
more importantly, what matters to you about the books' content.
*Make
sure to adhere to proper conventions and proofread your response. If,
for some reason, you did not read two novels, tell me about two novels
you have read and answer the above. This blog post must be completed by
2:30p.m. on Friday, August 26th, 2016.
22 comments:
I thought the video was truly amazing! It was so cool to see all the stuff they were talking about. I never knew all that! What I thought was amazing was how they found all of the information out. When you put it into perspective there are so many people in the world to just think that millions of people are on Facebook at one time and knowing that possibly you and a lot of your family and friends don't have Facebook or are never on it when they are with you is crazy to think that there are so many people in the world.
I read the book Before You Meet Prince Charming.
Coming into the book I did not want to read the book at all, my mom wanted me to do it with a book club from youth group. The book ended up really impacting me, it thought me how I should live and be honoring to God and that everyone has a plan for their life, and that you shouldn't rush anything. you want to cherish every moment. This book matters to me a lot because it has definitely saves me from making the wrong choices.
This summer I read “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher. It was a really good book and it really showed me how something little that you say could really affect someone's life. This book is really good for people to read in my opinion because it really shows you an example of how things you say really matter. I also read Me Before you which was one of the best books that I have ever read it’s by Jojo Moyes. The reason that it is one of the best books that I have ever read is because it had a good story line and it was well written and it flowed really nicely. One other book that I read was Shattering Glass by Gail Giles. It was a good book that showed perspective based on social status in a school. Shows you that the way you treat someone is important.
Over the summer I read two of the Percy Jackson books, "The Titan's Curse" and "The Battle Of The Labyrinth", both by Rick Riordan. I liked both of these books a lot because although they lead up to one big story, each book takes you on a different adventure that is always very different from the other ones. I learn a lot about mythology because these books usually focus on a different Greek God or Goddess and I learn about different myths. The content of this book matters to me because after reading four of these books I feel kind of connected to the characters and I also really like the story line in each of these.
Over the summer I read "Summer of The Monkey's" by Wilson Rawls as well as "How To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. Going into the summer, I dreaded having to read those books. As I started my first book (SOTM), I noticed that I found myself engaged in the book and enjoyed reading it. To Kill A Mockingbird was a slower read. It was a bigger book and you didn't really get into the story until after a while. After I reached the climax, I couldn't put the book down!!!! These books have inspired me to try and read more, as I enjoyed reading those books very much!!
I read Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson and Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass. Bridge to Terabithia was about Leslie and Jesse who had a safe place across a river that they called Terabithia. I liked this book because it had an older day writing style, as it was published in 1977. From this text I learned that even when things are tough, there is always a way to be happy. The thing that mattered most to me in the content of Bridge to Terabithia was the detail that Paterson put into her book. It made me feel like I was really there with Leslie and Jesse. Jack, Ally, and Bree were the main characters in Every Soul a Star. In the book, Ally and Bree ended up switching home styles (isolated to city and vice versa) involuntarily and Jack went to Ally’s campground to see a solar eclipse to avoid summer school. I really enjoyed how each of the 3 stories tied together to make one story.
This summer, I read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling. It was about Harry's 3rd year at Hogswarts, but there's a prisoner from Azkaban (Wizard prison) after him. While dealing with all the drama at school, Harry also has to watch out for a prisoner after him. I liked this book because it kept me entertained throughout. I learned, that you can still have fun, even if you can't hang out with friends. What matters in this book, I think, is excitement. Continuous exciting events are what keeps the reader interested.
I, also, read The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. It was about a girl named Hazel with lung cancer, who meets a boy, named Augustus, who she falls in love with. Together they fight through cancer and follow each other's dreams. I liked how it described what life is like for a kid who has cancer. I learned that things don't always turn out as amazing as you think they would be. What matters in TFIOS, I think, is how the author describes Hazel and Augustus' love for one another and what they go through. I think I liked The Fault In Our Stars more than Harry Potter.
Over the summer I read Denton Little's Deathdate by Lance Rubin and Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. Both were very fascinating and I'm glad I picked them for summer reading. Denton Little's Deathdate I really enjoyed because of the quirkiness of the characters and the humor and thought put into the story. It was a really unique topic, where the main character was supposedly supposed to die in 24 hours and the whole book took place in 48 hours. I learned a lot about friendship because of how the main character talked about what he did right and wrong when he was put into the perspective of death. In terms of content I would say the humor (it's kind of written like a John Green book) and the way I was able to relate to the characters were what mattered to me.
Packing for Mars was a very different book but it did have some of the humor as well. The thing that mattered most about content was the way it went into detail about how space works. I've been fascinated by it and this book answered lots of my questions. I learned a ton like how showering in space works and what gross "astronaut food" you are forced to eat. I enjoyed the whole thing and found it quite interesting.
Over the summer I read "Kiss & Make Up" and "To All the Boys I've Loved Before". Yes, they are as girly as they sound, but they were actually really interesting. The books were not in the reading list, but I honestly didn't know there was a reading list until the first day of school :) I usually don't like to read, but I get in these super reading phases every once in a while. I am excited to read the books this year and I'm hoping that i'm in a reading phase when we read those books!
This summer, I read two novels for the start of the school year. The novels I read were Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon, and Me Before You by JoJo Moyes. I really enjoyed both of the novels and would love to read both of them again. Something that both of the books had in common that I liked was, the romance aspect. Both of these novels include some romance and I mostly read romance novels. Another aspect that the novels had in common that I liked were how one of the characters in each book was disabled. In Everything, Everything, the main character is allergic to everything in the world. In Me Before You, the main male character was a quadriplegic. When I read a novel, I look for an interesting plot line, no matter what genre it might be. What really matters to me about the books’ content is how well the characters are portrayed and how interesting the overall plot is. Both of these books fit my standards and I really enjoyed reading them.
The first book that I read over the summer was called The Promise of Amazing
by Robin Constantine. This book was about a girl named Wren and a boy named, Grayson. Wren is a quiet good girl opposite of Grayson who is more of a rebel and has an obnoxious personality. Wren’s family owns a catering business and Grayson and his friends are part of the party she is catering at. Wren is bringing around food and Grayson wants to show off, instead he ends up choking. Wren saves his life. Grayson couldn’t stop thinking about Wren after the incident and that’s when the adventure full of drama and falling in love began. I liked this book because I love realistic fiction and the story was kept me wanting to keep reading to see what would happen. I think how the book was written was a very vital piece to the books content. It was never boring to read, there was always something going on and you wanted to know if Wren and Grayson would ever be together. It keep suspense throughout. The second book I read was called Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. This book was about two men named George and Lennie. George was the leader while Lenny was very dumb but strong. Lennie and George had been together through everything but George was getting tired and frustrated with Lennie always causing big trouble that he didn’t mean to do. George and Lennie needed a place to work and earn some money so they found a farm to work at. Both met so many men that worked there but the boss was very strict. Everything was going good until Lennie accidentally killed the boss’s wife. This was a very interesting book, but it was written good and was a suspenseful story. It was a harder text to read because it used older language but it had a good message. I think what I learned from reading two books this summer is that good books always have twists when least expected and keep you wanting to read more.
I read a total of three books this summer and began a fourth for my summer reading. The first book I read was titled, "We All Looked Up" by Tommy Wallach which truly changed my insight on how I value life. In this book four high schoolers tell one story, a story of how Earth and its inhabitants existence are at risk because of Ardor, an asteroid that is predicted to crash on earth and wipe out all life forms. I liked that this book really showed life in a way that none of us really think about; we wake up, go to school or work, come home, spend time with loved ones, eat, and sleep without giving a second though about whether we will see sunlight the next morning. This book made me realize that we take life for granted and made me wonder what we would do if we had only weeks before the world was predicted to end. What matters to me about the books content is that going into high school, peoples ideals may change and their actions may change with them. Throughout the book, the high schoolers were faced with personal issues as well as the major one they all shared, the end of the world. Rushing to not only survive the street fights and fires but to complete their "bucket list" before they die in a number of weeks, made everyone appreciate the value of life and how we often take it for granted. The next book I read was titled, "The Lost Hero" by Rick Riordan which helped me see that there's not always only one side to things. I liked that the book was full of twists and kept me intrigued as to what would happen next. "The Lost Hero" was a story like "We All Looked Up" in the sense that each chapter was told by a different character. In this book, Hera, the goddess of marriage, took the memories of two demigods; one from the greeks and one from the romans. Neither the greek nor the romans knew the other existed and Hera united the two so that they could begin to defeat Gaea, the goddess of Mother Earth who wants to rule all the land. What mattered to me about the content of the book is that I have been put in many situations where I have to work with people who don't share the same views as me and had to learn how to use our individual strengths to complete difficult tasks. Both of these books were challenging in their meanings and concept. They truly stretched my imagination and thought process which I appreciate in books.
One of the books that I read over the summer is called "something upstairs" and its a horror book I chose this book because I'm not a big reader so when I read a book it has to drag me in and only let go of me when its over. I learned that some people take advantage the current state in world because because the something upstairs was a ghost that was a slave from that past and the boy that just moved into the house was asked by the ghost to find the slaves/ghost killer so the son of the movers was able to go back into slaves time and find the murder of the slave.
The other book that I read is call "The Dairy of Anne Frank" and this relate to the other book because both book show how life in he past was and how much of the things that we have today that we take advantage of.
The first book I read in the summer is the book If I Stay by Gayle Forman and I really enjoyed this book. This book from the very beginning was very emotional from what happened to the main character Mias perfect life into a disaster. She lost her parents in a bad car accident and she is parlayed. The way the story describes her life and how she handles this crazy which made me really enjoy the book. I learned that you shouldn't take life for granted because things like this can happen.
My second book that I have read is the fifth wave by Rick Yancey and I liked this book for a similar amount of reasons, with the first book I read. What I learned about this book is that you should never give up because in the book the main character Cassie had to learn to survive all the waves when she was separated from her brother teddy to work with the "others" and cassies dad died as well. She never gave up and found her brother and stole him from the "other" at the very end.
The first book I read this summer was "Me Before You" by Jojo Moyes. I decides to read this book because the movie was coming out and it looked amazing. From the very beginning of the book I could not put it down, the plot had multiple twists and so many moments that just kept you engaged and on the edge of your seat. After I read the book I saw the movie, it wasn't nearly as good as the books, which made me super happy I decided to read it.
The second book I read was "After You" also by Jojo Moyes, the sequel to "Me Before You". This book was not as exciting as the first. I didn't really like the new characters that where brought into the story, they weren't that interesting and kind of dragged the story down for me. The main character Louisa is such an exceptional character to me though, she was the reason I didn't put down the book, she always kept me wondering what was going to happen to her.
Over the summer I read Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer (it is not what is sounds) by Katie Alender. I also read Zac and Mia by A.J. Betts. In Marie Antoinette, Serial Killer I like how the author keeps you on your feet at all times. I also like how mysterious the book was and how it did have a little french in it. In Zac and Mia I like how realistic the story is. Like it does have a lot of emotions and the author doesn’t really hold back. I also like how it tells the story from both perspectives instead of just one, it gave me a bigger picture of what was going on and gave me more intel to what was happening on each side, and what their different thoughts were. I loved both books very much!
This summer I enjoyed reading Looking for Alaska and Zac and Mia. The book Looking for Alaska, written by John Green, takes place at a boarding school in Alabama. The other book Zac and Mia written by A. J. Betts takes place in a cancer wing at a hospital. I really enjoyed Looking for Alaska the characters all had different and distinct personality traits. I liked all of them and found it very entertaining how they all were so different but were still all close and such great friends. What I have learned from this book was that friendship is something to have and cherish. Throughout this book all of the characters became very close. This is what I find to be the most important thing in this book because they were all able to share their secrets and have an amazing friendship and friendship is one of the most important things in life. In the other book that I read two characters who had cancer became very close and bonded through a wall. Since Zac and Mia both had cancer they both had to overcome certain obstacles, I personally liked these parts in the story because they pushed one another and helped them get through the obstacles and tough times. What I learned and found most important was that if you had friends by your side you could get through anything. This is most important to mean because this is something that I can use in my life when I need to overcome challenges I can rely on my friends for help. Both Looking for Alaska and Zac and Mia were great books that helped me learn many life lessons.
Over summer the two novels I chose to read were, The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks and Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. I liked the novel Thirteen Reasons Why because it really opened my eyes up to suicide in teens along with bullying. This book really taught me to be kind to every person that I meet. Not only because it could really make a positive impact on someone’s whole day, but because you never truly know what someone could be going through in their life. A little kindness can go a long way. I really like the other novel I read, The Notebook just because I love reading romance novels. This book taught me something though as well. It taught me to never treat someone differently just because they may not have as much wealth or if they have more. It taught me that social classes really have no important meaning, besides money. They have absolutely to do with the quality of the people that belong to the specific classes. All of what I have learned in both of these books matter a lot to me and have made big impacts on me and remind me to always treat people kind no matter what.
2) I want to know what you liked about the books, what you learned and, more importantly, what matters to you about the books' content.
This summer I read two very different novels, one was Thirteen Reasons why by Jay Asher and Night World:Dark Angel by L.J. Smith. Thirteen Reasons is about a girl who committed suicide and left tapes that had 13 reasons of why she did it. The main character was on those tapes and didn't really have a good reason of why though. Night World:Dark Angel is a book about a girl who went into a forest to save someone and ends up diying, but comes back to life thanks to an "Angel". This so called "Angel" was helping her get noticed but ended up turning evil. What I thought of the books was that the second book was fantastic. I didn't really like the first book because it dragged on a lot and was kinda like she was blaming the people on the tapes for ignorant reasons.
Over the summer I read The Martian by Andy Weir and the book Infinity Lost by S. Harrison. I liked both books but my favorite was The Martian because the character was well explained. Infinity Lost was about a girl who had a very wealthy father because he invented all types of technology. The main character had a secret she didn't even know about until one day she had flashbacks that showed her what was wrong with her life. The book The Martian was about a man who goes to mars and gets stranded there. He finds a way to live on mars and waits for a rescue plan. I loved this book because It showed to never give up even if the odds are against you. Through all of the obstacles, the main character keeps himself positive with jokes and sarcastic remarks. The main character is also ver intelligent and always finds a way to solve the problem at hand. I learned that I should never give up because in the end, somehow most of the time, everything turns out all right. And I mean if this guy can figure out a way to live on mars, I can push through my stress and frustrations.
Over the summer I read Beautiful Chaos by RM Drake and A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. I enjoyed both books but my favorite book was A Long Way Gone. In this book it was about a boy named Ishmael Beah who lived in Sierra, Africa and his home was invaded by rebels who have been attacking other villages near by. He had to find a new and safe place to live when he doesn’t even have anything. I loved this book because it showed me how important and lucky I am to be living in America. Also, I loved how the main character survived under such low conditions. After reading this book I have learned that when you lose something important you should fight for the right thing and get it back.
What I read over the summer were 2 realistic fictions books (my favorite genre) both of which were not on the summer reading list for Arapahoe. The first book I read was called Endangered by Lamar Giles. It was about a girl named Lauren, that liked to take pictures of people and exposing them on her anonymous blog to establish justice. Later on in the book karma comes back to Lauren and she then realizes what’s really at stake when she exposes those people. This book really just made me think about cyber bullying because I know people in the world do this and I really do hope cruel people like that read this book so they understand the importance of posting stuff online. Now, the other book that I read was The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. This book however is very emotional, Hazel Grace, the main character, suffers from her cancer but then meets Augustus Waters, which he also suffered/suffers from cancer. I’m not trying to spoil the ending here but I’m pretty sure most people know how it goes...Anyway they get to know each other more and just slowly fall in love with one another. But what I really learned from this book was some hidden messages in the book. For example, one was a metaphor when Augustus always put a cigarette in between his teeth and said, “You put the killing thing right in between your teeth but you don’t give it the power to do the killing.” This made me realize that it could relate to so much more to other stuff than just a cigarette, for instance, feeling down on yourself. Yea, you’re thinking bad about yourself but are you seriously going to let that sink in? That’s been my mentality for a while and I really like it. I feel like I’ve learned a lot from these books and I really hope others can too.
I read several great books this summer. One of the first I read was "Crystal Keepers" by Brandon Mull. This book is part of a series called "The Five Kingdoms". I got into this series a year or two ago and was excited when I saw "Crystal Keepers" on the library shelf. I love this series because it is fiction, fast paced, and the characters seem very realistic. This book taught me about thinking before rushing into things. The main character, a boy named Cole, tries to rescue a bunch of girls in a strange world called Outside. Cole rushes into the mission without knowing where he is going or what is going to happen when he gets there.
Since I can't recall which book I wrote down second for my summer reading, I will Just write about "Jinx" by Sage Blackwood. This book was not a hugely challenging book, but I still loved reading it. "Jinx" is about a boy named Jinx who lives in a fictional forest filled with strange creatures and magic. The thing that makes Jinx special is that he can see peoples thoughts and emotions. This book was not only about the normal "save yourself and your friends and beat the bad guy", but was also about a child's sense of wonderment and innocence and the difference between a child and adult's point of view.
Overall, I cannot say that I was bored or displeased with any of the books I read this summer. I am happy to have been able to glean several stories, lessons, and entertaining hours from each novel I read.
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