Anjali



//The Wave,// Todd Strasser,(Summer Reading)   One of the books I read was //The Wave// , by Todd Strasser. Some of the important themes of this book was the appeal of fascism, and individuality. The genre of this book is a young adult novel. One quote that reached out to me in the book was, “The whole idea of //The Wave//  is that the people in it have to support it. If we’re really a community, we all have to agree.”

The book does tell a good story because it tells of a high school teacher, making a mistake by trying to teach his students about what Nazi Germany was like. (delete this as soon as I have the answer) In some parts of the story it was hard to concentrate because I didn’t know what was going on in the story sometimes.

//The Wave//  takes place in Palo Alto, California, in the year 1969. The story did not really make the story more exciting because in //The Wave// , it did not say much about the setting. The setting does not play a very important role for the characters or to my understanding of //The Wave//  because it says almost nothing about Palo Alto or California. The problem of this book is that Mr. Ross, the history teacher, created a movement to teach his students about what Nazi Germany was like. The students started taking it very seriously than Mr. Ross expected. He was doing an experiment to see how this turned out, but all his class, and soon after that the whole school, started following the movement called The Wave. The whole point of The Wave was to show people that all people were equal and were included in more things. Then people who were against The Wave got beaten up because of their beliefs of being against The Wave, and it started to get out of control. The book showed me something about being included in more things then before because of a movement. Todd Strasser did accomplish what he was set out to do.

The characters in the book did not connect with me that much, but they did connect with each other. Like David Collins and his friend, Brad, they are both football players in //The Wave// . Some of the characters, such as David Collins, develop through the book because he switched from being for The Wave, to noticing what the Wave was doing and went against it. I cannot identify with one of the characters because they do not relate with me. There were not a lot of surprises in <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">//The Wave// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, but the book somehow kept me interested. One of the surprises in the book was when David Collins pushed Laurie Saunders, his girlfriend, to the ground because he didn’t like that she was against The Wave. Some of the chapters did end with cliffhangers that made me want to read the next chapter, but some of them didn’t end with cliffhangers. The dialogue is believable for the characters because in their dialogue, it sounded like they would say that in real life.

I think that 11-13 year olds should read this book. I liked the book because it had surprises and a good ending. Some quotes from the book that had me liking <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">//The Wave// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> more. Some quotes were funny like at the end of chapter 8 when Robert Billings said, “Did he stick anything on my back?” Some were more serious like, “The other kids, they’ve always looked up to you.” I can’t compare this book to anything I’ve read before. Some information about Todd Strasser is that he was born on May 5, 1950, in New York City. Some of his other books he has written is <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">//Boot Camp, Give a Boy a Gun,// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">//Asphalt Tribe,// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">but <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">//The Wave// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> is his most famous book. <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> Anjali Karustis //Every Soul a Star// By Wendy Mass

One of the books I read was //Every Soul a Star// by Wendy Mass. The 2 important themes in this book are cooperation and collusion. The genre in this book is a young adult fiction novel. One quote that got my attention was by one of the three main characters in //Every Soul a Star,// Bree. Bree is a very popular and pretty 13-year old girl. The quote she said was when she was talking to another character, Jack. He is an awkward and overweight teenager who likes to draw spaceships and aliens. His science teacher invited him and Jack said yes because it was either that, or summer school. Bree’s quote was, “I want you to teach me how to fly.”

//Every Soul a Star// tells a good story about three teenagers that all have changed from the beginning to the end mostly by one thing that caused them all to meet. Each chapter is a perspective that goes Ally first, Bree second, and Jack last. The plot develops mostly in the book because they all change and they do not stay the same at all at the end from the beginning. It was mostly easy to concentrate because the author told generally what was going on at the time. Sometimes, though, the author made it kind of hard to figure out what was going on. //Every Soul a Star// takes place in a campground called the Moon Shadow in basically the middle of nowhere. It is the campground that Ally’s family, one of the three main characters, owns. People come from all over to see an eclipse from the perfect place where the Moon Shadow campground is. The story takes place when about the story was made in 2008. The setting does make the story exciting because the setting is a big part in //Every Soul a Star// because there are a lot of thing involved with nature in the story. If the setting was different. But the same plot and story, it wouldn’t make sense.

The problem in the book is that when Ally finds out that another family (Bree’s family) would be taking over the campground and that she would have to move, she wants to convince her parents to let them stay. Ally is a nature girl who has been living there mostly her whole life. She has been homeschooled her whole life, so she would have to adjust to a new school with her younger brother Kenny. Bree doesn’t like moving there, either. She loves how people think of her, and when she also found out she, her parents, and younger sister, Melanie, would be moving to the campground and taking over, she was very angry. Her and Ally made a plan to convince their parents to change their minds. Eventually, their parents figured out their plan by pointing out the bad things about what they both would be moving into, and their plan didn’t work. At the end though, Jack ends up leaving with the rest of his group, Bree ends up liking living there, and Ally ends up leaving and moving to Chicago where she was born. The book taught me about eclipses and nature, and about changing my mind about some things once you try it. The author did accomplish what she was set out to do.

The characters in //Every Soul a Star// did connect with me a little by their age, and sometimes actually trying it before they say they don’t like it. And at the end, the main characters to connect with each other. The characters did develop a lot throughout //Every Soul a Star//. I cannot identify with one of the characters a lot. In the book, there were a lot of surprises that kept me interested and wanting to read the next chapter. Like when Jack was talking with this old lady named Stella. And when his group stopped at a motel for the night, Stella’s son knocked on jack’s door and said she was missing. The story’s chapters did end in cliffhangers. The surprise that I said before about Stella ended a chapter. The dialogue is believable and natural for the characters because it sounded like something they would say if they were alive today.

People who love nature or who just like young adult fiction novels would like this book the age group I think would be good for //Every Soul a Star// would be 9-13. I liked this book because all the characters changed at the end and it had lots of surprises and cliffhangers at the end of chapters. Most of the dialogue was serious like, “Stella is missing.” And, “I want you to teach me how to fly.” I can’t compare this book to any of the books I read because this one is different. Wendy Mass was born on 1967 in New Jersey. Some of her other books are //A Mango-Shaped Space, 11 Birthdays,// and //Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life.// But //A Mango- Shaped Space// is her most famous book she wrote. <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> My Sister’s Keeper Anjali Karustis

<span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The book I selected to read was <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">__//My Sister’s Keeper//__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, by Jodi Picoult. The main theme is values, and the genre is contemporary fiction. The book is based on a true story so the main setting is non-fiction. A quote that Kate, the diagnosed older sister, of Anna, said, was an answer to, “Honey, why are you making your bed when we are ready to go to the hospital?” Kate responded, “In case I don’t come back.” <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0pt; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> The book tells an excellent story because it tells about an early teenager who has a sister who has leukemia, and she has to be a donor to her older sister. She feels like the reason she was born was to be a donor to her older sister. That is the reason, but her parents don’t exactly feel the same way. Anna, the early teenager, sues her parents Sara and Brian for the rights to her own body. Later, she changes her mind about it, but it is too late to change it back. They are already involved in a lawsuit. The plot is believable because it is based on a true story, and things like that could happen in real life. It was kind of hard to concentrate on the book while I was reading because I might not have been paying attention to what was going on, and might have missed some important things. The story takes place in Providence, Rhode Island. the time period is in 1990-2004. The setting does not really make the story more exciting because the setting is not involved in the story much. The setting did not really help me understand the book more because the setting didn’t involve with the plot very much. A theme of My Sister’s Keeper is values, because during the end when Anna dies in a car crash, her friends and family members really valued her, and also during the book. My Sister’s Keeper taught me that I am lucky to have healthy family members, and to remember the times with my family and friends. The author definitely accomplished what she was set out to do because she wrote a very sad story that moved people. One of the characters kind of relates to me and that is Anna Fitzgerald. Although I am not suing my parents, I am coming into an early teenager, and I have a lot going on, but not quite like hers. Some characters of the book develop throughout the book, and some do stay the same. Like Kate, she realizes throughout the book she is lucky to have a sister that is willing to donate blood and organs, just so Kate could live. Some other characters, like Julia, stay the same and do not change very much. I can identify one of the characters and that is Anna. Since I kind of relate to her, I can identify that she really does not want to donate blood and organs to Kate so she could live, but she wants Kate to stay alive. There were lots of surprises in the book that left me wanting to read more. For example, during the middle of the book, the older brother of both Anna and Kate, Jesse, stole a judge’s car without me reading about him talking about it or planning it. Also, when I thought everything was going okay with Kate and her new boyfriend, he died. Most of the chapters would end with cliffhangers, because like I said before, it would make me want to read the next chapter. The dialogue is believable for each character because when I picture the dialogue going on in my head, I can believe that that specific person is speaking those words. Also, when I picture the character’s image, I can picture better what the dialogue relates to them. <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I think people who are looking for a moving, sad, story would like this book. I think the age group should be about ages 11-15, because any younger would probably not understand the plot or storyline. Also, I liked the book a lot because I have never read a book like that before, and it had a very big twist to it at the end. Although it was sad, I liked My Sister’s Keeper. I cannot relate any book to this one because I have never read a book like it. I cannot relate because this book has lots of things going on in one story, and no other book I have read had so many things and problems going on in one story. Jodi Picoult was born on May 19th, 1966, and born and raised in Long Island. She has won the New England Bookseller Award. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Here is the cover to My Sister’s Keeper. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Here is a link to where you can buy the book. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">[|__My Sister's Keeper]   <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000099; display: block; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">__The Outsiders,__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by S.E. Hinton

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The book I chose to read was <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">__The Outsiders__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, by S.E. Hinton. The genre of the book is a coming-of-age, historical fiction. When Johnny was dying in the hospital, and when Darry told him they had won the rumble, Johnny said, “that’s useless....fighting’s no good”. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">//The Outsiders// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> tells a good story of a young boy living in a poor neighborhood in 1965, who’s parents died and the people he knows all fight against the Socs. The socs are the rich people sort of on the other side with fancy cars and clothes. I think the plot is forced and developed because in some parts of the story, the plot kind of seemed fake, or non-believable. I think the plot develops throughout the book because when Johnny and Dally die, they were alive in the beginning and at the end they weren’t so the book has developed. Another thing that makes hte plot develop is when Ponyboy first had long, brown hair, but when Johnny and him were staying in the church, he cut it off and bleached it, so no one would recognize him.

Sometimes it was hard to concentrate on the story because it seemed like things majorly changed in the middle of chapters, and I didn’t know what was going on. Sometimes my mind did wonder, but not all the time. The story takes place in Oklahoma in 1965. The setting does make the story exciting because I can not imagine the story without the setting. Where the greasers live, in a poor neighborhood, is what you would expect, too. There are many problems of this story, like lots of fights and Socs jumping greasers, and the opposite, and the church catching on fire. The book showed me what life was like in 1965, and how they acted. The author did set out what she was meant to do because she made it clear that they were in sort of a tough neighborhood, and that people were getting beaten up a lot.

The characters in <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">//The Outsiders// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">didn’t connect with me, but they did have a few things in common with each other. They all fought, and liked to fight. They all lived around the same area, and they all are pretty much friends. The characters did not develop as much as the plot, but two main characters, and a smaller character, died. I cannot identify with any of the characters, but Ponyboy is 14 years old, which is around my age. There were lots of surprises throughout the story that I would not have expected. For example, I was surprised to think that Johnny would have killed someone, and ended up staying in an abandoned church for a week. Then after that, the church caught on fire, something else I would not have expected, and Johnny, Ponyboy, and Dally got badly burned. When they were in the hospital, I didn’t think that Dally would die, if Ponyboy survived, because he was tougher than Ponyboy, and older. The chapters did not end with cliffhangers a lot, because it did not end with a lot of mystery. The dialogue is believable if you can picture them talking. With all of their personalities, the dialogue between them is believable.

I thinks ages 12- 15 would like this book. I liked <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">//The Outsiders// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> because it had a lot of action and mystery. S.E. Hinton was 17 years old when she finished writing <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">//The Outsiders,// <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and she was only 15 when she started writing it. <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">