Melanie

__**The Wave- Todd Strasser**__

The book I read is called “The Wave” by Todd Strasser. My favorite parts of this book are when the main characters Laurie Sanders and David Collins find out what the Wave really is and try to stop people from joining the Wave. I also liked when the teacher, Ben Ross, stopped the Wave at the Wave rally. This book tells a good story, but it wasn’t one of my favorites. The plot is forced and firm. I thought it was hard to concentrate on parts of this story. The parts I couldn’t focus on were mostly when the kids were eating lunch and talking, or planning the Wave rally. The parts I could focus on where the exciting parts, like when Ben Ross was at the Wave rally and he put an end to the Wave, and when the Wave was first starting. My mind only wandered at the parts I thought were boring. This book takes place at Gordon High School in Palo Alto, California in the year 1969. The setting doesn’t make the story more exciting, but the name of the school is important. Palo Alto is not important because this could’ve taken place anywhere at any school. The year is important because in the beginning of the book, Ben Ross was showing his class a movie with film and a projector, and because World War II took place about 20 years before. The problem in this story is the Wave. The Wave was a class experiment where the students had a symbol and a salute, like the Nazis in Germany. The members of the Wave tried to get more people to join, and if they didn’t, they were considered an outcast. If you weren’t part of the Wave and you did something they didn’t like, they would find you and report you to Mr. Ross, their leader. The book showed me what it would’ve been like to live in Germany during World War II. The author accomplished what they set out to do by showing me this. The characters in this story connect to each other and with me. The characters in this story develop throughout the book. There were surprises in the story and they kept me interested, like when David realized what the Wave was. Almost every chapter ended in a cliff hanger. The dialogue was natural and believable for all the characters. I think people ages twelve to sixteen would enjoy this book because a younger person wouldn’t understand the Wave. The Wave was an interesting book based on a true story, and I would recommend this to other people who might like this book.

__**Trouble- Gary D. Schmidt**__

The book I read is called “Trouble” by Gary D. Schmidt. My favorite quotes from this book is “how can you build your house far away from Trouble if Trouble is already there?” and “Henry Smith’s father told him if you build your house far enough away from Trouble then Trouble will never find you.” My favorite part of this book was when the main character, Henry, climbs Mt. Katahdin in honor of his brother Franklin, who died when he got hit by a car. I also liked when Henry and Chay Chouan, the boy who killed Franklin, became friends and Henry, Louisa and Sanborn found Chay on the mountain. This book tells a good story. It has a firm and memorable plot. I could concentrate on the story because it was full of surprises and I was always on the edge of my seat. There were many exciting parts in the story, like when Chay and Henry stopped at the Chowder House and met the two fishermen, and when Henry, Chay, and Henry’s best friend Sanborn were being chased by the two fishermen. My mind stayed on the story, it didn’t wander. This story took place in Blythbury-By-The-Sea, a town in Massachusetts. The setting does not make the story exciting, but the house that the Smith family lives in is a big part of the story. Their house is more than a hundred years old and Henry and his family think it was built far away from Trouble, but Trouble was there all along. For half of the story, Henry, Chay, and Sanborn are driving North in Chay’s truck. The setting does help you understand the story more, but the only thing you need to know is that they live in Massachusetts. The problem in this story is Henry and Louisa’s older brother, Franklin, gets hit by a car and Henry and Franklin were going to climb Mt. Katahdin for Henry’s fourteenth birthday. So Henry and Sanborn start walking to Katahdin with Henry’s dog, Black Dog, shortly after Franklin dies and they need someone to drive them north. The person who stops to pick them up is Chay Chouan, but Henry recognizes him and tries to get Sanborn to find someone else. Sanborn won’t listen so they head to Katahdin with Chay. When they reach Katahdin, they run into other problems. They are part of the Milinocket Fourth of July parade and they run into the two fishermen from the Chowder house. This book showed me the true power of friendship. The author accomplished what they set out to do. Throughout the story, the characters connected with me and with each other. The characters develop and change throughout the story. They grow more mature. For example, Henry was so mad at Chay when he hit Franklin and he wanted to kill him, but at the end of the story Henry and Chay are good friends and Henry couldn’t see why he wanted to kill Chay. There were many surprises in this story. Many chapters ended in cliffhangers and the dialogue is believable and natural for the characters, especially Sanborn. I think people that like good stories would like this book. I liked this book because it was exciting and I always wanted to keep reading.

**__My Sister’s Keeper- Jodi Picoult __** The book I read for this trimester was __My Sister’s Keeper__ by Jodi Picoult. The story was about a thirteen year old girl named Anna who was born so she could donate organs, tissue, and blood to her older sister Kate who was suffering from leukemia. This book tells a very good story. The plot is defiantly memorable because it was so strong and flowing that it sticks in my head even after I finished the book. It wasn’t hard to concentrate on this story because it was so powerful and it kept my interest. My mind didn’t wander at all while reading because I was so focused on what I thought would happen next.

This story takes place in Upper Darby, a small town in Rhode Island. The year is 2006. The setting doesn’t make the story any more exciting. The setting doesn’t help me understand the characters any more than I would. The conflict is in this story is that Kate has leukemia and Anna wants to sue her parents so she won’t have to donate any more organs for her. The book taught me about the relationship between a family going through a hard time. The author accomplished what they set out to do because I felt the struggle the family in the story felt all the times they had to take Kate to the hospital.

The characters defiantly connected with me and with each other because I could really feel their pain. Every character develops and changes throughout the story because they all come to realize just how important the power of family is. Jesse is the oldest of the three kids in the family. He started out as a bad person who was always on the run from the law. At the end of the story, he graduated from the police academy. There were many surprises in the story that kept me interested because when Kate was in the hospital, anything could have happened. Many of the chapters ended in cliffhangers and made me want to keep reading on.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">The dialogue is natural for all the characters. I can relate to Anna the most because we are both thirteen years old and know how it feels to go through middle school. I loved this book because it kept me guessing and I always wanted to read on. If I was going to rate this book on a scale of one to five, I would give it a five because it was so believable and strong. It was a very good book because it taught me about the importance of family and friendship in our lives.

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__**<span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif; margin: 0in;">The Coffin Quilt- Ann Rinaldi **__ <span style="font-family: Times New Roman,serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The book I read for this trimester was <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline;">__The Coffin Quilt__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">by Ann Rinaldi. This story took place in a small town in Kentucky. The genre was historic. The plot of this book is solid and tells a good story. I’ll remember reading this book because the plot was very memorable. My mind wandered a lot while reading because it wasn’t as exciting as the other books I’ve read. The setting helps make this story exciting because you can see where the two families lived and traveled. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The conflict in this story is that Roseanna McCoy runs off with Jonse Hatfield and war breaks out between the two families. This book taught me to think before you act. If the two families had thought before they acted, not as many lives would have been lost. If this was what the author set out to do, then they taught me an important lesson. All of the characters changed throughout the story. In the beginning, Ro was just another girl in a small town. By the end, she was an enemy to both Hatfields and her own family, the McCoys. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> The story was just like I thought it would be. Something bad would happen, then something, and so on. Only a few of the chapters ended in cliff hangers. The suspense built up in the chapters and they would end when something bad happened. The dialog is natural for all the characters because it sounded like something people in the south would say. If i had to rate this book on a scale of one to five, i would give it a two because it wasn’t the most exciting book I’ve ever read, and the ending could’ve been happier.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 0px; margin: 0in; overflow: hidden; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">﻿[|http://www.amazon.com/Coffin-Quilt-between-Hatfields-]

[|McCoys/dp/0152164502]

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas"- John Boyne

<span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"><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;">For my book review I read “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” by John Boyne. This book was about a boy named Bruno who was nine years old. He lived during the Holocaust. His family moved from Berlin to a place called Out-With. While he was there he met a boy in a concentration camp and they became good friends. The plot in this book was memorable. It was easy to stay focused while I was reading. The story takes place in 1943, during the Holocaust. It takes place in a place called Out-With. It is next to a concentration camp where the dad works. The setting makes the story exciting. You would need to know the setting to understand the story. The book taught me about the hardships of the Holocaust from a child’s perspective. Most of the chapters didn’t end with cliff hangers because they were telling a story about some time in the past. All of the characters changed throughout the story, especially Bruno’s mother. She learned about what they did at the concentration camp and wanted to move back to Berlin right away. She did in the end. Bruno’s father changed when he found out Bruno was gone and he wanted to quit being a soldier. I liked this book because it was about an event that actually happened, and because it told a god story. I would give this book five stars. <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: medium; line-height: normal;"> []