Talk about a book
you read that you found
interesting,
provocative, or even mildly engaging.
Identify the title (and author if you remember), and then write a paragraph telling about the book. You could talk about the basic plot and characters if it is a fictional book or some of the topics or ideas if it is a nonfiction book. Be sure to discuss the parts that were most interesting to you as a reader. Also talk about why you would recommend this book to someone looking for an outside reading book--what makes it a good read? What kind of person would like this book?
Celine Fletcher
ReplyDeleteThis summer I read Wicked Girls by Stephanie Hemphill. This book is a collection of fictional poems written by girls living during the Salem Witch Trials. The poems are almost like pages out of their daries as they made note of everything that happened during the day. This book is good for someone who likes the easy read style of book where there aren't too many words to a page and who also is interested about the insider opinion, even if it is fictional, of what went on in the town of Salem during the time of the Witch trials. The characters are all young girls that could be hung if they were thought to be witches so fear plays a large part of this book. The girls' ages range from age 8 to 17. This is a really great book that teachs, in a laid back fashion, about how people lived in suspision of the people around them during the year of the Salem Witch Trials.
Anthony, Gilchrist
ReplyDeleteA book that i read was when i was in like elementary school. its called Captain underpants, i used to love that book because it was stupid stuff they did in the book and it was funny so that's why i liked it. What it was about a teacher that had toxic waste spilled on him and every time someone said a certain word he would change in to captain underpants.in the story there was these two little boys who knows but the rest of the school never finds out and they go on these weird adventures. its a cool book.
Chelsea Snide
ReplyDeleteI thought the book "Num8ers" by Rachel Ward was an interesting book because it discussed and based on a new abstract idea and offers an unique perspective on things. The main part of the book is about how the main character possessed a special gift to be able to see numbers that belonged to anyone, these numbers represented that specific persons death date. This made it difficult for the main character to hold/slash want relationships due to the fact the main character knew when they would die. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys new concepts on things. This book really engaged you and kept you wanting to know what would come next. There was not a boring part of book and it was full of action. I think really anyone will be able to enjoy the book "Num8ers".
this summer I read.... Nothing!!!!! But the summer before that i did read a book calvin and hobbes! it was awesome. I have all there books and I love them! Still at the age of 16 soon to be 17 I read them. I love them because they are funny and as you start to read them at an older age you get some of the jokes and the hidden things that you didnt get when you were little so it makes it a lot better. I love how they just get into the crazest things and then Calvin always blaims it on Hobbes and his parents are like "he isnt alive how could he do it?" and Calvin always gets mad when Hobbes sturs up trouble and Calvin gets in trouble for it. Everyone thinks its a redicoulous book for children but to this day I still enjoy it!
ReplyDeleteMatt McDermott
ReplyDeleteAlthough it’s been a while since I have read any of them, my favorite books of all time have to be the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling. I can't remember ever being as excited to read as I was every year when the newest Harry Potter novel would come out. I used to go with my dad and older sister to Barns and Noble every June or July or whenever the next book would come out and wait in line for hours. Of course because I would be in Fifth Grade and the slowest reader in the family I would always be the last one to get the book and would have already known than Dumbledore dies (too soon?) before the time I even start reading the sixth book but it was still a great experience nevertheless. I think part of the reason why I loved the books so much when I was younger was that I was similar enough in age to the characters that I would read a book, have to wait a year or so for the next one to come out and by the time I get to reading about Harry’s next adventure I’m a year older just like him. This made the series much more interesting and relatable having to read them one at a time like that, making it such amazing childhood experience and one that will never be the same for future generations.
Tim Molino
ReplyDeleteThis summer I read the book Inferno by Dan Brown. I really enjoyed this book because it is written by one of my favorite authors and it had a very interesting plot. The book was about a man, named Robert Langdon, who was brought to Florence with no memory of the past few days. The man was needed to solve a riddle left by a crazy scientist who has threatened to do something drastic about the problem of overpopulation. Robert Langdon is a symbology professor at Harvard and he was brought to Florence because the riddle was based on Dante's Inferno. Even though this book is fictional it felt real because it used real world problems like overpopulation tied in with ancient texts like Dante's Inferno. It was a fantastic book filled with action, mystery, and real world problems. I would recommend this book to everyone wanting a good book to read.
Michael Purvey
ReplyDeleteI have read the book "White Fangs" by Jack London. It is a realistic fiction book that took place in the North where it is very cold. Two men, Bill and Henry, are out in the cold with their sled dogs going to a village to save a man's life from dying because he is frozen to death. There are wolves in the cold that follow them and the men do not have much protection against the wolves for themselves and for their dogs. At one point in the book, all of them take a break in the night and set up a camp fire to keep them warm. The fire attracted the wolves. When the two men go to sleep, the next morning, two dogs are missing but there is a strange dog that appears in the pack, which is the wolf.
My favorite book I read was "As Easy As Falling Off The Face Of The Earth," by Lynne Rae Perkins. In the book, a mid-aged teen named Ry had to go on an adventure. He was at a train station, ready to leave Montana. He had to make a quick phone call to someone, but no one answered. Then, the train left the station. Ry tried to get back on the train, but it was too late. The train left with his stuff that he left on board. Meanwhile, his grandpa went missing when he was walking Ry's two dogs. He somehow got lost and fell into a hole. He had a serious concussion and couldn't get up. He was knocked out. His parents were at their honeymoon in St. Jude in the Caribbeans. Ry tried to contact them, but it was no good. Soon, he met a person named Del. Even though he was older than Ry, he was wise. RY also met a lot of friendly people who helped Ry onto his adventure. I recommend this book to my friends because it's exciting and somewhat funny.
ReplyDeleteAustine Bodenstab
ReplyDeleteThis summer I read Finale by Becca Fitzpatrick. It is about a teenage girl, named Nora, who has to learn to lead an army of a super human race to victory against the fallen angles, who have held them prisoner for hundreds of years. The only problem is, is that her boyfriend is a fallen angle. She doesn't want to have to fight against him, but she swore an oath to her now dead father that if she isn't victorious in the war against the fallen angles then she will die. This book is the last book in a four book series called the Hush Hush series. It is suspensful, and you can't really predict what will happen next. I would recomend it to any teenage girl. It was definitely a great way to end the series.
Maeve Gurbey
ReplyDeleteTwo summers ago I read The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It is a fictional novel set in the future about a competition where 16 tributes fight for their lives. I liked this book because it was different from any other book I have read. I knew I would like the book ahead of time because I had already watched the movie, but I read the book anyways and it was better than the movie. That's why I read the second two books of the trilogy too. It's a good book because it's a different setting and if you don't like reading you can always watch the movies
Nick Paquin
ReplyDeleteThis summer I read "The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets Nest" by Steig Larsson. This is the third and final book in the girl with the dragon tattoo series. The series centers around investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist, and Lisbeth Salander a woman who is placed under guardianship by the government. They work together to solve a mystery around a woman who disappeared into thin air. As they progress in there search they unveil a family of serial killers and explore the exploitation of several woman's rights by the killers. Progressing through the other two books, they hone in on Salanders dilemma concerning over her guardianship which has been falsely given to her by corrupt government officals. She try's to work her way out of her guardianship after she's raped by her legal guardian and soon gets caught in a government coup in Sweden when he is killed. Which results with her framed and on the run, hiding out in the middle of Stockholm Sweden where she lives off of billions of dollars she's stolen with her special skill set. Together her and Mikeal Blomkvist work together to expose the government and have her rights regained, along with other woman's who been caught into a government sex trafficking scandal. Over all the series is an amazing trilling adventure that takes the reader through highs and lows while expressing real world problems about the violation of woman's rights by the government and criminal organizations. I would personally recommend these books to everyone, their a little thick about 600-800 pages but there well worth the read, making the audience think about if the government is really watching out for our rights.
Mike Walsh
ReplyDeleteI recently read Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. It is in fact a graphic novel, but don't say that it doesn't make it a real book. It is one of Time Magazines top 100 novels, so that must count for something, right? It starts of in 1985 with the murder of a retired vigilante called The Comedian and the investigation of it by another vigilante who goes by the name of Rorschach who then uncovers a plot to end the cold war and the unenviable prospect of nuclear holocaust, but in doing so killing half of New York City. It goes into the psychological aspects of being a superhero and what that would do to someone mentally. There is a movie based on it, but its rated R so you might have to wait a little bit before you can see it.
Lexie Guest
ReplyDeleteOver the summer I read the book "Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher. It is a realistic fiction book that is narrated by a character named Clay Jensen. This novel is about a girl Hannah Baker who committed suicide and left thirteen different tapes of why she killed herself, she left them in a box propped up against Clay's porch. He doesn't have to open it if he doesn't want to- but if I was him I would want to know why someone would do that, especially if it was left on my doorstep. Without giving away to much details about why she did what she did, most of the reasons had to do with rumors that were made up about her. One of them which went to Clay was saying he should have tried harder for what he wanted (which was Hannah). Hannah was however not blaming him as the reason why she committed suicide. The part that I thought was most interesting and surprising was that someone who she left one of the tapes for set up cameras outside of her house and took pictures of her, who would do that? I recommend this book to anyone who likes novels about always wondering why. Overall, I thought it was a great book and an easy read.
Ben VanDeBogart
ReplyDeleteOne of the best books I have read was Percy Jackson and the Olympians the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. The book centers around a boy named Percy Jackson who thought he was like everyone else, the same, but finds out that his father is the sea god Poseidon and that he's a demigod. Percy is then introduced to Camp Halfblood, a camp for kids like him who are born by the gods. As the story continues Percy is framed for stealing the lightning bolt of the god Zeus and is told to retrieve it. He is accompanied by his two best friends, his love interest Annabeth and his half human half goat friend Grover. I recommend this book to anyone who is in for constant adventure in a book. This book left me on the edge of my seat every time I turned the page. This was a really good book.
Ben Gallup
ReplyDeleteThe most recent novel I read was No Effect by Daniel Hayes. The main character is Tyler, a young teenager trying out for the varsity wrestling team. The author sets the story in upstate New York. He includes many relative situations two teenagers like trying out for a sport, the amount of work that is involved, family situations,and different teachers. No Effect is about one teens life dealing with one problem to the next seeing if he can survive. I liked the book because it involved a sport. I would recommend No Effect to anyone who faces a challenge and overcomes an obstacle.
Abbie Terwilliger
ReplyDeleteThis summer I read The Europe Book by a publishing group I would assume called The Lonely Planet. The book contains facts about every country in Europe. It's basically a travelers guide to Europe, what sights to check out when your in which countries, where to get a true taste of each countries culture, a short run down of its history and geography, some random facts about the country and its native cuisine. The book also contains some very beautiful and exquisite photographs of these countries and their inhabitants. What I liked about this book was how recent it was written which was about 2010, which means the facts about urban life and culture are quite updated. For me who inspires to be a world traveler it was a thoroughly intriguing and interesting book, but if you don't enjoy such hard facts or traveling in general then don't pick it up because it will not be enjoyable. Overall I came away with a nice new very long list of places I'd like to visit and new tid bits of information that I never knew before!
A book that I recently read was "Danusia, The Story of a Child Survivor" By Dana Szeflan Bell, my maternal grandmother. This self-published auto-biography details the lives of my great grandparents and my grandmother's life before WWII, and then the often graphic details of their flight from the Nazi's in order to survive the "Final Solution". This journey takes them trough Bialistock, White Russia, Tunesia, back Poland after the war, to a Displaced Persons Camp in Styr, Austria, their immigration to Canada, through to the present day. It details the horrors of the Holocaust, the great loss suffered by our family, and the triumph of survival. What is amazing about this story is that her memories of the Holocaust are from when she was a very young child, and offers a unique perspective. I would recommend this book to anyone, as it not only talks about the Holocaust, but also talks "this littleknown aspect of the wre, which was the cruel deportation of hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children to slave labor camps in the far reaches of the Soviet Union" Joe King, Noted author, journalist and broadcaster.
ReplyDeleteJohn Chadwick Rockwell, III
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I read this summer was the the book "How to Play High Notes Low Notes and All Those Notes in Between" written by John J. Haynie. This "book", written by my trumpet teacher's teacher deals in pedagogical concepts. It includes in depth information regarding embouchure, tone, breathing, fingering and tonguing. I found this information very helpful and it has improved my over all playing. The book also includes many studies and exercises dealing with lip flexibility and the before mentioned skills.Along with being very informative, this book servers as a valuable tool for me in every day practice. I would only recommend this "book" to another mature trumpet player.
Haley Bialobzeski
ReplyDeleteOne of the books I read over the summer was "Beastly" by Alex Finn. The boy in the book Kyle is rich, arrogant, and rude. One night there school had a dance and Kyle humiliates a girl named Kendra (a witch) in front of everybody. So the witch Kendra punishes him by making him a beast. In order for him to turn back to normal, he has to find a girl who loves him for him and not his looks. But Kyle only has a certain amount of time, if he can't find love before time runs out then he will stay a beast forever. I love this book because it makes him realize that looks aren't that important. And if he has a true heart then he really cares about what's on the inside and not what's on the outside.
A book that I have read is Small Steps by Louis Sachar. The main character is referred to by his nickname. "Armpit" who's real name is Theodore just got out of a correctional camp. Theodore is trying to take the right path in life when a friend who was also in the camp comes up with a way to make easy money, scaffolding tickets to a popular concert. At one point they actually attend the concert. And during the concert the people who actually bought the tickets attempt to sit down. From there the book is very chaotic. They get kicked out but as they get kicked out, Kaira DeLeon sees them being kicked out and gets them back stage. I would recommend this book to anyone who read holes. Or anyone who enjoys a fast paced fun book.
ReplyDelete"Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation" is the book that I read over the summer.the book is about all the different styles of music and times the band has been through throughout their journey. the book talks about all evolutionary jams from jazz to a psychedelic jam band. this book takes the readers through the bands musical decision-making process which is the coolest part to learn about because it motivates you to create your own style of jamming throught periods of time. the dead brought together a variety of styles from roots and folk to country and free jazz to postmodern european art music, all of it creative and aweing. the devoted deadheads take great pleasure and delight in the bands approach to playing live. this books reveals the method of behind the seeming madness of americas greatest jam band. i would reccomend this book to people who are open to anything about music theory and is interested in psychedelic rock. what makes this book a good read is that i listen to lost of different music and i play the drums guitar bass piano etc. and i love music. i like this book and if you are my friend you will like it too.
ReplyDeleteThis summer i read "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury. This book takes place in a futuristic dystopia where reading has been outlawed. This book follows a "fireman" named Montag. (Firemen in this society burn books and create fires) Montag starts in the book quite content and happy with life (as most people of this society) and is blissful of his ignorance. As the book progresses Montag starts to see why people read and develops a curiosity of books and tries to break away from his illiterate society. I really enjoyed this book. The plot was a little slow at first, but reflecting on the book there are many things to learn from this book, be it about over use of technology or the importance of reading etc. you will want to re read this book and i would recommend this book to people who enjoy reading.
ReplyDeleteA book that I read this summer was "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood. It is a dystopian novel about a girl named Offred who is a handmaid. This means that her job is to bear a child to the Commander and his wife, whom she lives with. The Commander has a very prestigious role in society, and has a lot of influence and freedom. Offred, however, must obey the Commander and his wife and may only leave the estate to buy them groceries. She is very unhappy with the strict rules and finds her own small ways to rebel. I enjoyed this book very much. It is very well-written and it has a very interesting plot. In the beginning the book does not seem very interesting, but the plot quickly unfolds and develops in unexpected ways. I would definitely recommend this book, even to people who don’t like to read.
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