Fahrenheit 451

              I just finished the amazing book "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury. When I was starting this book I didn't think that I would like it. I felt like that it wouldn't have that much of a plot. Or it would have one but it wouldn't be that interesting. I enjoyed it so much that I think it's one of my favorite books. I just want to talk about what the author wrote about today. This book was mainly a prediction of what would happen in the future. This prediction is actually pretty close to what is happening today.
               I wonder what made Ray Bradbury write this book. Was it just for fun? Or did he want someone in the future to think about this? One thing is that the book in this world and our own world is actually really similar which is scary. Paper books aren't used that much in this world anymore. People are on their electronics all the time. Maybe, you never know, it will be illegal to keep books. Except I hope not. That's mostly it that I loved about this book.

Response on Fahrenheit 451

              I just started "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury, and so far it's a really good book. I didn't really think that this was an interesting book when I saw the cover. When I started reading it, it actually was pretty interesting. It was so cool how Ray Bradbury wrote about how he thought the future would be. This book was written almost 50 years ago. His prediction is actually pretty close to what is going on today. Well, not that close but it is similar.
               One thing is that paper books aren't used that much these days. You can find books on electronic everywhere. People are using nooks and kindles. Books aren't sold that much. More people are buying these electronic devices and not buying books that much. It's possible that in the future it will be a crime to keep books.
               I don't think that it is very likely that it will happen but it might happen. Maybe in like 50 years. The only time people buy books is maybe when they need a textbook. Except that's not that often. Some people probably buy like 5 textbooks a year. Not that much. Anyway, this book is really interesting!

Qualities of One in Little Women

            I'm still reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. It's a really good book. I really want to talk about one of the characters in the book. The characters in this book are so fascinating. The one that I just read about and want to talk about is Meg. The March family isn't that rich. Meg was invited to a party of the Moffats and the Moffats. Meg has only one party dress but compared to the dresses of the Moffats it was like rags. When she goes there no one pays any attention to her because of what she was wearing. She overheard people talking about her. The next day the Moffat girls came to her and said they wanted to dress her up so that her beauty would come out.
            She eagerly agrees because she does want to look pretty. After she goes down the people who praised her when she was wearing her own simple dress were shaking her head at her. They were saying how she looked better in the simple dress. Laurie the boy that Meg likes even said that she didn't look like herself in the fancy dress. He said she would look much better in the simple dress. Right when Meg heard these two comments she wanted to change. The things that the people close to her affected her so much that she got embarrassed. After she went back home she said that she learned her lesson. A few small words from the people she new her the most changed her completely on the idea of needing fanciers clothes. These days everyone is so stubborn and won't change their mind.

Strong Women in Little Women

I just started the book Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. This book is really good so far. Except in this response I don’t want to talk about the book in general. I’m going to talk about the strongest relationships in this book and connect them to our life. I feel like the relationships that you see in this book won’t be that common these days in our life. It’s the relationship of mother and daughter and father and daughter.

In the book the March sisters have a very close relationship with their mother Marmee. Each of them are always eager to hear their mother first thing in the morning and when she comes home. If a inexpensive gift is given to them by their mother it’s much more valuable to them than any other gift. When their mother comes home they rush around to make things comfortable for her. They share everything with their mother. The thing that is shocking is that they are ages of sixteen to maybe eight. All have equal relationships with their mother. these days teenagers don’t like to share everything with their mother. They want to be independent.

The March sisters have a very important relationship with their father. Their father works far away so he can’t stay with them. The sisters haven’t seen their father in a very long time. They only hear his words through the letter that he sends all the time. In the book their father just send them a letter and he said he wants them to be perfect little children for their mother. All of them at once started to think of how they would be better for their mother. They wanted to please their father.

These relationships is not what you would find in families today. They are very rare. Teenagers now are very different from those in the book and from those back then.

Why To Kill A Mockingbird? (Continuation)

            I’m still reading the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This book is taking a long time to read because sometimes I go back and reread because some parts are a little unique. What I mean by this is that I’ve never seen someone write like that in a different book. What I want to talk about today is about the relationships between Scout, Jem, Atticus, and Calpurnia. I’m starting to feel bad for Scout because Jem is going through a change and he’s acting rudely toward Scout. Atticus understands what Jem is going through and wants Scout to leave him alone as much as possible. How is she supposed to leave Jem alone now? Jem is Scout’s older brother and she needs him to talk to. Their relationship is nothing like it was before. Sort of like how people in this world are. As they get farther and farther away from each other. They don’t feel comfortable talking to people about personal things.

            At the same time, Scout and Calpurnia are getting closer. I saw a slight change in Calpurnia. Back when Scout and Jem were very close, Calpurnia didn’t like it when Scout would come into the kitchen when she was there. She would tell her to go play or something. Now that she sees that Scout is sulking around because Jem isn’t talking to her, she told Scout that she could hang around the kitchen anytime she wants. It’s a slight change but I think it is an important one. I think this is an attempt that Calpurnia is making to make Scout act more like a lady.

            Jem is saying the same thing to Scout. He keeps on pressuring her to act more like a lady. This makes their brother and sister relationship grow more tense. He’s acting like the mean neighbors who always scream at Scout. It’s hurting Scout more and more while changing her to be what she is.

Lessons and Craft of Stay

            I just finished the book Stay by Deb Caletti. It was a pretty interesting book. I think there were two main lessons in the book. Before I talk about the lessons I want to mention how the author wrote this book. It was about Clara’s life only. The first chapter was the past and how she met Christian. The second was the present and how she was getting away from him. Both of these stories continued alternating by each chapter. At the end they merged into one story which was the present. It was cool how the author did this and managed to pull it off. Sometimes it was a bit confusing. At one part I was like wait, what happened before this in the chapter about her past? Overall I thought it was a good book.

                The first lesson I thought that the author wanted to teach was be careful about who you trust. A lot of books are about this and it’s a big thing. Trusting the wrong person can lead to many other problems that you might not even imagine happening to you. It was just like how Clara trusted Christian in the beginning. Towards the end of her relationship, she just wanted to get away from him and couldn’t. It was like she couldn’t be free.

                The second lesson was to improve on your mistakes. Clara went through this in the book. Christian didn’t like her to joke with others and she listened to him but only at the very beginning of their relationship. Later, when Clara went out with Finn, she was careful not to joke around with his friends at first. When she noticed Finn didn’t really care whether she joked around or not she understood that he was the right one. This might be a different kind of example but there are many other situations that you can improve you mistakes in. 

"Hate List" The Other Side of Bullying

            I just finished the fantastic novel Hate List by Jennifer Brown. When I first opened this book it reminded me of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. This story was a bit different but similar. I think this is one of my favorite books. At the end it gets really sad. The main character is Valerie and as the author said in her author’s note, it’s about Valerie’s story. This is one powerful novel. It teaches the importance of being nice to people and not bullying anyone.

            Nick is Valerie’s boyfriend in the story. Valerie and Nick are the quiet kids in Garvin High School. They both get bullied all the time. They started a hate list. On this hate list they put all the names of the people that were mean to them or expressed they didn’t like them. Nick kept on giving hints to Valerie about how they could get rid of the people they hated. Valerie didn’t think that Nick was serious.

            One day Christy Bruter (who was on the hate list) broke Valerie’s CD player on the bus. She told Nick the whole thing and he said that he would handle it. She didn’t really get what he meant but when they went inside the school, Nick started shooting. Valerie stopped the shooting and saved Jessica.

            Even though she was the one who stopped the shooting everyone saw her as a threat. People turned away from her and didn’t want to talk to her. No one wanted tot be around her when she went back to school. Even though she also got shot everyone thought she was involved on the plan to shoot people on the hate list. Jessica was the one who started to talk to her. She started to be friends with Valerie. As the book went on, people started to get more and more comfortable around Valerie. Her mom was the one who saw her as a threat. Her mom thought Valerie was a threat to all of the students. At the end Valerie let’s her mom go so that she wouldn’t have to worry about Valerie all the time.

            Bullying was an important part in this book. It teaches that you should always be nice to everyone. You never know, the person you bully might hurt you. You can’t read anyone’s mind. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t trust anyone. I’m trying to say that avoid this by being nice. Bullying someone just might turn around and harm you.

Gossip Girl Format

          In the novel Gossip Girl by Cecily Von Ziegesar was actually a pretty good book. I thought that this book wouldn’t be that good because I’m not that interested in these types of books but I enjoyed it. It was a different type of book in two ways: what it was about and how it was written. The one that puzzled me was the way the book was written. I don’t mean how the text was laid out but how she wrote the stuff she wanted to say. This is probably sort of confusing to say.

          Usually, in most of the books I’ve read, authors say “she thought…” Instead in this book the author didn’t even write she thought or he thought. She just wrote what they thought and left it for you to guess who was thinking it. Sometimes in the book it was easy to figure out because of what they thought. In other places, I had to re-read that line a couple of times to figure out who’s thinking. It’s really awkward the way I have to phrase all of this to describe what I mean.

          I think that the author didn’t really want to get so formal. I think you’ll understand if you read the book. Other than that I thought the book was pretty good. I would recommend to girls not boys. It’s sort of like a girly book if I am thinking right. J

Response on "Burned"

I just finished the really interesting book Burned by Ellen Hopkins. This was a really good book. Some times it did get a little boring but that was in very few parts through out the book. I would recommend this book to anyone. The way the author writes this book is amazing. The main character Pattyn has many problems but you could summarize this into one big problem. I don’t want to give it away to those who want to read this book but there are many stages in this book with different problems.

At first Pattyn trusts the wrong person. She trusts Derek and thinks that he actually loved her but he was just using her. This led to another problem. She started to misbehave with her parents. After Derek left her when her dad found out she started yelling at her parents and behaving very badly in school. Being with Derek affected her a lot. She didn’t care about being good anymore she reacted like she wanted to.

When she moved to her aunt’s house she found Ethan who actually loved her and showed her how the world was like. She discovered the world outside of her father’s harsh rules. She lived the way she wanted and actually controlled herself. In the end her father and community ruined her life but I won’t give that away. It was a really good book and I think girls should read because I think that it teaches a really good lesson. It shows you that you shouldn’t really trust everyone.

Response on "Forever"

            I just finished the book Forever by Maggie Stiefvater which I figured out is actually a good book. From the cover and the blurb on the back I really didn’t think it was going to be a good book but it actually was. The main characters; Sam, Grace, Cole, Isabel, and Rachel; taught some very important lessons. Some people might think that this book is useless but it actually teaches a lesson.

Grace had everyone thinking that she had disappeared but she wasn’t. She just didn’t want everyone to know that she was a wolf and so was her boyfriend Sam. She didn’t even want to tell her parents. When Sam got taken in to be questioned about Grace’s disappearance, Grace said she wanted to tell the public that she was still alive and show them that she hadn’t left. Sam didn’t want her to tell everyone because then it might lead to everyone finding out that she was a wolf. Grace said that it’s better than Sam possibly going to jail for being accused of doing something to Grace. Grace was ready to give up her happiness to get someone to stay out of trouble and that should happen in this world too between people.

When Grace revealed to her friend, Rachel, that she is a wolf Rachel was first shocked and thought she was joking. She even said that if Grace is a wolf, she’s a zebra. That was her first reaction but later on she actually accepted. She didn’t stop talking to Grace or even avoid her; she accepted her and continued to be best friends with her. It just shows that is you’re friends with someone and know that they’re trustworthy, you should accept them however they are.

Sam was fighting with Shelby while they were both in wolf form, Cole sensed that Sam wouldn’t win and would go down. He shifted into a wolf, told Sam to leave with the rest of the pack, and fought Shelby. He knew Sam so well because he was friends with him and lived with him that he didn’t want him to die. He was ready to sacrifice his life for him. That’s how close their friendship was. It shows how if you really love someone, you should be ready to sacrifice something for them if not your life.

Isabel saw that Cole went down, while fighting Shelby in wolf form, because of people in helicopters shooting at him. She thought that he was dead and didn’t want it to happen to the rest of the wolves. She thought that since she couldn’t save Cole’s life she should save all the other wolf lives that were in danger because of the people, including her father, who were trying to wipe them out. She drove to the middle of the clearing where the people were shooting at from the helicopters and she looked up at the helicopter through her sunroof and looked up at the helicopter until they saw her. The shooting stopped and her father texted her to get out of there but she told him not until he did and stared at the helicopter until the wolves got out of the way. She risked her getting punished for other peoples’ (who turn into wolves) lives. This doesn’t happen that often in this world because people aren’t that close or they are too selfish.

These are very important lessons that are for people everywhere. They are shown through a book that people might think is useless it actually isn’t. It’s actually very interesting. I think that these lessons were what the author might have been trying to get through to the reader. I just really want to read the other books written by Maggie Stiefvater.