The Giver

Have you ever wanted to fit in and be part of the crowd? Lois Lowery's The Giver, will make you think twice about being like everyone else.


There are many things that can be learned from this book, but the one that sticks out the most is that being different isn't always a bad thing. Lois Lowery does an excellent job, describing what life would be like if everyone in the world were the same.


Jonas, the main character, is a 12 year old boy who lives in a community that seems too good to be true. He has always felt different because he will randomly see the color red. "But suddenly Jonas had noticed, following the path of the apple through the air with his eyes, that the peice of fruit had-well, this was the part that he couldn't adequately understand-the apple had changed." (page 24) When Jonas comes of age, he is appointed to the job of Reciever of Memories. As the days go by, Jonas learns what his community is really like. He finds that, indeed, his perfect life isn't so good. Jonas loves his family and friends and wants to share with them some of the things he has learned. But, he finds that this is not possible and Jonas only ends up hurting them instead. Jonas is faced with a very tough desicion. The outcome will affect not only Jonas, but his entire community.





The Giver will make you appreciate individuality and the experiences make up everyone's life. Because I like being a little different from the normal, I really enjoyed this book.

Steven King's Dark Tower II

463 pages

Steven King's Dark Tower II -- The Drawing of the Three, stretches your imagination and makes you feel like you are a part of the story. Dark Tower II is a book about learning about one's self and what makes you "you."

The Dark Tower is the second in a series of books about a character named Roland, who is also called the Gunslinger. Roland's quest and obsession, for which he would do anything, is to reach and climb the Dark Tower to get answers about the bad things that have happened to him in life. One of the requirements for reaching the Dark Tower is that Roland must draw three certain people and bring them with him on his journey. Each of these people has weakness and strenghts and are placed in situations where they must overcome their weaknesses to succeed and be redeemed. Eddie, called the Prisoner by Roland, is the first character that Roland needs to reach the Dark Tower. Eddie is addicted to cocaine. Eddie's brother, Henry, was the one that first started using cocaine after the Vietnam war. Cocaine becomes Eddie's weakness and he becomes involved with a major drug dealer. This dealer kidnaps Henry, who is nothing but a shell at this time, and blackmails Eddie into smuggling drugs for him. Roland helps Eddie kill the drug dealer, but they are too late to save Henry. As they travel Eddie must confront his weakness and go "cold turkey" to overcome his cocaine addiction. But Eddie is only the first.

If you like science fiction, I highly recommend this series by Steven King. King's style of writing is very detailed and involved. His sentence structure can be very complex with one sentence running on for several lines. The up side of this is that King sets a very realistic stage and immerses you in the story. You should read the series in order to fully understand the story.

Of Mice and Men

Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck takes place during the dust bowl. Work was hard to come by, and people never settled down often. The main characters, George and Lennie, are two men looking for work. Their dream is to one day own a small farm of their own. The two men are opposites of each other. Lennie is mentally slow, but huge and strong, where George is small and does most of the thinking for the two.

There are two main settings in the book. One is at the ranch where George and Lennie have a job buckling barley and the other is a river bank where the story starts and ends. Steinbeck originally wrote Of Mice and Men to be a play, therefore the settings are minimal.

Steinbeck uses a lot of foreshadowing in his writing. An example of this is at the beginning of the story where Lennie kills the mouse. This foreshadows the death of the puppy and Curley’s wife, and ultimately the death of Lennie himself.

There are parts of this book that remind me of The Old Man and The Sea. Both show the struggles of an ordinary man trying to make a living. Both main characters come so close to reaching their goals only to have life slap them in the face. The Old Man catches the fish of his dreams only to have it eaten by sharks on the way home. George and Lennie are just one hundred dollars short before Lennie accidently kills Curly’s wife.

I enjoyed this book because it was a good story. I found it to be easy to follow with a clear beginning and end, unlike The House on Mango Street.

Sophomore Year!

My sophomore year was fun. Like every year it has had its up and downs, but I somehow manged to live through it, or at least until finals. I would have to say the funnest time would have to have been either concert band contests or football games. The band trip to Orlando was a blast and we placed first in our division as well. The football team had a winning year, at least until the end. Maybe next year. My favorite class would have to be Mr. Sparks' Algebra II. I also enjoyed being in Oklahoma! Singing and dancing was hard for me, but I got pretty good. I might even consider doing a play again.

The Old Man & The Sea

127 pages

Ernest Hemingway is the author of The Old Man and the Sea. This classic will keep you "hooked" till the end.

The book illustrates the struggle of life. Man works hard to overcome all the obstacles that are thrown into his path throughout life. Even though he may succeed in conquering them, in the end, he, too, will die.

Hemingway's writing style is very direct and to the point. Hemingway uses very vivid words and short sentences unlike author Steven King, who uses long complex sentences to describe a simple thing. The main part of the book takes place at sea in a small fishing boat. This is in keeping with Hemingway's style; it is a very simple setting. It is easy to picture the Old Man bobbing in a small wooden boat surrounded by a neverending sea.

Santiago, the main character, is a poor fisherman who has only a boy for a friend. Santiago, or the Old Man as he is refered to, is in desperate need of a catch. Although Santiago is at the end of his life, he is still braving the elements, trying to land "a big one." One day Santiago decides that even though it is very dangerous, he will try to fish the drop off. The risk pays off and Santiago catches a huge marlin. Catching the fish, however, turns out to be the easy part. Now the Old Man must get his prize back to shore.

This book appealed to me at first because the subject matter was fishing; something I really enjoy. This is a very good book and shows a man with unbelievable patience.

House on Mango Street

House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros demonstrates that we will always have emotional ties to where we grew up and this “home” has a heavy influence on how we become ourselves.

The book tells about Esperanza, a Hispanic girl, through little windows of her life. Esperanza grows up in a poor family of six in a one room, one bathroom house on Mango Street. Esperanza has always had the dream of owning her own house. She dreams of owning a nice fancy white house unlike the one story brick house on Mango Street. The house represents the desire Esperanza has to get away from the neighborhood where she lives. As the book develops and Esperanza matures, she realizes her escape is through her writing.

The style of Sandra Cisneros can be very confusing. Each chapter is like a short story with Esperanza, the main charter, being the centerpiece. There is no set setting; she just jumps from place to place, depending on the particular instant of the short story. This style is good if readers like to have a good stopping point in the book. I find this, however, to be frustrating because there is no flow to the story. I prefer the story to be connected together.

Poem

Mallard Drake

One among the flock
Bold green head,
bright orange feet

Gliding
into
the hole

just as the sun rises.