Paper TownsThis is a book that I read and it is called Paper Towns. I liked this book, and I like other books like this as well. This is a romance and mystery type book, and I think the author, John Green, made this a great combination. My favorite part in doing this review was re-writing the ending of the book. I thought this was a fun part because it was something different. I hope you like this review so much you read the book!
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The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
This is another book that I read. It is called the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. This is a good book about four girls who are very good friends, but are about to split up for the summer. To keep the girls from feeling alone without each other, they decide to turn regular jeans into what is called the 'traveling pants'. The traveling pants give the girls comfort and make them feel like they are still with their friends, even though they aren't.
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children
This is another book that I read called Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I would definitely recommend this book for many reasons including the fact that it is an adventurous book full of detail... and peculiarity. I think that my best achievement of this review was the interactive guessing game for other people in the class to comment on. I think this was a different and an interesting extra thing to do to the book review. One compliment I recieved on this book review was from Miss Lukins, "I like how you made your review almost into a guessing game! How intriguing!" I hope you enjoy my review too!
Specials
Scott Westerfeld
My favorite line is, "What Tally finds is even more captivating than her journey there…". I am most proud of this line because it is an intriguing way to make the reader interested in the book you read.I chose this piece because it is part of the Uglies series (by Scott Westerfeld) and I wanted to display reviews for the whole series. Would you really want to look pretty, but have all the defects that the surgery has? Read to find your answer...
Title: Specials
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Pages: 372
Summary: Once again, Tally Youngblood has had a thought-changing surgery. This time, not only does she think in a completely different and uncontrollable way, she is a threat to other humans. Tally’s old boyfriend from her old days is still a pretty, but she is different. She is a fierce, angry, nimble creature that was made to fight. Still, she cannot go without him. Shay and Tally both decide to free Zane and help him escape the city. But, not for the reason you would think. Because of Tally’s once again different mind set, she does not want to escape the city and head to the Smoke to be free, she wants to capture David and other Smokies who created the Smoke (the Smoke is a city where runaways go) and bring them back to the city. Tally’s journey to this new town is led by Zane and his friends, and as you would imagine, is not easy for both of them. What Tally finds is even more captivating than her journey there…
Reflection:
DAVID
David was Tally’s boyfriend back when she was an ugly. He is a thoughtful, caring, and reliable guy, but is determined to keep his family’s creation going. He was the one who created the Smoke, along with his mother’s and father’s help. Tally has depended on David many times, and he was very reliable each time. In this book, when Tally came from the city to escape for the last time ever, she thought she was alone. But, when she made a flare in the sky, David came to her the next day.
I could relate Special Circumstances attack on Diego to the Hunger Games because, just like the Hunger Games, their goal in the war was to kill everyone. I could also relate the harmless people who were under attack and the people in the city where the Special Circumstances came from to the audience who watched the Hunger Games. I say this because the parents and audience were unhappy that people were getting killed (even their own children), and this is what the ‘audience’ of the attack must have been thinking.
Rating: I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars because it was the same storyline as the other books before this in the series. But, Scott Westerfeld managed to still entertain me by bringing in new characters and surprising outcomes of actions.
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Pages: 372
Summary: Once again, Tally Youngblood has had a thought-changing surgery. This time, not only does she think in a completely different and uncontrollable way, she is a threat to other humans. Tally’s old boyfriend from her old days is still a pretty, but she is different. She is a fierce, angry, nimble creature that was made to fight. Still, she cannot go without him. Shay and Tally both decide to free Zane and help him escape the city. But, not for the reason you would think. Because of Tally’s once again different mind set, she does not want to escape the city and head to the Smoke to be free, she wants to capture David and other Smokies who created the Smoke (the Smoke is a city where runaways go) and bring them back to the city. Tally’s journey to this new town is led by Zane and his friends, and as you would imagine, is not easy for both of them. What Tally finds is even more captivating than her journey there…
Reflection:
DAVID
David was Tally’s boyfriend back when she was an ugly. He is a thoughtful, caring, and reliable guy, but is determined to keep his family’s creation going. He was the one who created the Smoke, along with his mother’s and father’s help. Tally has depended on David many times, and he was very reliable each time. In this book, when Tally came from the city to escape for the last time ever, she thought she was alone. But, when she made a flare in the sky, David came to her the next day.
I could relate Special Circumstances attack on Diego to the Hunger Games because, just like the Hunger Games, their goal in the war was to kill everyone. I could also relate the harmless people who were under attack and the people in the city where the Special Circumstances came from to the audience who watched the Hunger Games. I say this because the parents and audience were unhappy that people were getting killed (even their own children), and this is what the ‘audience’ of the attack must have been thinking.
Rating: I would give this book 4 out of 5 stars because it was the same storyline as the other books before this in the series. But, Scott Westerfeld managed to still entertain me by bringing in new characters and surprising outcomes of actions.
Pretties
Scott Westerfeld
My favorite line is, "you are never happy with what you have." I think that this is the theme of the book Pretties, and the theme of the rest of the books in the series I have read. You can learn from this quote because it is true. Whenever you get something new, you are interested in it for a couple of days, and then you want something else. This is exactally how it is with Tally (haha get it?).
If I could change one thing about this piece it would be I would have liked to add more interesting pictures because the pictures that are always added to book reviews are the author and a picture of the cover of the book. Hope you enjoy my review!
If I could change one thing about this piece it would be I would have liked to add more interesting pictures because the pictures that are always added to book reviews are the author and a picture of the cover of the book. Hope you enjoy my review!
Title: Pretties
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Pages: 444
Summary:
Pretties, the sequel to the last book, Uglies, is a continuation of the same stories and is filled with adventures. Even though Tally has a fun-filled new life full of amazing technologies, she wants what she desired before, to take thought changing pills as a trial so that she can redeem herself from trading the Smoke. Instead of taking both of the pills together, like she was supposed to, she and her new friend, Zane, randomly split them, not aware of the consequences. Because they are no longer going to be pretty minded (because of the pill’s actions), which was their goal, they plan to run away from the city. Now, the only thing stopping them are the annoying cuffs on their wrists which act as trackers and hear what you say so that the authorities know what you are up to. And worse, they don’t come off. Tally and Zane attempt many ways to get their cuffs off (even going as far as sticking their hands in a smasher which could squash your hand so hard your bones would turn into jello), and they finally decide to use heat. After a lot of planning, Zane, Tally, and some of their friends escape on hot air balloons to the New Smoke. The escape doesn’t go as well as planned, leaving Tally stranded for weeks with people who want to kill her. Read the book for a deeper description of this adventure!
Reflection:
Theme: I think that the main thing that we can learn from this series so far is that you are never happy with what you have, you always want more. In the book Uglies, Tally is fixated on becoming pretty, then staying in the Smoke, then becoming pretty again. In this book, Pretties, Tally enjoys being a pretty and having a pretty life, but then wants to escape into the wild again. Tally obviously keeps changing her mind about what she desires.
Scott Westerfeld: Scott Westerfeld wrote many books and series including the Uglies series, the Leviathan series, Afterworlds, Peeps, Midnighters series, Succession series, and So Yesterday. He writes a lot of books for young adults (13 books). He was born in Texas, but likes to spend time in both Sydney, Australia, and New York City.
Rating: I would rate this book 4 stars because it is not as good as the first book in the series, and not much action occurs in the book before the last third.
Pictures:
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Pages: 444
Summary:
Pretties, the sequel to the last book, Uglies, is a continuation of the same stories and is filled with adventures. Even though Tally has a fun-filled new life full of amazing technologies, she wants what she desired before, to take thought changing pills as a trial so that she can redeem herself from trading the Smoke. Instead of taking both of the pills together, like she was supposed to, she and her new friend, Zane, randomly split them, not aware of the consequences. Because they are no longer going to be pretty minded (because of the pill’s actions), which was their goal, they plan to run away from the city. Now, the only thing stopping them are the annoying cuffs on their wrists which act as trackers and hear what you say so that the authorities know what you are up to. And worse, they don’t come off. Tally and Zane attempt many ways to get their cuffs off (even going as far as sticking their hands in a smasher which could squash your hand so hard your bones would turn into jello), and they finally decide to use heat. After a lot of planning, Zane, Tally, and some of their friends escape on hot air balloons to the New Smoke. The escape doesn’t go as well as planned, leaving Tally stranded for weeks with people who want to kill her. Read the book for a deeper description of this adventure!
Reflection:
Theme: I think that the main thing that we can learn from this series so far is that you are never happy with what you have, you always want more. In the book Uglies, Tally is fixated on becoming pretty, then staying in the Smoke, then becoming pretty again. In this book, Pretties, Tally enjoys being a pretty and having a pretty life, but then wants to escape into the wild again. Tally obviously keeps changing her mind about what she desires.
Scott Westerfeld: Scott Westerfeld wrote many books and series including the Uglies series, the Leviathan series, Afterworlds, Peeps, Midnighters series, Succession series, and So Yesterday. He writes a lot of books for young adults (13 books). He was born in Texas, but likes to spend time in both Sydney, Australia, and New York City.
Rating: I would rate this book 4 stars because it is not as good as the first book in the series, and not much action occurs in the book before the last third.
Pictures:
Uglies
Scott Westerfeld
I am proud of the words I chose to use. For example, instead of saying a disgusting ugly, I decided to use the descriptive word, repellent. This piece demonstrates my ability to write detailed and straightforward explanations of things. Now you can... read:
Title: Uglies
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Pages: 425
SPOILERS
Summary:
A futuristic dystopian society requires everyone at the age of 16 has to get a body remodeling surgery done to switch them from being a repellent ugly to a desirable pretty. Tally, a girl who has a dream of becoming pretty, is waiting until the day that she will finally have the life-changing surgery done. But, when she meets a girl who has the opposite mind set of her, she starts to question her own decision. This girl, Shay, tries to convince Tally to follow her to an independent town called the Smoke, but Tally declines Shay’s invitation, staying with her choice of becoming a pretty. On the day of Tally’s surgery, she is expected to unwillingly help the authorities by finding the outlaw, Shay. As things progress, she starts to have a change of heart. The story that ensues makes for a great adventure.
Reflection:
This book reminds me of the Hunger Games because the Hunger Games is also a futuristic dystopian society with a heroin finding herself in a dangerous situation, but Uglies has it’s own plot.
After seeing pictures of what we would consider normal features of people, Tally says to Shay, “‘So this is what people looked like before the first pretty? How could anyone stand to open their eyes?’”I like this quote because it shows that Tally does not know what people who are normal look like. She does not know that normal people have all different features such as big noses, fat, dark/light skin. Because Tally lives in a world where everyone looks the same after they are 16 and considered pretty, she does not know of anyone looking different than that.
Rating:
I would rate this book 5 out of 5 stars because it was one of my favorite books. I like the fact that it did not have as much of the sexual topics and inappropriate language as many of the young adult books have. Also, when I finished this book, I wished I had the second book that I could continue reading the series.
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Pages: 425
SPOILERS
Summary:
A futuristic dystopian society requires everyone at the age of 16 has to get a body remodeling surgery done to switch them from being a repellent ugly to a desirable pretty. Tally, a girl who has a dream of becoming pretty, is waiting until the day that she will finally have the life-changing surgery done. But, when she meets a girl who has the opposite mind set of her, she starts to question her own decision. This girl, Shay, tries to convince Tally to follow her to an independent town called the Smoke, but Tally declines Shay’s invitation, staying with her choice of becoming a pretty. On the day of Tally’s surgery, she is expected to unwillingly help the authorities by finding the outlaw, Shay. As things progress, she starts to have a change of heart. The story that ensues makes for a great adventure.
Reflection:
This book reminds me of the Hunger Games because the Hunger Games is also a futuristic dystopian society with a heroin finding herself in a dangerous situation, but Uglies has it’s own plot.
After seeing pictures of what we would consider normal features of people, Tally says to Shay, “‘So this is what people looked like before the first pretty? How could anyone stand to open their eyes?’”I like this quote because it shows that Tally does not know what people who are normal look like. She does not know that normal people have all different features such as big noses, fat, dark/light skin. Because Tally lives in a world where everyone looks the same after they are 16 and considered pretty, she does not know of anyone looking different than that.
Rating:
I would rate this book 5 out of 5 stars because it was one of my favorite books. I like the fact that it did not have as much of the sexual topics and inappropriate language as many of the young adult books have. Also, when I finished this book, I wished I had the second book that I could continue reading the series.
Seedfolks
By: Paul Fleischman
This piece is evidence in my growth as a reader because I dissected a lot of the text and found out a lot about the characters in the book. I chose this piece because it is a very clear reflection of the book. On thing I learned is how to cite evidence from text with page numbers. I hope you enjoy!
To Kill a Mockingbird
Written by: Harper Lee
To Kill a Mockingbird is a wonderfully written book where you learn what real life during that time period was like. I chose this piece to put into my ePortfolio because it exemplifies my abilities to write and create paragraphs and summaries for books. My goal is to continue writing inspirational reviews like this one to continue making my book reviews interesting for the people who read them. I hope you enjoy!
Title: To Kill a Mockingbird
Author: Harper Lee
Pages: 323
Summary: To Kill a Mockingbird is a renowned and masterfully written novel intended to give the reader an example of what life in the 1930s’ (during the Great Depression) was like. What is seemingly a coming of age novel, truly transforms into a book that teaches all readers what inequality and discrimination was like in that time. Throughout the book, the main character Scout, a young girl, learns that in reality, democracy in the U.S. does not mean equality for all black and white people. Mainly the book deals with Scout having fun playing with her brother, Jem, and friend, Dill, and playing tricks on their creepy neighbor. Also during the book, you hear snippets of a court case that Scout’s father, a lawyer, is going through to help protect an innocent black man.
Quotes: “We are a democracy and Germany is a dictatorship… Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced” (281). This quote truly explains that these Southern Americans were unaware that they were a prejudice group against the poor black people. However they are willing to admit that Germany is prejudice against Jews. How could anyone persecute another white person?
“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit'em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (103). In this case, this was used in a literal sense, but this quote was meant to be understood in a figurative fashion to represent the theme of the book: an innocent person should never be mistreated.
“...Besides, the nothin’s real scary except in books” (322). The way I interprate this quote is that the scariest thing out there is how we treat other human beings, not an unrealistic/realistic fear of the potential day to day events.
Rating: I rate this book 5/5 stars. It is a meaningful book full of brutal, but realistic ways humans treated others in those times. What makes this book so famous and successful is a combination of the adventurous childhood story, injustice of the society, and language that reflects upon the time period.
Author: Harper Lee
Pages: 323
Summary: To Kill a Mockingbird is a renowned and masterfully written novel intended to give the reader an example of what life in the 1930s’ (during the Great Depression) was like. What is seemingly a coming of age novel, truly transforms into a book that teaches all readers what inequality and discrimination was like in that time. Throughout the book, the main character Scout, a young girl, learns that in reality, democracy in the U.S. does not mean equality for all black and white people. Mainly the book deals with Scout having fun playing with her brother, Jem, and friend, Dill, and playing tricks on their creepy neighbor. Also during the book, you hear snippets of a court case that Scout’s father, a lawyer, is going through to help protect an innocent black man.
Quotes: “We are a democracy and Germany is a dictatorship… Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced” (281). This quote truly explains that these Southern Americans were unaware that they were a prejudice group against the poor black people. However they are willing to admit that Germany is prejudice against Jews. How could anyone persecute another white person?
“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit'em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (103). In this case, this was used in a literal sense, but this quote was meant to be understood in a figurative fashion to represent the theme of the book: an innocent person should never be mistreated.
“...Besides, the nothin’s real scary except in books” (322). The way I interprate this quote is that the scariest thing out there is how we treat other human beings, not an unrealistic/realistic fear of the potential day to day events.
Rating: I rate this book 5/5 stars. It is a meaningful book full of brutal, but realistic ways humans treated others in those times. What makes this book so famous and successful is a combination of the adventurous childhood story, injustice of the society, and language that reflects upon the time period.
Shakespeare Poem Analysis
I chose the Shakespeare "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day" poem dissection because it exemplifies my abilities to dissect and carefully inspect pieces of writing. I believe I did well on annotating the poem's lines along with the help of our teacher, Miss Lukins. One thing I can remember for next time I am assigned to read and precisely annotate a poem, I will try not to take the words and phrases in the poem as literally, for most poems have a theme that is either a hyperbole or include personification. Click on the link to view my comments and "dissection" of one of Shakespeare's various poems!