Week 29 Reading

     This week I read "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky.
     This was a very interesting and over-all amazing book that I read this week. It is full of passive meaning and emotion, which really different and cool. The cover page even had a lot of meaning:
 
     It is basically a story about a teenage boy with emotional issues and his journey through high school. The most interesting thing about this book is that it is written entirely through letters that this boy writs to the reader, because 'she' said you would listen. It is a bit like "Flowers for Algernon," if you have read it (another good book).
     As I said in is a very unique book and everyone of our age should read it!

 Happy almost-Spring Trip everyone!!!

Week 28 Reading

   This week I read "Heart of a Samurai" by Margi Preus
   It is the true story of a Japanese teenager named Manjiro who lived in the mid 1800's, and experienced an amazing adventure. The book starts with his fishing crew off the coast of Japan who are struggling to catch fish. Suddenly a large storm interrupts them and destroys their ship, leaving them floating away from their home in the ocean. After some smaller adventures, they are found by an american whaling ship, and are rescued, not knowing anything about these knew people. Manjiro learns to love the people and sea, and is soon taken to a place he knows nothing about- America.
    The fact that this is a true story is pretty cool, and it is told in a way that doesn't have a beautiful writing style, but explains the event in a simple and interesting words. It is an easy read, and is about 300 pages long. I recommend this for anyone that wants to read a realistic adventure book.

Week 27 Reading

    This week I read "Because of Mr. Terupt" by Robert Buyea
    This was a sweet and easy read that was written in a way that wasn't extremely appealing to me. The plot is basically about seven kids in a school that is called Snow Hill are all very different each covering the main categorizations for children in the modern day. It is told from all of their perspectives (switching off between them) and they simply talk about the things that happen throughout the school year. They all have imperfections and types of 'enemies' in their class, but slowly everyone evolves into something different than they were. The only class that is mentioned throughout the book is the class that Mr. Terupt teaches. He is a new teacher at Snow Hill school, but manages to connect with each of his students, which makes everyone connect.
    This is a book with every good character development and characters, but I didn't really like the writing style. It didn't have much meaning (which you can expect if it was being told by figurative kids), and the author didn't set the scenes at all which didn't appeal to me very well.
     All I am trying to say is that it has good characters and is easy to talk about with others, but the writing style did not fit the criteria for what I like in a book.  

Week 26 Reading

   Over spring break I read the book "Between Shades of Grey" By Ruta Spetys.
   First of all, just a couple of weeks ago I read Ruta Spetys' other novel called "Out of the Easy," and both are really good books that I recommend for everyone. I don't know which one I like more, because Between Shades of Grey has a better story, but Out of the Easy is told in a better way (in my opinion). Between Shades of Grey is a book about a girl named Lina who lives in Lithuania in 1942 with her family. The book starts when they are taken from their home in the middle of the night by Soviet soldiers. After a long train ride, they are taken to Siberia (in Russia) which is in the Arctic Circle to work camps and have to survive in the horrible conditions.
   This did actually happen, where during WWII the Soviet Union captured certain people and took them to work camps much like the Germans were doing in Europe. This is an amazing story and is told really well, so I think everyone should give this book a try. It is intelligent yet easy to read, and is about 300 pages long.
   Again, everyone should consider reading one of the two books Ruta Spetys has written!