Between Shades of Gray By: Ruta Sepetys

I read Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys.  This book is about a 15 year old girl named Lina who lived in Lithuania in 1941, during WW2.  One night, her father doesn’t come home and the Soviet secret police barge into her house and take her family hostage.  They are then sent to Siberia with many challenges in their way.  Most of the rest of the book is the family trying to communicate and survive.

                Lina is strong (both in mind and stomach).  She sees countless people gunned down, and many more die from starvation, disease, and freezing to death.  She watches her mother freeze to death, but is still able to carry one and support her younger brother Jonas.  Lina and her mom also help a woman who was stabbed in the leg take a shower while the woman was still bleeding.  When her mother breaks down and cries over news of her father being dead, Lina stays strong and the book never talks about her crying at the news.

                She is also headstrong.  She tried to find her father when they were on separate train cars.  If she was caught, then it was almost certain death.  Her mother didn’t even want her to go and find him! And yet, she does go.  Another example is when she decides to steal the file on her family from the first concentration camp to find out where her father is being kept.  Lina doesn’t once think about the kind of trouble that she could be in, or that her family could have been in. 

                Lina is finally a dreamer.  Through out the entire story, she sends messages to her father via passing along by people, hoping to know if he is alive.  The messages differ from a note written on a handkerchief to a picture drawn out.  She is a dreamer because it is almost impossible for a note to travel from a concentration camp to a prison without going through the mail.  And because every sad and emotional story can’t be totally dark, there is a boy named Andrius.  Lina wishes to always be with him, but that all changes when she is moved into her second concentration camp in the Arctic Circle.

                Overall, Lina is strong, headstrong, and a dreamer.  Though some of these might not be the best traits to have, in the end these kept her alive and sane during her period of the frosty bitterness of Siberia.

Uglies by: Scott Westerfeld

Part 1

       Tally was the main character in my book.  During my book, she loses friends, and makes new ones that change her life forever.  This book is set in the future where people are forced to have an operation to make them beautiful, or not ugly.  During the book, Tally meets Shay, a girl who would not only be her friend, but encourage her to run away from what she had been taught.

            Tally was rebellious.  In the beginning of the book, she and Shay were staying in the same dorms.  They used to sneak out at night and go into Prettytown (where the new Pretties live).  They also hover boarded around and went outside of the city limits into the Rusty Ruins (remains of our civilization that was destroyed by bacteria that got into our gas).

            Tally was also superficial. The entire book she was wishing to be pretty, and she couldn’t see past her flaws.  When Shay runs away, a team called the Special Forces tells Tally that she can’t get pretty until Shay comes back. So what does Tally do? She goes after Shay, and ruins an alter civilization (called Smoke) where people can accept who they are and how they look and also held other ugly runaways from her town.  And to make maters worse, she takes Shay’s boyfriend (David) and doesn’t ask Shay, and thinks that it’s extremely fine to do so.

            She was also repentant.  Even though she caused all the Smoke’s members to be captured, and David’s father to be killed, she risked her life and saved them in the end. Tally tells how she was a spy, and was forced to send Special Forces to Smoke.  She asks the Smokies for forgiveness, but also adds that they shouldn’t forgive her.

            Tally was sacrificial. When David’s mother wants to do some testing on a pretty to find a cure for a lesion( weird thing that happens in the brain during the operation that makes a pretty more cooperative), Tally offers to make herself pretty and become a lab rat.  David’s mother doesn’t know if it will work, but she’s willing to try.

            Overall, Tally was a rebellious, superficial, repentant, and sacrificial ugly.  Thought I didn’t like some of her traits, most of them were good traits to have.  They helped her, and also made the plot more interesting.

                                                                                                           

Part 2

            I was half-and-half about this book.  It was a good read, with pretty good characters.  The only thing that I didn’t like was Tally.  Her want to become pretty throughout the entire book just annoyed me.  Though I can honestly say that it is the first Sci-fi book that I’ve liked.  I can really identify with Tally in that she just wants to be beautiful and just party and not worry about life.  She’s willing to do anything do get there.  But really in the end she realizes that she’s amazing just the way she was, but she still sacrifices herself to become a test subject.  Now, I wouldn’t have lead Special Forces to Smoke, but that’s another story.

            I also like this book because it is a light read. The author also did not go into very deep and depressing parts.  For example, on page 209, ‘Still, she wouldn’t have traded anything for this moment, standing there and looking down at the plains spread out below’.  It’s just a basic sentence, but that’s how the entire book is written like, but it has descriptive language as well.    For example, on page 1, ‘The early summer sky was the color of cat vomit’.  It’s not a good thought, but it does describe what the sky looked like.  Another example of descriptive language is on page 371, where the author writes, ‘At the peak of her arc, the silence seemed to overwhelm everything- her stomach-churning weightlessness, and the mix of excitement.’ 

            I would recommend this to most girls.  I don’t know if any guys would like reading this book because it is a chick read. Although they still might like the story.  It does contain a hint of romance between Shay and David, and Tally and David.  Because that fact that it isn’t a huge part of the book, people who don’t like romance novels would still like the book.  Some might also consider it to be a chick book because the whole book is about getting an operation that makes you pretty. But that’s an issue that guys can also relate to.

            In the end, I did like this book.  It told the story of teenagers who rebelled against what they were taught.  This book reminded me that sometimes your elders might be wrong, and that it’s important to question things you don’t think are right. 

Book Report Part 1

Watership Down

By: Richard Adams

            Hazel was the main character in my book.  He is a typical rabbit, brown hair, battle scars (more in the end of the book than the beginning), medium size, a natural born leader, and an amazing fighter.  Hazel of course, lives in England in the Sandle Warren.  When his little brother, Fiver has a weird dream saying that the whole clan is going to be killed, Hazel still believes him, unlike the rest of the clan.  They run away, and face many dangers and conflict on their way to a utopia, called Watership Down.

                Hazel is trusting.  He left all he had, a nice home, family, all because he believed that the whole warren would die.  In the end, he was right, but he had to trust his little brother who was an outsider in the old warren.  Most of the time, the group of rabbits that came with them wondered where they were going, and so did Hazel.  Hazel had to trust Fiver in order to get to Watership Down but to also secure the trust of the group.  He also had to trust the Cowslip Warren.  When the group stayed there for a couple weeks, the warren could have killed them at any point.  Hazel had to trust that they wouldn’t

I also think that Hazel is brave.  After the Watership Down warren captures some does from the near-by warren called Efrafa.  The whole guard comes to kill the Watership Down rabbits and take the does back.  Hazel, even though he knows he could be killed in a matter of seconds, go’s and pleads with them.   They later form a sort of treaty between the two. Another incident is in the end, he is injured from the fight, and a young human finds him.  After he is healed, he doesn’t freak out; he remains calm, even during the car ride back to Watership down.

                Hazel is extremely smart.  He comes up with plans for almost any conflict they encounter.  They have to first find a way to get out of their current warren, and find a new one, all without running into other warrens, or getting killed.  When the group goes into Cowslips warren for awhile, he finds out that the rabbits there are being fattened up with snares all around the warren.  Another example is when they are going to steal does from Efrafa.

                Hazel is smart, trusting, and brave.  Those are all things that make a good leader, which Hazel was.  He had to rely on his natural senses, his group, and most important, Fiver.

Book Report Part 2

Part 2-Symbolism

                I thought that Watership Down had some symbolism in it.  I immediately thought of Noah and the Ark.  Noah had a vision of death and he was forced to flee where he was living.  Fiver had a vision of something totally destroying the field that they lived in.  The either could stay and die, or leave and live.  Noah and Fiver both chose life.  They both had to endure the reactions from their peers.  Noah was laughed at for building a huge boat and Fiver for going and telling the Chief Rabbit about an event that seemed like it would never happen.

                They also had to survive during the time that they left home, until they found a new one.  Noah had to survive for 40 days and 40 nights on a boat, and Fiver and his group had to survive for about 4 months in fields without knowing where they were.  Noah had to trust God and the group had to trust Fiver and his visions.

                I also thought that the beginning was like the Titanic.  People thought that it was so strong that it could withstand anything.  That was Chief Rabbit thought when Fiver told him about his vision of everyone dying.  The people on the Titanic didn’t heed the warning on icebergs that night, and they paid for it.  The same happened with the warren.  Only a few survived, and only one made it too Watership Down to be reunited with the group.

                The author said that there wasn’t a deeper meaning to anything in my book.  In the very beginning there is an introduction by Richard Adams.  He tells the history of the story, and how his was his daughters favorite story.  He kept the main plot, but just added more detail to it.  He says in the very end, “I want to emphasize that Watership Down was never intended to be some sort of allegory or parable.  It is simply a story about rabbits made up and told in the car.”  The author wrote this story on request of his daughters; it was their favorite car ride story. 

                I think that there was a deeper meaning to the story.  I think that is that everyone has something to say and we should listen and heed them.  The symbolism of the Titanic and Noah and the Ark show support me.  If people had listened to Noah, then they would have lived.  If the pilots had heeded the iceberg warning sent out by other people, then the Titanic wouldn’t have sank.

Choice Book Report Part 2!!!!!

Conflicts and resolved

Maria faced many conflicts during the book.  Many of them were external, like working to get rights for the gypsies, and trying to stay away from her uncle.  The two are connected.  She deals with them by listing to Zolton.  He has here get back her father’s violin case, which had documents that were crucial to the cause.  By doing this the other people helping the cause kept her safe from her uncle.  I would have done the same, but I wouldn’t have been as stupid as to get locked in the cellar.  This matched her personality that I named before. 

                She also faced many more internal conflicts.  Some of them are dealing with her father’s death, falling in love when he doesn’t love her back (at first), and her little brother (Toby) who gets swept up into the whole thing.  She deals with her father’s death by trying to find out why he died.  I wouldn’t have.  I would stay home, cry until my eyes run dry, and then get on with life.  Maria deals with her love predicament by still hoping and thinking about the possible future, but not making any hints to her feelings to Zolton.  I would have acted the same as her.  I would be too scared to tell anyone that I was in love.  The resolved part of the conflict didn’t fit with the type of person that she is; it was just the politeness of the time period.  People didn’t just tell others that they were in love; it was only said by the married and to be married.  Maria deals with her brother getting in the thick of things.  When her uncle found out that a voter against the rights was abducted, he took Toby into his home, and put him in the cellar along with other boys that he had caught before the book started.  She deals with this by talking to the people on the rights side and they break into the house and capture Toby back.  She came on the mission, but I would not have.  I would have been scared out of my wits.  Maria wasn’t.  This does show again that she is brave.  A reason she is strong is that she saw the poor treatment he was receiving from his own uncle, and she only cared about Toby.   She had spent countless hours with the man who had been doing the horrible things.   Maria and I are alike, but we are yet different.  In the end, all of the conflicts that were brought about her were resolved, (and this may sound kind of cheesy) but they all lived happily ever after.

Choice book report, part 1!!!!!!!!!!

The Musician’s Daughter

By Susan Dunlap

                Theresa is the main character in my book.  She has to deal with her father being murdered, being in love with a co-musician of his, her perverted uncle, and her mother trying to marry her off.  She is a strong person, even in the face of death.  When her dead father was brought home, she didn’t faint when she saw the body.  She wanted to find out the cause of his death, a decision that would fuel the rest of the book. 

                Theresa was determined.   In the beginning of the book, her father’s co-musicians would only tell her bits and pieces of the story of his death.  She kept asking them, and when they entrusted her with a secret about her father’s stand for the gypsies (nomadic people who didn’t have any rights).   She still wanted to know more.  Another example is that when she was younger and her father was teaching her the viola, her mother said that it wasn’t proper.  Yet she kept playing despite her mother’s warnings.

                Theresa was also brave.   When wandering into a camp full of gypsies, she wasn’t scared at all.  She was with Zolton (the one who she loves) though.  The second time, she was all by herself.     The third time was when her uncle traps her in his cellar; she sits in a boat full of rats and garbage to float out on a river of human waste.  This tunnel leads back to the gypsie camp.  Where she finds that her father was murdered in that same cellar, and traveled in the same boat that she was in.  When finding her younger brother, starving, beaten, and standing face to face with her uncle, she still finds words to comfort him. 

Theresa is also an idealist.  She hopes for Zolton to fall in love with her, for her father to be alive, proper rights and fairness to the gypsies, and to be able to play in a real orchestra.  The first one does come true, though not at first.  The second one could never come true, despite her constant worrying.  The proper rights are given to the gypsies.  She was not allowed to play in an full orchestra or in front of other people, it just wouldn’t be right for a woman at that time in history.  These are some of the characteristics for Theresa.

Memoir

My brother and I were frustrated.  My parents had shoved us into a car, saying that we headed for Buffalo.  They seemed in a joyous mood.  But I didn’t know why until we drove up to the pound.  We were accepting a new dog into our family.

                I was around 7 years old when we adopted my dog Gretta.  We adopted her when she was about 6 months old.  My dad had visited her on his way home from work.  All I remember about from that faithful day was she was extremely excited to see us, and she had more life than the other dogs, considering her past.  Gretta was used as a fighting dog for the neighborhood gangs in Buffalo.  They must have known that she wasn’t a fighter, and deposited her on the streets.  It was then the pound captured her.

                When we began to play with her in a playroom, I couldn’t help but think how she had a little German shepherd in her, much like our old dog, Gus.  Except Gus protected us like crazy and wasn’t a petting dog.  Gretta on the other hand, was giving us equal playing time with her and making us pet her.  We ended up adopting her.  I was scared at first but she did finally calm down.  It’s kind of weird, but Gretta is so human I sometime forget that she my dog.  I love her and I wouldn’t give her up for anything in the world.