English II Honors

The Alchemist’s Self Worth

Book Reviewed:

The Alchemist

Summery:

The Alchemist, written by Paulo Coelho, is a novel about conquering the problems which life creates in order to pursue one’s dreams. Santiago, a shepherd from Andalusia, has recurring dreams about a mysterious treasure buried by the Pyramids. Santiago comes across a gypsy woman and a king who both tell him to find his treasure. The shepherd heads their advice and leaves the only life he has ever known in pursuit of the treasure. On his mission he encounters many people who will all change his life and certain circumstances, which may block his goal.

Recommendation:

Paulo Coelho makes one question their significance with The Alchemist. It is a great novel that I recommend everyone should read at least once in their lifetime. Paulo Coelho’s childhood experience gives him a fresh look on the world around him. The fact that he grew up in Argentina enables him to interpret things differently than someone from a small town would, such as myself. He writes beautifully and his creative story lines keep the reader interested from start to finish. This book deals with personal legends and the role that everyone must play in life, which I find very interesting. This book is a great piece of literature to read no matter the mood you are in. I can honestly say that I immensely enjoyed reading this book and I hope to read many other works by this clever author. It is rare that I find myself captivated by a novel as much as I was with The Alchemist, for this reason I highly recommend this book.

In Short:

I recommend The Alchemist for sophomore English II- Honors and regular classes.

Reading for All

Book Reviewed: The Good Thief

Summary: The book opens up with the setting of a Catholic orphanage for boys, St. Anthony. The boys at St. Anthony are mostly adopted by people who need help with labor. The boys who do not get adopted before a certain age are forced to go to the military, where it is described brutal and lethal. Ren, the main character of the story, did not expect to get adopted because he is missing his left hand. Then one day, Benjamin Nab comes to the orphanage and claim Ren as his brother. He explicate to the priests at St. Anthony that there was an Indian attack that killed his parents, and shows their scalp for evidence. As Ren and Benjamin’s journey begins, Ren finds out that Benjamin was lying the whole time about being his brother. For a living, Ren, Benjamin, and Tom who is Benjamin’s closest companion, steals and achieves to do many more detrimental acts. As the story goes on, the crew settles in North Umbrage, a dreadful place, and Tom adopts Brom and Ichy, Ren’s best friends, from St. Anthony. Brom and Ichy are twins that are known for bad luck because their mother committed suicide by drowning. Many more characters are added to the story: Dolly, the murderer, Mrs. Sands, the landlady who has a dwarf sized man coming down her chimney every night, and McGinty, a violent man who claims to be Ren’s uncle and who owns a mouse trap company near where Ren and his companions settles. At the end, Ren discovers shocking information through Benjamin Nab about his past.

Recommendation:

This book will tie in well with the books we have read this year. The Good Thief is about a boy who learns about himself through his actions, and peers. The books we have read this year were about characters that learn and grow through the people around them, and the characters in this book does that too. By reading this book, a lot can be learned; readers can learn to think about the positive side, even when there is a negative situation you have to face, and readers can also learn the good deeds and the bad deeds people can do and the consequences that follow both. Just by looking at the title, people might think that it is a boyish book, but I, as a girl, enjoyed it very much. It has a lot of fantasy, and action along with love between the deeply bonded characters. This book is not difficult or a very long, but it is a suitable book for students turning sophomores, because it can teach them the different perspectives of life. The story of the book is not only educational but it is also very amusing and thrilling. It will create a bridge of understanding for students turning sophomores, because we read books that are dark, and gloomy, and this book can be a good transition. The book is not extremely dark or intense, but it contains a fairly gloomy part, which is why it can be a great transitionary book. Someone accepted in mid-August will have time to read this book. Though it is over 300 pages, it is not a hard text to read. It took me around two days to read it, and I only read about an hour and thirty minutes a day. I think this should be a book for all sophomore classes to read, because it is a book that everyone will be capable of reading and capable of learning from. Not a lot of analyzing is needed to understand the story line of the book.

In short:

I recommend The Good Thief for a sophomore year summer read for all classes.

Book Reviewed: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Summary:

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet takes place in Seattle’s Chinatown and it’s neighboring town Nihonmachi (Japantown) between the years 1942 to 1986. Much of the book is based on World War II and the conflict it brings to these two communities. A young twelve-year-old Chinese boy, named Henry Lee, is the main character in this story. Henry goes to Rainier Elementary, which is known as an all white school. Since the war had started, his family had found it safer for Henry to go to the school and receive an American education. Along with the constant teasing Henry is faced with at Rainier because of his race, he also is faced with conflict between his parents and their stubborn decisions on what Henry should be as a person. A few weeks into school, a new girl named Keiko Okabe transfers to Rainier. Henry and her become close friends and form a special bond between each other. The only problem is that she is Japanese, and in Henry’s father’s eyes, Henry is allying with the enemy. Soon, Keiko and her family are sent to a concentration camp because of the evacuation of all the Japanese in the U.S. Henry is now faced with many obstacles, staying close with his close friend (maybe more), and dealing with his strict father and trying to win his respect back.

Recommendation:

I believe Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet would be a good choice for a summer reading book. This book would be a good fit with the other books we have read this year because it has to do with obstacles that have to be faced and dealt with and also has to do with how life is a learning experience and wisdom is gained from it. I believe these are some life lessons that can be interpreted form the book. This book also shows how the choices made can impact a person’s life and how we learn from them. It also brings up racial conflict and cultural differences, and how we have emerged from them. This is a very good choice for a book because it is very interesting and would appeal to all readers. It would appeal to girls because it is a bit of a tragic romance and it would appeal to boys because of the time it is around and some of the action in it. This book brings hope to readers because it seems like a real life story filled with love, misfortune, and faith. The length of this book is a little long, with 385 pages, but once you start reading you can’t stop. It is a very easy to understand, yet it is an attention grabbing book. I would recommend this book for the honors class because there is a lot of meaning behind this book that could be annotated and pulled apart easily for very intense class discussions. This book could build a bridge of understanding between freshman and sophomore years at KUA because the book is relatable and has to do with problems faced in every day life. I highly recommend this book because it is interesting and meaningful to understand. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is the best choice for a summer reading book.

In Short:

I recommend this book for a KUA sophomore year summer read.

Not Actually the Last Town on Earth

Book Reviewed: The Last Town on Earth

Summary:

The town of Commonwealth is faced with World War I and the rise of the Spanish Flu from 1917 to1918. They decide to quarantine the town, blockading the only road to and from the town. Philip, son of the founder of Commonwealth, stands guard with his role model Graham. A soldier soon approaches the blockade, and Graham is forced to shoot him to keep away the possibility of the flu pandemic.

The quarantine frustrates many people of the town. Commonwealth is based around a lumber mill and there are few supplies in the town itself. Tempers flare and townspeople turn against each other and the flu and the war put intense pressure on everyone. The town begins to fall apart even without the flu.

The workers of the lumber mill were excused from the war draft due to the fact that the timber they provide is essential to the planes the U.S needed. However, many workers did not receive papers excusing them from the war. There is a group of men in the town over that would like to punish these workers who do not have papers.

Philip encounters a second man but cannot bring himself to shoot him. Instead, he locks him away in a shack and plans to feed him. However, another man catches Philip and locks him in too, fearing that Philip was already contaminated from being in contact with the soldier. They are quarantined for a few days and Philip is released, but the soldier is still detained for questioning.

Soon, a mill worker has flu-like symptoms and another does not report for work. He is found dead in his house, killed by the flu. The flu has infiltrated Commonwealth, which is now weakened by the lack of supplies. The flu and the men attempting to smoke out the draft dodgers converge on Commonwealth and the entire town turns against each other. Even Graham and Philip have flaring arguments. The quarantine had failed and now Commonwealth was on the brink of dying out all together.

Recommendation:

The Last Town on Earth is a story where everything goes awry, and this is caused by an unstoppable force. In Things Fall Apart a similar thing occurs to the Ibo Tribe. The people of both books are faced with an unstoppable crisis that consumes the entire town. The Last Town On Earth would act as a great book to relate to things fall apart. However, “Fences” and Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress do not relate well to The Last Town on Earth; and it would be useless to compare them.

Although The Last Town on Earth is told from the perspective of a boy, the narrator is omniscient and explores the thoughts of all characters and presents many opinions, both male and female. Also, the books is about a conflict that affects an entire town, not just one male or one female, allowing to be interesting to both boys and girls. I think of this book as a bit more masculine due to the entire dire situations the book is based around. I consider a pandemic involving guns, war, and fights to be more masculine, but I can see where the tension and action would be liked by both male and female readers. Although I do consider the book slightly masculine, I do believe it has something to offer for both genders.

The books themes are widespread. They offer many lessons and even proven historical lessons. The largest lesson taught is how one incident can pit an entire group of people against each other, and also how it can bring them together. Also, because Commonwealth is a semi-socialist town, it brings about the socialist ideas of the early twentieth centuries. Another historical lesson it teaches is of the varied attitudes toward war, both for and against it. I feel that the many themes and lessons in this book would create great discussion in class, and allow freshman to pick out themes and analyze this book deeply. It is not as challenging to extract the themes of this book, but there are many of them. The Last Town on Earth would give incoming sophomores a chance to practice methods of discovering themes and what a theme is, to help their transition into the critical analysis of sophomore English.

The book is rather lengthy, almost four hundred pages. However, the story picks up and the plot line is easy to follow, making the book seem much shorter than 400 pages. Once the flu hit the town of Commonwealth, I couldn’t put the book down. However, I would recommend this book for English II Honors because it can easily be taken a step further into analyzing the themes and topics of this book.

In Short:

I DO recommend The Last Town on Earth for a sophomore summer read for honors classes only.

John Francis Ph.D. a California resident in the 1970s, witnesses a terrible oil spill in which two tankers collide. Seeing the damage to the environment and the ecosystem that oil causes John begins to think of ways that he can help. One day John decides to give up all use of motorized transportation. He begins walking everywhere no matter how far the destination. On his 27^th birthday, John decides to commemorate the day by staying silent. This silence continues throughout the next day, and on for the next 17 years. During his 22 years of walking John Francis walks all over the country and even the world, learning, and educating. He has close encounters with death, educates at multiple universities as a silent speaker, and earns a Ph.D. from Wisconsin University. John was even appointed a goodwill ambassador by the United Nations. He experiences an amazing journey and proves that one person can make a difference.

Many of the books in the sophomore curriculum include some sort of journey, a period of personal growth. Planet Walker fits into these books perfectly, as the protagonist goes on a journey and discovers not only things about himself but about the world around him. The plot and issues discussed in Planet Walker mainly have to do with the environment, which applies to no specific gender. I t would be a good read for both boys and girls. Everyone would also gain from the lessons portrayed in the story. Most importantly that one person can make a large difference. Also learning about what can be done to help the environment is extremely important in this day and age. The book is sort of lengthy and can be slow to read at some points, if someone had only 2 or 3 weeks to read it, along with other summer reading books it could be an issue to finish. I recommend this book for a KUA sophomore summer read.

Book Reviewed: 08: A Graphic Novel Diary of the Campaign Trail

Summary:
The story is, as its title says, a graphic novel diary of the 2008 presidential campaign. It covers rises and falls in the polls, major game-changers, the background and characteristics of various candidates, and the effects of news reporting and media feedback on the race itself. It follows the early days of the campaign and covers all the way up to Election Day.
Recommendation:
This book has the potential to fit nicely in with the other books in the junior year curriculum, as it is about politics, the media and the changing opinions of the public, the first and second of which have been featured a bit in other books in the junior year curriculum. The second would be an interesting topic for analysis and discussion. I believe that both boys and girls can relate to and understand this book on the same level, but international students might have a more difficult time. There are not many lessons to learn from the book, but it would be an interesting choice for a read as it is a graphic novel, and storytelling as a whole could be explored in a deeper context with this book. This book would probably not be an ideal choice for freshmen going into sophomore year because there isn’t much room for expansion as it is based on facts and figures that most students at KUA have likely already been exposed to at length and already understand. It would fit sophomores going into junior year better, due to the fact that it covers the issues of racism and politics that seem to be a little more pervasive in junior year English reading. It is possible that it won’t open up many fields of discussion for sophomores as students will see it as old news that does not need repeating and it won’t relate as well to their curriculum. When it has aged it might be a bit more likely to encourage discussion, but perhaps in a History course rather than an English course. The book is a quick read, though one may need to re-read it as it is easy to misjudge the amount of information in the book and miss a few things as a result. I think this book is not the best choice for sophomore curriculum, but would be fine for juniors, as they could better enjoy reading this book thanks to reasons outlined above.
In short:
I recommend this book as a summer read, however I do not recommend it to incoming sophomores. I feel that juniors would benefit more from reading this book because it would tie in better with their curriculum than it would with ours, and more of them are likely to be taking U.S. History, where this book has the potential to come in handy more than it would in European History.

A Unique Story Full of Thought

Book Reviewed: Change of Heart

Summary

Change of Heart, by Jodi Picoult, tells of a death row prisoner, Shay Bourne, who wants to give his heart to the girl whose father and sister he shot. He is willing to give his heart this girl who needs it, and he believes that he can redeem himself from doing this. His death penalty by lethal injection would make this impossible because lethal injection would cause heart failure but hanging could be a possibility being that it only causes brain death yet still allows the heart to function. Maggie, his lawyer, comes to the rescue to fight for Shay Bourne’s first amendment right to practice his religion. She uses his belief that donating a heart could lead to redemption as a source to allowing him to choose to die by hanging. She believes that it is constitutional for Shay Bourne to choose his way of dying in order to practice his religion. She also tries to convince the mother of the victims to accept the heart of the killer for her dying child. The mother has to face the issue of accepting a heart of her own husband and daughter’s killer in order to save her only loved one. Throughout Change of Heart, it questions if the death roll is constitutional or not and also debates the definition of organized religion and belief. It also argues if religion is totally separate from politics or is it actually mixed in.

Recommendation

Change of Heart is a really good book because it debates issues that come up in this world around us. It opens doors to teenagers about ongoing topics that are based on facts and not biases from the author. Change of Heart does not show a subjective view but both sides of the argument that goes on, which allows teenagers to form world views based on opposing sides. It speaks for a mother who loses her husband and daughter from an insane man and wants to see the killer dead. It also speaks for the killer who grew up as troubled child going to different foster homes and is psychologically insane yet wants to redeem himself through heart donation. It would probably be a good book for a summer read between freshman and sophomore year because it has a lot to deal with analytically. It makes a person think and meditate on these issues. It would be good for every sophomore to read this, and it appeal to both genders. It is very easy to read because it is interesting. It is lengthy compared to other books in the curriculum, but this book is certainly a page turner with many issues to discuss.

I highly recommend Change of Heart for summer read for all the sophomore English classes.

“Falling Angels” book recommendation

Book reviewed: “Falling Angels” by Tracy Chevalier

Summary:

Tracy Chevalier’s novel “Falling Angels” talks about the fortunes of two families during the twentieth century. Shifting perspectives in between the Coleman and Waterhouse family tell about their lives and point out the troubles in marriages, social classes and society, sexuality and political rights. In the beginning the Colemans are viewed as the ideal upper class family. The successful Mr. Coleman and the beautiful Mrs. Coleman live together with their very intelligent daughter Maude in a modern house, rejecting the Victorian traditions and supporting the new developments of the century like electricity and technology. Unlike the Waterhouse family who are the Coleman’s neighbors and appear as a simple middle-class family, neither very successful nor popular and revive the former values. The two contrary families are inextricably linked by their daughters who are close friends. And as time goes by and the friendship of the daughters increases the proper images of the Coleman family become destroyed by the reality of an unsatisfied marriage and back held feelings that together create unexpected turns in everyone’s lives. Affairs, fights, secrets and especially the outcry of uprising feminists and so-called suffragettes during this time period affect both families and change everything dramatically.

Recommendation:

“Falling Angels” by Tracy Chevalier is a vivid fiction novel that differs from usual novels because the storyteller shifts in between several perspectives and therefore catches the reader’s attention throughout the entire book. Although most of the perspectives are from female characters and therefore might appeal more to girls, the historical accuracy of the events during the twentieth century make the novel interesting for both girls and boys. Since this period made important changes for history, the novel is highly valuable for the general knowledge and furthermore makes observations about friendship, love and desperation, thus should be a compulsory element for an English course. Considering the bridge between a freshman and sophomore year and the language that is used in “Falling Angels”, I would recommend this novel to an Honors level rather than a regular course. The novel would create a smooth transition from the freshman year to the sophomore year because it is both well written and surprisingly entertaining, but also informative and ambitious.

In short:

I recommend the novel “Falling Angels” by Tracy Chevalier for the English Honors classes for the sophomore year.

Tales in Pixie Dust

Book Reviewed: Tigerheart by Peter David

Summary:

For the entirety of his life, Paul’s father has told him stories- fantastic and marvelous stories of heroes and villains, talking animals and angry pirates, and one unforgettable Boy, who never wishes to grow old. When Paul’s newborn sister, Bonnie, dies, his mother’s heart is broken and she no longer acts as a mother should. Filled with anger, she sends Paul’s father away, leaving Paul to be the man of the house. Paul, who feels sorely neglected at the loss of his mother’s love, turns to the pixies and animals of the local park. One night, the famous Boy arrives in his mirror, teaching him of the wonders of the ever fantastical Anyplace, where the dreams of children are formed and lived. Eventually the Boy and Paul come to be at odds, just when Paul needs the Boy the most. Befriending the Boy’s wronged and vengeful Pixie, Fiddlefix, Paul travels to the Anyplace to make right with the Boy and enlist his help in finding a new sister to mend his mother’s heart. Paul embarks on splendid adventures, befriending a wild white Tiger and a tribe of warrior Indians, meeting bloodthirsty pirates and narrowly escaping death, teaming up with Vagabonds and a young girl by the name of Gwenny, fighting a strange woman with a crook in her nose, and finally following a vengeful, hateful shadow into the realm of the Noplace. Tigerheart brings out the true meaning of friendship and family, and what growing up is really all about.

Recommendation:

Tigerheart is a retelling of the classical story, Peter Pan. It is a purely fictitious novel that offers an important lesson and insight into life as you grow older. Compared to the other books within the curriculum, this novel is light and far less serious. It is simply written, though offers many practical vocabulary words. This book would be appealing to both boys and girls. The true lesson of this novel deals with growing up, and how that affects family and friends, and even how it affects you as a person. Tigerheart would make a fantastic summer read, and would ease students into the curriculum, offering a less intense life- lesson, that nevertheless is not lacking in importance. This book is a decent length, but it is an easy and engaging read that keeps you in suspense, and could easily be finished after a few sold hours of reading.

In short: I recommend Tigerheart for a sophomore year summer read for all classes.