Independent Reading- Theme and Summary

The theme of The fault in Our Stars is live your life to the fullest because you don't know how long you have left. This theme is developed throughout the book as Hazel tries to experience a lot of things before she dies. The theme is strongly supported when Augustus dies and he did not get to do everything he wanted to do in life. This book is about a teenage girl named Hazel who has cancer. She meets a guy named Augustus at a support group. They both know what it is like to be a teenager battling cancer. They bond over this and they fall in love. The story is about their struggle with cancer through their relationship. Towards the end of the book Augustus's cancer gets worse and this changes their relationship. To find out what happens you should read this book.

Independent Reading- Analysis

In The Fault In Our Stars, the author reveals information on the main character, Hazel, through her thoughts. I think the setting impacted the story greatly. When Hazel was in Indianappolis she had a fairly normail life because she lived in a normal city. When Hazel and Augustus traveled to Amsterdam, a city with exciting new things, they were both happy and they fell in love. I think the setting of Amsterdam made them fall in love becasue it was a new enviorment and they were able to experience it together. The theme of live your life to the fulllest because you never know how long you will have left is developed throughout the text. As Hazel gets closer to the end of her life she starts wanting to do more with her life like go to Amsterdam. When Augustus dies, as the reader we can see all the things Augustus didnt get to do in his short life through Hazels thoughts. A line I found particurally interesting in the book is "The book ends in the middle of a". (pg.49) This quote is when Hazel is describing her favorite book. I like how the author ended that quote in the middle of the sentence to show that Hazels favorite book ends in the middle of a sentence. I have never seen an author use this technique and I really liked it. I also liked how the author used a lot of imagery in the book. An example is "The land seemed sunk into the ocean, little rectangles of green surrounded on all sides by canals." (pg. 155) I think its important for an author to include imagery in their story because it allows the reader to make a mental picture of the story in their head.

Independent Reading - Characters

I read the book A Walk to Remember. In the book Landon, a bad boy who is mean to anyone that is not considered popular, changes throughout the book. Landon meets a girl named Jamie. She is not considered popular. He slowly falls in love with her as she helps him practice lines for a school play. Landon learns that popularity isn't important because his old friends ditched him because he was dating Jamie. Landon finds out towards the end of the book that Jamie has cancer. This completely changes Landons outlook on life and he tries to do everything for Jamie. When Jamie passes away Landon considers her his angel because she completely changed his look out on life. Landon is a dynamic character and a round character because he changes over time.

independent reading- Reading skills

I read the book The Help by Kathryn Stockett. As I was reading this book I continued to ask myself if the characters in The Help would continue to get mistreated. This book foccused on discrimination in America. A text to world connection I made is that there is discrimination going on in places today including South Africa. A text to text connection that I made was The Diary of Anne Frank. Like The Host, this book includes discrimination against a group of people and the story is told by one of the victims of the discrimination. A text to self connection I made is that like the character Minnie in the book, it is hard for me to trust people once they have done something wrong to me. This is seen when Minnie is asked to share her stories on what it is like to be treated the way she is. Minnie is relunctant to share her stories because she can get in trouble if someone finds out thier her stories and she doesnt know if she can trust the writers of the book because she is a white woman who was harsh to her in the past. As I was reading the book I predicted that Aibileen would get caught and go to prison. My prediction was wrong. Aibileen was not caught and it was a happy ending.

Independent Reading- Theme and Summary

I read the book The Hunger Games. This book is about about a country with 12 districts. In this country, every year, they have a fight to death called the hunger games. Katniss Everdeen has a little sister named Prim. Prim gets chosen to be one of the tributes for the hunger games. Katniss volunteers to take her place. The book is about Katniss's battle to survive in the arena against the other tributes. The theme of this book would be Enjoy life no matter what its like because it can change for the worse in an instant. I think the theme is this because in the beginning of the book Katniss's life is not great. She lives in a poor part of the country and she has to work very hard just to get food and other basic items for her family. Katniss does not appreciate her life at this time. She only sees the bad things about her life. Once Katniss gets put into the hunger games she starts to feel differently about life. The reader can gather this information from her thoughts. Katniss is trying really hard to stay alive in the arena. Life is a constant battle in the arena. She misses her life back home in district 12. Although her life wasnt great at home, it was still alot better than it was in the arena. This shows the life lesson that Katniss learned;  Enjoy life no matter what its like because it can change in an instant.