The Fault In Our Stars (Jaime Antuna)

Title of Book: The Fault In Our Stars
Author:John Green
# of Pages: 313
Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
 Why This Book has Value:

The Fault in Our Stars is a book about a teenage couple that falls in love. They both have been diagnosed with cancer. Since they have cancer, they have a support group where they met. They get to know each other really well throughout the book. Hazel reads a book called An Imperial Affliction. She really liked the book that she wanted to meet the author so that she could ask him questions about the ending of the book. Since she really liked the book, she recommends it to Augustus who also liked the book. Augustus uses his wish to take Hazel, her mom and him to Amsterdam for a chance to meet the author. When they're in Amsterdam many things happen. Some good and some bad.One of them is that they have found out that Augustus cancer has started to spread throughout his body. I don't want to spoil it so i will leave it up to you to read the ending.
This book is an important book that I believe everyone should read. One of the reasons is that it shows real life problems. For example cancer. This book shows us what a cancer patient has to go through. Many people today have this illness. But their example can help others overcome other obstacles in life that are not big as cancer. “Hazel is such an inspiration to me; she really is. She just keeps fighting the battle, waking up every morning and going to war without complaint. She’s so strong. She’s so much stronger than I am. I just wish I had her strength.” This quote from the book shows us that their example can motivate others. This book also has other real life examples. One of them would be bullying. Hazel says, “I shut down the computer and got up, but I couldn’t get the wall post out of my mind, and for some reason it made me nervous and unhungry” This quotation is important because it can be a text to world quote. I say this because Hazel was looking at posts people had made. After looking at them, she was nervous and unhungry. I think this can relate to the world because people can read a lot of stuff online, sometimes mean stuff, and this can make them nervous or unhungry like hazel. 
I believe that everyone should read this book because it can give us some life advice. Mostly to young teenagers because we may believe that “ the world was a wish-granting factory.” But this is not the case in the world today.  Although we can't get everything we want, this book shows us that we should live to the fullest and not let other stuff control our lives. “I didn’t think it was Gus at first, because it didn’t sound anything like the low rumble of his speaking, but then I heard a voice that was definitely a twisted version of his say, “BECAUSE IT IS MY LIFE, MOM. IT BELONGS TO ME.”

John Green did a really good job making this book because it can teach us very good life lessons which is why it was a bestseller book. I encourage you to read the book, especially teen, because it's a really good and important book.

Title of Book: The Outsiders Author: S.E. Hinton # of Pages 192 Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ Why This Book has Value:

“Stay gold PonyBoy”  This is the most well known quote from the Outsiders.  The meaning within this quote goes far deeper than what might be portrayed.  This quote breaks the surface during a difficult time for Pony and Johnny.  When these boys end up hiding in a barn away from their family, Ponyboy recites a poem to Johnny watching the sunset.  One line in the poem says “nothing gold can stay” meaning that all good things will eventually come to an end.  When Johnny is laying in the hospital bed dying he faintly says “stay gold Ponyboy”.  Throughout the whole book there are many messages that are trying to be portrayed.  The message that you will be able to attain from this quote is the possibility of all things staying good.  By this I mean that when something good, or gold, happens in life the chance of this good thing remaining is not necessarily high, but it is there.  

The message that I was able to connect to most naturally is the loyalty and love within the family this group of greasers have created.  The bond that is cherished so deeply between these teens is unbreakable.  The reason that this connection lies so deep in my heart is for the simple reason of what family means to me.  I will always be there for my family and closest friends as they will always be there for me.  I hold deep the love, care, and compassion we show for each other as the family in the Outsiders does.  I believe one of the biggest messages being shown in this book is loyalty and  respect.  For me the biggest moment in the book that this bond and connection is represented is when Darry and Soda show up at the hospital after the fire.  The glow and pure joy on Pony's face after not being able to see his brothers for 5 days was heartwarming.  The unbreakable bond between the brothers is amazing and unreal.

In the end this book aims to teach the youth of today what really matters in life.  Not the fights, not winning, but love, loyalty, and life itself.  S.E. Hinton ties this idea into the story when Randy meets with Pony about the upcoming rumble.  Randy says “Greasers will still be greasers and socs will still be socs…”  Randy says this to Ponyboy in the car just before the rumble.  He spoke of how he might run away and that he would not be fighting in the rumble.  Why? “It is useless; greasers will still be greasers and socs will still be socs.”  This demonstrates the uselessness of fighting.  It shows you how even someone who lived to fight his whole life can change his mind set due to one tragic event. 

At the end of the day the lesson would lie as follows; not all fights are won with fists and knives.  

Title of Book: The Road Author: Cormac McCarthy # of Pages: 287 Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆ Why This Book has Value:

The Road is a melancholic novel about a father and his young son that take a journey across post-apocalyptic America. The land is covered with ash and the atmosphere is full of smoke. The whole world is grey and dying. The boy's mother was pregnant with him at the time of the near world ending disaster, she ended up committing suicide before the story begins. The boy and his father realize they cannot survive the winter so the man and the boy migrate by foot towards to the south in hopes to find warmth and escape the cannibalistic gangs. Food, water, clothing and resources are extremely scarce most likely because the few people left on earth already took them and most of everything is destroyed. Houses and buildings have turned into rubble, no electricity, plumbing, running water, no heat, no showers or baths. They just walk and walk and walk in the frigid cold in hopes of surviving until they can no longer go on together anymore and it's time to to accept a new life.

Themes:
One noticeable theme in The Road is the theme of death. Most living creatures and plants have not survived the disaster that destroyed civilization. For example, cows are extinct, and the boy has never seen birds or fish. As the story goes on, we become more aware that the man is dying. "In the night he woke in the cold dark coughing and he coughed till his chest was raw.... He knelt there wheezing softly, his hands on his knees. I am going to die, he said. Tell me how I am to do that" (148).

Another theme in The Road is the theme of love and taking NOTHING for granted. Today, drinking a can of Coke is no big deal and for some it's not even considered a treat it's just a regular thing. In the novel, their discovery of one coke can is a huge treat to the man and his son and they are very grateful for it. Imagine living in a world of luxury like you are right now and then losing everything, only to have the clothes on your back. A very important theme is to love strongly and appreciate everything while you have it because you could lose it at any moment.

Language and Vocabulary:
The language the author uses in The Road is immaculate to conveying the plot and to playing on readers emotions. “Once there were brook trout in the streams in the mountains. You could see them standing in the amber current where the white edges of their fins wimpled softly in the flow. They smelled of moss in your hand. Polished and muscular and torsional. On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps and mazes. Of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again. In the deep glens where they lived all things were older than man and they hummed of mystery.” This quote vividly allows the reader to picture a beautiful scenery of fish only to be never seen again because of the way he world has been destroyed. Fish are now a mystery to those living at this time. 
The language and poetic way McCarthy used his words touches you. “He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it.”

Plot:
The novel is suspenseful in a way but also numb and mysterious. The man and his son experience many troubles surviving in this world and even stumble upon terrifying sights that will traumatize them for the rest of their time in the living world. At one point in the novel, the father finds a steel padlock blocking the entrance to a door. The son begs his father to leave, but he insists upon breaking open the door to see what is inside. They are so desperate for food in order to survive. Inside the room, the father finds a large group people, "naked people, male and female, all trying to hide, shielding their faces with their hands" (93). One man's legs have been amputated up to his hips, and the room reeks of death and decomposition. The naked and amputated people scream and beg the man for help to escape. The man and his son immediately panic. slam the door and begin running. Just then, across the field, the boy and his father see four men and two women approaching. They run away as quickly as possible, but the cannibals people are quite close. The father hands his son the pistol and tells him that, if necessary, he must commit suicide. "You know how to do it. You put it in your mouth and point it up. Do it quick and hard" (95).  Overall, the plot along with the intense vocabulary lead the reader to very emotional points.

Real world issues: 
The Road connects to readers by bringing awareness to the fact that something could change our world like this at any given moment. Today, we are using our resources unconsciously and we don't think twice before wasting food, water, electricity, etc. It really makes you look at things from a very different perspective knowing that the boy and his father in the novel would do anything to eat just one bag of chips again or have the luxury of drinking a can of Coke. I believe ungratefulness is an issue in this world today along with wastefulness. The novel helped connect me to these issues and look at things with a different lens and I think everyone needs to experience this realization.  

Title of Book: Someone Else's Summer Author: Rachel Bateman # of Pages 520 Star Rating:  5 stars
Why This Book has Value: The book I choose for this unit is called Someone Else's Summer By Rachel Bateman. In the beginning of the book you are introduced to two little girls named Anna and storm. Along with the pair of sisters is their next door neighbor, cam, who also happens to be best friends with the girls. The author starts the book at Storms high school graduation. In the book Anna says that after the sun went down graduation night, it became a straight down pour. That very night storm gets into a major car crash and is instantly killed. This ripped apart Anna’s family. A few weeks after the tragic event, Anna walked into her sisters bedroom, which happened to be set up the very same, since before storm left for graduation. Underneath her sisters pillow she finds a small journal and when she reads it, she realizes that its her sisters bucket list. Seeing this alone makes Anna want to complete the list, just to keep her sisters spirt alive. Through out the rest of the story Anna and cameron go on an adventure across the world together, completing storms list. They do crazy things like parasail, get a tattoo, cliff diving and many more. I enjoyed reading this book and these are the reasons I think everyone should read it. First, while reading the book i noticed that the characters had many personality traits that many other people do, which made it super easy to relate to the characters. For example, right here on page 143, Anna says “ my eyes fill with tears and my hands begin to shake viscously. “ i don't want to live like this!” I think this proves my point because it shows one of the characters being in a vulnerable position, and i think most of us have been through that enough to relate. The second reason I believe that people should read this book is because of the life lessons it can teach the readers. One main life lesson i found when reading this book was to live life to its fullest, and i think this shown just by all the risks taken by cam and Anna to complete the list. Another life lesson that might have been shown through out the book could be creating your own happiness can only benefit you. The main character Anna shows this the best because after storm dies, Anna realizes that she is extremely depressed, anxious, and doesn't really have any friends. At first she mopes around, but then she finds the list and over time works harder and harder to finish it. During that time it is visible through her actions and words that she is much happier from doing so.  I don't know too much about the author other than that this is her true story, but i believe that that fact makes up her creditability.  You wouldn't go to a five year old for advice on taxes, you would go to a tax advisor, someone who has gone through it before. Rachel batemen went through loosing her sister, and i think that makes her life lessons more real. In conclusion, relativity, important life lessons, and the background story, all summarize why you should read this book.

Title of Book:First Crossing Author:Donald R. Gallo # of Pages: 224 Star Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆



The book “First Crossing” by Donald R. Gallo is a book that expands on teens' experiences being immigrants. The story starts off with a boy named Marco. Marco notices his parents struggling to get through day by day so he decides to go to America with his dad (Papa). Throughout the story you understand the problems Marco lives with, he has to cross the border but has to risk his life and everyone else’s to do it. This story has value because it shows that if you put your mind to anything you can and will do it. It also shows the reader that people go through tough times and this left me impacted because it has made me a person who cherishes moments, big or small.  This book showed the struggle between each teen and some were worse than others but they all had one thing in common. They sought America for a new life and it was hard to adjust but they made it through.

Setting :

This book has many settings but the one that stood out to me the most in the story “My Favorite Chaperone” and it was when Maya was horse-playing with 2 other boys and her father drove up to see this. Maya’s father not knowing it is socially acceptable to, freaked out. They see this as Maya shaming their family. “Mama, it was just kids joking. Guys from the wrestling team pretending some of us were weights.” “I don’t know this weights!” (Gallo 66) This quote shows that Mama or Maya's mother doesn’t understand why they were fighting. She doesn’t understand what weights are and this shows the struggle it is for Maya. I choose this setting because Maya just wants to have fun with her friends but since they aren’t natives to America they do not understand that it's okay for students to mess around.

Who this book targets:

This book can be read by anyone. I think this book is more targeted to adults because of the realism inside of it. While reading this book I couldn’t help but feel sorry for everyone that has to go through this like some of these teens. I think this book would be a great book for an english class to read because maybe people can understand the social issues we have in this world today and I think it can help a lot of people understand that other people have it hard and that they should cherish any moment they have because some people don’t get to experience the things that most of us do. 

Theme:

There are a lot of themes within this book. I think the one that fits perfectly with this book is cultural misconceptions. I chose this as a theme because in the book a girl named Maya rough houses with some of her friends leaving her dad scared because he didn’t understand that it is socially acceptable to do that. This shows the misunderstanding of what their intentions were.