Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Summer Reading

Over the summer, you were asked to read at least two novels of your choice.

1) Please tell me briefly what you read, including the titles and authors.

2) I want to know what you liked about the books, what you learned and, more importantly, what matters to you about the book's content.

Make sure to adhere to proper conventions and proofread your response.

21 comments:

Justin.S said...

1) I read Wild Animus by Rich Shapero also I read The Shaktra also by Rich Shapero. Wild Animus is a romance novel and so is the book The Shaktra they both are action romance.

2) I like the part in Wild Animus when one of the main people in the book go looking for his lover. In The Shaktra Alice the main person in the book goes to a different world. I learned from the books that you have to do what it takes to accomplish your goal. In Wild Animus what matters to me is the fact that Sam (main person) does what it takes to find his women. In the book The Shaktra Alice goes to a different world (ex: back in time to ancient Greece.) to find her man, it means a lot to me because it is something I would do if I could travel back in time.

Kira E. said...

Over the summer I read 2 books. They were both part of the clique series. The First one I read was Best Friends for Never. It was about a group of girls that are very rich and they are very mean to other girls. The second book was called Revenge of the wannabees. It was about the same thing but different events occur.

I liked the books for a few reasons. First, they were about girls around my age so they made more sense to me. Second, they were very well written. Third, they were long but easy to read and I read them in about 2 days so it wasted less of my summer to read them. Fourth, the rest of the books on the list seemed less exciting to read. It makes it go quicker if you like the book than if you don’t really like it. I learned that if you are mean to people it will probably come back at you even worse.

Brett R. said...

1) Over the summer we were required to read two books. The two books that I read this summer were Athletic Shorts and Stormbreaker. Athletic Shorts is a series of shot stories of young athletes who have overcome challenges or obstacles to get what they really want. Stormbreaker is about a boy whose uncle is a secret service agent and is killed so he is hired by the same organization to do his uncle's job as a spy.




2) Athletic Sorts was a pretty good book it was a real page-turner at some point. Some of its main points were no matter how tough the situation may be there is always a good out come if you just work at it and do not give up. Witch should always be used in life to help you succeed. In Stormbreaker it was a really fun book to read and it had a pretty similar message the other book I read but it was full of action and not quite as boring. I could barley set this book down until a finished it

Sean J. said...

1. Two of the books I read this summer included D-Day by Stephen Ambrose and This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti. D-Day is a book about the Battle in Normandy, France on June 6, 1944. This Present Darkness is a book about Angels and Demons.

2. In the book D-Day Ambrose describes the two sides before the attack, and how the Nazis called their defense in Normandy invincible. I learned that violent images in the movie Saving Private Ryan were very accurate and not just Hollywood. The beach landing was a very horrific event. What was important to me was reading about the terrible struggles that American soldiers went through. In the book This Present Darkness I liked the mysterious style that Peretti used to write the book. I didn’t know what exactly was happening in parts of the book, but I always wanted to read more. I learned that a good person holds strongly to their beliefs even when they are attacked. The part that was important to me was the character Rev. Hank Busche’s battle with the spiritual warfare and how he protects the town.

Kelly E. said...

I read alot of books this summer including Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and The Silver Kiss by Annette Curtis Klause. I mostly read about vampires and romance, becasue i think that vampires are the most mysterious and well known fictional charaters. i love reading about how vampires were supposely alive and around us when we didn't even know it.

Kelly E. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Hannah G. said...

1) This summer I read ‘The Second Summer of the Sisterhood’, By Ann Brashares. This book is the sequel to the ‘The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants’. It is the story of the second summer of four friends, helping each other through life-crises’, the typical boy troubles, and another summer apart with a pair of pants as their only way of being together.
The second book I read, ‘Twilight’ by Stephanie Meyers, was recommend to me by a good friend of mine. This book was one I especially enjoyed (one I added to my collection of good sci-fi read). It’s a romantic story about a young girl in a new town who falls for a guy who just happens to be a vampire.

2) The first book I read, I was excited to read just because of the fact it was a sequel. The things I love about the ‘Sisterhood’ books are the real-life tribulations that each of the four girls go through. Another thing I love about these books are the personalities of each of the girls. They remind me of my friends and I, how different each one of them are, and yet how well they mesh. This book has such a strong value for friendship and it made me realize just how much I cherish the friendships I have.
The second book that I read this summer was one I definitely recommend to any girl who likes a good science fiction read. What I loved most about this book was how original the main character’s story was. The plot was totally unpredictable. What I took from this book was how deeply important each individual relationship is that you have with another person. It also taught me that sometimes change can be good, and I’m a person who likes consistency, so to me, it was something that I found of much significance.

Andrew. H said...

1. Over the summer i read two books the first one was Banner in the Sky by James Ramsey Ullman. It was about a 17 yearold boy whotrys to climb a mountain. The other book i read was The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom. It was about an elderly man who dies at the amusment park. And goes to heaven.

2. In Banner in the Sky I really like how it was writen and the plot of the book. I learned that no matter what the secomstances are if you have a dream then you follow it untell you achieve it. What metters to me in the content was the message it sends out. In The Five People You Meet In Heaven I really liked the way it was writen and how it keeped flashing back to different parts of his life. I really learned that you can effect the lives of people around you with out knowing about it. What mattered to me was that how the author really made you think about things while you where reading and even after.

Nick O. said...

1) I read John Grisham's The Innocent Man,a true and very sad story, and It's not About the Bike My Journey Back to Life, very sad in the beggining, but in the end it's a greatful and fortunate ending, by Lance Armstrong and Sally Jenkins.

2)In The Innocent Man I learned that life is very unfair and is unpredictable with many twists and turns. What this book ment to me was to respect life and don't go to clubs every night become an alcoholic waist your life on sex and alcohol just because of an injury that ruins your carrier in sports.
In Lance Armstrongs book i learned that life is the most important thing that you have in your possesion and don't waist it in a hospital room. This book told me to never quit on the one thing you love the most, like Lance Armstrong and his bike.

Skylar.H said...

Over the summer I read Heat by Mike Lupica and Attitude Is Every Thing. Heat was about a cuban imigrant that plays baseball. Attitude Is Everything Was a book about how attiutde can control so much.
2. In Attitude Is Everything it taught me alot about how a good attiutde can help you so much. The author put in alot of personal stories which made it real intersting. The book was filled with so many helpful tips to keep a good attitude and how to keep one. In Heat I did not learn anything. But the book itself was intersting. It was a little but to easy to guess what was coming next. But I still enjoyed it.

DylanA said...

1.) Over the summer i read Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden and Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers.

2.) What i liked about this book is they both told what its really like to be an American soldier. How they fight not necessarily for their country, or for what they believe in, but for the man next to them. I learned that being a soldier is not what every young boy thinks it is. Its not the glorious and fun thing we think it is as children. Sure on the news i heard about all the soldiers dying but i guess i never thought about what it was like to be there when it happened. To be talking to him one moment and the next he's gone. What American soldiers have to go through is beyond imagination for anyone who hasn't experienced what its like to be in combat. What matters to me about this content is that it's true. Not fairytales about the good guys beating the bad guys. This content shows what it's really like to be a soldier in the front line.

Kelsey C. said...

Over the summer I read The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen, and The Five People You Meet In Heaven by Mitch Albom. The Truth About Forever is about a girl who begins to lose herself after her father's death. When she finds a job she loves, and a boy, she begins to pull herself back together. In the Five People You Meet In Heaven an older man dies and you hear about who he meets in heaven.

The Truth About Forever was astonishing. I learned that even if you lose something so close to you, eventually you have to move on. You can't sit your whole life grieving, and wait for people to come to you. By meeting new people you learn to look at life in a whole different way than you did before. I could relate to this because I have lost people very close to me recently. I loved the novel The Five People You Meet In Heaven. The story line was great and literally walked you through the elder man's life. In this book you learn that you can effect peopl's lives without even knowing it. After reading this book it made me think who I could possibly meet in heaven one day. I would definitely reccomemnd both books to anyone.

Cameron A. said...

1.) Over my summer I have read two books these two books. These two books were The Giver and Tuesdays with Morie. Written by Louis Loury and Mitch Albom.


2.) Some things that I liked about these books were, in the Giver it showed that in a world of no feeling or personality life is so much different than the one that we know. In Tuesdays with Morie I liked that it showed how much you can do in just a matter of a couple of months for someone in need. I learned in The Giver that even if everything you have ever learned is all you know you can still break free and do what you want to do. I learned in my other book that you can make somebody happy by just taking a little time off to help. What matters to me in these books content is that you can do just about anything to help yourself and others if you try hard enough .

austin p said...

1- Over the summer I read The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein and I read the Grim Grotto by Lemony Snicket

2- I have always liked the Lord Of The Rings series and this was the only one I have not read. I didn't really learn anything because thay were both science fiction. There was one moral of The Hobbit and that was you can't trust your instinct, and the moral of The Grim Grotto was that you have to satnd up to your enemies. Both of these matter to me in different ways.

MichaelT. said...

This summer the two books i read were the Ghost of Denver by Phil Goodstien and Johnny Cash the Man in White by John Carter Cash.

What I liked about the first book is that it tells u all about the haunted places and building in and near Capitol Hill.This book also told alot about how these places became haunted and when they became haunted. What i like about the second book is that it tell about Johnny Cash's religious life styles. The thing I like most about this book is that it has to do with Johnny Cash.

Albino Blacksheep/ Matt H said...

1) I read Uncle Toms Cabin, by: Harriet Beecher Stowe. I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by: JK Rowling.
I read Band of Brothers by: Stephen Ambrose.

2) Because I'm not sure Harry Potter 7 is on the summer reading list, I will talk about Band of Brothers and Uncle Toms Cabin instead. Band of Brothers is a fantastic book. Other books you can fall asleep to not this one it started out as a documentary type thing. My first impression was oh great I'll bet there's not one battle story in this whole book but, I was mistaken. This was incredible, at first I had always thought that a American might be able to kill one or two guys then get picked off. Again I was mistaken, I don't remember how many U.S. troops accomplished this feat but like 13 men wiped out a platoon of 50 Germans. My point is this was just jaw dropping the whole way through. There wasn't a single thing I didn't like. I learned the battle plans, how the soldiers had to live, how well they knew each other, basically everything.

Uncle Toms Cabin wasn't as good. There was a lot of good stuff in there but, a lot of the same old "slavery is bad" feeling. I've heard all my life about the evils of slavery but, this is all the book talks about. Other than having the feeling of being preached to, this book was great. I took the most out of the part of the book with Legree, a totally bad boy slave driver. Legree eventually kills Tom (the main slave) in the book. Anyway, though this book might not be completely true I was horrified. I learned of the total neglect and hate that some whites had for their slaves. This mattered to me because this is the first slavery book I've read, yet probly one of the most gruesome.

Anonymous said...

The book that I read was called The Rose That Grew From Concrete by Tupac Shakur. Some wonderful poems that showed the deepest and inner emotions of one of the greatest legends of all time. The thing I liked about this book was that I could relate to it in so many levels. About how I felt and how I looked at people and the world. It was very emotional and expressed true feelings that many people would be too afraid to admit. I learned that life is not the same for everyone. There's still many people in the world that don't have the same exceptions as us. People who only know life as normal but what we would call horrible. What matter to me the most about this book was that it describes hard life and feelings all in a reality.

The second book that I read was Navajo folk Tales by Franc Johnson Newcomb. What I liked about this book was that is had humor and morals that showed the creative side of the Navajo tribe. I learned about the many traditions and many tales that were past on from generations to generations. About how the Navajo migrated here and made life. Along with that what matters to me most about this book is that the stories it contains about the Navajo tribe. It expresses my history of how my fellow people came to be.

Anonymous said...

1) I read My Sister's Keeper, Mercy,Vanishing Act,The Plain Truth, The Tenth Circle, Keeping Faith and Nineteen Minutes all by Jodi Picoult,The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Burning Up by Caroline B. Cooney,and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows by J.K. Rowling.

2)Jodi Picoult is my favorite author. She makes the reader connect with the character in plenty of ways. She teaches life lessons, like how to act on love, and how to be yourself in every situation.

NatalieJ said...

1)Over my summer vacation i read Can You Keep A Secret by Sophie Kinsella. I also read Shopaholic and Baby by Sophie Kinsella.

2)I like several different qualities in these books. I liked them because they were realistic and humorous. I didn't exactly learn a lot from them, but i enjoyed reading them over break.

MeganL. said...

1) Over the summer I read "Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn" by Sarah Miller and "Perfect" by Natasha Friend. “Perfect” was about a girl who has an eating disorder and her mom finds out and makes her go to a body image class. On the day of class she finds that the prettiest most popular girl in school also has an eating disorder herself. Throughout she tries coping with her father’s death and how appearances in the world today are affecting her so much.
“Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn” was about a teenage girl states away not only having her own problems she also is inside the mind of Gideon Rayburn, seeing, hearing and feeling everything he does. Gideon makes it into Midvale Prep School on account of a mistake by his dad’s friend. The day he begins the school he makes a bet with his new roommates and tries to prove himself to them. At the same time he loves two girls.

2)In “Perfect” I liked how it showed that just because the most popular girl in school isn’t as perfect as she would have thought. I learned that people can be a lot more than they seem on the outside. The content of the book is based on a world we live in today. Not only are there pressures to have a good appearance there are also tragedies we all have to deal with.
In “Perfect” I liked how it showed that just because the most popular girl in school isn’t as perfect as she would have thought. I learned that people can be a lot more than they seem on the outside. The content of the book is based on a world we live in today. Not only are there pressures to have a good appearance there are also tragedies we all have to deal with.

Olivia H. said...

1) I read Devilish and The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson. They are both by the same author, but they are also both very different.

2)Devilish was aboot a girl who ate a cupcake, and by doing so, signed her soul over to the Devil. I liked the concept of this book because Id never heard of anything like it. Firts off, who doesnt like cupcakes? Also, the thought of eating a cupcake, then without knowing it, being owned by a different being sparked my intrest. It also stayed true to legands about girls selling their souls to the devil. In a way, this was a modern day horror story with a twist. Not only was it aboot the twisted side of things, but also aboot true friendship. In the story, the main character decided to switch places with her best friend, and in doing so, sold her soul in return that her best friends freedom. The Bermudez Triangle is all aboot finding the person inside of you, learning to accept it, and coming out. I found this book perticulaly interesting, because it gave me a look inside the heads of three very different very best friends. I learned that even after drastic changes are made with in people, the friends youve always known and loved will always be there.