So I recently read a book called Facts of Life by Gary Soto. Well, actually, it's not exactly one book, it's a book that contains a bunch of short stories in it. I actually didn't realize that until I brought the book home from the library when it said underneath the title; "stories", and when I actually started reading the book. Normally I don't like reading those types of books that contain short stories but this was different. Gary Soto is a really great author and every single one of the short stories was really good.
I've noticed that all the short stories feature Hispanic characters and there's always a Spanish phrase or
two in every page. So sometimes I have to keep looking back in the glossary to look up the phrase and understand it, or just guess what it means. But I think all these short stories have taught me a lot. The main thing they taught me is that there's always problems in everyone's life and there's always a way to solve that problem. I've also learned that some people have harder lives than others.
Like this girl who has to live in a trailer with her parents, because they are poor and not official citizens of the United States. Their dream is to become citizens and get a good job in New York City and get more money. So her father keeps on studying cars and all of their complicated parts so he can become a mechanic and open his own car repair shop in New York City.
Or this girl who wants to change the world and make it a better and cleaner place but gets made fun of about it, but when she does an extra credit project, she feels a lot better about herself and really feels that she can change the world.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Freak the Mighty? Nope. Max the Mighty
So I have liked the book Freak the Mighty to go and read its sequel, Max the Mighty. And I have to admit, it was a pretty good book! It was better than I expected it to be, because on my opinion sequels to really good books or movies don't end up to be as good as the original. I still think it wasn't good as the original, but it definitely was really good. I mean, I finished it in like two days, and I never finish books that fast. Sure, it was only about 160 pages, but still.
The book was slightly similar to its original. It was about how Max meets a new friend, a girl, who is slightly similar to Freak. She is kind of small like Freak was, and she is kind of smart, too. She isn't as smart as Freak was, but she's different from other people too, because she is a book worm. In most of the story she would just be burying her head in a book. But in the story, Max saves her from a bully, and the friendship kind of starts from there, and they kind of go on an adventure, except it's real serious, not imaginary like in Freak the Mighty, but the kind where Max ends up getting a 10,000 dollar bounty on his head while he tries to find a way to get to Chivalry Montana (thousands of miles away) so worm (Max's friend) can see her dad. Yeah, I'm still wondering how it fit into 160 pages.
The book was slightly similar to its original. It was about how Max meets a new friend, a girl, who is slightly similar to Freak. She is kind of small like Freak was, and she is kind of smart, too. She isn't as smart as Freak was, but she's different from other people too, because she is a book worm. In most of the story she would just be burying her head in a book. But in the story, Max saves her from a bully, and the friendship kind of starts from there, and they kind of go on an adventure, except it's real serious, not imaginary like in Freak the Mighty, but the kind where Max ends up getting a 10,000 dollar bounty on his head while he tries to find a way to get to Chivalry Montana (thousands of miles away) so worm (Max's friend) can see her dad. Yeah, I'm still wondering how it fit into 160 pages.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Just finished Bridge to Teribithia!
Ok, so I recently finished the book Bridge To Teribithia, and not for my rereading project, since that was on Freak The Mighty, I just read this book for fun because I thought it would be a good from what I've heard, and it definitely is good! It was pretty short though, since I finished it in around 2-3 days. I think this book definitely defines the meaning of friendship. Leslie and Jess are definitely best friends, although pretty much all the characters in the book judge them and assume they are in a romantic relationship, which they are not in. But I have always wondered why Leslie just decided to be friends with Jess at first, when she didn't even know him. One day she and her family just moves into town and Leslie just instantly decides to befriend Jess. Did she just have a crush on him? Is it because he just happened to be her neighbor and if any other kid was her neighbor she'd try to befriend them instead? Yep, after finishing that book, an answer hasn't really come up to me on that question. But what really amazed me is how imaginative Leslie is, coming up with the whole teribithia thing, with the castle stronghold and the king and queen and having to swing across the river to get in and stuff.
***SPOILER ALERT***
But it really broke my heart to have Leslie die in the end by drowning in the river. Her death was the last thing I expected, I really expected it to end with happiness and have their minor kid problems solved. The way Jess handled it was pretty weird, too. I mean, I never experienced death of a loved one or a best friend, but the way he handled it was definitely different from most books/TV shows/movies. He handled it like nothing serious really happened, and one of the things he said near the end of the book is how he's the fastest runner in the school now (since before Leslie was the fastest). But overall, it was a great book.
***SPOILER ALERT***
But it really broke my heart to have Leslie die in the end by drowning in the river. Her death was the last thing I expected, I really expected it to end with happiness and have their minor kid problems solved. The way Jess handled it was pretty weird, too. I mean, I never experienced death of a loved one or a best friend, but the way he handled it was definitely different from most books/TV shows/movies. He handled it like nothing serious really happened, and one of the things he said near the end of the book is how he's the fastest runner in the school now (since before Leslie was the fastest). But overall, it was a great book.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Freak the mighty: Max's Traits
I have started rereading an old childhood favorite of mine, Freak The Mighty, and started noticing some things about the main character, Max, that I haven't noticed before, specifically his traits. If anyone has read this book, they'll obviously know that Max is a rather large character, as it is mentioned hundreds of times in the book. But I also started noticing that people judge him a lot because of it. Lots of people in the book always act scared around him like he's some giant or something. But no one notices that at heart, he's actually a pretty nice guy. Also, a lot of people make fun of his size, and both max and the mean kid know that max could probably beat the kid up, but they know he wouldn't do it, and that's because they think he's too stupid to do it or something, since he is in L.D. class, another big judgement made about him. But I think the reason why he doesn't beat them up is because he is smart and know's it's not the right thing to do, that violence is not the answer. Also, I don't think that he is dumb, I just think he kind of doesn't want to admit it, like whenever he has to answer a question, he doesn't know it when all the kids are there, but after class when the teacher asks him the question, he knows the answer. It's like he has stage fright or something. People just need to know the good side of him.
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