Book Blog #8 My Life Next Door, by Huntley Fitzpatrick

The Premise 

     Samantha Reed lives a rich, structured life, with her local politician mother. Things at her house are neat and clean and orderly. Next door at the Garretts', things are loud and messy and crazy, much to the chagrin of Samantha's mother. With eight kids, every day routines at the Garrett household are bound to be wild and chaotic, but also full of fun. Ever since she was little, Samantha has been kept away and sheltered from the "bad influences" of the next door neighbors, but unbeknownst to her mother, Samantha has been watching their family from the roof outside her window, longing for an opportunity to be a part of that welcoming crowd. 

     One hot summer night, she gets that opportunity. When the gorgeous Jase Garrett climbs the trellis outside her bedroom and enters her life, she finds herself falling deeply in love with him, and his family. Here's the catch: she has to hide it from her mother. Between high paying country club jobs, babysitting the younger Garrett's kids, spending time with Jase, and keeping it all away from her mother, Samantha finds her hands treacherously full in this sweet summer novel. 

Favorite Characters 
     One of my favorite characters is Jase Garrett. He's my favorite character because first off, he's the main love interest (and what girl doesn't love a hot guy, right?). Him and Samantha's relationship is so cute because Jase is very laid back and chill about everything. When Sam randomly goes over to his house just after they'd met for the first time, he didn't miss a beat, and invited her inside to meet his family. Him being a part of that big family is another thing that makes him so unique. You'd think that coming from a family of eight kids, they would all sort of blend in with each other and act the same. Not the case with Jase. He is unique, and doesn't follow the paths that his older brother and sister took before him.
     Another one of my favorite characters is George Garrett, Jase's little four year old brother. He is obsessed with National Geographic, space, and animals. Especially, things that have some weird way of killing you. The first time he meets Samantha, he starts talking about how he was scared that a black hole was going to appear and suck the Earth in with it. Sam is a natural with him, much to the surprise of his mother. George is so cute and brings a little hint of childlike innocence to this story.

     From what I've read so far, this is a great, adorable book! I would recommend it to anyone who needs a cute, touching summer love story.

Book Blog #7: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Humans and androids crowd the rowdy, futuristic streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague,called letumosis, slowly destructs the population. From the moon, ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate falls to one single girl. 

Cinder, a talented mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s an average citizen with a mysterious and forgotten past, condemned by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s life threatening illness. But when her life crosses paths with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic fight, and a outlawed attraction. Caught between duty or freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must unveil secrets about her buried past in order to protect the world’s future.

SPOILER ALERT! 

The Lunar queen, Levana, wants to take control of Earth, and is willing to do just about anything to make that happen. Earlier in the book we find out that she threw her three year old niece into a fire many years ago, just because her niece, the Princess Selene, could be a threat to the throne. However, there were many rumors being flung around that the Princess somehow survived. When Cinder goes in to be tested for letumosis, a doctor makes a shocking discovery. They find that Cinder is actually Lunar, and a potential threat to the earthen kingdom. Just after this crushing new development, the doctor also reveals out that Cinder is, in fact, the missing Princess Selene. By this time in the book, there has been enough evidence to support that Cinder, the lowly mechanic, is actually a Lunar princess who could overthrow the evil Queen Levana. 

In my opinion, this is one of the better dystopian books that I've read. There was just enough action, romance, and plot twists to make it a page-turner, but not so much as to make it too confusing to follow. I would highly recommend this book, as well as the other two books in the series (Scarlet and Cress)

Book Blog #6: The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

The Premise

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The Earth is a fiery wasteland.

     At least, it is in the book The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner. This is the second book in The Maze Runner series. In this book, Thomas and his friends had just escaped The Maze, a giant labyrinth surrounding their home, The Glade. After all they had gone through, fighting off monsters called Grievers, and escaping the Maze, they thought they would be safe. That, however, was not the case. 
     They are set free, only to find that the Earth has been destroyed by massive sun flares, and the only people left are Cranks, humans who have been infected with an awful virus called The Flare. Cranks are crazy, ruthless and ready to kill. Thomas and the rest of the Gladers have to find their way through the barren wasteland of the Earth, and find a cure to the virus before they turn into Cranks themselves. 

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Criticism

     There were a few things in this book that I didn't really like. In the first book in the series, The Maze Runner, we learn that Thomas and all of the other Gladers have had their memories wiped, and have no recollection of their past lives. The Scorch Trials is mostly from Thomas' point of view, but seeing as he himself doesn't know what's going on, it's hard for readers to fully understand what is happening in the book sometimes. 
     Another thing I don't really like about the book is that there are too many confusing relationships that the characters have to one another. Thomas can communicate with Teresa, a girl he knew in his past life, telepathically. Somehow Teresa can also telepathically communicate with another boy, Aris. And at the end of the book a Crank that Thomas met can also speak into his mind. Overall it's just kind if confusing to follow and a lot of it seems random. I would probably rate this book a 3 out of 5. 

Book Blog #5: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

"There's a Jew in my basement.
As the book quivered in her lap, the secret sat in her mouth. It made itself comfortable. It crossed it's legs." (Zusak 246)

     In The Book Thief  by Marcus Zusak, Liesel Meminger is a girl in Nazi Germany who does, indeed, have a Jew in her basement. A man by he name of Max Vandenburg was that fortunate Jew: the secret.  If you know anything about the Holocaust, you would realize that having a Jew in a German family's home was dangerous. Very dangerous. Perhaps not as dangerous as being a Jew yourself, but close. Furthermore, it just adds to all the troubles Liesel has to deal with. 
     Saying that Liesel had a hard life would be a major understatement. She had to face many things that most older people couldn't handle. Her mother abandoned her, she watched her brother die in front of her, and she had to live in a time when Hitler was in power. Many times, Liesel has had to face the narrator of this story: Death. He was there at her brothers grave, watching her steal The Gravediggers Handbook, the first of many book thefts. Death has kept an eye on the book thief through her whole life; seeing her steal books, read them, and finally, Death saw her life be saved by one. 

Favorite Character

     The character that I adore in this book is Rudy Steiner, Liesel's best friend throughout her childhood. Rudy and Liesel's friendship was strengthened when they both, starving and in desperate need of sustenance, start stealing food together. I would describe Rudy as very childishly romantic with Liesel, because he is always asking her for a kiss, even for the smallest things. He is also very athletic, and as the story progresses, he becomes even more so as he grows into his body. Another way I would describe him would be stupidly brave. There is a part in the book where Rudy is at Hitler Youth and gets in trouble with the leaders, who jump at the chance to humiliate him. The leader asks Rudy when Hitler's birthday is, the right answer being April 20, 1889. Rudy replies defiantly, "Easter Monday", resulting in a very bad haircut and a very black eye. I think this demonstrates his personality in a way, because he is a very confident, outgoing, strong boy. 
Even Death said, 

"He does something to me, that boy. Every time. It's his only detriment. He steps on my heart. He makes me cry."(Zusak 531)




   
   

Multi-Genre IR Enrichment Assignment: The Book Thief

     The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a complex story taking place in Nazi Germany. Unlike most literary pieces, this book is told from the perspective of Death. That's why, for the first category I chose to rewrite one of the chapters of the book from the perspective of the opposite of that: Life. In the second category, I chose to write diary entries of Liesel because it shows her love for words and wanting to keep writing them. The last category is a a recipe for the pea soup that Rosa Hubermann made multiple times throughout the book. It shows that even though times were hard, she kept trying to provide for her family adequately. All these pieces fit together to show the hard times that Liesel had to overcome and the horror of the war. 

Category A: Rewritten Chapter from Another Point of View 

Point of View: Life

     Before you ask, I don't hate Death. I don't love Death either. How could I? We have both come to accept that this is just the cycle of humans. I give them their first breath, and watch him as he takes their last. It was I who put that first bubble of breath inside Liesel Meminger's lungs when she came into the world, I watched as she took her first steps, looked on as she played with her brother, and as she tried to shake him back to life. I met Death on the train that day, on my way to a panicking woman in the back, and we said a somber hello and kept moving. I kept watching over Liesel, but little did I know,  he was too. 

     I had to keep moving of course, all over the world, giving life to the future, but I kept her in the back of my mind. She was fortunate enough not to run into Death for a while. Only the threat of it once, with Max. She never actually felt Death for herself until that one fateful day. Which brings us to what I am reminiscing now, the second time Liesel saw him with her own eyes. October 7, 1943. I believe she was in her shallow basement, working on that little book that Death always kept with him. I could feel what was coming, and felt like I should pay Rosa and Hans a visit. For Liesel.

     I remember them. Especially that Hans Hubermann. He was one of those rare children that didn't cry or scream when I gave him life. Even being alive for only a minute, he had a calm and quiet spirit that everyone would come to love. Rosa Hubermann was a completely different story. I almost regretted breathing myself into her lungs, but I made life stay in her anyway, and almost burst an eardrum because of it. Now seeing them peacefully lying there, I almost wanted to plead with Death. Beg him to let them live. But I have no power over him in that aspect. When it is their time to go, he takes them.

    I moved on down the street, mourning over the lives I had created and would soon see destroyed. Death never suspected that I visited. He never guessed that I wanted to sit down and sob for hours after I saw all of the lives I made be ripped to shreds. Sure, I've seen many deaths. But these were the hardest. By the middle of the night I had reached Rudy. That's when I heard the bombs down the street, and felt the souls slipping from my grasp. When Death walked through the front door of Rudy Steiner's house, I held on. I couldn't bear to see Rudy go just yet. In those few last seconds before Death tugged him gently away from me, I remembered. 

     I remembered everything Rudy Steiner had ever done in his too-short life. From the very first day his older siblings had crowded around the bed where he lay with his mother, to Jessie Owens. Him playing soccer on the street, him watching the dominoes fall down after he spent so long building them up, and him with Liesel. It's amazing how much of his life was spent with Liesel. All this and more, I remembered. I always do remember everything. It is indeed a blessing and a curse. 

    Long after the rumble of planes had gone, I still sat there by Rudy's bed, thinking. I was thinking how much I hate people dying. Not Death, but dying. I hate seeing the wonderful souls I created ripped from their bodies. The pain is too much. It kills me. 

Category B: Diary Entries

February, 1950

     Today is my birthday! Max came by earlier and gave me the best present I could ever imagine. A whole set of books that I had never read before! I was so thrilled, and I am almost halfway through with the first one. I remember, though, in 1941, for my twelfth birthday, when Papa gave me The Mud Men and Max gave me The Standover Man. I have read both of them every year on my birthday as a sort of bittersweet celebration with myself and my memories. All day today I have been so happy just to be alive. After the war, now I understand what a blessing it is just to take another breath each day. I realize now that some people will stop breathing and pass on, and that is becoming easier for me to deal with. I must go now, my friends are calling me to go see the cake they made. I am truly blessed.

April 20, 1950 (Hitler's Birthday)

     Ten years ago today I stole my second book ever, The Shoulder Shrug. My, how time flies. It seems a whole lifetime ago. The hollowness in everyone's heart, mine especially, is noticed on this day. I'm surprised that when I tripped and hit my shoulder on the door frame this morning, there was no echo inside my skin, no clang emitted from my empty shell. There's no way to describe the terror I feel every night when I wake up from my new nightmare and there is no Papa to comfort me. I only see him, cold and broken, in my dreams. 

     Today has been an unusual day. It always is. People are unusual, too. Most Germans, myself included, have accepted, celebrated even, Hitler's death. But there are some stubborn people who refuse to believe their leader is gone. They still hang flags and dance on this day, as if doing so could bring him back to life. If Rudy were here, I bet he would go up to them and taunt, "He's dead, you know! The stupid Führer is DEAD! Killed himself, too! Is that really something to celebrate?" And then I would tell him to shut up before we both got shot, and he would smile with that crazy grin, and I would kiss him. 

     It's strange, the pain of losing Mama and Papa doesn't hurt as much as the loss of my dear Rudy.

 I really did love him.

Category C: Recipe

Rosa Hubermann's Easy Pea Soup

Serves 20 

1 teaspoon Hope

10 tablespoons butter

5 finely chopped onions

10 cups water

15 cups green peas

Salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1) Melt the butter in the biggest saucepan you have, toss in onions. Pour in water and peas, season to taste with salt or pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer until peas are tender

2) Mash peas until they look like they've been pureed, then dump them back in the saucepan and reheat. And a tablespoon of Hope (more if needed) and stir.