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Showing posts from May, 2011

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Interesting. Not a fast read

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Bibliography: Alexie, S.(2007).The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian. New York: Little, Brown. Book Summary Arnold Spirit, otherwise known as Junior, doesn’t get the best start in life; he was born with “water in his brain”. Even though he survived the surgery that drained this water, he was not left entirely unscathed. He developed too many teeth, he had poor eye sight, he had seizures, his body parts were un-proportional and he had a “stutter and a lisp”. For someone who has such a bad start in life, one would expect him to cave under all the pressure. But Junior draws cartoons to all the time. He draws “because words are too unpredictable”. The cartoons are his way of expressing himself in an otherwise mangled world. Junior knows that life at the rez will not amount to much; the school is still using text books that are at least thirty year old. He decides to transfer to a neighboring schoo

Grow: A Novel in Verse

Bibliography: Havill, J.(2008).Grow: A Novel in Verse. Atlanta: Peachtree. Book Summary When Berneetha decides to grow a vegetable garden on Mr. Conn’s vacant lot, twelve year old Kate joins her. Berneetha is a retired teacher and everything about her is big. In Kate’s words” Berneetha not fat. “She’s big. She’s round. There is a lot of her. Berneetha is not meant to fit in the same skinny space reserved for people who care about those things”. Kate and Berneetha head out together to the vacant lot and start preparing it for planting. First they have to get rid of all the trash. At first people in the neighborhood think the two are crazy. But as the garden starts to take shape people slowly join in to lend a hand. They are joined by Harlan the “graffiti gangster”, Dr. Citra Arockiasamy who contributes tomatoes plants, and various other community members. Soon the garden is ready and the vegetables have be

Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus

Bibliography: Park, B.(1992). Junie B. Jones and the Stupid Smelly Bus. New York: Random House. Book Summary This is the first book in the Junie B. Jones series. It’s the first day of kindergarten for Junie. Junie is scared to ride the school bus. After she learns that she is going to ride the bus on her first day of school Junie B. ”stayed scared about the bus for a whole week”. She doesn’t like anything on the bus; there are no cloth covers on the seat and the bus is smelly. She doesn’t like the other kids either. After school Junie is more scared to ride the bus after her new friend Lucille tells her that bad things could happen on the bus such as milk being poured on you. She hides in the class and misses the bus. Junie B. wanders around the school and is eventually found by the janitor .Junie B. explains to her mother what happened and her mother cautions her about