Book Review: Lost Between Houses

The Book Lost Between Houses, is about a boy named Simon Albright, a 16 year old teenager that is going through one of the toughest ages for a person. He starts off in a French restaurant where his mom convinces him to throw a party. He is scared to do it but does it anyways. Before the day of the party he has all these different emotions rush through him at random times that make him nervous. Even still, during the party he cannot still. There is always this feeling that something wrong is going to happen, even though at the end of the day nothing really bad happened. This book shows the different emotions that the average teenager goes through routinely and the difficulties that many people have on a daily basis.
A main feeling of this book is anxiety. During the whole book Simon is worried about something bad happening and other people thinking bad things about him. The author wrote this book in the perspective of the teenager. This is a much more vulgar language than the author would have used which gives a much more realistic experience when reading the book. Almost every aspect of this book relates to adolescents because it is about the struggles that most teenagers go through. This book is similar to Great Expectations in the way that it is about a boy learning and moving on through the struggles of adolescents. There is a simile on page 116, “Some of them smelt like incense” (116), and another one on page 123, “he made that face again, like he had a piece of rotting fish in his mouth.” (123). These devices are used to enhance the book and make it more exciting than a book that uses no rhetorical devices to let out expression.
I think this book had potential and was decently written, but it was no Harry Potter. With saying that, I would recommend this book to teenagers, especially kids in high school because it would show them that they are not alone and that what they are going through is what most people have to go through as well.

Book Review: Sunwing

Sunwing English Blog



Sunwing, from the same author as Silverwing (Kennth Oppel) Is another book about a bat name Shade. While he is in search of his father, he finds a human building that contains a large forest that is home to many bats. It is a summer temperature inside the building with lots of food. The human building is like a greenhouse so the bats can finaly see the sun without having to worry about getting eaten by owls. Shade notices that humans come during the day and take away a good hundred or so bats while they are sleeping. Soon after they re taken away on a journey in which they end up in the far southern jungle, the home of the three foot wingspan cannibal bats called Goth . With the help of his brightwing friend Marina, abandoned owl prince and General Cortez in the rat army, they try to find Shade’s father and stop Goth from creating never ending night by getting the powers of Cama Zotz.

This book is a very action packed story that is told from the perspective of a bat. He is the runt of his colony and is always getting himself into trouble somehow. This is in a way similar to Pip in Great expectations because they’re both always on some kind of adventure weather it be running away from cannibals or trying to become a gentleman. In a way this entire book is personified because it is about bats doing things that they would not normally do like try to see the sun, and seeing the sun is something that people often do. I thought this book was very well written and enjoyed every part of it. I did not see anywhere where necessary to change the book and would recommend this book to anyone who likes any type of fiction stories.

Book Review: Silverwing

Book Blog: Silverwing

 

            Silverwing is a book about a runt bat in a large colony that is very curious about his surroundings. His name is Shade and he is a troublesome little bat that is filled with energy. All his life he had wanted to see the sun, so one day he decides to try and see it.  When he tries to see the sun he accidentally aggravates some owls, and by doing this accidentally causes a war between the owls and the silverwings. This results in the owls destroying there colonies home and forcing the silverwings to leave to their winter home. Because he is a runt, he has a little more trouble flying then the others. As they’re flying south a massive storm hits and he gets lost. While he is lost he meets a beautiful bat named Marina. She had been banned from her colony because she had a band on one of her wings. The story is about the struggles that Shade goes through and the courage he has to save his whole colony from complete extinction.

            This book is about the standing up for yourself and others and how no matter who you are or what your size is, if you have courage, you can do anything. In the book things come up like when Shade needs to use his courage to protect him and others he cares for. I think this pertains to adolescents in general because we have to stand up for others and ourselves on a daily basis.

            This book, like the Kite Runner, is about courage and standing up for yourself and people you love, except in class Amir does the opposite of that and relies on Hassan to take the fall for his actions where as Shade has the courage to at least try to stop other, bigger bats and owls from destroying his colony.

            Personally, I thought this book was amazingly written and would definitely recommend other people to read it. I cannot think of something that would have improved this book.

             One rhetorical device used in this story is Pathetic Fallacy. When he is unsure of the future and himself, and is feeling bad about what he had done that forced his colony to travel south (attempt to see the sun) there is a massive storm and he gets lost. Another rhetorical device is doubles. The owls and Vampire bats are one example of doubles. Both of them are threatening to Shade and want to wipe out Shade’s entire colony.

            So all in all I think this was a good book and will definitely be reading the res of the series.

Book Blog: The Outsiders

The Outsiders is a Novel about a group of young adults that feel like they don’t belong, they are the outsiders.  These young adults live in a poor part of their city. They battle with another group of kids, the Socs, (A.K.A the social kids) who like to drive around in their expensive cars and jump Greasers, (the poor kids.) They are called the greasers because they put grease in their hair to try to look tough.

The Book is narrated by a young boy name Ponyboy. His parents died when he was young and he lives with his 2 brothers Darry, and Sodapop. In the book, he learns about Socs and how there are very few differences between the Greasers and the Socs.

You learn about the struggles and all the trouble he has to go through, not only with the Socs, but also with his family and friends; from running away from family, to almost getting drowned by Socs, to saving 5 children from a fire and almost getting crushed by the roof of a church.

The author uses some rhetorical devices in this story. One rhetorical device is symbolism. The “Greasers” all put grease in their hair to look “tuff” but mainly to show who they are, even if it gets them into trouble with the Socs.

 The book is very entertaining and very well written. It is written from the point of view of Ponyboy, the main character in the book, who doesn’t speak English very well. This helps the author show his character and portray him as a misunderstood boy who is thought to be a hoodlum, but gets good marks in school, and skipped a grade.

In the book Ponyboy learns a lot about himself and whom he really is, a sensitive intelligent boy who worries too much about what other people think. This book is kind of like Great Expectations in the sense that Pip wants to become a gentleman but he learns who he is, and he was just not meant to be a Gentleman, and Ponyboy is a greaser, and he learns that that’s who he is. Mostly all adolescents can relate to this theme of book about learning who you are and how to be yourself and not care what other people think. Another rhetorical device is a motif. In The story the Socs have nice cars, and they often drive around looking for greasers. Whenever Ponyboy sees a corvair or a mustang, he gets into trouble with the Socs. Whenever the Socs come around in their fancy cars you know something bad is about to happen.

I would recommend this book to everyone, whether they like reading or not. It isn’t a very long book, but it is so good that you’d wish it were.