The Notebook

The book “The Notebook” by Nicholas Sparks, is a really good book. It starts out with an old man reading an old woman with Alzheimer’s a love story, that is all about Noah Calhoun and Allie Nelson, who dated while they were young. They were then forced to separate, and since they really cared about each other, it was very hard for both of them. They went their separate ways, but about 15 years later, they’re still thinking of each other. Noah has remained single and is living alone in the small town where they spent their summer together, while Allie is engaged and living far away. When she reads about Noah in a newspaper article, she is inspired and takes off to go talk to him. They haven’t had any contact since she left with her family, so she has no clue what to expect. When she arrives, she first kind of hesitates to go see him, because she doesn’t exactly know how she feels, but she finally musters up the courage, and goes to his house (which was featured in the newspaper article, because he rebuilt it all himself). When she arrives he is ecstatic, because he has been waiting for her pretty much all of his life to see her again, and has really missed her. They start talking and kind of catch up on what’s happened in their life in the past couple years, and while Noah is disappointed that Allie is engaged, he tells her that he at least wants to be friends. They then meet the next day, when Noah takes Allie out to a secret kind of lagoon where all of these swans are staying during their migration. While they were out on the water, it began to thunderstorm, forcing them back inside. That night while they’re talking, they both kind of realize how much they still love each other, and kind of renew their love. Allie then stays with Noah for the next couple days (while they’re almost secretly dating again), until the unexpected happens, and Allie’s mother shows up at Noah’s house, looking for Allie. She realizes that Noah and Allie are back together, and tells Allie that she needs to pick between Noah and her fiancé, Lon, or else they’d all end up getting hurt. She then also reveals a secret, that she had been keeping all of the letters that Noah had been sending Allie (after they had left), and had never told her about them or showed her. It shocks both Noah and Allie, but then they knew why the other one had never responded to their letters, and it all started to make sense. Even though they’re happy, Allie knows that she has to go back to Lon to either tell him that she’s back together with Noah, or to go back with him forever, and leave Noah. That’s where the old man ends reading the book to the old lady, and she starts to ask questions about what happens in the “missing” ending. That’s as far as I’m going to summarize, since I don’t want to blow the ending for anyone who hasn’t read the book, but I can truthfully say that the ending is really good.
I really liked this book, because even though it was fairly predictable, it still threw in things that you weren’t expecting. It was good because you really felt connected to the characters, no matter what they did, and by the end you really wanted to see them end up together. At the beginning of the book, you really didn’t see what was coming, so it was nice to be kind of surprised. Like I kind of said before, one of my favorite things about the book was the characters, because they were the kind of characters that you’d want to read about. Some books are good, but you can’t really relate to the characters, but in this book I could totally relate to almost all of the characters in it. Noah was a person who liked to read, and was very easy going and nice. Allie was a very intelligent person, who had a hard time choosing between following her brain and her heart, and even though they may not sound like a perfect match, they were very cute together. The only thing I didn’t really like about the book was that it was kind of confusing in the beginning, but then luckily it ended up making sense. After I finished, I realized why the author kind of tied the two stories together, and why then it really made sense.
The setting in this book seemed like a really nice place, even though it was a small little town. The book took place in New Bern, South Carolina, which really seemed like a nice little town. Everybody knew everybody, and there really were little to no problems. This was the kind of town where everyone else looked out for one another, which was shown when Noah was best friends with his old neighbor, who would come over to keep him company. It shows that everyone really cared about one another, and would do anything for their neighbors. The one bad thing about that type of town is that everyone knows everyone else’s business, but luckily that type of thing really didn’t happen in this story. The overall mood of this story was very kind of lovey, because it’s all about kind of picking between your soul mate and what’s right, and all about Noah and Allie’s journey together. Overall, I really liked this book, and would recommend it to anyone who likes kind of sad love stories.

By: Ali, Hour 6

Witness for the Prosectution

Witness for the Prosecution by Agatha Christie is about a series of murders that take place and they all tie together in the end. The main one is about a man who is accused with murder. He is accused of murdering a rich, elderly woman who becomes interested in him, and even gives him money in her will. Strong evidence and motive make it seem obvious that the man is the murderer. His lawyer does find an alibi with his wife, although it doesn’t seem like enough to save him from his fate. Strangly, he is found innocent because of some suspicious letters that relate to his wife. The man appears to now be safe because of double jeopardy, but that is not the case. He falls in love with another woman, and announces his plans to run away with her. His wife kills them both, and the same lawyer is excited to take on the case. Despite what you may think, that is not the ending, the end is about the solving of the case and unveiling the truth.
The general mood of the book was anticipation. Through out the book there was foreshadowing and clues to follow. You were never sure what was going to happen next because once you thought that you had it figured out, it was a new chapter with a new mini-plot and characters, or the story shifted direction.
I wouldn’t recommend this book, unless you are really patient. There were many things that were frustrating about this book. When things start to get interesting, you are brought to a different element of the story that isn’t as exciting. The setting and characters were hard to follow because at the end of every chapter, it switched to a different set of characters in a different place. It was hard to figure out where they fit into the story, and just when you started getting excited, the chapter ended. It’s also hard to remember where characters come from, and why they are included into the story. I usually like the works of Agatha Christie, but this is one of the books I wouldn’t recommend.

~Katie

The sledding hill

“The sledding hill” by Chris Crutcher, is a book about coping with the loss of a loved one. In the book, the main character, Billy Bartholomew, is killed by a falling stack of sheet rock that he kicks out of anger for an untold reason. His best friend Eddie Profit, finds him, laying on the floor, under the sheet rock, spine crushed, only an hour after he found his dad dead in his repair shop, he died from and exsploding truck tier. Now, Eddie being the scensable kid he is, rides out to the hot spring as fast as he can and sits neck high in the warm mud the rest of the day. About a month later school starts and Eddie gets placed into the really modern literature class or R.M.L. for short. The deal with this class is that you can only read books by authors that are still alive, like J.K. Rowling or Scott Westerfield, no classics like to kill a mocking bird or grapes of wrath. Eddie likes this class because there reading a book called Warren Peace by Chris Crutcher. Yes, it sounds the same as war and peace but it’s a lot different. There are a few different main characters in it and they’re all trying to deal with their own problems. One of the characters is gay and he’s trying to figure out where he should tell everyone or just keep it to himself. One of the characters in “The sledding hill” is also gay, he read’s the book and decides to open up about it, he’s in the Christian youth group at school so, as Cruther says, it’s like being a member of the KKK and discovering your biological father is Jewish because in the youth group they preach that being gay is a sin even though but just by luck, 10% of america is gay. The book, because of it’s “questionable” language, is challenged for removal from the school library by the school board. There are 3 or 4 members of the Red Brick Church on the school board and they feel it has bad morels and is unfit to be read by the children in public school. From there the bookie takes a few unexpected turns so you’ll have to read it to find out for yourself.

I like this book because it takes a lot of unexpected turns and keeps you hooked, it starts out good and stays strong all the way to the end unlike some other books that have bad endings or begins that take 70 or more pages to get you into the story. I enjoy how the story is told by a dead kid so you get to see every angle of the story through the eyes of a dead kid who can travel at the speed of imagination, compared to light speed it’s like a nascar vs. the creation of the grand canyon, the race care being the speed of imagination and the light speed being the speed of the G.C.

One of the discussions that the characters mad was probably the stupidest discussions he’s ever made in his life and I’m not talking about billy kicking the sheet rock imminently causing his death, I’m talking about when Eddie climbed up on to the stained glass windows at church and proclaimed he was Jesus. Now, on a list of stupid things to do in a church that would probably be the top one. I mean, with all the people in there that think there’s a higher power and that you need to pry to him or her plus all the other things that go along with church the last thing you want to do is proclaim that you are Jesus in front of a whole congregation, it’s just not a good idea. I would however recommend this book to anyone looking for a good book that’s a fast read.

Peter

The Old Man and the Sea

“The Old Man and the Sea”– by Ernest Hemingway

“The Old Man and the Sea” is a novel by Ernest Hemingway. It is about a fisherman named Santiago who has been fishing for 84 days now straight. For the first 40 days, his apprentice, Manolin has been accompaning him but now his parents have told him that he can no longer fish with him because of Santiago’s bad fortune. So Santiago is forced by the setting– 1940’s and barely any money to go deep sea fishing so he can catch a fish. He is going alone, only with some tools to catch the fish and his poorly built skiff. He goes out fishing for 5 days. On the first three days, he encounters with a big beautiful marlin but the marlin will not eat the bait. He is smarter. So the marlin is circling the boat until Santiago is able to catch it. Even though he had success the first 3 days, he encounters problems with some sharks and other negative circumstances as he’s coming back to the shore to his shack were he hopes to recover from all the exhaustion. The story seems to be a bit boring but once you’re done, you uncover the theme that Hemingway was trying to convey by his award winning work, “The Old Man and the Sea”.

The story has a very good theme: Man can be destroyed but not defeated. This theme, among many others, means the most to me because Hemingway is saying that the man can be destroyed but that only means that he can be destroyed externally through physical destruction but man cannot be defeated. Man is strong enough to resist defeat which is internal (mental) destruction. I love this quote found on page 112 of my book because it means a lot to what humans can overcome and even though we most of the time destroy eachother, we can be strong enough to over come what really matters which is your inside (all that counts). Other themes and messages in the story include to persevere, be strong and always be patient that good will happen to those who are good.

I give this book a ****/5! It’s a book which is very well written but in some parts, the reader gets lost. This could be because even though it’s only 127 pages, it’s quite a complicated novel to understand because rather than being a structured plot, there is more that just Santiago catching a fish, it’s his internal conflicts to succeed and rather than “Man vs. Nature”, it’s “Santiago vs. Himself”. Santiago does over come his conflict because he even though he well.

– Gabriela; Hour 2

Watership Down

By: Richard Adams,

This book is a really good book even though it is pretty long. I was hooked on it by the second chapter and started reading it everynight. That didnt happen usually for me to like a book that much, it has to be a good one. This book is about rabbits, yes rabbits. It is about how they think and the book makes it seem like rabbits are real people. They have their home, they talk to eachother, they fight, they need does (girl rabbits), and their survival to get food water, and just to stay alive!

First off i have to say that there is “rabbit language” that I will use so I will explain the most common ones.

Warren: House underground
Thereah: Cheif Rabbit, like the President
Stilflay: to above ground to eat

The book starts out with two rabbits named Hazel and Fiver. Fiver has a second intution, he knows when bad things are going to happen. Hazel and fiver are best freinds. Fiver knows that something bad is going to happen to their warren, so that all the rabbits will die. Fiver has never been wrong when he sees one of his “visions.” So Hazel natuarally believes him and they have to tell the Cheif rabbit. when Hazel goes to him, the cheif does not believe him. But one of the warren police named Bigwig did! So since the Thereah wouldnt beleive them they decided they would have to sneek out of the warren, because unless you have permission to leave you are not aloud, and you could be killed if you do. Hazel and Fiver try to find a few rabbits that would like to go off and make a new warren. They find a good group of rabbits but they relize that they are all males, but when they think about going back one of the other police rabbits finds them and tries to destroy Bigwig. Seeing that Bigwig was also in the police he was very strong. They got Holly (the other police rabbit) down and made a run for it. They got out saftley but they were getting tired and hungry because rabbits don’t like being above ground, at least when they are not around a hole to get back into the warren.

They keep going even though they are all hungry and afraid. Finally they come to a warren that is extremley big and like the warren the rabbits are extremley big to! But everyone is so happy because there is plenty of room for them to stay there so they do. Fiver is feeling badly about this though, he feels that something unusual is happening and he knows something bad is going to happen. He tells Hazel but, for once in his life, Hazel didnt believe him. He said that everything was fine and that he should just relax. Fiver didnt like the warren so much that he slept outside, which is very dangerous because rabbits are the prey of many animals, so Fiver was very unsafe but he felt more comfortable sleeping outside than sleeping next to Hazel!

The first night there Hazel stayed with a rabbit and his wife in there hole. His name was strawberry and all of a sudden Hazel begins to see that every rabbit in the warren is seems as if they are keeping a seceret from all of them. So they decide to leave after a couple of days but, this warren does not want them to either. But they escape, and soon relize that Strawberry, one of the rabbits had followed them and told them all about the seceret of the warren and why it was so big when there wasnt that many rabbits.

So the pack moves on and decides to make a new warren. They find a nice spot where they can see everything. Hazel is very worried though, theystill don’t have any females in the warren! which, as we all know you have to have females to survive. As they are all worrying about this two rabbits from the old warren come to them looking terrible and beaten up. It is Holly and Bluebell. They told what happened to their warren and how it was destroyed and they were the only survivors! So group of them decides to go out looking for a warren with females that they could take back and they thought surley they would sucseed. So Holly leads the group and come back with no sucsess. But they did say there is a terrible warren named Efera. They nearley escaped without getting killed. Holly was so beat up. He said they had to fight of a bunch of the strongest rabbits he had ever met!

Hazel decides, since they voted him cheif rabbit, that another group, stronger and bigger, would go back to Efera and bring back some mothers!

I could go on and on about this book and I could tell you the ending but you will have to read it! So no that is not the ending. I will tell you thisbook is one of the tops of my favorite books. It is suck a good book and I erge you to read it!

I really liked this book because it is so different and you never really think that rabbits could be like that and that they could do all that they did in this book!

My favorite character was Bigwig. He was the strongest out of all the rabbits and he seemed really nice and in order. Read the book and see what i am talking about!

~Maggie H.

White Fang

Two men are out in the wild of the north. Their dogs disappear as they are lured by a she-wolf and eaten by the pack. They only have three bullets left and Bill, one of the men, uses them to try to save one of their dogs; he misses and is eaten with the dog. Only Henry and two dogs are left; he makes a fire, trying to drive away the wolves. They draw in close, and he is almost eaten, saved only by a company of men who were traveling nearby.
The wolves are in the midst of a famine. They continue on, lead by several wolves alongside the she-wolf, and when they finally find food the pack starts to split up. The she-wolf mates with one of the wolves and has a litter of pups. Only one survives after several more famines, and he grows strong and is a feisty pup.
They come to an Indian village where the she-wolf’s (who is actually half-wolf, half-dog) master is. He catches her again and White Fang, her pup, stays nearby. Soon, she is sold to another Indian, while White Fang stays with Gray Beaver, her master. The other dogs of the village terrorize White Fang, especially one named Lip-lip.
White Fang becomes more and more vicious, encouraged by his master. He kills other dogs. Gray Beaver goes to Fort Yukon to trade and discovers whiskey. White Fang is passed into the hands of Beauty Smith, a monster of a man. He fights other dogs until he meets his match in a bulldog and is saved only by a man named Scott.
I would recommend this book to people that like other books by Jack London. This is a book that can be difficult for some people.

by: ZACH W.