Sharon Draper's Copper Sun

          Copper Sun is a book written by Sharon Draper. The copyright date is 2006. Here is a short review and summary of this book.
          Amari is a fifteen year old African girl living during the time of slavery. Her life seems all set out in front of her. She's got a great family, great friends, and her tribe is welcoming, as always. Everything changes for her, all at once. That is the day that she is kidnapped by the white men. She is forced into tiny prison cells, until she, and several other kidnapped Africans, are final shipped out to America, destined for a life of slavery. She is sold at an auction to the highest bidder, a man who is giving her to his son as a birthday present. Amari is terrified as she is thrust into this whole new world so quickly, so suddenly. As she goes to live on the plantation, she must indure physical and emotional tortures such as having to stand by and watch a murder happen before her very eyes, Clay, the man's son, and being expected to take in everything and keep quiet about it. Simulatainiously, Polly is an indentured servant, bound to the same family as Amari by an indenture that she is trying to work off. Her parents have both died of smallpox, and she has nowhere left to go. She is there at the auction for Amari, and sees and feels nothing but disgust for her, seeing to as how she thinks that slaves steal all of indetured servants' work. As time at the plantation goes by, however, she begins to take a liking to Amari, and the two gradually begin to become friends. But they also both share something in common: unhappiness with the family that they are serving. Escape seems to pop up a lot to thier minds, but they avoid it, even though it seems almost inevitable. But escape hardly ever succeeds, especially without help. There's so much to gain from it, but so much to lose, also.
          The conflict in this book is mostly external, but also slightly internal for the two girls. It is external for Amari because she has to deal with all of the horrors that comes with being a slave, which brings up a person vs. society conflict, because she is a slave, and there is nothing that she can do to make the law on her side, no one to help her, and no one coming to save her. She has to find her own means of making it stop. As far as internal conflicts go, Amari has to emotionally deal with being treated like an animal. For Polly, she is basically in the same shoes as Amari, except for the fact that she is white and has slightly more rights. It seems dark and hopeless for both of them.
          The theme in this book is slavery. You can tell this from the obvious plotline and from my description. In my opinion, it is sort of similar to an extremely shorter version of Roots. This is because there are other main charaters and friends of Amari, but the story mainly focuses on her. The tone is mostly a bright tone, but also serious, like one that you would see in a text book.
          I was in a book club for this book along with two other friends last year. We had chosen this book out of a variety of different ones involving historical fiction. I had high expectations for this book, and all of them were fulfilled, although the book had quite a few sexual referances. However, I don't mind this, as they were pretty vital to this story. Besides those, I thought that the story was quite good. I think that the author gave you plenty of time to care about the characters instead of just jumping into the story immediately, which I think is pretty important to do. Thanks for reading. Tune in later!

S.E Hinton's "The Outsiders"

          The Outsiders is a book written by S.E Hinton. The copyright date is 1967; renewed in 1995. Here is a short review and summary of The Outsiders.
          Ponyboy is a 13 year old boy in a gang called The Greasers. This gang is from the east side of town, which is the poor side of town. The immediate people The Greasers are Ponyboy, Johnny, Two-Bit, Darry, Dally, Sodapop, and Steve. Johnny is Ponyboy's best friend. Sodapop is Ponyboy's brother, and Steve is Sodapop's best friend. Darry is also Ponyboy's brother, but he treats Ponyboy like an ignorant child. Lastly, Dally is the worst of the gang, who's gone to jail more times than anyone else. Things are not bad for The Greasers, except for their frequent fights and ongoing gang war with The Socs, another gang. They are from the west side of town, and they are the rich ones. One night, while Johnny and Ponyboy are out, they run into some Socs, and a fight breaks out, leaving one person dead. Johnny and Ponyboy have to make a run for it, but they have to be quick. Before they know it, they are at Dally's house asking for advice and pleading for supplies. He gives them a gun, and tells them that they have to leave immediately, get on a train upstate, and get off at a stop where there is an old, abandoned church in the woods. The two boys set off immediately, and look ahead towards a much unexpected and intense future.
          The conflict in this book is internal mostly; the conflicts exist in both Johnny and Ponyboy. Ponyboy is conflicted about his feelings about everything that was going on in their lives. He is conflused about how to take it that they were on the run for murder, and also about the obvious moral conflict of being horrified and guitly about comitting murder. As for Johnny, who also has an internal conflict. He does not feel as much guilt as Ponyboy, but moreso he has fear about how much leagal trouble that he would be in once he was caught. He also feels conflicted about leaving his friends behind, and leaving his whole life behind.
          The theme in this book is gang wars. Only a small portion of this book has been explained in this review. Once the story starts to pick up speed, more happens than the two boys just hiding in the old church. It's theme is mainly about violence among gangs and how the stupidest things can result in deaths. It can also be used as a metaphor for the real world's wars, explaining how people can get into small fights about something, and then how it can expand into the taking of many lives. Bringing that to a smaller scale, you could get the plot of The Outsiders.
          I thought that this book was fair. I normally don't like books with this type of storyline and theme, but I thought that it was pretty good, and parts of it spoke to me. The tone of the story was slightly upbeat, but as the story progresses, it becomes solid, and is written as if the author was someone that has become hardened over time. There are some references to poems in it, and I thought that was a good adition to the story. Other than that, I have nothing left to say about it. Thanks for reading Tune in later!

Anne Frank's "A Diary of a Young Girl"

          The Diary of a Young Girl is a book written, but not named, by Anne Frank. The copyright date is 1952. Here is a short summary of this book.
          The year is 1942 in Amsterdam, Holland. A 13 year old Jewish girl lives with her family in a nice, quiet, normal life. Then, everything changes when the Nazis invade Holland. Anne and her family are forced to wear Stars of David on their coats when they go anywhere, and Jews are being shipped off to concentration camps one by one. Because of this, Anne's father decides to take his family and go into hiding with another family, the Van Daans. Meanwhile, Anne is keeping a diary of everything that happens to her and her family, and describes what each experience is like. Their life in their hiding place, or the "Secret Annex" is recorded by Anne, and can only be described as interesting. Everything that happens in the Secret Annex is like a regular made up story, even though the story of Anne Frank is true, and this book really is her diary. The diary tells us what life was like, and spells out a story of love, regret, sadness, comedy, happiness, confession, and hope.
            Because the book doesn't follow one story line in particular, I could not say that there is a conflict that is made vivid and obvious to the reader, or even the author. However, if I had to choose one, I would label the conflict as being the Franks and the Van Daans not being able to get along in such an enclosed environment. For example, there is a never ending disagreement between Mrs. Frank and Mrs.Van Daan about numerous subjects. They just don't agree with each other about anything, and Anne hates Mrs. Van Daan for the same reason. No one can really get along with each other for a long period of time, but they all have to, because it's not like they have anywhere else to go. Like I said, this is the only main conflict, and there are many more in the story, but this is the most long term one.
          The theme of this book is transition and humanity. While telling us everything about how people behave with each other, what people's emotions are over this period of time, it also shows how Anne Frank grows from a naive 13 year old girl seeing the world through the eyes of a child to a 15 year old girl who sees a mature perspective and is willing to see both sides of everything, confess when she has done wrong, and look at thing from the eyes of an adult. It also tells us what people begin to do and how people begin to act when they are with each other for a long period of time, hiding from their deaths. It shows us the real depth of people, and how they can transition from one personality to an entirely different one.
          I was assigned this book to read for school. I had heard many things about it, and I was hesitant to begin. When I started the book, I thought that it was tremendously boring, tasteless, and dry. I continued saying this until I got a bit more into the book, and the story started to move a little faster. Once I started that part, I found it hard to put the book down. Everything was told, explained, and described perfectly, and everything tied in. Even though it was just a diary to her, she explained her experiences so well that I was cheering her on all the time in the book. I think that she was the most relateable and likable protagonist that I've read about in a long time. Thanks for reading! Tune in next time.

Katie Alener's "Bad Girls Don't Die"

          Bad Girls Don't Die is a book written by Katie Alender. The copyright date is 2009. Here is a short summary and review about the book.

          Alexis thought that she led a typically dysfunctional high school existence: dysfunctional like her parents' marriage; her doll-crazy, thirteen-year-old sister, Kasey; and even her own, antisocial, anti-cheerleader attitude. When a family argument results in tearful sisterly bonding, Alexis realizes that her life in creeping from dysfunctional to dangerous. Kasey is acting stranger than ever: her blue eyes go green; she uses odd, old-fashioned language--and she even loses track of chunks of time, claiming to know nothing about her weird behavior. Their house is changing, too. Doors open and close by themselves, water boils on the unlit stove, and an unplugged air conditioner turns the house cold enough for them to see their breath. Alexis wants to believe that it's all in her head, until these seemingly harmless occurrences become life-threatening--to her, to her family, and to her budding relationship with the student council vice president. Alexis knows that she's the only who can stop Kasey; but what if the green-eyed girl isn't Kasey anymore?₁ 

           The main conflict in this book is Alexis' sister, Kasey. Alexis finds it weird that Kasey isn't acting like herself, or like anyone that Alexis has ever seen. There is an eeriness to her that Alexis has never before thought would come from her. Alexis has to figure out why Kasey is acting this way, and how Alexis can stop her. When Kasey starts to blatantly contemplate violence, that is when Alexis really has to do investigating, and when she has to convince Kasey who she really is, and who she always was, until it's too late.

          The theme of this book was horror. It was written in first person context, and has a different tone to it. The tone starts off as a tone that you would see in a magazine or a comedy book. As the book progresses, however, it gradually gets more and more like a tone that you would hear in an introduction to a scary movie, or like a tone that you would expect from the name "Bad Girls Don't Die". 

          I thought that this book was amazing. I found myself reading it everywhere I went! I always wanted to know what was going to happen next. It seemed like every page, every sentence, even every word was leaving me in suspense. Its believable characters and great choice of words made the book work. Even though this is a pretty short review of this book, I think that I have gotten my point across. I would recommend this book to ages 13-20. Thanks for reading. Tune in later!  

Foot Note 1--Bad Girls Don't Die by Katie Alener

Jay Asher's "13 Reasons Why"

          Thirteen Reasons Why is a book written by Jay Asher. Its copyright date is 2007. Here is a short summary and review of this book.
          Clay is a regular high school boy. He's a good student, a nice guy, and has a normal personality. When he gets a package in the mail one afternoon, though, everything changes. They are a set of tapes sent out by Hannah Baker, a girl who previously went to Clay's school before committing suicide. She had recorded tapes of herself telling the listener 13 reasons why she killed herself. Each of the reasons is partially caused by a person, which means that each reason is a person. If you were sent these tapes, that mean that you were one of the 13 reasons why Hannah killed herself. When Clay learns this, he is mortified, feeling sympathy for Hannah and is sorry that he did anything to her, however he doesn't know what he did. As he begins to listen to these tapes, he learns things about the other people that were reasons why. He discovers things about them that were better left untouched, and finds out things about himself that he never imagined were true, like what other people, such as Hannah, thought about him, and why he took part in causing her death.
          The main conflict in this is how Clay wants to help Hannah out, but can't. Because she is dead, there is nothing else to do, and Clay resents this and wished that Hannah could have come to someone else, like a therapist, or even to Clay. As he listens to her speak and explain her life out, he is sad because it's over anyway, when he could have helped, or when he could have been there for her. The conflict is more internal, and it shows a lot about Clay's personality.
          The theme in this story is repent. It is mostly shown through what I stated in the paragraph above, because the whole story is conflicts, whether it's Hannah's conflicts of Clay's. Clay feels repent for not helping Hannah, and Hannah feels repent for getting on the paths that she chose to be on.
          My own thoughts on this book were very complicated. The story was interesting, but it was written in a gloomy, boring tone. I disliked the book for its tone, but loved the book for its story. The book altogether is not boring, but I have read better things. I would say that it's not bad, but it's not spectacular. However, it leans more towards being a good book than a bad one, so on a scale of 1-10, I would rate it about a 5.5. i would recommend this book to teenagers who like books about reality, some comedy, and a bit of darkness. Thanks for reading. Tune in later!

Nancy Werlin's "Impossible"

          Impossible is a book written by the national book award finalist, Nancy Werlin. Its copyright date is 2008. Here is a short summary of what this book is about.
          Lucy Scarboroughs life is a genuine mystery. She is adopted, because at the age of 18, each and every one of the women of the Scarborough line go crazy after they have a baby, which is around the time that they are 17 or 18. Lucy knows all about this, with her insane mother showing up at her doorstep, babbling on about how her life will no longer be her own anymore, singing  her own twisted version of "Scarborough Fair" by Simon and Garfunkel, claiming that there is a curse on the Scarborough women, and that there has been for centuries. Lucy foster mother, Soledad, was, at one time, the best friend of Lucy's mother, so it is killing both Lucy and Soledad to see Lucy's mother, or Miranda, that way. Even though the sadness of her life is obvious, there is still happiness in her life. A romantic interest, Zach, the new next-door neighbor, is seeing Lucy more often, and even shows her off to her prom. To that prom, Lucy is taking the pale, sweet band geek Grey. Zach feels somewhat jealousy when Grey drives off with Lucy, but Lucy is excited for a memorable prom experience. After the prom ends, however, things get a little too memorable. Her whole life turns around, and suddenly the partial normality of her life begins to slip. She starts to listen to her mother more, and starts to realize that the madness that has been passed down might not just be a medical mystery, but a curse that dates back to years before the medieval era, a curse that's coming straight for her. She has nothing else to turn to but the song. The song that Miranda has been singing to her since she was a child. The song that seems to have hidden clues of three impossible tasks that Lucy must do, or else she must join the other Scarborough women, in a world of insanity and possession, until the day that she dies.
          The main conflict of this story is Lucy completing the three tasks until her daughter is born. Upon sight, they all seem impossible, and upon sight, Lucy becomes intimidated. The only way to complete these tasks is with creativity and 4th dimensional thinking. Most of the time is taken up by Lucy contemplating how she will be able to do these, and how, should she fail, to tell her daughter about this once she is reduced and exposed to insanity and hate. However, once she begins to resist the curse by trying to complete the impossible tasks, she is only left with a matter of time before she falls into the arms of madness.
          There are two themes of this book. One of them is determination. This is shown by Lucy going up against everything, risking everything to get a good result, and to stay in control of her own life. Another theme if this story is love, because as Lucy begins to sink into determination, her family and friends are right there with her. Leo and Soledad, her foster parents, are always helping her and there for her emotionally, while Zach makes her feel safer, going above and beyond to stand up for Lucy's right to keep her own life.
          Now it's time for my review of the book. When I first saw this book, I was just browsing in a book store for things to read. The only time that I realized it was when I was about to leave. I saw the description and thought that it wasn't going to be much, but it was something. When I started on it, I was blown away by how engrossed I became in it. I was amazed at the depth, fantasy, and romance that the book portrayed. The tone wasn't upbeat but it wasn't depressing, either. I would recommend this book to ages 13-17, because teenagers in that range will most likely find this book relatable to. Thanks for reading! Tune in later!

Ellen Wittlinger's "Hard Love"

 
          Hard Love is a book written by Ellen Wittlinger. The copyright date is 1999. Here is a short review of this book.
          John is an emotionless teenager who thinks that he has seen it all. His parents are divorced, his father is more involved in his many girlfirends and art fans than he is in his own son's life. His mother refuses to listen to him when anything bad happens, and her husband has plans on moving out of the city. His best and only friend Brian is too involved with getting girls to listen to him. Johns only outlet is the zines he reads. While reading, he comes across a zine with no title, written by "Marisol Guzman, Puerto Rican Cuban, Yankee Cambridge, Massachusetts, rich spoiled lesbian private-school-gifted-and-talented writer virgin looking for love." He is immediately drawn in, and feels like he needs to meet this girl, because she seems like a person that he wants to hang out with, and someone who would really have John figured out. So, he writes her to meet him at a cafe. Almost at once, they understand each other, and become fast friends. Marisol explains to John that she hates liars, and John couldn't agree more--except for the fact that most everything he says to Marisol about himself is a lie, even his own name! As they start to hang out together more, John begins to feel more and more close to her; perhaps too close. But can John keep his lies believable, or will he get tangled in them, and have nowhere to run? Will he risk confessing the truth and ruining his friendship with Marisol? So many things are happening to John, all because he can't escape his own words.
          There are a few main conflicts, all caused by one master conflict in this book: John lies too much. From what I can tell, it is the only socially acceptable way that he knows how to project himself. Most of the book, he is trying to be accepted by any crowd one way or another. From my point of view, the only way that he knows how to do this is by acting cool, not showing emotion, and avoiding his own true colors and his own real life. Because of this, he causes problems such as controversy, having to make up his own scenario, having to lie to others in order to get them to help maintain a lie that he has told someone, and even more knots that he gets himself twisted up in.
          There are two completely different themes in this book. One of them is that the truth will set you free. This is shown because John lies to everyone, and eventually gets lost in all of his lies and deceptions. He can't break free from it all, no matter how hard he tries. He can't undo things either, because it is too late to do so and he is already known as what he is perceived to be through his lies. Another theme is tragedy, because Marisol is a lesbian, and she is also the only one that John really feels like himself around, the only one that John has been interested in. John must face the facts that Marisol will never be anything more to him than a friend, and because he has trouble realizing that, he is on a path to screw himself up.
          Now it's time for my personal review on Hard Love. When I first heard about this book, I had high expectations. I had seen other web reviews on it which had stated that this book was an amazing work of art, and that it won its award for a reason. When I actually read the book, however, I was beyond disappointed. It displayed no depth besides the depression that was in every corner on John's life, and how he felt bad for mistreating his best friend, Brian. It gives you hardly any time to care about the characters, and if it does, those words are wasted on making you hate John and dislike his personality all together. The whole book was set in such a gloomy tone, and that was my first, and final impression on the book. Even one of my best friends had to read this book for school, and wound up using SparkNotes because she couldn't bear to read this horribly gloomy, boring, and all around pointless book anymore. The only time that you feel anything that is somewhat good for John is near to the end, where you feel sympathy and sadness for him. Considering that you feel sadness for the whole book, I would say that the end is nothing new anyway. I would not recommend this book to anyone. Don't waste your time on it. Thank you for reading! Check back soon for more blog entries.