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!

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!

"The Green Mile" by Stephen King

    
          The Green Mile is a serial novel by Stephen King. Copyright: 1996. It is told part by part. Wondering what the book is really about? Let be elaborate.      
          Paul Edgecombe is a head prison guard on Death Row at "Cold Mountain State Pen" during the time of 1932, at the time of the "worst urinary infection of is life." Percy Wetmore, an obnoxious, egocentric man is working on E Block, or the Death Row. Because of his connections to the governor through blood, Percy thinks that he can do whatever he wants to both the prison guards and the prisoners, leaving Paul and the rest of the E Block guards stuck with him. Around the time that the story begins, two important prisoners enter E Block: "Wild" Bill Wharton, and John Coffey. Wharton is an insane, scary inmate that is bent on making the guards' life miserable until the day he dies. Coffey is someone who is seemingly unlikely to be put on death row, being afraid of the dark and crying for hours at the mere thought of one's death. It seems to Paul like John Coffey is a little too unlikely, and a little too strange. It's almost like he can hear what Paul is thinking, the way he answers questions before even asked. Is Coffey just an odd man who is nothing but a character, or is he hiding something that would change Paul's idea of being a prison guard for years, and years to come
           From my description, you can tell the obvious conflict was John Coffey. This is the only conflict that I can share with you without giving away a huge chunk of the story. Paul knows that there is something that is not right about John Coffey, and tries to figure him out. As he gets closer to discovering John Coffey out, things become weirder and weirder. Things that were thought by many to be impossible suddenly begin to happen, and questions arise in everyone's mind as to what to do with Coffey, and how to do it.
           It seems to me that the theme is different to everyone. I had such a problem coming up with a theme to this book that would be universal to everyone, not just me and my friends. So if you happen to read The Green Mile, then come up with your own theme, because it's so hard finding one that is universal to everyone.
           Now it's time for my review on this book. I would recommend it to people who range from ages 14-40. The writing style is in the first person for most of the book, and it has a calm, yet eerie tone. When I started out reading, I was really discouraged, because the first part, and half of the second part are so, so boring. It skips from the past to the present to the future multiple times, and because this is done in such a boring way, the book becomes hard to follow. Once, however, you get further in to the second part, the book begins to draw you in. It sticks to a plot on a better and far more interesting basis, and the tone gets quicker and more suspenseful. Definitely read this book if you like realistic fantasy, and realistic fiction.