BOOK REVIEW

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children starts off when a boy named Jacob, is left with the mysterious last words of his deranged grandfather. He eventually decides to travel to an island where he investigates his grandfather's past at a home for peculiar children. The place was bombed after WW2 but he finds reminisces of the children who lived there. While searching, he sees a girl with flaming palms and begins to chase her for answers. They end up going into a tomb where she disappears. He unknowingly exits into the past where he is found and threatened by the girl (Emma). Jacob and Emma then return to the house where he meets Miss Peregrine, who explains that she is a shape shifter and that her and the peculiar children live the same day over and over again in a loop. He decides to live in the loop with them, returning back to the future every night so his dad, who he traveled to the island with, won't get suspicious. When he returns o the house one day, a headmistress of another home is there. She explains that monsters have been all over the world, entering loops and killing all them all. She barely escaped and came immediately to warn her. Emma and Jacob go to the present and discover there is a monster disguising itself on the island. The problem continues to escalate and the peculiar children all take a part.

If you are the type of person who loves mysteries and science fiction, this book would be the perfect fit for you. It's somewhat of a complicated read but, it doesn't leave you with any questions at the end. It's a great novel if you like to figure things out and love those "WOAH NO WAY?!" moments.

The author has a pretty basic writing style with a third person limited point of view. He uses excellent diction and opens the book with a lot of questions that you find the answer to later in the book, which builds a ton of suspense. He also incorporates small galleries throughout the story to help give the reader a better image and make them understand what he's imagining.

Because of all this, I would end up rating the book with 4 stars because of its' complex plot and all of e suspense he builds in.

A change in character...

      So in the beginning of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, the grandfather of the main character is presented as somewhat psychotic. He died in a mysterious way, thought to be the fault of his own insanity. However, as the book progresses, you see that maybe he wasn't so crazy after all. He left behind a letter for his grandson, telling him about an small island that hold the key to his unusual past. As he visits the island and learns more of his grandfather, you find out who he really was. It's a great change in character, revealing that he was very intelligent after all.

The Best Part of my Book

I'm currently reading Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. When considering the best part of my book, pictures definetly come to mind right away. A unique feature about this novel, is that through the story, the author places a small gallery of 4-5 photos. This helps the reader's visual and shows exactly what he was describing. I spend a lot of time analyzing the pictures and rereading the text to see how it matches up. Having the pictures adds to the creativity of the book itself and it's something i have really enjoyed throughout. This book already has a weird story and the pictures make it even weirder.

Below is an example of a picture you'd see in one of the small galleries:

Voice Assignment 5/13

3.  Oftentimes, we tend to think of imagery as simply creating a visual picture for the reader.  However, imagery includes any experience with the five senses.  Effective imagery is built on effective diction and detail, so as you can see, voice involves multiple building blocks all depending on one another.  Which of the passages creates the most intricate sensory experience for you, as the reader? 

Imagery is most profound in the second passage, Speak, by Laurie Anderson. Through her diction and sensory details you can imagine exactly what this scene would look like. She also uses dialouge to help you get a better understanding of how it would sound as well. When she says, "Rachelle:  [Snorts.  Stands back from mirror, turns head from side to side to admire the black mess that looks like goose poop across her cheekbones]," you can visualize how the mascara looks under her eyes and you can also hear it when she uses the onomonopetia "snorts". She goes into great detail about her movements and uses diction that we can understand.

6.  Tone is examined last because understanding the tone of a work requires an understanding of all the elements writers use to create it:  diction, detail, figurative language, imagery, and syntax.  Remember that tone is the expression of the author’s attitude toward his / her audience and subject.  There are as many different tones as there are feelings (i.e., serious, light-hearted, playful, sarcastic, accepting, bitter, anxious, forceful, harsh, humorous, sympathetic, nostalgic, detached, etc.). 

The tone in the first passage, Miss Nelson is Missing, is more playful and humorous. It jokes around with the stereo type of trouble-making kids and their relationship with their teachers. It relates to the reader because they understand what it's like to have a mean sub and miss your usual teacher.
The author is joking around in the passage rather than being very serious.
As for the second passage, Speak, it has a more bitter tone which you can see when she writes, "I don’t want to be cool. I want to grab her by the neck and shake her and scream at her to stop treating me like dirt. She didn’t even bother to find out the truth– what kind of friend is that?" From this you can she she has resentment toward her friend and it's creating a more annoyed tone.
 

7. Characterize or explain the voice of your creative non-fiction piece so far.  How do you know? How would we know it is YOUR piece? What purposeful choices have you made to create voice? Is this a strength or weakness of your writing?

I have created a piece that has a lot of passion and emotion. I've added a couple heart wrenching stories to make my reader understand how serious my topic of police brutality is. You can tell it's my piece because throughout my writting, I added questions to check my readers comprehesion. I really tried to connect and speak directly to whoever is reading my piece which I feel is a strength because it makes my them more entrigued and involved in my creative non-fiction paper.

Ashley Volpenhein         

Cronin

Honors English 1B

5/2/2014

How to Be a Quality Human Being

In the style of Benjamin Franklin

1.       Respect other’s interests. Even if they seem weird at first, understand that yours might too.

2.       Always be polite, hold doors and say please and thank you.

3.       Respect you elders. Seriously, you owe your life to them. If it weren’t for them who knows where you’d be.

4.       Offer favors to those even if they may not deserve them.

5.       Treat others with the same amount of respect you expect from them.

6.       Don’t ever have double standards. Follow the same rules as the person next to you.

7.       Love your partner with every ounce that you have, and show just how much that is every single day.

8.       Don’t refuse help from those who know more than you do.

9.       Give people you don’t know a smile. You never know how much it could brighten their day.

10.   Donate to charities. Remember how fortunate you are and help make the world a better place to live in for everyone.

11.   Recycle. Show the Earth your care for it!

12.   Never abandon a friend in need. A fair weather friend is really no friend at all, so be there for them when they need you the most.

13.   Don’t talk back to your parents. They know what is really best for you and in the end, they’ll never guide you in the wrong direction.

14.   Take school seriously because it’s the key to your future. If you don’t study hard growing up, you could be the bum on the side of the street.

15.   Speaking of bums, always take the time to spare a little change. Their homelessness may be their own fault, but then again, you don’t know the struggle they’ve gone through in their lives.

16.   Don’t be afraid to admit that you’re wrong. It’s okay to make mistakes, we’re only human.

17.   Going off of that, remember that others are only humans as well. If somebody slips up, understand that it happens to everyone at one point or another.

18.   Control your anger. Nothing is worth getting angry over especially little things.

19.   Don’t hover over those who have hurt you. They do not deserve you, so why ever let them slip into your mind.

20.   Be confident in your ventures. A confident person is a respected one as well.

21.   Show not only others love, but yourself too. Go out of your way to make yourself happy.

22.   Give advice to other’s going through the same situations you’ve struggled through as well. Your help will go a long way.

23.   Get a lot of sleep. A well-rested person is proven to be more focused and happier in life than someone who stayed up too late watching TV.

24.   Try your best to never procrastinate. You will ultimately disappoint yourself and others. It will also add an immense amount of unneeded stress into your life.

25.   Lastly, be the best version of yourself that you can be.

Structure of The Time Travelers Wife

I began reading The Time Traveler’s Wife and it’s a very interesting book because of the way it’s set up. It switches back and forth between two point of views, Henry’s and Clare’s. Henry has the unique gift of time traveling. He and Clare are married in the future but he will randomly disappear and travel back in time to when Clare was much younger than him, that’s how they met. The book follows Henry’s time traveling as Clare gets older and they become closer and closer in age until they finally see each other when they are both in the same time period.

At first, the structure is really hard to understand but I’ve found that the more you read it, the easier it becomes to comprehend what’s going on in the story. It’s a really creative concept and so far I’m enjoying it. I also really like how there is two, first person point of views because it enables you to see into the minds of both main characters and find out how they both feel about a situation which is very helpful for character building.

The Fault in Our Stars

     The Fault in Our Stars is being made into a movie that's comming out this June. I'm really excited for it because it's one of those books that has a perfect plot for a movie. It won't be confusing or hard to recreate so I'm sure it'll be really good. The trailer just came out last Wednesday and I can tell it follows the book on point. It had exact quotes taken from the book. Also, the characters look almost exactly as I imagined they would.
     I'd reccomend reading then seeing it because it'll give you a better connection wit the characters to begin with. It's like falling in love with characters a second time. However, if you don't like spoilers for your movies, read it after. Just make sure you read it no matter what because it is such an amazing book.
     If you like Nicholas Sparks books like Safe Haven or The Last Song, this would be a perfect novel for you.


Below is the trailer:

Summary and feelings about Romeo & Juliet

I recently just finished The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and it was one of the best books I have ever read. The novel is about a girl named Hazel, dealing with terminal cancer and how she meets Augustus. He is a recent survivor of cancer as well. The story follows their relationship and how they deal with being sick but making the best of what they have while they’re still alive. It’s such an inspiring book and there’s no part of the book where I was bored; I read the whole thing in a day it was that good. Augustus and Hazel’s relationship isn’t too sappy or girly and their discussions were really deep and got me thinking, which I really loved about the book. It completely changes your view on life and I’ve never thought a book could do that but this one did for sure. I completely recommend it to anybody.

Along with my CPR book were reading Romeo and Juliet. I’ve read a Mid Summer’s Night Dream last year and I did not understand any part of it. However, I’m doing a good job understanding and analyzing this play so I’m really enjoying the story. My favorite part about reading Shakespeare is the humor he puts in. You have to think about it for a while, but once you get it, it’s pretty clever. He’s an artist in his writing so it’s hard to understand long speeches that some of the character’s give. I have to reread and decode what they say, which can be tedious work. However, it’s worth it because the story is really intriguing and tragic.

What type of people would like this book?

I just finished reading I am Number Four and I absolutely loved it. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. It has a ton of action but not too much to the point that it's overwhelming. The author, Pittacus Lore, does an awesome job of keeping the audience entertained. It's a pretty long book so that's really important.

This book would be classified as science fiction. It also had a small bit of romance so that both genders would enjoy the book. However, it never got too sappy and the relationship didn't overshadow the genre. It had a ton of exciting moments which I always look for in a good book. Also, there was a sci-fi element to the story. The main characters are from a different plant and have special legacies (powers), but still blend in with our world. They're being chased by creatures from a different planet called Mogodorians who are much larger than humans and can't blend in like the main characters. Having the aliens in the story made it different than most books and ending up being really cool.

I was surprised I liked this because I usually don't like sci-fi but the author wrote this in a way that made it a page turner. I think people that enjoy science fiction or liked books like Divergent or Twilight would fall in love with this. These three books all have a dystopia/supernatural element and both involve relationships. However, I wouldn't limit this book to anyone because it had so many different parts that would please everyone. I highly recommend this!



Below is a link to books that are related to I am Number Four. If you've read any of these I'm sure you'd love this one!

https://www.goodreads.com/book/similar/10576999-i-am-number-four