Tag Archives: realistic fiction

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee – Reading Blog 35

Posted on by
Reply

Book # 35                                Words: 99121                                      Date: 24/Apr/2015

 

Title:  To Kill A Mockingjay                                              Author: Harper Lee                  

 

Genre ~ Fiction Type:  Realistic Fiction/Historical Fiction     

                                                                           

 

  • Opening Sentence:

When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the elbow

 

  • Favourite word / phrase / sentence:

Mayella’s face contorted, and I was afraid that she would cry again.

 

 

  • Vocabulary and new terms (with part of speech) and definition:

Inconspicuous – Not clearly visible or attracting attention

 

 

  • Reflection, Connection & Personal Response:

Once I read the first passage of this book, I already knew that this book was going to be a book with complex vocabulary. Although I thought that this book was hard to understand, as this book was not my level, I still felt that this book kept me interested and excited. At some parts I knew that I would stumble and have a hard time in understanding it, but I still kept on reading anyway. This book is about a young African girl named Scout Finch that live in Maycomb, Alabama. According to the book, this place was the most boring town you can find. In Maycomb, this book then talks about the life of Scout Finch and the adventures she went through while she was there. I wouldn’t just call this book a book with only one climax and ending, because in my perspective, I see that there are many. There is the part where she joins school, the part where Miss Maudie’s house catches on fire and burns to the ground and there are lots more. I don’t have any experiences like Scout’s because I personally never had gone through anything like what Scout went through. Although I have been through mourning over death, I still don’t find my life as exciting and filled with stories like Scout. I’d recommend this book to whomever that enjoys reading classics like Oliver Twist or Huckleberry Finn. I’d recommend this to them because I feel that they all have one characteristic of having plenty of adventures throughout their lives.

 

 

 

 

Ashes to Ashes by Jenny Han – Reading Blog 34

Posted on by
Reply

 

Book #  34                          Words: 75943                                          Date: 14/Apr/2015

 

Title: Ashes to Ashes                                                                           Author: Jenny Han                              

 

Genre ~ Fiction Type:  Realistic Fiction      

                                                                           

 

  • Opening Sentence:

     I’m high up in the rear balcony of Holy Lady of the Sea, and it is pure agony.

 

  • Favourite word / phrase / sentence:

We ride in silence, except for the swish, swish, swish of the wipers as they push the tiny snowflakes off my windshield.

 

 

  • Vocabulary and new terms (with part of speech) and definition:

Compensate: Give someone something typically money, in recognition of loss, injury, or suffering

 

 

  • Reflection, Connection & Personal Response:

When I took a first good look at this book, I knew that it was one that was depressing. My sister had recommended me this book as she thought that it reminded her of something that she had read before. I took it and started reading. Along the way I had noticed that it was similar to a widely watched and read series. Pretty Little Liars. I thought that it was similar because of the fact that it had a person that ended up dead and friends unite because of this incident. Instead of having a person killing people, it was just death. But I think that it is similar to the Pretty Little Liars series. In this book I read about death, friendship reuniting, a girl that was broke that had no family, and also trouble between relationships because of lies. Each girl had a memory of Rennie that was personal that they didn’t want anyone to know. This book reminds me of when these two specific people in my school died because of certain reasons. It took everyone in surprise because it was so sudden and no one could have said bye to them before they had passed. I think that this book taught me to not keep secrets from anyone and to not make anyone feel bad about themselves or feel bad because you did something to hurt them. I think that this book is an amazing book with tragedy and also friendship. These four girls have to go through tough times when their friend died and with that they came together to become friends and grieve together. I think anyone should read this as it teaches lessons that cannot just be taught by saying that you cannot do this. 

There You’ll Find Me by Jenny B. Jones – Reading Blog 33

Posted on by
Reply

 

Book # 33                                Words: 76194                                                Date: 11/Mar/2015

 

Title:  There You’ll Find Me                                                                         Author: Jones, Jenny B.                                

 

Genre ~ Fiction Type: Realistic Fiction        

                                                                           

 

  • Opening Sentence:

Sometimes I think about when I was little, and my older brothers would take me out to fly kites.

 

  • Favourite word / phrase / sentence:

Some peace. Some healing. To hear God’s voice again.

 

 

  • Vocabulary and new terms (with part of speech) and definition:

Contemplated: Look thoughtfully for a long time

 

 

  • Reflection, Connection & Personal Response:

This book is about this teenage girl named Finley who is grieving for her dead brother who died a few months ago. She came to Ireland to seek God and to also continue her senior year. On the way there she meets this boy. He is a celebrity everyone adores, but Finley hates him. Once they leave the airport, Finley then finds herself in a hotel. In this hotel, she then encounters the celebrity Beckett Rush. He then asks her to become his personal assistant. With that, everything changes. I have never experienced death on my sibling so I don’t really understand what Finley is going through. One thing I do understand is the aftermath of when someone in your family dies. My grandfather died when I was only eleven years old and when he died and when I got home and ‘left’ him, I felt like that there was his ‘ghost’ that was haunting me. I felt like I haven’t done enough even though I had spent three of my school days back in my hometown where he had died. I think that was how Finley was feeling. I think that she felt as if her brothers ghost was haunting her and she felt like she needed to go to the places where he felt god truly was. With that she then goes to Ireland. I never really did anything when I felt that there was a ghost because I thought that I was dreaming, I was right. I was just dreaming because after awhile that feeling was gone. I then confirmed that he was in heaven with god and he was safe. I feel that after this book, I feel like I’m not the only one who feels alone and also seeing things. After Finley’s story, I finally feel understood by at least somebody. I would definitely recommend this book to any teenage girls out there. Even if some boys what to read this, they should. This book not only talks about Hollywood and filming movies, it also talks about religion and this girl who is trying to seek god and his ‘home’. I think that anyone should read this, it is such an amazing book that could be read by any person of any age.

To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Hans – Reading Blog 25

Posted on by
Reply

 

Book #  25                               Words: 81660                                             Date: 4/Mar/2015

 

Title: To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before                                              Author: Han, Jenny                                  

 

Genre ~  Fiction Type:  Realistic Fiction      

                                                                           

 

  • Opening Sentence:

I like to save things.

 

  • Favourite word / phrase / sentence:

I wish (and this is a thought I’ve had many, many times, too many times to count) I was more like Margot. Because sometimes it feels like I’ll never be done.

 

 

  • Vocabulary and new terms (with part of speech) and definition:

Exorcisms: the expulsion or attempted expulsion from a supposed evil spirit from a person or place

 

 

  • Reflection, Connection & Personal Response:

When I first started reading this book, I was unsure on who was older. Laura Jean or her sister Margot. I read this book thinking that Laura Jean had these extremely well thought out advice that only the eldest should give, but on the other hand, when I read her personal thoughts, it had seemed that she was unsure and very insecure. I think this because she had a thought of herself making coffee when Margot was gone and she said she didn’t know how to work it. Another thing that made me take a step back and look at what she had thought was the fact that she said that she wished that she was more like Margot because she thought that sometimes she can never be done. When she had said that, something in my mind snapped. Before that, she had implied many times that she was insecure, and she was always dependent on Margot. When she had said that she would never be done, it also made me think that she also didn’t know how to make quick choices on the go. When I read this, it had reminded me of a friend. Whenever she came to my house and had to decide on whether she wanted to sleepover or not, it would always take her till the last minute, where she is put on the spot to make a choice. If she had a chance, she would also ask her Mom, my Mom, her helper, and myself on whether she should stay. Once somebody made a choice for her, she would stick to that, no matter her opinion. This reminded me of her because I feel like both of them have this issue when they depend on people too much. When Laura Jean said that she will never be done, I felt that it meant that she would never be able to make a choice in the end, and this is something like my friend. I feel that this book is a definite good read because of the fact that the plot is interesting and that it catches peoples or readers attention; like it did with me. I don’t usually look at books like this one since I prefer books with more of an interesting or more action like plot, but to me, this book is really interesting because of many aspects. Even though this book is more opinionated or more to the main character’s thoughts, it had less dialogue. Like I had just said before, I like books with dialogue. Although this happens, I feel like this book made me carefully look into this character’s feelings and how she felt every time she put a letter in that box. Personally, I think that this book is great for anyone who likes this type of plot in a book, similar to this one where a girl puts letters from herself to the ones she had loved in the past in a box, then somehow it gets sent to them because of someone. I think that it is great and they would love it!

The Rule of Thirds by Chantel Guertin – Reading Blog 23

Posted on by
Reply

 

Book #  23                               Words:  65824                                   Date: Jan/20/2015

 

Title:  The Rule of Thirds                                                               Author: Chantel Guertin                                 

 

Genre ~ Fiction Type: Realistic Fiction         

                                                                           

 

  • Opening Sentence:

“Can you Photoshop this?” Dace asks.

 

  • Favourite word / phrase / sentence:

There is clearly, obviously, something wrong with my phone right now. I’m not getting any texts.

 

 

  • Vocabulary and new terms (with part of speech) and definition:

Ashen – Very pale with shock (v)

 

 

  • Reflection, Connection & Personal Response:

When I first saw this book I automatically saw an amazing eye catching cover that made me want to read this book. Although you are not supposed to judge a book by its cover, I just loved this book since then. When I started reading it, I learned that the main character of this book was Pippa or Philadelphia Greene. Pippa was a girl that was interested in photography and she had entered a photography competition. Two boys then greeted Pippa. One being her rival in her competition and two, the boy she had liked since she had entered this school. This rival of Pippa’s is Ben. He is a person who tends to trick people into doing things. For instance, Pippa’s camera and her photos for the instrument were stolen when he had pretended that he was her boyfriend. For her crush, he is Dylan. Dylan is a person who is well known around the whole school. He also currently has a slowly improving cancer. Since Pippa’s dad had died from cancer, she was terribly afraid of cancer. To deal with this, Dylan had told Pippa that he worked in the Hospital as a volunteer. In the end, Ben had stolen her photos and Dylan had become her boyfriend. But what happened to her current situation, the competition at hand? Well, Pippa had dealt with this by taking new photos. These photos consisted of her dad and Dylan and them getting over, or dying from cancer. She had learned on how to get over the fact that some will get cancer and die while some others will get cancer and live. She had both experiences and she had gotten over her fear of cancer. I have gone through something like what Pippa had gone through. Like her dad, my grandfather also got pancreatic cancer. Also like her dad, he had died. This was a terrible experience, but we all need to learn that everyone will eventually die. It would just depend on whether they die earlier or later. I would recommend this book to anyone that is interested in photography. Even though it only has a little detail of photography, it does revolve around the competition and there are competitions of the best photos in the real world. This would then give them a snip bit of how a real competition would feel like. I would also recommend this book to any one young or old because this book has taught me to let go of things and I think that some others would need to learn this lesson too.

The Year I Met You by Cecelia Ahern – Reading Blog 14 (15)

Posted on by
Reply

Book #  14 (15)                       Words: 149226                                              Date: 10/Nov/2014

 

Title:    The Year I Met You                                                               Author: Ahern, Cecelia                              

 

Genre ~ Fiction Type:  Realistic Fiction    

                                                                           

 

  • Opening Sentence:

I was five years old when I learned that I was going to die.

 

  • Favourite word / phrase / sentence:

He is still searching, though he seems less angry, the spiteful look is gone.

 

 

  • Vocabulary and new terms (with part of speech) and definition:

Corroborated – Confirm or give support to a finding, theory, or statement (verb)

 

 

  • Reflection, Connection & Personal Response:

When I first looked the title, I thought that this was a novel about romance and love. But I looked closer and found something different. This book has no aspects of love. This is an amazing story about two people going through life. Both of them have gone through loss. One has lost a job, while the others family has ran away from him. What does this have to do with us? Well, this teaches us to take little steps at a time. ‘Sometimes you have to stop still in order to move on.’ This is a quote from the blurb of the book. It is true. Jasmine, the perspective we are reading from has changed quite a bit since the beginning of this book. Jasmine used to be a person that takes her job like her life. She does many projects and many things just to get rid of one thing. Her life. Jasmine dislikes having to deal with family problems, dislikes thinking about life and especially just lazing around the house doing nothing. Once she got fired from her job, she was completely broken. Her life was shattered onto the ground like glass and she was the one that had to pick it up and piece it up again. This has changed Jasmine. Since she never cared about anything that is personal, she never had time to start a garden or just have a social life. This then changes when she meets her neighbor Matt. Like Jasmine, Matt is a man that is broken. His family has left him leaving him all alone. I have also seen lots of change in Matt. In the beginning of the book, Matt was a type of person that arrived home at three a.m., banged on the door till someone opened it and also drank. He sometimes would come home drunk and start taking glass and fling it onto his garden. Now, when I see Matt, he is a caring guy with a heart as big as the sun and would do anything for his family. Although his family never came back, he still helped his neighbors and friends and changed everything about his life. He stopped drinking, and also stopped randomly throwing things onto the grass on his garden. I saw this change happen when they both met. Now when I look back to the beginning of the book, I get this feeling that it was fate. Without helping each other, they would have never solved the problem they faced. This book is amazing. Anyone who is interested in realistic fiction should read it. With this you will learn countless lessons that can be used in your own future.