Three reasons to read "The Giver"

 

  The Giver by Lois Lowry, a book awarded the John Newbery Medal, is a fictional novel about Jonas, a twelve-year-old boy living in a futuristic society where no emotions exist, no pain, no love, no hate. Every child is raised the same way, and follow the same lifestyle as their own parents. However, in this society, there is a man that goes by the name, "The Giver". A man who is responsible for keeping all the memories involving emotions from the rest of humanity, such as war, disease, holidays, marriage, etc... However, when Jonas is assigned to be the next Giver, he and the original Giver form a bond, and a plan, to expose the whole civilization to emotions. Here are three reasons why you should read "The Giver".

     1. The foreshadowing quotes

     In this story, there are many quotes that are intricately woven into the story, without giving too much away, while also giving the reader a bit of curiosity. For instance, when Jonas was throwing apples with his friend Ash, he noticed that the apple changed. However, after a few seconds, the apple "Unchanged". He described it as "The same nondescript shade, about the same shade as his own tunic". (24, Lowry) This sentence might at first feel a bit strangely worded. Who would describe an apple having a "nondescript shade"? Later, it was revealed that in Jonas's world (minor spoilers ahead) color did not exist. Apparently, color was removed from this world so that people would not be prejudice based on race. When readers come to the realization that color did not exist in this world, they would first be shocked, but then have a sudden understanding of what all those previous quotes meant. It's difficult to describe something's shade when there is no color to describe it with.

     2. The relatable characters

     In this story, there are many characters that we (the readers) can relate to. For instance, Jonas has an annoying younger sister, who often gets away with doing something wrong because of her young age (for example, when she made fun of Jonas's peculiar eye). I am sure that many young readers have that bothersome younger sibling, who always gets away with everything due to their "young age" (even though a lot of the times they should be mature enough to realize what they are doing is wrong). There is also The Giver himself. The Giver and Jonas form a strong father-son relationship, as shown when Jonas asked for The Giver's favorite memory, which ended up being a family reunion with someone's grandparents. After Jonas received that memory, Jonas shyly asked The Giver if "we could be that way, and that you could be my grandparent." At first, this line might seem a bit awkward. However, it makes sense when the reader thinks about it as the relationship between Jonas and The Giver is just like the relationship between a young child and his grandfather.

     3. The emotions

     I first want to say ahead of time that this paragraph is more spoiler-heavy than the previous paragraphs, so spoiler warning! Gabe, who is Jonas's brother (technically adopted brother as no one has the same birth mother), is set to be released from the society within a few days. Being "Released" has always been a bit vague to the readers, because sometimes it's viewed as either a positive or negative thing depending on the situation. However, when Jonas realizes that being released is just another word for execution by injection the readers were shocked.  When Jonas saw the  baby after the injection, he thought, "Once again, as he had on the playing field, he felt the choking sensation. Once again he saw the face of the light-haired, bloodied soldier as life left his eyes. The memory came back. He killed it! My father killed it!" (150 Lowry) This paragraph (and other paragraphs like it) play with the reader's emotions as they come to the sudden realization where all those people who were released actually went.

3 Reasons Why You Should Read To All The Boys I've Loved Before

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (TATBILB) by Jenny Han, is a New York Times bestselling novel about sixteen year old Lara Jean Covey, who writes love letters to all the boys she’s ever liked. When these letters get leaked and sent to the boys themselves, Lara Jean’s life turns to chaos as she ends up entwined in a fake relationship contract with the star school lacrosse player, Peter Kavinsky. The book focuses on the relationship between Lara Jean and Peter. They must pretend to be in a relationship in order for Peter to give Lara Jean her letter back and save her from the embarrassment of him leaking it around the school, and for Peter to make his ex-girlfriend jealous. However, as time goes on, they begin to question their “fake” feelings, and wonder if they’re actually real. With that, here are 3 reasons why you should read To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before:

1. It’s relatable. 

We typically find it hard to resonate with teenagers portrayed in books, because most of the time they have magical powers or go to a wizard school. However, TATBILB portrays teenagers in a realistic light. An example of this is how Lara Jean is particularly school focused, and is aware of college preparations. This contrasts to how not many books have teenagers being focused on school, and the plot reigns unrealistic if the book does not contain fictional aspects. 

2. It has many deeper meanings. 

TATBILB displays a lot of themes that are applicable to our everyday lives. One theme I observed that stuck out to me was the theme of maturity. In the beginning of the book, Lara Jean attaches her feelings to the letters she wrote to the boys she liked in the past. She describes love as playful and innocent. When her letters get leaked, she is set free from the confinement of her feelings to her past crushes. This enables Lara Jean to begin her relationship with Peter Kavinsky, and towards the end of the book, readers observe a significant tone change. A matured Lara Jean now sets herself free of the confinement of emotion, and the tone of the book is wiser rather than her naive introduction. The theme of maturity is able to be applied to our lives by the means of acknowledging emotions and feelings rather than pushing them away, or locking them up in a box through a series of letters to past crushes, in Lara Jean’s case. 

3. Love is inescapable

Regardless of your views on love, it is something we all have for individuals in our lives, like our family members. We are all capable of loving and being loved, and this is an important topic TATBILB explores. Lara Jean writes her letters to her past crushes as a goodbye to the love she once had for them. She realizes love cannot be faked, and is a strong compelling feeling that doesn’t always have to entail sadness. She changes her definition of love as her tone grows more mature and wise, which is both an interesting and realistic parallel between Lara Jean at the beginning of the book versus Lara Jean towards the end.

-Zoya Ahmad

Why Some Books Really Can be a Bad Call

https://www.amazon.com/Bad-Call-Stephen-Wallenfels/dp/1484768132

Why Some Books Really Can be a Bad Call

       Bad Call by Stephen Wallenfels is a young adult novel about four teenagers going on a backpacking trip in Yosemite. Colin, Grahame, Ceo and Rhody are all on the tennis team at their school, and they had made a bet over a game of poker to go on a camping trip together one weekend. However, Rhody dropped out, so, to the other boys’ surprise, Ceo invites a seemingly random girl who he met at a summer camp named Ellie to come along with them in place of Rhody. After pulling a lot of tricks and sneaking behind their school’s and parents’ backs, they finally leave for Yosemite. 

I started reading this book and found it mediocre. I kept reading, and the more I read, the less I enjoyed it. Despite having little interest in the story, I decided to keep reading a bit further into the book before I quit. It is quite rare that I do not read through an entire book, but this one I really just had some issues with, so I will explain why I eventually just dropped it. 

The first reason that I wasn’t enjoying Bad Call was that I honestly just found it boring and slow. Many books are slower paced but may still be interesting or have an important point to make, but this just seemed too drawn out without much interesting content. One example that displays this is that Wallenfels takes nearly 80 pages, or 17 chapters just for them to arrive in the park which is approximately a quarter of the book. This section is focused just on them packing up and making plans to go. Some of the book is dedicated to showing how Ellie is getting ready, and her thoughts on the trip, which I thought was nice to have two perspectives, but this too is drawn out. Reading about about past tennis tournaments, what kind of bug spray they Grahame will pack, and who will carry the food, for a quarter of the book doesn’t seem to have much significance to the overall plot. One of the things I look for first in a good book is its ability to hold my attention and keep me waiting for more, which I have to say this book simply failed at. I didn’t see any way that I could really benefit from this book, so I stopped reading. 

The next aspect of Bad Call which I found annoying was how unoriginal it was, and how many cliché aspects it had. The first character that displays very cliché behaviors is Ellie. She doesn’t ever wear makeup, wears cargo pants, is very passionate about animals and the environment, and an avid feminist almost to the point of having a strong bias against men. While none of these things are actually bad, and some of them I would even argue are positive traits to see in books today, all of these combined and the general way the author describes her definitely fits the stereotype of the super progressive, nature-loving girl. When explaining to Colin some things she doesn’t like she says, “Cigarette butts, They take ten months to ten years to biodegrade and are a fire hazard. Why isn’t that considered littering? […] number one on my all-time love-to-hate list: elephant poachers. Don’t get me started on them,” (Wallenfels 133). These characteristics fit perfectly into the stereotype. The other character was Ceo and he fir the “playboy” stereotype pretty clearly. In the book he is described as “picking up girls” left and right, constantly in a relationship with some new conventionally attractive girl and being somewhat of a womanizer. While how cliché something is can be hard to concretely describe and show through specific quotes, I definitely got the feeling that the author just copy and pasted his characters leaving them with no depth. Watching as these characters were described, I couldn’t help cringing at the lack of originality.

Overall, I don’t think this is inherently a terrible book, I just didn’t find it worth my time and believe there are many books out there that are actually written well. I wanted to show that it is ok to be critical of the literature we read and that sometimes books really aren’t worth finishing, which I could demonstrate through Bad Call. 

13(-10) Reasons Why (You MUST Read "The Murder at the Vicarage" by Agatha Christie)

Warning!! You will not be able to stop reading this book!
Caution is advised.

Agatha Christie’s The Murder at the Vicarage is a fascinating book. Just like the other books involving the sleuth Miss Marple, this book is a work of art. Let me introduce you to Miss Marple. Miss Marple is an elderly woman who lives in the small town of St. Mary Mead. Because of her living to an old age, and being in a small village, Miss Marple has been able to examine human nature and uses this fact to her advantage when sleuthing. Anyway, enough about the main character, let’s talk about the book. These are the 3 reasons why you should read The Murder at the Vicarage.

1. Murder mysteries are the best type of books
This statement is completely opinion based, but I will explain why in my opinion this is an objective truth. I enjoy the suspense that is involved in this book and that is involved in most murder mysteries. Murder mysteries are also my favorite because the reader can attempt to solve the mystery along with the sleuth.

2. Agatha Christie is hands down the best murder mystery author

Many people will try to argue with this by saying that I forgot about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, but indeed, as I just proved, I did not. Of course, I have not read all of the murder mystery novels on the planet so this is a bit of an exageration but from my experience Agatha Christie is the best. Although I do love Sherlock Holmes, it is too unrealistic for me. The Miss Marple books are very realistic and this allows the reader to have a better chance at solving the mystery. Agatha Christie also writes in a style that makes the novel very suspenseful which makes the experience even more entertaining.
3. The Murder at the Vicarage is a page-turner
This book in particular is very intriguing because the murder occurs in such a holy place as a vicarage. It seems so odd and yet it happens. Every page there is new evidence and information that may be useful or just a red herring. You can never know who is telling the truth which is what keeps you on your toes and always thinking about this case.

Who will solve the mystery first: you or Miss Marple? Good luck!