Hi guys! Welcome to 8th grade at CMS. You can click on the response link below to write your response to at least four of your summer reading books.
Your books should include: Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and at least one book from the 8th Grade College Bound Reading List.
Each response should not summarize the book, but should instead, tell us what the book made you think about. Please write 2-3 paragraphs and be sure to use proper spelling and grammar. Feel free to email me if you have questions at hingers@clarke.k12.ga.us
Remember, the CMS Media Center will be open from 4-6 p.m. this summer every other Thursday starting June 2nd.
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«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 214 of 214L. Allen
Muchacho
I can honestly say, this was the best book I've ever read and definitely my favorite. It was given to me by a friend and at first I was very hesitant about reading it. After I read the back of the book, I thought, "It won't be that bad.." but when I started, I couldn't stop! I finished it in two plane rides.
Something I really admired about the author, Louanne Johnson, is the dialect of the story. It was not completely proper and she didn't hesitate at using different styles of writing. The main character, Eddie, is a young adult growing up New Mexico where he is surrounded by "Gang bangers and drugs". Johnson really emphasized that through Eddie's words and his language. I also really liked how the author mixed in his family's culture through the story.
Reading this book pretty much changed how I think about everything. Friendships, relationships, and family. It even teaches you how to put up a proper argument and don't bring up the little things from the past. I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to anyone because you just might surprise yourself at how much you enjoy it.
L. Allen
Tangled
Wow! I don't know what else to say. I throughly enjoyed this book and would not put it down. I got this book at one of the Clarke Middle School book drives. I started reading it the day I got home from school and finished about two days later!
The story is narrated from four character's points of view; Jena, Dakota, Skye, and Owen. All four of their lives intertwine or "tangle" together in the most unique ways.The four characters lives come together without their noticing, until each of them realize "that's my ex-girlfriend" or "I saw you on tv and we went to summer camp together!" in the simplest ways.
The second part of the book, narrated by Owen, tells his ways of dealing with the recent death of his girlfriend. The book really teaches you a good lesson about coping with your own feeling and not ignoring them. Reading Carolyn Mackler's work was like talking to a friend. It just pulls you right in. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone, especially Sarah Dessen and Lauren Oliver fans.
Evan Lewis
Shadow's Edge
The second book in the Night Angel trilogy, Shadow's Edge, is about Kylar trying to start a new life and leave the way of shadows. He moves away from Cenaria with his unofficial wife, Elene, and their adopted daughter, Uly. They live hapilly up until the point that an old cenarian enemy kidnaps Uly. However, the kidnapper and the kidnapped are taken by a member of the Chantry to the Chantry to be trained as magi.
Kylar, not knowing this, goes to Cenaria and learns that on of the two people he thought dead- Durzo, his master, and Logan his best friend- was alive. Logan was in the hole, the deepest pit of Cenarians dungeons. Kylar immediatly goes to find him and brings him back to lead the rebel army against the Godking's rule over Cenaria. Then, while Logan is rallying his army, Kylar and Vi Viridiana (who kidnapped Uly under the Godking's influence, but is now working to kill him) plot to kill the Godking. As the battle outside of the castle is raging, the Godking Vi distracts the Godking while Kylar attaks from above. The Godking blocks the attack with magic and sends a Ferali (a human made into a monster by magic). Kylar defeats the Ferali, but loses his arm in the process. Kylar and vi then kill the Godking together.
This book really made me think about how much a person will do to save their friends and loved ones.
Sydney S.
Feed
I found the book “Feed” to be a very interesting book. The story line takes place in the future. All of the characters in the book had a Feed placed in their head at birth. The Feed receives messages, stores information, and even allows people to have private chats with one another via their Feeds. The main characters in this book are Titus and Violet. Titus has had his Feed since birth and is accustomed to the Feed running his life for him. The Feed tells Titus what to wear, what to buy, what he should eat and more. Violet, however, did not get her Feed at birth. Violet doesn’t get her Feed placed until she was a young girl of seven or eight, and as a result she was already used to thinking for herself by the time she has the Feed placed in her head.
This book made me think about how our lives are today and just who exactly is “feeding” into our brains. We may not have “Feeds” placed into our brains, but we do have big corporations feeding our brains with a steady stream of information they want us to hear and hopeful shape our own lives after. For example, when Apple introduced iPods, iPhones and iPads, Apple made it sound like everyone needed one, and that your life wouldn’t be as cool as everyone else’s if you didn’t have one. One of their catch phrases is, “If you don’t have an iPhone…well, you don’t have an iPhone,” and this phrase is of course accompanied by a commercial that shows you how you can basically run your life with your iPhone. As a result of these corporate messages, a lot of people now have iPhones. The story also made me think about the affect that peer pressure has on our lives. Peer pressure is a driving force in our everyday lives and in a way it too can run our life. When a new trend or craze comes out and your friends do it, most of the time you end up doing it too. This book taught me that it’s very important to live your life as an individual. If we don’t live our lives for ourselves, as individuals, we are basically giving in to the “feeds” of big corporate America and peer pressure. I, for one, do not want to live my life according to such feeds. I want to be, and will be, an individual leading my life they way I think is right.
Evan Lewis
Gulliver's travels
I recently finished the book Gulliver’s Travels. This book is separated into four parts; the first part- A Voyage to Lilliput- involves Lemuel Gulliver shipwrecking, swimming to land, and passing out on shore. When he awakes, he is tied down by the six inch tall inhabitants of Lilliput. After gaining his liberty, he stays in Lilliput for over nine months, during which he learns their customs. However, he later learns that his life is in danger because of his enemies in Lilliput and had to escape to Blefuscu, Lilliput’s former enemy, which he had subdued and befriended some time prior. There he finds a boat that had run aground, and used this boat to attempt to reach his home in Europe. On the third day he reached an English merchantman and sails back to England.
The second part, A Voyage to Brobdingnag, is the opposite of the first part. After ten months in England, Gulliver goes out to sea again. Their voyage is uneventful until they pass the Straights of Madagascar. There, a storm blows them off course; looking to stop for fresh water, they anchor at a seemingly uninhabited island. Gulliver is unfortunately separated from his comrades after they were chased off by one of the giant inhabitants of Brobdingnag. Early on, he becomes friends with the king and queen, and over almost three years, becomes accustomed to living with giants. He leaves on the dawn of his third year, but not in the same fashion that he left Lilliput; in fact it wasn’t his doing. On that day, an eagle picks up his house (everything was proportionate to the inhabitants), and drops him in the sea. Several hours later, he is luckily sighted by an English vessel. They helped him out of his house, and sailed back to England.
In the third part, a Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Glubbdubdrib, Luggnagg, and Japan is less eventful size-wise. After ten days home, he goes to sea yet again. He is boarded by pirates not long after starting his voyage, and is left on a canoe with paddles, a sail, and four days’ provisions. After five days, he finally lands on an island. He then sees a large black floating island. He goes aboard and meets the Laputians, a strange people with no other interests than mathematics and geometry, in which they are very advanced. In spite of this and due to this, their structures and clothing are very poorly made, and they spend most of their day lost in deep thought. Gulliver stays for a short time on Laputa before leaving for the continent below, Balnibarbi, where the capital is located (Laputa is the royal palace). There he stays at one of the King’s relative’s estate, where he learns more about them at the Academy of Lagado. After touring the Academy he takes a ship to Glubbdubdrib, or ‘The Island of the Magicians’. There, brought up by the governor, he sees Caesar, Homer, Aristotle, and many others. After several days here, he sails to Luggnagg where he learns of the Struldbrugs, immortals rarely but only born on Luggnagg. However, he then learns it is more of a sentence than a privilege because they must go through all the ailments of the unnaturally elderly. After a few days there, he disguises himself as a Hollander, travels to Japan and then to Holland, and then back to England.
In the fourth part of this book, Gulliver takes a Voyage to the Land of the Houyhnhnms. Gulliver stays happy with his family for five months before becoming commander of the Adventure. His voyage was uneventful until some of his recruits commits mutiny and leave him on an island, where he meets the Houyhnhnms (horses). They take him in and begin to teach him their culture, and vice versa. They call him and his race ‘Yahoos’ after the savage humanoids that the Houyhnhnms keep as servants. After the months being there, he becomes very happy. One day however, his master comes to tell him that many of the council members had become unhappy, and he had to leave. He sailed until he met a Portuguese ship who took him to Lisbon and from there he traveled back to England.
T. O’Neill
“Hiroshima”
“Hiroshima” was originally a New Yorker article. Reporter John Hersey then adapted it to a normal-size novel. Hiroshima contains the accounts of six people who survived the first atomic bomb: Reverend Tanimoto, Mrs Nakamura, Dr. Fujii, Father Kleinsorge, Dr. Sasaki, and Miss Sasaki. There are four chapters in this book. The first describes when the bomb was dropped, and the second the families trying to seek refuge in Asano Park. In the third chapter the characters wonder what could have caused such destruction, and in the last chapter it is announced on the radio that the it was an atomic bomb that the Americans had dropped.
Of the books I read this was my favorite, because it was a well written non-fiction book. It was quick, real, and entertaining.
T. O’Neill
“Animal Farm”
“Animal Farm,” by George Orwell, is a clever take on the beginnings of communism. At the start of this book Farmer Jones owns the farm. He is a dipsomaniac tyrant who abuses the farm animals. Old Major, the wise pig, begins the revolution by preaching freedom to the farm animals. At the end of his speech he keels over and dies. The next day the animals drive Farmer Jones out of the farm, which is now “animal farm.” Initially Snowball the pig emerges as the leader of the farm who is soon adored by the other animals for bringing in the first successful harvest. But Napoleon, Snowball’s rival, steals the puppies from their parents and raises them to be killers. Soon Snowball is chased off the farm. When Napoleon takes over, he changes the farm into a totalitarian regime and changes the laws into one sentence: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.”
This book made me think the most, and though it was fiction it felt like reading about the forming of a new government.
T. O'Neill
“The Great Gatsby”
“The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is the story of Daisy Buchanan and Jay Gatsby seen from the perspective of Nick Carraway, Daisy’s cousin. Daisy is a superficial heiress who married into wealth. Her husband Tom Buchanan goes on long trips to New York. He says they are for business, but he is having an affair with his mistress, Myrtle Wilson. Gatsby throws wild parties with the money he earned from bootlegging. He had dated Daisy when he was a soldier in World War I, but she rejected him because he was poor. He and Daisy grow attached again. Tom is furious when he finds out that Daisy is cheating on him. One day everybody drives to New York, stopping at Mr. Wilson’s garage. There is an argument, and Daisy and Gatsby drive off in one car. Myrtle goes out toward the car and is run over. Tom, protecting Daisy, tells Myrtle’s distraught husband that Gatsby killed her. Mr. Wilson shoots Gatsby before shooting himself.
This book’s pinnacle was its writing. The complexity of the characters was refreshing.
J. Wilson
The Little Prince
I read this book because it was recommended to me by Audrey and I wonder why so that was the first book I read this summer. Soon into the book I realized why. The people in the book think as I do, and not as the “adults” do. On the first page the main character draws a picture of a snake that swallowed an elephant. Ever person he met he showed this picture to but none of them recognized it to be a snake that swallowed an elephant until he met the little prince. This only had me realize that I do this very same thing but with my mind. I don’t hold up a picture and ask them what they see, but I do ask questions and say things that most people I come in contact with, can’t really understand it but there are others like me who think and understand as I do.
The other part of the book that was really intriguing was the journey the little prince made from his planet to ours. He had left his home for the first time and ventured out into the universe. On his journey he discovered all the different types of people and I strongly agreed with his opinions on all of them. There was also his little flower on his planet who I adored. I love that one thing she said after he spoke of her four thorns she said “Let the tigers come with their claws!”. I thought of how I say this something like this to myself at times. I get an attitude that makes me feel that I can take on anything and everything the world troughs at me. It’s good to have that attitude at times for protection. The other think on his planet were baobabs. They are tree that grow to be a massive size and completely cover his planet but, as most things, they start off small. The prince removes the baobabs as soon as he sees them, this way they don’t get too big. This, as many other things in the book, had a second meaning (or to me they did at least). The baobabs are problems that start very small, and to keep them from controlling your thoughts u most pull them from the root when you start to see them grow. Through it all, this book was very good and greatly helped me on my outlook of the world and the people who live on it.
Jakob S.
Night by Elie Wiesel
I thought this book was very good. Also similar to Anne Frank but he survived the war. It starts out in 1941 when Elie is 12 years old. He grows up in a little town and by 1944 the Nazis have token over. He lives through his life with torture and genocide, and people being swept away from their homes to concentration camps. The book is rather sad.
The author had a very descriptive way of describing his past through this war of being a Jew. It really makes you think that we are spoiled right now, if we were all Jews. I could not live without guilt knowing that I killed millions of innocent people! I am very glad that Elie lived to tell this amazing story of his childhood. Sadly Elie died last year, 2010 and lived to be 82 years old.
Trevor J.
The Book Thief by: Marcus Zusak
The book started off kind of slow, because it was dragging on and on and it was confusing about who was narrating it. It was also confusing because the narrator was obsessed with the colors of the sky.
It starts to get when they start hanging out with the bad kids and start stealing apples from a farmer. They also steal books from the mayor's wife. Then it starts getting really good when they start hiding a refugee Jew in their basement
The ending is extremely sad because the Nazis drop a bomb on their town. It's also sad when the bomb kills her best friend. When she kisses his dead body it shows that she really did care for him all along.
J. Wilson
Animal Farm
This book is about animals that over through there master and take over their farm. I know this book had something to do with a war or the Soviet Union or something along those lines but I’m not quite sure what. At first the barn is run by two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon. Soon after, Napoleon took control of the barn with his dogs. He had more food than all the other animals (him and the other pigs on the farm) he slaughtered several animals, changed and broke rules, and after it all the animals still trusted him.
This book showed me that u must choice wisely on the subject of whom you can and can’t trust. At first I thought Napoleon was I nice good leader until power drove him to turn. Even though a person seems good at first u must be very picky when it comes to the matter of who you can trust. Also I learned that power can easily be abused. Napoleon took advantage of the intelligence he and the pigs had to control the animals. The book made me realize whether I want it to or not has happened is happing and will happen in the world. I just have to brace myself for it. But I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
J. Wilson
Arctic tales
I did not enjoy this book very much. In some parts it was somewhat like seekers but nowhere near as good. It was kind of factual and not very exciting (well the book was written by National Geographic’s so of course it was factual). This book covered a lot of basics on how hard it is for animals to survive through the changes in their habitats do to global warming or better called global climate change. This a good book for people that don’t have the knowledge I have on polar bears and walruses (the main characters) or and other arctic animals. I love and know a lot about animals, so I guess that’s why I didn’t like the book so much because I didn’t learn anything new from it.
The deaths in this book are quite sad and very young male polar bear died in search of food with his mother and sister. The baby walruses almost got eaten by a polar bear but since he wasn't able to eat her he ate her aunt instead. This is just how nature works eat or be eaten. In the wild dying and feeding another creature is the natural balance of things.
J. Wilson
Anne Frank the diary of young girl
I enjoy this book a lot more than I thought I would. I thought it would just be sad boring biography of someone's life, but it turnout to being an interesting amazing life story, mainly because it was written by someone my age. This being said I could relate to some of the situations she went through.
One thing that stuck with me was the way she thought about the overall situation. Her mom said to think about how so many people were in such bad living conditions and some of them were out there dying but they were safe. Anne thought "why think those things if one feels negatively about living here" so she went to a happy place instead. I've done the same thing before to just get away from it all and by too just thinking of a happy place. Her place was that of nature mine is as well. One thing that bothered me was that Anne was a very normal girl she even seem like some girls they go to my school. I just cant believe that she was treated so terribly just because she was Jewish. This book really shows how hard people had during that time.
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