"What Happened to Goodbye"

S- “What Happened to Goodbye” by Sarah Dessen is a touching book about a girls struggle to find her true personality throughout all the moving she is forced to do with her dad.  When entering a new school Mclean, the main character, chooses a persona she wishes to be during her short time in the town.  On Mclean and her fathers fourth move, Mclean decides she is going to try being herself and not make a persona to follow.  After a few weeks she begins to make some really close friends and even has a new love interest, the next door neighbor.  But not to her surprise her dad soon gets a new assignment in Hawaii and she attempts to cope with the thought of leaving her new found friends and boyfriend.  Her mother decides that it isn’t fair to make her move again and says she can live there with a friend for her senior year.  Throughout the book , Mclean finds her true personality and finally accepts that who she is is good enough.

O- This story takes place in the present day.  Many people are struggling to keep jobs and many businesses are going out of business because of the economy.  Since Mclean’s dad is a restaurant consultant, he tries to rebuild a restaurant in their new town but it soon has to be sold and once again they are forced to move.  During this time teenagers are trying to figure out who they are and what they want to do with their lives.  Mclean is facing this struggle in the story because she has to finally figure out who she is.

A- This story is written for teenagers.  It involves many aspects of a teenagers life.  It involves moving to new towns, making new friends, and even boyfriends.  A huge part of teenagers lives is finding out who they are and making decisions that will effect the rest of their life.

P- The purpose of this book is to show teenagers they aren’t alone in the daily struggles of a teenagers life and trying to grow up and become independent.  This book includes family issues, friend issues, and boy issues.  “What Happened to Goodbye” does an incredible job relating to the vast majority of teenagers.

S- This book was written in first person.  Writing a story in first person makes the story seem much more personal and making it easier to relate to.  Many different figurative devices were used throughout the book.  Dessen used many different styles of sentences to keep the text exciting and to avoid it getting boring. Using many different figurative devices keeps the book from getting repetitive and bland.

Tone- This book is written in first person with a very questioning tone.  Mclean questions many decisions made by herself and others.  She questions her life and her personality and who she truly is.

I would give this book a 4 out of 5 suitcases.  It was a good book but at times I wish there was more conflict to keep the book interesting.

The Glass Castle

By: Jeanette Walls

The Glass Castle is a book that makes you feel fortunate about your life.  It is a story about one family’s struggles to support themselves due to the fathers lack of motivation.    He was a man who could fix almost anything and had the potential to make himself successful if he could stop running from things.  He made his family move constantly because he couldn’t hold a job.  Problems only got worse when he become an alcoholic after the death of his 9 month old daughter.  

Education isn’t something we think of as a luxury.  Actually I think its fair to say we have all called school “hell” at one point in our lives.  But for this family, they longed for it.  The children wished they could go to school and get an education.  Their parents tried to provide educational experiences, like having their 6 year old daughter proof read a book the mother had written.  But its not still not the same.  This all could have been possible if the dad had been move motivated to turn his talents into a career to support his family.  

Speaker: The speaker is Jeanette Walls, the author of the book.  In the book she was strong and brave, to show her siblings it would be okay.  She never argued when they had to move and she always did what her father told her to.  During the moving around, she became more of a mother figure to her newborn little sister.  No matter the circumstances she never cried.  She stayed strong for the sake of her family.

Occasion: The setting changes throughout the book because of all the moving the family does throughout the book.  They go from living in a tent in the desert to living in big towns and even living with family members.  The time period is during the early years of Jeanette Walls and her siblings life.

Audience:  This book is for young adults to adults.  Adults can relate to the hardship of trying to support a family, hold a good job, and give your children a good life full of opportunities.  While reading this book, teenagers can imagine what their life would be like if they didn’t have all the luxuries.  For example, an education, cars, clothes, cell phones, and so much more.  It really makes you look at your life and realize how fortunate you are.

Purpose:  The purpose is to tell people her story and to prove you don’t always need money growing up to become successful.  She grew up with little to no school education but wrote a book that was on the best sellers life for over two years, and is now being made into a motion picture.  She wanted to prove that you don’t need an ivy league school to become successful. 

Style:  The book begins with a story about her finding her mom in a dumpster.  It leaves you wanting to read more.  She tells stories casually.  She is not very dramatic about her writing but more just telling the story how it is and accepting that that is what happened.  The author interesting syntax.  She would have some very long sentences and then very short ones.  It kept the book interesting to read.  She uses very descriptive diction to create an image in your head of some of the hardships she went through while growing up.

Tone:  Throughout the book she uses a very calm casual tone.  She is very descriptive but doesn’t over do it.  She tells the stories how they are. 

I liked the book because it opens your eyes to a world that when living in Park City you don’t really think about all the time.  It shows you the struggles that some families face every single day.  After reading The Glass Castle I realized how grateful I should be for the life I live, and with the education I am getting.  I never even thought about never having an education.  Or having the opportunity to experience the things my parents have had the ability to let me do.  The Glass Castle is an eye-opening book that everyone should make time to read.  It really changes how you take certain things for granted.  

I would give this 5/5 castles.  It is a well written and eye-opening book.

Avoiding risk is not much of a goal

The book Adrift by Steven Callahan is about an eye opening story about him surviving at sea for seventy six days.  Callahan was originally racing to Canary Islands solo, but he ran into a few problems along the way.  His trip across the Atlantic ocean was put on hold for a few weeks when he had to stop at a port to fix a leak that had been caused by debris hitting his boat.  

Then one night after many days of clear sailing, there was a huge crack and water rushed into the boat.  He abandoned his boat to sink and started floating on his life boat with only a few pounds of food and a small amount of water.  He was lucky to have enough resources to survive.  He had a spear and a water distilled.  Throughout the seventy six days many boats passed him not even realizing his existence.  Finally some fishermen found him, and helped him to get back to shore.  

S- Adrift is so unique because even though he was near death and had to find out a way to survive for seventy six days at the end of the book he still says that if you avoid risk it is not much of a goal.  And that every crisis in life is learning experiences and you have to see it from your prospective and someone else’s to really make a decision.

O- Clearly this was written after he got back from his horrific experience at sea but he began his voyage in 1981.  Since Callahan was stuck at sea and the event that abandoned him at sea all happened so quickly, there aren’t really any events that influence this story.

A- This book was written for anyone who likes to read about adventure.  I would say young adult would be the youngest audience anyone younger may struggle to understand some of the words used and may not find it as interesting.   

P-  This was written by Callahan to share his amazing story about how he survived at sea and what life lessons he learned from this whole experience.

S-  This book was written in first person from the perspective of Callahan which I think works really well because he is sharing his story.  It has a lot of imagery to make almost feel like you were there.  Callahan uses similes and metaphors in his writing because he is trying to compare his story to challenges the average person may face.

Tone- As I stated above the book is written in first person.  The tone in the book sounds enthusiastic in some parts when he talks about how he survived.  It can also sound very wise, because in the end and throughout the book he throws in hints of advice, or phrases that make you think about certain decisions in life.

Rating: 

Adrift gets a 7 sailboats out of 10