Journal+1


 * Name 1 book you read over the summer and explain its theme.**

Over summer i started to read the book "The Red Pyramid" which had a theme of treasure what you don't envy things you don't. its about a pair of twins that got when they where five the boy with his father and the girl with there grandparents. the boy travels the world with his father the archeologist, he has been to almost every country in world but always wishes he had a steady life with friend and a school. not living out of a suit case and always on a plan. his sister on the other hand has what he always wanted a life with friends, a house, and a closet. but she always wanted to travel with her father. but one night there reunited and find out what had happened to there mother. but thats all i really got to. Nicholas T. Przybocki

Over the summer, one book i read was "Perfect" by Natasha Friend. The theme in this book is that no matter how hard life gets, eventually things will start to get better. The main character, Isabelle, and her family have been grieving for almost two years due to the loss of their father/husband. Isabelle develops an eating disorder and her mother starts to suffer from depression. Eventually, they each find help with different types of therapy and begin to have a sense of hope that they will be able to move on and be somewhat happy again. Both of their lives were miserable and even though they thought that they were never going to escape the pain, they pulled through. This idea of getting better reveals the theme that things will begin to get better, no matter how desperate you may be. Kayla Holman

Over the summer, I read "The Boyfriend List" series by E.Lockhart. The theme of this series is be careful who you trust. Before school, Ruby Oliver made a pact with her friends that they would never date each other's boyfriends; it honors the girl code. Ruby and her boyfriend, Jackson, break up. Ruby's boyfriend and her best friend, Kim, start dating and Ruby feels betrayed. She then loses all her friends, and everyone in her school calls her names and starts rumors about her. She can not trust anyone and keeps to herself. Later on in the year she kisses Jackson, and everyone finds out. Kim explodes on Ruby and expresses that she will never trust her again. Things are never the same between them. Ruby realized that she may be better keeping to herself. In life, be careful who you trust because even the people closes to you may disappoint you. -Maryah Wright

This summer, I read "Speaker for the Dead" by Orson Scott Card. It is a story about mankind's first peaceful encounter with an alien race. Set in the deep future, the story revolves around an empire of humans that has expanded and traveled far from its home star of Sol. The main character, Ender, has escaped death for thousands of years by traveling through space and eluding time. He is known throughout the galaxy as 'The Xenocide' because as a child he was at the head of a successful mission to destroy an alien race previously thought to be hostile. Years later, he is heavily involved in the second encounter between mankind and an alien race. After facing a plethora of problems including a revolt by the humans sharing the alien planet with the aliens and a devastating alien plague, the small faction of humans is able to overcome their xenophobia and coexist peacefully with the aliens. The theme of this book is that, given time, humans can overcome their inherent fear of the unknown. Thousands of years ago, humans finally came to accept those of different race, religion, and finally nationality, and the author considers it the final step to accept those of a completely different species. With an open mind, we can overcome the petty differences between us and accept one another for who we are. Austin Farr

One of the countless book I read over the summer was "Postcard Killers" by James Patterson and Liza Marklund. The theme was generalized over the idea to preserver. Based in Europe, where many couples go on vacation, a sibling pair compose elaborate ways to kill the vacationing couples and conform their bodies to look like famous artwork. This specific set of siblings kill the daughter of a New York murder detective. The father chases the sibling pair around Europe and tracks them by collecting their postcards that they send to newspapers. The postcards contain the pictures of the cadavers that the siblings killed in the contorted ways. One of these postcards gets sent to a women who is then confronted by the murder detective. They then team up and chase the sibling murderers across Europe. The detective is fueled by his grudge against the 2 siblings while the woman develops a love for her partner. In the end, the detective is forced to kill both siblings in order to save himself and his partner. By never giving up, the detective finally avenges his daughter and prevents other couples from suffering the same fate. This is shown through out the book because the detective can only defeat the murderers by preservering and doing what he knows is right, and because of that, countless of other couples are saved. Lizzy Alexander

Over the summer, one book that I read was "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephan Chbosky. The theme in this novel was to be free and feel infinite. The main character Charlie, writes letters anonymously to an unknown character referred to as "Dear Friend,", this is set in Pittsburgh during the 1991-1992 school year. He is beginning his Freshman year in high school alone, his best friend committed suicide the year before and Charlie is horrified. He starts off as a shy, quiet, "Wallflower", but as he befriends two seniors, Patrick and his step sister Sam, he is introduced to sex, drugs, the cult classic "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", new friends, that perfect song that makes him feel 'infinite' and living the life of a teenager. Hannah Hildebrandt

"The gospel according to Larry" is about a kid named Josh who writes rants against consumerisim under the internet personage of Larry. Eventually, Larrys identity is discovered and Josh has to fake his own death to avoid constant media bombardment. The theme is to never attempt to change the world, but to do simple acts of kindness towards others. In my expierence, holding doors open for various people never requires a great deal of time or energy, yet I always feel good when the deed is done. Lee Fairweather

Over the summer, the one book I read was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling. The theme of this novel is all about death. THe main character, Harry Potter is a wizard at Hogwarts who experiences many challenges throughout his 7 years at Hogwarts school. Valdemort; who is the Dark Lord of the wizard world, has an obsession of conquering death amongs the important people in the school of Hogwarts. During the book, Harry searches for horcruxes to defeat and kill the Dark Lord and keep the school of Hogwartz as well as all the other wizrds safe. The theme demonstrates life and death situations that changes the plot and setting of the story. Battles and fights occur to keep each person alive in the end. Since, one of the two has to die, the theme grows as the story and plot grow. In the end, the death of Valdemort occurs when all the horcrux become vanished. And ends the dramatic leader in the Dark Lord. The book also ends with the death of professor Snape. Who has been in the story since the beggining of the series. Ryley Harper

Over the summer i read "Watersmeet" by Ellen Jensen Abott and the theme of this book is that family is all whom you love. The main character, Absina, lives in a tribe where she is an outcast, and outcasts get treated badly. The only reason she's still alive is because her mother is the tribe's healer, but she wants to meet her father who likes in another tribe called Watersmeet, so her and her mother plan to run away to Watersmeet, but before they got the chance to leave, the tribe leader decided to kill all outcasts. Absina survived and escaped, but her mother was killed, but a troll helped and healed her so that she could tell him about watersmeet and how to go there, so they went together hiding from Centuars and surviving the journey. At the end, she meets her father whom she thought was her only family, but the troll is also her family because she loves him too. Absina thought that family is whoever has the same blood as you, but she didn't know that it actually is whoever you care for and love, and she develops a relationship (not boyfriend-girlfriend) with the troll who helped her thougout her quest to Watersmeet. ~Ashley Jensen

Over the summer i read "Night" by Elie Wiesel and the theme is the importance of remembering. The main character Eliezer and his family are put into and moved from concentration camps where they faced many troubles on their way. It shows famine and death during it and how these people were forced to work hard and eat little to nothing. This makes us remember that things like the holocost have happened to where a son would kill his own father for a piece of bread. We will never forget what happened during the holocost. Matt Moyer

"Thirteen Reasons Why" by Jay Asher is a mystery novel in which Clay Jensen, a high school boy, discovers the reasons why his friend Hannah Baker committed suicide. The theme of the novel is cause and effect. The story is told through the eyes of Clay as he listens to Hannah's story. Before she died, Hannah recorded cassette tapes listing 13 people and the reasons why they pushed her to kill herself. Clay is able to listen to the tapes because he is one of the names listed. As Clay listens to Hannah's voice, waiting to hear his name, the reader understands through Hannah's story how much one person's thoughts or actions can influence another's life. "Thirteen Reasons Why" forces the reader to truly think about human nature and how a single action, no matter how small or large, can effect someone in ways no person could imagine. -Sarah Meyers

Over the summer, I read "Night" by Elie Wiesel. The theme of the novel is that humans tend to struggle to have faith during times of suffering. During the novel, the narrator describes the hardships of a young jewish boy and his family as they experience the holocaust. At the begginning of the story, Eliezer and his father are sepparated from the rest of their family, who were sent to a different concentration camp. Even after the families sepparation, it was hard for Eliezer and his father to have faith, because of their sorrow. Later in the novel, Elie Wiesel shows the suffering and struggle of many different people in the concentration camps. By the end of the novel, most everyone in the concentration camp had lost hope, and ended up either dieing, or doing what ever it took to stay alive. During times a suffering, humans tend to lose faith or do something extremely out of character in order to survive. -Jonathan Hoyle

This summer I read "Finding Noel" the book is about Macy who was separated from her sister when she was very young. The book is also about Mark who's mother has just died, and he has lost his scholarship. Mark is very depressed and until he meets Macy, she helps him to become happy again. Mark also helps Macy to find her sister. When Macy's adoptive mother dies Mark is there to comfort her. the theme is people come into our lives for a reason, when Mark was depressed Macy was there for him and when Macy was sad mark was there for her. Jessi Lane

Over the summer i read "The Choice" by Nicholas Sparks. The theme of the book is to chase the one you love. Ever since Travis moved into his new apartment, he couldn't hold a relationship. Once he gets a new neighbor, Gabby, all that changes. He figures her to be a pretty yet insensitive girl. Beside the fact of her having a boyfriend. When getting to know her more and more and spending more time with her, he realizes his feelings for her change to friendship then even stronger. She has the same feelings for him but doesn't know how to end the relationship with her boyfriend. A few years later, you find Travis and Gabby married with two children. But something tragic happens to Gabby that could possibly tare the family apart. -Erin Bromhal

Over the Summer, I read a book called "Island of Lost Girls" by Jennifer McMahon and the theme of this is don't look over whats right in front of you. Often times, people don't pay full attention to whats right in front of them and tend to overlook the truth by doing so, being too focused on what they don't know. Rhonda is the main character and the story is told through her eyes both when she was young and the present. She witnesses a kidnapping and begins to help the case be solved. As she works with the investigation team, she develops a relationship with a fellow team member. Being apart of this team, she learns a lot of information and details about what happened to the girl. To her horror, it begins to sound a tad familiar to the disappearance of her best friend, Lizzy, when she was younger, who had thought to have been with her father who Rhonda believed "disappeared" as well. Rhonda still being very close to Lizzy's brother, began to argue with him over what had happened to the newest disappearance trying to decipher if he knew anything about it because of everything that had happened in their childhood. When the truth actually came out about the missing girl, she was found dead, taken and killed by the man Rhonda had been seeing the entire investigation. Come to find out, he had been told to commit the crime by the leader of the investigation team. Rhonda had been right with the people who'd done this but never thought to consider them because of their "interest" in the case. As this case unfolded to Rhonda, the one about Lizzy and her dad did too. Rhonda"s own best friends, being Lizzy and her brother, had actually been the ones to kill their own father. He had been sexually abusing Lizzy since she'd be younger and her brother finally stood up for her and killed him, only minutes before Rhonda got there. So, all in all, Rhonda went her entire life thinking that the man had ran away from his family only to find out her friends had killed him. The suspects were right in front of her the entire time, just as her boyfriend had been the murderer in the other case. This goes to show that you never know what could be right under your nose. -Brooksley Baran

One book I read over the summer was "Night" by Elie Wiesel. There were multiple themes in this book. A couple themes in Night are faith and importance of remembering. In the book faith was used because Elie's father to him to never lose faith of his religion. He was told it would help him get through everything, and keep him safe. At first Elie wasn't sure of his faith because if there was a god then why would they be put in such a terrible position. Importance of remembering was one of the major themes throughout this book. Elie's main point of this book was to let people know of the what happened during the holocaust and wrote this book so that people would never forget what he went through. -Kenton Onspaugh

Over the summer i read Night by Elie Wiesel. The theme of Night is to remember terrible events in the past so they are not to be repeated in the future. This is a true story of Elie Wiesel's life as a teenager throughout the holocaust. Elie has been through everything from the being kicked out of his own house and moved to ghetto's. To surviving selection by doctor Mengele in the Auschwitz concentration camp. He is taken on a physically and emotionally demanding journey in one of history's most tragic events. -Tyler Blythe