Just Listen by Sarah Dessen is about a sixteen year old girl named Annabel. She is a girl who is supposed to live up to her perfect expectations that she portrays as a model. What people don't know is she is hiding a very dark secret, and is isolated by her friends because she can not tell the truth about said secret. Other then dealing with that,she and her family are facing her older sisters eating disorder. Feeling the alone in the world, Annabel befriends a most unlikely person, Owen. Owen a music crazed boy helps her to get back on her feet and gain enough confidence to tell every one the secret that changed her life.
I thought the book was very good. It shares a perspective a girl who is facing very difficult times in her life and is saved by an unexpected person. The book touches on subjects that happen in everyday life which really helps readers connect to the book. I think the author does a very good job with putting herself in the mind set of a teenager and how we would react to certain things or act around certain people and such.
I would recommend this book to mostly teenage girls because its a book that is more directed to that age group. I think there has to be a certain maturity when reading this book because of the more serious topics mentioned. I would give this book four and a half stars because like I said before the author does a very good job with connecting to her audience and making it real.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Thursday, September 30, 2010
blog post #2
Jacks manner of speaking in Jerk,California is not under his control because of his Tourettes he blurts things out and repeats them without being able to stop himself like when he screams out "Stay with Sam! Stay with Sam!"(37). When he isn't experiencing the side effect to his disease he is usually a very quiet person who doesn't talk much and keeps to him self a lot.
Jacks thoughts are very self critical. He is very ashamed of who he is and thinks about his family and about how 'Old Bill treats him like crap, how his mother doesn't seem to care and his dad is dead and the only thing he left him was with his disease he even says, " My dad is dead, but don't worry about it because he was a loser and a drunk who dug holes for a living. But he was generous; kind enough to leave me with this damn disease as my inheritance." (5) He also finds himself thinking about Naomi, a girl he meets that he basically falls in love with at the first sight of her.
The effect jack has on people is scared because hes different and defiantly misunderstood. They make fun of him and call him horrible names they are also very embarrassed of him and being around or associated with him. Unlike the kids at his school who don't even want to be in the same room as him; " Where you going Nae that freak from Geometry will be in there!"(20) His fathers friends are completely comfortable with him and are unfazed by his disease.
"Whoa, you want ME to go to California?!"- Jacks friend George is send him a trip to jerk California he doesn't know why and and on the way having him stop at certain special places along the way, where he will have to figure out why he is being sent to Jerk California and what is the importance of the places and people he will meat along the way.
Jack as described by Naomi, after meeting for the first time: " This guys strong, brown wavy hair, hes tall too, at least he would have been if would've gotten up off his knees." Jack is a teenage boy and feels like his Tourettes is his whole appearance. When he looks in a mirror he doesn't see what other people see, like the color of his eyes or the size of his nose he feels completely defined by his Tourettes Syndrome.
Jacks thoughts are very self critical. He is very ashamed of who he is and thinks about his family and about how 'Old Bill treats him like crap, how his mother doesn't seem to care and his dad is dead and the only thing he left him was with his disease he even says, " My dad is dead, but don't worry about it because he was a loser and a drunk who dug holes for a living. But he was generous; kind enough to leave me with this damn disease as my inheritance." (5) He also finds himself thinking about Naomi, a girl he meets that he basically falls in love with at the first sight of her.
The effect jack has on people is scared because hes different and defiantly misunderstood. They make fun of him and call him horrible names they are also very embarrassed of him and being around or associated with him. Unlike the kids at his school who don't even want to be in the same room as him; " Where you going Nae that freak from Geometry will be in there!"(20) His fathers friends are completely comfortable with him and are unfazed by his disease.
"Whoa, you want ME to go to California?!"- Jacks friend George is send him a trip to jerk California he doesn't know why and and on the way having him stop at certain special places along the way, where he will have to figure out why he is being sent to Jerk California and what is the importance of the places and people he will meat along the way.
Jack as described by Naomi, after meeting for the first time: " This guys strong, brown wavy hair, hes tall too, at least he would have been if would've gotten up off his knees." Jack is a teenage boy and feels like his Tourettes is his whole appearance. When he looks in a mirror he doesn't see what other people see, like the color of his eyes or the size of his nose he feels completely defined by his Tourettes Syndrome.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Book Blog Entry #1
My Previous Experience With Books: When I was little my mom used to read me a story every night before I went to bed. I was always so interested in the pictures and couldn't wait until I could read by myself. I remember going to the library almost every week and picking out like twenty books but my mom would tell me I could only get three, so I would make her read all the ones I didn't get before we left the library. Once I learned to read on my own I loved it and still do.My parents both enjoy reading so they say its no surprise that I like reading too. I am a fast reader and when I pick up a book I like its very hard to put it down.
The book that I am reading now for readers workshop is called Artichokes Heart by Suzanne Supplee. I Choose this book because its a story about a girl who feels out of control, trying to cope and learning that peoples aren't as perfect as they seem. The main characters name is Rosemary Goode and she is a girl who is over weight and desperately wants to change that. She finds out that her mother has cancer and is trying to find way to be strong and help her get through it. Rosemary finds a friend in an unlikely person and also develops a crush on the new boy in school and wants nothing more then for him to notice her.
The book that I am reading now for readers workshop is called Artichokes Heart by Suzanne Supplee. I Choose this book because its a story about a girl who feels out of control, trying to cope and learning that peoples aren't as perfect as they seem. The main characters name is Rosemary Goode and she is a girl who is over weight and desperately wants to change that. She finds out that her mother has cancer and is trying to find way to be strong and help her get through it. Rosemary finds a friend in an unlikely person and also develops a crush on the new boy in school and wants nothing more then for him to notice her.
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