These four books that I read befor leaving for camp on June 28. The reason that I read the first three is because I had read the first 2 books in the series and loved them. The way that I learned about the CHERUB book was because I had read the 7 other books in the series and have LOVED all the other books and this one didn’t least me down, same with the Brotherbands.

These three books above I have read in the past three days from getting back from camp. I had started reading “The Mysterious Benedict Society” but for no reason I just stopped reading it so I picked it up after camp and started from the beginning and loved it. As with all the CHERUB books I have read, I loved “The General” and just couldn’t stop reading I and finished it in one day. Another book that I read this week that I thoroughly enjoyed was a book called ” The Real Book About Cowboys”. The reason I chose to read this book was because every year I go and stay a a fully working cattle ranch and I really love it there so I wanted to know more about the history of cattle ranching and the history of the west.

August, 29, 2016

These three books I read over the past two weeks while at the beach. The first that I read was “Tuck Everlasting”. It is a book about a girl that lives a very protected life until she decides to run away one day. When she runs away she meet many people and learns many things in a world she had heard of but never been in. I also annotated this book. The next book that I read was Robert Louis stevensons “Treasure Island”. This is a book about a young boy who goes on a sea voyage but there is a mutiny and he and the top men have to escape a group of treasure hungry pirates. I had started this book a while  ago but didn’t finish it so I restarted it and LOVED it. The third book that I read was Trenton Lee Stewart’s “Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey” the second book in the Mysterious Bennedict Society series. In this book Mr. Benedict is captured and Kate, Renyie, Sticky and Constance, must save him from his evil twin. All three of these books where wonder ful and I would recommend them to anyone.

I couldn’t tell if I was supposed to post my annotations on Tuck Everlasting so I’m just going to post them. The way that I did my anotations was that I wrote a caption then I did two post-it’s as evidence.

One thing that really struck me about this book was how well the characters fit together, and how subtle but obvious was the good versus evil theme. The way the characters fit into the good versus evil theme is that the “good” guys are more welcoming, while the “bad” guys give off a slimy aura. The way angels supposedly give off a good feeling, these guys give off a bad feeling. Also the bad guys mainly show up in the grey and dark or shadowy times of day like early morning or late evening or night.

Post-it’s:

1. on p.21 the man in the yellow suit is waiting outside the house all night which is creepy and makes me think he might have bad intentions.
2. on p.29 Jesse tries to prevent Winnie from drinking the water because he knows what will happen if she does and he wants to help her have a choice whether to be stuck with eternal life or death eventually.

One aspect of the book that interests me is how realistic the characters are. It is as if you could know them yourself and have interactions with them on a daily basis.

Post-it’s:

1. On p.55 Miles says “We just jumped in, with our clothes on. Too hot and tired to shed’em.” This reminds me of when I go swimming in the pond near my house.
2. On p.44 it says “Jesse went whooping and jumping down the stream.” I can imagine doing this myself.

Another feature of the book was the fact that the setting was so real that I could imagine sitting in the woods there, swimming in the lake or even just sitting eating dinner. The town mentioned in this book reminds me of so many other towns I have been to or seen.

Post-it’s:

1. On page 85 the author talks about the lake at the Tucks’ house and it reminds me of my neighbor’s pond. The placement of it and the fact that it is peaceful and doesn’t feel overused but is just there for people who think of it to use it.
2. from page 50-53 the author describes the Tucks’ house and it reminds me of my friend Conrad’s house. It isn’t too small or too big. It feels like a loved home, not any kind of showcase. It is t dirty or messy, but it definitely has a little bit of clutter that makes it feel like a lot of living goes on there.

I appreciated how the author showed, without saying it directly, that although at first you might wish to live forever, that living forever might not be as good as it seems. The way she does this is by subtly having the characters state the bad about living forever while also mentioning some good aspects so as not to deliver it full force.

Post-it’s (for this section I made a pro and con list about living forever instead of post-it’s. My list has page numbers)

Pros:

On page 38 Jesse didn’t die when he fell out of the tree and landed on his neck. Immortality saved him from an accidental death.

On page 39 Pa didn’t die when he got bitten by a snake. Pro because without Pa the family would not run as well as it does.

Cons

Page 39- “Friends thought they had used black magic” Con because they could be accused of crimes they didn’t commit.

Page 39- Mileses wife thought he had sold his soul to the devil and so she ran off with the children and Miles never saw them again. Con because he loved his children and had not sold his soul to the devil, but still suffered the consequences of these losses.

This book I read while in the car back from the beach. It was a quick and easy read but well written and quite funny. It is filled with wit and humor and although one might think a story of its length is non important it was worth ever minute I spent reading it.

I would say I have loved every single book that I have read this summer and hope to read even more as it continues.