Ratings:
Do not recommend -★☆☆☆☆
Okay -★★☆☆☆
Incredible -★★★☆☆
Life changing -★★★★☆
Will read over and over again -★★★★★
April 1 – april 31
How it Went Down- Kekla Magoon
Number of pages: 196
Rating: ★★★★☆
I found this book to be a successful read. I really enjoyed the messages that had came within the books and every time I had picked up the book I was not able to put it down. This book really pushed me to read more. The novel displayed a new way of looking of how important black lives really matter. The victimized character in this novel is Tariq who gets shot by a white man passing by from his car. When questioned for his actions by media he states that he assumed that it was a gun while Tariq was only holding a snickers bar for his little sister. Tariq’s community take matters into their own hands. The individuals of his community speak out their voices and opinions on the television, they come together to wear hoodies to show awareness for how people can wear a hoodie and not get mistaken for a gang member, and they stand by a church withdrawing themselves from sleep to show their mourning for his death. A lot of themes were evident in this novel including death, love, and emotion. I was able to deeply connect with each character and their point of views.
I rate this book a four out of five stars. It has made me looked from a different perspective on how important it is to remember and show awareness to people who have wrongfully died due to their race. It has made me think and consider other novels that are similar to this one. Anytime something like this happens in the media I always think back to this novel which shows how life changing it is.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time- Yasutaka Tsutsui
Number of pages: 170
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
I was able to finish this book fast and it was easy. This book explained how the main character, Kasuko entered a room filled with test tubes with strange liquids. She saw a mysterious shadow in the distance right after she called out who it was. She smelled a lavender smell and fainted. This scent had allowed her to time leap to the past or the future. She soon realizes her friend Kauko had unintentionally meant for her to smell the lavender scent. Although this was not my favorite novel I would say the part I loved most was when she learns the story of her friend Kauko who had came from the future and the love that he had for her when he first met Kazuko. In this novel there was a lot happening which kept me engaged while reading it.
I rate this book a two out of five stars. Although this was a good book for relaxation and catching up on reading, I found this book bland. I felt like any author author could have easily recreated this same book. There is also little to no imagery in this novel and no message was given which makes the book pointless. This book helped me catch up in my reading and increasing my reading rate but I wish it had more descriptions. I feel this would have intrigued me much more and I would have given it a higher rating.
The Last Boy and Girl in the World- Siobhan Vivian
Number of pages: 52
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Not much has happened as I’ve read this book but so far I’ve really enjoyed it. This book has caught my attention because of the main character, Keely, who gets left in her hometown, Aberdeen. She is the only girl left in her city that has been covered by water. My favorite part so far is when she packing up sandbags along a river meeting the the boy who is supposedly the last one left in his hometown. There is a lot of strong imagery and description within the novel. When I read the imagery of the rain against the ground I felt like I heard rain sounds within my mind. There is also a large difference within each character in the novel allowing the reader to connect with the thoughts and actions they take when approaching a situation.
While I was reading this book I was able to read a lot of pages for that day because it took me a while to put it down. This book led me thinking about what the end result will be and what happens to the the last boy and girl left in the novel. I rate this book a ⅗ because not much has happened from where I’ve read. I’m hoping that more will happen as I continue to read this book.
More books:
The Hate You Give- Angie Thomas
Number of pages: 25
Kidnapped- Robert Louis Stevenson
Number of pages: 7
Reading Rate
15 pages/day
Reflection
When I finished reading How it went down, I didn’t read as much as I would like. When the end of May had approached I started reading more pages. I wanted to read 17 pgs/day with more advanced novels than I was reading in March but only got 15 pgs/day. I’m still glad with my reading rate because it shows that I’m still reading and being consistent with it. I would still like to get a minimum of 17 pgs/day. The books I’m hoping to read for next month are the books that that get my mind thinking but are not to challenging. I’m hoping to pick more vocabulary in these novels as well. I’m hoping to mix these books with some easier books as well for some relaxation. I feel like these book choices will boost up my reading rate.