Ratings:
Do not recommend -★☆☆☆☆
Okay -★★☆☆☆
Incredible -★★★☆☆
Life changing -★★★★☆
Will read over and over again -★★★★★
May 1 – June 15 56 Days
The Book Thief- Markus Zusak
Number of pages: 470
Rating: ★★★★★
The Book Thief is a book that portrays a young German girl living in the time of the holocaust. She is bought into the warm hands of her new father and mother where she becomes friends with Rudy Steiner, learns how to read, and carries the basket of clothing to her neighbors houses. The thievery occurs in the beginning of the book where her brother dies. She then sees a book hidden in the snow during her brother’s burial and from there on that is where her thievery begins. This is my favorite book that I’ve read this semester. It has allowed me to think of aspects outside of today. I am not very educated on topics regarding what had happened during World War I so this book allowed me to look further into the depths of what had happened to the individuals of Germans helping Jews and the perspectives of Jews itself. This book has allowed me to research more about the events on the internet and to read more about it, I am hoping to find more genres and similar topics in the future to build my knowledge of historical events that used to happen in our world.
Overall, this book allowed me to think on various topics and enjoy it at the same time. I loved the way the author decided on using the narrator a the character named, Death. It represented one of the main themes of the books and as you read, you can see a meaningful connection between someone dying and the character, Death, playing a role in it. When he follows the main character, Leisel Meminger, it allows the reader to understand and give attention to the interesting aspects of her life that would not have been seen in another person’s life. It is difficult to think of what would make the book even better.
The Last Boy and Girl in the World- Siobhan Vivian
Number of pages: 128
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
A girl is waiting for last day of school to arrive for her summer break to begin but instead a series of winds and rains pour into the town of Aberdeen. There had been sandbags that had been all put up nicely and barricaded the monstrous ocean from seeping through them. The city of Aberdeen finds strategies from preventing a disastrous flood from coming in, but they find it hard to contain all the water just in the ocean. From there the girl comforts her family and her friends through the mourning their lost houses that were destroyed during the flood. This pulled me in as a reader, through the characters emotions from the happiest moments and then eventually going down hill from there.
Although the story was interesting, I felt that I was not learning anything useful or I was not using any critical thinking skills, therefore, I did not finish it. I felt that I should have been reading more complex books. It also sometimes got boring for me to read because the books was a roller coaster of interesting events at some parts to boring parts at other areas.
Reading Rate
11 Pages/day
Reflection
Overall, this month I am not very happy with my reading rate because it is lower than usual. I think the reason for this was because I was focusing on my upcoming tests and exams coming up in other classes. I feel like I should not make it as an excuse so in the future I hope to prioritize my plans better because I feel that school work and studying is the same level of importance as reading a book.
In the summer I hope to read many more books. I hope to read around a book a week so I can be prepared for my next school year of grade eleven. I am going to focus on reading a book that I have not read before which is A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. During the summer, while I read I hope to improve reading faster, focus on recording new vocabulary every single day, and with my increased reading skills I will continue to write everyday as well. This is my goal for the summer.