Book Review

Information:
Title:The 5th Wave
Author: Rick Yancey
Publisher: Speak; Reissue edition
Year: February 10, 2015
# of Pages: 512

This book is a science-fiction novel based on a dystopian, post-alien world, and how Cassie Sullivan, the main character, can rescue her brother from yes, the aliens. The novel is told through the perspective of Cassie, a protagonist. Other main characters are shown throughout her journey like Ben Parish, and Evan Walker. Although the main conflict is Cassie's search for her brother, there are minor conflicts along the way. She meets Evan Walker, as I mentioned earlier, however she begins to have doubts about him after a certain scenario. (Can't say) 

This book in my opinion is a well-written novel that shows a new world, obviously entirely different from my own. It gives me a chance to look into a new perspective of an average high-school girl, and the struggle that she faces. Although, she may have a different background, and a different world for that matter, she is very easy to relate with and I can connect with the character which is an important piece to have in a story if you ask me. This book contains a good amount of foreshadowing, however not too much or else that would make the book super predictable. I think the author does achieve his purpose of making the reader thankful for their own life, and everything that they have now. I believe that he achieves this through his both effective and persuasive writing. 

If I were to list the strengths and weaknesses of the book I would say the greatest strength would be the literary devices used and the persuasive writing. Weaknesses..... Probably that the writing in my opinion is not beautiful. But in his defense, its not like the story is a picture-perfect world either.

I was impacted by this book. So, my overall response? Great. This book was interesting and moving for all the reasons that I mentioned earlier. Since my impression on the novel was great, I would definitely recommend this book to other people. I would recommend it to anyone who likes science-fiction, dystopian, or aliens-taking-over-the-world-books. To conclude, I have no complaints on the book.

Researching Your Author

Rick Yancey-
Rick Yancey has wrote a total of 15 novels, 1 which is a memoir. He has received awards for some of his more popular novels like The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp, which is a series of books about obviously, The extraordinary adventures of Alfred Kropp. He is also well-known for his 5th Wave series, which includes The 5th Wave, The Infinite Sea, and soon to be, The Last Star. His novel, The 5th Wave was a New York Times bestseller, which is part of the reason why I was able to read this book. Rick Yancey was born in Miami, Florida yet his new parents drove to meet him, there, he was given his new name of John Richard. Rick's dad often confused the names of Rick and his older brother Jay, which annoyed Rick so Rick's dad gave him many nicknames to distinguish the 2. His dad was a lawyer and politician. Rick grew up on a ranch in Florida. Rick had always enjoyed reading, and his dad would buy him his oh-so-loved books by Dr. Suess. Rick's parents were strict and precise. His dad was certain that he wanted Rick to become a lawyer, obviously this didn't happen because now Rick is a best-selling author. When Rick became a teen, his dad had bought 200 acres of land near a swampy area in central Florida. This land needed to be cleared, so Rick's teen job was to work on that land and clear away trees, bushes and rocks. Not the best job if you ask me.


So, how did Rick get into writing? Well it all started in seventh grade, where Rick was assigned to write a short-story. He wrote this, and not being a particularly good student, was shocked when he received an A on his paper. That day he declared that he wanted to become a writer.

Before becoming a writer, Rick taught some english classes and did some acting and drama at the local theater in Florida. Rick also began to write screenplay in his spare time. He would enjoy to make stories about new characters that he thought of earlier that day. Now Rick Yancey has started a family, and has three children. He also now writes full-time, and particularly writes in his new series The 5th Wave. These novels are science fiction, and appeal to mainly young adults, and base around the idea that aliens have attacked to earth in waves, and now it is up to the main character Cassie, to get her brother back from the aliens that she thinks have captured him. She doesn't know where she is going, or where to look, but she won't stop until she finds him.

Rick Yancey has is own website and the information that I got for this blog came from his website which I linked below.


Link to Rick Yancey's website

Why Do You Read?

Reasons Why I Read:

I read because I want to learn more about the world through other perspectives, other than my own.

I read because I want to enjoy my "life" in another world.

I read because I need an escape from the stress of my life and reading is a way to escape reality.

I read because I want something enjoyable to do, and reading is one of the things that are enjoyable.

Learning more about perspectives is important to me because I like to see the world in a different way then maybe I would normally see it. Looking at different perspectives, could help me understand the person more, and allow me to relate with them more. (even if I think their perspective is wrong to my standards) But mostly I want to be able to learn from their perspective, or the story's perspective to help me better develop my view.

Reading is something that can take me to another world and help me to escape the stress of life. It gives me an alternative and another path to explore. Sometimes between school and extracurricular activities, things seem to add up quick and reading is something that I can enjoy and appreciate because it’s something other than my chaotic and stressful life. The cat ran up the hill swiftly however it fell. Jack and Jill ran up the hill blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Things I Learned Last Year

In my poem, I wanted to add things that I have learned in the past year, but I also wanted to relate the structure of the poem to be similar to Stafford's.


Things I Learned Last Year

When sloths poop they smile
and hug a tree

I advise you to not jump
down a flight of stairs

And naturally trying to do a magic trick
with your friend's dog
may end badly

Leave it too the professionals
to build a porch

Try to avoid the cafeteria food
not always, only sometimes

Only try to pet a squirrel
when it seems friendly
maybe not even then

Ketchup was actually
once used as medicine

The popsicle was invented by
an 11-year old

And this surprised me
the color of the twist-tie on
bread actually
means something


Reflection:
My last year has been very, well colorful. I actually learned a lot of things, all with weird stories of course, but interesting things nonetheless. These are more of random facts rather than personal life lessons. I wanted this poem to be lighter, and less dark and depressing. So, if I were to state the tone of the poem in one word it would probably be light. (Since the poem is a very light and carefree piece, filled with cool facts rather than facts or lessons you actually have to process) This poem, is similar to Stafford's, obviously the title's are different, but the general concept of the poems are linked. For example, they both discuss weird facts, where the audience's reaction would be, "cool".
Also, the structures of the two poems are the same. I may mention that I did switch the 3 and 4 lined parts of the poem because I wanted to end with that fact so I switched things up. But they both have 2 lines, 2 lines, 3 lines (which is like Stafford's 4) 2, 2, 4. The sequence is the same as in Stafford's poem, "Things I Learned Last Week".

2nd Quarter Poetry Journal Reflection

The poetry response that I chose was a prompt that I wrote in response to the Bison Crossing Near Mount Rushmore poem. I wrote....

And we keep our line, slowly moving ahead to our dreaded misery.
Slowly, pacing, thinking before moving, like pawns in a chess game we are just pawns of human society reluctantly following high society thinking not speaking,
not contributing only playing.
 ONLY FOLLOWERS.
 Not teachers,
 for that is left to the rest.
For that is left for the rest.
Leaving
 behind
the
remains
 for
us


I wrote this poem because during the poem I tried to think of characteristics of the bison. They seemed unified and obedient I guess. Like they were just following. So, I tried to write a confusing poem to go along with bison crossing Mount Rushmore. I liked how I capitalized important words that I wanted to stand out to the audience. These are kind of like the overall message of the poem. Although, this poem doesn't necessarily have a specific meaning that is clear. They are mashed up meanings, all blended together. I think that this poem really clarifies how humans are just inferior to themselves. True, there are humans that are considered greater and more powerful, but they're still humans. They shouldn't be any greater. They may just be more noticed. So, if there was a message to this poem, that would be it. That all humans are humans, and no human is inferior to another.

So, again the pictures wouldn't load, just like on my last post. But what the picture was going to be was a line of people that was kind of dramatic with the words follower written above each of their heads. It actually was a good picture, and it fit well with the response, but my stupid computer would not load any of the pictures. So, after spending a while trying to get these pictures to load, I figured I would just explain the picture instead.

2nd Quarter Reading Reflection

I finished 6 books this quarter, if you count "The Color of Water" and my multicultural choice memoir, which I would most likely count because we read them for a while. And analyzing and everything took up a fair amount of my time. Although last quarter I read 9 books, I feel like this quarter was a little busier with homework and reading Romeo and Juliet as a class and at home. I spent a while on no fear shakespeare. So now to get to the interesting part of the blog post. I'm just going to list because that's easier for both you and me, so here are the 6 books that I read.

1. The Color of Water, by James McBride
2. The Bite of the Mango, by Mariatu Kamara
3. The Amber Spyglass, by Phillip Pullman
4. Room, by Emma Donoghue
5. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, by Jesse Andrews
6. Sky Key, by James Fray

Um, the pictures wouldn't load.

So yeah, these are the books I read. About 50% of them were books that I was remotely interested in. "The Color of Water" was certainly not my cup of tea. Same with "The Bite of the Mango", These books were just narratives which I particularly don't like but it could be much worse. However, the style of the book Room was very interesting because it was told from the perspective of a 5-year old boy who has been locked in a room with his mother all his life. Which for me, is an interesting and different concept that I haven't really expected from my previous reading. My book choices were kind of challenging, but I really wanted to find something that I wanted to read so obviously I'm not going to read a book about the space time continuum. Sorry. The best book that I read this quarter was probably the book "Room", which I enjoyed because of the unique perspective and language that was used throughout the book. I have discovered from this quarter that I enjoy books that are unique and different. I don't really enjoy books of a certain genre, but I do like books that are well-rounded. I guess thats the best way to put it. Like books that bring a sense of humor, and a sense of seriousness, and stuff like that. 

My goal from last quarter was that I wanted to read 12 books, obviously I didn't meet that goal. I was busier this quarter than last quarter, but I should've read more books. But in my defense, we read books as a class and we transferred many assignments to out of class. My other goal was to expand the genres that I'm reading. Yes, I did that. Partly, because I was required to if I wanted to get a good grade, yeah *cough cough the memoirs*. But I did expand so I guess that's a plus. Two goals that I want to achieve are 1) I want to read an entire series because I want to look more into how characters can change over the course of a series of books and 2) I want to read 8 books next quarter because I want to read more than I have previously this quarter and I plan to do this by setting a set reading time each day.

Finally, my hedgehog would like to contribute to this blogpost. dfeccr  m   5

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Shakespeare & His AMAZING Plays

Now, if you're looking for a play to blow you away, I for sure know of that ideal presentation you are looking for. If you ask anyone, they will agree with me. The play you are looking for is Romeo and Juliet. It is just about a lonely girl, Juliet, who finds Romeo, an older boy, and they run off together and live a happy life. Of course, I am not going to tell you every last detail of the play, I'll leave that for you to discover, but it truly is a fantastic play! Look here, if you want a summary. Just trust me! It  is not just an old-timey play, don't even say that! Sure the language of the play may be a little uhh, tricky, but the SparkNotes version is honestly pretty good! That's how I learned more about his wonderful play! Yes, I know you are still concerned that the play is not your taste, but if you like comedies, romance, or adventure you will fall in love with this play! (*cough cough did you see that pun?) Also, don't try to escape the play, embrace it. 

If you choose not to believe me, a trusted valuable resource, than maybe you may trust another source. So, if you are looking for a source of how the play is, how you feel when listening or watching it just click here. In the source, you are going to find similar things to what I have already mentioned. My goal is to share the enthusiasm I have for Romeo and Juliet with you so you can just sit back and enjoy the show presented before you! Every time the play goes out, on of course Broadway, it sells out! Sure, this may not be a fact, but close enough to one. I'm getting to excited just talking about it!!! Okay, okay, I think I need to calm down. Well, I obviously can't call down that much so I'll have to wrap it up here soon. 

Anyway, back to my previous point, on how the play is constantly selling out! I mean I have never been to the play Romeo and Juliet, but....... I know it's still great! My friend said it was the time of her life! My other friend said that it was truly, the play of the century. So, there is another TWO sources for you to consider. Fine, if you still don't think that the play is all that great here is a THIRD SOURCE. There, now I hope you can really appreciate the time and effort that I put into this post just to allow you to learn more about Shakespeare and his amazing play, Romeo and Juliet! Until next time, from this enthusiastic blogger. 

Here is just some fan-art, people who have really appreciated the goodness that this play brings. It is SO easy to see how Romeo and Juliet has inspired so many young people!