Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children - Book Review

Title: Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children
Author: Ransom Riggs
Number of pages: 352
Genre: Young Adult/Fiction/Paranormal

     Jacob Portman never really felt normal. He grew up with his grandfather telling him stories of his childhood and showing him peculiar pictures of children doing out of the ordinary things. A girl levitating, a scrawny boy holding up a boulder, a child with no head and a boy with bees crawling all over him. His grandfather told him of a spectacular place so cheery and happy and magical guarded by "The Bird". His grandfather had grown up in the time of WWII and was an orphan on an island in Whales. As Jacob had grown older and told his grandfather he didn't believe in that stuff anymore, his grandfather slowly slipped into dementia, or so he thought. While working at Smart Aid (a pharmacy his family owns a chain all around the world of) he gets a strange call from his grandfather freaking out and figures he hasn't taken his pills, going to make sure he's okay Jacob gets a strange sensation something is wrong. When he gets there his grandfather's house is torn apart and Jacob rushes outside to the woods where he finds his grandfather almost dead. As he tries to help him his grandfather's last words haunt him. He looks up to see what he thinks is a creature, an evil creature from his nightmares of stories told long ago by Grandpa Portman.

     As Jacob slips into depression his parents bring him to a psychiatrist. Jacob slowly starts to get better but can't make sense of his grandfather's last words. He starts to give up until his birthday when part of his grandfather's words come together in a letter he finds from a woman named Miss Peregrine. Jacob convinces his parents to go on a trip to Whales on the island his grandfather grew up on to try to find the truth. What he finds there though brings everything to a new perspective and he soon makes sense of the tales his grandfather told and the people he finds, that are not just fantasy.

I really liked this book I really wanted to read it the second I read the description and had been waiting to get it all summer. I thought it would be much different from what it was, more like a shutter island book rather than a refugee for extraordinary people even though that's what the cover entails. I would give this a 5 out of 5 stars with the exception that it most definitely needs a sequel. The book intrigued me when I first looked at it and it kept me reading the second I started it as most books I like do. This book wasn't my absolute favorite but I would recommend it to anyone. It's a very mysterious story even from the beginning and doesn't leave out anything so it's not confusing at the end like some books I've read are.  Some parts of the book aren't well explained but later get covered so nothing gets left out. I could picture the people but only vaguely, the author doesn't describe them much and it gets easier to picture them from the pictures that Jacob keeps stumbling across.

The Hunger Games - Book Review

Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Number of pages: 384
Genre: Young Adult/Fiction

     Katniss Everdeen is a seventeen year old girl who provides for her starving family, her mother and sister, in the country of Panem. She lives in District 12, the poorest district in what was once known as North America. Before the Dark Days and the revolution there were 13 districts ruled by the Capitol. Life was miserable for everyone until they rose up and rebelled 73 years ago. For the past 73 years ever since the destruction and annihilation of District 13, the Capitol has hosted every year, The Hunger Games.
   
     The Hunger Games are a way of reminding the districts each year the power the Capitol has by throwing two tributes *children*, a boy and a girl, from each district to fight to the bloody death in an arena for everyone (forced) to watch until only one is left standing. The arenas differ from a scorching hot desert to a frostbitten ice-land. At the center of each arena is the Cornucopia, filled with anything from packs to survive to deadly weapons to kill each other. Only one is allowed to live.
   
     When the reaping, the day of the drawing for the games, comes Katniss does not expect it when her 12 year old sister Prim is called to be the female tribute for District 12. Katniss volunteers instantly to take her place and knows she will not be coming back again. At least not alive.

I absolutely loved this book and could not put it down for the life of me. It kept me interested until the very end and made really picture everything that went on in and out of the arena. I would give this book 5 out of 5 stars and it has to be one of my favorites yet. I couldn't wait to start up the sequel and read on. The action constantly going on kept me very interested and the constant threats kept me on edge. The detail put into everything, because everything is new, is very good and the book is quite well explained. This book shows how far people will go to save not only themselves but their family and friends in desperate times.

Lord Of The Flies Part 2 Answers

Prompts I chose:

Prompt 1 - Symbols are everywhere in LotF - pick 2 that really stood out to you and discuss their importance

     The first symbol I found importance in was the conch shell. This was the first symbol in the book that showed authority. When someone had the shell they had a right to speak and not only that, they could be heard. It had the power to bring the boys together and help make decisions and determine what was to happen. It kept Ralph in power and when it was destroyed things went into chaos. It wasn't just the first symbol to show authority though, it was the first thing that caught my attention when Golding wrote about Ralph fishing it out of the water. In my point of view it was the first thing that started everything in the story. Without the conch it would have taken them much longer to find each other and start a meeting to figure everything out. 

     The second symbol I found very important was the idea or thought of "The Beast". The Beast represented the fear in the boys of being somewhere they weren't used to with no adult protection. When the man in the parachute fell down and was mistaken out of fear for the beast people started to go insane off of fear. This is when they turned to Jack thinking he could protect them. When they get so afraid that Simon crawls out, he is brutally murdered and things have gone to extremes for fear of the beast. The beast represents fear in each one of the boys, this is brought out from the situation of being stranded on an island.

Prompt 2 - Do you agree that evil is inherent in people, regardless of age? Discuss in relation to your own experiences as well as those in the book.

     I think regardless of age everyone deep down has evil in them, even little kids. Everyone does something bad in there life which proves that. It doesn't have to be evil necessarily but it isn't good. When the boys are put in a situation they don't know how to deal with they start to loose sight of where they came from and the morals they learned in civilization. When they finally start going insane and lash out on each other they loose sight of who they are. They start doing evil things because they don't remember who they are. 

     People in real life also do this, when something bad happens or traumatizes someone they forget who they are and will lash out on others in spite of what happened to them. When a kid is abused or hurt at home, he might use that anger on others someplace else like at school. People do that kind of stuff everyday. When they loose sight of who they are they do irrational things and can hurt others. 

Lord Of The Flies Part 1 Answers

Questions I chose:

#2 - One of the main points of this book is to look at the effects of authority, or lack of authority on people. The "society" the boys created eventually begins to fall apart; do you think this is because of leaders they chose (Ralph and Jack), or because of the situation they were in (meaning who their leaders were didn't matter)?  


     I feel that even though the situation was bad from the beginning that it was still the matter of leadership and want for power that brought the boys "society" down. Even though they specifically voted for Ralph to be chief, Jack was just as well respected and could easily encourage people to disobey Ralph's orders. Because of the lack of punishment on the island for disobeying or not doing what Ralph asks, the "society" fell apart very rapidly.
     The other boys on the island needed to look up and respect only one person for them to get anything done. When looking up to two people (and having Jack wanting power so much) it lead them in a wrong direction and when Jack finally starts taking authority it's too late for Ralph or Piggy to regain control on something they should have fixed in the first place. A form of punishment.
     Ralph had been doing a fairly good job of keeping things under control until people started to get lazy and there was no punishment enforced to keep people in line. This just made it easy for people to walk off and not care while expecting others get the job done. Even if they respected Ralph, he didn't enforce fear of punishment to keep his power before someone else (Jack) did. Jack had the knife which without a doubt would make them fear him and want to obey him instead of Ralph. With their mental stability low and want for meat higher they turned to Jack and against Ralph.


#3 - Suspend your rationale thinking for a moment and imagine that the place you all know best involving established authority - school - is suddenly without teachers, Ms. Nadeau, etc. for an extended period of time (think weeks). What would happen? 


I suppose that you mean that we don't go home when you say an extended period of time like we are locked inside so, I think that if that were to happen the very first thing would be complete chaos. Everyone would be fighting, running around, pushing people around, hiding etc.. After a while of this someone big in mass, popular and most likely a senior would try taking over or would be voted into power to run the school. If he/she (most likely a he if big in size) were smart he would elect class officials to keep their grade in line and call the shots for everyone. After a week of this he would get a big ego on power and would be pushing people around and abusing the power. People would start to question his actions. I think that is when he would go mad on power and start getting rid of anyone who doubted him. Everyone after a few weeks would be terrified of him and want to rebel against him and overthrow him. When this is done and he is out of the way, (so to speak), chaos for power would break loose again. Anarchy would continue until the next leader rose up, probably just as popular as the first, and they would hopefully find a better system of ruling (if they were smart). That's what I think would happen if there were no form of authority in a school.