Book 3 Review

Just Listen Book Review

By: Savannah Butt

Sarah Dessen’s Just Listen is not your typical romance story. It has tragedy and hard life experiences added into it. This book is romance but is also somewhat adrenaline fiction. It’s about a girl named Annabel Greene who seems like she has everything, that is when she is in front of the camera. But she is actually going through some really tough times trying to deal with her sister’s eating disorder and her now ex-best friend. She is also holding in that she was sexually assaulted and is now effecting how she deals with the outside world.

During this book Annabel meets a boy named Owen who is mysterious and dark. She thought he would be scarier as a person, but when she gets to know him, he actually very honest and not scary at all. He introduces her to what he calls “good music” in which she can be “enlightened” and express herself through the music. The music helps her cope with her troubles but it’s not enough. She is overwhelmed that Sophie’s (her ex-best friend) boyfriend sexually assaulted her and that was the reason why her Sophie weren’t friends anymore. She had to tell somebody, but she just didn’t know how to tell anyone.“ ‘The kind who live for music and are constantly seeking it out, anywhere they can. Who can’t imagine a life without it. They’re enlightened.’ ” (Dessen 96). The main characters are Annabel and Owen since they spend so much time together. But it also focuses in on Annabel’s family and how they are dealing with Whitney’s (her middle sister) eating disorder. The main theme of the book is to not isolate yourself from the outside world and to tell somebody if something terrible has gone wrong in your life even if you think they won’t understand. The voice of the book is Annabel, it follows only her thoughts and perspectives on the events she goes through and is in first person.

Just Listen gets your adrenaline rushing in some parts, but in some of the other’s it is hard to follow what she is trying to say. Also the writing of Annabel’s thoughts were sometimes put into sentences that were hard to understand or didn’t make sense. But the reader is able to connect to the book well as every teenager has drama in his or her life and they could relate to how she was feeling. A lot of teenagers could relate to how she kept things in, as she didn’t want to make any more hardships within her family so she just kept thing to herself. Just listen starts with one confusion and is then added onto by one more after another until it is one big ball of confusion that ready to explode at any moment. “ ‘You deal with it?’ I said. ‘I don’t even know how to do that.’ ”(Dessen 151). The purpose of this novel is to show teenagers that there other people out there who are going through the same thing and that you can find a solution or learn how to deal with it. The novel’s strengths are the themes; Dessen is able to get the themes through pretty clearly to the reader. In Just Listen Annabel has lost her best friend Sophie because Sophie thought her boyfriend cheated on her with Annabel, but really he sexually assaulted her. Dessen kept this a secret until Annabel would have flashbacks every once in a while that would describe the scene in bits and pieces until the very end. While this is going one she can’t tell anyone because at home her parents have their hands full with her middle sister, Whitney’s eating disorder. Dessen could have given a better description of how Whitney’s progress was going but she did give good imagery of how severe the condition was. But Annabel has Owen who is helping her cope with these conditions and helping her open up and be honest to the world, to be herself.

I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars because it made me want to read more to find out the reason why she was isolating herself. But there could have been better character development and more description of their lives. I would have liked to see how the rest of Annabel and Owen’s relationship went. But the book had a great plot and did a good job of getting your adrenaline rushing and making you want more. It gave a simile of how Annabel’s life was like a house with many windows letting people see into their life looking like a happy family who has everything but in the places where windows weren’t there was the real story of her life.

Top 5 presentation

Blog #7

I think that a book has to be at least 50% true. This is because if you know at least half of what you are writing about and you can relate half of your story to your fictional story, then there is credibility to your made-up story. This is because you can make-up half of your story and have half of the story be real while you are putting your own experiences into both of them. You still have reliability and credibility to yourself and your readers. If you believe in your story, then so will your readers. If the readers feel that you know what you are talking about and can believe the story, then you still have trustworthiness. As long as you put something into your acknowledgments or prologue saying that this story is based on a true story but does have fiction related into it, then the readers will be able trust your writing. I think that half-truths are okay because you still have your own experiences into the believable fictional story. But when Frey and Mortenson bent the truth and didn’t come out or admitting that they did this right away, I think they lost their readers’ trust and nobody felt like they could believe any of their stories anymore. I think we do need lines between genres like fiction and nonfiction, because if we didn’t then no one would know what to believe or think that it is just made up. It does matter, but as long as you state what is real and what isn’t to the readers, they will trust your writing.

Readicide

Genre Fiction isn’t less “worthy” than Literary Fiction of our time as readers because in our time Genre Fiction is more interesting to read than Literary Fiction. But in a place of school’s curriculum it almost seems as though Genre Fiction is less “worthy” than Literary Fiction because we usually read the “classics” in school and sometimes get to pick our own books as an independent reading project. I think there is a difference in literary and popular books because literary books are usually the correct grammar and correct writing format classics that some grade school/high school students dread; while popular books are the books that might not have as much correct grammar and correct writing format as the classics but appeal to be more interesting and suspenseful. Some people would consider the popular books “great” because they give the readers interest, but in the minds of some critics, the popular books are less artistic. Usually the critics get to decide whether a book is great or not, but I think the readers should be able to decide because critics might not have the same taste of what is great than the readers do and the readers could put their commonalities of what they think is great together. If Gallagher’s argument is true in Readicide then I don’t think we should continue to teach literary fiction so exclusively and give students their choice of genre, but we should still teach some literary fiction. I think I would be okay with swapping some of the classics for one of the more popular and suspenseful books. A 21^st century English class reading list should have some of the classics to pick from but also some more popular books to choose from that students would like. Literary fiction is somewhat relevant to our culture, like when authors reference classics in their current popular book, but the classics use old language that is not really used anymore on a daily basis. It may be preparing students for the job market you are about to enter but not in a big impact way. We want kids to read books because it gives them an imagination of their own that they can escape to.

The Help Book Trailer

The adaptation of my book

For the adaptations of my book, The Help, some adaptions that the filmmakers would have a hard with are the characteristics of the characters. It would be hard to get them right since their characteristics aren’t stated exactly in the book. You have to actually read the book and understand it to get the exact feel of how the characters act and what their personality is. You have to connect with them to somehow incorporate it into the movie. It is really important that the filmmakers get the characters personality or else it will make the movie all wrong because that is what the book follows. The book doesn’t just focus on one character, it focuses on three (Aibleen Clark, Minny Jackson, and Miss Skeeter Phelan). And in order to understand the characters, you have to know what their personality is. Some things that would have to be changed are the small scenes that aren’t as important and don’t really explain who the characters are, would have to be cut. One specific scene that has to be in the move for the adaptation to work is when Miss Elizabeth, who Aibleen works for, puts in a separate bathroom outside for Aibleen. This could not be changed because it shows what kind of controversy is going on during this time. Another scene that couldn’t be cut is when Minny gets a job for Miss Celia. This is an important scene because this is the first scene where you can see Minny’s sassiness and personality. It also shows how some (white) people didn’t back in this time didn’t agree with the terms of segregation, like Miss Celia. One other scene that couldn’t be cut is when Miss Skeeter asks Aibleen to interview for her new book idea. Miss Skeeter wants to ask her questions about what it’s like to work as a maid and how the family she works for treats her. But Aibleen is too scared and says no because she is afraid that she will get in trouble. This is an important scene because it shows how maids were too afraid to stick up for themselves even though they were being treated poorly by the people who they worked for.  One scene that isn’t as important is and would have to be cut is when Aibleen is talking to one her son’s old friends about the segregation laws. This isn’t as important and would have to be cut for the more important stuff. One other scene is when Aibleen is talking the two black men outside of Miss Elizabeth house. This isn’t as important because all it is showing is the two men working in the backyard on the new bathroom. But it this makes room for the more important scenes that explain the characters personality and what is going on during that time.

Book 1 project

The Idea

For the book, Along for the Ride by Sara Dessen, a store will be selling customized bikes for both girls and boys. There will be a bike shop just like there was in the book where the characters hung out frequently. The bike shop will be on a “jump park” where people can ride their new customized bikes or just hang out; it would also be placed by a beach. In the bike shop we would also have a gift shop with knick-knacks and fun things that you could bring back and show all of your friends where you went and that you got the latest and the greatest! The gifts would sell things that promote the book like catchy phrases on t-shirts that were from the book that make it sound interesting and cool, and also of course the store would have copies of the books at the very front. The bike store could also have an extension connected to it with a café called “The Last Chance Café” that sells the famous onion rings that are so good that they are to die for!

How it connects to the book

In the book these were the main attractions where they lived because they lived near a beach and visitors or residents could rent or buy bikes to ride along the beach. This idea comes from my book when Auden, the main character, first comes into town and she sees that there is a bike shop that a lot of young teenagers her age hang out at. She also saw that many people went there to buy new bikes or just rent them to ride along the beach. Even though the town was small it had a beach and it attracted tourists. Also in the book there was a café that was famous for it’s onion rings and it was the main attraction for the restaurant and the city, the café was called “Last Chance Café” just like it will be in the bike store. The t-shirts would have inspirational quotes that Auden states in the book. She always has good lines that make you think and inspire you to do the right thing.

How the idea will work

            This idea will definitely work and be good for the book because it will attract every reader who likes inspirational and good plot-lined books. Another good thing is that it will attract both girls and boys because it won’t just have gifts and bikes for girls, there will be bikes for boys also. The “jump park” will draw both boys and girls because it will be a fun place to hang out and learn how to tricks and maybe even how to ride a bike. So it will attract boys and girls of all ages! All the merchandise will be contributed to the book. But not only will the merchandise make the book more money, but since there will be a big attraction, the book will sell even more. The café will probably bring the most people in because once people realize the there is a café with amazing onion rings, people will start to come in more often and explore the store and park more too. Also when people get done riding and doing tricks on their bikes at the park they can stop for a while and get a quick bite to eat. My idea will get people interested where all of this started from and want to read the book to find out and understand what it is all about. My idea will also draw in people who have already read the book because they will finally get to see their book come alive and live in that world, which would be a great experience for anyone!

Link to the picture/visual: http://www.google.com/imgres?q=jump+park+and+bike+store

 http://www.google.com/imgres?q=jump+park

What is a book?

A book is an imagination. A book is the writer's imagination, their thoughts and perspective. A book posses almost everything that a person does. It has feeling and life. Just in a different way. Its feelings are through the characters feelings and what they are going through in the book. A book comes to life when the reader makes it come to life. The reader has to put themselves into the book to bring it to life. The reader is able to see the book's feelings and life when they begin to connect with it. A book is an imagination because it gives the reader a look inside the writer's imagination, but also at the same time the reader is also able to put in their own imagination into the book. Out of the writers opinion's that we read I think Nancy Jo Sales does a good job at explaining why we need books. She explained how books are like our companions and that we need them too much to go away. I agree with this because books are a part of our everyday lifestyle and we wouldn't be able to get rid of them because of this. I also agree with her that the physicality of the book makes that something about the book special to read. I don’t like Tom Piazza’s response; I don’t agree with him on his answers. Reading on a Kindle or an iPad or a phone isn’t the same for me as it is to read a hardback. I just don’t get the same excitement to read on the kindle, etc. that I do reading the actual book. There is something “magical” about the book when you read, the physicality of it gives you something to look at with pride. Books, like Nancy Jo Sales said, show us how we have existed and lived.

Why I read

Why do I read? I read for pleasure. It is a time that I can escape from reality and live in my character's life. I can read from their perspective. The cool things about books are that you can make the character's look however you want them look. You can set the stage how you want it to be set. You can also pick your favorite character and switch sides whenever you want to. It is almost like a TV show or movie that you are directing in your mind. It is your own fantasy and you can do whatever you like with it. Sometimes it is nice to just escape from reality and live in a different world for some time period. Books can also be inspirational; they give a meaning with a message. It can give you a life message to guide you along as you go through every day. It can give you advice on what to do and what not to do and not make the same mistakes they did. Some books will take you back to the past or into the future. The books in the past can incorporate educational information that can tell you important facts about the world. I read for pleasure, to escape from reality, for inspiration, and for education.