Banned Book Vlog

The Boy Book: Week of 9/15/14

** What did you think of what you read?**
Pages read: 117-END

This is usually a book I would probably never pick up because of the title. The Boy Book. Pretty self explanatory on what it was about, right? Well, not in the moment I saw it. In that moment, I had a mere minute to find a book, read the summary, check it out, and leave the library in a mad dash. So, in the moment, a book with a penguin on the cover and a sort of unique title seemed like a good idea. Especially since the summary made no sense. And here is how the boy book actually turned out.

Well turns out it was a second book in a series. So I was a bit lost for a while. Thankfully, the speaker gave a brief summary of the events in the past book. This isn't a direct quote, but this is what happend.

1. Circle of tightly knit lady friends.
2. Speaker has dream boyfriend.
3. Friend likes dream boyfriend.
4. Speaker and Dreamy McDreamy break up and friend steals him.
5. Speaker makes out with ex boyfriend.
6. Speaker is caught making out with ex boyfriend.
7. Speaker loses all friends (but two who weren't in the circle).
8. List of Speaker's past boyfriends in posted around high school.
9. Speaker is officially isolated in school.
10. SECOND BOOK! YAY1

A pretty common plot, except for the list thing. I had no idea what this book or the first book was about, so you can imagine I was pretty caught off guard. I wasn't expecting an extremely girl-drama book. 

But surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. The girl drama in the first book is just the whole book, I assume. Since I haven't read it. But in this second book, it's a mere surface, I suppose you could say. Basically, it branches out into other parts of the story. The second book focuses on the speaker, Roo, trying to cope with everything. She goes through therapy lessons, trying to become neutral with old-circle-friends, and just trying to not mess things up anymore. As I write this I realize it doesn't exactly sound thrilling, but you have to believe that it was actually pretty good. 

The writing itself was something I really enjoyed. It was really casual sounding, in a way. I guess because the story was from a high school girl's perspective, the author wanted it to sound like it was actually by a high school girl. And she did a pretty good job of it! It didn't sound as formal as a lot of other books, but then again, it wasn't completely terrible writing. It was still good writing. It didn't have much imagery or figurative language or much things like that, but it was good. Another thing with the writing was the fact that it had the kind of writing that had a lot of comedy and sarcasm. So that was great.

Character wise, it was really good. The characters are all there for a reason and none of them seem hastily added in or anything when you read about them. They all have a purpose in the writing. They all had their unique dialogue that sounded real and had emotions that made the characters themselves seem realistic. They sounded and acted like real people you would meet any day, so the author did a really good job with that.

Though I may have complimented the plot earlier, here is where I might take a little of that back. IT had a pretty OK plot idea, and that's what I was complimenting. Though, the actual moving on of the plot was a bit...bad, I suppose. The plot was definitely moving along, but at the same time, it seemed pointless. Like you weren't exactly sure of what the whole point of this book was. I guess with that you could say, "Oh so you mean you couldn't tell what would happen? That's a good author. One who's writing is so good that you can't tell the future of their character's." You could definitely say that. Definitely. I just don't know if you would say that for this book. I couldn't tell what would happen at the end because it seemed pointless. And it can be hard to tell the POINT of something that's pointLESS.

I'd give this book a 6.5 maybe 7/10 good book wise. For entertainment purposes, a solid ten outta ten. 

The Boy Book: Week 9/8/14

** Figurative language & imagery
Pages read: 0-117

The Boy Book doesn't include much figurative language. In fact, if I try to think back, I really can't think of any (but I'm sure they're in there somewhere). So, I'm going to focus on the book's imagery. It's even kind of hard for me to write about the imagery in the book because there doesn't seem to be much of it. The parts that are imagery aren't very descriptive, but they do count. Rather, the book tells the story by mainly explaining what's happening in that moment without too much description. Frankly, I don't really mind. It gives the writing a sort of casual feeling, if you get me.

One of the first examples of imagery is, "I wanted him to see me as a damsel in distress and come to my aid and touch my hand and feel a rush of desire and remorse. I had wanted him to notice my legs in my fishnet stockings as I knelt on the floor to pick up the quarters." This piece of imagery was cool because even though it wasn't incredibly descriptive, you really get an image in your head of what the main character described. Because she mentioned the style of her stockings and the sadness she felt, the scene kind of plays in your head like a short movie clip.

Another imagery example is, "The feeding schedule was posted all around the zoo, so a few minutes before we were supposed to start, visitors began crowding in around the penguins, watching them swimming their fat bodies through the blue water. The room was dark, and penguins on the land part of the enclosure seemed to sense that feeding time was near: a good number of them had waddled over to the door, waiting for the keepers to come out with buckets of fish." Again, this text isn't very descriptive. Still so, it manages to give the reader a clear enough visual to go along with the text.

The style of this book just doesn't seem to have much imagery or figurative language, as you might have noticed. The descriptions of people or objects that the book includes really just put an adjective here or there, but not much. It's kind of weird, but strangely nice. The book describes what's happening rather than what things/people look like, and it's not that bad. I wouldn't say it makes for an interesting read, but it's a bit more casual or informal. I like it!

Book List Challenge

This list is in no particular order...

1. Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos

This is a very recent read for me (This summer, in fact) but it's definitely my favorite book right now. Dr. Bird's Advice for Sad Poets is about a boy who's very sad but honestly wants to be very happy. It's about finding your own beauty, wether it be in other people, yourself, or even in pictures of trees. I loved this book because it had made me cry, but then it had made me laugh because of all the deep emotions put into the writing. Really, just a great book. **The fact that there's a talking pigeon is just another reason to love this book!**

2. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

Yup, this is a kids book. And, I read it once when I was a kid. It was one of a few books that I actually genuinely enjoyed reading at that age, so I really loved it. I thought the story was good, the characters were strange and funny. Great for a kid. I read it yet again last year to relish the book once again, but with my far older age, I read it in a new light. When you read this book when you are older, you notice how many messages and life advice the author puts into the narration or character dialogue. You notice all the puns and jokes you maybe didn't notice the first time. In my second time reading, I was amazed at just how true and relevant the messages were. They were things that a person should definitely do throughout their life. Great things to keep in mind.

3. Debbie Harry Sings in French by Meagan Brothers

This is another very recent read for me that has become one of my favorites. Debbie Harry Sings in French is about a teenage boy who feels out of place in  a lot of things. In school, in family, with friends, even music. He's not sure who is yet, so he just tries to blend in with whatever his friends are into. But, sometimes he's not even sure they're real friends. After a very scary incident (*involving his friends*), he moves to North Carolina to live with different family. It's there that he starts to discover who he is and who he wants to become. He wants to be like Debbie Harry. Though she's a girl and he's a boy, he wants to be as beautiful, strong, and tough as her. This was a really interesting and good coming-of-age story that I really recommend. It teaches you that it really is okay to be you, and there are guaranteed people that won't like it. But, they don't really matter if who you are is what makes you happy.

4. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

This one, pretty much everyone read in class and I'm pretty sure most people actually enjoyed it. I decided to put Of Mice and Men on this list because of all the symbolism that it had. For example, there was Candy's dog and Lennie. This book really made you think about things like our current society versus our past society and if it's any better. If you count out all the symbolism, I would have still put this book on my list. It's an old book, but I thought it was a really good read. The dialogue, setting description, and plot really match the time period the book was set in. I had thought that I would utterly hate this book, but I surprised myself on how much I actually enjoyed it.

5. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison

This book is a compilation of many short stories by Harlan Ellison. I read it in an omnibus that included two other short story books by Ellison, but this one was my favorite. The short stories were all mainly  mixture of sci-fi and horror stories and there was a short story called I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream. So, the book was named after this first story. The short story of the same name of the title of the book (confusing, right?) was actually my favorite short story in the whole book. It was about a computer called AM that killed every human being except for five. The computer keeps the people alive for thousands of years, never letting them die. In this time, the computer is torturing them, both mentally and physically. The story is told from the perspective of one of the captives, so it's pretty interesting.
Though the short stories were mainly tragic and sad, they were all very interesting and well written. It was a good book!

6. Anything but Typical by Nora Raleigh Baskin

Anything but Typical is a story about a boy with autism. I think stories that have a narration from someone with autism are really interesting, because you get to hear a totally new perspective on things. Anything but Typical did a really good job of doing just that. Jason, the boy who's point of view the story is told from, points out some really interesting/cool things because he views things differently. The book also had a pretty good plot, so I really liked that. Another cool thing in the book was that Jason was an online writer. This meant that he would sometimes include part of the short stories he wrote into the book. Overall, it was just a really cool and interesting book.

7. Daemon Hall and Return to Daemon Hall by Andrew Nance

The Daemon Hall duology is one of my favorite things to read. I really like the horror genre with movies, but I can never find a good horror book that's actually kind of creepy. I've read a number of horror books but they were always pretty lame and boring, so I stopped trying to find a good horror book. But then I saw Daemon Hall. It was really amazing. It's about five kids that enter a horror short story writing contest. The five kids that won get to spend the day in a haunted house with a famous macabre writer. So, of course, a lot of creepy things happen in there. And it's awesome. The story itself was really cool and the descriptions told in first person were really cool too. Not only that, but it was filled with plot twists. The other really nice thing I liked about was the fact that it included pictures. There were only a few, but the art style was unique and had a very dark look for the book. The goes for the second book, which had a completely different idea but was really awesome as well.

8. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein


I have to include this book. How could someone not? I read this book a lot when I was rather young, so I didn't quite get its meaning. I read it again when I was older. I cried, actually. It's amazing how much the tree loved the boy but so sad how the boy seemed to not care about her. Almost like a fair-weathered friend. It was really heartbreaking as the boy took more and more of the tree but always leaving her behind, and it has taught me that I should never do this. If someone says they're happy as long as you're happy, you shouldn't take advantage of them by saying it'll make you happy. You can make the person very sad. Anyway, for a children's book, it's really good and sweet.

9. You Don't Know Me by David Klass

At first, I didn't like this book. The narration was strange...It seemed bland...I didn't like it. Somehow, chapter after chapter, I felt the writing got better. The story got more interesting. More details, more meaning, more depth. More everything. It suddenly became a very good book and also one of my favorites. You Don't Know Me is about a boy who no one knows. Sure, they may know his face or they may know his name, but they don't know him. They may be his friend or they may be his mother, but they don't know him. His story is about the girl he likes and also his home problems. He's being physically abused by his mother's boyfriend but doesn't say a word because he believes it would only make matters worse. The best part about this book was the amount of emotion and depth put into the parts of the book about his home problems. They made it seem so genuine and real that I wouldn't be surprised if the author himself suffered the same experience. It was just really good. To anyone that ever reads this book, don't put it down because the beginning is boring. I'll admit it is. You just have to wait a bit. After a while, things get funny, emotional, and just great.

10. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

I read this book all the way in the beginning of sixth grade, but I still remember it now because of how much I enjoyed it. It tells the story of a boy with a mild form of autism. Like I said before, I find stories that are told from a person with autism are pretty interesting. They let you view a totally new way of seeing things and understanding things. This book was a mystery book, so the main character's autism made it pretty cool. His autism enabled him to take clues he found and put them together because of the way he thought of them. The plot itself is actually really good to. The main character's neighbor has a nice poodle named Wellington. And Wellington is murdered. So this mystery must be solved. It sounds like the plot for a children's book, but it actually branches out into other things. The main character discovers things about his father, his neighbor, and the mother who was never in his life. It's actually a really good book and I really recommend it.
**Also please note how cool that cover is. I mean it's really terrible to say but the dead dog on the cover was pretty creative right there. Or maybe not. Who knows.**

5.