... more after the end because the endings seemed as if they were cut off. Personally, A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury was more enjoyable contrary to Nethergrave by Gloria Skurzynski. A Sound of Thunder uses better English usage and gets to the point. The first couple of pages were unneeded and useless ... for the thesis statement and purpose of the story, Nethergrave. Overall, A Sound of Thunder demonstrated a better example and was more interesting. In A Sound of Thunder, Eckels travels from 2055 to 85 million years ago to hunt a Tyrannosaurus Rex but is in trouble when the rex ... re...

• Word Count: 511
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... while still being recognizable and reliable. 2. Layers of various issues such as reality, fiction, tragedy, justice, and love, bring thematic complexity to the book in a way never before seen and in a way that leaves almost every page full of questions and intellectual questing. 3. Various moods, styles, literary ... and Duchess" cruelty both amusing and downright mean. I loved the in-between stories most. My favorite would have to be Dorothea, Ferdinand, Lucinda, and Cardenio quadrate. Most of the things I did like about this book are mentioned in the reviews above, and since it's point...

• Word Count: 1289
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... extremely difficult to move up in society. 6) Explain whether or not you think the civilization represented by your novel is successful. The civilization represented by my novel does not seem very successful. The city, St. Petersburg, is described as filthy and wretched. There were drunks sprawled out across the streets, ... prostitutes and people wandering aimlessly. Many of the people depicted in the book were poverty stricken and just barely surviving on what little money they had. The unemployment rate seemed to be high. Of those people that did ... class were strict and the differe...

• Word Count: 1349
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... challenged by Dallas, Texas, Independent School District high school libraries in 1974 and in Snoqualmie, Washington in 1979. These states claimed that the book was "dangerous" because of the objectionable language, sexual situations or scenes, and the crude, black humor that is displayed throughout the novel. None ... is what makes the novel what it is and without it the book would be even more boring. The novel could be read be students, probably starting in middle school. I felt the book was very boring and repetitious in my opinion, unless you like books about war and what happens to...

• Word Count: 587
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... laws, life would be hard to live, filled with violence and war. Another theme of the book is survival. Survival plays an important role for the boys. There was very little I disliked about this book. Probably the one thing that could have been improved upon was William Golding's use of difficult ... words and terms that could confuse the reader, but this happened rarely. I think all serious readers would like this book. I also think readers who are interested in human behaviour would like this book because of the way it demonstrates the many sides of human nature, values, and morals. I r...

• Word Count: 641
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... This novel can be described in many ways, a page turner, interesting, and even confusing. I admitt that I could not put this book down for the simple fact that it had me questioning thing constantly. As I read chapter after chapter, I started to not pay attention to the ... much in a hurry to finish this novel as I was. Of course I was reading pretty quickly to finish this novel due to the fact that I really took my time at the beginning so I did not miss important information. I really enjoyed Sherman's writing, even though he really left me with some questions that I thought would ....

• Word Count: 537
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

The Novel My Antonia, is a story of a young Bohemain immigrant girl, Antonia Shimerda, on the central plains in Black Hawk, Nebraska. The story in narrated by a young boy, ... Antonia. This novel, written by Willa Cather, is a story of Jim's experiences and memories relating to Antonia. Through Antonia Shimerda, and other characters throughout the novel, My Antonia, including Lea Lingard, Jim's Grandparents and Mrs. Harling, Jim Burden learns important lessons that enrich his life and shape him to become the man he is at ... the end of the novel, who is able embrace Antonia's country family....

• Word Count: 763
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... has no real depth and more or less just goes around saying "Goddamn" and "What a phony" while whining about the world. After reading the book, I learned that the book isn't about whining about life, but instead it simply shows a cynical view of the world; A view that is seldom looked at by most people. ... his brother and sister then he had great hatred for them and classifies them as phonies. I feel that this love for innocence is what the book is based around. You will also see that Holden has an ambition, which is to become "the catcher in the rye" and stop children from ... from lo...

• Word Count: 639
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

My book for the book report is entitled "Scoop", by Evelyn Waugh in which the hero is named William Boot. William is nothing like the average stereotyped "hero": he is extremely insignificant. This does not ... 's just that I don't want to go." (p. 33). And finally, after being asked if there was anything he wanted, William naively replies "D"you know, I don't believe there is. Except to keep my job in Lush Places and go on living at home." (p.33). As one can see, William's lack of ambition and laziness are prominent features of his personality. He has confessed ... ...

• Word Count: 876
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... novel. In order to understand how the concept of free will is portrayed both in the novel and the book, the concept itself must be analyzed and then how it is portrayed in the book and the novel can be analyzed and understood. What is the concept of free will? It must be understood ... upon him and he walks towards him like a crazy person. He sits next to him and tells him to give him his message and he grabs Trout's book and starts to read it. He reads the following: "You are surrounded by loving machines, hating machines, greedy machines, unselfish machines, brave machines, cowardly ....

• Word Count: 935
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... novel, many of which could be found in quotes from the novel. These quotes led to many interesting interpretations and questions concerning them. The book club meetings were successful as it allowed readers to enrich their understanding and appreciation of the novel. Many themes and symbols are embedded within ... like God saved men. There are many other themes and symbols in the novel, many of which are from quotes As part of the book club assignments, the students had to find quotes from the novel and discuss its significance. From within the quotes a person would able to ... take pl...

• Word Count: 721
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... Leopold's Ghost did an excellent job of portraying the events of that time period. Many students would think that reading a historical novel would just be like reading any old history book, but reading this novel was much easier than reading a history textbook. The novel showed many aspects and views from many different people of that time. The usage of direct quotes ... placed the reader in the action. Many feel that detail adds a lot of unwanted material to a novel, and that it makes the novel harder to understand, but the detail in a book such as King Leopold's Ghost added so much fe...

• Word Count: 641
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... the reader into a by-gone era where young girls are sold to be raised as geisha, and where their virginity is sold to the highest bidder. The book is written as a sort of autobiography about one of Gion's most celebrated and respected geisha, although it is actually a novel. Memoirs of a Geisha is ... Golden's first novel. It is extremely well researched, as it provides an accurate account of the life of a geisha. The book follows the progress of a small girl, Chiyo-chan, as she finds herself going through all sorts of cruelty as she trains to be become a geisha. Chiyo-chan ... the way A...

• Word Count: 629
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... of this novel, but I watched the one with William Hurt as Rochester in 1996. Even though he is much too handsome in appearance to look like Rochester in the book, I still like how he plays Rochester. Although I noticed in the movie that his hair is dirty blond, on the other hand it was jet black in the ... to make it much longer. It is very good, but it could have been so much better then. There are some other major differences too. In the book, Jane get married to Rochester finally after he is blinded and they have kids. But in the film, Rochester asked Jane if she has come back to him ...

• Word Count: 329
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... is affected by an illness or death, the people that surround the individual, usually the family, are affected both psychologically and physically. In the book, My Sisters Keeper written by Jodi Picoult, a happily married couple with two children live a normal life until the day they discover that their two ... mindset situation, using the Kubler-Ross cycle and the motivations of each character using Freud's theory of the mind. Firstly, Picoults personal experience in My Sisters Keeper, - seen through her characters, especially the mother Sara- shows her unconscious and conscious mindset....

• Word Count: 2075
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... also: challenge our views; let us know we are not alone; and edify us, teaching a moral lesson. All these other, more important aspects, can be seen in Markus Zusak's The Book Thief. The most important role of a novel is to broaden our understanding of human nature. When a shipment of Jews are paraded through Molching on route to a concentration camp, the novel ... kill himself, 'for wanting to live.' Liesel loses everyone she loves when Himmel St is bombed, the good and bad taken indiscriminately. When Death laments, that this 'broke my heart,' he echoes the reader's response...

• Word Count: 918
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... published. The Rosales saga, as the 5 novels were called, consisted of Tree, My Brother, My Executioner, Mass, and Po-on. This was eventually followed by 5 more novels, five books of short stories and a book of verse. His works have been translated into 24 languages and have recently been published ... Jose has often been regarded as a Philippine national treasure. Summary "I have trod and searched and searched but found nothing." (Sionil, 192) My Brother My Executioner follows the misfortunes of two brothers brought up in two different settings having the same desire to better the worl...

• Word Count: 1766
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... the animals that are rebelling against the pigs are hanging, not having their throats ripped out by the dogs. These minor changes were not detrimental to the translation of the book into the film. Some of the more significant changes are a little harder to understand. A prime example is the death of Old Major. In the ... book he dies in his sleep during the night. In the film after he teaches "The Beasts of England (the World)" to the animals he is accidentally shot by Jones, who ... ...

• Word Count: 424
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... the bleak harshness of the Naturalistic society that Wright presents the reader with close him out as effectively as if they had shut a door in his face. In the first book, Wright tells the reader "these were the rhythms of his life: indifference and violence; periods of abstract brooding and periods of intense desire; moments of silence and moments of anger ... one considers life to be a period of growth and learning, recognition of self-worth and of the worth of others, then Bigger has not been given the chance to live. Book Three is called "Fate", and indeed Bigger seems to be contro...

• Word Count: 1197
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... the bleak harshness of the Naturalistic society that Wright presents the reader with close him out as effectively as if they had shut a door in his face. In the first book, Wright tells the reader "these were the rhythms of his life: indifference and violence; periods of abstract brooding and periods of intense desire; moments of silence and moments of anger ... one considers life to be a period of growth and learning, recognition of self-worth and of the worth of others, then Bigger has not been given the chance to live. Book Three is called "Fate", and indeed Bigger seems to be contro...

• Word Count: 1197
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

Book Review A Lesson Before Dying A Lesson Before Dying was written by Ernest J. Gaines. The novel takes place in the late 1940s. It is about a man named Jefferson who witnessed a shoot out ... heroism is not always expressed through action, sometimes the simple act of resisting the inevitable is enough. Ernest J. Gaines did a great job in writing this novel. It's the type of book that is hard to put down. Its such an inspiring and thought-provoking novel. The story is so real and is "a strongly felt and - in the best sense- ambitious novel ... because its so easy to read, and two because i...

• Word Count: 264
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... character follows a different path to adulthood, each with their own influences and obstacles. I will focus on Antonia and Jim's coming of age throughout the novel, My Antonia. Antonia's coming of age was more difficult than Jim's coming of age, and for more than just one reason. Antonia's family immigrated to the United ... all the things that she had lost, but whose inner glow has faded. Whatever else was gone, Antonia had not lost the fire of life- (My Antonia 250). She worked very hard to please her bosses, and the bosses grew to love her because of her hard work ethic. Antonia's f...

• Word Count: 1625
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... has hid them and how he has such good security on his computer. Jobs is not very street smart or has a lot of common sense, he more of a book worm and is book smart. Another characteristic of Jobs is that he is concerned with everyone else's feelings. In the middle of the story, when everyone is awaiting to board the Mayflower and ... ...

• Word Count: 471
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

If I could recommend a work of fiction to read and be contemplated by my fellow classmates, it would be John Steinbeck's East of Eden. East of Eden parallels Genesis times, with a traditional good versus evil story line. The profound depth of the novel leaves ... ...

• Word Count: 258
• Approx Pages: 1
• Grade Level: High School

... he will not be accepted by anyone. This scene also ignites the rage that sends the monster on a killing spree to get revenge on his creator, Victor. Overall I think this book was very well written. It is easy to tell that everything was thoroughly planned out. This shows in how well the novel flows from one scene to the next and ... ...

• Word Count: 1009
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School