New Book- Lovely Bones

     I just finished Paper Towns and the next book I am going to read is Lovely Bones by: Alice Sebold. I haven't gotten a chance to actually start reading this book but I have heard many things about it, viewed many ratings and reviews on this book and I am very excited to actually start reading this book! This book also is very dark and deep so I would only recommend this to people who are 13 and older. Since I really don't know anything else about the book I would like to share my thoughts on what i think the book will contain and more info about the author.
     I think that this book will be very good, yes I believe that there also will be some boring parts to it but other than that I think I will enjoy it a lot. It is about this girl who is 14 (my age) and she gets murdered and instead of going straight into heaven she is stuck in the in between, she wants to help her family figure out who murdered her. In this mysterious yet intensifying story to help Salmon rest in peace knowing that her killer was punished for what he did.
     The author Alice Sebold is the author of Lovely Bones. Alice has also written more books such as; The Almost Moon and Lucky. Alice writes a lot of her books about murder and tragedy. Some compare her to Steven King, the author of Children of the Corn and other extremely haunting stories. The reason she writes about stuff like this is because she writes about what she has experienced not necessarily the murder but everything else that came with it. Actually the book Lucky is about her experience in college. If you want to read more about Alice Sebold click on the link below:
                                                                                               The biography of Alice Sebold

Paper Towns: my personal review

I am just coming to the end of Paper Towns and I wan't to share my thoughts about the book. 

     Rating: My rating of Paper Towns on a 1-10 scale would have to be a 7. There were some good and some bad to the book. I really enjoyed how the author showed us Q's and Margo's friendship by their actions and it wasn't described by the narrator or it wasn't described by their words either. What I didn't like about the book was that in the end *SPOILER ALERT* Margo and Q realize that there relationship will never be more than just friends. This kinda disappointed me because I was really hoping that they would end up with something special.

      Who Would Enjoy This Book: I would  recommend this book to anyone who is interested in mystery and young-adult fiction. Basically any age would be suited to read this book. My range for age would be 12-adult. I think this book would be good for people 12-adult because Paper Towns isn't to sophisticated but its also not an easy read. There are many symbols hidden in this book but also the author foreshadows a lot about the plot and theme. 

     Reviews: “Green’s prose is astounding — from hilarious, hyper-intellectual trash talk and shtick, to complex philosophizing, to devastating observation and truths. He nails it–exactly how a thing feels, looks, affects–page after page.”

-Johanna Lewis, School Library Journal, starred review

“A suspenseful mystery, a compelling central metaphor, and one of those road trips that every senior hopes he or she will have round out this exploration of the kind of relationship that can’t help but teach us a little bit about ourselves.”

-Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books, starred review

“A powerfully great read.”

-VOYA

                       

                                               

Paper Towns: The Good and the Bad

        The best thing about my book is the connection between the two characters, Q and Margo. In the beginning of the story Q and Margo are young and get along very well. They go on adventures together and they become inseparable. Slowly as they get older they grow apart. They begin to have different friends and different friend groups. Even as this happens Q still holds strong feelings for Margo and the author, John Green, shows it in his text will examples like: "Margo Roth Spiegelman's silver Honda was parked in its usual spot" (Green 12). and "I smiled at Margo even though she couldn't see me... It wasn't even that she was pretty. She was just so awesome, and in the literal sense" (Green 14).                                         

    The fact that Q knows where Margo's "Silver Honda" is parked every morning shows some signs of obsession. Even as they Margo forgot about Q, Q never forgot about Margo. Margo always had a special place in his heart for her. You can tell by reading some of the things that Q does that he has major feelings for Margo and that he always has ever since he was little. Also in my second quote Q proclaims his love for Margo and later on he considers asking her to prom. I haven't gotten far enough to know what actually happens with there relationship but I hope its something good. 

        The worst thing about the book so far is that I feel like all the action is towards the beginning and none will be left for the end of the book. All of the revenge is toward the beginning and all that i am expecting will be left is punishment for what they have done. I also have made a new prediction for Q, he will do something illegal for Margo and lose his acceptance to the college of his dreams but he will eventually get over it because he will win over Margo and they will live a good life together. 

Paper Towns

Text to Text Connection: 
I believe Paper Towns can have a text to text connection with 13 Reasons Why. Yes there plots are very different but during the beginning of Paper Towns I realized that the two books have some in common. Such as in Paper Towns and 13 Reasons Why both of the books start of by mentioning some ones death. This also allows me to want to keep reading to find out what happened and how it connects more to the story. Also both of the deaths were suicides. This could be a symbol for the darkness in both of the main characters lives when the girl of there dreams isn't around. The girl who killed herself in 13 Reasons Why was the main characters crush. Also in Paper Towns the main character discovered this dead body with his crush. Also after these discoveries both of the characters drift away from the one they love and become distant but after awhile they reunite. The reuniting in 13 Reasons Why isn't just about getting together with the one you love its about excepting the problem that they had with each other and in some way, shape or form making it up to them.
                                                             
                  Be instantly linked to the 13 Reasons Why webpage by clicking the photo above
Text to World Connection:
In Paper Towns my text to world connection involves suicide. In the first couple of pages in the book, Paper Towns it talks about Q and Margo going to visit the park and a man was laying on the floor with a gun near him. This is a major problem in today's society. "approximately 1,700 die by suicide each year" states Janice Shaw Crouse (American Thinker). Since this is such a big problem and it has been brought to my attention, I used it as my test to world connection.

Check Out More About American Thinker  

Text to Self Connection: 

I can relate to Paper Towns because in the beginning of the story it talks about how Q and Margo were really good friends and they slowly grew apart as they got older. This happened to me with an old neighbor once she moved away. When we were little we would always hang out and have the greatest time but as soon as she moved away I we slowly became less and less connected. We went on vacations together but that slowly stopped with the rest of our childhood friendship. Now all we send to each other is Christmas cards.   

Blog Post #2

         I am just starting to read the book Paper Towns. So far I'm on page 28 so I don't really have any knowledge of what does happen to Margo, but I do have some predictions.          
        Prediction : Margo is supposedly the adventurous one while Quentin is the one that observe from a far until something happens to Margo. Quentin is starts to receive clues from Margo. I have no clue what actually happens yet but I think that Margo is in some sort of trouble and she needs Quentin's help to save her. I believe that something is after her that wants to harm her. Once Quentin finds Margo, they both go back to having their old relationship that they cherished so long ago. 
        John Green, the author of this book, is a very good writer so I do expect a lot. I also can make some more predictions about how the book was written, not necessarily predictions about the story. Well for a first the names are usually unusual such as; Hazel (The Fault in our Stars), Alaska(Looking For Alaska), and what I soon discovered was Quentin (Paper Towns).I also expect the characters to communicate in a way that is different from how most people their age talk. I am very hopeful that this will be a very intriguing book for me to read and I hope that the mystery that John Green creates will keep me on my toes and that it will be something I won't expect at all.
                                                    John Green Information Article
 "John Green is the New York Times bestselling author of Looking for Alaska,An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, and The Fault in Our Stars. He is also the coauthor, with David Levithan, of Will Grayson, Will Grayson. He was 2006 recipient of the Michael L. Printz Award, a 2009 Edgar Award winner, and has twice been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Green’s books have been published in more than a dozen languages." (Read more by clicking on the link above). 
                                       

    I'm writing about The Fault in our Stars for my first blog post. I'm going to talk to you about how the author develops Hazel throughout the story. In the beginning of the story hazel says, "My mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death"(Green 3). Over the course of the text Hazel changes her perspective on many things.
    Once she encounters Augustus, the love of her life, Hazel starts to lose some of these habits such as reading the same book over and over, spending to much time in the house and etc. Augustus leads Hazel to live a better life with cancer. He changes her habit of reading the same book over and over by exchanging An Imperial Affliction for The Prince of the Dawn, both of their favorite books. Hazel slowly becomes addicted to this series and reads them all in a short amount of time.
    Augustus also changes some of her interactions with others. Augustus used his make a wish to fly to Amsterdam to meet their favorite author, Peter Van Houten, the both of them slowly begin to realize his true personality and Peter started as their favorite author and became the person they both hated the most. She expresses her new hatred through some strong choice words. She even yells at peter, "YOU PROMISED"(Green 194). As Hazel and Augustus develop throughout the story and become closer acquaintances they advance the theme; pain demands to be felt. Hazel throughout the story changes in so many ways because of Augustus and her opening her self up to feel discomfort.

                                                                  The Fault in our Stars Article

This article gives a brief summary of The Fault in our Stars and also a little bit of John Greens inspiration for the book.  

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