Jillian

SUMMER READING Sara’s Key Book Review

By: Jillian Gallagher __Sara’s Key__  was written by Tatiana De Rosnay. One thing that confused me at points in the book was that the author would switch back and forth from the present to the future. I loved how much detail was in this book. It allowed me to paint a picture in my mind and not leave out a single part of the canvas. The plot was simple to relate to and easy to remember as you are reading the book. The book tells a story of a young girl at the time of the big round up in France by the French police. It tells of her troubles and secrets while in the middle of the holocaust. It also tells of how, in order to protect her brother, she locked him into the bedroom cupboard, a secret hiding place for the children. She promised that when she and her parents were set free she would come back and save him. The book also tells of a woman living in present day Paris, France. She finds out about Sara and her secrets, and it affects her own life. This story was easy to read and hard to put down. If I had to give this book a rating from 1-5 stars I would defiantly give it four stars. It brings together history and fiction in a way that is easy to understand. It reaches out to people of all ages, however I would not suggest letting young children read it. There are words that they might not understand and points that are too gruesome for a child. This book showed me that things in the past may be forgotten but still affect the people in the future.

SUMMER READING  The Red Kayak



 By: Jillian Gallagher __The Red Kayak__  was written by Priscilla Cummings and was a book that was very hard to put down. The book was about a boy named Brady who lived in near the Chesapeake bay in Maryland, and loved to be on the water with his dad. Until one day when the new neighbors wife and little boy, who Brady had babysat for before, went missing on the water. They found the wife in time but the boy, who was only a toddler, was not so lucky.

 “The first thing I did was get his wet life jacket off – that and his soaked parka. Then I took off my own coat, wrapped it around him, and put my baseball cap on his head. I rubbed his hands. I patted his cheeks. But he looked terrible lying there on the damp wooden floor of my boat, his face as pale as a sheet, his eyes were half shut and his lips were as blue as fresh bruises.” This book absolutely kept me wanting more. It kept me interested the whole time and there were no boring spots. It was a drama that kept my heart racing around every corner. I loved how the chapters didn’t end on spots that you would stop reading which made me want to read more. The characters made me feel like they were there actually talking to me and I could share their emotions. If I would have to rate this book I would give it full 5 stars. It kept me interested and made me feel like I knew the characters. Even when the little boy died I felt like it was one of the little boys I babysat for. I think that teenagers and up should read this book, unless the child who is reading it is very mature. This book really showed me how appreciative we should all be of all we have and even all we had.

By: Jillian Gallagher The name of this book is __The Lovely Bones__ it was written by Alice Sebold. The main theme of this book is about a family who looses their prize possession, a daughter. It tells of their hardships and how they get over and how they don't get over their loss. It tells of a relationships, good ones, bad ones, new ones, and old ones. It tells of a man who has lost his way in the path of good and evil, and a girl who is trying to make a difference on Earth without actually being there. One of my favorite quotes from the book is, "he leand to the side and felt, over his head, back a knife. Unsheathed, he smiled and me, curving up in a grin. he took the hat from my mouth. 'tell me you love me.' he said Genlty, I did The end came anyway" I love this quote not because it is happy and makes me feel warm, it is because it is what starts you into the plunge of the story. Its what gets you captivated and not wanting to put the book down. The story in this book is easy to relate to for everyone, unless you have never lost a loved one. Although I have never had a family member murdered, or raped, I still know what it is like to love someone and loose them. Another thing that I loved about this story is that there were always little thing to get keep you going. There is always a part where you jump, scream, cry, or be happy. After you would finish a chapter, even though most of them weren't left on cliff hangers, you would still want to read more, because there was something from the chapter before that caught your attention and you wanted to know more about it or you just knew something good was coming and you wanted to read it. One thing that I didn't like about this book, even thought it might be a little contradicting to what I said before, is that right before you would get to a really exciting part it would get kinda boring. You would think //ok its starting to die down a bit let me take a break for TKAMB//, but then when you would start to get ready to read again there would be an exciting part and you would be like, //man I can't believe I put this down right before this part.//I would recommend this to and older crowd. Newly thirteen year olds should not be reading this book, because at that point and time they are very inappropriate and they may take some of the things said the wrong way. So I would recommend this for 14+. If I had to give this book a star raiding from 1-5 I would give it a 5+. It was a wonderful book that was heart wrenching and at the same time it was joyful, and funny. The book is a book that I will never forget about in all the years of my life. It made me think of my family and how all the things we go through everyday and every fight. All of it is worth it because somehow in the end it all works out. I can't imagine what my life would be like if I didn't have my parents. I can't imagine loosing one of them and having someone out there that did that to them. I would recommend reading this book if you have an hour or two, because thats all the time you'll have to take. []
 * //__The Lovely Bones__//**

__The Secret Garden__ by: Jillian Gallagher  In this book review I will be talking to you about a book called “The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett. This book was about a rich, rude and sick little girl who lost her family and had to move to a entirely new place. This little girls name was Marry. Marry was very mean and full of herself. She didn’t like anyone and no one liked her. While in this new place Mary hears about this secret garden and she is determined to find it. While looking for the secret garden Mary has a lot of adventures. She makes friends; has an attitude adjustment; and discovers something inside of herself and inside of the people around her that she could use for the rest of her life. Marry finds away to make a difference in someone else life as well as her own. In this specific book I extremely liked when Mary met Colin and she changed him for the better. I also liked how they pretty much had the same story. I didn’t really like that Colin got a happy ending with his parents but Mary, who was the main character, did not. I also didn’t like how little you knew about the father until the last chapter of the book. It also confused me in the last chapter of the book how the author switched back and forth from narrating the book and from the view of the children. I would suggest this book for people who love a mystery novel or a romance novel. I would suggest this book to a teenager and above that loves to read. It is a story that reaches out to you and keeps you interested. Please don’t put this book down after the first two chapters because from there on you won’t be able to put it down. I would rate this book with four stars. This was not because I did not like the book because I liked the book very much. The last chapter was very confusing to me. I also found the first two chapters pretty boring. The reason that I took away one star is because the two chapters that are supposed to be the best chapters in the whole book are the worst. So B. It By: Jillian Gallagher <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0pt; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 36pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">For my last book review I read __So B. It__ by Sarah Weeks. This book defiantly had the theme of search for self. This theme ties in nicely with what we are doing in class. “Some things people just can’t know”. This is my favorite quote from the book. I like it the most because in the beginning of the book it talks about how people don’t really know what color dinosaurs are but they just always assumed they were green. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> In the story a little girl named Heidi goes cross country to find information about herself that she never thought she would be able to know and was told that it was one of those things she “just can’t know”. A long the way she makes friends and has some miss haps but she finally gets where she is going. I thought that this was a very good story line for all ages because it was easy to understand but still have fun reading it. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">This plot was definitely believable and very well explained. I found it very easy to understand and to concentrate on while reading it. The setting takes place in an apartment in Reno and also a disabled home in liberty. On Heidi’s journey to Liberty you realize how young at heart she is, but also how being out though how she was living made her think one step ahead. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The characters in the book were very easy to connect to and I could place each character as a person I knew to help me visualize what happened in the book. Each character in the family really related to each other and you could tell that these could be real people. I got very excited when ever there was something that I was not expecting in the book because it always seemed to be one after the other. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">IF I had to rate this book I would give it 4 out of 5. I really did like this book and I thought it had a great moral to it. The thing I did not like about the book is that the ending was a little sloppy. It was very straight forward and not at all like the rest of the book. Other than that I completely enjoyed this book and would suggest this to anyone that likes to read or has some time and wants to read a book.