The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is about a young girl growing up in a poor neighborhood and wanting to escape. Her story is about how she grows into a young woman and her point of view about Mango Street changes. One of my favorite things about this book is that Sandra Cisneros writes the whole book in a series of vignettes. This book introduced me to vignettes, and we wrote a few in class. They're not really my favorite style of writing but they aren't my least favorite. I didn't understand the book at first because there was an intense amount of poetry. But after we went over each vignette in class I liked it less and less. It was extremely depressing and talked about many unpleasant things that happen every single day. The vignettes opened my eyes to accepting the fact that bad things happen to good people. An unpleasant book to read but necessary to understand.
Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood by Benjamin Alire Saenz is about a boy named Sammy Santos who lives in a barrio at the edge of a small New Mexico town. In the summer before his senior year Sammy falls in love with the beautiful and independent Juliana. Sammy's senior year is a story about love and loss. The story of his love not only for Juliana but for their friends. Sammy is troubled by his unknown identity and staying on the right path. If you learn anything from this book you'll learn that he's a survivor. And survivors never stop trying. I wasn't excited to read this book at first, it was extremely sad and depressing. But the message that I got from the end was only slightly worth it. The last few pages were a complete heart jerker and they left me crying in my bedroom on a Thursday night. I didn't think I'd get so emotional over a book I didn't enjoy reading at first, but those last few pages left me with something to think about.
Antigone by Sophocles
Antigone by Sophocles is an old Greek tale about how upon her arrival in Thebes, Antigone learns that both of her brothers are dead. Eteocles has been given a proper burial, but Creon, Antigone's uncle who has inherited the throne, has issued a royal edict banning the burial of Polyneices, who he believes was a traitor. Antigone defies the law, buries her brother, and is caught. When Creon locks her away in prison, she kills herself. Meanwhile, not realizing Antigone has taken her own life, the blind prophet Teiresias, Creon's son, Antigone's fiancé Haemon, and the Chorus plead with Creon to release her. Creon finally relents, but in an instance of too-late-timing, finds her dead in her jail cell. Out of despair, Haemon and Creon’s wife have by now also killed themselves, and Creon is left in distress and sorrow. Of al of the Greek tragedies I've read, Antigone is my favorite by far.
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan
The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan is about a teenage boy named Jason who wakes up on a school bus not remembering anything from his past, including anything about who he is. He is sitting next to Piper McLean, a girl who appears to be his girlfriend, and a boy, Leo Valdez, who says he is Jason's best friend. The bus is taking them, along with the rest of their grade at their Wilderness School, on a field trip to the Grand Canyon. While they are there, storm spirits attack the three teens. Their supervising teacher, Coach Gleeson Hedge, reveals himself to be a satyr, and helps fight the storm spirits. Jason surprises himself by using a sword disguised as a coin to fight off the spirits. During the battle Coach Hedge is captured while defending them. At the end of the battle, two pegasi land next to them carrying two people, Annabeth and a boy named Butch. Annabeth was disappointed because she had a vision of Hera telling her that she would find a clue to her missing boyfriend, Percy Jackson, at the Grand Canyon. She was told to look for the "boy with the missing shoe"; Jason lost a shoe in the battle, but has no memories of his own identity, let alone Percy Jackson's whereabouts. Jason, Piper and Leo were told that they were demigods (children of a god and a mortal) and are taken back to Camp Half-Blood where they meet other demigod children like themselves. There, Leo is revealed as a son of Hephaestus, Piper as a daughter of Aphrodite, and Jason as a son of Zeus and the brother of Thalia Grace. He remembers his sister while seeing a picture of her in Cabin One. After scarcely 24 hours of learning about their previously hidden identities, the three receive an urgent quest to rescue Hera, queen of the gods, who was captured by unnamed forces. Before the start of their journey Piper had a dream where one of Gaea's sons, Enceladus, tells Piper that she should bring Jason and Leo to him in return for her father who is being held hostage. The three friends set off on the back of a giant robotic dragon that Leo had found in the forest and repaired and named Festus (which in Latin means "happy" so they were riding on "Happy the Dragon") on a cross-country quest to save Hera and Piper's father from Enceladus. Their enemies are under orders from Gaea to reawaken her and overthrow the Olympian gods by pulling up their original roots in Greece. On their way, Jason, Piper and Leo meet Boreas the North Wind in Quebec City, a trio of cyclopes in Detroit, the evil Medea in Chicago, King Midas in a heavily secured white mansion, a pack of werewolves led by Lycaon in a cave, and the very unhelpful Lord of the Winds, Aeolus at his castle 60-feet off ground. In the end the heroes and their friends, the Hunters of Artemis, manage to save both Piper's father and Hera, whose godly life force was being used to raise the giant Porphyrion. They temporarily stall Gaea's plans, but they were unable to completely destroy the ancient beings, and will have to face them again. With part of his memory returned, Jason realizes that he is a hero from a Roman counterpart to Camp Half-Blood somewhere near San Francisco, CA, and that Hera has switched him with the Greek hero Percy Jackson, who is now at the Roman camp called Camp Jupiter with no memory of his life at Camp Half-Blood. Jason and Percy had been sent as representatives to each other's camps, so that the camps could come together to fight the giants and defeat Gaea. I've always loved Rick Riordan and all of his books, especially the ones connected to the Greeks so there is nothing bad that I can say about this book. It's amazing!
Crimson Frost by Jennifer Estep
Crimson Frost by Jennifer Estep is about a girl named Gwen with very rare magical powers. Gwen has been charged with helping the evil Reapers she's supposed to defeat free Loki, the God of Chaos. She has almost no evidence stacked up against her and yet she is being held under house arrest on campus, and she needs to find Loki's Champion. She is the Champion of the Goddess of Victory, Nike. She has to find, and fight Loki's champion. The person prosecuting her is the boy she's in love with's dad, Linus Quinn. She has to save Logan Quinn from evil magic before it can fully possess his body! This book is number four in the Mythos Academy series and I love it. If you plan on reading it you should try and read the first three books. They give the entire backstory of Gwen's journey to overcoming Chaos.
Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
When the pilot of a small, two-person plane has a heart attack and dies, Brian Robeson, a 13 year old boy, crash lands in the forest of the Canadian wilderness. He has little time to realize how alone he is, because he is so busy just trying to survive. He has to learn to plan on food not just for a day but until and if he is rescued. This new way of thinking only begins once he stops pitying himself and accepts the position that he's in. Brian must find a way to survive and in the process, discovers much about himself and becomes a man. He is on his own, without his divorced father, whom he was trying to visit, or his mother, who Brian saw kissing another man before the divorce. It seems that at every moment Brian is forced to face a life-and-death decision. Will he be rescued in time? I enjoyed reading about the experiences of a young boy alone in the wilderness because it shed a light on his thought process. It made me think about the possible mental consequences that could last his whole life. His pilot whom he shared a partial journey with died right in front of him and it changed his life forever. He had to adapt to his situation and surroundings, something that would terrify the average teenager. And although he was terrified, he overcame that fear by working towards one common goal: surviving.
Into the Wild by John Krakauer
After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, he encounters a series of characters who shape his life. He meets new friends who he spends time with and he touches their hearts when he explains how he doesn't need anything in life but the essentials. And that's how he plans to travel and live in the Alaskan wilderness, with only the essentials. He leaves his family behind without telling them where he is and begins on his journey. This novel is about self discovery, courage, and life. I personally enjoyed this book because while my entire class read every day, I had already finished the book. It took me one night to realize that it was an amazing novel. Although he died (spoiler alert!) All I could think about was: Could I give up all of my possessions and leave my life behind, alone? Knowing that there was a very high possibility of my own death? The amount of courage Christopher had inspired me in a way I hadn't been inspired before. It made me realize just how attached I was to material things that shouldn't have meant a thing to me. For anyone thinking about reading this book: it gets dry at a few chapters, but the aftermath of his situation hits you at one point and makes you contemplate about your own life and experiences. I highly recommend it.