A Night to Remember Summary For this assignment I read “A Night to Remember” by Walter Lord. It is about the night the Titanic sank. The Titanic sank in 1912. There is a quote about the time period, “Just the night, the stars, the biting cold, the wind that whistled through the rigging as the Titanic raced across the calm, Black Sea at 22 ½ knots. It was almost 11:40pm, on Sunday, the 14th of April, 1912.” (p.2) The Californian was the closest ship to Titanic. They warned the Titanic about icebergs but they were in denial because they thought it was unsinkable. A quote about how people thought the Titanic was unsinkable is, “The Titanic could float with any 2 of her 16 water compartments flooded. She could float with any 3 of her first 5 compartments flooded, she could even float with all of her first four compartments gone. But no matter how they sliced it, she could not float with all of her first 5 compartments full.” (p.21) They didn’t think all of her compartments would get full. The back-up plan was to turn around and go to Belfast if a minor thing that needed fixing happened. The captain took 25 minutes after the boat hit the ice berg to uncover the life boats. The captain of the Titanic was Captain Smith. When the crew uncovered the lifeboats, there weren’t enough for the people on the boat, so they had the women and children get on first. The passengers on the boat didn’t think it was that big of a deal so they just slowly got onto the lifeboats, and some of the women and children didn’t even go in the lifeboats. When they finally realized it was a big deal, they tried contacting the other ship, The Californian, that was close by but they weren’t getting a signal. The Californian missed the signal, so they weren’t getting help. However, they did get in touch with another ship called the Carpathia, but it was further away so it would take longer to get there. When it first started, they were helping each other, but by the time it was sinking it was every man for himself. In my opinion, the author’s purpose for writing “A Night to Remember” is so that people would get to see the passengers’ and captain’s point of view on the Titanic. I think that because I really understood what the people on the ship were going through during this time. Yes, I think the author accomplished that goal because I learned how awful it was towards the end of the sinking. My favorite quote from the book was, “I cannot imagine any condition that would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel.”(p.22) This quote is important because Captain Smith is talking about how ships are unsinkable. I did not enjoy reading this book because it took a while to pick up the pace, and it was really depressing, honestly. I would recommend it to others only if they really like this time period, otherwise, no.
Madison Marques Flyboys by James Bradley is about nine brave men that wanted to go up in a aircraft and drop a bomb on Japan during WW2. They were in the army to help they wanted to serve their country, but then things went wrong when they were in the air and the Japanese aircraft shot them down in a shoot off. The eight brave soldiers found themselves captured by the Japanese one of the nine soldiers was found by a navy submarine and was taken in protection. All that one soldier wanted to do was help him friends that he had grown so close to and save them from the Japanese but he couldn't. The captain of the army tried to do everything he could to save the eight men that were going through hell and back in the Japanese prison. They were not being feed and they were in a tiny room with little water and sunlight. But the captain could not do anything to help the soldiers there lives were over and there was nothing that could stop it from happening. After the war was over the lives of the eight soldiers that were captured no longer existed their identities were vanished not only by the American government but by the Japanese government too. None of any of their families will ever know what happened to them. Their families were left to wonder what went on in the war and why there family member never came home. The authors purpose for writing this was to tell the reader that war is something serious and that we need to learn about it so this does not ever happen again. Yes, James Bradley did accomplish his goal the readers know should know more about what actually happens to people during war the awful things that happen. James Bradley really described WW2 in this book. Flyboys takes place in WW2 with the Japanese and America. The author teaches me that WW2 was a very hard time period that people were dying left and right and the war went on for 6 years. One day something bad could happen and the people and soldiers could not know what to do or how to react. "The Marines were the best fighting men of World War 2." WW2 was mostly a navy battle but it was in the air too. "They can fly, are going to fly, and may end up by developing the greatest air power in the world." This is explaining that when there was a battle in the air it was a good battle and there needed to be the best people in the air fighting. I did not enjoy reading this book I liked that it was personal but I did not care for all the information it was too much to process. I would recommend this book to someone who likes to read and wants to know more about WW2. "Fundamentally the thing that brought about the determination to make peace was the prolonged bombing by the B-29s." This is my favorite quote because it says that the Americans wanted peace with Japan so bad that they were going to do anything to get it even if it meant they were going to end up killing people.
In the book ‘The Dark Game True Spy Stories’ by Paul B. Janeczko he covers spy stories from Washington outspying the British up till the 1990‘s. Through the book you learn about different spies and their stories. Some were good spies that help win wars and some were bad spies that handed information over to the enemy for large sums of pay. You also learn about what some Presidents do to increase the knowledge of America by using spies and tapping equipment. Sometimes theirs plans worked and it helped with the wars, but other times they were found out and some spies were jailed, and worse killed. In my opinion the author wrote this book to give knowledge to others about spies and their works, and how our Leaders and Presidents played their roles in the spy world. He also might’ve wrote the book to show how dangerous a spy’s life and work can be if he or she is caught by the enemy. The author did accomplish his goal with giving knowledge about spies, their works, and how dangerous their lives were. I know this because I learned new things about spies that I didn’t even know about. I even found out that there were female spies back then and it makes me feel like females can be whoever and whatever they want, the world is not all male dominated. The historical time periods and events that my book takes place are from when George Washington was president till the 1990's. The events that the book went over were: The American Revolution, The Civil War, World War I, World War II and the, The Cold War. This author’s book teaches me that the time periods were all mostly close together, there were some gaps, because some wars were farther apart from others. It also teaches me that spies worked and sometimes betrayed our government, Leaders, and Presidents since they could gain knowledge from the enemy. It also shows me how much spy gadgets improved over the long years. It also showed me that the female spies were the most cunning and deadly spies. Because who would really expect a woman to do a ‘mans’ job? It was some of the male spies that betrayed the government and traded information for large sums of money. The two quotes that taught me something about the time period and events are: “Washington did not really outfight the British, he simply outspied us!”, and “Whether it was sexy, hold-your-breath data, I tend, to, doubt it.” The first quote taught me that if we try hard enough and gather large amounts of data and put that data to work we can excel in anything even ending a war and winning. The second quote taught me that the information that the spies gathered about the enemy was worth a whole lot and if it was giving out to the wrong hands, something could go wrong. Maybe that’s why some spies betrayed the government because of the money and ‘fame’. Personally I did not enjoy reading this book. I thought it was going to be a bunch of spies journals that tell their stories, but it was just a bunch of information about them and at some parts it was interesting to learn something new, but through the book I found myself bored. I just wanted to finish the book. Yes, I would recommend this book to others if they simply want to read about history or information about spies. Or if their doing a project about this subject because it had a lot of information and useful things. Reading through this book I didn’t have a favorite quote. Though the quotes were interesting to see what other’s said, I didn’t have a favorite one. By: Alexandra Michaud Grade: 10
Paige Arcand The summary of this novel starts off with Christmas just around the corner and the girls names are Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. They were all sitting in their living rooms when the girls decided to each buy themselves a present to brighten their Christmas because they weren’t the wealthiest because the father was in war at the time. Then they change their minds and decide that instead of buying presents for themselves, they will buy presents for their mother whose name is Marmee. Later their mother comes home with a letter from their father who is in the civil war. After reading the fathers letter the girls change their mind sets to not complain about their poverty or poorness. On Christmas morning the girls find books under their pillows. Then later in the day, Marmee tells the girls to give their breakfast to a poor family named the Hummels. While over their Jo meats a boy named Laurie he’s the boy who lives with a rich man named Mr.Laurence. Laurie gets sick so when jo goes to visit him she meets Mr. Laurence the boys grandfather. Then Mr Laurence meets all of the sisters and Beth becomes the favorite one. Beth has a love for the piano but since they don’t have a lot of money Mr. Laurence gives them his piano which is a really nice one. So therefore the girls have many adventures throughout the novel. Nothing to bad happens it’s just about the girls going through life with their dad in war. In my opion the authors point for writing this book was to show how to be grateful for everything you have because someone else could have it much worse. Yes the author accomplished the goal because it made the girls be very non selfish and to share with others. 1868 and 1869 was when this book took place. I learned that in these years the civil war was happening. 2 quotes from this book is one “I’ll try and be what he loves to call me, “a little woman,” and not be rough and wild; but do my duty here instead of wanting to be somewhere else.” Jo says this because she wants to be in the civil war just like her father but women can’t be in wars back then. The other quote is “Oh, my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this!” this quote says how women have to make a lot of sacrifices for their family’s to be happy. Yes I did enjoy reading this book because there was a lot of love being shown, through couples love, neighbors love and of course family love. I would recommend this book to others if they were into civil war situations and how family’s coped with having a family member in the war at the time this book was revolved around. My favorite quote from this book is “I am angry nearly every day of my life.” I like this quote because marmee makes this statement to Jo about how hard it is to be all by herself without her husband to help with life and to make everyone happy.
Alexis Mercado The book that I read for this summer assignment was Columbine by Dave Cullen. This book was about the school shooting that took place at Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado on Tuesday April 20, 1999. It did a very good job with describing, in detail, the lives of the two shooters, Dylan and Eric, what their motives might have been, their original plans, how they fell through, how they had to improvise, and also what their friends thought of them before and after the massacre. Of course, along with including detail about the lives of the shooters, the book also gave a lot of detail on the lives of the survivors and victims. The book also included how parents, survivors, and the media reacted to this event while it was unfolding and how they felt about it. It did a great job with including personal experiences of first responders, parents, teachers, and students that were able to escape. Personally, I think that the authors’ purpose for this book was to provide the reader with detailed information about this tragic school massacre that would erase all of the rumors. I do think that he was able to accomplish that goal because while telling the actual story about what went on inside of the school, he also addressed what the media was saying while the event was happening, as well as afterwards. Since he decided to write the book in that way, it was able to give the reader the true story and clear up all of the rumors. This book took place during a violent time period in history. Before Columbine, there had been numerous amounts of school shootings, starting in Bethel, Alaska in February 1997 and people didn’t feel safe anymore. The book says, “By graduation day, 1998, it felt like a full-blown epidemic. With each escalation, small towns and suburbia grew a little more tense.” Another quote that the book provides is, “Each fresh horror left millions shaking their heads, wondering when the next outcast would strike.” Both of these quotes prove that it was a violent time period and many people didn’t feel safe. The only reason I enjoyed reading this book was because of the good stories that were told. For example, the book included stories on how the community was able to come together and help support one another, how the students were able to help each other escape or survive during the tragic event, etc. I would recommend this book to somebody who would like to learn or know a lot about what happened during, before, and after the Columbine school shooting because it does a really good job on describing those things. On the other hand, I would not recommend this book to anybody who is very sensitive to this topic because of the heavy detail. My favorite quote from this book was “I don’t even think he thought about it,” “His instinct was to save his kids.” This quote was said by the daughter of a well-known and very well-liked teacher. It’s my favorite quote because it shows what kind of person he was and that he was selfless. It also shows that even though he could’ve gotten out of the school and survived, he chose to save the students, no matter the consequences.
Emma Valade Spies of Mississippi: The True Story of the Spy Network that Tried to Destroy the Civil Rights Movement by Rick Bowers I read the book Spies of Mississippi which was based off of racism in the 1950’s carried on through the 60’s. In 1956, The Sovereignty Commission was passed to enable the people in the legislation to maintain a successful fight for preserving the separation of the races in Mississippi for the next two years. People liked segregation and didn't want it to change. Within 3-4 years of the Mississippi state Sovereignty Commission being formed, they transformed themselves into a spy agency with investigators and agents to go around the state to find a change in the Mississippi way of life. The group started out small with a few former, trained, government investigators and kept adding on more people. Their main goal was to block voting rights for black people. The spy agencies were known for taking license plate numbers, tags, and addresses from people who were attending civil rights meetings and giving them to newspapers for them to publish. Over 160,000 spy reports were filed to get information in advance to stop people like Martin Luther King from coming to Mississippi and finding their way into the state. In my opinion, I believe that the author’s purpose for writing this book was to share information from this time period which he accomplished well because the book talks about the segregation that was going on and makes people more aware of racism. The author’s book teaches me that people were very racist and whites believed they were very superior during this time period. A quote from the book, “When it came to the tense relationship between whites and blacks in Mississippi, Coleman wanted “peace and quiet”’ taught me that whites and blacks were not civil people and racism was a big issue at the time. Another quote that taught me how people were determined to continue segregation was “He knew that those powerful lawmakers would not back down until the bill was signed into law” which was interesting to see how strong-minded these people were. I enjoyed reading this book because it was a surprise to me that the government could go undercover like they did and how their acts made such big impacts. I would recommend this book to other readers because it has good, factious information and is an interesting book to read. My favorite quote from this book would have to be “Neighbors spied on neighbors. Teachers spied on students. Ministers spied on churchgoers. Spies spied on spies” just because it shows that while all of this was happening you couldn't really trust anyone because even your own people were secretly watching you. Overall, this book was appealing to me for its fascinating information and shocking stories that made me like the book even more.
In the book For Freedom by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, for thirteen year old Suzanne World War II began in Cherbourg, France. The skies were suddenly filled with airplanes dropping bombs. Nazis started occupying her town. Suzanne and her family had to leave their house and move to a small, cheap apartment. Markets began to shut down, there was little food and people began to disappear. Suzanne refused to give into fear. An organizer for the French Resistance wants Suzanne to help him. She becomes number twenty-two, a spy passing messages with codes all over the city.
I think the author’s purpose in writing this book is to see was people were going through in World War II in France and for us to read about Suzanne’s journey as a French spy. Yes she did accomplish this goal because in the book it tells you about what happen to Suzanne. The time period in the book was during the 1940’s in France when the Nazis where taking over. This book taught me how hard it was for people living in this tie period with a war going on.
One of the quotes that taught me something about this time period was “ The Nazis passes the first of their laws restricting the activities of French Jews.” This quotes taught me that Jews in this time period could do as many things and the non-Jews. The second quote is “They burned them. If the author was a Jew.” This showed me that the Nazis were trying to control everything when it came to the Jews. Even what they read.
I didn’t really enjoy reading this book because I’m not a big reader of historical fiction. I do recommend this book to other who enjoy books about history and World War II.
From Bruno Marques: 30 July 1945, after delivering parts for the first atomic bomb to the United States air base at Tinian, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by an Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-58, sinking in 12 minutes. There were 1,196 crewmen aboard and approximately 300 sailors immediately went down with the ship. The remaining 900 sailors faced horrible challenges such as; dehydration, saltwater poisoning, shark attacks, heavy sunburn, “blisters the size of cigarettes, illusions, starvation, sailors drowning, committing suicide while floating with few lifeboats with no paddles. The public however their story remained untold in the New York Times due to another headline saying that the pacific war was over. The author illustrates the hardships they faced the struggle beyond believe that they encountered; this was their story of what happened on the 30th of July 1945.Doug Stanton creates a stunning, vivid story using information and pictures that captivates your imagination. The details and imagery that he creates and his sharp eye for detail makes you seem like you were their experiencing the days lost at sea with them. The author takes you on a journey of this strong willed generation of men, where they are pushed beyond limits physically and mentally to survive in unbearable conditions. There were a couple of sayings that the sailors said that really stood out to me. When Jack Miner was asked; “What did you think about when you were in the water?” He responded saying “I fantasized about meeting my parents at a dim roadside bar in the north woods of Wisconsin to share the story over a few cold beers. I bargained with God. As the days dragged on, I thought less and less while I dreamed more and more”. This shows that he was not even in the mindset of dying and wanted to keep his head held high even though of the terrible things he was facing that there would always be a light at the end of the tunnel. Another thing that one of the sailors said that amazed me and was one of my favorite quotes was when Hayes saw a group of boy’s swimming in a single file line in shark infested waters. He asked “What’s up, son?” the boy said “Shhh,Doc, there’s a small hotel on the island there, and they got one room and you can get fifteen minutes of sleep. You get in line- you’ll get a turn.” This really shows how starvation, dehydration and salt poisoning not only takes a toll on you physically but messes you up mentally. It shows how desperate these sailors were in getting back home or even just having the common essities that we have every day and take for granted. We don’t realize how important it is until you take all of it away and realize how crucial it is to our well-being. I enjoyed reading this book because of not how vivid it was but the fact that there was so much information that I learned providing facts, statistics and the date in which it occurred. It was also a nice feature that they included real pictures of the guys you were reading about and they showed maps on where the ship was sunk at showed the surrounding islands so when they were saying that they were 500 miles away from Leyte you would know where it was and have a sense in the area they were talking about. I would totally recommend this book to someone else it’s a great read and with the imagery Doug Stanton creates it lets your imagination go wild and is an interesting tale of what these heroes went through.
Haley Dimeo The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Young Bruno lives a wealthy lifestyle in Berlin, Germany along with his mother, elder sister, and SS Commandant father. The family relocates to the Poland countryside where his father is assigned to take command a prison camp. A few days later, Bruno befriends another child, strangely dressed in striped pajamas, named Shmuel who lives behind an barbed fence. Bruno will soon find out that he is not permitted to be friends because he is a Jew, and that the neighboring yard is actually a prison camp for Jews awaiting extermination. The author of this story is John Boyne. He wrote this story based on an image that he had about two boys talking on different sides of a fence and he could tell that they have been taken away from their home unwillingly. As soon as he saw this he immediately thought of the Holocaust and what the people had to go through. In the Author's Note John said "I believed that the only respectful way for me to deal with this subject was throughout the eyes of a child, and particularly throughout the eyes of a rather naive child that couldn't possibly understand the terrible things that were taking place around him." He wrote this book so that everyone reading it knew what the children on both sides of this terrible event felt, and how confused they really were. He thought that it was important that these incredible people were never forgotten. I believe John achieved this goal, he touched the hearts of all the readers. The author says that he wants to make this not simply about one concentration camp in one war. He wants the reader to be able to relate the story to any time period and any war. This is also why he never uses the word Auschwitz, but instead lets nine year old Bruno pronounce it Out-With. Bruno also calls Hitler the Fury instead of the Fuhrer. The moral is simple. Complacency is dangerous. Looking back, we all wonder how something like the Holocaust could have happened. The story begins in Berlin, Germany, during the holocaust. The time period is in the early 1940’s. Later on In the story Bruno and his family move to Poland, near a Jewish camp. The Holocaust began in 1933 shortly after Adolf Hitler came to power. The Nazis targeted gypsies and disabled for execution. Anyone who resisted them were sent to labor or killed. An estimation of 11 million people were murdered, 6 million of the Jewish religion. ‘’We’re not supposed to be friends, you and me. We’re meant to be enemies. Did you know that?’’ ‘’There is such thing as a nice Jew though, isn’t there?’’ ‘’ I think, Bruno, if you ever found a nice Jew, you would be the best explorer in the world. Both of these quotes show how convinced the German people were, by Adolf Hitler. He wanted to exterminate the Jewish population, and many others. He blamed the Jews for the loss in World War 1, and all his other problems. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a touching story, for anyone who reads it. I’d definitely recommend it. By focusing on Bruno’s innocent and puzzled view of his father’s new promotion, the author shows an excellent representation of the events during the genocide of the holocaust.
Justin Valentin Book: A Night To Remember By: Walter Lord
This book is about a ship that sank on April 15, 1912 during World War 1. The ship that was called Titanic and was said to be unsinkable by everyone and it was also the biggest ship in the world at the time even bigger than it's older sister ship the Olympic. The disaster started at 11:40pm with an iceberg scraping some parts of the side of the bow of the ship and ended at 2:20am when the Titanic broke and half and sank into the freezing Atlantic Ocean. The sinking of the Titanic took more than 1,500 peoples lives and only a little over 700 people survived the Titanic that sank in only 2 hours in 40 minutes.
I think the authors purpose for writing this was to show something that happened many years ago about a sad disaster, and how it took so many lives. Plus how this disaster impacts us today with new ship regulations like lifeboat drills for if a ship were to sink.
I think the author did get there point across because while telling the story what's happening you get to see how bad it was while the ship Titanic was sinking and how it makes an impact now on the ship they build and use today.
The author teaches about that time in history is when technology was slowly begging because you could of went on this ship and get to your destination in days or a week because before they started making ships like the Titanic it took months to even get to your destination or even send a letter to someone in another country.
Some quotes in the book were "There's talk of an Iceberg, Ma'am" and "there is your beautiful nightdress gone". Both of the quotes I believe take a major role in this book. Because the first quote is when the Titanic hit's the Ice Berg at 11:40am which teaches the begging of something awful is going to begin and the second quote teaches that it is done and everything is gone like people's stuff, most of people on the Titanic, and the ship.
I did enjoy this book because the sinking of the Titanic is a major incident that happened in the Atlantic Ocean and stunned the world how it all happened because there was not enough life boats for everyone on the ship and how it killed so many people from only hitting an ice berg and then sinking in only 2 hours and 40 minutes after being called the unsinkable ship. This is why I enjoyed reading A Night To Remember.
Yes, I would recommend this book because this was a major incident that took place and people need to be aware of this so something like this never happens again. Plus this made an impact on today ships and regulations and people should know why and be educated so they can be prepared if an event were to happen again. This is why I recommend the book A Night To Remember by Walter Lord.
Unbroken is a true story based on a young Olympic runner from Torrance, California named Louis Zamperini. As a child he was a troubled student and didn’t always complete his work. He enlisted in the United States Army Air Force in September 1941 and after all his training he was called into service on a bomber crew in the Pacific in World War 2. On May 27, 1943 the Plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean and Louie and two others were the only survivors. After more than a month the two men were left Louie and the pilot of the plane. As they got closer to a shore line they were both seized by the Japanese navy. They were stated to be dead because America was not informed about the capture but even with hearing this, their families did not give up hope and believed they were alive. In the beginning they were getting treated tolerable but after a while they were transferred to a different Japanese prisoner camp where because of the severe treatment they thought that they would die there. Louis got harsher treatment at the camps since he was a famous Olympian runner. He was sent to multiple camps and eventually he ended up in Tokyo. While there he was tortured by a group called “The Bird” and was treated partially brutally. They attempted to make a broadcast to America but when he refused he was severally punished. When Louis was in one of the Tokyo camps America dropped the atomic bombs on Japan which was when Japan to surrender. A lot of the prisoners knew nothing about this war until the guards told them it was over. When the prisoners got released Louis was hospitalized first and then sent home to his family. His life was very disturbed when he arrived home. He was forced to marry a young woman after only two weeks of meeting her. He started to become an alcoholic because of drinking all the time from all the stress he was feeling from flashbacks of being imprisoned. It put a lot of strain on his marriage and his wife told him she wanted to file for divorce. When she told him this Louis decided to turn his life around to save his marriage. After he quit drinking he soon realized that his nightmares weren’t as bad as they were before. He started making appearances to people and giving speeches about his experience with “The Bird”. The author, Laura Hillenbrands, purpose for writing this book was to inform readers about the inspirational and influential life story of Louis Zamperini. She did this by showing the multiple positive traits of Louis which made the readers appreciative of how brave and courageous he was. This book covers the time period of World War II (1937-1939). What Hillenbrands teaches us about World War II is that the war was brutal and many soldiers suffered not only during the war but afterwards dealing with Post-traumatic stress disorder. With all the stress and suffering from this war a lot of soldiers did not survive and the ones who did it took a lot of strength to do. As an example, when Louis and the other two were drifting in the water they had to think about not giving up. Louis had to keep looking for ways he could survive, focusing on how he was going to get food and fresh water.
Lexi Tremaine Unbroken Part 2 Laura used many powerful quotes in her story. One of the quotes she used was, "Louie and his father rode together to the train station. The platform was crowded with uniformed young men and crying parents, clinging to one another, saying good-bye. When Louie embraced his father, he could feel him shaking." What this quote shows about World War II is that it was hard for the parents and drafted soldiers to say goodbye. For many of the parents they did not know if it would be the last goodbye. Another quote from this story that the author used is, "It was absolutely dark and absolutely silent, except for the chattering of Phil's teeth.” During the time of World War II if you were a prisoner you were expected to be silent and to just obey the orders from the guards. This quote shows that at some of the camps it was supposed to be silent and dark because otherwise the guards would discipline you and probably beat you. Personally I thought the book was okay. There were some parts that were suspenseful and I just wanted to know what was going to happen. There were some parts that I found less interesting but I would recommend this book to someone that wants to learn more about World War II. My favorite quote from this book is, “Without dignity, identity is erased.” Hillenbrands uses this quote to show that if you don’t believe in yourself and do what you need to do for yourself nobody will. And that in stressful situations it’s important to know who you are and to remember what you believe in and fight for that.
Unbroken Author: Laura Hillenbrand By: Nick Servidone Unbroken tells the remarkable story of Louis S Zamperini an Olympic runner, who becomes captured by the Japanese after 47 days at sea during WWII. Louis was born on January 26th 1917 in Olean New York to his father Anthony Zamperini and his mother Louise Dossi, who was 18 years old at Louis birth. In 1919 at the age of two Louis had pneumonia and his health condition forced his parents out to Torrance California. As a child, adolescent and teenager Louis stole anything that was edible, whether pie or an apple Louis took it. The only person who could put any sense into Louis was his older brother Pete. Pete, who watched over him and his two sisters Sylvia and Virginia, Louis idolized Pete. In High school Louis got into trouble to many times. His brother Pete convinced Louis to do track. Louis was a gifted and phenomenal runner. He ran a mile in 4.26 minutes during high school and improved to 4.08 during WWII on a beach. Louis made it all the way to the 1936 Berlin Olympics where he met Adolf Hitler. (Believe it or not Hitler liked Louis and personally congratulated him) When WWII broke out Louis joined. While out with his crew Louis’ plane was shot down over the Pacific Ocean. Only three survived the crash. (Zamperini, Philips & McNamara) Quickly facing starvation, the men saved themselves by eating unwary albatrosses that used the raft as a perch. Zamperini would tie improvised hooks to his hands to create a claw and catching an occasional fish. They cut up fabric from a second raft to protect themselves from the scorching equatorial sun. Storms temporarily slaked their desperate thirst. Throughout, mako and reef sharks floated expectantly alongside and beneath them, rubbing their backs against the raft and, sometimes, lunging up into it. The men beat them off with oars and even managed to kill a couple and eat their livers. On their 33rd day at sea McNamara died. Others in similar situations might have resorted to cannibalism; after Zamperini uttered some lines remembered from the movies, he and Phillips simply cast McNamara overboard. The two men passed the days, and maintained their sanity, by peppering each other with questions, cooking imaginary meals, singing “White Christmas.” On the 46th day they spotted land: the Marshall Islands. On the 47th they were picked up by Japanese sailors. While only one in 100 Americans captured in Europe died, nearly one in three perished in Japanese captivity. First in the Pacific and later in Japan, Louis was subjected to an unrelenting regime of assaults: humiliation, starvation, medical experiments, slave labor and disease. Louis was quoted during his time in captivity “I was literally becoming a lesser human being.” A succession of sadistic guards topped by a psychopathic sadist named Mutsuhiro Watanabe, aka the Bird, derived a special pleasure from beating him. Louis believed that Watanabe was also mad because he didn’t get a promotion he wanted. Louis went to two different P.O.W. camps. First Ofuna (technically not a P.O.W camp), then Omori, and finally Naoetsu. Louis stayed at his first camp the longest. The only other survivor of the plane crash (Phil) was transferred to another camp where he miraculously survived. Looking skyward where American bombers could be spotted with increasing frequency the G.I.’s knew the war would soon end. But that was a mixed blessing: the Japanese had repeatedly vowed to kill all P.O.W.’s rather than hand them over, and surely would have if the Americans had invaded Japan. Zamperini and his fellow prisoners were effectively saved by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Once home Louis would have frequent nightmares about the war. Life back home was more difficult than Louis expected. Just this past year on July 2nd 2014 Louis Zamperini passed away at his home in Hollywood California, he was 97. His story is currently being made into a movie.
Marielle Godbolt For my summer assignment I read the book They Called Themselves the KKK. This book is about what life in the South in 1871 was like after the war ended and the tragedy that follows. After the war confederate soldiers were not allowed to work. A lot of the men that were used to working got very tired of doing nothing after their arrival and start to hate everyone. The KKK was originally supposed to be started as a club for the men that had nothing to do. However this did not last long. The KKK eventually became a nasty hate group that committed multiple crimes and horrible acts. The KKK became very scared of the changing in the South. The KKK thought black freedman would be superior and enslave all of them and because of this their forces grew stronger and they would whip people, kill people and burn churches and houses down. No black family could ever be safe with the KKK. Any minute they could be dead meat. It was said in this story that the KKK members were thought to be evil ghosts of the confederate soldiers that came back to fight with their brothers. The KKK would wear white sheets over their heads and ride around on horses. I think that the author’s purpose to writing this book was to explain to her readers the horrible atrocities the KKK did. I think that Susan Bartoelli did a phenomenal job. Her book was very in depth and was very explicit but in this case it was a good thing. She did not hide anything from the readers. There were two quotes from this story that stood out to me and I found very interesting. The first quote I chose is "Most white Southerners believed that God created black people for the special purpose of working and serving white people." This quote taught me that during the time period people had no sympathy for blacks. No one cared what happened because their only purpose on the earth was to provide for the white people and nothing else. The second quote I chose to explain is "Boys, let us get up a club." I think that this quote is a very important because these few words sparked up this horrid mark on American history. My favorite quote from this book was “Most white Southerners scarcely knew a family that didn't mourn a relative or friend killed or wounded in the war." This was my favorite quote because explains all of the death with the confederates and shows how hateful the KKK was because of these deaths. I personally did enjoy reading this book. Although it was not my favorite read I thought Susan Bartoelli did a great job at recapping what the KKK did. I am not usually big on reading things about history but I found parts of this book to be very interesting. I would highly recommend this book to really anyone who is looking to learn more about history slavery and the KKK. Even if you don’t like history I would still recommend reading it you may be surprised on how interesting this topic can be I was surely surprised.
Timmy Rivera The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a young adult novel by writer John Boyne. In this novel, a young boy is frustrated when he learns that his family has been forced to relocate due to his father's new job in the German military. The family's new home is in the middle of nowhere where young Bruno has no one to play with and nothing to do with the exception of exploring the boundaries of the odd fenced-in compound next door to the family's home. In the end, Bruno does make a friend, but this friend is trapped behind the fence, destined to never play with Bruno with the abandon of most kids their age. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a look at the Holocaust through the eyes of a child who comes to see the unfairness of it in a way only innocence can reveal. Bruno comes home from school one day to discover that his family is preparing to move. Bruno has always lived in Berlin and therefore he is greatly distressed by this move. Bruno's distress increases when he discovers the family will be moving to a house in the middle of nowhere that is much smaller than their previous house. Bruno begs his father to allow them to return to Berlin, but Bruno's father explains that the job has been given in this new place is a very important job and that it is imperative to his father's career that they all remain where they are. Bruno can see out his bedroom window an odd-fenced compound next door to the family's home where hundreds of children appear to live. When Bruno shows this view to his sister, they both realize that the people are not all children, but they appear to be because the clothing they are wearing looks like striped pyjamas. Bruno wonders who these people are, but no one seems willing to talk about them. As part of his father's job, there seem to always be soldiers around the house. One morning, Bruno decides to build a tire swing in the front yard. One of the soldiers orders an elderly man, a servant in the house, to help Bruno. Later, when Bruno falls from the newly constructed swing, the servant comes to his aid. This servant, Pavel, cares for Bruno's wounds. When Bruno asks about his knowledge, Pavel reveals that he was a doctor before the war. Bruno is confused as to why Pavel no longer works as a doctor. Maria, the family's maid, tells Bruno that Pavel cannot work as a doctor any longer because he is a Jew.
Timmy Rivera (part 2) A short time later, Bruno begins exploring the fence that divides his family's property from the compound next door. When Bruno has walked for what seems like hours, he comes across a young boy about his own age. This boy, Shmuel, lives on the other side of the fence. Shmuel tells Bruno how he once lived above his father's watch store, but the soldiers came and first moved his family into a single room they were forced to share with many others and then brought them to this camp. Bruno and Shmuel begin meeting nearly every day after Bruno's lessons. Bruno often brings Shmuel food, when he does not eat it himself on the long walk, because Shmuel seems hungry. Then one day Bruno is surprised to find Shmuel in his house, given the job of cleaning the fancy glasses owned by Bruno's mother. Shmuel gets into trouble after eating some chicken Bruno gave him. Bruno was afraid to tell the truth, allowing the soldier to believe Shmuel stole the chicken. To make amends to Shmuel for lying about the chicken, Bruno hatches a plan to go into the compound dressed like Shmuel to help while Shmuel looks for his father. On that day Shmuel and Bruno search the entire compound for Shmuel's father, but never find a single clue. Finally Bruno decides he must go home for dinner. However, Bruno and Shmuel find themselves in the middle of a large group of people when the soldiers come and force the people into a small building. Shmuel and Bruno hold hands as people begin to panic in the small room. Bruno's parents search frantically for Bruno for weeks after he disappears. Finally Bruno's mother returns to Berlin with his sister. A year after his disappearance, Bruno's father visits the place where Bruno left his clothing, finally realizing what happened to his son. When the Allied soldiers come a few months later, Bruno's father no longer cares what they might do to him.
Moses Clark-Devost Book: They Call Themselves The K.K.K, The Birth of an American Terrorist Group This book, called the They Call Themselves The K.K.K, The Birth of an American Terrorist Group, is about a group of white activists who participate in prejudicial activities against various peoples, specifically blacks. The book details talks how Ku Klux Klan started. The year was 1865 in an area where they had their secret meetings. The Klu Klux Klan was very racist towards black people and people who disagreed with their beliefs. They killed people they hate, burn crosses showing their hatred towards other religions and lynched people. These tactics were ways they scared people. It continues on today but more in the south and not as bad as it was years ago. The author’s, Susan Campbell Bartoletti, purpose for writing this book was to teach people about how this American terrorist group started and how they believe in what they believe in and also the things they did to people like I said earlier in this post. Yes, this author accomplished the goal of detailing the history of the K.K.K. because before I read this book I knew little to nothing about the K.K.K. After reading this book, I gained a lot of knowledge. I learned what year they began and what they did to make people support them or their attempts to do so. The historical timeline in this book begins with the birth of the K.K.K. in the late 1800’s to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s. The K.K.K.’s efforts worsen around 1960’s because of the Civil Rights Movement which angered the group causing them to retaliate in a violent ways throughout the south. The author’s book teaches about how different times were back and how there now is slightly different. It does go with U.S. history because U.S. history goes far back and it does include the 1800’s which is when the K.K.K started. The Civil Rights Movement is probably one of the most epic in our history. One quote has to do with slavery and how black people were treated back then, “Course she is our slave now as much as she was two years ago when you bought her for 1500 dollars.” This shows that they use them to do housework that they can do themselves but since the society back then found this to be acceptable. Another quote shows how white people were afraid that black people would take their jobs, a black union solider see his master among a group of confederate prisoners and says “Bottom rail dis time”. This means that things have changed and they changed for the better for the black union solider. This taught me how bad the community was towards black people. I did and didn’t enjoy the book at the same time. I like that I learned more and my knowledge has increased, the other side was how bad and racist the society was back in the 1800’s. The way people lived with so much hatred is hard to believe. The reason for their hate was because people are different and this group has a problem with people who are difference from themselves. The book had lots of information on how this terrorist group began and thrived. I would somewhat recommend this book to other people because if they had an assignment about this the book would be very informational for them. Although a horrific group, they propelled the Civil Rights Movements which altered our history.
Natalia Bellettiere (Part 1) A Night To Remember Over the summer break of 2014, for my English summer reading assignment I read the novel, A Night to Remember by Walter Lord. This novel is an overall summary of the sinking Titanic. Walter Lord not only interviewed over 55 survivors of the Titanic but also combined their stories to make a minute-by-minute story of the sinking ship. Thought out reading this novel I was able to perfectly visualize every second after the Titanic hit the ice berg and began the tragic sinking process. This novel was first published in 1955 and is still read and enjoyed by many today. This novel not only gave me an idea of the sinking Titanic, but let me live it. Throughout reading this life changing novel, I think the purpose for this magnificent writing was to give the readers a better understanding of what truly happened on the tragic night of the sinking Titanic. Most people today only know some what about the Titanic from the classic movie. Although this movie explained the basic idea of what happened does not give a full story of what everyone on the ship went through, but Walter Lord’s novel does. I think Walter Lord one hundred percent reached his goal of giving the readers a full story of the sinking ship. In my personal experience, while reading this novel I was able to not only visualize what was happening on the tragic Titanic, but also truly feel for the fallen passengers. For example, Walter Lord’s novel goes in-depth of each members experience that night. I was not only able to imagine the workers on the boat but the passengers as well.
Natalia Bellettiere (Part 2) A Night To Remember The time period of this novel was in the year 1912 but was directly focused on the date April 15, 1912, the night the Titanic officially sank. Throughout reading this story, I not only learned about the Titanic but the time period as well. One historical fact I learned from this book was that passengers were divided by money. The more money you had, the higher you stayed on the ship and the more privileges you had. The less money you had, the lower you stayed on the ship and less privileges you had. Money also came into play when the boat was sinking. Guards of the ship were helping the rich passengers into separate boats to swim to shore in while keeping captive the poorer passengers. From reading the quote, “The night was a magnificent confirmation of “women and children first” yet somehow the loss rate was higher for Third class children than First class men.” You can learn that the first class came before the third class in EVERYTHING, even over the deaths of children than deaths of men, just because they have more money. Another quote that showed the advantages of first class passengers was, “Never again would first class have it that good.” Even though this quote is short, it is meaningful. This shows that having life or death determined by your bank account was wrong. This time period was flooded with unfairly treated classes. I very much enjoyed reading this novel. Not only informational, but also very interesting, A Night To Remember kept me wondering and wanting to read on. The way Lord goes so in depth with real evidence of the night had me hooked on every page. I would most definitely recommend this book to everyone. I have always been a fan of the movie that takes place on the Titanic and I’m sure a lot of others are. But this book goes way farther and more in detail than any movie could ever. If you are interesting in the real night on the Titanic and taking an adventure of a life time, then Walter Lords’s novel is the one to read. My favorite quote from this novel was, “It was calm, clear and bitterly cold.” Said the watch man moments before hitting an iceberg that sunk the Titanic. This is my favorite quote because it shows how things can change in the blink of an eye. How one moment everything is so peaceful and the next, you’re hitting an iceberg that sinks the Titanic.
Jeffrey Colonese The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a novel written by John Boyne. In this novel there is a young boy named Bruno he is the son of a German military officer. One day when he gets home from school he realized that he was being relocated because his dad got a promotion and he got the job to watch a camp. There new house was in the middle of nowhere where no one is able to play with Bruno because there is no one to play with him. When he started walking around the house he saw a building that had a fence around it. One day he went to the fence and he saw a little boy sitting there they then became friends. When Bruno came home from school one day he realized that he was moving. Then he found out that the house was in the middle of nowhere then he asks them why and says that he’s live in Berlin Germany his whole life. Then Bruno keeps complaining about moving and his dad says that this job is very important him and the need me to move into this house even though it’s smaller than there old house. One day when Bruno was in his room all lonely he looked out his window and saw a building with a fence around it and what looked like a bunch of kids living there. When he showed it to his sister she said the same thing but when they showed there mom she said it wasn’t. Then Bruno’s dad boarded up the window so he couldn’t look out anymore. When Bruno’s dad realizes how bored and lonely Bruno is he told him to go build a tire swing, one of the soldiers that is at the house orders an old guy a servant to help Bruno get the tire. When Bruno was swing on the new swing he fell off and Pavel the servant guy came over and helped Bruno. When Bruno asks Pavel about the building he tells him he was a doctor before the war. A couple of days later Bruno goes over to the fence to see what it is and he finds a boy about the same age as him sitting on the other side of the fence. They start talking and Shmuel tells him how he got here behind this fence. When Shmuel tells Bruno that his father went somewhere to build something and never came back Shmuel was scared and he asked Bruno if he could help him find him and Bruno says yes. The day the Bruno was supposed to go into the fenced area Bruno was supposed to bring a sandwich and Shmuel was bringing the striped pajamas so he fit in. Then when they were looking for Shmuel’s dad they got stuck in a group of guys and they had no idea where they were going. Then when Bruno’s parents realized he wasn’t home it was too late him and Shmuel were dead.
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A Night to Remember
ReplyDeleteSummary
For this assignment I read “A Night to Remember” by Walter Lord. It is about the night the Titanic sank. The Titanic sank in 1912. There is a quote about the time period, “Just the night, the stars, the biting cold, the wind that whistled through the rigging as the Titanic raced across the calm, Black Sea at 22 ½ knots. It was almost 11:40pm, on Sunday, the 14th of April, 1912.” (p.2)
The Californian was the closest ship to Titanic. They warned the Titanic about icebergs but they were in denial because they thought it was unsinkable. A quote about how people thought the Titanic was unsinkable is, “The Titanic could float with any 2 of her 16 water compartments flooded. She could float with any 3 of her first 5 compartments flooded, she could even float with all of her first four compartments gone. But no matter how they sliced it, she could not float with all of her first 5 compartments full.” (p.21) They didn’t think all of her compartments would get full.
The back-up plan was to turn around and go to Belfast if a minor thing that needed fixing happened. The captain took 25 minutes after the boat hit the ice berg to uncover the life boats. The captain of the Titanic was Captain Smith. When the crew uncovered the lifeboats, there weren’t enough for the people on the boat, so they had the women and children get on first. The passengers on the boat didn’t think it was that big of a deal so they just slowly got onto the lifeboats, and some of the women and children didn’t even go in the lifeboats.
When they finally realized it was a big deal, they tried contacting the other ship, The Californian, that was close by but they weren’t getting a signal. The Californian missed the signal, so they weren’t getting help. However, they did get in touch with another ship called the Carpathia, but it was further away so it would take longer to get there. When it first started, they were helping each other, but by the time it was sinking it was every man for himself.
In my opinion, the author’s purpose for writing “A Night to Remember” is so that people would get to see the passengers’ and captain’s point of view on the Titanic. I think that because I really understood what the people on the ship were going through during this time. Yes, I think the author accomplished that goal because I learned how awful it was towards the end of the sinking.
My favorite quote from the book was, “I cannot imagine any condition that would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel.”(p.22) This quote is important because Captain Smith is talking about how ships are unsinkable.
I did not enjoy reading this book because it took a while to pick up the pace, and it was really depressing, honestly. I would recommend it to others only if they really like this time period, otherwise, no.
Madison Marques
ReplyDeleteFlyboys by James Bradley is about nine brave men that wanted to go up in a aircraft and drop a bomb on Japan during WW2. They were in the army to help they wanted to serve their country, but then things went wrong when they were in the air and the Japanese aircraft shot them down in a shoot off. The eight brave soldiers found themselves captured by the Japanese one of the nine soldiers was found by a navy submarine and was taken in protection. All that one soldier wanted to do was help him friends that he had grown so close to and save them from the Japanese but he couldn't. The captain of the army tried to do everything he could to save the eight men that were going through hell and back in the Japanese prison. They were not being feed and they were in a tiny room with little water and sunlight. But the captain could not do anything to help the soldiers there lives were over and there was nothing that could stop it from happening. After the war was over the lives of the eight soldiers that were captured no longer existed their identities were vanished not only by the American government but by the Japanese government too. None of any of their families will ever know what happened to them. Their families were left to wonder what went on in the war and why there family member never came home. The authors purpose for writing this was to tell the reader that war is something serious and that we need to learn about it so this does not ever happen again. Yes, James Bradley did accomplish his goal the readers know should know more about what actually happens to people during war the awful things that happen. James Bradley really described WW2 in this book. Flyboys takes place in WW2 with the Japanese and America. The author teaches me that WW2 was a very hard time period that people were dying left and right and the war went on for 6 years. One day something bad could happen and the people and soldiers could not know what to do or how to react. "The Marines were the best fighting men of World War 2." WW2 was mostly a navy battle but it was in the air too. "They can fly, are going to fly, and may end up by developing the greatest air power in the world." This is explaining that when there was a battle in the air it was a good battle and there needed to be the best people in the air fighting. I did not enjoy reading this book I liked that it was personal but I did not care for all the information it was too much to process. I would recommend this book to someone who likes to read and wants to know more about WW2. "Fundamentally the thing that brought about the determination to make peace was the prolonged bombing by the B-29s." This is my favorite quote because it says that the Americans wanted peace with Japan so bad that they were going to do anything to get it even if it meant they were going to end up killing people.
In the book ‘The Dark Game True Spy Stories’ by Paul B. Janeczko he covers spy stories from Washington outspying the British up till the 1990‘s. Through the book you learn about different spies and their stories. Some were good spies that help win wars and some were bad spies that handed information over to the enemy for large sums of pay. You also learn about what some Presidents do to increase the knowledge of America by using spies and tapping equipment. Sometimes theirs plans worked and it helped with the wars, but other times they were found out and some spies were jailed, and worse killed.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion the author wrote this book to give knowledge to others about spies and their works, and how our Leaders and Presidents played their roles in the spy world. He also might’ve wrote the book to show how dangerous a spy’s life and work can be if he or she is caught by the enemy.
The author did accomplish his goal with giving knowledge about spies, their works, and how dangerous their lives were. I know this because I learned new things about spies that I didn’t even know about. I even found out that there were female spies back then and it makes me feel like females can be whoever and whatever they want, the world is not all male dominated.
The historical time periods and events that my book takes place are from when George Washington was president till the 1990's. The events that the book went over were: The American Revolution, The Civil War, World War I, World War II and the, The Cold War.
This author’s book teaches me that the time periods were all mostly close together, there were some gaps, because some wars were farther apart from others. It also teaches me that spies worked and sometimes betrayed our government, Leaders, and Presidents since they could gain knowledge from the enemy. It also shows me how much spy gadgets improved over the long years. It also showed me that the female spies were the most cunning and deadly spies. Because who would really expect a woman to do a ‘mans’ job? It was some of the male spies that betrayed the government and traded information for large sums of money.
The two quotes that taught me something about the time period and events are: “Washington did not really outfight the British, he simply outspied us!”, and “Whether it was sexy, hold-your-breath data, I tend, to, doubt it.”
The first quote taught me that if we try hard enough and gather large amounts of data and put that data to work we can excel in anything even ending a war and winning. The second quote taught me that the information that the spies gathered about the enemy was worth a whole lot and if it was giving out to the wrong hands, something could go wrong. Maybe that’s why some spies betrayed the government because of the money and ‘fame’.
Personally I did not enjoy reading this book. I thought it was going to be a bunch of spies journals that tell their stories, but it was just a bunch of information about them and at some parts it was interesting to learn something new, but through the book I found myself bored. I just wanted to finish the book.
Yes, I would recommend this book to others if they simply want to read about history or information about spies. Or if their doing a project about this subject because it had a lot of information and useful things.
Reading through this book I didn’t have a favorite quote. Though the quotes were interesting to see what other’s said, I didn’t have a favorite one.
By: Alexandra Michaud Grade: 10
Paige Arcand
ReplyDeleteThe summary of this novel starts off with Christmas just around the corner and the girls names are Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. They were all sitting in their living rooms when the girls decided to each buy themselves a present to brighten their Christmas because they weren’t the wealthiest because the father was in war at the time. Then they change their minds and decide that instead of buying presents for themselves, they will buy presents for their mother whose name is Marmee. Later their mother comes home with a letter from their father who is in the civil war. After reading the fathers letter the girls change their mind sets to not complain about their poverty or poorness. On Christmas morning the girls find books under their pillows. Then later in the day, Marmee tells the girls to give their breakfast to a poor family named the Hummels. While over their Jo meats a boy named Laurie he’s the boy who lives with a rich man named Mr.Laurence. Laurie gets sick so when jo goes to visit him she meets Mr. Laurence the boys grandfather. Then Mr Laurence meets all of the sisters and Beth becomes the favorite one. Beth has a love for the piano but since they don’t have a lot of money Mr. Laurence gives them his piano which is a really nice one. So therefore the girls have many adventures throughout the novel. Nothing to bad happens it’s just about the girls going through life with their dad in war.
In my opion the authors point for writing this book was to show how to be grateful for everything you have because someone else could have it much worse.
Yes the author accomplished the goal because it made the girls be very non selfish and to share with others.
1868 and 1869 was when this book took place.
I learned that in these years the civil war was happening.
2 quotes from this book is one “I’ll try and be what he loves to call me, “a little woman,” and not be rough and wild; but do my duty here instead of wanting to be somewhere else.” Jo says this because she wants to be in the civil war just like her father but women can’t be in wars back then.
The other quote is “Oh, my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this!” this quote says how women have to make a lot of sacrifices for their family’s to be happy.
Yes I did enjoy reading this book because there was a lot of love being shown, through couples love, neighbors love and of course family love.
I would recommend this book to others if they were into civil war situations and how family’s coped with having a family member in the war at the time this book was revolved around.
My favorite quote from this book is “I am angry nearly every day of my life.” I like this quote because marmee makes this statement to Jo about how hard it is to be all by herself without her husband to help with life and to make everyone happy.
Alexis Mercado
ReplyDeleteThe book that I read for this summer assignment was Columbine by Dave Cullen. This book was about the school shooting that took place at Columbine High School in Littleton Colorado on Tuesday April 20, 1999. It did a very good job with describing, in detail, the lives of the two shooters, Dylan and Eric, what their motives might have been, their original plans, how they fell through, how they had to improvise, and also what their friends thought of them before and after the massacre. Of course, along with including detail about the lives of the shooters, the book also gave a lot of detail on the lives of the survivors and victims. The book also included how parents, survivors, and the media reacted to this event while it was unfolding and how they felt about it. It did a great job with including personal experiences of first responders, parents, teachers, and students that were able to escape.
Personally, I think that the authors’ purpose for this book was to provide the reader with detailed information about this tragic school massacre that would erase all of the rumors. I do think that he was able to accomplish that goal because while telling the actual story about what went on inside of the school, he also addressed what the media was saying while the event was happening, as well as afterwards. Since he decided to write the book in that way, it was able to give the reader the true story and clear up all of the rumors. This book took place during a violent time period in history. Before Columbine, there had been numerous amounts of school shootings, starting in Bethel, Alaska in February 1997 and people didn’t feel safe anymore. The book says, “By graduation day, 1998, it felt like a full-blown epidemic. With each escalation, small towns and suburbia grew a little more tense.” Another quote that the book provides is, “Each fresh horror left millions shaking their heads, wondering when the next outcast would strike.” Both of these quotes prove that it was a violent time period and many people didn’t feel safe.
The only reason I enjoyed reading this book was because of the good stories that were told. For example, the book included stories on how the community was able to come together and help support one another, how the students were able to help each other escape or survive during the tragic event, etc. I would recommend this book to somebody who would like to learn or know a lot about what happened during, before, and after the Columbine school shooting because it does a really good job on describing those things. On the other hand, I would not recommend this book to anybody who is very sensitive to this topic because of the heavy detail. My favorite quote from this book was “I don’t even think he thought about it,” “His instinct was to save his kids.” This quote was said by the daughter of a well-known and very well-liked teacher. It’s my favorite quote because it shows what kind of person he was and that he was selfless. It also shows that even though he could’ve gotten out of the school and survived, he chose to save the students, no matter the consequences.
Emma Valade
ReplyDeleteSpies of Mississippi: The True Story of the Spy Network that Tried to Destroy the Civil Rights Movement by Rick Bowers
I read the book Spies of Mississippi which was based off of racism in the 1950’s carried on through the 60’s. In 1956, The Sovereignty Commission was passed to enable the people in the legislation to maintain a successful fight for preserving the separation of the races in Mississippi for the next two years. People liked segregation and didn't want it to change. Within 3-4 years of the Mississippi state Sovereignty Commission being formed, they transformed themselves into a spy agency with investigators and agents to go around the state to find a change in the Mississippi way of life. The group started out small with a few former, trained, government investigators and kept adding on more people. Their main goal was to block voting rights for black people. The spy agencies were known for taking license plate numbers, tags, and addresses from people who were attending civil rights meetings and giving them to newspapers for them to publish. Over 160,000 spy reports were filed to get information in advance to stop people like Martin Luther King from coming to Mississippi and finding their way into the state. In my opinion, I believe that the author’s purpose for writing this book was to share information from this time period which he accomplished well because the book talks about the segregation that was going on and makes people more aware of racism. The author’s book teaches me that people were very racist and whites believed they were very superior during this time period. A quote from the book, “When it came to the tense relationship between whites and blacks in Mississippi, Coleman wanted “peace and quiet”’ taught me that whites and blacks were not civil people and racism was a big issue at the time. Another quote that taught me how people were determined to continue segregation was “He knew that those powerful lawmakers would not back down until the bill was signed into law” which was interesting to see how strong-minded these people were. I enjoyed reading this book because it was a surprise to me that the government could go undercover like they did and how their acts made such big impacts. I would recommend this book to other readers because it has good, factious information and is an interesting book to read. My favorite quote from this book would have to be “Neighbors spied on neighbors. Teachers spied on students. Ministers spied on churchgoers. Spies spied on spies” just because it shows that while all of this was happening you couldn't really trust anyone because even your own people were secretly watching you. Overall, this book was appealing to me for its fascinating information and shocking stories that made me like the book even more.
In the book For Freedom by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, for thirteen year old Suzanne World War II began in Cherbourg, France. The skies were suddenly filled with airplanes dropping bombs. Nazis started occupying her town. Suzanne and her family had to leave their house and move to a small, cheap apartment. Markets began to shut down, there was little food and people began to disappear. Suzanne refused to give into fear. An organizer for the French Resistance wants Suzanne to help him. She becomes number twenty-two, a spy passing messages with codes all over the city.
ReplyDeleteI think the author’s purpose in writing this book is to see was people were going through in World War II in France and for us to read about Suzanne’s journey as a French spy. Yes she did accomplish this goal because in the book it tells you about what happen to Suzanne. The time period in the book was during the 1940’s in France when the Nazis where taking over. This book taught me how hard it was for people living in this tie period with a war going on.
One of the quotes that taught me something about this time period was “ The Nazis passes the first of their laws restricting the activities of French Jews.” This quotes taught me that Jews in this time period could do as many things and the non-Jews. The second quote is “They burned them. If the author was a Jew.” This showed me that the Nazis were trying to control everything when it came to the Jews. Even what they read.
I didn’t really enjoy reading this book because I’m not a big reader of historical fiction. I do recommend this book to other who enjoy books about history and World War II.
From Bruno Marques:
ReplyDelete30 July 1945, after delivering parts for the first atomic bomb to the United States air base at Tinian, the USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by an Imperial Japanese Navy submarine I-58, sinking in 12 minutes. There were 1,196 crewmen aboard and approximately 300 sailors immediately went down with the ship. The remaining 900 sailors faced horrible challenges such as; dehydration, saltwater poisoning, shark attacks, heavy sunburn, “blisters the size of cigarettes, illusions, starvation, sailors drowning, committing suicide while floating with few lifeboats with no paddles. The public however their story remained untold in the New York Times due to another headline saying that the pacific war was over. The author illustrates the hardships they faced the struggle beyond believe that they encountered; this was their story of what happened on the 30th of July 1945.Doug Stanton creates a stunning, vivid story using information and pictures that captivates your imagination. The details and imagery that he creates and his sharp eye for detail makes you seem like you were their experiencing the days lost at sea with them. The author takes you on a journey of this strong willed generation of men, where they are pushed beyond limits physically and mentally to survive in unbearable conditions. There were a couple of sayings that the sailors said that really stood out to me. When Jack Miner was asked; “What did you think about when you were in the water?” He responded saying “I fantasized about meeting my parents at a dim roadside bar in the north woods of Wisconsin to share the story over a few cold beers. I bargained with God. As the days dragged on, I thought less and less while I dreamed more and more”. This shows that he was not even in the mindset of dying and wanted to keep his head held high even though of the terrible things he was facing that there would always be a light at the end of the tunnel. Another thing that one of the sailors said that amazed me and was one of my favorite quotes was when Hayes saw a group of boy’s swimming in a single file line in shark infested waters. He asked “What’s up, son?” the boy said “Shhh,Doc, there’s a small hotel on the island there, and they got one room and you can get fifteen minutes of sleep. You get in line- you’ll get a turn.” This really shows how starvation, dehydration and salt poisoning not only takes a toll on you physically but messes you up mentally. It shows how desperate these sailors were in getting back home or even just having the common essities that we have every day and take for granted. We don’t realize how important it is until you take all of it away and realize how crucial it is to our well-being. I enjoyed reading this book because of not how vivid it was but the fact that there was so much information that I learned providing facts, statistics and the date in which it occurred. It was also a nice feature that they included real pictures of the guys you were reading about and they showed maps on where the ship was sunk at showed the surrounding islands so when they were saying that they were 500 miles away from Leyte you would know where it was and have a sense in the area they were talking about. I would totally recommend this book to someone else it’s a great read and with the imagery Doug Stanton creates it lets your imagination go wild and is an interesting tale of what these heroes went through.
Bruno Marques
Haley Dimeo
ReplyDeleteThe Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Young Bruno lives a wealthy lifestyle in Berlin, Germany along with his mother, elder sister, and SS Commandant father. The family relocates to the Poland countryside where his father is assigned to take command a prison camp. A few days later, Bruno befriends another child, strangely dressed in striped pajamas, named Shmuel who lives behind an barbed fence. Bruno will soon find out that he is not permitted to be friends because he is a Jew, and that the neighboring yard is actually a prison camp for Jews awaiting extermination.
The author of this story is John Boyne. He wrote this story based on an image that he had about two boys talking on different sides of a fence and he could tell that they have been taken away from their home unwillingly. As soon as he saw this he immediately thought of the Holocaust and what the people had to go through. In the Author's Note John said "I believed that the only respectful way for me to deal with this subject was throughout the eyes of a child, and particularly throughout the eyes of a rather naive child that couldn't possibly understand the terrible things that were taking place around him." He wrote this book so that everyone reading it knew what the children on both sides of this terrible event felt, and how confused they really were. He thought that it was important that these incredible people were never forgotten.
I believe John achieved this goal, he touched the hearts of all the readers. The author says that he wants to make this not simply about one concentration camp in one war. He wants the reader to be able to relate the story to any time period and any war. This is also why he never uses the word Auschwitz, but instead lets nine year old Bruno pronounce it Out-With. Bruno also calls Hitler the Fury instead of the Fuhrer. The moral is simple. Complacency is dangerous. Looking back, we all wonder how something like the Holocaust could have happened.
The story begins in Berlin, Germany, during the holocaust. The time period is in the early 1940’s. Later on In the story Bruno and his family move to Poland, near a Jewish camp. The Holocaust began in 1933 shortly after Adolf Hitler came to power. The Nazis targeted gypsies and disabled for execution. Anyone who resisted them were sent to labor or killed. An estimation of 11 million people were murdered, 6 million of the Jewish religion.
‘’We’re not supposed to be friends, you and me. We’re meant to be enemies. Did you know that?’’ ‘’There is such thing as a nice Jew though, isn’t there?’’ ‘’ I think, Bruno, if you ever found a nice Jew, you would be the best explorer in the world. Both of these quotes show how convinced the German people were, by Adolf Hitler. He wanted to exterminate the Jewish population, and many others. He blamed the Jews for the loss in World War 1, and all his other problems.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a touching story, for anyone who reads it. I’d definitely recommend it. By focusing on Bruno’s innocent and puzzled view of his father’s new promotion, the author shows an excellent representation of the events during the genocide of the holocaust.
Justin Valentin
ReplyDeleteBook: A Night To Remember
By: Walter Lord
This book is about a ship that sank on April 15, 1912 during World War 1. The ship that was called Titanic and was said to be unsinkable by everyone and it was also the biggest ship in the world at the time even bigger than it's older sister ship the Olympic. The disaster started at 11:40pm with an iceberg scraping some parts of the side of the bow of the ship and ended at 2:20am when the Titanic broke and half and sank into the freezing Atlantic Ocean. The sinking of the Titanic took more than 1,500 peoples lives and only a little over 700 people survived the Titanic that sank in only 2 hours in 40 minutes.
I think the authors purpose for writing this was to show something that happened many years ago about a sad disaster, and how it took so many lives. Plus how this
disaster impacts us today with new ship regulations like lifeboat drills for if a ship were to sink.
I think the author did get there point across because while telling the story what's happening you get to see how bad it was while the ship Titanic was sinking and how it makes an impact now on the ship they build and use today.
The author teaches about that time in history is when technology was slowly begging because you could of went on this ship and get to your destination in days or a week because before they started making ships like the Titanic it took months to even get to your destination or even send a letter to someone in another country.
Some quotes in the book were "There's talk of an Iceberg, Ma'am" and "there is your beautiful nightdress gone". Both of the quotes I believe take a major role in this book.
Because the first quote is when the Titanic hit's the Ice Berg at 11:40am which teaches the begging of something awful is going to begin and the second quote teaches that it is done and everything is gone like people's stuff, most of people on the Titanic, and the ship.
I did enjoy this book because the sinking of the Titanic is a major incident that happened in the Atlantic Ocean and stunned the world how it all happened because there was not enough life boats for everyone on the ship and how it killed so many people from only hitting an ice berg and then sinking in only 2 hours and 40 minutes after being called the unsinkable ship. This is why I enjoyed reading A Night To Remember.
Yes, I would recommend this book because this was a major incident that took place and people need to be aware of this so something like this never happens again. Plus this made an impact on today ships and regulations and people should know why and be educated so they can be prepared if an event were to happen again. This is why I recommend the book A Night To Remember by Walter Lord.
Lexi Tremaine
ReplyDeleteUnbroken
part 1
Unbroken is a true story based on a young Olympic runner from Torrance, California named Louis Zamperini. As a child he was a troubled student and didn’t always complete his work. He enlisted in the United States Army Air Force in September 1941 and after all his training he was called into service on a bomber crew in the Pacific in World War 2. On May 27, 1943 the Plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean and Louie and two others were the only survivors. After more than a month the two men were left Louie and the pilot of the plane. As they got closer to a shore line they were both seized by the Japanese navy. They were stated to be dead because America was not informed about the capture but even with hearing this, their families did not give up hope and believed they were alive.
In the beginning they were getting treated tolerable but after a while they were transferred to a different Japanese prisoner camp where because of the severe treatment they thought that they would die there. Louis got harsher treatment at the camps since he was a famous Olympian runner. He was sent to multiple camps and eventually he ended up in Tokyo. While there he was tortured by a group called “The Bird” and was treated partially brutally. They attempted to make a broadcast to America but when he refused he was severally punished.
When Louis was in one of the Tokyo camps America dropped the atomic bombs on Japan which was when Japan to surrender. A lot of the prisoners knew nothing about this war until the guards told them it was over. When the prisoners got released Louis was hospitalized first and then sent home to his family. His life was very disturbed when he arrived home. He was forced to marry a young woman after only two weeks of meeting her. He started to become an alcoholic because of drinking all the time from all the stress he was feeling from flashbacks of being imprisoned. It put a lot of strain on his marriage and his wife told him she wanted to file for divorce. When she told him this Louis decided to turn his life around to save his marriage. After he quit drinking he soon realized that his nightmares weren’t as bad as they were before. He started making appearances to people and giving speeches about his experience with “The Bird”.
The author, Laura Hillenbrands, purpose for writing this book was to inform readers about the inspirational and influential life story of Louis Zamperini. She did this by showing the multiple positive traits of Louis which made the readers appreciative of how brave and courageous he was. This book covers the time period of World War II (1937-1939). What Hillenbrands teaches us about World War II is that the war was brutal and many soldiers suffered not only during the war but afterwards dealing with Post-traumatic stress disorder. With all the stress and suffering from this war a lot of soldiers did not survive and the ones who did it took a lot of strength to do. As an example, when Louis and the other two were drifting in the water they had to think about not giving up. Louis had to keep looking for ways he could survive, focusing on how he was going to get food and fresh water.
Lexi Tremaine
ReplyDeleteUnbroken
Part 2
Laura used many powerful quotes in her story. One of the quotes she used was, "Louie and his father rode together to the train station. The platform was crowded with uniformed young men and crying parents, clinging to one another, saying good-bye. When Louie embraced his father, he could feel him shaking." What this quote shows about World War II is that it was hard for the parents and drafted soldiers to say goodbye. For many of the parents they did not know if it would be the last goodbye. Another quote from this story that the author used is, "It was absolutely dark and absolutely silent, except for the chattering of Phil's teeth.” During the time of World War II if you were a prisoner you were expected to be silent and to just obey the orders from the guards. This quote shows that at some of the camps it was supposed to be silent and dark because otherwise the guards would discipline you and probably beat you.
Personally I thought the book was okay. There were some parts that were suspenseful and I just wanted to know what was going to happen. There were some parts that I found less interesting but I would recommend this book to someone that wants to learn more about World War II. My favorite quote from this book is, “Without dignity, identity is erased.” Hillenbrands uses this quote to show that if you don’t believe in yourself and do what you need to do for yourself nobody will. And that in stressful situations it’s important to know who you are and to remember what you believe in and fight for that.
Unbroken
ReplyDeleteAuthor: Laura Hillenbrand
By: Nick Servidone
Unbroken tells the remarkable story of Louis S Zamperini an Olympic runner, who becomes captured by the Japanese after 47 days at sea during WWII. Louis was born on January 26th 1917 in Olean New York to his father Anthony Zamperini and his mother Louise Dossi, who was 18 years old at Louis birth. In 1919 at the age of two Louis had pneumonia and his health condition forced his parents out to Torrance California. As a child, adolescent and teenager Louis stole anything that was edible, whether pie or an apple Louis took it. The only person who could put any sense into Louis was his older brother Pete. Pete, who watched over him and his two sisters Sylvia and Virginia, Louis idolized Pete. In High school Louis got into trouble to many times. His brother Pete convinced Louis to do track. Louis was a gifted and phenomenal runner. He ran a mile in 4.26 minutes during high school and improved to 4.08 during WWII on a beach. Louis made it all the way to the 1936 Berlin Olympics where he met Adolf Hitler. (Believe it or not Hitler liked Louis and personally congratulated him) When WWII broke out Louis joined. While out with his crew Louis’ plane was shot down over the Pacific Ocean. Only three survived the crash. (Zamperini, Philips & McNamara) Quickly facing starvation, the men saved themselves by eating unwary albatrosses that used the raft as a perch. Zamperini would tie improvised hooks to his hands to create a claw and catching an occasional fish. They cut up fabric from a second raft to protect themselves from the scorching equatorial sun. Storms temporarily slaked their desperate thirst. Throughout, mako and reef sharks floated expectantly alongside and beneath them, rubbing their backs against the raft and, sometimes, lunging up into it. The men beat them off with oars and even managed to kill a couple and eat their livers. On their 33rd day at sea McNamara died. Others in similar situations might have resorted to cannibalism; after Zamperini uttered some lines remembered from the movies, he and Phillips simply cast McNamara overboard. The two men passed the days, and maintained their sanity, by peppering each other with questions, cooking imaginary meals, singing “White Christmas.” On the 46th day they spotted land: the Marshall Islands. On the 47th they were picked up by Japanese sailors. While only one in 100 Americans captured in Europe died, nearly one in three perished in Japanese captivity. First in the Pacific and later in Japan, Louis was subjected to an unrelenting regime of assaults: humiliation, starvation, medical experiments, slave labor and disease. Louis was quoted during his time in captivity “I was literally becoming a lesser human being.” A succession of sadistic guards topped by a psychopathic sadist named Mutsuhiro Watanabe, aka the Bird, derived a special pleasure from beating him. Louis believed that Watanabe was also mad because he didn’t get a promotion he wanted. Louis went to two different P.O.W. camps. First Ofuna (technically not a P.O.W camp), then Omori, and finally Naoetsu. Louis stayed at his first camp the longest. The only other survivor of the plane crash (Phil) was transferred to another camp where he miraculously survived. Looking skyward where American bombers could be spotted with increasing frequency the G.I.’s knew the war would soon end. But that was a mixed blessing: the Japanese had repeatedly vowed to kill all P.O.W.’s rather than hand them over, and surely would have if the Americans had invaded Japan. Zamperini and his fellow prisoners were effectively saved by the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Once home Louis would have frequent nightmares about the war. Life back home was more difficult than Louis expected. Just this past year on July 2nd 2014 Louis Zamperini passed away at his home in Hollywood California, he was 97. His story is currently being made into a movie.
Marielle Godbolt
ReplyDeleteFor my summer assignment I read the book They Called Themselves the KKK. This book is about what life in the South in 1871 was like after the war ended and the tragedy that follows. After the war confederate soldiers were not allowed to work. A lot of the men that were used to working got very tired of doing nothing after their arrival and start to hate everyone.
The KKK was originally supposed to be started as a club for the men that had nothing to do. However this did not last long. The KKK eventually became a nasty hate group that committed multiple crimes and horrible acts. The KKK became very scared of the changing in the South. The KKK thought black freedman would be superior and enslave all of them and because of this their forces grew stronger and they would whip people, kill people and burn churches and houses down. No black family could ever be safe with the KKK. Any minute they could be dead meat. It was said in this story that the KKK members were thought to be evil ghosts of the confederate soldiers that came back to fight with their brothers. The KKK would wear white sheets over their heads and ride around on horses.
I think that the author’s purpose to writing this book was to explain to her readers the horrible atrocities the KKK did. I think that Susan Bartoelli did a phenomenal job. Her book was very in depth and was very explicit but in this case it was a good thing. She did not hide anything from the readers.
There were two quotes from this story that stood out to me and I found very interesting. The first quote I chose is "Most white Southerners believed that God created black people for the special purpose of working and serving white people." This quote taught me that during the time period people had no sympathy for blacks. No one cared what happened because their only purpose on the earth was to provide for the white people and nothing else. The second quote I chose to explain is "Boys, let us get up a club." I think that this quote is a very important because these few words sparked up this horrid mark on American history.
My favorite quote from this book was “Most white Southerners scarcely knew a family that didn't mourn a relative or friend killed or wounded in the war." This was my favorite quote because explains all of the death with the confederates and shows how hateful the KKK was because of these deaths.
I personally did enjoy reading this book. Although it was not my favorite read I thought Susan Bartoelli did a great job at recapping what the KKK did. I am not usually big on reading things about history but I found parts of this book to be very interesting. I would highly recommend this book to really anyone who is looking to learn more about history slavery and the KKK. Even if you don’t like history I would still recommend reading it you may be surprised on how interesting this topic can be I was surely surprised.
Timmy Rivera
ReplyDeleteThe Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a young adult novel by writer John Boyne. In this novel, a young boy is frustrated when he learns that his family has been forced to relocate due to his father's new job in the German military. The family's new home is in the middle of nowhere where young Bruno has no one to play with and nothing to do with the exception of exploring the boundaries of the odd fenced-in compound next door to the family's home. In the end, Bruno does make a friend, but this friend is trapped behind the fence, destined to never play with Bruno with the abandon of most kids their age. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a look at the Holocaust through the eyes of a child who comes to see the unfairness of it in a way only innocence can reveal.
Bruno comes home from school one day to discover that his family is preparing to move. Bruno has always lived in Berlin and therefore he is greatly distressed by this move. Bruno's distress increases when he discovers the family will be moving to a house in the middle of nowhere that is much smaller than their previous house. Bruno begs his father to allow them to return to Berlin, but Bruno's father explains that the job has been given in this new place is a very important job and that it is imperative to his father's career that they all remain where they are.
Bruno can see out his bedroom window an odd-fenced compound next door to the family's home where hundreds of children appear to live. When Bruno shows this view to his sister, they both realize that the people are not all children, but they appear to be because the clothing they are wearing looks like striped pyjamas. Bruno wonders who these people are, but no one seems willing to talk about them.
As part of his father's job, there seem to always be soldiers around the house. One morning, Bruno decides to build a tire swing in the front yard. One of the soldiers orders an elderly man, a servant in the house, to help Bruno. Later, when Bruno falls from the newly constructed swing, the servant comes to his aid. This servant, Pavel, cares for Bruno's wounds. When Bruno asks about his knowledge, Pavel reveals that he was a doctor before the war. Bruno is confused as to why Pavel no longer works as a doctor. Maria, the family's maid, tells Bruno that Pavel cannot work as a doctor any longer because he is a Jew.
Timmy Rivera (part 2)
ReplyDeleteA short time later, Bruno begins exploring the fence that divides his family's property from the compound next door. When Bruno has walked for what seems like hours, he comes across a young boy about his own age. This boy, Shmuel, lives on the other side of the fence. Shmuel tells Bruno how he once lived above his father's watch store, but the soldiers came and first moved his family into a single room they were forced to share with many others and then brought them to this camp.
Bruno and Shmuel begin meeting nearly every day after Bruno's lessons. Bruno often brings Shmuel food, when he does not eat it himself on the long walk, because Shmuel seems hungry. Then one day Bruno is surprised to find Shmuel in his house, given the job of cleaning the fancy glasses owned by Bruno's mother. Shmuel gets into trouble after eating some chicken Bruno gave him. Bruno was afraid to tell the truth, allowing the soldier to believe Shmuel stole the chicken.
To make amends to Shmuel for lying about the chicken, Bruno hatches a plan to go into the compound dressed like Shmuel to help while Shmuel looks for his father. On that day Shmuel and Bruno search the entire compound for Shmuel's father, but never find a single clue. Finally Bruno decides he must go home for dinner. However, Bruno and Shmuel find themselves in the middle of a large group of people when the soldiers come and force the people into a small building. Shmuel and Bruno hold hands as people begin to panic in the small room.
Bruno's parents search frantically for Bruno for weeks after he disappears. Finally Bruno's mother returns to Berlin with his sister. A year after his disappearance, Bruno's father visits the place where Bruno left his clothing, finally realizing what happened to his son. When the Allied soldiers come a few months later, Bruno's father no longer cares what they might do to him.
Moses Clark-Devost
ReplyDeleteBook: They Call Themselves The K.K.K, The Birth of an American Terrorist Group
This book, called the They Call Themselves The K.K.K, The Birth of an American Terrorist Group, is about a group of white activists who participate in prejudicial activities against various peoples, specifically blacks. The book details talks how Ku Klux Klan started. The year was 1865 in an area where they had their secret meetings. The Klu Klux Klan was very racist towards black people and people who disagreed with their beliefs. They killed people they hate, burn crosses showing their hatred towards other religions and lynched people. These tactics were ways they scared people. It continues on today but more in the south and not as bad as it was years ago. The author’s, Susan Campbell Bartoletti, purpose for writing this book was to teach people about how this American terrorist group started and how they believe in what they believe in and also the things they did to people like I said earlier in this post. Yes, this author accomplished the goal of detailing the history of the K.K.K. because before I read this book I knew little to nothing about the K.K.K. After reading this book, I gained a lot of knowledge. I learned what year they began and what they did to make people support them or their attempts to do so. The historical timeline in this book begins with the birth of the K.K.K. in the late 1800’s to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960’s. The K.K.K.’s efforts worsen around 1960’s because of the Civil Rights Movement which angered the group causing them to retaliate in a violent ways throughout the south. The author’s book teaches about how different times were back and how there now is slightly different. It does go with U.S. history because U.S. history goes far back and it does include the 1800’s which is when the K.K.K started. The Civil Rights Movement is probably one of the most epic in our history. One quote has to do with slavery and how black people were treated back then, “Course she is our slave now as much as she was two years ago when you bought her for 1500 dollars.” This shows that they use them to do housework that they can do themselves but since the society back then found this to be acceptable. Another quote shows how white people were afraid that black people would take their jobs, a black union solider see his master among a group of confederate prisoners and says “Bottom rail dis time”. This means that things have changed and they changed for the better for the black union solider. This taught me how bad the community was towards black people. I did and didn’t enjoy the book at the same time. I like that I learned more and my knowledge has increased, the other side was how bad and racist the society was back in the 1800’s. The way people lived with so much hatred is hard to believe. The reason for their hate was because people are different and this group has a problem with people who are difference from themselves. The book had lots of information on how this terrorist group began and thrived. I would somewhat recommend this book to other people because if they had an assignment about this the book would be very informational for them. Although a horrific group, they propelled the Civil Rights Movements which altered our history.
Natalia Bellettiere (Part 1)
ReplyDeleteA Night To Remember
Over the summer break of 2014, for my English summer reading assignment I read the novel, A Night to Remember by Walter Lord. This novel is an overall summary of the sinking Titanic. Walter Lord not only interviewed over 55 survivors of the Titanic but also combined their stories to make a minute-by-minute story of the sinking ship. Thought out reading this novel I was able to perfectly visualize every second after the Titanic hit the ice berg and began the tragic sinking process. This novel was first published in 1955 and is still read and enjoyed by many today. This novel not only gave me an idea of the sinking Titanic, but let me live it.
Throughout reading this life changing novel, I think the purpose for this magnificent writing was to give the readers a better understanding of what truly happened on the tragic night of the sinking Titanic. Most people today only know some what about the Titanic from the classic movie. Although this movie explained the basic idea of what happened does not give a full story of what everyone on the ship went through, but Walter Lord’s novel does. I think Walter Lord one hundred percent reached his goal of giving the readers a full story of the sinking ship. In my personal experience, while reading this novel I was able to not only visualize what was happening on the tragic Titanic, but also truly feel for the fallen passengers. For example, Walter Lord’s novel goes in-depth of each members experience that night. I was not only able to imagine the workers on the boat but the passengers as well.
Natalia Bellettiere (Part 2)
DeleteA Night To Remember
The time period of this novel was in the year 1912 but was directly focused on the date April 15, 1912, the night the Titanic officially sank. Throughout reading this story, I not only learned about the Titanic but the time period as well. One historical fact I learned from this book was that passengers were divided by money. The more money you had, the higher you stayed on the ship and the more privileges you had. The less money you had, the lower you stayed on the ship and less privileges you had. Money also came into play when the boat was sinking. Guards of the ship were helping the rich passengers into separate boats to swim to shore in while keeping captive the poorer passengers. From reading the quote, “The night was a magnificent confirmation of “women and children first” yet somehow the loss rate was higher for Third class children than First class men.” You can learn that the first class came before the third class in EVERYTHING, even over the deaths of children than deaths of men, just because they have more money. Another quote that showed the advantages of first class passengers was, “Never again would first class have it that good.” Even though this quote is short, it is meaningful. This shows that having life or death determined by your bank account was wrong. This time period was flooded with unfairly treated classes.
I very much enjoyed reading this novel. Not only informational, but also very interesting, A Night To Remember kept me wondering and wanting to read on. The way Lord goes so in depth with real evidence of the night had me hooked on every page. I would most definitely recommend this book to everyone. I have always been a fan of the movie that takes place on the Titanic and I’m sure a lot of others are. But this book goes way farther and more in detail than any movie could ever. If you are interesting in the real night on the Titanic and taking an adventure of a life time, then Walter Lords’s novel is the one to read. My favorite quote from this novel was, “It was calm, clear and bitterly cold.” Said the watch man moments before hitting an iceberg that sunk the Titanic. This is my favorite quote because it shows how things can change in the blink of an eye. How one moment everything is so peaceful and the next, you’re hitting an iceberg that sinks the Titanic.
Jeffrey Colonese
ReplyDeleteThe Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a novel written by John Boyne. In this novel there is a young boy named Bruno he is the son of a German military officer. One day when he gets home from school he realized that he was being relocated because his dad got a promotion and he got the job to watch a camp. There new house was in the middle of nowhere where no one is able to play with Bruno because there is no one to play with him. When he started walking around the house he saw a building that had a fence around it. One day he went to the fence and he saw a little boy sitting there they then became friends.
When Bruno came home from school one day he realized that he was moving. Then he found out that the house was in the middle of nowhere then he asks them why and says that he’s live in Berlin Germany his whole life. Then Bruno keeps complaining about moving and his dad says that this job is very important him and the need me to move into this house even though it’s smaller than there old house.
One day when Bruno was in his room all lonely he looked out his window and saw a building with a fence around it and what looked like a bunch of kids living there. When he showed it to his sister she said the same thing but when they showed there mom she said it wasn’t. Then Bruno’s dad boarded up the window so he couldn’t look out anymore.
When Bruno’s dad realizes how bored and lonely Bruno is he told him to go build a tire swing, one of the soldiers that is at the house orders an old guy a servant to help Bruno get the tire. When Bruno was swing on the new swing he fell off and Pavel the servant guy came over and helped Bruno. When Bruno asks Pavel about the building he tells him he was a doctor before the war.
A couple of days later Bruno goes over to the fence to see what it is and he finds a boy about the same age as him sitting on the other side of the fence. They start talking and Shmuel tells him how he got here behind this fence. When Shmuel tells Bruno that his father went somewhere to build something and never came back Shmuel was scared and he asked Bruno if he could help him find him and Bruno says yes.
The day the Bruno was supposed to go into the fenced area Bruno was supposed to bring a sandwich and Shmuel was bringing the striped pajamas so he fit in. Then when they were looking for Shmuel’s dad they got stuck in a group of guys and they had no idea where they were going. Then when Bruno’s parents realized he wasn’t home it was too late him and Shmuel were dead.
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