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Showing posts from November, 2014

Banned Book: The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

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The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton                 Ponyboy is a greaser. He lives with his brothers Darry and Soda on the East Side of town. He is the only one of his brothers still in school. Darry is twenty and has taken care of Soda and Ponyboy ever since their parents died. Soda dropped out of school to help Darry with the bills so they could all stay together. Dally, Johnny, Steve and Two-bit were greasers too. They were a group of friends that banded together and looked out for each other. They hated the Socs. Those guys were a bunch of do-gooder, rich kids from the West Side of town that ride around in Mustangs with girlfriends that drive Corvettes. It was easy to tell who was a Greaser and who was a Soc. One group was automatically given respect while the other had to fight for every bit of respect they got and for the right to simply live in peace.                 The Outsiders is an extremely simple, emotionally honest novel about circumstances and how those circumstan

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

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Monster by Walter Dean Meyers                 Steve Harmon has been called a monster and is currently on trial for the murder of Mr. Alguinaldo Nesbitt. Two men robbed a store and during the robbery shot and killed the store owner. They then emptied the cash register, stole cigarette cartons and went to get food from a fast food restaurant. Steve isn’t being accused of being either of those men. He is being accused of being the lookout. He is on trial with, Mr. James King, one of the accused murderers. As a lookout if convicted he could face twenty five years to life. Steve is only sixteen years old. The idea of spending the rest of his life in jail is something he’s understandably having a very hard time coping with. To escape the trial and the finality of the situation he begins keeping a journal. In this journal he writes down everything that happens inside the court room as if it were a movie he was writing, producing and directing. It was Steve’s way of telling his own st

Banned Books: The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie

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The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie Two men fell thirty thousand feet in the air, landed in the English Channel and were found washed up on the beach. Their plane, the Bostan , had exploded in flight, the act of a terrorist group that had taken the plane hostage. Gibreel Farishta was the famous Indian actor that had vanished and begin living his life in the silent shadow. He was on the way to the woman he loved when his flight was hijacked. Saladin Chamcha was the lesser known voice over actor that was desperately trying to leave his family and past behind. They fell together, one singing songs while the other was desperately flapping his arms trying to save his life. Their falls would end with transformations for both, one into an angel of God, the other a representation of evil. Where to begin? This book was all over the place. In the first hundred pages of this novel, I was just trying to wrap my head around what was going on. Here we have an actor singing as he falls

Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

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Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult                 Jenna Metcalf is looking for her mother. It has been ten years since her mother Alice checked herself out of the hospital and disappeared forever. It was the same night one of the caretakers at the New Hampshire Elephant Sanctuary, the elephant sanctuary her parents ran, was trampled by an elephant and Alice had been found unconscious hours later.  Jenna’s father, Thomas, has been institutionalized since then suffering from manic depression, leaving Jenna to be raised by her grandmother. Now thirteen years old Jenna remembers her mother but only bits and pieces of their lives together. She spends her time either checking the missing person’s database for any information about the mother that left or reading through Alice’s journals trying to imagine the woman her mother was. But Jenna needs her mother and enlist the help of the psychic Serenity and Virgil, one of the cops who handled the death at the sanctuary. Together they begi

Banned Books: Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe

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Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe                 Mr. Shelby has arranged for his slave Tom to be sold in order to pay off debts that he has incurred. Tom will leave behind his wife and children to pay off his owner’s debts. Mrs. Shelby is furious. Not only with the sell of Tom but that of her own slave, Eliza’s, son Harry. She has promised Eliza that her son would never be taken from her and yet Mr. Shelby has made arrangements to do just that. Eliza after learning of the purchase of her son takes him in the dead of night and runs for her and her son’s freedom. Tom stayed, wished his family goodbye and trusted in the Lord that even though he was heading to the South no harm should come to him. Years would pass and Tom’s faith would never waiver through all the trials and tribulations he endured.                 Now that I have written this brief synopsis of Uncle Tom’s Cabin , I almost don’t know what else to say. This is a novel that I am glad I read now, when I