Book List Challenge
Slam: Walter Dean Myers
This book is on my top ten list because it gives you a different type of story then what you would expect out of a basketball book. The community and surroundings are very different than any other sports book I have read. I think that made it much better and more intriguing. It gives a very realistic idea of what a lot of young talents go through. The main character in the book lives in a more poor community and bad situations. It goes through the games but shows the game and fight outside of basketball. Everything he did off the court could affect him on the court or whether or not he would even end up on the court. Overall I liked this book because it gave me a new feel and perspective on different communities and situations.
Unstoppable: Tim Green
This was a great book because even though it was fictional, it made you feel inspired and go through different emotions. I remember going through this book and anticipating and trying to predict what would happen next. The book really plays with your emotions, which makes you even more enthusiastic about reading more. You end up feeling sorrow and hope for the main character even though they are not a real person. The author, Tim Green does a very good job in describing and allowing the reader to understand. The main character ends up getting cancer which was a huge plot twist. It was a very new experience to hear about a star player getting cancer. I knew how it would affect the character because my younger cousin had cancer. So I think being able to relate to the book also helped.
Percy Jackson Series: Rick Riordan
This series I went through very quickly. A lot of people have read the series and I got very caught up in it. I think one big reason is that every book left on sort of a cliff hanger. Then when you would read the next book it would answer your questions but would also elaborate and have lots of twists. You never knew when they would add a new character, or bring something up, because there were so many options in mythology. I also liked how you get to learn the relationships of different people in mythology and how they relate to one another. It was also fun to incorporate connections. Like the author would give a hint early on of something and then later in the book it came up and you would be able to connect the events.
Notes from the Midnight Driver: Jordan Sonnenblick
I read this book for Battle of the Books last year. I had never really read a book like this before. Its about a boy who gets drunk and crashes his moms car. So he has to do community service and go to a
facility and talk to this old man. The old man is mean to the boy at first. Even though they had a kind of love/hate relationship. It is interesting to see how their connection and bond gets stronger. I like how the author writes the book, and how the boy goes back to see him even when his community service is over. They end up growing a really strong relationship because of their love for music.
For The Love of the Game: Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan is one of my all time favorite people. Of course thats the biggest reason I enjoyed
reading a book about his career and what he went trough. One thing he talks about in the book is how he changed in maturing and learning over time. You can see all the different stages in his career and how his mindset and attitude changed. It was interesting to see how much the team was getting worn down after winning more and more. He changes throughout his career. His mind was at different places. I liked reading about what he did and went through throughout his career. One of my favorite parts is where the NBA was fining him because he wore red and black shoes when their team colors were red and white. I found this interesting because now NBA players are so much more free to wear different shoes.
Hatchet: Gary Paulsen
Hatchet was the first survival book I read. I was very apprehensive in seeing a boy go from his regular world to all of a sudden having to survive in the wilderness. I was intrigued in how he used
the wilderness to make it easier to survive and how he developed habits and became smarter over time. Also since this is a survival book there is plenty of times where you are asking yourself what you would do if you were in the same or similar situation. The whole time you are kind of nervous because you know something bad was going to happen or if anyone would find him. Right now I'm reading Brian's Winter, which is an extension on Hatchet.
The Giver: Lois Lowry
Right now I am reading this a second time because we have to read it for homeroom. I have to say that reading it a second time makes everything much more clear. The reason I liked this book is because it feels like you are reading about a whole different world that is in some ways similar to ours. The whole society is very basic and plain. Thats why I felt when Jonas received the memories of the past, it was things that today, we all know about and have experienced. All the information Jonas was given kind of forced him to rebel which was cool to see in a society where everyone was the same and followed the rules. The ending was kind of confusing. So maybe when I read through it again it will become a little more clear.
Diary Of a Wimpy Kid Series: Jeff Kinney
Of course everyone has read the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Im included and I really enjoyed them.
It was a very easy series to read. They were very funny and included a picture with everything that was written down. For me it was better than TV because my parents were happy that I was reading a book but I was also getting a good laugh out of it. Also the book was based on a kid in middle school and at that time I was a year or two away. Since it is a kid there are lots of parts you can connect to and enjoy them even more.
Ready, Freddy Series: Abby Klein
I read this series in first grade. My teacher introduced them to me when she began reading them to
the class. There are a good number of books in the series so after she had stopped reading them to us, I began to read them on my own. They were good books for me to read since I was in first grade. They were chapter books. In the book there were also pictures. And I believe that in each picture there was a hidden letter or something. So that also would be fun to do.
¡Despieta, Orogris!: Wolfgang Bittner
This is a book from when I was very little. It has a lot of meaning to me. The book is in spanish which is cool. My brother and I would lay in bead and my Dad would read it to us. This was very special since the book is about a dad and his son. They go under the covers in their bed and pretend to be bears. The dad being the big bear and the son being the little bear. We read this book so many times. I hope I never forget about this book because it has such great sentimental value.
