Book Review 3: Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

This is the 2nd book I've read by Laurie Halse Anderson, the first being Speak, a REALLY good book. This also turned into being a pretty good book. It is about a slave girl named Isabel and her younger sister Ruth. It is taking place during the time of the American Revolution. Which actually is a unique time for a children's book to be written about slaves. Normally you tend to read about the civil war time period. Isabel and Ruth's masters die. They had promised to set them free, but the lawyer who supposedly has these papers is out of town at the time, and so they get sold by a relative. The people who buy them are Tories or Loyalists to Britain. The wife is horribly mean to the two girls. Isabel is trying the whole time to find a way to get herself and Ruth their promised freedom, but is blocked at every door. When Madam gets upset with Isabel, shortly after she finds out that Ruth has fits, she drugs Isabel, and tells her when she's woke up the next day that Ruth has been sold. Isabel gets so upset that she runs off. She is caught, and branded. At this point, I was in tears. Isabel has been unsure throughout the whole book which side is the right one. The Loyalists seem to be better for slaves, yet don't ever come through for her. The rebels promise things in exchange for her help in spying on her master, but then they don't seem to be able to make good on what they have kind of promised. The book ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, we haven't seen all the way through the Revolution, and so there is supposed to be a sequel.

The only thing I wasn't thrilled about was the chapters having the dates on them. Some chapters were part of a day, the next chapter was still the same day, and then other chapters were several days. That was an annoying way to bother with labelling the chapter. At least in my opinion. But I will highly recommend this to kids, as well as teachers looking for a good book about the American Revolution with a new, unusual viewpoint.

I started my 4th book today, The Boy Who Dared. About a German boy during the time of Hitler. I didn't remember by the title, but it is also a book I had really wanted to read when I saw it at the bookstore. I hope to have it finished tonight, and then I'll really be on track.

Still on track with book number 3

This is going to be a quick blog, because tonight I need to finish book number 3 to stay on track. But I have less than 100 pages left, so shouldn't be a problem. This is also turning out to be a really good book. Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson.

Got to have dinner with a sorority sister who moved back to Missouri this summer. It was nice. I haven't gotten together with this group in a long time, so I hope now that she's back I'll get to see her more. And I definitely hope to go visit her for a girls' weekend in Columbia.

Tomorrow I get to go see Final Destination 3D, I'm so excited! Tried WW tonight, couldn't find my little book. So that means that Saturday morning I intend to do some cleaning and find it! I won't be able to walk at Macken, because there is some charity walk. I walked 2 miles tonight. I'm going to try hard to get 5 miles in tomorrow before movies, and then 5 on Sunday. I'm still only at having lost 24, my goal was 25 by when school started, but I've been stuck on this last pound for several weeks. Not being able to walk every day is I'm sure a big part of the problem. Don't know how I'll take this.

Book Review 2: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Well, when I finished this book I have to say my opinion improved. I still like Hunger Games better though.

The book starts out with the man Jack who has just killed a mother, father, and child, and is looking for the baby of the family to finish the job. Somehow the baby crawls out of his crib, down the road, and into the graveyard. In the graveyard, the local ghosts decide to take care of the baby. And they realize the man Jack is dangerous when he comes by to look for the baby and so direct him away. Since the name of the baby is not known, he is named Nobody Owens. Owens for the ghost couple who become his parents. He grows up in the graveyard. The ghosts teach him for most of his life. There is one person who lives there who is neither ghost, nor alive. His name is Silas and he gets food and other necessities for Nobody, or Bod, as he is called, that the ghosts cannot get, and that Bod is not allowed out of the graveyard to get. When he is young he makes a friend, a young girl whose family believes he is an imaginary friend. This is because they never see him, because the ghosts have taught him to "fade". They know someone is out to kill him, and so they teach him what they can to protect him. As he gets older, he tries actually going to school, which doesn't work out so well. Instead of staying out of people's minds, he sticks up for kids getting picked on, so he starts getting noticed, and soon school is not an option.

In the end, the man Jack is back to search for Bod, and Bod must deal with the situation to save his life, as well as to hopefully end the whole plot on his life. I guess I can see why this won the Newberry award, and I can see it will probably be on the Truman list next year. While I've only read 2 full books so far, both have been really good.

I'm now reading Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson. I'm in chapter 9, on page 60.