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As we reach the end of high school, hundreds of questions get thrown in front of us like what are we going to do after we graduate? Are we going to college or university? If we know what we want for a career? All these require us to know what our likes and dislikes include which also requires us to know who we really are.

In The Last Song, Ronnie’s parents are divorced. She has gotten into shop lifting, going to clubs under age and hanging around guys her mom didn’t approve of. Obviously, going through the phase of teenage rebellion. Usually when teenagers rebel, it’s in an effort to be taken seriously by their parents or their peers. We want to prove ourselves and seem mature whether we really are or not.

It’s human nature for us to want to prove ourselves and to make our own way in the world. If we’re given a label, we want to prove that we’re much more than what the label makes us out to be. Granted, actually breaking the label is easier said than done most of the time but reguardless of that, we want to be our own person whether we know who that is or not. The point is we don’t want anyone else figuring out who we are before we do.

I recently read the book Atonement and I thought it was phenomenal. Atonement is about Briony Tallis who sees something her thirteen year old mind cannot fully comprehend. When everything is revealed, it results in a huge separation between her and her sister Cecilia and the maid’s son Robbie Turner. Throughout the book, it moves from the different perspectives the characters.

I had watched the movie before I read the book so I had an idea about what it was about and what happens but the two are very different.
There are scenes in the book that weren’t in the movie that would made the movie a little less confusing.

I like the book better because I can picture the characters and the settings the way I think they should look. The book also goes into detail on how the characters feel and their thoughts on what is happening. It was interesting to see how they react and respond in the book versus the movie.

Although I enjoyed the book overall, the beginning was a little boring making it difficult to keep focus. Also, because there were many perspectives, it was a little hard to keep up with who’s side of the story was being told.
I would recommend this book to people who have a wide vocabulary because there were quite a few bigger words in it.

 Last Juror was a book based in the 1960’s-mid 1970’s in a small town called Clanton, Mississippi. During this time, the African American people were still struggling for their own identity and there was had just been a serious murder to a single mother of two. On the jury for the trial there was only one black person out of the eight. Many people in Clanton opposed to this because they thought that an African American on the jury would not do a fair job.

 This book answers the focus questions “What are our individual rights and responsibilities? What might be our responsibilities and rights as members of particular groups within society?” because in the book, Miss Callie, who is on the jury at the trial, has to choose whether or not she will agree to be on the jury and, when she decides to be on the jury, whether or not to give Danny Padgitt the death pentalty or life in prison. Miss Callie is an African American woman who is an avid church-goer and takes the bible with her everywhere. She doesn’t think that she has the right to sentence someone to death, yet Mr. Padgitt had committed crimes that also went against what was right.

This book gave you an inside look at how the African American citizens struggled for their own identity in 1960 and how the white people were very ignorant and stubborn towards anyone who didn’t have the same color skin as them. You see how the whites were so opposed to living side by side to African Americans, having their children go to the same schools as African Americans and shop at the same stores as African Americans whereas in present day, we do all of these things without even thinking about how is used to be. 

The description in the book was excellent. You could see the way the settings and the people looked so vividly. However, I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone in our class mainly because the intriguing parts were few and far between and it was very long. This book would be suited for older people.

Red is for Remembrance is about a girl, Stacey Brown, who has stumbled upon a tragic moment in her life. Stacey decides that in order to move on, she has to put the past behind her. With that, she and her friends, Amber and PJ, get accepted into Beacon University.
Everything seemed to be going as good as can be expected until she starts to have nightmares again.

This book was great to read. It was easy to get completely captivated into the characters’ emotions and the plot itself and it teaches you to never lose hope even in the worst of times which is important to remember. At some point in their life, everyone will have to deal with a serious and devistating issue so the crucial concept to keep in mind would be that there is always hope. Giving up would be like moving backwards, and to move forward and get on with your life would be the best.

The author makes it seem like its a real teenager telling about her life. Having a book with a real-life feel to it is important. The reader will simply be drawn into the book that much more.
Red is for Remembrance is a book that has a few challenging words but for the most part very easy to read. It would be a great book for girls in their teens to read a book like this because the genre of book and the way its written will get more girls into reading and actually enjoy it rather than it seem like a chore.

I just finished reading the book silver is for secrets. This is a great book on a count of it has suspense and keeps the reader interested. I’m the type of of person that if the book doesn’t captivate me, I can get easily distracted. However, this particular book engaged me and kept me focused on the words in front of me.

Silver is for secrets is about a girl named Stacey Brown. She and her friends decide to take one last summer trip together before they go their separate ways off to college. But the normal, relaxing trip Stacey was banking on turns into a quest to save a girl, Clara, in trouble. At least she thought Clara was in trouble. Thats what her nightmares were telling and she didn’t think she could ignore listening to them. Determined, Stacey does not realize that by attempting to save Clara, she will be putting the one person who matters most in terrible danger.

This book is great to read and the description makes everything so vivid. Silver is for secrets is the third book in a series. I have read almost all of them and thoroughly enjoyed each of them. I would definitely recommend this book and the whole series to any reader.