All individuals deal with individuality and discovering self in different stages and ways. John’s character in this novel portrays a youth struggling with finding a path in life. I honestly can say I do not know exactly where my path in life will take me and my path will differ from every other individual in life. I have ideas and plans for my future and I may not know exact details but I do have a basic plan. John did not even have a basic plan, John was just going through life with no meaning, drinking and partying without a care in the world. John joins the army in order to make a meaning in his life and this story shows the drastic life change John went through. Savannah being the other main character does not struggle with the self search to the extent of John. Savannah has strong values and beliefs and lives her life according to her morals not caring how others looked at her. The two characters are extremely opposite characters and I personally loved analyzing the two lives.

John and Savannah meet and fall madly in love with one another.  I find it so fascinating how two individuals, completely different can connect at such an insanely deep level. Nicholas Sparks does not just write a typical love story but throws depth, pain, and hardships in his writing. In this novel John is in war while Savannah is home going to university. The struggle between keeping love alive is so hard but letters and phone calls are all Savannah and John have. Complications occur and this novel kept me glued to the words. This novel causes readers to look at love in different perspectives. I loved how Dear John shows that true love is not all a fairytail ending but love is wanting happiness for another person before your own.

I have seen the motion picture, Dear John, and also enjoyed the movie. Novels always create more depth and meaning into a story which is why I would recommend reading this novel as well as seeing the movie. Comparing and contrasting the a novel and movie can help clarify questions and emphasize key messages.  This novel was not just a surface story but portrayed a message and meaning. Life is not all happiness. Personally I have lost loved ones and dealt with pain proving to me life is not fair. Happiness differentiates between individuals and this novel showed me a different perspective of love and happiness in which I have never realized before.

Dear John is definitely a novel that I would recommend to all others. This novel is a romance novel with a classic love story but with depth and meaning. I almost get angry with romance novels where boy meets girl, falling in love and living happily ever after. This is a feel good, perfect love story but I know that life does not always work out and reality needs to be portrayed in novels. Nicholas Sparks in Dear John, creates a novel with romance but also demonstrates a honest life story. Dear John is a story that a reader can relate to or imagine as a real life scenario. I  enjoyed reading Dear John and is a must read for all my friends and family.

©2010 library. All Rights Reserved.

Our world would not be what it is today if we did not have the great people that we had. Those people were inspired by some one, were they not? Benjamin Franklin was inspired by lightning and in that he created electricity which made many advances in our world.Thomas Edison could have been inspired by either Benjamin Franklin or electricity which helped him to create the light bulb. In the book before when Will meets Drake, a renegade from the deeps, he becomes inspired and wants to be able to shoot and kill as well as Drake can. When the time comes that Will has to shoot Drake because he was taken over by Limiters, who are the fiercest warriors that have never lost a war. Will is devastated he almost doesn’t do it, but in the fear that Drake will be interrogated and that he will tell all there secret hiding spots, he kills him.

One of the worst things in your life would have to be loosing someone, now image a person you really want to be like that you knew very well dying. One person i lost that inspired me allot would have to be my grandma Evlen. My Grandma was one of the sweetest granny’s you could have ever met. When I lost her I was very young but now that I am older i have realized how much I miss about her. Every holiday she came and visited us with us and when she came she always gave us little goodies. Even if it was not an important day and she randomly came and visited she would have a little or sometimes big treat for us. If my Grandma were to come back I would be one of the happiest people on the planet wouldn’t you. IN my book now that wish is given to Will. When he resurfaced to above the crust he finds Drake. This is a blessing to Will because he finds out three thing, one is that Drakes still alive, two that he still has a chance in beating the Styx, and three that he never killed one of his friends but actually helped him. Will did not get to spend allot of time with his inspiration because he had to go back down to the poor and kill his sisters.

Inspirations do not all ways come in the form of people. People can be inspired by buildings or ships. They can be so inspired that they want to build a better ship, or better building. I am inspired by great architecture. Will father was inspired by the three great temples he found in the world inside of a world. Will was inspired by guns and Elliot was inspired from her knew weapons from Drake. A little higher up but not on the crust Martha is inspired by Chester and Chester is trying to get away. A little higher up but still not above the crust Will’s mother is inspired by the colony where she was taken to and the old lady she is sitting across from. The oldlady is inspired by staring at Will’s mother. Everyone is inspired by something most people are inspired by more than one thing. Some things little, some large, or some important. If we weren’t inspired by anyone or anything nothing would get built or improved on. Society would not get more technological and more advanced.

©2010 library. All Rights Reserved.

In this book Ping keeps asking herself what the dragon haven is going to be like is it a place where dragons and their keepers live in harmony or is it only for dragons. Is it the good life for her and the dragon or for just one of them? Asking that what is the good life? Is it a physical place like when you relax have no pressures and don’t really have to deal with daily problems that occur when you are trying to survive in the world of humans and everyone mistreats the dragons? Or is just a feeling that comes to a person that makes them feel like nothing can make it worse nothing can screw their moment up. Their are many different definitions for the good life some say it’s having no worries others say a high standard of living and don’t even know. The just think that they will know when it happens.

During a time in the book when she thinks she has found the haven but it turns out to be a place that has a pile of dragon bones. Through this and then having Kai the dragon snatched away from her by a rouge dragon and feeling like her heart had been ripped in half and taken away how does she find any inspiration to keep on searching for him. Well in the book it takes awhile but she finally finds enough energy to try to walk and find him. But for weeks she walks in the directions the dragon flew. The weather starts to get a little colder and she is wandering the mountains like a zombie. She has forgotten what she was searching for and who she was. What inspiration could she have now just keep walking in some random direction and maybe you’ll find what you were looking for. But how will she know what she was looking for. For her inspiration comes in shape of Danzi’s old dragon scale. She remembers everything and I guess even that little memento can give you all you need to survive.

Later in the book after her search and she gets picked up by a dragon and brought to their new haven she has to go through many obstacles to kind of fit in. For one she can’t talk to any of the dragons but Kai and the dragons do not want her there. She has an encounter with Hei Lei who hates humans like the other dragons but with more anger and hatred. I wonder on her time in the new haven does she ask herself if she belongs and would it be right for her to leave and pursue happiness. I believe that every person and animal on this earth should be able to live in happiness and have someone in his or her life that makes him or her happy. They need to have a sense of happiness and if they don’t what will they become? Will it be one of those old mean neighbors you see in movies or even worse.

That is how I feel this book connects to me. How people achieve the good life and what inspires some people. This book and series showed me how ancient Chinese culture worked and how I could connect with it. Although I wouldn’t want to live in that time period and in that country I do now respect what people had to do and put up with back then even though my book is fiction it is still partly true.

©2010 library. All Rights Reserved.

Many of us do not know what is right and what is wrong. Some have never really been shown the difference. I know from what I’ve been taught the right things to do in specific situations but to others this may be viewed as wrong. In a book I have recently read called Crackback a young man named Miles Manning gets offered caffeine pills and steroids to try and get an “extra edge” in play. His family has always taught him and showed him that drugs are wrong and he should not be a part of any of it. He is under so much peer pressure it does not seem that bad to just “try” them. He does end up at first taking some of the caffeine pills but knows better than to actually try them and says no.

I know that if I was put in that situation I would say no. My family and peers and all of the people around me have influenced me into making this kind of right decision. But for people who have never been shown these ways it may not be right.

In every kind of story or anything like that there is always a dark side and a light side or the good side. This also occurs in humans. This occurs in my book when many teammates on his team take steroids, drink excessive alcohol even with the agreement they have with their football organization. He is on the side that does the right things but inside of his football team there is the darker side that does all this. I do not really know the complete dark side to human nature but from what I understand is that it is the violence and the theft and things like that that harms other humans or causes them grief.

Many people do not understand what the right ideas or qualities humans are supposed to have an I myself do not have a full understanding but from what do know is that I will strive for what I believe is right and teach others of what I know is right and try and rid ourselves of the darker side to life

©2010 library. All Rights Reserved.

Nick Hook is sent to Soissons to defend an English town. Waiting for the French to attack Nick starts praying to the saints of the town Saint Crispin and Saint Crispinian. The a month later the French invaded. You can’t really call it an invading because the leader of the town betrayed the English to the French and let the French walk in. The French started killing all of the English but luckily the archers hid in the Cathedral so they were safe for now. Nick didn’t make it to the Cathedral so he hid from the French in a house. Hook saw the man who betrayed the English about to kill a nun and nick heard a voice in his head that said to save the girl. Nick feared the voice. Hook was said to be cursed because his mother died on the same day he was born. Nick didn’t know if this was the devil talking or God telling him of a way to redeem himself.He feared it because he already failed to do what a voice told him so he didn’t know what God might do if he ignored it again. Nick also doubted the voice because its a voice in his head he didn’t want to explain to other people that he killed a man because someone told him to. He also ended up in Soissons because he listened to the voice before. The voiced said to save a girl named Sarah who a priest named Sir Martin was going to kill. Nick could do nothing except hit the priest. Later a man named Sir Edward helped him escape because otherwise he’d be hanged. Hook ended up saving the girl.

Nick and the girl he saved (Melisande) hid from the French in a barn that had a clear view of Cathedral. The English man who betrayed everyone told them to open the door. They did willingly but then got ambush and killed. The archers were tortured. They had their fingers that they drew their bows with cut of and then they were castrated. Only after that they were left to bleed to death.Nick now feared for what would happen to him if he was captured. He saw his companions brutally maimed on the left to die. He wondered what to do and he began to doubt the voice in his head even more. But then the voice told him how to escape and the two refugees got back to England.

Nick was able to get into the service of Sir John ,a tough Englishman who is a great warrior, and they prepare for battle. The English army sail to France and the siege at Harfleur began. The English army shoot their cannons at the wall and fire their catapult but nothing seemed to penetrate the barbican. They English army waited trying to get and edge but all they got was diarrhea. The disease actually killed many people in the English army. Sir John was beginning to doubt that they could take over the town and feared that most of the English soldiers will become ill and they wouldn’t be able to continue the march. Soon enough the French came and destroyed the cannons and catapults and before a battle could break out they went back into their hole so to speak. So the next night King Henry decided to attack back. The archers were order to shoot fire arrows over the wall and the remaining catapults shoot balls of fire. Hook and the archers he was in charge of ran out of arrows so they climbed the wall and attack the French with their poleaxes. Nick meet Sir John in the town and together they pushed the French back into the main part of the town. The town folk then gave up saying they were done with the fighting. King Henry made them all leave the town in nothing but a white shirt and white pants.

The whole of the English army was wondering if King Henry was going to go home to England or if he was going to march to the next town. Henry decided that he was going to go to the next town. On the way ambassadors from France came and asked if King Henry was looking for a fight the king of course said yes. The only thing he didn’t agree on was the place. So the English army know feared that any minute the French going to come out and kill them. They feared that since their army is severely weaken with injuries and disease then isn’t a battle be suicide. The army also begin to doubt in the king. They began to see that he won’t stop to matter what until he won. The soldiers began to doubt that he was Gods favorite like he told so many people. One of the kings brothers thought that it was madness and they left. The English army got to an area that they need to cross to get to the town but blocking it was 36,000 French men. All the English had was 7,000 warriors and 5,000 of those were archers. So the battle began. The English army was greatly outnumbered. Nick now feared for his life because he knew he would die. But that fear was washed away because he realized that dying was inevitable. It rained all night and the next day (the feast day of Saint Crispin and Crispinian) the battle began. The archers let loose volley after volley. Since the ground was muddy the French had a hard time climbing the hill. So the first wave was defeated by arrows. During the second wave however the archers ran out of arrows and wet to hand to hand fighting. The third wave retreated and the English were victories.

This battle left 112 dead men on the English side and 7,000 to 10,000 dead men on the French side. Over 1,500 French noblemen were taken prisoner and ransomed. The English defeated all odds and came out victories. Even though their were many doubts and fears about the decision the men were awed by the outcome. This is a good book to read. But I do not recommend it to all people because it is very historically accurate of what the men did to the women.

©2010 library. All Rights Reserved.

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.

©2010 library. All Rights Reserved.

Edie faces many challenges with Dylan. They always seem to be friends that snog and they can never move past that point. Dylan is an enclosed person and Edie doesn’t know much about his personal life, but she’s sure she’s fallen head over heels.
They are very sweet, almost cute in the way that they get into constant fights and battle about whether they like each other and why its not ok to kiss and blah blah. It’s sweet but its almost an immature relationship.

In all honesty young lovers probably love in a mind game kind of way. It’s as if we try not to let our guard down or we play hard to get. I think Young people enjoy a challenge in their relationship or with crushes. I don’t know about other people but I like someone who is unpredictable, it keeps interest.

I guess it’s where you grow up. In stable countries like Canada or Britain love doesn’t have to be rushed. We have time to pick at others brains and make people more crazy about us. In third world countries I don’t think they have time to play with others feelings, you have to tell them how you feel because it could be your last day. And it could be for any body but people like us who live in some of the most safe and best countries in the world, forget that we could die at any time. Where as war torn and poor countries may encounter death every day. It’s in those times that we start to express our feelings. The fear of death can make us not afraid. Isn’t it odd how that works. Because we’re afraid of death, we are not afraid to speak our true feelings. Of course not everyone is afraid to die but many of us fear we will leave Earth unfullfilled, maybe that’s why people in those countries say their feelings, they could be trying to get everything out in the open.

Not all people in those countries just let their feelings free but in a way I think that it could be a possibility that they speak of their love maybe more than we do. I have never been to any of these countries but when you think about it many of those people know they live a hard life. There is love every where, in every country, people are always falling in love. Maybe it just depends on who you are and what you believe but I do believe they are more likely not to take others for granted and not share how they feel about a person.

I enjoyed the book very much even though it’s so dramatized. Our society doesn’t know any better than to play mind games in our relationships. We don’t live in many day to day fatal experiences and we don’t face death every day and night. It’s as if we make hardships in our relationships to compensate for something. Little things that really don’t make any difference, we enlarge as though its the end of the world. Perhaps we do it because we know that we have more time to make up for our behaviors, like we take our lives and relationships for granted.

That was my deep feelings into the matter. But I did like the book a lot. I loved reading it because the characters were similar to my friends and I and it was just like a chapter in our lives. You find the guy you like. You like each other on and off and then one day your dreams come true and you finally have the label of boy friend and girl friend. It was a simple book all wrapped up in drama that was sort of refreshing. In a I’m glad people have time to worry about drama and not worry about locking their doors because you live in a terrible neighborhood kind of way. It was an escape from reality.

©2010 library. All Rights Reserved.

The decisions we make throughout life are effected by different aspect that we face on a daily basis. These can include our fears, our dreams, and the pressure put on us from those around us. In the Deathly Hallows, Harry sets out to destroy Voldemort once and for all with the fate of his own life and the rest of the Wizarding World resting on his shoulders. If this isn’t pressure than I don’t know what is. I crumble under the pressure of deciding what I should eat for lunch. Being faced with the burden of so many innocent lives I would definitley be a wreck.

When faced with pressure, those like myself who are not good at dealing with it tend to become almost paralysed. Our minds freeze up, our hearts beat fast, and our actions are very tense. However, Harry faces none of those symptoms. He remains cool and calm and thinks all of his actions through wisely. He is like those few people that, when faced with such a sense of urgency, use it to propel themselves forward. He uses his burden to achieve his goal. He knows he cannot back out and works so much harder to destroy Voldemort.

Pressure can take other froms as well. Fear is one of those forms and is probably the most overwhelming of them all. At the end of the book, we find Harry beginning to give into fear. Harry must walk thorugh the Forbidden Forest to his death. He must face Lord Voldemort and stand quietly while he is murdered by the Dark Lord. Harry is faced with two opposing pressures. The pressure of the lives of the rest of the Wizarding World and the fear of his own death. Once again, being faced with this decision I would be a wreck. Harry however nows that he must carry on and does so. He never loses sight of his goal even when faced with death.

I love the Harry Potter series, especially this book. J.K. Rowling is a genius and uses her books to explore the topics of love, death, and magic. The conclusion to this series is extraordinary and entertaining. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows should be read by everybody.

©2010 library. All Rights Reserved.

The decisions I make on a daily basis include what I want to eat, what I want to wear, what I watch on TV, and when I go to sleep. These decisions are not very difficult to make. They are actually quite easy and I don’t give them very much thought. However, if I was living on a lifeboat with a Bengal Tiger, my decisions would change instantly. Just like the decisions Pi made, my decisions would be tougher and would require much more thought and consideration. Pi’s many decisions included what will I eat today, if I eat at all, will I make a shelter, and how will I not get eaten by my more than unfriendly roommate.

My decisions are usually based on what I want. But the decisions Pi makes in the book are based on what he needs. Along with anybody else who becomes lost at sea, Pi is no longer able to make decisions on what he wants. He bases everything on what he needs and how he will survive the longest. If he spent his time wishing he had an ice cream cone to eat instead of trying to catch a fish, he would most likely starve. Pi put his needs so far ahead of his wants that he even went to the extreme of trying to eat a cigarette.

Being stuck on a life boat for two-years does not just present physical needs and problems. The psychological and spiritual aspect of being on a lifeboat is even more daunting. Faith is one of those aspects that can provide hope in the worst situations. When many people suffer a loss or feel that they have experienced the worst life can throw at them, their faith sometimes begins to waver. Religion is a huge factor in Pi’s life. Being born in India, Pi was naturally raised as a Hindu and he embraced this religion. However, Pi was curious. Pi began attending Christian masses and Islam prayers and soon found himself a practicing Hindu, Christian, Muslim mix. Pi’s faith does not waiver while he is stuck at sea. He continues to pray five times a day like every other Muslim, as well as stay in touch with his other religions. I admire Pi for this. It is not easy to stay faithful when your family has died and you have been alone for almost two years. Pi remains faithful and says he just wants to love God.

It is common sense that being trapped on a lifeboat would be no picnic. However, it is not easy to make good decisions and stay so faithful after a few weeks of loneliness and fatigue. I really admire Pi for this reason. He always had hope and faith and made sure that the decisions he was making were best for him and would ensure his survival.

©2010 library. All Rights Reserved.

©2010 library. All Rights Reserved.