Outside Reading Book Review

First Quarter Outside Reading Book Review

Glass by Ellen Hopkins. Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division, 2007.
Genre: Fiction

The book Glass is about a girl named Kristina. She has an alter ego that she named Bree, who comes out on an occasional basis. Kristina is eighteen years old and she has a baby named Hunter, she is also addicted to cocaine. The whole story is really a character vs. character conflict. The two characters being Kristina and Bree, Kristina really wants to quit using drugs, but Bree convinces herself that she is in control, and using cocaine isn’t a bad thing. The setting takes place in Reno, Nevada. Kristina meets a boy who also uses cocaine, his name is Trey, and she thinks they are in love. When Kristina mother finds out that Kristina’s on drugs, she kicks her out, and makes Kristina leave her baby. She moves in with Treys cousin Brad, who also uses, while Trey goes to college. During the day, Kristina takes care of Brad’s kids for money, because she doesn’t have a job, and she trying to obtain her GED. She then lies to her mother and tells her she couldn’t get a ride home fro Christmas, but she actually didn’t want to. Kristina decides she’s not making enough money, so she starts dealing cocaine. Later in the story, Trey quit school, and decides that Kristina should claim her baby, and they should get an apartment and move in together. They had some money saved in a lockbox, and thought it would be enough for baby diapers and food. Trey told Kristina not to worry about the money, and that he would find a job, but when he is out “job searching” he actually took thee money from the lockbox, and spent it gambling trying to win more money for them, but he came up short. So instead of asking her family for help, Kristina robbed her mother’s house and stole all of her bank checks, and forged her signature to get more money. Her mother notified the police of he missing checks, and the police saw a mysterious girl making out checks at many different banks so they took a wanted picture and put it in the paper. Her mother clarified it was Kristina, and also filed for custody of Hunter. Kristina saw her picture in the paper, and her and Trey decided to flee for a different sate. During their trip they stopped at McDonalds for food, and fell asleep. The police woke them up and asked to search the car. The officer found an unlocked, lockbox, and found cocaine inside. They were then separately brought to jai and Kristina confirmed she was once again pregnant. Ellen ends this story with both of them in jail, and Kristina hoping to get off crack, and have a better life for her unborn baby.

“This book was the perfect sequel to glass and it kept me wanting so much more. A must read for any Ellen Hopkins fan!!!!!” taken from commonsensemedia by anonymous.

Glass is cleverly written in a poetic from of a book. The sentences create shapes and ways of reading that make this book enjoyable for any age. This book, compared the first book in this sequel, is written better, in my point of view. I think the word choice is better, and I think that it has a better story line.

“I lead the way to the living
room, where the settling sun
paints colors
on the west-facing window.
Hunter’s awake, waving
his chubby fists at whatever
real or imagined air fairies
have caught his eye.” (179).

I really like Ellen Hopkins’ book. I started to read her series and I got hooked. I like how she related to topics and problem that teens my age are struggling with. Hopkins’ is showing that drugs, not just cocaine, are addictive, and they control you, you don’t control them. Over all I thought this was a really good book.

Capturing the Sunset

Some people say memories last a lifetime, but do they? Value is not always how much you pay. What lasts longer, an item, or a picture in ones mind, and which is more valuable? We live in a world where some poeple spend millions of dollars on purses or maybe dimond studded t-shirts. Does the more something cost increse its value?

We raced down to the pond, eleven in all. We all bring blankets, and colleen brings her iPod, of course. It’s only around 7:30 P.M. so we have some time. The pond has little ripples that, in fifteen, will fade to glass. All the adults sit at the one picnic table, and we kids play in the water fully clothed. The bottom of the sun touches the top of the very distant mountain. We all simultaneously get out of the water, and sit in the sand. We’re alone on the pond, and it’s nice us being together. The sky looks as if it’s separated into many different groups; it starts out shades orange, and fades into a pink, then the blue of the night sky. No one says anything, and it’s even prettier then last night, or last year. The sun falls faster and faster until all that’s left is the vibrant stars lighting up the dark sky. We begin our journey back to cabin, and hope it will be just as pretty tomorrow night.

The camera clicks and that’s got to be my 90th picture today. I love my camera, bright red with beautiful picture quality and the brightest flash you will see. I scroll through the taken pictures, delete this one, keep that one. I find a pretty flower, and it’s saved to my memory card and I just keep snapping picture. I bring my camera into my house, upload the picture to my computer, and head back outside. I delete what stored on my camera to make more room and snap another twenty pictures.

My camera and the sunset are similar in so many ways. First my camera carries such beautiful colors, and the sunset, well the colors are just magical. Another similarity is that, I enjoy both. I love taking picture, and looking at pictures on my camera, and the sunset, it’s my favorite event to watch. The last similarity between my digital camera and the sunset is that they both remind me of my family. My camera is usually filled with at least fifty percent of pictures of my family, and I can’t watch a sunset alone, I’m always watching it with my cousins, or my parents or my brother, but I can’t watch the sunset alone.

My camera is different from the sunset because the sunset I see every night for about twenty minutes, where I always have my camera, and I can use it for longer the sun is up. Also I can record things with my camera and play them over and over, once the sun disappears over the mountains, it’s gone until the next night.

So I guess it depends on the person’s point-of-view, if they would rather have something they have in their hands, or have something in the back of their minds. I don’t think you can really put a price on something you can’t hold. One way for me to think about is, if my camera breaks, it’s gone, but the sun will give me a beautiful show every night of the week.