ORB review

Second Quarter Outside Reading Book Review
The Secret Between Us by Barbara Delinsky. Doubleday, 2008. Fiction

The Secret Between Us is about a 16 year old girl, Grace, and her mother, Deborah, who get in a car accident in their hometown of Leland. The crash kills a man running by the side of the road in a bad rainstorm. They soon find out that the man they hit was Grace’s history teacher, Calvin McKenna. The Secret Between Us is a story about a girl and her mother, trying to cope with their town and everything they have to say.

“The Secrets Between Us is an unforgettable story about making bad choices for the right reasons and the terrible consequences of a lie gone wrong.” Quoted from doubleday.com, “Barbara Delinsky delivers a riveting story of family and a superbly crafted novel…”

The Secret Between Us is like no other story I’ve read before. The descriptive ability that Barbara Delinsky uses in this book is amazing. She describes each character with such clear visuals. You can not only see each character, but also imagine life in their shoes.Delinsky is also very good at capturing the audience and has a great way of showing different character’s points of view, without the story ever becoming overwhelming with different thoughts.

“She hoped Sunday would be better. It was a beautiful day to usher in May. The air was warm and clear, the oaks were beginning to leaf, and azaleas in the front beds were swelling with buds, contrary to the random havoc wrecked by storms, when the weather was calm there was a feeling of order. On days like these, she felt more in control.” (112).

I really enjoyed reading Barbara Delinsky’s book. I really liked how she made the characters and events seem very real. What I didn’t like about the book was how the juicy part was at the beginning and almost until the end, nothing really happened. I think it was a good idea to have alcohol and shop lifting being a big part of the story, because that makes the characters and conflict seem more realistic. I agree with the theme, lying isn’t good, even if it’s for a good reason. I believe that some people believe lying is okay if it’s going to help someone, but this book was a great example of how it can all backfire.

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.