"ttyl" by Lauren Myracle

Explorer’s World – Communication skills

“ttyl” by Lauren Myracle

 “ttyl”, a short teenage novel written by Lauren Myracle, written differently than other typical novels. This novel was written in Instant Messaging (IM) format, having the story to be told in a style that’s alike a script. This dramatic novel tells a story between three girls – Angela, Madigan, and Zoe – who are in high school. At first, you know the characters as their screen name, but as the story unfold; you start to get to know who they really are – their personalities, their real names, and their lifestyles. 

Throughout the story, I think it was Madigan who has changed the most, out of all the rest of the girls. She does, by becoming more distant from Angela and Zoe, and starts spending time with another girl (whom Angela highly dislikes), Jana. Like many friendships, Angela and Zoe are left with confusion and the feeling of betrayal. They want their ‘Maddie’ back. While Angela and Zoe frustrates over Madigan; Madigan is badly influenced by her new friend, Jana. 

Later on, Angela and Zoe get distracted with their own boy problems. More problems occur, mainly because each of them likes to keep secrets from one another. Zoe’s boy problem includes an older man, her English teacher. Honestly, I think that was the turning point, because it seems something unlikely for a teenager (in my perspective). This turning point was foreshadowed, as Zoe’s “relationship” with her teacher, gradually became more of a problem, throughout the story.

The theme that's being played out in this novel is friendship. The author is telling the readers how important friendship can be, how others can be affected by the process of someone leaving/"betraying" a friendship.

"ELEANOR & PARK"

"ELEANOR & PARK"

I read the book “Eleanor & Park” by Rainbow Rowell; it is a fiction novel in the young adult romance world.

Eleanor is the main character – a sixteen-year-old girl. When she moves to a new town and school, at first she is very insecure, shy, anxious and quite vulnerable, having problem both with bullies and her family. However, after she meets Park and become closer to him, she learns to trust him more and becomes braver and more confident about who she is. 

The part of the story that shocked me most was when, after months of getting sick and perverted messages on her books and thinking it was just some school bullies, Eleanor realises it was her abusive step father that was writing the whole time. This is also the most intense turning point, as it is the moment she understands that the only way to save herself from her infuriated stepfather (who was probably ready to kill her) is to run away from home.

In conclusion, i don't think there was a certain moral to the whole story, but it does a great job of showing the issues and conflicts (such as relationships, bullying and family problems) teenagers can experience.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,”

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” William Shakespeare's most popular comedy, was written around 1594 or 95. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" deals with the universal theme of love and its complications: lust, disappointment, confusion, and marriage. The plot focuses on three parallel stories: the trials and experiences of two sets of lovers camping in a magical forest, the world of the Fairy King and Queen and their elves, and a group of rough craftsmen attempting to stage a production of "Pyramus and Thisby" for the wedding of the Duke of Athens. Hermia is in love with Lysander, but her father wants her to marry Demetrius. To escape the arranged marriage, she and Lysander elope into the woods. Demetrius follows them, and Helena, who nurses an unrequited passion for him, pursues him. A love quadrangle develops among the young lovers when mischievous Puck plays Cupid. "The course of true love never did run smooth" says Lysander. Meanwhile, a group of amateur actors rehearses a badly written play in the woods, and soon all find their lives changed by the doings of Oberon and Titania, the warring king and queen of the fairies. Magic, action, love and humor are the ingredients for this unforgettable spell. This work is widely performed around the world, and no wonder - it's about the world's most popular pastime, falling in love. But as Puck knows, falling in love can make fools of us all. Love is crazy, love is mad.

The Wonderful Adventures of Nils by Lagerlof Selma

The book “The Wonderful Adventures of Nils” written by Lagerlof Selma is an adventure story. The story is about a little boy called Nile traveling around Sweden. Nils is a 14 year old boy, he loves to bully animals. One day he bullied a fairy, and the fairy made him become tiny as a finger. Later, a goose from Nils’s house carried him to the sky. And he started his “trip”. In this “trip”, he traveled around, learned about nature, geography, and folklore. There are many danger in this “trip”, but he past through it. Finally, he went back home he became a good kid, and changed his shortcomings.

      The book has two lovely protagonists. One is nils, who becomes thumb size by spirit. The other one is Morton, who is a flying geese. Morton flies after geese together with Nils. Out of his expectation, his goose, which should have been at home, flies with him together. So he began his long and dangerous trip. Along the way, they destroyed the fox,  Smith's wiles, they escaped from the robber mountain, and Nils was nearly stamped flat by the King statue.  It was too lucky that the puppet saved him.They also beat the grey rats corps and saved the little squirrel. After going through a lot and overcoming many difficulties, they arrived at Lapland.  After that, Nils find that the way of turning himself back was to take good care of the goose Morton. After summer, they flew back. When Nils arrived home and saw his parents, he had grown bigger and changed back to a man.

The minor characters are the wild geese. They traveled with Nils and they helped Nils to change his shortcomings. They are good friends after travelling to Sweden, and if I have a opportunity, I’d love to travel with wild geese too!

There are many exciting parts, but the most exciting part is when Nils comes back to home. He becomes the same height as before, and he becomes a braver, more friendly kind of boy. I think this trip really changed him a lot, he passed though many things. And he could change himself.

The writer wants to tell us：People can only be brave when they doggedly face difficulties, and overcome difficulties, then they will grow up quickly. This is the only long story she wrote， and she wrote the inner thoughts about a little boy. I think this is a really good story.

The Loser List - Bhavesh Primlani

Recently I Read,  The Loser List,  by HN Kowitt. The Book was the genre of comedy, it was about a Middle School Boy Attending His first year. This Boy doesen't Turn out to be the MOST Popular Boy since he likes to do everything others dont enjoy doing.

Throughout the book the boy changes by adapting to others and slowly starts to become much more popular and people seem to be around him much more. After people find out he is capable of more things they start to use him more often to draw, although after that he still isnt the most popular, which makes him still a "loser". The turning point of this story was about how he was starting to get popular but then found out he was getting used by the 'cool' kids. I am truly not sure if this was shadowed all along but I felt something similar would've happened just for the reader to feel intense.

The theme overall was funny and also about middle school life, facing consequences of different situations. This book is very recommendable for all ages in my opinion, at the end of the book they ended with a happy ending. I look forward to read many different books of this specific author! 

The Giver - Isaac Tan

   

     The book that I have been reading is ‘The Giver’ by Lois Lowry. In the story, it takes place in a dystopian society where very little privacy is allowed and people are controlled and brain washed by ‘the Elders’. In this community, there is no suffering, hunger, war, colour, music, or love. Essentially, the Elders control everything. They control who marries whom, where the children are placed, and the career that gets assigned to people. In the book, Jonas is assigned to be a receiver of memory which means that he receives collective memories from the Giver of the community. Then he has to help bring the community wisdom when it is having any problems. Jonas soon realises that something in his community is not right and feels that there is something missing.

     This book demonstrates Lois Lowry’s concerns about humanity and our modern day society. Throughout the book, Lois Lowry attempts to tell the reader the real dangers that exists when people choose for conformity over individuality and for the unexamined security over freedom. In my opinion, I think that Lois Lowry is trying to say that individual freedom is better than equality between everyone.

Big Nate reflection -by Emily Feng Guo

This book is called ‘Big Nate’. It is talking about Nate in a class by himself. Nate is the main character in this book. He is a naughty, intelligent and funny boy. He is very unlucky. Troubles always seem to find him. Mrs. Godfrey always calls on him when he doesn’t know the answer. So, his answer is usually:

 ‘Ummm… Koff!’.

 Also, he is a trouble maker. He is special and different to everyone else. I really mean in relation to his study, such as when other students study very hard he is always thinking about other things except his studying. Sometimes, he has many ideas, but all of the ideas fail to work correctly. For example, there was water on the countertop,so he wanted to change into another pair of shorts. But he only had a XXL shorts. He tried to find ideas to help him. Finally, he stuffed some towels in his shorts, then everybody started laughing like crazy. Anyway, he knew he’s great.