Aris' Blog

This month I read It’s Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han. This book is about a teenage girl named Belly. Her mother Laurel has a best friend named Susannah. Susannah sadly passed away, and her two sons, Connor and Jeremiah are absolutely devastated. So is Laurel, Belly and Belly’s brother, Steven.  Every summer Belly would visit Susannah, Conrad and Jeremiah Fisher’s beach house in Cousins. That winter, Belly and Conrad had a brief relationship together that did not end the way she wanted it to. That’s unfortunate for Belly, more than anyone because the only boy she’s ever loved is Conrad Fisher. You could say she’s still attached to him. Breaking tradition for the first time,  Belly  and her family will not be visiting the Fisher house in Cousins during summer. At Susannah‘s funeral, Belly saw Conrad with another girl. Disappointed, she said something to Conrad that caught him off guard. Since then, there’s been some tension between them. A while after Conrad leaves for college, Jeremiah is informed that Conrad left and is missing. Jeremiah and Belly go on a mission to find him. Belly’s best friend Taylor replaces Belly’s clothes with some not so modest options for the purpose of impressing Conrad to get him back.  Belly and Jeremiah find Conrad at the beach house in Cousins. They stay there for a couple days, trying to convince Conrad to go back to school but he refuses. Someone shows up at the beach house and Belly confronts Conrad about it. He finally came clean and told her that Mr. Fisher was planning on selling the house and Conrad came home to try and save it. While Belly was hours away from home in Cousins, her best friend Taylor was covering for her saying that they were having a sleepover. Before Jeremiah knew that the house was being sold, he threw a party.  Belly was underage drinking and got drunk. While being drunk, she ratted herself out and called her mom to tell her that she was in Cousins and that the house was going to be sold. Immediately, Laurel drove over to Cousins to also save the house and at the same time, discipline Belly. Laurel and Belly have a conversation and each of them say they’re sorry. Once Laurel doesn’t have to worry about Belly any longer, she worries works on saving the house from Mr. Fisher and Laurel have a stern adult conversation and somehow convince Mr. Fisher not to sell the house. Now that the house is saved, they have to focus on getting Conrad back to school so he doesn’t miss his finals. Jeremiah and Belly help Conrad study all night for his finals and thankfully he passes. However, as Belly and Jeremiah are in the car waiting for Conrad to finish his test, Jeremiah confesses something uncalled for. This unexpected confession makes Belly change your perspective on everything. Conrad catches Jeremiah and belly in the car together and Conrad doesn’t know what to think of Belly anymore. In the end, everything works out : Conrad is more understanding, the house is safe, and Jeremiah is with his dream girl. A girl that Belly knows very well.

I was really invested in this book because of the way each character rapidly changes from one way to another. In one chapter, they’ll be happy and in love but in the next chapter they’re devastated and ignorant. Even when everyone is in their deepest troubles they all have hope.  Many opinions, perspectives, and people switch up in the book, but the one thing they all share is a strong relationship with each other. No matter how big the argument, you cannot separate this tight-knit family.

My favorite character in the book is Taylor because even though she might do things she’s not supposed to, she looks out for Belly, and tries to be helpful. An example of this is shown on page 133 when Belly states, “ After,I took a shower and put on the clothes Taylor picked for me.” This shows that Taylor is helping her friend get ready for a night out, making sure she looks her best and feels her best so she can be confident.

My favorite quote from the book is on page 112 when the author states, “‘Do I have cocoa powder on my face?’ I asked, suddenly paranoid. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Just some dirt—oops, I mean, freckles.’” This is meaningful to me because it reminds me of the way that my sister and I goof around and tease each other.

 

This month I read Matilda by Ronald Dahl. This book is about a 5 year old girl named Matilda Wormwood. However, she is no ordinary little girl. She has a brilliant mind that developed at a VERY young age. Her vocabulary is at the level of an adult. She is very intelligent and loves to go to the library in her free time. She reads difficult books by authors like Charles Dickens and John Steinbeck. Her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood on the other hand, are significantly less intelligent and educated than their 5 year old daughter. Matilda’s parents have strong opinions on Matilda. They don’t care for her properly. They don’t support Matilda’s passion for academics. Mr.Wormwood runs a car business and scams people for every car he sells. Almost everyone in the town knows that he’s a crook. Once Matilda was enrolled into school, her teacher Ms.Honey, realized that Matilda had abilities far too special to be in a kindergarten class. Miss honey decided to take it upon herself to help Matilda advance in her education.  She does so by going to the head mistress of the school, Ms.Trunchbull.  Ms.Trunchbull denies Ms.Honey’s request because Mr.Wormwood told Ms.Trunchbull that Matilda was an awful child that got into a lot of trouble. On top of that,Ms.Trunchbull is aware of Mr. Wormwood being a crook and doesn’t want to help a crook’s daughter. One day, when Ms.Trunchbull came to teach Ms.Honey’s class, Matilda accomplished a great task. It was quite the miracle! It was something that no other human could do. Later, we find out that Ms.Trunchbull is Ms.Honey’s aunt. When Ms.Honey’s mom died, that’s when Ms.Trunchbull moved in with Ms.Honey and her dad. Some time passes, and Ms.Honey’s dad dies. Ms.Trunchbull takes over the house and said there was no will left behind. Ms.Honey was stuck living in a tiny cottage with no bed and no kitchen. To solve this problem, Matilda used her powers to scare Ms.Trunchbull the next time she taught Ms.Honey’s class. She tricked her into thinking that Ms.Honey’s father’s ghost came back to haunt her. Ms.Trunchbull leaves, and the will coincidentally turns up. Ms.Honey moves into her old house and all is well. Until… Matilda arrives home to find her mother, father, and brother packing. Mr.Wormwood says they are leaving because he got caught scamming people. Matilda runs back to Ms.Honey, as they have grown a strong relationship with each other. I highly enjoyed this book. It was full of wonderful twists and turns. It was interesting to see the contrast between the different characters. You would assume a child would be like their parents, right? Not at all in this case. There are also many examples shown of people standing up for themselves. I feel that is a good message to spread. The final reason why I enjoyed this book was seeing the conflict between characters. The drama was very intense at times, which keeps the reader hooked. My favorite character is Matilda because she is thoughtful. An example of this is shown on page 221 when Matilda writes, “‘Give my Jenny her wages. Give my Jenny the house. Then get out of here. If you don’t, I will come and get you like you got me. I am watching you Agatha’”  What Matilda is doing is lifting a piece of chalk with her powers and writing on the board, impersonating the ghost of Ms. Honey’s dad, requesting that Ms Trunchbull gives Ms. Honey the house back. My favorite quote is on page 130 when Bruce Bogtrotter was stuffing his face with an enormous chocolate cake while being pressured by Ms.Trunchbull. The quote is, “ Suddenly someone shouted, ‘Come on Brucie! You can make it!’” This quote is meaningful to me because it’s difficult to stand up to the rules. The person was being very brave to me because they went against what was wrong, even though, a very tough person was trying to silence them.

This month, I read a book called The Witches by Roald Dahl. This book mainly takes place in England, where there are lots of witches. Real witches however, don’t wear black hats like in the movies. Real witches are all women, who wear gloves to hide their long fingers, have no toes, and wear wigs to hide their bald heads. The narrator’s parent die, which leads him to move with his grandma to England. The narrator’s grandmother who he calls “Grandmamma” is very educated on the topic about witches and tells the narrator about witches all the time. The most important thing about witches they want every kid vanished from Earth. The narrator and his grandma go to a hotel. The narrator brings his two pet rats and he ends up getting complaint about the rats from the manager. He is trying to train his rats to be in the circus. The narrator needs to find a place for his rats to practice and he finds a place in the theater. The room was reserved for a group called the “RSPCC” Which stands for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. He hides behind the curtain because if he gets caught, the people in the meeting won’t punish him. The group ended up being not what it seemed like at all. It was a group of witches! The Grand High Witch, the leader of every witch in the world, was seen for the first time by a non witch person: the narrator. One of the narrators friends, Bruno Jenkins was fooled by the witches and was turned into a rat. Similar consequences soon followed the narrator.

I really enjoyed this book because the author does a really good job at telling the story. It doesn’t feel like you’re reading a book. It feels like someone telling you a bedtime story. There are lots of plot twists happening everywhere in the book that made me not want to stop reading it. The description and detail about the witches goes so deep, it’s like you’re there, looking straight into their eyes.

My favorite character is Grandmama. She is my favorite because she is easygoing. Grandmamma agrees with everything her grandson says and does.  She just goes along with the choices made by the narrator. She sticks up for him. an example of this is shown on page 52-53 when the author states, “‘Rats!’ cried Mr. Stringer, going mauve in the face. ‘ There are no rats in this hotel!’ … ‘ I saw on this very morning,’ my grandmother said. ‘ It was running down the corridor into the kitchen!’” Mr. Stringer, the manager of the hotel, saw the narrators pet rats and tried to explain that there are no rats allowed in the hotel. Grandmamma however, wanted to stand up for the narrator and lied about rats being in the hotel kitchen.

My favorite quote from the book is stated on page 126, “‘ Things could’ve been a lot worse. I did get away from them. I’m still alive.’” This quote is meaningful to me because even after he got turned into a rat and it’s not able to live life anymore, he’s still looking on the bright side things.