Theme in my Independent Reading Book: The Diary of Anne Frank

           In my independent reading book, The Diary of Anne Frank, by Anne Frank, the main theme is circulated around the Holocaust.  The main character, Anne, her family, and several other Jews are hiding in the attic crawl space of a friends' home.  They are hiding from the German Nazi's who are persecuting and murdering the Jews.  The Nazi soldiers would go into the homes of Jews uninvited and whisk them away to concentration camps to die of diseases and illnesses, to be withered away by the lack of food and drink, to be beaten to the point of death, and pass out from exaustion. 
           The reason that I chose to write about this theme instead of all of the other small themes, such as anti-semetism and learning about your true identity, in my book is because it effects the whole book and all of the events that occur in this book.  For example, the reason that the Jews hiding in the attack crawl space don't ever open their curtains or ever turn on the lights, is because they don't want to be caught by the anti-Jewish Nazi's, who will surely drag them all away to concentration camps.
           This book is very powerful to me.  As a Jew, I find it especially important to know the history of the Jewish people.  Although it is very sad, it is interesting to learn what happened to all of the people involved in the Holocaust, some of whom happen to be my ancestors. 
           I am really enjoying this book so far, and would highly recommend it to anybody who would like to learn a little bit about the history of the Jewish people, and to people who would just like a good read.  This book may even change your way of looking at the world.

Two Blogs That I Read and Responded To

                                                     
          I chose to read Sydney's and George's Blogs. Sydney read A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park. George read Cirque du Freak, by Darren Shan.
          I liked Sydney's blogpost because it was concise and straight to the point. I felt like I had read the book, even though I hadn't. I also liked how she sumarized the book first, and then stated her opinions on the characters and about the book in general. I found Sydney's style of writing interesting, too, because she made sure that all of her readers would understand what went on in the book that she read before she jumped straight to telling us her conclusions.
          I liked George's blogpost because it was very descriptive and it was a very brief summary of the entire book. I especially liked how in the end of his response, George told us how the main character changed over the course of the entire book. I think that it was great how he tracked the character change.
Good job with your blog posts George and Sydney!
:)

The Future of Us Reading Response

The Future of Us Reading Response

             In the book, The Future of Us, by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler, the two main characters find out their futures on a mysterious website known to them as “Facebook.” This was especially strange to them because nobody had ever heard of this website. In fact, it didn’t exist! A lot of people didn’t even have computers back in the year 1996!

            It all started with an average computer software disc. Emma and Josh had barely spoken to one another in months, but this all changed when Mrs. Templeton, (Josh’s mother), made Josh bring a computer software disc over to Emma’s house because Emma had just gotten a computer as a present from her father, who had just remarried. Sadly, the Templeton household didn’t have a computer.

            When Josh brings the disc over to Emma’s house, she invited him in and the two of them set up her computer together. Emma set up an email account for herself, and when she logged in she saw something strange listed in the “favorites” section of her email. “Facebook.” It said Facebook. What is Facebook!?! This is what Josh and Emma found out after they clicked on the link. They got to see their futures in fifteen years from then. At first the two of them thought it was a prank, but soon enough they found out that it wasn’t. When they looked at the photos that were posted on Emma’s future page, they saw a picture that was recently taken of her by the lake in their town. She went to her camera and found the film in the camera untouched and undeveloped. Then she started to realize that this really was her future. Emma looked at her page and hated her future almost instantaneously. Her future husband left and hadn’t returned for three days, and in the future, she was mentally ill! She searched other people’s futures, too, such as Josh and her friend Kellan. Josh was married to the prettiest, most popular girl in the grade ahead of him, was rich, and had children. Her friend Kellan is a struggling single mother to her fourteen year old daughter, Lindsay.

Emma didn’t like her future, so she decided to change it. She found her future husbands phone number in the phone book, and called him, pretending to be someone that he met at a party. He turned out to be a year older than her and went to her first choice school for college. She crossed that school off her list as soon as she found out.

The next time that she checked her Facebook page, she was married to some guy named Kevin Storm, and even though her future was changed, she was still unhappy with it. She didn’t like where she lived because it interfered with her future job. She was a marine biologist who was living in England because of Kevin’s job. When she changed her future, she also changed other people’s futures a little bit. Her current friend Josh wasn’t on her list of friends anymore, though he was still married to Sydney Mills, but he didn’t have the same children anymore. When Emma changed her future it changed who his kids were going to be.

            Emma changed her future multiple times, and this upset Josh because he felt that she shouldn’t be messing around with the future because it could greatly affect him or somebody else fifteen years down the road. Emma didn’t listen to Josh.

            Thankfully in the end of the book, Emma and Josh were unable to access Facebook through email anymore, so the future could turn out the way it was meant to be.