Brown Period 8

Nothing is as it seems in No Way to Treat a First Lady, a zany novel by Christopher Buckley. It revolves around First Lady Elizabeth MacMann who is arrested for the murder of her husband, President Ken MacMann, who was cheating on her. She hires shameless lawyer Bruce Baylor, who was her boyfriend in college before leaving him for the future president. However, he can’t decide if he wants to win, to gain fame, or lose, to get revenge. Meanwhile Babette Van Anka, the actress who the president was having an affair with, hires public relations man Nick Naylor to try to keep her name untarnished. Rounding out the cast of characters is Judge Sylvester “Dutch” Umin, a new appointee to the bench, who is the only judge in D.C. not to have a conflict of interest in the case.

One aspect of the book I really like is its use of humor. The book as a whole is an alternate history satire about what could’ve happened had Hillary Clinton killed Bill after the Monica Lewinski scandal. It is also a satire on the over coverage of celebrity trials such as those of O.J. Simpson and Paris Hilton. The use of humor here takes an already good novel and makes it great. All the characters have unique senses of humor, the strongest of which is definitely Bruce Baylor. He ranges from dry, by nonchalantly telling the First Lady that he is doing well as he “hasn’t been indicted for murder”, to the over the top, barraging a witness for using centimeters in his testimony instead of inches. A good amount of humor comes from the narrator also. For example, he seems to take a lot of time out to repeatedly remind us that Vice President turned President Harold Farkley is only “second rate”. Although some of the political satire is a bit dated, as the book was written in 2002, it is still a hilarious read for anyone who likes politics, humor, or law.

Brown Period 5

The main conflict in the book Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie by David Lubar is the main character’s struggle through his freshmen year of high school. On his roller coaster ride of a school year many things happen in his life. For example, his mom becomes pregnant throwing his whole family into a frenzy. He is also chasing the girl of his dreams going out of his way to try to talk to her. Finally, when it seems like a thousand things are going wrong for the poor guy, he tries to change his fortune.

One aspect of the book that I found most appealing was that the book was very realistic. Although the book is a fictitious book, all of the problems Scott, the main character, has could happen to anyone. At certain points in the book I was directly given advice on what to do with my life! I really liked how throughout the book many changes occur in the life of Scott. High school truly is a time of change. In the book one example of that is all three of his best friends over the summer and during middle school are no longer friends at the end of the year. Also, the book doesn’t make high school look like the best time of everyone’s life because it’s just not for everyone. I think that everyone can in many ways connect to Scott’s life and high school experience.

Argentar Period 6

In the beginning of the book there is a boy name Vince who is going on his first and last date(Flashback) with a girl named Angela. They were going to the beach and when they got there it became horrible. Angela and Vince were having a great time but then she wanted for a blanket so Vince goes to his trunk and opens it and sees a dead body bleeding all over his blanket. Later on him and his friend are going to a college party but Vince has to go to his brothers house. When he gets there is this girl that starts flirting with him and wants to do it with him. He got a HOOKER as an apology from his brother and his dad for the dead body in his car. Then he tells his friend about the story but the thing is he didn’t do it. His friend starts screaming at him saying your one chance to do it and you didn’t. In the middle of the book Two guys ask him if he wants to hang out but they go to a strip club which they call a Man club. They were to young to stay and if they get caught they get kicked out, but Jimmy and Ed want them to go to the owner and use his last name so that they could stay. Later on in the book He is going out with a girl named Kendra her dad is an FBI agent and her dad didn’t know that they were going out till later and found out that Vince was apart of the mob.( well thinks he is). So her dad tells her that Vince was taking money from some random guy. The next day Vince goes up to her at school and they start talking but then she says I’m sorry we can be together anymore and then she explains why, while everyone is gathering around.

I would recommend this book because its funny and you would get to know how well your life is compared to Vince’s. This book is comedy and a little sad but mostly comedy. So if you like comedy you should definitely read this book.

Lockowitz

Period-3

I am reading the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, this novel is about a girl named Melinda and she has a secret that leads to her not having any friends going into high school. Melinda makes one friend named Heather but Heather end up leaving her for a group a friends so she could be popular and makes Melinda look like a no body. She doesn’t communicate with her family either. The only communication she has is using note cards to get a hold of her mom or her dad. But after she sticks up to Heather on not helping her with the Spring Fling she feels better and now wants to tell Rachel what really happened the night they lost their friendship at the drinking party they went to. The party they went to was at a barn. Melinda and everyone else was drunk. Melinda that night was raped my Andy Evans. But when Melinda tries to confront Rachel about him she doesn’t believe her until he rapes her again. I would rate this novel a 9 out of 10. I thought this novel was really interesting and good and you can also relate it to yourself because for me she is the same age as me. And any girl or boy can read this novel.

In When Zachary Beaver Comes to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt, Cal and Toby, two boys from a small town in Texas called Antler are having just an average summer. Many things happen over the course of the summer that makes it exciting. Zachary the fattest boy in the world comes to town for his act. Paulie Rankin, Zachary’s guardian and manager leaves him their by himself to go off and find new acts. Throughout the book Cal and Toby do crazy things to try to make friends with Zachary Beaver. In the end Zachary may not want to admit it but these two random kids may have changed his life.

My favorite part of the book is when Cal and Toby try to bring Zachary to the movie and they have to load him into the back of a truck and he barely fits! Many silly things like that over the course of the book is what made the book enjoyable for me. I recommend this book to anyone who is in the mood for an easy, laid back book. Kimberly Willis Holt does a nice job expressing how each character feels at different points in the book. When Zachary Beaver Comes to Town is a great book that everyone should read!

I hope your summer has been restful and full of great reads. In between playing chauffeur for my two children, going to New York to see my last Yankee game at Yankee Stadium, and driving to northern Minnesota, I have actually read quite a bit. Surprisingly, my favorite book this summer happened to be a 2008 Newbery Medal Honor book by Christopher Paul Curtis called Elijah of Buxton. This is a gem for all ages. Originally I thought I would not read this book because the main character is only 11 years-old. I thought it would be too young for high school students but a public library librarian talked me into reading this. I took her advice and learned so much about the underground railroad and Buxton, an organized black settlement in Ontario, Canada for free and escaped slaves from the United States. I had no idea this settlement existed.

Charlene Chausis asked me to assist her in a workshop at Stevenson on July 30th called Live at the Library of Congress which taught educators about the collections within American Memory at the LOC. As I was navigating the LOC I began seeing multiple curriculum connections for Elijah of Buxton that could work for middle school or high school students. What impressed me most was the African American History collection that contains audio slave narratives. These bring the voices of former slaves to life. It is amazing and humbling to hear these individuals tell their stories. This is only one small example of what is available at the LOC. Give it a try and tell me what you think.