The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

By: Ann Brashares

I liked this book because it was about a group of friends that want to get closer to each other before summer because they are all going away over the summer to do something different. It was a good book to read because it was cool to see how a group filled with all different girls who were all friends found a pair of jeans that fit and looked good on them all. Also, how after they all left to go thier separate ways over the summer, they all took turns with the jeans and each would wear them and write a note to the next girl that got to wear them saying what good things happened to her as she was wearing the jeans. I thought that this idea that they came up with was a different way to stay close with each other as they all were all over the world without each other over the summer since most friends don't share jeans and write letters about them.

I would recommend this book to my peers, but just girls because obviously this is the chick flicks of books.

What was unique about the setting of the book and how did it enhance or take away from the story?

The fact that each girl was in a different place, some across the world and some at just a different parent's house over the summer made the setting enhance the story because you got to see what it was like for each girl to live her summer in a different place than her normal, everyday life.

Do the characters seem real and believable? Can you relate to their predicaments? To what extent do they remind you of yourself or someone you know?

The characters in this book seem real. I can relate to their predicaments because every person has friends and spends time with them. They remind me a lot of myself because i have a lot of friends that I like to spend time with a get closer to.

Waves by: Sharon Dogar

The book Waves is almost like a mystery book and it's very confusing at first. The book jumps back and forth, but it keeps you guessing what's going to happen next and it helps you stay interested in the book. In Waves, happened a really sad thing to the Ditton family. For them it's hard to move on with life afterwards and the book jumps back and forth with what happened to how the family is dealing now. This book was so interesting to me because there's two main characters, both are alive but one is at a mental state no that can't respond to anybody but they can hear and understand the people around them. The other one tells the story of what happened and how life is now. It was neat to read a book like this because most books don't have two sides to one story. So you get both perspectives of the same event.

What was unique about the setting of the book and how did it enhance or take away from the story?
The fact that the book had two main characters and there were two different perspectives. Also, the book had many flashbacks in it. All this made the book hard to understand at first but once you got it, it was a really ineresting book.

Circle the Soul Softly: Davida Wills Hurwin

This book is a about a girl named Katie, who is in high school and is starting a new school soon because of her mom's new marriage. Katie, is just like any other normal teenage person because when she starts at this new school, she is really hoping that everyone will like her and think that she is cool and not clumsy and uncool like she really is. To help her meet new friends, she auditions for a school play and does great, she gets the part she wanted but she also gets the part that one of the popular girls wanted. She does meet David, who becomes her boyfriend. One day at play practice, she finds the diary of the mean girl at school Stacie. She finds out a lot of things about her like why she drinks, takes pills, has tried some drugs and why she is always so rude. Her and David decide to turn Stacie's diary into the school conseulor and when Stacie finds out, that causes them to hate eachother even more. All throughout the book, there are so many different things that teenagers today can relate to. I would recommend this book becasuse of that reason. Katie talks about all the problems that Stacie has like her famil life issues and issues within herself that she tries to hide by drinking and partying all the time. Katie talks about her almost perfect relationship with her boyfriend, her relationship with her familly and how starting at a new high school is going for her. There are so many differerent things that happen in this book, that I think that almost any teenager could relate somehow. Also, at first, the title of the book doesn't make any sense, so it made you to want to keep reading that book to figure out why that's the title.

In what ways do the events in the book reveal evidence of the author's world view?
In the book, the author is clearly aware of what goes on in teenager's every day lives. She sees that kids turn to drugs, drinking and being with lots of different people to feel accepted in school because deep down inside they know that they have a lot of difficult issues that they don't want people to know about and/or can't handle themselves. In the book, the author writes how one of the characters goes to a fortune teller to tell all thier problems to and to try to get help and to figure out why they do the things they do.

How do characters change or evolve throughout the course of the story? What events trigger such changes?
Stacie is probably the character that changes the most in this book. At first her and Katie hate each other and their personalities are completely different. Then when Katie and David find Stacie's diary and they give it to the school counselor, she makes Stacie get help for her problems. Throughout the book, you see the changes in Stacie and what causes her to change as she opens up to why she does all the bad things she does.

Lush By: Natasha Friend

Lush is about a young teenage girl named Samantha. Her dad is an alcoholic and has struggled with his drinking problems quite some time now. A lot of young people could relate to this book because Samantha goes through a lot of the same things as other kids do. Her dad has a drinking problem, which causes family problems, a lot of them, a boy in her grade is constantly picking on her, her friends find out the truth about her family and they wonder if they can still trust her, those mean girls at school that seem to be out to get her. Samantha gets a pen pal that she writes often, that has almost the same issues she has. Samantha goes to the library, where she rides her letter in a book and where she writes her pen pal back. This could also be relatable to to kids because that's how people get help and advice, not neccessarily just by writing letters, but talking to their friends seems to be the way all kids/teens get help with their issues. I would deffinitaly reccomend Lush to my friends.

Did certain parts of the book make you feel uncomfortable? If so, why did you feel that way? Did this lead to a new understanding or awareness of some aspect of your life you might not have thought about before?
- The part of the book where Samantha was talking about her dad constantly being drunk and it ruining her family life and how her dad was so drunk one time he hit her little brother over the head with a beer bottle and all the life changing events that happened after that incident. This part of the book doesn't relate to my life in any way, it just made me release that some kids go through this exact same thing.


What specific themes do you think the author emphasized throughout the novel? What do you think he or she is trying to get across to the reader?
- Well since Natasha, the author, talked about how crazy her dad and his drinking problems were and how it greatly affected Samantha's family, I think she was trying to get a point across that this is reality and a lot of kids go through this same thing on a daily basis. And maybe the same thing happened to her or a friend too as she was growing up.

That Summer By: Sarah Dessen

That Summer is about a girl named Haven, who is a typical teenager and is going through some life diffucuties like her parents getting divorced, her mom is going through her mid-life crisis and her dad is ignoring her a lot. All throughout the book, Haven is finding more and more about herself since she is pretty much being ignored by her parents. She also begins to re-develop a crush that she once had on her sister's boyfriend, Sumner. Haven had been mad at her sister because she thought that her sister had broken Sumner's heart, but really Sumner had cheated on her and it caused the relationship to end. Since Haven felt bad for Sumner, she began feeling sorry for him and started to like him again and wanting to pursue a relationship with him. Haven also began to like Sumner because she was always around him and her family loved him. I really enjoyed this book because it talked about a normal, everyday teenage girl that was going through a really tough time in her life and she wasn't afraid to express her feeling and opinions. Also, she found ways to be independent and come through all the things going on in her life.


1. Do the characters seem real and believable? Can you relate to their predicaments? To what extent do they remind you of yourself or someone you know?
Yes, the characters seem real and believable because they act just like normal teenagers do. I think anyone can relate to thier predicaments because a lot of teenagers go through the same things that Haven was going through.

2.How do the characters change or evolve throughout the course of story? What events trigger such changes?
Haven begans to re like her sister's boyfriend/now ex-boyfriend. She begans to like him because after they break up, she feels bad for him and he also spent a lot of time with her family when Sumner was dating Ashley, Haven's sister.