Journal: What is your favorite book of all time? What impact did it have on you?
I've been asked several times by students "What is your favorite book?". This is never an easy question to answer since I have many favorite books, plus what is my favorite today might change tomorrow depending on my mood or circumstances in my life. However, there are several books that always make my top ten: Pride and Prejudice, Harry Potter series, Hunger Games series, 19 minutes, The Kitchen Boy, Janet Evanovich series, The Notebook, The Other Boleyn Sister, etc. so I will choose to write about one of the books that I have read most recently. A book that I have recently recommended to students is the novel Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen. (Again the book is better than the movie!) The book is set in the depression era and begins with a flashback of a memory about a violent murder remembered by the main character, Jacob, who is now ninety years old. We are not told who committed the murder. The book returns to the elderly Jacob who is frustrated with being stuck in an "old folks home" with "young folks clucking" around him. He tries to forget the memory of the murder and instead reminisces about the days when he was young and working for a circus. He did not intend to work for the circus, but due to his parents untimely death and lack of money to continue with college, he found himself taking care of the animals, particularly one stubborn elephant, on a circus train full of interesting characters. The novel opens your eyes to a world rarely seen by those outside of the tight familial like circle of circus performers, and its plot twists and action make it difficult to put down. With romance, action, conflict, and more, this book appeals to a wide audience.
My favorite book of when I was a kid was “Morris goes to school”. My mom would read that to me every night before I went to bed. It was about a moose that goes to school and learns how to read and count. He likes to buy candy so he had to learn how to count money to buy some. My mom read this book so many times she said she knows the words without even looking at the pages.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book of all time is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I really like this book because it’s the end of the Harry Potter series. In the book Harry has a final battle with Lord Voldemort, who is the main enemy in the book series. Harry defeats Voldemort in the end of the book, and then lives the rest of his life as a huge hero that everyone loves. This is the best of the series because everything is coming to an end so everything that happens has a huge part in the book.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite books of all time are the Gregor the Overlander series. When I was in 7th and 8th grade I read all of these books in a really short amount of time. I really got into them after I read the first one and then I was hooked on them.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book of all time is Holes. I read it when I was in 4th grade and read it every year through middle school. I think that the movie was stupid; they didn’t even portray the characters well. The books impact on me was probably not the best, I always wanted to get into serious trouble and be sent away to dig holes. I think that the sequel Small Steps was not a very good book however, they based it off of one character and his recovery from the camp.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book is "To Give a Boy a Gun" because it has one of the most interesting story lines. I think I read it my freshman year and I liked it a lot. I also liked this book because of the ending it’s very sad but it’s the truth about what’s going on in our world right now.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book of all times would probably be Dracula. This book was first published in 1897, and this makes it very hard to read. As you read a page, you have to re-read the page to understand what the Bram Stoker (the author) is trying to say. Because I am a fast reader, I have a hard time processing what a book is saying. This book, Dracula, makes me read slower and process everything. I have had to buy this book multiple times because I read the book so often. Because I read the book so often, I wear out the pages and binding. I now have a leather bond one and hopefully it will last longer. There is a lot of action and a little bit of weird romance so it covers a medium size audience.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book would have to be Full Tilt by Neal Shusterman. I read this book in middle school sometime in either sixth or seventh grade and I remember thinking this is the best book I’ve ever read. Full Tilt is about two brothers, Jake and Quinn, Jake is the older of the two and also the more responsible. Quinn is fearless and thrill-seeking and during the book he takes one of his adventures too far. Jake has to chase Quinn into a phantom carnival that tries to trap its victims forever. In order to escape the carnival Jake must survive seven deadly rides from a carousel of stampeding animals to a hall of mirrors that changes him into his deformed reflection. What Jake really needs to do is face up to a horrible secret from his past in order to save Quinn and he before the carnival takes their souls. I’m not typically into this kind of stuff but the book opened me up to a different type of book to read. I probably would read it again if I had the opportunity to during a class.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It’s a racial book, where a white woman writes a book from the perspective of being a black maid in the 1960’s. She tries to change the minds of those who are disrespectful to their maids. This book helped me realize how bad it really was for them then. That no one should ever be treated the way they did.
ReplyDeleteEver since my fourth grade teacher read the book Where the Red Fern Grows to the class, it has been my all time favorite book. I like it because I can relate to it. It is also an outdoorsy book and has plenty of action and excitement in it. I also have a dog that I love and can feel the bond that the main character feels in the book with his dogs. When I first read the book I only liked the story but when I got older I got a dog that is the same breed as the dogs in the book and gets into trouble like the dogs in the book. It helped me grow a stronger bond with my dog and allowed me to relate to the story even more with made me love the book even more.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book of all time is probably Hatchet. I really like the whole series. I like outdoors books and this book takes place in the northern forests. Brian learns how to control the plane enough to land it in a long river. All he has is a hatchet to survive. He starts out by eating only berries and drinking from the lake. After a while he starts to crave meat and he makes a bow and cooks meat.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book when I was a kid was “Three Little Pigs”. My mom would always read it at nights. It was one of mine and my sister’s favorite book. After a while my mom tried to convince my sister and I to select another book to read. But, of all the options we were given “Three Little Pigs” was always the one me and my sister would pick.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book of all time is Flush by Carl Hiaasen. This book takes place in the Florida Keys and is about a boy preventing people from polluting the water in that area. I like this book because it’s about someone standing up for what they believe in. I also like this book because it takes place in Florida and I really like Florida.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite books I have read is The Giver by Lois Lowry. This book received the Newbery Medal for being the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. The main character in this book is an eleven year old boy, Jonas. Jonas lives in a utopian community where your fate is in the hands of the elders. At the age of twelve, the elders give you your assignment (career) that you start training for. Jonas is given the assignment as the receiver. This is a rare and important job; Jonas is in charge of receiving real world memories from the giver, which include starvation, pain, and even good memories that are not experienced in their utopian community. Now Jonas’s world has been turned upside down and all the ideas of normal life he once had were now shattered.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book that I have read over the years is the hunger games. I have read all three books in the series and like them all. I like these books because they are suspenseful and I don’t know what will be happening next in the book. I first read the hunger games last year in lit for a project in Mr. Jewets class. After the first chapter I could not put it down. After the hunger games I started reading the other two of the series. I have read all three books about 3 times.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book of all time was The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. The book made me realize that the way I live is easy. Even though the book is fiction, it makes you think because people don’t have it as easy. For instance, Katniss the main character lives in one of the poorer districts of her country. Her father died, and her mother is depressed and almost worthless, and her younger sister Primrose is also defenseless. Katniss has to go out of the boarders of the district to kill small animals for her and her family to eat. Primrose ends up being drawn as a tribute for the Hunger Games. Katniss volunteers to take her spot so she has a chance to help her family if she wins. Katniss and the other tribute from her district Peeta, end up winning the Hunger Games by working together.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book of all time was “The Tale of Despereaux.” I loved how a young little mouse wants to be become a human. He is very different from other mouse that has a dream of his own who meets a rat that is in love with the princess that he soon meets later as well. Despereaux is a mouse who is very strong and intelligent. I love this book because a little mouse can dream big which I love to dream big too.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book I’ve ever read was Black Hawk Down. It is a powerful book that chronicles the bloodiest firefight since the Vietnam War, and the elite men that fought in it. This book is about October 3rd, 1993 when in Mogadishu, Somalia, about 170 American soldiers and sailors entered the city to conduct a snatch and grab mission of some of warlord Mohammad Farra Aidid top Lieutenants. It is about the mission that went horribly wrong when two Army Blackhawk helicopters were shot down in the city and overrun by thousands of somallian militia. It is also about the stories of the men that were there and how they earned their commendations, through being wounded or giving their lives to hold a crash site against hundreds of militia, such did SFC. Randy Shughart and MSG. Gary Gordon, posthumously earning the Medal of Honor. The book is powerful in the way that it is inspiring and, to me, makes me proud to live in a country where there are badasses like these guys protecting us and fighting for us every day.
ReplyDeleteBack in 6th grade I read the book Touching Spirit Bear. It’s about a troubled Minneapolis teen named Cole who completely changes after spending a year on an isolated southwestern Alaska island. Being banished Cole’s rag and isolation causes him to destroy his carefully constructed shelter and attack a legendary Spirit Bear, which almost kills him. Rescuers arrive just in time but his confrontation with the bear is what finally steers him to the path of inner healing. The bear helps him to learn the meaning of life and teaches him that everyone has a story and before you will ever know who they are you must know their story. He has to lean to take responsibility for his behavior and respect others as well as himself. If I had to choose I would probably have to say that Touching Spirit Bear was one of my most favorite books to read.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book right now is Night Road by Kristin Hannah. This is the first book ever that I have been interested in. The book is about a girl named Lexi that is a foster child and finds a new home and goes to a new school. She has a very dark past and is ready to start a new life. She quickly becomes Mia’s best friend and then falls in love with her twin brother Zach and the three of them become inseparable. Senior year of high school tests them all, and on a hot summer’s night one bad decision will change the course of all their lives. I am currently reading this book and so far and it is such a good book that I can relate to some of the things that happen.
ReplyDeleteI have a lot of favorites to choose from, too. Recently, I’ve been getting excited about the Unearthly series by Cynthia Hand because the final book, Boundless, is being released on January 22 (and I really want to read it!) The first book, Unearthly, is about a Clara Gardner, a high school girl who’s part-angel. She has visions of this “purpose” where she’s meant to save this boy from a forest fire. To help her achieve this purpose, her whole family moves to Wyoming where she meets the boy in her vision. Quickly, they become friends and all is going well—until she falls in love. With the wrong boy. Now she has to choose between her destiny and following her heart.
ReplyDeleteI really don’t have a favorite book, but when I was little I use to read a lot of the “Junie B. Jones” books. This book is about a adventurous little girl who has a bright personality and is very kind to people around her there’s about twenty-seven Junie B. Jones book because it's a series. The one I would read the most was Junie B. Jones and Her Big Fat Mouth in this book the class has to tell what kind of jobs they want or have and Junie B. goes around telling everyone in the class she has a really cool job and it’s the best. She really doesn’t know what a job and doesn’t know what you do in a job so she tries to find out before they tell about it.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book is from the Fallen Novels by Lauren Kate. She is my favorite author, she wrote all her books with so much voice. I was hooked after the first few pages, in Rapture. Rapture is the 4th and last book in the series. I read it this summer, loved it and then my mom read it too. The series is about an angel named Daniel that falls in love with a human girl named Luce. But here’s the catch, Daniel has in fallen in love with Luce more than once. Daniel and Luce share a curse, that in end of each lifetime she dies, except for this lifetime that there in. I highly recommend this series to anyone who likes action, love, and fantasy. Over all the series is great, and fun to read. You’ll have a hard time putting the book down.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite books of all time is “Plain Truth” by Jodi Picoult. It is a novel about a nineteen year old Amish girl named Katie who is charged with the murder of her new-born son. However, she continues to claim that she was never pregnant. Ellie Hathaway, Katie’s lawyer is required to stay with Katie and her family on their Amish farm until the trial is to begin. While staying there Ellie learns of the strict guidelines of an Amish community and why Katie denies she killed the baby. The book was very interesting and hard to put down. Although much of the novel was also spent regarding law and in the courtroom, which in most other books I find boring, I really enjoyed the entire process and findings throughout the entire book.
ReplyDeleteI don’t have a favorite book but many favorite books. Usually as soon as I finish reading a book and close the covers, it’s likely that I already forgot what the book was about. I’ll have to go back and open the book to remember. But one of the few books I actually remember is The Juliet Club. It’s about a 3 American teens and 3 Italian teens who all won a contest to spend 4 weeks in Italy to study and perform scenes from Romeo and Juliet. Of course they end up to be 3 perfect couples at the end but it was interesting to figure out who was going to end up with who. I’ve reread this book so many times and I love it.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many books out there that I always end up finding a different book as my favorite book. As of right now, my favorite book is Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles. This book is about Alex Fuentes and Brittany Ellis, the two main characters, who are forced to be lab partner in chemistry class. Alex, a gang member, decides to make a bet with his friend to entice Brittany-who has a flawless reputation and her relationship with her boyfriend. As Alex get closer to Brittany, he finds that she is not really what everyone sees her as. Will he fall for her or will he win the bet? You’ll have to find out if you want to read it. This book is a series. I read all of them and the first one still beats the other two. I just recently reread them and still can’t wait to do it again!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book right now is Heaven is for Real. It is an inspiring story of a four year old boy who has his appendix burst for 5 days inside of him. He ends up surviving and being a normal little boy. However, a few months later Colton began to make weird statements that no four year old would know. He began to talk about heaven, and Jesus, and relatives that have died. This is all based on a true story as well which is inspiring and exciting for someone who believes in God and Heaven and who is curious about what it all entails. This is my favorite book because of the way it describes something in such simple terms that we all wonder about and is just an all around cute book.
ReplyDeleteThere are many books that I have enjoyed reading, but my all time favorite for the past year or two is Rules of Attraction by Simone Elkeles. It is about Carlos Fuentes and how he has to go live with his older brother Alex in Colorado. He was angry about his brother changing after live the gang life and is mad at him. He gets in trouble, but the former professor of his brother college decides to help him. Now he has to live with him and his family. Now he has to live with Kiara, the professors daughter. The two of the will test the rules of attraction.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite book of all time is Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls. A teacher read this book to me in the fourth grade, and I continued to read it once a year, every year after that. This story is about a boy who grows up in the Ozark Mountains and saves enough money to buy two hunting dogs. Throughout the story the boy tells tales of his hunting trips, and the impact the dogs had on his life. In the end of the story both dogs die, and the story/myth of the red fern is told.
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