Things left unsaid, Jessica Swenson

This book is fiction. I chose this book because I could relate to things that are "unsaid", Sarah (the Main Character) has things that she wishes she could say but doesnt she just keeps it all inside, and i can relate to it.

Sarah used to be the good girl. The one who always had her hand raised in class, always obeyed her parents.Until she met Robin. Once Robin comes into the picture, Sarah's life changes.Her closet begins to fill with black clothes.Good grades become something to be studiously avoided. And maintaining her other friendships doesn't seem so important anymore. Sarah thought she knew Robin.But Robin eats danger for breakfast, pushes the limits way too far, and forces Sarah to question everything in her life-everything Sarah thought she had wanted. In stunning verse, this novel slowly reveals the complexities of friendship-the power it has to define, destroy, and eventually heal again.

Why I think the title is significance... Things Left Unsaid, Sarah has alot of things that she wants to say, but cant because she's afraid that people will think she's a loser, and wont want to hang out with her.

I would ask what were the things she wanted to tell everyone. What were the things left unsaid, and why didnt she stop hanging out with Robin once Robin just left her and stopped talking to her.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas- read by Emily Hoke

Genre: Realistic Fiction

I chose this book because I like realistic fiction and because it looked interesting and suspenseful. I also knew it had to do with the holocaust, and I've studied that a lot, and it's something I'm passionate about.

This book is written through the eyes of a 9-year-old boy named Bruno in the early 1940's. His father is a German Nazi commander. The family moves right next door to Auschwitz death camp, but Bruno is just a naive child and doesn't understand what is going on. Bruno secretly befriends a Jewish boy his age on the "other side of the fence" who is strangely wearing "striped pajamas". Bruno can't figure out why he's strictly forbidden to cross the distinct boundary. Even though he's growing up in a culture telling him evil and prejudiced things, Bruno still has a kind heart and just doesn't understand the whole picture. In this story, you go through an adventure with this little boy as the horrors of this time period are uncovered.

This book is named this because it shows just how naive Bruno is. He calls the prisoners' clothes striped pajamas and wonders why they always wear the same outfit.

My three questions for the author:
1) Why did you end the book the way you did?
2) What inspired you to write the book from a little boy's point of view?
3) Why were the kids of the commander brought to live by the camp and not just the commander?

Eagle Blue-Read By Sarah Widdop

I love non-fiction. I have a really hard time getting into some types of fiction, so when I decided to read one of the Young Adult Award Winners, I admit, I leaned towards Eagle Blue because it was a piece of non-fiction. The setting also enticed me because I spent five years living in Iceland when I was younger and often wonder if Northern Alaska is similar to Iceland.

Eagle Blue is about a group of boys who live in a tiny Native town, Fort Yukon. Fort Yukon is hundreds of miles from any town. Basketball is everything in Fort Yukon, the entire town loves the game and loves watching the students at Fort Yukon play. Typically, Fort Yukon does well during their seasons and over the years, their coach, Dave Bridges has led the Eagles to the Regional and State Finals many times. This happens to be one of the years where the Fort Yukon boys dominate. The story is not only about their 2004 season, but also what life is like being a Native American and living in a remote village in Northern Alaska.

Unfortunatly, the title, Eagle Blue, is fairly straightforward and has little underlying meaning (I love significant titles that have deep figurative meaning that can only be discovered half way through the book). Fort Yukon's mascot is the Eagle and Blue represents the blue ice, so abundent in Northern Alaska.

It was obvious that Michael D'Orso spent hours with the community in Fort Yukon. Although he did a stellar job of writing Eagle Blue. I felt he left some questions unanswered. As I read, I continuously wondered whether there were dirt or paved roads between these small Alaskan towns. I also wondered if D'Orso got the impression that the Native American's in many of the rural towns in Northern Alaska were truly trying to better their situations or were they so fed up with the American government, they'd resigned themselves to not achieving anything any more because they felt they couldn't. My last quandry centered around Dave Bridges. As a non-Native, he had a pretty good understanding of the Native culture but I also wondered if he was one who wanted to live in Fort Yukon forever. I know he'd mentioned not coaching but wondered if he did stop coaching, whether he'd eventually leave Fort Yukon.

After reading Eagle Blue, I gained a new respect for the youth that attend school in the Alaskan town. Not only are they dedicated to their culture but also to the sport they love. I think Dave Bridges said it best when he compared his team to other American teams. They were tougher and realized that playing basketball and traveling as they did was a privlidge not a right.