Authors Note: I think this book shows a great example how point of view can change a book.

In The Boy With Striped Pajamas a nine year old boy, son of a Nazi officer, becomes friends with a concentration camp inmate. Together, they become great friends even though there is a fence separating them. The story is written in Bruno’s point of view. From this perspective, a lot of events and characters are described in a way that makes the reader a little naïve about the events going on at the about what his dad does and what is happening at the Auschwitz concentration camp.

One way that Bruno’s point of view influences the reader's interpretation is how this perspective describes the Jewish at the concentration camp. He simply sees them as people with striped pajamas. Even though they are starving and sick, he fails to notice what is really happening. This stood out to me because he will most likely get in trouble later on in the book.

However, the reader would feel a lot differently about the Jewish and the Auschwitz concentration camp if the novel was written in the point of view of Bruno’s dad who is a Nazi officer. As an example, the reader would react angry when Bruno was interacting with Shmuel- who is Jewish -when Shmuel was supposed to be cleaning glasses. These points of views are almost completely opposite.

As you can see, the point of view of a story just shows you one side but knowing the other is important. In The Boy With Striped Pajamas the narrator's perspective makes the reader naïve about the events happening around Bruno. After reading this book you realize how naïve and confused Bruno was towards the concentration camp. He thought the Jewish were only different because they wore striped pajamas and were on the other side of the fence. His point of view is completely different than anyone else’s and leaves you wondering what other people were thinking during the time of Bruno’s short life.

Bravery

Author’s Note: Throughout, Fighting Ground by Avi you will learn how to be brave and how to grow up.

Saving a child from a house fire, fighting for your country, and protecting your family are all examples of courage and valour. Many genres of books included the themes growing up too quickly and bravery, but in my thought action and adventure have the best evidence of themes.  In the book, The Fighting Ground, by Avi, readers will learn how it feels to be brave, which helps you become a strong person, but if you mature too quickly and  think you are invincible, it can hurt you in different ways.

Although bravery is an important aspect to carry in life, being too brave can actually hurt you in multiple ways. Jonathan, a 13 year old, fighting in the Revolutionary War has a lot of evidence of his bravery in the story.  For example, Jonathan was fighting, he took the big role of shooting a musket at the British during war.  Also he saved a little boy that lost his parents and was scared. However, Jonathan was too daring; after the war he finally noticed that war wasn’t fun and games.

Well bravery is a big part of the book, the other theme, growing up too fast is equally as important.  Growing up too quickly is not a great trait to have because Jonathan, barely a teenager, hasn’t lived through his childhood yet, and he still wants to take adult responsibilities. At the age of 13, Jonathan is joining the soldiers to fight for what is right. After almost his death and his close call with getting captured, he finally notices at the end of the book that he was too young for war.

Bravery and growing up too fast isn’t only discussed in Fighting Ground: these themes were also discussed in The Hunger Games.  Katniss, the main character in “The Hunger Games”, took adult responsibilities by providing food for her family and also showed courage by taking her sister’s spot in the games.  Both of these characters share many traits, but are still different in multiple ways.

While bravery and growing up too quickly were huge factors of the similarities in both of the books, determination is what brought the two books together.  Being brave and maturing too fast, both have their pros and cons.

Striving To Live

Authors Note: I Wrote about this theme because it is a super important one in life.

Perseverance plays a huge role in Gecko’s life, he could stay in Juvie but he does everything he can to get out of it. Where he lives is a very hard to place to stay out of trouble because almost everyone is in gangs in his part of town. Peer pressure is hard to say no to. Also his best friend is in one and he is scared that he may lose him because he got in trouble with a gang and they are after him.

He keeps trying to be a good person but staying out of trouble is not his thing. He has to persevere to stay alive because he really has no one taking care of him. He has to work hard to feed himself. He has had to persevere through a very hard life but he is a smart kid and could have bright future ahead of him.  If you work hard you can accomplish great things.

I think this theme relates to Touching Spirit Bear because he has to persevere to stay alive with after getting mauled by a bear. Also to get his full range of motion back in his limbs because they are not healing well.  But they both wanted to live and so they had to persevere to otherwise they would not be alive.

All in all, life will most likely never be easy but trying your hardest is all you can do but those who keep persevering can change bad things into good or great. Where you start doesn’t matter it is where you finish you life is how people are thought of.

                          

A Happy Life

In the book The Juvie Three gecko the main character changes his life by meeting one man. His future could either turn bad again or stay good. But I think that gecko has a bright future ahead of him and these are my reasons why.

Gecko will have an amazing future because he has seen the bad side of life and he does not like it. He has a good side in him that could be brought out to help others. He likes helping others and he will because he has lost friends because they got involved in gangs and killed. He also lost the closest person to him which was his brother. That is the reason why he wants to do this because he doesn’t want it to happen to someone else’s brother. Helping other people is important to him.                                                                                                

  He will most likely set up a program to help kids in juvenile detention to get out and stay out of trouble by doing community service. He would do that because that is what people did for him. He wants to help him and he feels like he needs to repay everyone that he hurt. He likes being the person that everyone looks up to.

He relates to Cole from touching spirit bear because they both have been in some horrible situations and don’t like it. Also thy both are actually smart kids who want to be good but there is just one obstacle they can get past. For Cole it is his parents but for Gecko it is his brother he feels like he has lost him but overcomes it.

All in all, change can be for the better or for worse depending on if you really want to or not. But Gecko will make it for the better.  He has a great life ahead of him but he has to take it.

A Life changing experience

Authors note: I wrote about this because I feel like everyone can be a good person.

Doing eighty miles per hour in the middle of a city trying to get away from a crime scene. That is where Gecko a fourteen year old boy finds himself on one afternoon. He is the getaway driver for his brother because they robbed a video game store. Changing from a criminal to a great citizen like Gecko did is nothing easy but very possible.

Throughout the story Gecko changes his view on everything. Gecko starts out as someone who doesn’t care about people or school. He actually has an interest in school now and does all of his home work. He respects people and even helps out an elderly neighbor. He wants to make a difference in a good way.  He finds ways to stay out of trouble even though it seems like trouble finds him. Trouble also finds another book character named Cole.

Gecko relates to Cole from Touching Spirit Bear in multiple ways. They both starts out as a criminal that looks hopeless in changing their  ways. But both had  life threatening accidents that changed them in a better way. A car crash for Gecko. For Cole it was getting mauled by a bear. Also the are related because they just wanted to feel loved by their families. Neither of their parents had time for them.  I think change can happen over a long time or a life threatening accident and it will cause you to change quickly.

All in all, these characters show us that change is possible no matter how bad it may be. People can change for either the good or the bad but it depends on what path they want to take. Although you don’t need to be almost killed to change.

Retelling

Authors Note: I wrote about this book because I enjoy this series of books.

A family with a long violent past, split into five groups. While Amy and Dan try to bring everyone together a mysterious prize for a clue hunt could split them farther apart. The family must learn, if they want true power they must all work together.  

Conflict Resolution

Author’s Note: I wrote this because it has a clear conflict and resolution

In the book Gender Blender by: Blake Nelson the main characters Tom and Emma get into a funny situation. The conflict is that Tom and Emma are in an accident together and when they wake up their minds are in each others bodies. They have to live someone else’s life. Later they find that if they stay in the wrong bodies for more than three days it will become permanent.

On the third day they still haven’t found a way to go back to normal. They are at a party and feel hopeless and might not ever get back their bodies. This gets resolved when they knock into each other at the party they go unconscious and wake back up in the right bodies! Tom and Emma can now live normal lives and be themselves.