the christmas box

This week for outside I read The Christmas Box, by Richard Paul Evans. My mom read this book and she told me I should read it too. I haven't gotten very far into it yet, but so far it is about a man and his wife and their life. The author wrote this about his own life. He moved to California when he was 14 because his dad lost his job. Soon after college he met his wife Keri. 15 months after the wedding their daughter Jenna was born. The family was having money troubles and were crammed in a small one bedroom apartment. They were having troubles even paying the bills. One day they saw an ad in the paper about a old lady with a big house looking for a live-in family to do her yard work and some housekeeping. They would get large living quarters so they decided to look into it. They go and meet her and everything goes well. They come to an agreement about what is expected and the living conditions. So far this book isn't too exciting, but I haven't gotten too far so I think soon something will happen with a Christmas Box. The last quote is "very good. It will be nice to have someone in the house for the holidays." I think this foreshadows something will happen over the holidays, along with the title that will involve a Christmas Box that will provide some big change for the family.

sand dollar summer

Over break I also read Sand Dollar Summer, by Kimberly K. Jones. This book is for a low reading level, but I needed a new book because I finished the other one. This book is about a 12 year old girl named Lise who is just becoming satisfied with everything in her life and then her mom gets in a car accident. She gets injured and can't walk for a while. This affects Lise a lot because her mom wants to go back to Maine where she grew up for the summer. Lise had been looking forward to summer with her friends. She can see her mom is very unhappy because of the accident, but lucky to be alive. At first she is scared of the ocean, and not happy to be there, but after time goes on she learns a lot of things about the past she never knew before. This summer turns out to be very life changing for her. There is a quote on the cover of the book that says " Don't ever doubt that a mere second can change your life forever." This relates to what Lise is going through because she was finally settled and comfortable with her life, and then her mom got in the accident. This changed everything for her, just by that one moment. This quote really is expressing to people not to take what they have for granted. In just one moment everything can change and never be the same again.

breaking dawn

Over break I started Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer and finished the whole thing. I thought some of the choices Bella made were interesting. Although they turn out bad at times in the end everything works out and Edward and Bella can live the life they dreamed of together. The choice she made to keep the baby even though it was killing her seemed very dangerous, but the Cullens figure out a way to conquer it and for Bella to survive. However, the only was she is able to survive is to turn into a vampire. Bella also decides, after Jacob forces it upon her, to keep seeing Charlie and just not completely fill him in on all the details that he doesn't need to know. This seems to work out fine. One thing I found very interesting about this book was the point of view change. It starts out with Bella telling the story and whats going on with her, describing her feelings, and then it switches to Jacob. He describes whats going on in the pack and what he sees of Bella. Then in the end it switches back to Bella telling. I thouhgt this was a very interesting thing becuase for the first time in the series the reader sees multiple viewpoints and the author has never done this in any of the other books. It makes me wonder why she decided to now in the final book. Over all the book was very good and I'm sad to be done with the whole series.

the kite runner #4

For outside reading I continued with The Kite Runner. This week while I was reading i realized I have been calling Amir, Khaled, which is the authors name in real life. The story is based on his life and Amir is his character. Amir goes to the mans house to find Sohrab and realizes it was a boy who was very mean to him as a kid and who also tormented Hassan. The man brings Sohrab in and orders him to dance. Then he makes the gaurds leave the room and makes them promise not to come in no matter what they hear, and they of course obey. Then the man says him and Amir will fight to the death. Only one of them will remain alive after, and that's who will take Sohrab. He pulls out his brass knuckles and starts beating Amir. Sohrab realizes there is no way Amir will win so he pulls out his sling shot and shoots the mans eye out. Then they can make their escape. Amir searches for the orphanage for Sohrab and realizes it never existed. He calls his wife back in America and they agree to adopt him. They face many complications with getting the adoption to go through. Amir had promised Sohrab he wouldn't have to go back to an orphanage, but that might be the only way to adopt him if he stays for a year. Sohrab is very upset at this news, but they both go to sleep. A few hours later Amir wakes up to someone on the phone telling him the adoption will go through and Sohrab can return to America with them. He goes to find him to tell him the news and finds him laying on the bathroom floor with blood all over. He brings him right to the hospital. When Sohrab wakes up he tells Amir he should've just left him there to die, even after the news that he will be able to return to America with him. Once he is healed they go home to the U.S. Amir does all he can to re-gain Sohrab's trust, but he remains silent. Even a year after returning home Sohrab still won't talk or do anything, he is still disapointed that Amir was going to send him away, his one request was to never go back to an orphanage. One day at a picnic there are kites for sale and Amir gets them for Sohrab. They fly them and for the first time Sohrab looks like he's enjoying himself. This is how the novel ends, although everything is not fixed, it's getting better. Amir realizes all of his mistakes and tries to become a better person and Sohrab is making progress in his new home.