Book Review: An Off Year by Claire Zulkey
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Accelerated Reader Additional Questions An Off Year by Claire Zulkey 1. Cecily Powell is a normal intelligent girl who is in her freshman year of college. Cecily is very apprehensive about going to college and cannot seem to figure out why she is so afraid to start college and so she takes a year to figure out what she really wants to do with her life and that made Cecily look as if she lacked drive and she was not motivated because in the novel it mainly talks about her father telling her to go out and find a job and see a counselor to help her figure out what her issue is with going back to college and Cecily doesn’t seem to take her father’s advice into consideration. 2. Cecily Powell is a static character. She never went back to college and had minimal progress on finding out why she couldn’t bring herself to go back to college. 3. This novel took place in Kansas in modern day time. 4. The most important external conflict in the novel was Cecily having to deal with everyone’s criticism about her not attending college and making her feel guilty about the situation. 5. The most important internal conflict is person vs. self. Cecily manages to hit that fear of not fitting in, not being a party kind of girl, losing touch with high school friends, and not knowing what on earth to do with her life and that completely affects her views on going to college which is mainly what the novel is about, trying to figure out who you want to be. 6. The climax of the novel is when Cecily's dad sets her up with a psychologist who, to Cecily's surprise, does more than just try to convince her to go back to school. It is during these sessions that Cecily learns that it is not just herself that does not having everything in her life figured out; nobody else has their lives figured out either. 7. When Cecily says, “I just wished I could explain what had happened, or say that I knew what would happen next. I still couldn’t believe that I had
Accelerated Reader Additional Questions An Off Year by Claire Zulkey 1. Cecily Powell is a normal intelligent girl who is in her freshman year of college. Cecily is very apprehensive about going to college and cannot seem to figure out why she is so afraid to start college and so she takes a year to figure out what she really wants to do with her life and that made Cecily look as if she lacked drive and she was not motivated because in the novel it mainly talks about her father telling her to go out and find a job and see a counselor to help her figure out what her issue is with going back to college and Cecily doesn’t seem to take her father’s advice into consideration. 2. Cecily Powell is a static character. She never went back to college and had minimal progress on finding out why she couldn’t bring herself to go back to college. 3. This novel took place in Kansas in modern day time. 4. The most important external conflict in the novel was Cecily having to deal with everyone’s criticism about her not attending college and making her feel guilty about the situation. 5. The most important internal conflict is person vs. self. Cecily manages to hit that fear of not fitting in, not being a party kind of girl, losing touch with high school friends, and not knowing what on earth to do with her life and that completely affects her views on going to college which is mainly what the novel is about, trying to figure out who you want to be. 6. The climax of the novel is when Cecily's dad sets her up with a psychologist who, to Cecily's surprise, does more than just try to convince her to go back to school. It is during these sessions that Cecily learns that it is not just herself that does not having everything in her life figured out; nobody else has their lives figured out either. 7. When Cecily says, “I just wished I could explain what had happened, or say that I knew what would happen next. I still couldn’t believe that I had