Esperanza Rising is a Historical Fiction novel, written by Pam Muñoz Ryan. The book is about a girl named Esperanza and her family, and their rollercoaster of a life. In the first Chapters of the book, she is depicted as wealthy. During that time, their house and land are burnt down by Tío Luis and Tío Marco. The Father (“Papa”) was killed by Bandits, never to be seen again in the book. After the disaster, the Family moves to a farm in California with the help of Abuelita, Esperanza’s Grandmother. From that point forward, they recover from their hard times by working on the farm for money. Esperanza goes through a lot of changes in the story, and her events connect to some of the things that happened in my life.…
Christopher Paul Curtis wrote Elijah of Buxton, a Newberry Honor book. This story takes place in the town of Buxton, Canada during the mid 1880’s. Elijah of Buxton is told in first person point of view with Elijah being the main character. Elijah, an eleven-year-old boy, was the first child born free in the town of Buxton. Cooter is Elijah’s best friend, but would sell him out in a second to save his own skin. The Preacher is actually just Zephariah, but he loves to exaggerate everything including his own name. Elijah was always considered a fragile child until an encounter with what he thought he knew and what was right. The Right Reverend Deacon Doctor Zephariah Connerly the Third stole Mr. Leroy’s money meant to buy his family out of slavery. Elijah found out first hand how slaves were treated. He also learned how strong love is. A mother’s love gave her child a free life at the cost of her own. This book is about growing up in a free life while others still are bound to their owners, and are depended on those who are free. Elijah learns even when things seem the worst, there is always something to give life meaning.…
Mr. Larson likes to embroider the past that way. So he relentlessly fuses history and…
Eric Weiner was ready to go for an adventure. His plan was to search the happiest place to live in the world. His first place to visit was the Netherlands. The chapter begin when the author was in a café near in downtown Rotterdam. The place was really cozy, large and upscale. Because everyone was smoking, he lit up his cigar and ordered a Trapiste beer. While he was drinking this delicious warm beer, he noticed that Dutch is very similar to English spoken backwards. He stayed a long time in the Café as all the Europeans did. While he was walking to his cozy hotel dining room, he noticed a lot of immigrants. He wondered if the difference of culture and if the legalization of alcohol and drugs can create some tension between immigrants and Dutch people. During his dinner, he learned the concept of inter course. At…
The Devil in the White City is a nonfiction book that brings to life the building of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. The book talks about a serial killer named H.H Holmes who wins people over with his charm. He is very persuasive and kills people for their life insurance money. Throughout the whole book people come from all over the world to see the World's Fair in Chicago, and Holmes uses this to his advantage.…
Larson, Erik. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America. New York: Vintage, 2004. 447 Pages.…
Lina and Doon have found the only way out of Ember, and the mayor of Ember is hogging all the food from the citizens. “LINA RUN!” says Doon. As the guards spot Lina, she runs away. Will she escape? Find out in the City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau. Will Lina and Doon escape, or will the food hogging mayor stop them from leaving. Will Lina and Doon leave their family behind and go to a new city? The City of Ember has many similarities and differences between the novel and the film; however the movie was a more entertaining experience.…
was her first day. Esperanza didn’t actually think he looked very nice. But she knew she couldn’t tell by their looks!…
Stephen B. Oates, author of The Fires of Jubilee: Nat Turner’s Fierce Rebellion was a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and he was an expert in 19th-century American history. This book was an excellent read that would keep anyone on the edge of their seat the entire time they read the book. It was written in a way that was very easy to understand which made the book that much better. Oates also made sure to reveal to his readers who the mysterious Nat Turner really was. Oates was also the author of the books With Malice Toward None which won the Christopher Award and Let the Trumpet Sound which also won the Christopher Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award. In this book, Oates vividly reenacted the events that fueled Nat’s mindset, the events that took place during Nat Turner’s rebellion, and the effects that it had after.…
It was mid-August on a hot summer day hurricane Katrina damaged a city, New Orleans, possibly for a lifetime. The novel: City of Refuge by Tom Piazza gives readers an omniscient point of view of two families lives during this tragic event. The Williams family from the Lower 9th Ward and the Donaldsons originally from the upper Midwest who had made their way to New Orleans share the same traumatic experience; in different ways of the levees breaking from hurricane Katrina changed both of their lives forever.…
In the future, Earth as we know it will be taken over by comprehending technology and will become a staple of everyday life where humans will intermix with machines. Technology will be the future's new version of society. In the short story “There Will Come Soft Rains” by Ray Bradbury, in the year of 2026, technology had taken over the world when one house remained standing after a nuclear attack in Allendale, California. The owners of the house have disappeared due to nuclear blast which left nothing left but the house. Bradbury explains the daily routine of the house until something came across and left the house burning on the ground.…
To understand the design behind the Forbidden City, one must look at Ancient Chinese beliefs and architecture. The Chinese are a very spiritual people with many beliefs that go back to the beginning of its culture. One of these core beliefs are the five cardinal points that everything in life whether spiritual or physical is somehow subjected to. In order of worst to best they are the center, the south, the east, the west, and the north. From the north came invaders and all sorts of strange people and rumors. Bad omens came from the north and the north had unbearably hot summers and freezing cold winters. In the northwestern parts of the country were high mountains that separated and kept safe those of the middle kingdom and the barbarians. The south…
A dynamic character is one who changes greatly during the course of a novel. There are many fine examples of dynamic characters in all Dickens novels. Three of these characters are Dr. Alexandre Manette, Jerry Cruncher and Sydney Carton. Dynamic characters play a very apparent role in the novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.…
A key symbol in the City of Ember is light. Without light the city would not be able to survive. Doon stated, “The lights go out all the time! And the shortages, there’s shortages of everything! And no one does anything about it, something terrible is going to happen!”(13). Doon worries that the civilians will run out of everything and he is angry because no one realizes it.There is only unnatural light in the city so if the lamps go out the people would not be able to see since they are living underground. Light symbolizes the issues in Ember, and how it is a dystopian society.…
The darkness within and around The City of Ember depicts an incomprehensible image and setting of despair. From the opening “In the City of Ember, the sky is always dark… When the lights were off as they were between the hours of nine at night and six in the morning, the city was so dark that people might as well have been wearing blindfolds,” (4). This immense lackluster environment is due to the ancient generator which just isn’t able to produce anymore, coupled with the depletion of supplies. This demonstrates that Ember’s situation is bleak forcibly plummeting quickly into the abyss. Initially, it wasn’t this way; the air was clean, the light bright and plentiful, supplies were abundant. Lina and Doon must overcome their gripping fear…