"A message from the dead..."

10/7/2013

“Except a living man there is nothing more wonderful than a book! a message
to us from the dead―from human souls we never saw, who lived, perhaps
thousands of miles away. And yet these, in those little sheets of paper,
speak to us, arouse us,
terrify us, teach us, comfort us, open their hearts
to us as brothers.“

—Charles Kingsley

What is your favorite novel? Perhaps you've read it multiple times. Maybe just reading it once changed you in some way for the better. What was it about the novel that engaged you? Dynamic characters? Detailed imagery? Poetic language? What was the message behind the story?

19 Comments

Michael Champ Braley

10/8/2013 07:27:00 am

My favorite novel is Enders Game. i've read it several times. That it was about a boy in space training who fights aliens and plays freeze lazer tag. The characters are Ender and General Rackham. The book gave me a image of a space station and lazer tag arena. The author talked normally, not in a futuristic era or past era. I do not know what the story was behind the story but i know all about the book and what happened with then the pages.

Jenna R

10/9/2013 02:12:44 am

My favorite novel is hunger games, and I've read it a few times. This book has changed my opinion on how people view others. In the book, the rich people and the government have all power over the others. The poor people, or the people in the districts, have no say in anything. The government forces them to kill each other for entertainment. This shows how people who are less fortunate are easier to control, especially if you take away something of value to them. The novel engaged me because it characters who were in it. The point of view was from the people who have no say in whats going on, instead of the governments point of view. The characters were able to say what their opinions on this were and how they have no choice but do as the government says. The message behind the story is that the government has more power than everyone else and they control everyone. In the case of the hunger games the government wasn't helping the people as they should have.

Mrs. Elbakry

10/9/2013 04:10:38 am

I love this series, too, Jenna! Dystopian setting and rebellious characters - a true tale of good versus evil.

Jordan Ciampi

10/9/2013 06:31:41 am

My favorite novel that i have read is a book called monster It is about a young boy who goes to prison for making bad decisions in his life.This character was put into jail and he thought that he didn't deserve it he was stubborn and he didn't think that he deserved to be put into prison.From him being stubborn this made it even worse for him. He ended up dyng because the people in the jail didn't like him. The book was more in depth than this there were a lot more reasons for the kid being murdered but the main part is that being stubborn got him killed and don't mess with people that you don't know.

Elizabeth Brennan

10/9/2013 10:02:47 am

My favorite novel would be The Muses Are Heard. This tale was from a book that my grandma gave me. It was about a young girl at a theater show watching in amazement. It describes the play and what it's happening in the crowd. Also they give a perspective of one of the actors on stage. In relating the two the tale from the book gives a young reader the inspiration to imagine. When I was reading the book it gave me a lot to think about, like, bringing the characters to life. The most dynamic character was the actress she was described as joyful, dreamingly beautiful. Throughout the book there are drawings of people playing music and the actors and actresses and the theater. There was no poetic language through the book. The message behind the story was keep your eyes open there are a lot of things you can see with your imagination. So this is my favorite story throughout my book cabinet.

Gianna DeAngelis

10/9/2013 10:07:26 am

My favorite novel is the Matched trilogy. This series inspired me a lot, and the message to it really is that it is good to be an individual and think outside the box in a world full of the same, and fight for what you believe in. The people in this book are completely controlled by the society, everything they do, say, and think are monitored. Nobody knows what the outside world is like, until the main character realizes that there is a rebellion, and wants in. She would do anything to gain individuality and the freedom of choice. With that being said it was a really compelling, exciting novel that I enjoyed over and over again, its something that I cant, with all of my might, put down on the coffee table for even a second.

Jonathan Guilhemre

10/9/2013 11:06:51 am

My favorite novel by far is the novel I read for summer reading called Inferno. I have read this book about three to four times thourghly and a couple times just skimming through it. Why did this novel engage me? Because it showed so much descriptive imagery and a different look on life. It made you think, "What if this actually happened". This books put me on the edge of my seat even after the first time reading through it. In this book Robert Langdon has been assigned a task by the WHO to stop a madman from realeasing a pathogen throughtout the world. This intrigued me to read through the book and find out exactly what that pathogen did. The message I think was behind the story was that there are mad people in this world that will go to extremes to get what they want. This book just shows how the world will work together to stop them from accomplishing their goals.

Mrs. Elbakry

10/10/2013 03:52:11 am

Johnny, I read this novel over the summer, too! I have enjoyed Dan Brown's novels in the past, so I figured I would give it a shot. I also studied in Florence and took an entire class on Dante's Divine Comedy in college. Fascinating plot line, right? Dan Brown always manages to really get you thinking just as you said "what if?!"

Zach Burr

10/9/2013 12:32:07 pm

My favorite book is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, which is about the government burning all the books in order to make people less smart so that they cannot use their intelligence to be better than others. I have only read it once, but it has really changed my opinion and made me think about how much we take for granted, just like Scout said in To Kill a Mockingbird, "Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing." This really resonated with me because I, just like Scout, love to read and I also consider myself to be an intelligent individual, so if I lost that then I don't know what I would do. Also, the version of the novel that I read was the 60th anniversary edition, so it had a foreword by someone that was a good friend of Bradbury, and he said quite a few things that struck a chord with me. He wrote about books and one thing he said that I liked was, "If someone tells you what a book is about, they are probably right. If they tell you that is ALL the book is about, they are probably wrong." This quote totally showed how deep books can be and how different people interpret them differently, just like what we've been talking about with allegories and Lord of the Flies.

Allie Divincenzo

10/9/2013 12:51:54 pm

One of my favorite Novels is The Perks of Being a Wallflower, I've read it at least three times. The book has changed how i look at and treat otthers. The book shines light on the fact that not everyones lives are as pefcet as they seem. You truly have no idea what goes on behind closed doors in the lives of others. It teaches you to be kind to everyone that you meet unless they give you a valid reason not to be, and that is an important way to think becuase that one personn could be dealing with so much and the last thing they need is someone being rude and unfriendly towards them. This is pretty much the main message of he story, along with showing that the life as teenager is very far from easy. The whole story is about how one boy lost the only friend he had to suicide,He also has gone through many other terrible events in his life. However two kids decide to reachout to him and be his friend. The one thing that engages me the most about the book is the way it was written which is in the form of multipul letters. This alows the book to become more personal and almost feel as though the main character is talking to you. The authers detailed imagery makes the book come to life. You can picture every thing in your head as if you were really there experience the ocurring events with the character. The details of the characters discriptionshelps you paint the picture in your head of what you want to belive each one looks like.

Alan HInkson

10/9/2013 02:35:17 pm

hands down my favorite book was 2001 a space odyssey. that book was the only book I have ever seen that was based on a move and it shows because the term a picture is worth a 1000 words is completely trow. now i don't reed much and it is hard so for a book to keep me ingested to want to keep reading says a lot. If you are looking for a really good scifi book check it out also the movie is great too. its Stanly Kubrick how can you go wrong.

Jeff Sutay

10/10/2013 07:53:03 am

My favorite novel that I have read is Hatchet. It is about a boy who crashed a plan in the middle of the wilderness and he has to survive on his own. He has to learn how to hunt for food and survive in the wild with just a pocket knife.This book engaged me because it teaches you how to survive in the wild with just a knife. The message behind the story is that you can never panic when you are in a survival situation. If you panic you will most likely not survive in the wild.

Alyssa Haigh

10/10/2013 08:07:34 am

My favorite novel would have to The Choice by Nicholas Sparks. I've only read this book once. It has changed the way I view people who are shy. It made me realize that behind a shy face, there may be a devastating story, like the main character Katie. The way that Sparks writes drew me into this book. He uses detailed imagery to drive the point in. The novel is also a love story which is my favorite genre. I enjoy the way his books are relatable. I can relate to what the characters are going through or their emotions. Overall, The Choice, is a book I would recommend to read.

Jason Cadilek

10/10/2013 10:40:46 am

My favorite novel is Gym Candy by Carl Deuker. This is my favorite novel because I am interested in books about sports and books about substance abuse. This book has put the two together. Gym Candy is about a boy named Mick Johnson, a football player who is being held up by his size. He trys using legal stuff to get big like protein shakes, but it doesn't seem to work for him so he trys steroids. In the end he's in the hospital realizing that his best is his best and if thats not good enough for someone else then it's to bad for them. Gym Candy was a good book and I would recommend it to anybody.

Courtney

10/10/2013 12:28:24 pm

My favorite novel of all time has to be 13 Reasons Why. It drew me in within the first ten pages mostly because you got to hear the main character, Hannah's, point of view. This is because it was about a girl who left tapes about thirteen reasons why she killed herself. Each tape was addressed to a person which gave her a reason on why she no longer wanted to live and every person on the list got a chance to listen to the reason on why Hannah decided to kill herself. It was very interesting to hear what she had to say on the tapes before she took her life. 13 Reasons Why engaged my attention mostly because it is realistic fiction. The story shows how what people say and do has a huge impact on society as a whole. There are many girls and boys in similar situations as Hannah who are being emtionally torn apart by things other people don't consider hurtful or affective.This book did in fact, change me. It made me look at life from a different perspective. Now I look at the people around me and think about decisions ive made and things i said and wonder if i ever made someone feel as low as Hannah did in the book.

Brittany licursi

10/10/2013 12:51:15 pm

A novel that I have read that I enjoyed is Elsewhere. Elsewhere captured my attention because the plot of the story was interesting and relatable. The story was based on a teenage girl, she is the main character and faces similar situations that girls go thru in there teenage years. The main character Liz dies at a very young age, she does not know she is dead or understand where she is when she first wakes up. The reader of the book knows just as much as the characters in the book; when Liz wakes up and doesn't know where she is the reader and herself want to find out. The book is engaging because you have to read to understand what the character is going thru, you are not told anything the character doesn't know. Knowing just as much as Liz does makes you feel like you are in her situation. Liz dies at age 15 while riding a bike and getting hit by a car. Liz is about to turn 16 soon and is very excited to get her license. The plot is relatable because this is something girls look forward to. The plot is interesting because of the outlook on where Liz goes after she dies. The place is described in detail that makes it feel calming and fulfills all your needs. Liz meets a boy who she falls in love with, he died at a much older age then her, they are about the same age when she arrives to elsewhere because every year you are there you get one year younger. The idea of getting younger represents starting over but having a limited amount of time just as if she was getting older. While Liz is in elsewhere her expectations for life change and she realizes how valuable time is. This book changed me in a way were a appreaciate the time I have and the time I have with my family. Liz expresses how much she misses her brother when she communicates to him throughout the time she is in elsewhere. This made me appreaciate my brother and I now do not ever act mean to him because I know how much I love him and my parents. The plot is showing how getting things like your license are fun but are not the essential things in life.

Jonathan Dinan

10/10/2013 12:53:42 pm

The novel that I cherish the most is Stumptown Kid. I've read the book twice over a summer going into freshman year. It was about a boy that played baseball in his small town where the high school baseball team was all the dreams of the boys. A black man watches him from the stands. The boy curiously walks up to him and starts talking. They become good friends periodically seeing each other. Many situations happen between them that make them stronger as friends. Reading this the first time made me smile and want to be a better baseball player. The confidence was stronger when reading this book and doing anything related to baseball. The emotions within me were released. I felt happy, sad, and hysterical with laughter because the description of the scenes were real to me. The characters moved me because the setting was in a small town in the south during the 1950's where blacks weren't wanted around the town. The main character was friends with a black man. Many people criticized him and the main character backed him up making him feel better. Imagery was used throughout the story making the story seem so real. I imagined it as I read making pictures in my head of the story because the descriptions were so detailed. The meaning of the story was a look on racism and the daily life of a suburban boy in the 1950's. This book is the best book in my opinion.

Evan Dewar

10/10/2013 01:29:11 pm

My favorite book i read was strangely enough a biography on Marac Zuckerburg. I had to read it in 8th grade and aginst my inittal thoughts on what I was getting my self into I turned out to reall enjoy the book. The story is interesting to me because even though i was not old enough to be aware of what was going on around me, I was still alive none the less. It was a major break through in social interactions and it spread like wild-fire through out the nation once it went open to the public. I also think that Mark is an extremely smart man and seeing his prospective on how every thing was unfolding for him as his new website gain popularity was very cool and made me think some things in a new way. All and all it was a very solid book, written well with a very good story to back it up.

Anthony "Three point marksman" D'Amico

10/10/2013 02:10:21 pm

My favorite novel is a biography on LeBron James. Its a book talking about his life and his struggles growing up in the cities of Ohio, he lives to play basketball he would ride his bike endless hours of the day to find a pick up game to play in. I enjoyed this book because LeBron is my favorite basketball player of all time and we also share the love of basketball, its the best of both worlds put into one book. I also liked reading the book because it shows how he became the man he is today, he took no short cuts, nor any easy ways out. He dedicated his life to what he loved most, and it made him one of the best athletes of all time. He still has a lot of basketball left in him as well, the achievements in his future are endless. I would recommend this book to any athlete of any sport. It is truly a great book to read.

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"A message from the dead..."

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