STHS Media 1_Reading

Little Women - Lousia May Alcott With the new Little Women movie coming out on December 25th, 2019, I've picked up the book again for a last read-through before I see the movie. It's a classic story, four sisters and the way they grow up and apart - but also stay close all the while. Each has her own preferences, hobbies and battles to fight, but they're closer than ever in the midst of hardship. With their father deployed to fight in the Civil War and their mother constantly worried for him, the four March girls must learn how to stay together and be humble.  On Christmas morning at the beginning of the book, Ms. March came inside to tell her four daughters that there was a poor woman - Ms. Hummel - who had a lot of children and a baby that were cold, hungry and sick. Although the girls were hungry from waiting, they offered to give their breakfast to the poor family and spent their Christmas morning helping someone else.  Throughout the book, the girls, espec...

Jane Eyre - Charlotte Brontë Jane is a young orphan living with her aunt, Mrs. Reed, and her cousins John, Eliza and Georgiana at their home in Gateshead Hall. Jane's cousins and aunt live richly with good clothes and food, but Jane is treated less than a servant, is blamed for misfortunes around the house, and is often punished by being locked in the Red Room overnights. This punishment is especially severe for Jane as a child because the Red Room was her uncle's bedroom, and he died in the bed in the room. Jane is afraid of spending nights there as she believes that his ghost is displeased with her actions and is out to get her. Although she is afraid, Jane's strong imagination helps her turn some situations into a nicer, more fanciful situation. "...I had to cross in front of the looking-glass; my fascinated glance involuntarily explored the depth it revealed. All looked colder and darker in that visionary hollow than in reality: and the strange little figure t...

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury In this book, the world is in a dystopian society where owning a printed book is illegal. There are people called firemen whose jobs are to set fire to books and the houses they are kept in rather than putting out fires. The protagonist of the novel is a fireman named Guy Montag. Montag used to go along with the things that everyone else did and used to burn books and houses without even thinking about it, but when he meets his teenage neighbor Clarisse, he learns to think more about the things he does. When an alert comes out, Montag and the other firemen rush over to the house to set fire to the books, but Montag has second thoughts. The other men light a match and spray kerosene on the flames, but Guy sees the woman who owns them and starts to feel guilty. When the other men try to persuade the woman to leave without success, they leave her inside of her burning house and go back to the firestation. Guy goes with them, but for the first time, he star...

To Be Honest -  Maggie Ann Martin After Ashley is gone, Savannah has to find a way to live with her mom without picking any fights. Her mom was on a weight loss show a few months ago and she's pressuring Savannah to lose weight as well. As much as Savannah wants to support her mom, she feels like the new life she's caught up in isn't good for her, and she has a hard time being positive when the TV crew comes to interview her. The only thing she feels is good in her life is her relationship with her friend George, who doesn't judge her like everyone else does. She feels like a normal person when she's with him, but when her mom picks a fight with her in front of him, she's worried about losing his friendship. 

To Be Honest - Maggie Ann Martin In the beginning pages of the book, senior Savannah is saying goodbye to her older sister Ashley, who is moving to college. Savannah and Ashley are only a year apart, so there was never a reason for them to be apart. Savannah reflected on the time she went to camp without her sister and felt like she could barely get through it, and she wonders how she can survive a whole year without her. It doesn't help matters that Savannah's mom thinks she's fat and constantly tries to get her to slim down. Savannah has to find a way to live without her sister and deal with her mom's pushing. 

The Pearl -  John Steinbeck "Juana, considering the matter, threw caution to the winds, and she dressed Coyotito in the clothes she had prepared for his baptism, when there would be money for his baptism." This quotation comes from page 44 from The Pearl by John Steinbeck, when Kino and Juana are taking the pearl of the world to be sold. Earlier on, Kino looked into the surface of the pearl and saw all the things he could do with the money it would make; he and Juana would be married; Coyotito would be baptized; he would go to school. To the rest of the community Kino is crazy for dreaming this way because nobody of his people had ever done something like that before. Juana sees that this will be the day that starts the rest of their life of new adventures, and she decides that the way she dresses her baby son will help make their dreams come true. She marks this occasion as important as his baptism and dresses him well for it.