Echo’s Comments (group member since Aug 22, 2014)

Echo’s comments from the BDCHS Advanced Reading group.

The non-fiction book I chose was Heaven is For Real by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent. This book talks about 4 year old Colto Burpo’s amazing story of almost dying and going to heaven for 3 minutes. The story is told from Todd Burpo’s perspective, a pastor and the happy father of Colton and Cassie Burpo (Colton’s older sister) and proud husband of Sonja Burpo (the mother of Colton and Cassie.)

The story begins with a flashback in a place called “The Crawl-a-see-um” where the Burpo’s go on a vacation after a couple of rough times that Todd Burpo was going through, such as a broken leg, kidney stones and a cancer scare. On the vacation, Colton gets, what they thought was a flu virus but really it ended up being appendicitis. Colton first goes to the metro-Denver hospital, where they assure them that it wasn’t appendicitis. Later, when Colton isn’t getting better they take him to the Great Plains Regional Medical Center in North Platte, where they find out that Colton really did have appendicitis. Colton goes through surgery and is cured of his fatal disease. He is taken home and the family can finally rest. The Burpo’s end up with a lot of bills they need to pay off and can hardly pay off all of them, until hundreds of people, friends, family and even strangers start sending them all money after hearing about what happened and it totals out to just the amount they need to pay off the bills.

The author ends his flashback and now begins with the family traveling to see their new nephew 4 months after Colton’s surgery. As they are heading up there, Todd sees the hospital and jokingly asked Colton if he would like to go back there. Colton starts telling his father all about his experience in the hospital and how he met Jesus and the angels sang to him and that he sat on Jesus’s lap. The parents are bewildered at his statements and ask him if it was just a dream he had. The author then goes on with the story talking about all of Colton’s experiences in Heaven. For instance, Colton tells his parents all about sitting on Jesus’s lap and what people look like in heaven, like Todd’s grandpa (Pop) looks much younger than he did when he actually died in his 60’s. Colton also talks about all of the beautiful colors in heaven (looking like a rainbow) and that there are many children in heaven and that Jesus loves all of them so much. Lastly, Colton tells his mother that he met his sister in heaven (which ends up showing us that Sonja had a miscarriage before Colton.)

Sonja has another child, a little boy, (which they consider their 4th after finding out about their miscarried daughter) which they named Colby which results in a baby sitter named Ali who hears about Colton wanting to go back to heaven because he missed his sister up in heaven. In the end Todd tells the reader why he and his family wrote the book and answers questions for people that asked about Colton’s experience in heaven.

One problem that occurs in the book was Colton having his appendix burst and causing him to be ill. This problem is what sets up the story into Colton’s experience of going to heaven and seeing incredible things there. Therefore the solution was Colton getting his surgery and his life was saved.

A theme I recognized in the book was not giving up hope because during Colton's surgery the Burpo family almost lost faith in God and lost faith in the doctors being able to save their son. In the end though, Colton recovers and the family realizes their mistake and praise the Lord for saving their son. Their faith grows even stronger because of Colton's experience in Heaven and that God brought him back to his family.

I learned that even if times seem tough you have to stay strong and always have hope, you should never give up even if someone says that the outcome may look uncertain.

I rate the book 4 1\2 stars out of 5. I really did enjoy the story overall, my favorite part was finding out about the family's miscarried child, it really made me feel what they were going through when they lost her and that when Colton came along he gave them new hope.

Fever 1793: by Laurie Halse Anderson- the novel takes place in the year 1793, in late summer in Philadelphia. The main character is a stubborn and a bit lazy teen girl named Matilda Cook, who dreams of leaving Philadelphia for France and making the coffee house into the hottest spot in town. she lives in and works in a coffee house with her mother, Lucille Cook, and grandfather Captain William Farnsworth Cook. At first the yellow fever is just a supposed rumor until Mattie and her mother visit one of their friends house, the Ogilvie’s, and one of their daughter’s falls ill from the fever. Later, Mattie’s mother catches yellow fever and Mattie and her grandpa are forced to leave town and stay in the country until they can return. The farmer they travel with soon abandons them on the side of the road and they are left for dead. Mattie soon goes unconscious and wakes up in a hospital bed at Bush Hill (a mansion turned into a hospital for fever victims.) Mattie and her grandpa decide they must return home to search for Mattie’s mother and hope she has recovered. When she get’s there, the town is abandoned and her mother is missing, with no way to contact her, Mattie and her grandpa stay at the coffeehouse. Soon enough Mattie’s grandfather dies after a couple of thieves broke into the house. Mattie goes in search for her friend and fellow worker Eliza, an African-American woman and the cook at the coffeehouse. Before she finds Eliza, she discovers an orphaned toddler named Nell, Mattie finally finds Eliza and together they stay at her house and care for Nell and Eliza’s twin nephews Robert and William. The children soon fall ill with yellow fever and so Mattie suggests they go to the coffee house for fresh air and away from the water, where the disease started. Mattie and Eliza care for the sickly kids until the winter frost finally comes. The frost cures the town of disease and people start to come back and the town is alive once again. Motherless, and jobless Mattie comes up with the idea to reopen the coffeehouse with Eliza at her side, she even receives help from her friend and crush Nathanial Benson, a brown haired boy that works for a painter in the town, Mr. Peale. Once the coffeehouse is up and running Mattie’s mother returns home, but is too weak to stay in charge of the coffeehouse, so Mattie takes over for her. In the end, Eliza, Robert, William and Nell move in with Mattie and she continues to run the coffeehouse as she always wanted it to be.

One of the theme's in the novel is suffering, because when the fever spreads Matilda suffers both physically and emotionally. The fever makes her body thin and weak, her skin becomes pale and her face thin and gaunt, but it’s not just her physical self that is affected by this illness it also affects her emotionally and mentally. She loses both her mother and grandfather, and goes into a state of depression and almost gives up hope. And when she was stranded with her grandpa she had hallucination’s and nearly died if it hadn't been for her grandpa.

I learned to never give up hope and that if you put your mind to it, you can find a way out of a struggle. Like when Mattie lost her grandpa, she was able to find Eliza and reopen the coffeehouse and take care of herself so she wouldn't be forced to go to the orphanage.

I really enjoyed the story overall, I really liked Mattie and Nathanial’s relationship, how you know they like each other and he flirt’s with her, I thought that was really cute. But my favorite part in the book was when Mattie discovered Nell and she was able to keep her in the end so that she wouldn’t have to stay in the orphanage.

I rated the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.

A long way gone (Memoirs of a boy soldier) by Ishmael Beah: The story begins in Africa, in a village called Mattru Jong, where the main character Ishmael, a 12 year old African boy, his older brother Junior and his group of friends named: Talloi, Kaloko, Gibrilla and Khalilou, who are also young preteen African American boys, are headed to perform a dance for the town since the boys are all part of a dance crew together where they sing rap music and dance. A group of men that they call the rebels begin attacking towns close by Mattru Jong, even Ishmael’s hometown, he, his brother and friends are determined to try and find their families but soon end up having to stay in Mattru Jong, for there is no place left to go. The rebels end up attacking Mattru Jong and Ishmael and his friends are force to flee, they pass through many villages on their way to try and find safety, they never discover the names of these places because in that time signs for villages didn't exist. Later Ishmael and his friends come upon a village called Kamator, they are attacked by another group of rebels and Ishmael is separated from his friends and brother, he never sees him or his family again after that.

As Ishmael travels alone he comes upon a group of African American boys all in their teens: Alhaji, Saidu, Kanei, Jumah, Musa, and Moriba. The group of boys end up trying to make it to Yele in the Bonthe district which was safely guarded by Sierra Leone Armed forces. When the boys finally make it to Yele, they are needed as recruits to crush the rebel army. Ishmael signs up and becomes a boy soldier at the age of 13, he stays in the army for 2 years and is finally rescued by UNICEF and taken to a rehabilitation center at the age of 16.

At the rehabilitation center Ishmael becomes friends with the center’s nurse Esther and she helps him with his rehabilitation process. Later, once Ishmael is almost completely rehabilitated, they find his father’s brother living in the city of Sierra Leone and that Ishmael will be able to go and live with him. Ishmael goes to live with his uncle and is offered to go and speak in New York about children in the war and what they should do to help. He goes on the trip and there he meets a woman named Laura Simms, a white woman with dark hair and bright eyes, who he ends up living with in the end.

After Ishmael has returned from New York Sierra Leone capital has been taken over by rebels, he realizes that he must escape and decides to make the trip back to New York so he can live with Laura and escape the madness of the war.

I really enjoyed the story, even though I can’t exactly relate to Ishmael and what happened to him. I thought he used incredible detail describing how scared and scarring the war was for him and that even though he lost almost everything he ever cared about, he never gave up hope and always found the strength to keep moving forward.

I learned that it’s never too late to start brand new and that you can never give up hope even when everything seems hopeless.

I think the theme of the book is courage because all throughout the book Ishmael never gave up and kept believing that somehow he would make it through the war and that he would eventually find peace.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Monster, by Walter Dean Myers:

The story takes place on 141st street, a jail and a courtroom, it is told from first and third point of view by Steve Harmon, a young African American teenager, currently in a filming class. Part of the story is told from Steve’s jail cell he talks about how much he hates life in prison, and how he thinks the trial is going. He is on trial against the prosecutor Sandra Petrocelli for robbing and murdering the store owner, Mr. Nesbitt, of a local convenient store, even though he was simply supposed to be a lookout for two teens named Richard “Bobo” Evans the boy who got the idea to rob the store and James King, the other African American teen on trial and the actual murderer of Mr. Nesbitt. Steve was supposed to walk in the store, check if anyone was in there and give Bobo and James a signal. He did not however and Bobo and James ran into the store thinking the coast was clear, and robbed the place, plus killing Mr. Nesbitt. Steve is proven not guilty at the end of the book with help from his lawyer Kathy O’Brian, and James King receives 25 years in prison.

I think one of the themes in the story could be race and justice system, Kathy O’Brian does admit because Steve is young and black it makes him “more likely” to have committed the crime in the eyes of the judge and the jury.

I didn't really like the story mainly because it doesn't relate to me and my life but I did learn a couple things from it, one being that race can affect whether or not the jury thinks you're guilty and I just don't think that's fair because when you are the making the decision whether or not someone is guilty all of your beliefs and biases follow in with that and that just doesn't seem right in my eyes.

Overall I give the book a 3 out of 5

Harry Potter – By J.K. Rowling:

Harry Potter and his best friends Ron and Hermione are heading into their 3rd year at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. But before they leave Harry finds out that a mad man named Sirius Black who is believed to work for Lord Voldemort, has escaped out of the most fearsome and brutal wizard prison, Azkaban, and is hunting down Harry. Meanwhile back at Hogwarts, there is a new teacher for Defense against the Dark Arts named Remus Lupin who all of the students become very fond of, but there is something rather odd about Professor Lupin, Harry’s least favorite teacher, Professor Snape keeps having to make him a strange potion and his greatest fear is the moon, why? Because he is a werewolf. Later, Harry finds out that his father, Remus and Sirius Black used to all be best friends back at Hogwarts and with another boy named Peter Pettigrew who “died” in attempt to stop Sirius Black. When in reality Sirius Black is the godfather of Harry and was innocent while Pettigrew betrayed the Potter’s and is a Death Eater in league with Voldemort. While trying to get Pettigrew back to the castle to clear Sirius’s name, Remus turns into a werewolf and Pettigrew escapes thus causing Sirius to be sentenced to death. Harry informs Dumbledore about what actually happened and Dumbledore tells Hermione and Harry how to help Sirius. Him and Hermione end up going back in time to earlier that day and save Sirius by giving him Hagrid’s hippogriff (a creature with the front half of a bird and the back half of a horse) And escapes then he goes into hiding. Sirius sends Harry an owl letting him know that he’s safe for now and he doesn't know when Harry will be able to come and live with him but he’ll be looking out for him, so with that Harry returns to the muggle world to live with the Dursley’s once more. The overall theme of the story I think is friendship because all through out the book Harry always has his friends with him or he tries to comfort his friends. Like when Hermione and Ron were arguing Harry tried to comfort both of them and they got along in the end. When Hagrid's pet was going to be executed, Harry, Hermione and Ron all tried to be there for him and help him out with it.

I really enjoyed reading the story, and meeting all of the different characters especially Sirius Black. I thought it was cool that him and Harry's father used to be friends and Harry thought he had betrayed him but in reality Sirius was Harry's godfather. It did make me really sad though when Harry couldn't be with Sirius in the end and he had to go back to the Dursley's, I think his life would have been a whole lot better if he could have lived with Sirius.

I learned that through out the story, friendship is more important than anything and not to let others stand in your way of doing what you think is right.

Rating: 5 out of 5