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

Nour’s comments from the BDCHS Advanced Reading group.

I read the book A long way gone (Memoirs of a boy soldier) by Ishmael Beah. The main character Ishmael Beah lives in the village Mogbwema located in Africa. Ishmael, his brother Junior and a couple friends: Talloi, Kaloko, Gibrilla, and Khalilou head to preform a dance in town since they rap and have a group. A group of men called the rebels attack Ishmael's home town and towns around it, burning houses and shooting everyone in the way. He and his friends look for their families in this chaos, but are forced to stay in Mattru Jong because there's no other place to stay. When the rebels invade Mattru Jong, Ishmael and his brother flee and pass through many villages in search of safety. Ishmale and his friends come upon a village called Kamator where they are attacked and he separates from his brother and friends. He never see's them or his family again after the attack.

Ishmael travels alone and meets a group of 6 boys named Alhaji, Saidu, Kenei, Jumah, Musa, and moriba. They try to make it to Yele, where it is armed by the Seirra Leone armed forces. Once they get their Ishmael becomes a boy soldier at the age of 13 and continues for another 2 years before he is taken by the UNICEF to a rehabilitation center.

In the center Ishmael becomes friends with the nurse Esther. She helps him a lot in the rehabilitation process. She takes him and his friend out to the city and buys him mixed tapes. He and Esther become good friends. Once Ishmael is rehabilitated he moves in with his uncle and his family. Ishmael interviews to go to a meeting in New York and talk about his experience with the war. When he gets to New York he meets a lady named Laura Simins who ends up being his foster mother.

When Ishmael returns from New York his new home the Sierra Leone capital gets taken over by the rebels. He escapes and goes to New York to live with Laura when he realizes the risk that he might be a soldier again.

I really enjoyed this book and I could somewhat relate to Ishmael because of the conflict going on in Palestine. I love the way Ishmael never gave up hope and always faced his problems instead of running away from them. I learned that we should value what we have and enjoy all the little things because what we take for granted is another persons fantasy.
My overall comment about thus book is that i would recommend it to anyone looking to read a non-fiction war story book.
I rate this book 4/5 stars (Only because he described in detail of the violence)

I read the book Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets by J.K Rowling. The setting of Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets is in Privet Dr., the Burrow, and Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry.

The characters in this book are Harry Potter, Ronald Weasley,Fred and George, Hermione, Dobby the house elf, professor lockhart, Hagrid,Ginny, and professor Dumbledore.

Harry Potter is forced to live with his muggle family over summer vacation after his first year at Hogwarts.His aunt and uncle lock him up in a room with only one meal a day after Dobbey the house elf came to warn him to not go to Hogwarts and causes a ruckus. Ron and his brothers come in their families flying car and rescue Harry from the Dursleys. When going to the Hogwarts express train to get to Hogwarts platform 9 and 3/4 closes before Ron and Harry get in. Forced to go a different way to Hogwarts, Ron and Harry fly in the Weasleys flying car. Weird things go down in Hogwarts. The chamber of secrets opens, the defense against the dark arts teacher is clueless and people are getting petrifies from something suspicious. Harry finds a blank diary in the girls bathroom one day and try's to figure out how to work it.When ink spill's on the diary and it doesn't stain, Harry figures out that he has to write in it.The diary shows harry a flashback of how the chamber opened and Hagrid was a suspect.The diary was stolen from Harry's dormitory one day and his stuff were left a mess. Ginny try's to tell Harry and Ron about something during dinner but gets interrupted by Percy. As odd activity continues to happen at Hogwarts Hermione gets petrified and stays in the hospital wing motionless. Harry and Ron check up on her and find a paper that tells them where the chamber is in her hand.On their way to inform professor McGondagal about the chamber everyone is told to go to the dormitory's. Ginny's skeleton was in the chamber is what the note left for them read. Lockhart is put on the spot and is forced to open the chamber and save Ginny.When Harry and Ron go to his class to five him advise about where the chamber is they find out he is escaping from Hogwarts to get out of going down the chamber.He tells them about his scams and how he takes credit for other peoples victories and about his memory charm. Lockhart was about to use the memory charm on Harry and Ron when Harry said the dissarming spell and Lockharts wand flew out the window.Lockhart is forced to go down to the chamber with Harry and Ron to save Ginny.

They face many problems down in the chamber, Lockhart and Ron stay behind while Harry moves farther into the tunnels. Harry finds Ginny and Riddle the owner of the diary. Riddle eventually reveals himself as Voldemort and Harry and him get into a fight. Riddle with the powers of Voldemort and Harry's wand and Harry with only the sorting hate and a phoenix sent from Dumbledore.Harry finds a sword in the sorting hat and stabs the diary and Riddle disappears.He and Ron took Ginny back and Lockhart lost his memory from his memory charm firing back at him. Professor Dumbledore gave Ron and Harry 200 points each winning them the house cup for Gryfendor.After telling Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGondagal, and Mr. and Mrs.Weasley what happened Ginny was not punished for anything she had done. Hermione was back to normal and they all joined each other for the feast.

The theme of Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets is bravery and teamwork because they worked together to solve the mystery and were brave enough to keep going on risking their own life's.

I learned that you have to stick up to what you believe is right and that means being brave enough.I rate this book 5/5 stars because it was really well written and i loved it.My overall comment about this book is that i really enjoyed reading it and i see myself reading the rest of the series soon.

I read the book Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone by J.K. Rowling. This book took place in England and Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone is about Harry Potter who's parents were murdered by Voldemort the "dark lord". Harry is sent to live with his aunt Petunia and her family uncle Vernon and Dudley by Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts, Professor McGonagall and Hagrid the game keeper. Professor Snape teaches potions, Professor Quirrell is the defense against the dark arts teacher, Ron and Hermione are Harry's best friends and adventure companions and Malfoy is a student that they dislike.

After years of living in the Dursley's house Harry gets his first letter. Uncle Vernon destroys every letter that was send to harry so one Sunday the house got flooded with letters from Hogwarts. Uncle Vernon takes his family to a cabin far away to get away from the letters. Hagrid barges in at night and informs Harry about Hogwarts. In Hogwarts Harry meets a boy and girl named Ron and Hermione who become his best friends. They go on many adventures together and roam the school at night together. They find out about the Sorcerer's stone and suspect professor Snape is out to get it. On the night they suspect he will steal the stone they sneak out to save it but hary finds out the it was in fact professor Quirrell who was out to get it. Harry puts up a tough fight with prefessor Quirrell and wakes up days later in the hospital wing. He attends the feast and Gryffindor wins the house cup.

The theme of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's stone is courage and friendship because Harry, Hermione and Ron were courageous and stood up to what they believed is right and didn't stop til they got what they wanted. Also no matter what happened they always stood up for each other and didn't let anything stand in the way of their friendship.

I rate this book 5/5 starts because i really enjoyed reading it and love the Harry Potter series. This book taught me that their is nothing more important than the value of friendship and to always stick up for your friends

I read the book Monster by Walter Dean Myers.
Monster took place in Manhattan and Harlem New York city.Monster is about a 16 year old teen who is accused of being part of a robbery where Mr. Nesbitt the owner of a local Harlem drugstore was murdered.Steve along with James king, Richard "Bobo" Evans and Osvaldo Cruz where on trial having to do with the robbery.Sandra Petroceli is the prosecutor and Kathy O' Brian is Steve's defense attorney.

Probably facing life in prison Steve decides to write his daily routines and whats going on in his journal. He made it so it was in a movie script form.Steve wants to be a directer and majority of the time spent in jail was him imagining and writing.
Towards the end of the trial Steve is very nervous because what ever he says can be held against him and determine his future of life in prison or being free. On the last trial Steve is announced innocent and is free to go.We do not know if Steve really is innocent because he never actually told us.

This story taught me to never do anything that you know is wrong just to impress someone.You could get yourself into trouble and whoever you were impressing isn't going to care about you or help you.

Overall I give this book a 3 out of 5 stars because personally I didn't relate to this book and if I wanted to read a crime book I would read one with more action. I felt like this book needed more action but I did however like the way it was written.I liked how it was written in a movie script because you can actually imagine that you were their in the courtroom. It was written differently from most books I read and I give the author credit for trying out something new.