Carson’s Comments (group member since Aug 24, 2014)

Carson’s comments from the BDCHS Advanced Reading group.

Name:Carson Owen
Title:Scenario Paintball: Tips, Tools, and Tactics From the Trenches
Author:Don Grubish
Rating:5 out of 5

Summary: The book is about paintball, but not just the sport of paintball, but it is about a specific type of play and that is scenario play. Scenario play is generally played in the woods or in any type of military simulation. Scenario paintball games can be anything from re-enacting different battles (for example, they have a D-Day event in Oklahoma every year) to having any imaginary scenario or objective that your team needs to complete. For example, you could take over a building and then defend it from the other team for five minutes, or take out another team’s “cannons” (any tube-like object that is a specified cannon) and then placing a “dynamite” charge near their base or in their base and waiting for it to go off meanwhile defending it while you wait for it to go off, etc. Overall, this book teaches you about different scenario games, tactics, and tips for different styles of play.

Setting: Scenario paintball takes place all over the world. In fact, there is a big scenario event in Germany held every year. This book focuses mostly on events in the United States.

Characters: This is a non-fiction book, so there aren’t really characters in the book.

Plot: There really isn’t an official plot, but the author tries to get across tips and tactics about scenario paintball.

Problem/Solution: The problem is how do you survive in paintball. The solution is, depending on the strategy, the author lists many different tactics. If the problem is that you are just walking around and you don’t know where the enemy is, then the solution/tactic is to go in a semi-check formation so on the left is only one person and that is the heavy machine gunner, in the front is the point-man, the first person on the right is the utility man, the second person on the right is the squad leader, and the third person on the right is the runner. When ever you see an enemy, act like a door-hinge, so if there is an enemy in front of you, the heavy machine gunner moves to the left, if necessary the runner will run to the left with the heavy machine gunner and then the utility man and squad leader go to the right while the point man stays back and covers them while they move. In general, this book gave a lot of examples of problems in scenario paintball and then gave a lot of solutions and tactics to deal with those problems.

Theme: The theme is that anyone can get a tactic and get better at it if you know what to do.

Did you learn anything from the story?: I learned different tactics and tips for playing scenario paintball. I knew some of the tactics that he talked about, but I learned a lot more. I also learned more ways to make a scenario game fun other than just “capture the flag.”

Did you like the story?: Yes, I liked the book. It is interesting and pretty easy to read if you play paintball or even if you don’t play paintball he sort of explains it along the way.

Overall comments: The book was good and I want to read the next one by this author on advanced tactics.

Name: Carson Owen
Title: Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie
Author: David Lubar
Rating (out of 5): 5 out of 5

Summary: This book is about a boy (Scott) who starts his first year of high school and he doesn’t think it’s easy. On top of that, he finds out that his mom is going to have a baby. Throughout the book, we learn that Scott gets bullied a lot and that he doesn’t know how to make friends very well. At the end of the book, he has two best friends (Wesley and Lee) and in the last chapter the mom finally has the baby so he has a little brother too.

Setting: The story takes place in a suburban neighborhood and at his school. His high school is a big school with lots of kids. Some of the teachers are nice and some are mean.

Characters: (1) Scott is the main character and he’s a freshman. He doesn’t have many hobbies he would probably be boring in real life. (2) Wesley is Scott’s friend that he makes friends with about half way through the book. You wouldn’t expect Wesley and Scott to be friends because Wesley is big and mean to other people whereas Scott is small and really nice. (3) Lee is another one of Scott’s friends. Scott meets her about half way through the book and she is really nice. (4) Vernon is the person who bullies Scott the most and he’s also the quarterback for the football team and he’s on the wrestling team. He’s mean to a lot of people. (5) Julie is Scott’s friend from Kindergarten, but she basically forgot about him. Between middle school and high school she changed a lot. Scott likes her now but she doesn’t like him, not even as a friend. (6) Scott’s parents are also two other characters in the book. His mom is nice and she’s pregnant. Scott’s dad is also nice (but he’s not pregnant). (7) Bobby is Scott’s older brother and he is basically the opposite of Scott. Bobby is big and he doesn’t get picked on. He likes to play the guitar.

Plot: The story is a little bit like a coming of age plot. We first meet Scott when he is new to the high school and really scared but by the end of the book he has found friends and he fits in better now.

Problem/Solution: The problem is that Scott doesn’t have any friends and he doesn’t want to have a baby in the family. The solution is that he makes friends and then he finds a way to tolerate the baby, but then eventually ends up liking his baby brother.

Theme: The theme is overcoming obstacles. Scott had many obstacles to overcome (including being bullied, not having friends, not wanting a new baby in the family) but he overcame almost all of the obstacles, except that he was still getting bullied at the end of the book.

Reflection: Overall, I liked the story because it was funny and it had “Tom Swifties” in it. That is when there is a quote from Tom and then an adjective of how he said it that makes a pun out of the quote. For example:

“I’ve been sliced in half,” Tom said intuitively. (page 44)
“I lost my legs right below the ankles,” Tom said defeatedly. (page 43)
“They are building new apartments down the road,” Tom said constructively. (page 34)

These Tom Swifties all have two meanings for the last word. Sometimes it took a while to get it, but once you got it, then it was funny

Did you learn anything from the story?: I didn’t really learn a lot from the book, but I did like learning about Tom Swifties.

Did you like the story?: Yes, I liked the story. It was funny and easy to read.

Overall comments: The book was good.

Title: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (A Novel)
Author: Sherman Alexie
Rating (out of 5): 5 out of 5

Summary: The story was about “Junior,” a reservation Indian teenage boy who thinks that he is stuck on the reservation for the rest of his life—same school, same house, same everything. But through the book, he discovers that he can change all of that. He changes it by going to a different school (Reardan High School), which is a fancy school with a bunch of White kids. At first he is hesitant about the school. “What was I doing at Reardan, whose mascot was an Indian, thereby making me the only other Indian in town?” (p. 56). Then he started feeling more comfortable with the school, especially once he met Penelope. Junior and Penelope first became friends and then they became boyfriend and girlfriend. By the end of his first year at Reardan (which is at the end of the book), he felt hopeful for his future which he hadn’t felt before.

Setting: Junior lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation, which he calls “the rez.” At first he goes to school on the rez, to Wellpinit High School, but then when he asks to transfer to Reardan High School so that he can have a future.
Characters: Junior is the main character. He is an Indian teenage boy who was born with too much water on his brain, so he has seizures, he stutters, he lisps, he has big glasses because one eye is near-sighted and one eye is far-sighted, his head is too big for his body, and he is really skinny with very large feet. “With my big feet and pencil body, I looked like a capital L walking down the road” (p. 3). He gets bullied a lot.
His Mom is another character in the book. His mom wanted to be a college teacher but she is a stay-at-home mom and she never even went to college.
His Dad wanted to be a jazz saxophone player but he is barely employed and he is an alcoholic. When he gets drunk, he gambles the family’s money away even though they barely have any money.
Rowdy is Junior’s best friend up until when he goes to Reardan. Rowdy’s dad beats him up when he’s drunk and also beats up his mom. Rowdy is angry all the time and he is ready to fight all the time. He’s mad that Junior goes to Reardan but at the end of the book, they become friends again.
Gordy is Junior’s best friend at Reardan. Gordy was very smart and he knew everything. They became friends because Junior answered a question in a class, the teacher thought it was wrong, and then Gordy corrected the teacher to show that Junior was right and then Junior and Gordy became friends.

Plot: The book is about kids who have nothing and try to make a better life for themselves.
Problem/Solution: Junior had a lot going against him (like school, being poor, having problems with his brain, the size of his glasses, being an Indian in an all-White high school, etc.) but he overcomes these problems by working hard and not giving up.

Theme: The main theme in this book is how people can overcome poverty and racism by working hard and making it better. Junior stood up for himself at Reardan and succeeded. He tried to show people on the rez that they could have hope too.

Reflection: Overall, the story was good.

Did you learn anything from the story?: I learned to not give up and to work hard. I learned about what it was like to have physical problems and to be an outsider.

Did you like the story?: Yes, I like the story. It was good because it was funny (Junior is a cartoonist) and it was not boring.

Overall comments: Overall, I would recommend this book to other teenagers. I think that other teenage boys would like this book because it’s funny, it has lots of pictures, and it is interesting.

Title: LOVE THAT DOG
Author: Sharon Creech
Rating:5 out of 5

Summary: The focus of the book is a boy loving his dog. Through poetry we learn that the boy, Jack, thinks that poetry is just for girls. His teacher makes him write poetry anyway. We only see Jack’s poems (not his teacher’s responses) but we can see that the teacher thinks his poems are good by how Jack responds to the teacher. Through the poems, we learn that Jack had a dog named “Sky” and that Sky died from getting run over by a car. Jack was sad about losing Sky, but his poems made him remember Sky. Jack really liked a poet named Mr. Walter Dean Myers, who wrote a poem called “Love That Boy.” And then Jack invited Mr. Walter Dean Myers to the school and he actually came to the school. Then Jack wrote him a thank you note and included a poem called “Love That Dog (Inspired by Walter Dean Myers).”
Setting: Jack was at school writing poetry for his teacher. But some of his poetry tells stories about being at home.
Characters: Jack (the boy), Sky (the dog), the teacher (Miss Stretchberry, Room 105), Jack’s dad (when Sky gets hit with the car), poet Mr. Walter Dean Myers (who wrote “Love That Boy” and visited Jack’s classroom).
Plot: At first, we don’t know much about Jack. But eventually he writes more about his family and his dog, Sky. At first he doesn’t like poetry, but then he slowly lets his teacher put more of his poetry on the board. Eventually, Jack is excited to meet the poet, Mr. Walter Dean Myers, and write a poem inspired by him.
Problem/Solution: At first, Jack didn’t want to share his feelings in his poems, but then his teacher really liked his poems and he started feeling good about his poetry. At the end of the book, when Jack shared his poem “Love That Dog” with Mr. Walter Dean Myers, it showed that he was finally thinking of himself as a good poet.
Theme: You can learn a lot through poetry. In this book, Jack’s class had to read real poems and then write their own poetry. Through Jack’s poems, we learn about his dog Sky, we learn about the speeding blue car splattered with mud that hit Sky, and we learn that Jack doesn’t think that he understands a lot of poetry but he really does.

Reflection: It is a good book. Even though I usually don’t like poetry, this was a good book because it told a good story.
Did you learn anything from the story?: I learned that poetry can be in all kinds of shapes and forms. For example, Jack wrote a poem called “My Yellow Dog” that was shaped like a dog. That poem was similar to the poem by S. C. Rigg called “The Apple”, that was shaped like an apple.
Did you like the story?: Sure, I liked the story because it was easy to read and it was about a boy and his dog. And I have a dog and I am a boy.
Overall comments: It was a good book and it tells a good story through poetry.

I am America (and so can you) by Steven Colbert

Rating - 5

In I am America (and so can you) there is really no setting other than America. There are also no real characters other than Steven Colbert (and the Republican / Democrat party's). There is also really no plot other than what just jumps into Steven's mind or the "chapters". The problem lies within each chapter of the book, but there is no real overall problem of the book. The Theme is just America and Steven Colbert being funny.

I did not really learn anything, but I did like the book. If you don't know Steven Colbert, don't read the book, you might take him seriously.

Monster, by Walter Dean Myers, is a book about a (maybe) criminal Steve Harmon. The suspected crime is that there was a robbery and murder at a drug store owned by Mr. Nezbit. Steve is framed for being a "lookout" for the two other criminals, James King and "Bobo" Evans. Monster is not the most exciting book, but is full of detail and suspense, which made up for the lack of Action.

I give the story a 3.5 out of 5.

I learned from the story the due process of Courts and Jails. The overall story was pretty good, but if I got the chance to do it over again, I would pick another book.