jordys+reading+log

Welcome to my reading log

Title:Once Author: Morris Gleitzman Genre:Drama Ratting 5/5 Plot: This book is the fist book out of three it is about a 10 year old Jewish boy named Felix that ran away from an orphanage in search of his mother and farther but along the way he saved a girl named Zelda from a burning house but they get taken away to the city by the Nazis but they get saved by a guy named Barney, they get taken to a secret hiding house and Felix gets devastating news he finds out that his parents have been killed then a couple of days later the Nazis find them and put them on a train to a death camp but they find a way to escape, they jump off the train and ......

Personal Response: I really liked this book because there's so much happening with hiding and being around Nazis you don't really now whats going to happen next. If I was Felix i would have stayed at the orphanage where I would have been safer. I learnt a small bit of what the Nazis did to Jewish families and people how helped them. The character in the story are around about the same age as me and my little sister a bit easier to feel what they were going though.

Title: Then Author:Morris Gleitzman Date:6/4/11 Genre:drama Rating:5/5* Plot: This is the second book about about Felix it picks up from after Felix and Zelda jump off the train they survive, they scarmble up a steep hill trying to get to a forest before another death train comes but they dont get there in time they lie down flat on the hill so they might not get killed by machine guns that are on the roof of the death train and manage to survive again. A little while later a lady named Genia finds them, she hates Jews but more than that she hates people who kill children (Nazis). She disguises them as part of her family, Felix's names changes to Wilhelm, and Zelda's name changes to Violetta, they stay with her for a while, and then a very special day comes its Wilhelm's birthday, Zelda, Genia, and Mr Krol (Genia's friend) go to town to get Felix a present, but while they were down there the Nazis found out that they were hiding Felix, so they killed all three of them because, Mr Krol was also hiding a Jewish boy (Dov). Felix and Dov were so furious that they went and killed a bunch of Nazis themselves Personal Response: I really liked this book as well it was even harder to try and find out what was going to happen next. If i was Felix i would have done every thing he done tried to keep everyone including himself safe, he was even going to run away to keep others safe. I learnt a bit more about what the Nazis used to do like how they killed them and things like that.

Title:Now Author:Morris Gleitzman Date:10/4/11 Genre:drama Rating:4/5 Plot: this is the third book about Felix (and Zelda) but this time hes turning 80 he lives with his granddaughter Zelda and they have lots of fun but Zelda is getting bullied but she doesn't want to tell Felix until after his birthday but he finds out so Zelda tries to make his birthday extra special, she makes Felix a picnic in the forest with candles and a whole lot of thank you letters but the letters catch on fire, but luckily she control's the little fire but a day later she finds out that there is a big fire in town and she thinks shes started it but Felix takes care of that in town. Then they rush home because the fire is slowly going towards there house they have water supplies to put out the little fires but now the big one is coming they rush to the car but the fires coming to quick Felix runs and grabs shovels and they start digging they jump in the hole and hope to survive the blast. a couple of hours later Zelda wakes up and is so happy that they survived but when Felix and Zelda get out of the hole thing doesn't look the same and the same with a friend. Personal Response: this book was very enjoyable but there wasn't as much going on as there was in Once and Then and you sort of new what was coming but it was still a really good book if I was Felix i would have gone to a different town as some people did in the story. 

Title: Diego, run Author: Deborah Ellis Date: 13/4/11 Genre: drama Rating: 4/5 Plot: Diego lives in a woman’s prison with his mother and little sister, His friend Mando lives in the men's prison, Diego and Mando’s family is very poor ,but Mando has an idea. Down into the jungle they go to make a fortune, making cocaine for men, week’s and week’s went by stomping in pits to make money, then they find out that the men aren’t going to pay them. After a couple of days they have a plan steal some paste, a couple of hours later there running through the jungle with paste, they come to an edge of a cliff with a big wobbly bridge, Mando’s first to cross with some paste, then suddenly the bridge brakes down Mando goes never to be seen again, then Diego gets pulled back by one of the men and taken to a big building to do this work forever, Diego picks a good time he sprints back into the jungle with one of the men running after him with a gun,  Diego jumps from log to log over a river but then gets his foot stuck on some vine on the ground, the man holds up the gun to shot him Diego wriggles and wriggles so he cant get the gun still to take a shot, and to get his foot free but the man jump to the last log, now if Diego wriggles and wriggles he can still get him but he slips and the gun flies on some sand the man goes to the sand and starts to sink, the gun is just out of his reach he tries getting Diego to pass him the gun Diego picks up the gun and flings it into the river and runs. After a night he finds a house and as soon as they see him they no were he has been and welcomes them into the family. Personal Response: I liked this book but it was easy to guess what was coming but that only made me want to read it more. If I was Diego I would have stayed at the prison because I wasn’t quite sure what was going to happen. 

Title: The Holocoust Author:Susanna Davidson Date: 1/6/11 Genre:Non-fiction Rating 4/5 Plot : The Holocoust is a book about what the Nazis did to the Jews it includes: what was the Holocoust, hatred, the rise of the Nazis, the word at war, the business of death, fighting back, the killing continues and remembering. Personal Response : I think this is a sad but good book. I found this book sad because about 6 million Jews had died but i liked hearing that 7,000 people were saved by sending then to Sweden. 

Title: The boy in striped pajamas Author: Date:10/6/11 Genre:Drama rating: 4/5 Plot:this is a book about a boy named Bruno who moves house for his fathers work but he doesn't know what his father does but when he looks out his window he sees people in striped pajamas and he doesn't know what they're doing and why they look so sad there alot of other kids they can play with but all Bruno has is his sister to play with. One day Bruno decided to go exploring he takes a long walk and finds himself standing next to a boy who is sitting cross legged on the ground and soon they are friends for life but one day the boy losses his grandfather so Bruno decided to go over the fence and help the boy but first he has to get changed into striped pajamas and once they start looking something bad happens. Personal Response:I found this book not as exciting as the other books until the very end so i have left that out so if you read it you dont exactly know whats going to happen although it is quite easy to guess. If i was Bruno I would have gone and seen my new friend every so often like he does through the book but I would have been to Frightend to cross the fence. 

Title: Hiding Edith Author:Kathy Kacer Genre: non ficton Rating:5/5 Plot: this story its about an eleven year old girl who has to be separated from all of her family except for her little brother Gaston to try and survive through world war two, her Father has been taken away by the Nazis and has to a concentration camp, while her Sister, and Mother are working as maids at a farm, Edith and Gaston are at a house in Mosaic where the whole school is Jewish and the whole town knows the its secret. It takes awhile for Edith to settle in but she soon gets use to it, until there is a raid Edith’s and the other kids go on a tramp, up hills and down hills while Gaston and the other kids around his age go to a house in town and the Nazis don’t know that there’s a Jewish school. But one day the Nazis find out and the children have to go away in little groups and have a fake identity Edith and Sarah (Edith’s best friend from the house) both go to a boarding school where the rest of the girls there are German and don’t know that they are Jewish. While they are there Edith almost gives away her real identity Twice, also one day when they where in the big bedroom alone big bombs go off and smash the window and hits the graveyard beside them it is now not safe for the children it live there and Edith and Sarah have to be moved again but they get separated, Edith gets sent to a farm and has to change her identity again but soon she gets use to it after a couple of months the war is finally over and Edith goes back to the house in Mosaic and her mother and she finds Gaston’s still safe and their mother and sister comes to pick then up so they can live together again, but they get bad news their Father has died at the concentration camp now their mother cant look after them so Edith who is now 14, and Gaston go back to Mosaic and are very happy. 

Personal response: I loved this book and i thought it was great that there was a place that Jewish children would go and the whole community was there to help keep them alive. but i would love to know what it was like in the house after the war had finished. Title: Adolf Hitler Author: Katie Daynes Date: 30/8/11 Genre: No-fiction ratting: 3/5 Plot: this book is about Hitler’s life and what he did before a through war. There is 7 chapters. Chapter 1 being A reluctant student, chapter 2 The drop out, chapter 3 The joy of war, chapter 4 Betrayal, chapter 5 Mein Kampf, chapter 6 Road to war, and chapter 7 The end, it also includes a time line of his life at the end.

Personal Response: This book surprised me because in the first 2 chapters it was about before there was war and he wanted to be an artist and didn’t want to be included in the government. I thought that Hitler should never have declared war on innocent Jews. I wouldn’t read this book again tho because I now know everything out of it. 

Title: Sophie’s secret war Date: 8/9/11 Ratting: 3.5/5 Plot: this is a diary about a young girl whom was just starting to go through world war 2. Sophie explains how she gets worried and wants to help stop the Nazis and starts to take notes to other people to help stop the Nazis but over time a battle begins and some of the solider’s gets badly injured. One of them falls into a ditch on the side of the road and Sophie helps him to get back to safety

Personal Response: I enjoyed this book because Sophie explains her feeling about the solider she helped to save and how disgusted she is about the Nazis. I probably wouldn’t read this book again but I did enjoy reading it. 

title: the diary of lauras twin author:Kathy Kacer date:29 September 2011 genre: drama ratting 4.5 / 5 plot: Laura gets given a diary from an old lady called Mrs Mandelcorn to do a twinning project for her Bat Mitzvah she starts to reading and gets taken through the journey of a young girl named Sara facing the troubles of surviving the holocaust in the Warsaw Getto Laura reads about Sara staeling food to feed her family and then watching helplessly as her best friend gets shoved out onto the street ready for deportation then having to leave her diary while she and her family too had to be deportated. And thats all that Laura had to read so she made her speech about saras life and ivited Mrs Mandelcorn to her Bat Mitzvah and finds out somthing speacial. 

Personal responce:In this book the author made me feel very greatful for what I have as Sara had to leave behind some of her most important things. This book also made me feel like I had written the diary and I was reading a frightning and thankful time of the past. Unfortunately I was able to predict what was going to happen so it wasnt a surprise.

Title: Boy overboard Autor: Morris Gleitzman Date: 7/10/11 Genre: drama Ratting 4/5 Plot: this book is about a boy named Jamal and his little sister Bibi they both love soccer but unfortunatly girls arnt allow to play soccer in Afghanistan. then one day there Mother gets cought running a school(no schools are allowd either) and they decide to move before the government does to mach damage to there family to they get go on a trip to try and get smuggled into Australia but along the way Jamal and Bibi loose there parent by getting pushed onto a different boat to their parent, they meet two other children that dont have any parents with them eihter and they all look after each other then one day pirates come and take there valubles and leave and then theres a terrible storm and their boat starts to sink but lukily they get saved and taken to a different country and find that there parents are lucky and survived. 

Personal Responce: I really really really enjoyed this book after each chapter i just wanted to read more the author had just packed so much into each little capter that if i was to write every little exciting thing it would be 5 times as long. now i want to know how Jamal and Bibi goes about going after their number one dream. 

Title: The diary of a young girl (Anne Frank) Edited by: Otto Frank Date: 18/11/11 Ratting 2/5 Plot: At the start Anne talks about how her family are just going into hidding and how much she wants to be free but as the book goes on she talks about all the agument that the familys has living together (the Franks live with another family as well) and also how she thinks she might just fall in love Peter

Personal Responce: I only Enjoyed the book at the start as she went into hidding but then it just kept going over and over and over again with arguments and it got very very boring although it was very upsetting when the book just stopped because you new that she familys had been decoverd and that they had been taken away to a concentration camp and have all been split up into different camps.

Title: Parvana Author:Deborah Ellis Date 24/11/11 Genre: Drama ratting 4 1/2 /5 Plot: this is about a girl named Parvana growing up under the Taliban. she has to dress up as a boy (as girls arnt allowed to rome the streets) to help her father get around the streets as he has lost one of his legs. then one a day the Taliban soldiers barge into there house a start taking away the familys father away the mother tries to help and so does Parvana but they get bashed to the ground and the father gets taken away. For along time Parvana had to sell in the street markets as her father would have done but one day finds one of her old school mates is doing the same as her so they end up teaming up to make more money for there family but to make more profit they go and dig up buried bones so they can have just a little bit more to live on.but then the time comes when one of her sisters gets married and they have to leave but Parvana wont go just incase her father one day returns home. then at the end of the book Parvanas father returns and they go in search of the rest of the family so Parvana says goodbye to her dear friend Shauzia and desides to meet up again in ten years time at the Iffle tower.

Personal Responce: I found this book touching as she had lost her father for a while and had the responcibility of looking after her family and keeping them aliv and doing what she did to do so. Now I want to know what happend on there adventure to find there family. this book was also very desciptive and somtime was a bit hard to get over how disgusting some things were. 

Title: Parvanas journey Author: Debrah Ellis Date:27/11/11 Genre: drama Ratting:4 3/4 Plot: Parvana is now on her own as her father died on the first page so she sets out by herself in seach of her family. along the way she finds a little vilage and goes inside to maybe find somthing that could be in good use to her and to her supprise finds a bar of soap and was very happy then finds that there is a baby there so she takes the baby (as everyone else in the village had died) and looks after it and finds them a nice cave to rest in and also finds a young bor that had lost his leg like her father and they live in the cave for a while and then all three of them goes and carries on the journey and come across a mine feild( they know that by chuking rocks) then through dust they see a young girl coming though the feild they follow exactly in her footsteps to make sure they dont step on a mine. the young girl lives with her very old grandmother just off the mine they survive by getting thins that die on the mine but one day bombs start falling and the four children have to leave they come across a small camp that supplies a small amount of food to each tent but some is enough and while they are in the camp some soilders come and let down little yellow packets of food but the young girl mistakes then for mines and ends up dieing but as she said her last words a nice woman comes a sits beside her and Parvana relises that it her Mother.

Personal Responce: I very much enjoyed this book as it show just what you can do. I recomend this author to not go into so much detail as it got really disgusting when she explains she some unhealed scares. But this book is a very good book this was the second time i have read it.

title:the haystack author:jack laysenby Date 28/11/11 genre: ratting:2 1/2

plot:this is a story about a girl that is growing up with her father. goes to school with her mates and scares the boy down the road. one day she accidentally sets the dunny on fire with a candle but she was fine but a little frightend. she also starts looking after a cat and helps the district built a haystack.

Personal Responce: I thought this book was good but I wouldnt read it again as I am more into growing up in the war. if I was her I would have stopped scaring the boy down the road.

Title: Let me whisper you my story Date: 29/11/11 genre: Drama Ratting: 4 1/2 /5

Plot: half of this story is about a girl called Rachel going through war. Her and her family get sent to live in a different house under orders of the Nazis and get very little food one day the family get told to get some of there belonging because they are going to a concertration camp her father quickly tells her to hid behind pots and pans so she doesnt get decoverd and also not to speak. rachel hids but has to hear the family get taken away. then a little while later she gets descoverd by a family going through houses to get some good they take her home and help her to stay alive throughout the war Freddy ( a grandson) doesnt like her at the start as he works as an up and coming Nazis but soon finds out that he has to help save her life they the Grandmother stays with her in the appartment to help keep her safe and then the last boming comes and and hits the appartment the Grandfather didnt make it but the others did and the war was now over. the second half of the book is about after the war she gets sent to England by the red cross while they try to find out what happend to her family she meets new people and helps a boy that said he couldnt hear but could (just like herself) and he helps her to speak. She hears Terrible news that part of her family have died and then.....

Pesonal Responce: I thought this book was great it was very interesting about how she couldnt talk and how she delt with war as she would sit in a walldrobe and go into a little world of happy fantisy. I learnt that I need to teasure every thing that happens in life even when I think things are afair and all the big arruments because she thought that she had lost her cousin and wished that she could be there and chuck a tantrim all the time.