Burned by Ellen Hopkins

Burned


Title: Burned

Author: Ellen Hopkins

Pages: 531

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing

Ages: 15+


It contains adult topics, but OK for most teens.



Ellen Hopkins’ books are a work of art. It warns girls and boys alike, about how dangerous the world can be. Dealing with sex, abuse, drugs, and alcohol, it can be quite hard to read at times yet thoroughly worth it. The endings will leave you pondering for the rest of the day, and sometimes more.

Told in verse, the book tells the sad tale of Pattyn Von Stratten, the eldest daughter of a ‘good’ Mormon family. Her journey begins with a simple dream about a boy. With most families, it would not mean anything. But to Pattyn, it could be the first step to hell and eternal damnation.

The dream is the first step, but to what? Will the dream lead to a better life or hell? Pattyn ponders this and other questions. They are questions without any answers – about God, sex, and most of all, love. The readers will find themselves pondering these same questions along with her in this battle of good and evil. Soon enough, Pattyn gets caught with a real boy, and gets shipped to rural Nevada. There she finds something new to her: love and acceptance. And for the first time in her life, she feels worthy of it. But her past demons won’t let her escape. Pattyn goes down a path that will surely lead her to hell.

From the first pages, you are drawn into Pattyn’s harsh life. The way it is written makes it impossible to quit reading. It is not possible to skip a paragraph – because there are no paragraphs. Most of the book is thoughts and feelings, but the dialogue is very important to read. There are no annoying pages where the dialogue just goes on… and on. I love how you always know what Pattyn is thinking. When she is sad, you are sad; when she is ecstatic, you are too. Her story will leave the readers absorbed until the very end.

This book isn’t an easy read and some scenes could be quite traumatic to younger audiences. I don’t recommend this to kids younger than 15 or 14 (unless their parents permit them to read it). But with this said, it is an amazing book that I think everyone should at some point in their life. Ellen Hopkins’ books should be recommended reading in schools across the country and the world.



Ellen Hopkins also wrote:

Crank

Glass
Fallout

Identical

Impulse

Tricks

Perfect

Triangles [Adult book]

And some children’s science books

Reckless ~ Book Report

WARNING- This is a book report not a reveiw. There might be spoilers!

Reckless

By Cornelia Funke

                                    
Original Language: German

Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company

Publication Date: September, 2010

ISBN: 978-0-316-05609-0

Page Count: 394

Series: Book 1 of 1; unknown if series



Genre: Romance, Dark Fantasy



Reckless is about a young man named Jacob Reckless, who travels through a mirror into a land he discovered when he was younger. Goyl, fairies and all sorts of other fantasy creatures inhabit this land. Jacob's main mission throughout the book is to save his brother from being transformed into the jade goyl and reuniting with the girl he loves that he hadn't seen in years.

Reckless is in third person. The protagonist is Jacob Reckless. Other main characters include Will Reckless, Clara, and Celeste (almost always called Fox). This book has a really dark air to it. Almost the entire book makes you think that the pages are black.

The book starts off with twelve-year old Jacob who woke up at night and walked to his father’s abandoned office. A piece of paper fell out of a book on airplanes onto the ground. On it were sketches, but nothing meant anything to him other than the few words that were on the flip side. THE MIRROR WILL ONLY OPEN FOR HE WHO CANNOT SEE HIMSELF. He turned around and was met by his own distorted reflection. He closed his eyes and tried to find a lock or latch. It took him a minute before he understood. He covered his reflection head and found he was not in his father’s office anymore. Suddenly the cobwebs fell on him with a hoarse growl. It was animal like, but looked like an older man. He was smaller than Jacob. When Jacob reached for his neck the creature bit him. Before the creature could get him, Jacob pressed his hands over his scared reflection face. Jacob decided that Mirrorland was his secret.

Next Chapters takes place 12 years from then.

Will has found Mirrorland and has been scratched by a Goyl, a humanoid creature with rock for skin.. The Dark Fairy has put a curse on the Goyl injured. All scratched by the Goyl will slowly become Goyls themselves. Will has been and now the green lines are starting to show. The Jade Goyl, Will might become it, will make the King Goyl invincible. Clara comes through the mirror to. Clara is Will’s girlfriend. Will’s Goyl disease was almost incurable. Only the Dark Fairy can help him and it will be hard to get to her.

First they went to the child eating Witch’s House (the one from Hansel and Gretel) because in her garden grow the only berries that could cure Will. They couldn’t find them. In the forest, the Tailor (who makes clothes from human skin) attacks.

Next they went to the Red Fairy, the Dark Fairy’s sister, to find out how to kill her sister. Fox, Jacob’s friend, and Clara become friends. They find a dwarf named Evenaugh Valiant. They need him to get to the Fair Realm. Once they get there, the Red Fairy tells Jacob to put Will to sleep as to slow the process. Then she told him how to stop her enough to get her to tell them the cure. Jacob gives Will the plant to make him sleep and shortly after that Will is taken by the Goyls. The Dark Fairy told them about the Jade Goyl or Will. Jacob, Clara, and Fox go to the Goyl City to rescue Will.

Clara and Fox have to stay outside the city when Evenaugh and Jacob sneak in. They get captured along with the girls. Evenaugh gets them out and they go the Empress’s palace because the Goyl king is going to be married to a human girl as a peace offering. Will by that time has already turned full Goyl. Jacob then turns the Dark Fairy into a tree because he used the Fairy’s true name. She pleads for help. Jacob asks her to turn Will back human but she says she can’t. Will remembers Clara and Jacob so everything works out except for the fact that using the Fairy’s true name numbered his days alive.



I thought this book was okay. It was very fast and it feels like you missed a book. It got better in the end though. Another book is sure to come. This book didn’t seem to be written by Funke, but that may be due to her new translator. Not as good as the other Funke books but still enjoyable.

Thanksgiving Letter!

In honor of Thanksgiving (a little early) I wrote a a letter to a human from a turkey's point of view.

 

Dear Humans,
        I am writing this to you on behalf of all the turkeys in the US.
Everyone loves Thanksgiving except turkeys. We turkeys aren't so fond of it. We like pumpkin pie, stuffing, bread, soup, and cranberry jelly, but not the main course. Ever since the pilgrims thought my great great great great great great grandfather Goblet was tasty, turkeys hated Thanksgiving. Halloween, Christmas, Easter, they're all fine but Thanksgiving, we'll pass.
How would you like it if you go to sleep with your brother then he is gone the next day! I have one more thing to say :

 

                                                     Eat Ham!

                                                                                                              The Honorable

                                                                                                    Turquay Tuttleflap


Hope you enjoyed it. Here are some turkey fun facts.

• 
  Turkeys can adapt to a wide variety of habitats. However, most turkeys are found in forests with grassy areas.
  
  
• The best time to see a turkey is on a warm clear day or in a light rain.

• Turkeys have heart attacks. When the Air Force was conducting test runs and breaking the sound barrier, fields of turkeys would drop dead. 

• Turkeys spend the night in trees. They fly to their trees around sunset.

• Turkeys fly to the ground at first light and feed until mid-morning. Feeding resumes in mid-afternoon.

• Gobbling starts before sunrise and can continue through most of the morning.

• A wild turkey has excellent vision and hearing. Their field of vision is about 270 degrees. This is the main reason they continue to escape some hunters.

• A spooked turkey can run at speeds up to 20 miles per hour. They can also burst into flight approaching speeds between 50-55 mph in a matter of seconds.

• Benjamin Franklin wanted the national bird to be a turkey.

And last but not least.....