The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld *SPOILER* (Part 1)

       Tally Youngblood is a 15 year old ugly living in Uglyville who was soon going to be 16 and become a new pretty.  Or at least she though she was.   Tally has always been a trickster along side her best friend, Peris.  However, Peris turned 16 three moths before her so she was on her own for a while.  Then she met Shay, another trickster who had the same exact birthday as her.  They spent every day together playing tricks and showing each other new things everyday.  Shay also taught Tally how to ride a hover board and she taught Tally all about the Smoke and they took many trips out to the Rusties.  Shay tried to introduce Tally to David, but David never showed up.   It was all fun and games until the night before their birthday when Shay had the trick that could change Tally's life. Shay wanted her and Tally to run away to the Smoke.  Shay didn't want to turn pretty and this was the one way she didn't have to. Tally wanted to turn pretty so she decided to stay home.   Shay left her a note in case at last minuet she decided to run away.  The note read, "Take the coaster strait pass the gap,  until you find one that's long and flat. Cold is the sea and watch for breaks.  At the second make the worst mistake.  Four days later take the side you despise, and look in the flowers for fire-bug eyes.  Once they're found, enjoy the flight.  Then wait on the bald head until its light."  Tally kept the note and the next day packed it in her small bag that she would bring the New Pretty Town when she was turned pretty.

   Tally was excited to be pretty and once again with Peris.  But then she was told their was a problem with her operation and was taken into another hover car.  Driving her car is a cruel pretty.  She knows that it means something is serious if a cruel pretty is involved.  Cruel pretties are modified to become much stronger and all around better with everything physically.  Once she is inside she meets Dr. Cable and tells Tally she is at Special Circumstances.   Tally never thought it was real because it was known as a rumor around Uglyville that they are real.   Dr. Cable talks to Tally about shay running away and asks if she knew anything about it.  Tally says she does not, but Dr. Cable tells Tally that Until she tells all she knows she wont be able to turn pretty.  Tally comes back the next day and confesses everything. But not the note.  Until Dr .Cable bring it up on the screen and Tally tells her everything.   Tally is the instructed to follow the note to the smoke, and when there put the heart necklace to her and eye and Special Circumstances will come and find them.   Tally makes her way and it turns into to an amazing adventure.  Then, she finally makes it to the smoke.  Will Tally give up the Smokes hiding place, or will she spend the rest of her life their, ugly.  Read "The Uglies" or my next blog post to find out 

My Response

        I thought that "The Uglies" was a phenomenal book that always had you on the edge of your seat. Not knowing what will happen next was my favorite part and it all started when shay told Tally about running away.  Would tally run away with her? Or, would she stay and become a pretty? Another time that I though as the most intriguing was when Tally reached the smoke.  She wanted to become a pretty, but after a little while their she saw how great it could be.  So would she notify Special Circumstances with her eye-reading locket and betray her friend, or would she decide to begin a new life in the smoke.  All these moment were complete page turners and before you know it you would have been reading for hours! Another thing I loved about "The Uglies" is the was Scott Westerfeld described everything.  When I read the book it wasn't just words on pages, it was a performance.  You might have been reading, but it feels as if you are in Ugliville experience all these Life changing moments with Tally and Shay.  

The way Scott uses description, creates suspense, and brings you into the story is what makes "The Uglies" a great read for anyone.  However, I think it is more for girls but boys could most likely read it and enjoy it also.  

The Uglies by Scott Westerfeld *SPOILER* (Part 2)

       The second part of "The Uglies" began when Tally reached the smoke.  Tally met David, Cory, and all the other smokies on her first day and they were all curious about her.  Still, she went along with everyone else and worked on the railroad, pulling up steel that they would carry back to the smoke to make trails for their hover boards.  While working Tally and David were working together talking all about her trip and David tells her how she is the only person to ever come alone to smoke.  Everyone else came in groups except for her and that's why everyone is suspicious.   That night Shay shows Tally where she will be sleeping in a hut in the middle of the smoke.  Tally didn't want to go back to the city yet, she wanted to stay at the smoke for a while, and so she did.  As the days went by Tally feel into the regular routine with work.  A couple days down the road, her and David when out on a little adventure where they ended up kissing.  And at that moment Tally realized she didn't want to go to to the city anymore.  She wanted to stay in the smoke. After dinner that night David brought Tally to meet his parents, Maddy and Az.  After talking for a while, Maddy and Az decided that Tally could handle the information they were about to tell her.  They told her all about the operation to become a pretty and how they put a lesions in everyone's head.  It was very dangerous to have and some people even died from it and Maddy and Az were trying to find a solution, but they were stopped by special circumstances and that's why they ran away and created the smoke.  Tally was shocked by this information.  Then, she knew for sure that did not want to become a pretty.   So that night, She and David went to the fire and she threw in her Locket, because she thought it would destroy it and that nothing would happen after it.  

      That morning she wakes up to loads of hover cars flying over the smoke. Tally runs outside and everywhere their are cruel pretties, and that could only mean Special Circumstances were there.  She quickly threw herself against the wall hoping no one saw her.  When she bumps into a fellow smokie they call "Boss."  The Boss hands her a box of a substance that works like pepper spray.  When a special sees them, Tally uses the substance and the Boss makes a run for the woods.  Tally runs but is spotted and tackled by a different cruel pretty and is handcuffed and brought to the rabbit pen when are the captured smokies are contained.  Tally is put in the section labeled "Armed resistors." As they wait Shay is brought in and is furious with Tally.  Shay starts yelling and Tally and telling her it was all her fault, when a cruel pretty comes and takes Tally away to Dr. Cable. She tells Tally about how the locket would be activated if any damage happened to it.   Then, she asks Tally where it was and Dr. Cable has a cruel pretty  take Tally to where he said the necklace was.  Even though it was actually melted.  When up their she is able to kick the cruel pretty over the edge and takes Cory's hover board and quickly leaves.  Hovercrafts try to catch her but she is able to get away and hide in a cave.  Then, out of now where David appears from farther back. The next day,  her and David travel back to the smoke and find it deserted.  They decide to make their way to the city.  Tally knows the other smokies will be at  special circumstances so once they get close they decide to go there.  They have to figure out a quick way to get in and they cant get close to the fence or touch the group because it will set off the alarm.  So they make a jump from their hover boards and are able to land on top of the building. They make it in and find where all the smokies from Tally's city are.  Shay comes out as a pretty.  She tells Tally how happy she is that she's pretty now, but Tally knows its all from having a pretty brain because during the surgery they don't only change your looks but your mind also.  Out comes Cory and Maddy and they all run out and are able to make it to the Rusties on their hover boards.  Once they are their for a while Maddy thinks she come up with a pill to get rid of the lesions.  However, Shay refuses to take it and none of the other people among them have it because they are not pretty.  So Tally volunteers and says that she will become pretty, then come back and take the pills.  David argues that she can't leave because being pretty will change her mind.  Her and shay travel back to the city and just like that, ugly Tally Youngblood is gone.  And now, she is one of the new pretties. 

My Response

       I thought the first half and second half were both great, but also very different.  The first half was very low key and  mostly just introducing you to the characters.  However, the second half if very dramatic with all of its such as the special circumstances taking over the smoke, Tally and David braking in, and then the Tally, David, and Maddy's fight about curing the cancer in New Pretties heads. I find the Second half of the book much more intriguing with the all the drama between Shay an Tally and David and Tally and pretty much everyone. I thought that all these made the second half of "The Uglies" a fantastic page turner story that will leave you on the edge of your seat.  

A Hundred Summers by Beatriz Williams

     

        A Hundred Summers is a romantic love story between two different times, winter  1931 and the summer of 1938.  Lily Dane, Budgie, Graham Pendleton and Nick Greenwald appear in both stories, but lives are completely different each time.
 

1931, New Hampshire and Massachusetts

      Lily and Budgie, to best friends, make their way to a Dartmouth football game in New Hampshire.  The quarter back, Nick Greenwald, catches lily's eye.  Once the games ends, Budgie and Lily go to the bar where they meet up with Budgies boyfriend, Graham Pendleton.  Along side him is Nick Greenwald.  Lily and Nick take a walk in the part.  Nick being a gentlemen gave lily his coat, only forget to retrieve it when they go their separate ways.  Nick makes the long drive the next morning for his coat back.  Lily and him go out to breakfast.  Just as they continuously do over the next couple weeks. They keep visiting each other more until winter break when they will be close together for a month. Winter Vacation begins and Lily and Nick begin to make their plans.  However, first comes meeting the parents. First Lily's, then Nicks. How Will their parents react? Will Lily and Nick stay together? You must read this enhancing Love story to find out!

                      1938,  Seaview Rhode Island (Spoiler)

     Just like every year  ever since Lily was little, she spent her summer at Seaview.  A small little town on the ocean in Rhode Island.  However, this summer is a little different.  Lily is nervous to see Budgie.  She hasn't spoken to her in two years.  Ever since Budgie married Lily's ex-fiance, Nick Greenwald. Lily confronts them at a restaurant where she introduces Budgie and Nick to Kiki, her six year old sister that she watches out for. Since all three of them are spending the summer in Seaview, their is no avoiding each other.  Lily spends a good chunk of her days with Budgie while Nick plays around with Kiki.  Until Graham, Budgie's old boyfriend, decides to take a brake at seaview.  Lily doesn't know what to do.  Still having feelings for Nick, she has to decide weather its time to move on and leave her past.  Will she not be able to move form the past? Or will she start seeing Graham again? All these answers fall throughout this dramatic love story.  Read it to find out!

This blog contains my 2 blog entries for this month.  Also, A Hundred Summers was a 400 page book.  

Sand Dollar Summer by Kimberly K. Jones

  
"Don't ever doubt that a mere second can change your life forever."

  Wanting to make pizza isn't really a big deal now is it? That's what it used to seem like to Annalise and Free  until that Friday. Their mom left to get pizza ingredients and ended up not coming home.  They come home school to only find out that their mother has been in a horrible car accident. They get to the hospital and see their mom laying their, broken and bruised. After about a week of recovery, Lise and Free's mom comes home at last so summer can begin.  They don't realize what their summer is gonna turn out like until she tells the about a surprise trip to Fiddle Island, Maine. They make the long journey up to a small broken shack on the corner of the island.  A house where Free and Lise's mom used to travel every summer and she deiced to do the same with her kids this year.  Lise hates the island, but over time learns to enjoy it with her new friends Arthur and Ben, and moms old friend, Michael.  A few weeks into summer, Lise meets Ben, an old fisherman who lived on the island for years.  She one day finds a sand dollar laying on the beach.  Ben sees her pick it up and talks to her about why she doesn't like it there, and why she is there.  So Ben gives her this advice "So I guess your like that sand dollar their.  I've noticed that the biggest, toughest shells are the ones that crack and shatter, but the light, little ones float above it all and it lands safe and sound. Sometimes not even where they belong, like here" (89). From their on she goes back to talk to him daily, learning to find the good inside of the bad.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

 

 "You can't stop the future. You can't rewind the past.  The only way to learn the secret is to press play."

   Imagine having your crush commit suicide, and then realizing YOU are part of the reason why.   That's what happens to Clay Jensen in Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher.   Clay comes home from school one day to find a shoe box, full of tapes.  He listens and realizes that they are tapes Hannah Baker, his previous crush, has recorded. There are 7 tapes, each with two sides, except for the seventh.  "Thirteen tapes, because there are thirteen sides to every story"(9).   As he listens to tapes, he thinks it must be a mistake.  Then the tapes say "I Almost forgot.  If you're on my list, you should've received a map"(11).  He pulls the map out of his backpack.  Shocked and scared of what’s to come.  He goes about his night listening to the tapes and following the map.  Waiting for his name to pop up. What’s his story? What are the secrets? Read Thirteen Reasons Why to find out the story behind Hannah Baker and her suicide.