Reading

This year I grew as a reader in many ways. Some of these include analyzing the author's point of view, evaluating how complex characters develop over time, and connecting an author's voice to their use of interesting words and or literary tools. In the beginning of the school year, I sometimes struggled in analyzing the author's point of view. For me, it was simple to determine whether the narrator was speaking in first, second, or third person; however, the difficulty was in going deeper into the author's background. I definitely feel that I have improved greatly upon this skill. Reading Lord of the Flies and Purple Hibiscus challenged me to think in depth about the author's point of view. I also improved upon evaluating how complex characters develop over time. This was especially important in Lord of the Flies because the characters are so intricate. Taking detailed notes throughout this novel, helped me to perfect this skill. Connecting the author's voice to their use of interesting words and literary tools is similar to determine the point of view. Deeply analyzing the author's style of writing allowed me to better determine these two conditions.


Books:
-Cinder
-Scarlet
-Cress
-Winter (in progress)
-Poseur
-Speak
-Lord of the Flies
-I'll Give you the Sun (abandoned)
-The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
-Purple Hibiscus
-Macbeth (in progress)



Evidence of Reading:


Purple Hibiscus Response (Blog Post)-

Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is an emotional, powerful, and riveting novel. Adichie includes many tactics in her work that contribute to these three adjectives. The novel is emotional because it is told exclusively from the perspective of the main character, fifteen-year-old Kambili. Kambili describes her life in an almost journal-like fashion. The reader is able to experience every single part of Kambili's life, including the good and the bad. Kambili uses many sensory details in her descriptions, which can be very entertaining, but also sorrowful in more serious scenes, like the abuse she faces. Adichie does an amazing job of conveying to the reader that Kambili is a timid, scared, yet friendly girl completely through her actions and words.

The novel is powerful in the fact that it covers so many deep issues. The characters, Kambili, Jaja, and Mama, face extreme abuse by Papa, which can be a hard topic to discuss in a novel. Adichie makes this and other topics regarding the military in Nigeria, seem very real to the reader, as well as make the reader grateful of their life and freedoms. The novel is riveting because it is jam-packed with intense scenes. The novel does not have named or numbered chapters, but this makes the book better because it is a surprise regarding what the section will be about. Overall, I am really enjoying Purple Hibiscus, and I cannot wait to find out what the climax will be.


Purple Hibiscus Side Dish (Prezi)-

https://prezi.com/view/2vNtXDiUGAu6DcyLTse6/



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