I like books that are about football, basketball, and fantasy. My dad was tired of me reading the same genres over and over again, though. So he gave me The Iliad by Homer. The Iliad is thousands of years old. It is a famous Greek myth. The Iliad takes place in and around Troy, an ancient city. The version that I read, by Gillian Cross, has illustrations for me to not get confused with all the characters. There are so many characters! There are gods and goddesses like Zeus, Apollo, Aphrodite, Hera, Chrysies, and others. They act like humans. They take sides and they argue with each other. The Greeks are one side of the famous war. They are Achilles, Agamemnon, Ajax, and Patroclus, etc. The Trojans are on the other side of the famous war, like Dolon, Aeneas, Hector, etc. The chapter books that I read usually have one main character. Harrison, in one of my favorite books, Unstoppable, loves football and never gives up. Harry Potter, in Harry Potter, always wants to go on adventures. In The Iliad, I’m not sure who the main character is. There are Gods, Trojans, and Greeks. I do not really know which character to follow. It might be Achilles. He and Hector finally fight. Achilles kills Hector. Hector’s dad, King Priam, kindly asks Achilles for his son’s body so he can give him a proper funeral. Instead, Achilles ties Hector to his chariot and drags him on the sand all the way back to camp. JERK! I like stories with positive themes. For example, courage, not giving up, overcoming fear, being the best you can be, and trust. I don’t really like the Iliad because it is full of betrayal. Helen, a Greek wife, wanted to get captured to be with Paris, a handsome Trojan prince. So she cheats on her husband, Menelaus. That is how the famous and mythical Greek-Trojan war started. Just over a woman. A WOMAN! The Iliad is just full of killing, betrayal, bad attitude, and bad energy. It was not a calm story. It does not even have an ending. I don’t even know what side won because Homer did not tell me. But what I do like about the book are the names, like Xanthus, Blasius, Aeneas, and Ajax. These are cool names that I have never heard of before. I also admired Hector’s courage when he fought Achilles. He knew that he was going to die because Achilles was a legendary soldier. But he fought him anyway. So my opinion on this book is take or leave it even though it is thousands of years old and really famous and read by generations of readers. The Iliad by Homer. Candlewick, 2015. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process! Have you read this book? Or do you plan on reading it? If so, comment below!
Book Reviews
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Reviewed by Justin Park, 13
The Discord of Love Love is a quarrel that never ends. It is a wonderful thing, to feel love. In many different ways, love is everywhere. In the play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, there are quarrels about love and the problems the lovers must endure. Each person is striving to find love whether it be workers, loyal citizens, royalty, or even fairies. There are many quotes about the problems that the characters encounter and each one portrays the speaker’s personality. One of the scenes changed the reader’s understanding especially after we watched the movie. Perspectives changed about how we feel and how we should feel about the things that were going on. During our time acting out the play, we experienced many scenes where we laughed and enjoyed our lines. The most important line in the play is stated by Lysander in Act 1 Scene 1. He states, “the course of true love never did run smooth.” What he means by this is that true love may come to a person but earning that love can be a difficult challenge and also a very tedious one. Lysander’s words certainly apply to him, for Hermia’s father disapproved of his marriage to his daughter. England in the Middle Ages was a patriarchal society. Fathers had a great deal of power over their daughters, and Egeus would not give his permission. He gave her three impossible choices; she could live as a nun and never marry, she could marry Demetrius, or, if she refused those choices, she would be put to death. Lysander also had Demetrius, a former lover of Hermia’s, to deal with. Another well-known quotation that relates to love is spoken by Helena in Act 1 Scene 1. ‘Love looks not with the eye, but with the mind and therefore the winged cupid painted blind.” She implies that a person in love perceives things that are not based in reality. When Titania sees Bottom as an ass and falls in love, she is blinded by the fact that he is an animal, not a human being. Another famous quote that is said in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is by Demetrius, when he states “Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me as yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think that the duke was here, and bid us follow him?” This line implies that he and other characters feel as though they are dreaming. Is the Duke Theseus really asking them to follow them? Will he decide whether Hermia gets to marry Lysander and if Demetrius can marry Helena? It shows the lovers in a spot where the duke is going to decide whether Hermia gets to marry Lysander, and if Demetrius can marry Helena instead of Hermia. In the end, the lovers get their wish and marry the ones they wish to marry. Because they got their wish, and also met the duke who granted their wishes, they were blinded by joy and satisfaction. During our first time reading the play, I personally was confused. What on earth was going on? Act 1 Scene 1 was like a text written by aliens. The reader had to decipher it in the way one deciphers a code. I was told that we would that we would gain a better understanding of what was happening after watching the movie. When I heard this, I was a little skeptical. However, once I started watching the movie, I could see a whole different perspective as the characters spoke and acted out their lines. You can see the character’s feelings toward the things that are going on in the scene. The movie made me realize what was going on because in the text, the words seemed to be a different language. Even with the translations on the left side, I still couldn’t comprehend the sequence of what was happening. The character’s expressions and the tones of voices helped give me more clarity. After we finished reading the book and after watching the movie, we played out the acts and the scene for our classroom. In my opinion, I think that we did really well on the parts where we were supposed to express our emotions and our feelings about the things that we were to feel in the play. The people who were playing Act 2 Scene 1 I think were the most expressive and the best part of the parts that we played out. The scene was when Oberon and Titania were meeting in the woods and were talking about the baby and how each one of them wanted to use or raise him. I think that this was the best part because it showed the real fun that we were performing and how we feel about the scene. This might be because we were introduced to Puck, Oberon, and Titania. They were quarreling about what they want to do with the mortal boy, and Titania wouldn’t let Oberon even near the boy because he wanted to steal the boy and then turn him into a henchman. During our acting out of the play, we used the lights, the table, and other things that would help us act out the scenes. The characters, Oberon and Titania, were trying to work things out with the boy. However, this did not work out. Our acting out was a funnier version than the real one, and it showed how it was ridiculous and awkward. In conclusion, love is a complicated thing to achieve, but words, perspectives, and acting can help bring things together. The three quotes have a deep meaning about how the people in the play will express their emotions towards one another and how the characters will try their hardest to achieve their goal of love. A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a story about how the characters evolve and become the lovers they had hoped to be in the future. In the end, the characters do meet up
The Fault in Our Stars, Reviewed by Clemi Roth, 13
John Green’s Fault in Our Stars is a novel about the amiable Hazel Grace Lancaster, a sixteen year old girl in Indianapolis battling thyroid cancer. She struggles to enjoy and find meaning in life while continuously fighting for her life. Because her mother thinks that she is depressed, she attends a cancer support group. There Hazel meets Augustus Waters, a boy who survived osteosarcoma. Hazel distances herself from relationships with others, knowing her death will ultimately hurt them, until she falls in love with Augustus. Augustus, or Gus, and Hazel desire to embark on a journey to Amsterdam. Her parents and doctors do not think Hazel is strong enough. Dr. Maria, her primary doctor is empathetic, convinces Hazel’s parents that she must live her life. Her parents finally agree to the trip. On their trip, Hazel and Augustus discover that his cancer has returned and his health deteriorates. When they return home to Indianapolis, Hazel stops calling him Augustus and starts referring to him as Gus, like his parents. This indicates that Hazel truly loves him even in this difficult situation and continues to stay by his side. The novel highlights issues of Love, Death, Fairness that resonates with the reader. Fault in Our Stars is narrated by Hazel Lancaster in the first person, allowing the readers to feel as if they are friends having known Hazel for some time. One is able to connect with Hazel through her humor and the attachment to her story. Aside from Hazel’s cancer, she and the other characters are typical relatable teens with authentic emotions. The book portrays an underlying feeling of sadness and fulfillment. In the beginning of the novel, Hazel is in the mall and a little girl comes up to her and asks what’s in her nose, Hazel kindly replies in a soothing tone and lets the girl try out her oxygen. Later she dwells on the fact that the girl didn’t know any better. I found this part of the novel realistic because it shows how asking someone about their situation is not a bad thing if it it is done in an innocent way. Hazel and Gus bond over their favorite books and authors including Peter Van Houten, the author of An Imperial Affliction. After reading it Hazel and Augustus the author and later learn he is a “verbose, self-assertive drunkard who pretentiously deflects emotion, intellectualism, and cruelty”. Then tragedy strikes Gus, Hazel reads a letter from Gus to Peter Van Houten in which Gus writes “I got my wish, I suppose. I left my scar.” At first, this quotation points at Augustus’s desire to be remembered after his death. He left his “scar” on Hazel, suggesting that his love won’t disappear with his death. I found this section intense and rich because after a heartfelt novel full of worries, this quote reassures the readers that even after tragedy one will never be forgotten. I feel that the book allows readers to understand life through Hazel’s eyes giving us the ability to empathize and sympathize. Hazel struggles to enjoy and find meaning in life while facing terminal cancer. She continuously fights for her life, us to understand how persevering through difficult situations is important. This book demonstrates the characters’ love for each other and how important it is to be able to care for one another. I recommend this novel to young adults because it is a sincere novel with ups and downs of daily life, teaching us life and love. Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Dutton Books, 2012. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process! Have you read this book? Or do you plan on reading it? If so, comment below!
