Of mice and men John Steinbeck

SUMMARY
This was a story about two men, George and Lennie.The story takes place in california, in the time of the great depression. Lennie is a big, strong guy who has mild mental disability.George is small, wiry man who travels with Lennie to find a job. He often takes care of Lennie. They both have a dream to have their own farm. So they had to find a job to accompilsh their dream. They found a workplace and started to work their together. Than, they meet the boss and the boss’s son Curley, who is quite rude and always make fun of Lennie . They also meet Curley’s wife when she comes looking for her husband. She wears heavy make-up and she flirts around. George warns Lennie to behave his best around Curley and his wife. He also decides to meet by the pool if anything unfortunate happens to either of them on the workplace.
One day, they meet Slim, who George thinks his reliable and understanding man. Curley often vents his frustration on Lennie and tries to pick a fight. Lennie does not hit back , but when George asks him to, Lennie crushes Curley’s hand on accident. Curley agrees that he will not tell anyone about his hand, for it would mean losing his self-respect. He didn’t wwant everyone to know that he lost a fight with Lennie because he often brags that he is a good boxer.
While working , George and Lennie dreams about thier own farm and make plans. Old Candy, one of the workers, hears their plan and asks to join them. He even offers to give all of his savings to purchase the land. George and Lennie accept his plan. Later on, Lennie is alone in the barn, petting his dead pup. He accidently killed it by handling it too hard.(He likes soft things but he always takes care of them too hard) Than, Curley’s wife walks into the barn and meets Lennie. As they talk, she asks him to touch her hair(it was soft). She panics when she feels Lennie’s strong hands. When she raises her voice, Lennie covers her mouth because he was in a panic and thought George will be angry for making a trouble. In the process, he accidentally breaks her neck and she dies. Lennie Knows that he has done something terrible, so he leaves the work place and goes to pool where George and him made a promise to go there if anything terrible happens. When Curly noticed that Curley’s wife has been killed, they rightly guess who killed her. Led by an angry Curley, they all go out to search for Lennie and they plan to murder him in retribution.
When George noticed about the trouble Lennie made, he easily noticed that Lennie is at the pool. He meets Lennie and he gently talked about their dream. When Lennie was talking about the dream, he goes behind him and kills him with a gun.

This was a very sad story. They had a dream to own a land/farm, but it was hard for hthem because it was the time of the great depression. I think that George is really nice person. In the book, he says that without Lennie, my life would be more easier. But, he still takes care od Lennie and he doesn’t betray him. At first, I was not sure why George had to kill Lennie. But now, I think George killed him because he would be killed anyways by Curley. It was George’s kindness to kill Lennie. He also talked about their dream before killing Lennie. I think this was to make him relax and he tried to make it less painful. I don’t know if George made a right decision but I think that they respected each other and had strong relationship between them. There is a movie of this book so I want to see it if I have time. This was a really sad ending so I don’t recommend it if you like happy ending.

Number the stars_Lois Lowry

I read a book called Number the stars. This was a book about who lived through the Nazis take over in Denmark. Main character is Annemarie Johansen. She is a ten year old girl living in Copenhagen. She also has a best friend called Ellen Rosen who is Jewish. Due to the take over of the nazis, Copenhagen were full of Germany soldiers. One day, they discover that the Nazis were trying to ‘relocate’ the Jewish in Denmark. In the town, shops that are run by the Jewish people were closed. Ellen was Jewish so Annemarie’s family tried to hide Rosen family. But one day, soldier came to Johansen’s house to check if their are any Jewish. Johansen tried to hide Ellen by saying that this is our daughter. But, she had a black hair so the soldier doubt that she was Jewish. But, they showed a picture of Lise which is Annemarie’s sister(she had a black hair) so the soldier gave up and left. And they go all over the places to hide Ellen. Then she finally found where she can be safe. It was with Mr.Henrick. He praise her of her bravery and promise that Ellen will be safe.
When the war end, she thought about Ellen and takes out the Star of David pendant that she has been keeping for Ellen and wear that until the return of Ellen.

I thought this book was really thrilling and exciting. Especially where the soldiers came to Anne’s house and found Ellen. I thought what Johansen family did was really brave thing to do. They might be punished by hiding them but still, they tried to hide them. This is not easy thing to do. This book also tells us that how war is stupid thing to do. No one will get the benefit by doing war.

HOLES-Louis Sachar

SUMMARY
This book was about a boy named Stanley Yelnuts going to camp called Camp Green Lake where all the boys who made trouble goes to. However, he was innocent for his crime stealing sneaker from a store. But he was poor and didn’t have enough money to hire lawyer so he was said to go to the camp. His grand father says that Yelnuts is under a curse. A curse which brings unlucky. That is because his great-great-grandfather didn’t take Madam Zeroni to the top of the mountain.
He arrives at the camp and sees dried land with lots of holes digged in the ground. At this camp, they had to dig holes that is the same depth and width with the shovel.
At this camp, Stanley meet one kid named Zero. But they were enough of digging holes at this camp so they decided to escape from the camp. They worked together to reach at the top of the mountain.
They finally reached at the top of the mountain and stanley discovers that Zero’s great-great-grandmother was Madam Zeroni. So the Yelnuts curse disappeared by taking zero to the top of the mountain.
After this, Stanley’s family became rich because they invented a deodrant for nasty smells of a shoes that they’ve been working ever since. This is might be because Stanley broke th curse of Madam Zeroni.

What I thought
I really enjoyed reading this book. I definately recommend to friends. This book is not so hard but really exciting. While reading this book, I was surprised that Zero was great-great-grandson of Madam Zeroni. I really didn’t expect that. I also felt that this book gives people courage to try something it is hard for you to do. But most of all, I found out that having a friends you can trust from my bottom of my heart, is really important thing.

16 April, 2013 02:53