Sarah+E

__** Sarah’s Page **__

Welcome to Sarah’s page of the year 11 Summer of 09’/10’ Literature Canon. Feel free to browse around and read about the books that I believe to be worthy for the canon. Many thanks, Sarah Emery.

__ **To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee** __

"Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don't pretend to understand."

**-Atticus Finch To Kill a Mockingbird**

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favourite novels as not only is its theme important, but it is also beautifully written from the innocent perspective of Scout Finch. Scout, a bright and perceptive six year old, finds her home of Maycomb Alabama an intriguing place. The primary themes in To Kill a Mockingbird, are racial injustice and the loss of innocence Scout endures.There are also underlining themes of courage, compassion, tolerance, social class and the roles of gender. Scout's father Atticus Finch is one of the most honourable fictional figures of all time as his never ending patience and wisdom at no time waivers. The story of To Kill a Mockingbird is about Scout, her brother Jem and their friend Dill 's fascination of the reclusive Boo Radley. During the time of the children's plotting to get Boo out of his house, Atticus is appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man charged with the rape of a white woman. Atticus's involvement with defending Tom Robinson starts an array of issues, including the school children taunting Jem and Scout. Throughout the novel we are moved from the problems at home with widowed Atticus who believes Scout should have a female influence, Jem and Scout learning about the racial injustice of their town and Tom Robinson's trial. To Kill a Mockingbird is a masterpiece in every aspect.

So it took an eight-year-old child to bring 'em to their senses.... That proves something - that a gang of wild animals //can// be stopped, simply because they're still human. Hmp, maybe we need a police force of children. **- Atticus Finch To Kill a Mockingbird**



__**The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger**__

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger revolves around themes of alienation, angst, identity, rebellion and teenage confusion. T he novel takes place around the 1950s, when the protagonist Holden gets expelled for failing four of his five subject. Holden has a few days until he is due back home for Christmas in Manhattan and spends them trying to find himself. The novel is written from the perspective of Holden who has tendencies to dwell on things and rebel from what is considered normal. Holden's description of the superficial kids that attend the school he was expelled from, Pencey Prep is often negative, him often referring to them as "phoney's". After Holden's expulsion he takes the train to New York but instead of going back to his family home, checks into the Edmont Hotel. Here, Holden has an encounter with an unfriendly prostitute. Throughout the novel you are unaware of Holden’s exact location. He narrates the story and explains his thoughts. Catcher in the Rye is essentially about Holden journey's around New York in the few days leading up to Christmas. Although the plot may seem uninteresting to some, Holden’s thoughts of the world and use of the language is often witty and interestingly phrased.

"Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and //catch// them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be." **~J.D. Salinger, //The Catcher in the Rye//, Chapter 22, spoken by the character Holden Caulfield**

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__**For Esme with Love and Squalor by J.D Salinger**__ For Esme with love and Squalor is the name of one of the short stories compiled in the novel. The narrator of the story For Esme with Love and Squalor has suffered shell shock and tells us a story of a child he met named Esme before D Day. The story is split in different parts and most of the novel is written in the first person. The novel //For Esme with Love and Squalor// is also known as Nine Stories. The themes of these stories are death, the war, genius and madness, storytelling, memory, love and children. The compilation of stories in this novel were all very interesting to read.

"She was a girl who for a ringing phone dropped exactly __nothing__ . She looked as if her phone had been ringing continually ever since she had reached puberty." - "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," pp.3-4



<span style="color: #ff0000; font: normal normal normal 36px/normal Cambria; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px;">__**Charlotte's Web by E.B White**__

<span style="font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Cambria; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px;">Charlottes Web is an endearing novel about a lovable pig named Wilbur who is saved from being slaughtered by an intelligent spider named Charlotte. Wilbur and the barn spider become close friends despite their differences, and Charlotte maternally saves Wilbur by spinning a web of words declaring Wilbur is a special pig. I loved reading this book as its clear descriptions and rhythm never bored me. The characters in this novel are described so well that as a reader I felt as I've known them for years. Wilbur and Charlotte are extremely enchanting characters. This novel has themes of friendship, family, love, farm life and the humanity instilled in animals.

<span style="color: #181818; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Cambria; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px;">"Why did you do all this for me?" he [Wilbur] asked. "I don't deserve it. I've never done anything for you.' ‘ You have been my friend,' replied Charlotte. 'That in itself is a tremendous thing." — **E.B White (Charlottes Web)**

= = = = = = = = <span style="color: #ff0000; font: normal normal normal 36px/normal Cambria; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px;">__**The Pact by Jodi Picoult**__

<span style="font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Cambria; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px;">The Pact is one of my favourite novels by Picoult. This page turner was an excellent read as the theme of this novel was something I had never read before. The Pact is about two soul mates Emily and Chris, who are found in a park in the early hours of the morning, Emily dead and Chris confused. The police suspect there is more going on than what Christopher describes as a suicide pact gone wrong. Throughout the novel the reader is forced to piece together what actually happend on that tragic night with the "then" and "now" entries. The contrast of how life was then and now makes this book incredibly addictive. The themes of abuse, suicide, love and loss are key in this novel.

<span style="color: #181818; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Cambria; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px;">"No matter who you are, there is always some part of you that wishes you were someone else, and when, for a millisecond, you get that wish, it's a miracle." <span style="color: #181818; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Cambria; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px;">— Jodi Picoult (The Pact)

<span style="color: #181818; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Cambria; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px;">"She was all the things I wasn't. And i was all the things she wasn't. she could paint circles around anyone; I couldn't even draw a straight line. She was never into sports; I've always been. Her hand, it fit mine." <span style="color: #181818; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Cambria; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px;">— Jodi Picoult (The Pact)

<span style="color: #ff0000; font: normal normal normal 36px/normal Cambria; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px;">__**Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult**__

<span style="font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Cambria; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 20px; margin: 0px;">Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult is an interesting and emotional read of a young boy mute from sexual molestation. His mother Nina Frost, a prosecutor, has difficulty facing the fact that her son has become a victim of abuse and in a full courtroom, shoots the man she believes is responsible. This novel was difficult to put down as you aren't quite sure if who she killed was actually the one who abused her son. Throughout the novel you read of the Nina’s murder trial and the trial of her five year old son, Nathaniel. This novel is absorbing as you're deciding for yourself whether it was the right thing to do or not taken the circumstances. Perfect match is beautifully written and a page turner.

<span style="color: #181818; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Cambria; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px;">"You are only as invincible as your smallest weakness, and those are tiny indeed - the length of a sleeping baby's eyelash, the span of a child's hand. Life turns on a dime, and - it turns out - so does o <span style="color: #181818; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Cambria; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px;">ne's conscience." <span style="color: #181818; font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Cambria; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px;">— Jodi Picoult (Perfect Match)



//<span style="color: #ff0000; font: normal normal normal 36px/normal Cambria; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 27px; margin: 0px;">__**The House that Crack Built by Clark Taylor**__ //

//<span style="font: normal normal normal 16px/normal Cambria; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px; margin: 0px;">This dark themes children's book is about the growth and affects of crack cocaine. Its repetitive style gives the reader a sense of every aspect crack has on everyone. It highlights the affects crack has on everybody including the distributor, the fiend, the crop grower, the gangster and the addictive pregnant mother. This book was exceptional as the pictures together with the literature written make it incredibly powerful. It is written in the same style as the children’s nursery rhyme //The House that Jack built.//

<span style="display: block; margin: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding: 0px;"> ==<span style="border-bottom-color: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; color: #aa0000; font-size: 2.2em; font: normal normal normal 2.5em/normal 'Adobe Caslon Pro','Hoefler Text',Georgia,Garamond,Times,serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 10px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding: 0px;">The House That Crack Built… == <span style="display: block; float: left; margin: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding: 0px; width: 580px;"> code format="poem-formatting" <span style="color: #000000; font-family: 'Adobe Caslon Pro','Hoefler Tex',Georgia,Garamond,Times,serif; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.3; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 20px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; width: 580px;">This is the house that crack built.

This is the pipe That lay in the house that crack built.

This is the puff, That filled the pipe That lay in the house that crack built.

This is the stuff, That would not puff, That filled the pipe That lay in the house that crack built.

This is the sod, That sold the stuff, That would not puff, That filled the pipe That lay in the house that crack built.

This is the gun with the barrel sawn, That shot the sod, That sold the stuff, That would not puff, That filled the pipe That lay in the house that crack built. This is the room with the curtains drawn That hid the gun with the barrel sawn, That shot the sod, That sold the stuff, That would not puff, That filled the pipe That lay in the house that crack built.

This is the man who slept at dawn, That lived in the room with the curtains drawn, That sold the gun with the barrel sawn, That shot the sod, That sold the stuff, That would not puff, That filled the pipe That lay in the house that crack built.

This is the frock all tattered and torn, That kept the man who slept at dawn, That lived in the room with the curtains drawn, That sold the gun with the barrel sawn, That shot the sod, That sold the stuff, That would not puff, That filled the pipe That lay in the house that crack built. This is the maiden all forlorn, That wore the frock all tattered and torn, That kept the man who slept at dawn, That lived in the room with the curtains drawn, That sold the gun with the barrel sawn, That shot the sod, That sold the stuff, That would not puff, That filled the pipe That lay in the house that crack built.

This is the babe that never was born, That died in the womb of a maid forlorn, That wore the frock all tattered and torn, That kept the man who slept at dawn, That lived in the room with the curtains drawn, That sold the gun with the barrel sawn, That shot the sod, That sold the stuff, That would not puff, That filled the pipe That lay in the house that crack built. code

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =  __**Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl**__ Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl is a children's novel written about a family of charming foxes. Mr Fox the father and husband steals, from farmers Boggis, Bunce and Bean every night to feed his family. Boggis, Bunce and Bean get fed up with Mr Fox for outsmarting them, so they camp outside of his foxhole in an attempt to ambush him. This leads to a series of events that impact not only the foxes of the area. Fantastic Mr Fox was intelligently written with witty phrases. The characters in Fantastic Mr Fox are memorable and described with detail. Fantastic Mr Fox was a clever and captivating read. Roald Dahl has an exceptionally truthful and dark writing style.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =** Looking for Alaska by John Green **= =Looking for Alaska= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =** The Davinci Code by Dan Brown **= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =** The Beginners Guide to Living by Lia Hills **=

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