READING RESPONSE: WAR HORSE BY MICHAEL MORPURGO

Currently, I am reading War Horse by Michael Morpurgo. This book is about a young boy named Albert going through World War One with his horse as his only friend. One day Albert's father sells his horse, Joey, to serve in the army cavalry. Albert is devastated and once he comes of age, he joins the army to find Joey. Through battles and bombings he searches for Joey, until eventually he finds him.

I predict that Albert and Joey will have major difficulties while looking for each other, since World War One is raging all around them. Albert will probably have to decide which he prefers more: his life, or his horse. Albert is a courageous young boy, and his very determined;he must be if he is willing to enter a war zone for his horse.

Michael Morpurgo is an astonishingly good author. He has such a great fluency and voice in his writing. The book is a magical story from the beginning to the end.

In conclusion, I think the book is a wonderful piece of writing and is definitely one of the best I've read.

READING RESPONSE: INSURGENT BY VERONICA ROTH

After finishing Veronica Roth's first book, Divergent, I began to read her second book, Insurgent. In the end of Divergent, the main character Beatrice Prior became involved in a war between the factions Dauntless, Erudite, and her former faction, Abnegation. The faction full of people desperately seeking knowledge is Erudite. Erudite developed a potion that controlled all the minds of the Dauntless, and forced them to kill innocent Abnegation, who where withholding information from the Erudite. Since Beatrice is divergent, she is immune to the potion, and she starts out on an adventure to the Erudite headquarters, in order to stop all this madness. So far I am up to a very action filled part where the other factions (such as Amity and Candor), who weren't originally involved in the war join Beatrice In her attempt to conquer the Erudite.

It is amazing how much Beatrice has matured throughout both books. In the first book, she was a shy girl from Abnegation, and now she is at the head of an extremely violent war for information. She has truly become Dauntless. When she first transferred factions, anything slightly risky terrified her, but now she willingly jumps off moving trains, or shoots a gun. I'm not sure if this change is for the better, but it certainly makes her more useful during wartime.

I predict that Beatrice will be successful in breaching the Erudite headquarters, but judging from Veronica Roth's style of writing, she will completely flip the outcome, such as the leader of Erudite knew they were coming and set up a trap.

I'm very disappointed because the author hasn't written the third book in this series yet, so when I finish this book, I will have to wait until the next one is published. The author, Veronica Roth has a very unique style of writing. She uses flashbacks from a lot of different characters, and allows the reader to enter each characters mind.

This book is amazing, it might even be better than the first book. I highly recommend it.

READING RESPONSE: DIVERGENT BY VERONICA ROTH 

I wanted to read a different type of book this week, something more futuristic and exciting, and I came across Divergent by Veronica Roth. This book is set in the future in Chicago, when society has been completely changed. Now, when a child turns 16, they have to make a choice of a faction. There are five factions, and the one they choose is where they will stay for the rest of their lives. These five factions are Dauntless, Abnegation, Erudite, Amity, and Candor. Each one stands for a different personality. For example, Dauntless is for someone who is brave, and Abnegation are for the selfless people. The main character, Beatrice Prior chooses Dauntless, and has to go through the tough Dauntless initiation ceremony. The book is about how she struggles to truly become Dauntless and how she faces the strange rules of her society.

Although I am nearly finished, I predict that Beatrice will accomplish Dauntless initiation, but will soon be faced with even more challenges. Since she is extremely courageous, I believe that she can get past any problem that is thrown her way. 

In the beginning of the book, Beatrice was a shy girl from Abnegation. She followed all the rules and never took any risks. By the time she turned 16 and transferred to Dauntless, she has become a completely new person. Being in Dauntless means you have to face your fears, and she did so and although she did not become fearless, she became an experienced young woman. She learned to have more freedom and to stand up for herself, qualities that are not usually supported in Abnegation.

The Author, Veronica  Roth, is an extremely talented writer. She expresses the main character's inner feelings in a very interesting way, by allowing the reader to see all of Beatrice's thoughts, and how she struggles to make decisions. She also uses flashbacks, and shows Beatrice's previous life in Abnegation.

This book is amazing, and I can't wait to finish it so I can read the second one.