book report

Author Last, First Name. Title of the book. Place of Publication. Company: Date.

Paulsen, Gary. The River. New York, NY. Dell Laurel-Leaf: November 2004.

Reason, Type and Setting: I really like Gary Paulsen and I really like survival books. I really liked reading Hatchet, brians winter, and soldiers heart. But i was eager to get back in to the story of Brian Robeson after reading the book for my war documentary. This book is similar to hatchet but many variables have changed. He is in a different place with lots of wilderness. It is still a survival story.

Plot: Basically there is a boy named Brian Robeson. He is pretty much a survival expert now. He gets offered a job to teach a guy how to do the same survival things he did when he had been stranded on the lake. Only now he is only supplied with a small knife, also he has the task of looking out for someone else. This becomes extremely burdoning when in a storm the man is put in a coma from a falling tree branch. This forces Brian to build a raft and travel down the river until he finds help.

Character: Brian Robeson. He is a now a 17 year old boy. I really don't know what he looks like. I know that in the start of Hatchet he was slightly chubby. But by the end of that book he had become very lean and mean, so i guess that is what he looks like now. He is a very determined person. He is dedicated to survival. He is pretty much the only character because the other guy is in it for a little bit, but for the majority of the book he is just in a coma. So I chose him pretty much because he is the only character. He is very interesting because he is in such a crazy situation that would be so hard to survive in. This situation turned out to be much different than the one before at the lake. But like always Brian handles it very well and gets out in the end with both of them still alive.

Evaluation:

I definitely liked the novel. It was very interesting and entertaining. This story taught me a lot about surviving on the water. Before he had been surviving with a shelter to go home to every night. Now he is living on a raft. He had to make his fires on the raft, he had to survive rapids, he had to fish in a moving raft. So it definitely taught me a lot of new things about survival.

This book is real life. It reminds me that some people in the world today actually have to live like this. Live in caves. Hunt for food. Make your own raft from trees and vines. Make tools themselves. Most people in this situation aren't even lucky enough to have a knife like brian does. It is important to read. You appreciate the life that you live more after reading this book.

I think that I would have done everything the same. It would have been very hard, but I would have done the work necessary to survive. I also would have taken on the challenge of keeping the other guy alive. Even though it would suck its just one of those moral things. Like you do it because you know that if it were the other way that guy would do the same for you. I have actually always thought that it would be really cool to be in a situation like this. But I definitely wouldnt enjoy having to take care of someone in a coma. I would not enjoy that.

Author, Context and Trivia:

Gary Paulsen writes a lot of survival books. I have read two about Brian Robeson being a survivor from a plane crash in Canada and another about a boy who fights in the civil war. All of these stories were really good. This book is similar but very different. But I would definetley say that they were all very good. I would definitely read this author again, he is becoming one of my new favorites. If I find anymore in this series i will read them.

war book report

Author Last, First Name. Title of the book. Place of Publication. Company: Date.

Paulsen, Gary. Soldiers Heart. New York, NY. Dell Laurel-Leaf: October 1998.

Reason, Type and Setting: I really like Gary Paulsen and I really like survival books. I really liked reading Hatchet, and Brians Winter. Because I am really liking this author I thought it would be perfect to read soldiers heart when i found out that it was on the war I was researching. The book is a war book. It takes place in the Civil War.

Plot: Basically there is a boy named Charley Goddard. He leaves his family's farm at the age of fifteen to enlist in the first Minnesota Volunteers. He was too young to enlist, like many boys of that time. But, like many boys of that time he lied about his age and said he was eighteen. This is a fictional story but Gary Paulsen makes sure to involve Charley in most of the main battles of the civil war. Charley was extremely lucky to survive by the end. Each battle he is in he nearly escapes death.

Character: Charley. At the beginning of the book Charley is only a fifteen year old boy. He wants to join the army to be part of the adventure. To follow with what everybody else was doing at the time. To become a man. By the end of the story he is nineteen. He has been through a lot by then. He has received multiple bullet injuries by this point. He has seen some pretty horrific things from war. By the end of the story he has what is called, a soldiers heart.

Evaluation:

I definitely liked the novel. It was very interesting and entertaining. It also taught me a lot about the civil war. How nobody really knew what they were fighting for. How brutal it was. How dumb and simple the war was. To simply line up in rows on both sides and just fire. It was a very sad story, this fifteen year old boy goes through some pretty traumatic life changing experiences in a matter of four years.

This book is completely real life. Everything from this story happened for the most part. Not actually this exact story, but many like it. All of the battles actually happened. Paulsen was also very descriptive and informative about each battle. I received a very clear idea of the differences between all the battles.

Had I been in his situation I may have acted differently. During that time if I were fifteen, I probably would have joined the army. I would have liked the adventure and all that. But the difference for me would have been after the first battle. After the first battle I would realize the horrific bloodiness of the war and realize how dangerous it was. After that I would still take part in the war, yet I would be as cautious as possible, also I would get out of fighting whenever possible. I would do this by taking advantage of an injury by becoming hospitalized for as long as possible, something like that.

Author, Context and Trivia:

Gary Paulsen writes a lot of survival books. I have read two about Brian Robeson being a survivor from a plane crash in Canada and another about a boy who lost from his family on the Oregon trail. All of these stories were really good. This book is similar but very different. But I would definetley they were all very good. I would definitely read this author again, he is becoming one of my new favorites.

hubris

hubris- full of self pride, arrogance

hubris

hubris- full of self pride, arrogance

bulwark

bulwark-a solid wall of earth

scuttlebutt

scuttlebutt-an open thing of water, or drinking fountain.

mimic

mimic- to copy or reinact.

dearth

dearth-lack of food.

what is art

i dont really know how to define art. I think that art is very subjective. It is also very personal. to me I could look at an amazing painting and say, there, that is art! Someone else could look at it and say no, its just some paint on a canvas. Technically he is more correct. But are either of us wrong. I dont have a definition for art. But i do have somewhat of an understanding. I can see things and know, from my opinion if they are art or not. That's what art is about, the interpretation of the viewer. When an artist is creating art they are creating it with the intention of someone to see it and have a certain reaction. For someone to look at their art and find personal meaning within. If it is that they see it and it makes them cry, or even if it as simple as looking at it and thinking that it looks cool.
The question of is grafiti art. In my opinion sometimes yes, and sometimes no. So when you are driving up to LA and you see huge murals of gang names on the sides of the freeway, that is art. It is elaborate and beautiful. So in that sense, that grafiti is definitley art. But when someone just paints a few letters of their gang on a trash can, that is not art.