The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
The Catcher in the Rye is about a boy named Holden Caulfield who gets kicked out of Pencey Prep school. He does not like his school and therefore does not apply himself there. He also accuses almost all the students and teachers at Pencey Prep to be phonies. After he leaves the school, Holden Caulfield has to go home, except he doesn't want to go right away. Because of that, Holden Caulfield decides to explore the world in New York City by himself. This book is about his many adventures and many thoughts during this few day period.
I had to read The Catcher in the Rye for my American Lit class. At first I thought this was going to be another typical boring book that I had to read for school. However, I realized that The Catcher in the Rye was a very real book. Holden Caulfield thinks many interesting thoughts, and it was a pleasure to hear his opinions about things, such as peer pressure, parenting, phoniess, sex, and careers. Although it was not my favorite book that I had read, I could find no faults with it. It thought it was well-written, and J.D. Salinger did a good job portraying the realness and humanness in the The Catcher in the Rye. It was a very good book!
Out of my Mind - Sharon Draper
The book Out of my Mind by Sharon Draper is a book about a young girl named Melody who has cerebral palsy, which affects her nervous system and makes her unable to move a lot or control her movement. Because of this, she could also not talk except in shrieks, cries, and other noises. This is especially difficult for her when she goes to school, because she is unable to communicate with anyone clearly.
On the bright side, Melody has one advantage: she is extremely smart. She has a photographic memory that can remember the most minute details from years back. She watched a lot of educational TV and has learned a lot to begin with. So when she finds out there is a Quiz Bowl team, she auditions for it, except nobody thinks that she will do well at all. However, Melody is devoted enough to prove everybody wrong and that she is a person who is worth a lot!
In my opinion, this was a very good book. I could easily sympathize with Melody and the ending did surprise me. I even got misty-eyed at one part of the book. The only fault I had with this book was that the dialogue was a bit unrealistic at times; some of the insults thrown at Melody were completely unlike what people would say today. Despite that negative point, however, I thought Out of my Mind by Sharon Draper was a great book that opened my eyes to help understand people with mental disabilities more and to understand that they are actually just as equal as everybody else.
