Megan Jones

Self Selected Reading Assignment

Spring 2011
Mrs. Cozens

Date Book Title: Pg# started: Pg# ended: Level: Status of

Week 1, The Upstairs Room 1 179 Just Right Book:
Read in Finished
5 days
Story: This story takes place during the Holocaust. The author is the main character of the book.
She is Jewish and has to hide from the public to make sure she isn’t prosecuted. She hides with
one of her older sisters, Sini, for several years. The book ends when they are freed after the allies
invade Germany.

Date Book Title Pg# started Pg# ended Level: Status of

Week 2, The Young Man and 1 190 Easy, Book
Read in the Sea but nice. Finished
two days
Story: This moving story of a twelve year old boy who recently lost his mother to an illness
decides to do whatever he can to get his drunken (but not abusive) father to start love fishing
again. The boat that they own ends up sinking so ‘Little Skiff’ has a summer mission of earning
enough money to repair the boat and help his father regain control of his life. Little Skiff Beaman
starts setting crab traps when his life long rivalry cuts most of his traps. He now has bigger
goals, to catch a blue fin tuna, worth thousands. Set sail on his homemade little boat he gets taken
out to seat into dense fog, freezing water, and not enough gasoline to get home. Won’t ruin the
ending, but you will be cheering him all the way home. One of my favorite young-adult novels.

Date Book Title Pg# started Pg# ended Level: Status of

Week 3, Eat Pray Love 1 334 More difficult Book
read in was broke up finished
three days. into short chpters
Eat Pray Love is by far one of my favorite books! It is based off of the author, Elisabeth Gilbert.
After living in a lie, or a marriage she didn’t want to be in any longer the book is of our journey
about healing. As a traveler she gets to go to Italy, India, and Indonesia. I, myself, love to travel
and enjoyed and was slightly envious of all of her adventures. Also, as a math person I really
enjoyed how she broke the book into three parts and had a reason to follow the number 3
throughout the book. Anybody who read this book will be able to find something out of it. All of her
stories are relatable at some point. I also couldn’t put the book down because I enjoyed the
Date
humor, theBook Titleand the way she described
honesty Pg# started Pg# ended
everything aroundLevel:
her. I wish IStatus of money to
had the
Week
spend a3 year
Who Moved
or so over My
seas!Cheese 1 one day! 94
Sigh maybe Super easy Book
read in Finished
one day
Who moved my cheese is a fun ‘guide’ book about how to deal with change in a person’s life. The
main part of the story is about these mice and finding cheese in a maze. However, the cheese
is moved and disrupts the life of two of the mice. While these two mice are being lazy and
frantic their two friends go out and find new cheese. They go with the change. It was nice to
see how most people don’t really like change yet we all say it is a good thing. It was a fun
and easy read. But wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to anyone. Thanks Dad for the idea.
Date Book Title Pg# started Pg# ended Level: Status of
Week 4, Charlie St. Cloud 1 269 On my Book
read in level Finished
five days
Charlie St. Cloud was a boy who accidently killed his brother when he was 15. It wasn’t his
fault, he was driving a stolen car but a drunk driver hit them. After Charlie’s brother, Sam’s,
death he could see the dead. Working at graveyard for the next 13 years to stay in touch with
his passed brother he falls in love with Tess. I won’t continue what happens because it’s a
surprise. But the last part of the book, make sure you allow enough time to read for it’s a
page-turner. Although it was a love story I also enjoyed the meaning of the book, having
second chances and what to do with them. How to live life to the fullest was another thesis I
gout of the book. Excellent winter read!

Date Book Title Pg# started Pg# ended Time spent Status of
Start of The Hate List 1 408 Reading Finished
April by Jennifer Brown 5 Days
Story: This book is a great read for students, parents, and teachers alike. It is about a student
who’s boyfriend was the victim of suicide and the leader in a school shooting. It is great to
show the detail about how schools, media, and other individuals can change the life of other
people so quickly. How as teachers we need to make sure that all students receive some form
of positive focus and how bullying should not be tolerated. It does have a happy ending but
you will have to read this page turner to find out what it is. I also like the style that it was
written. It didn’t just state the story and then the girlfriends reaction, it was in her point of
view and had her reflecting in the presences while she remembered what lead up to the events
of the shooting; as if you are reading and watching to stories unfold at the same time.

Book Title Pg# started Pg# ended Time spent Status of

Milkweed by Jerry 1 electronic 8 days + Will finish
Spinelli
Currently reading this: please see my blog at mjsmilkweed.blogspot.com for the blogging spot.
There will be a gloster electronic response coming soon.
Dear Mrs. Cozens,
I personally have to say that when I was first told that I would have to read five extra

books for this class, I was a bit overwhelmed. For one, I am not a strong reader. I never have

been and it takes a lot for me to finish a book. It’s not that I don’t enjoy reading or respect it for

its importance with development; it is just the fact that I don’t do it well.

However, the book, The Upstairs Room by Johanna Reiss was a good book. It was a book

that I didn’t want to put down that I wanted to finish, turn the next page. The genre of the book

would be non-fiction and would fall under social studies. The book takes places during the

Holocaust. The author, the main character, is a small Jewish girl that has to hide with one of her

older sisters, Sini, with a non-Jewish family to survive. The book follows their struggles of

being locked inside days, weeks, months, and even years on end. There are stories about how

German soldiers using their safe-house as an office. There was a story about how the two girls

had to hide under ground for a week. No light, little food, stuck in a filthy place. The saddest

part of the book was when the girls’ mother passed away before the war started to take place in

their hometown.

Overall this is an excellent book. I really enjoyed the history but the personal touches the

author wrote about. I would strongly recommend this to one of my friends. I would also

recommend it to students if they were having troubles in their life. It really makes a person

think. Everyone has struggles and difficulties in life, but this story really lets people know what

it is like to fear your life every day, to hide from other humans, to lose muscle for not walking

enough. This book is about the struggle of growing up as a girl in a place that was not designed

for proper development.

As a reader what I have noticed the most is that I only read when I am highly interested

or the book is written incredibly well. I read articles all the time over subjects that interest me
and the books that I did enjoy in past are ones that made me crave more. It didn’t take 50 pages

to develop the characters, I didn’t have to wait.

I have also noticed that the books I like are typically ‘easy’ reads. I feel as if I read these

books because I can finish them, they aren’t challenging, and I can understand what I read.

There are two things that I feel as if my poor reading skills stem from. When I was in the

third grade my teacher made me read a high school level book, in the hall way, with a few other

students. The reason why I was chosen for this was because I was a gifted student. But as all the

other students read their upper level book I just sat in hall looking at pictures, day dreaming, and

turning pages so I could “keep pace” with the other students. I shouldn’t have been in that elite

reading group. I was a slow reader, my concentration was not at the level it should have been

and when I read a paragraph my mind always ended up somewhere else making me have to read

the paragraph again. Re-reading paragraph after paragraph is not the way to enjoy a book. I

became sub-conscious, I was a slow reader, and I shouldn’t have been. I also felt intimidated at

home. Both my father and older sister were strong readers. My dad always reading two or three

books at a time, my sister reading everywhere we went. Amanda always had book in hand.

Growing up when we were younger my dad would always read to my sister, but would just tell

me stories or just playing with me.

I feel as if a lot of my growing up as a small child plays into my reading now as an adult.

It was nice finishing a book in a week. A real book! I actually read the words on the page and

didn’t just ‘skim’ the contents. A new goal of mine is to read more. Even if it is just a book a

month, which is a small goal that I never had before.

Sincerely,

Megan Jones
 The Upstairs Room
By
Johanna Reiss
“ Little enough to fit between the wall and “I grabbed the money out of her hand and ran. I
Father’s chair, which in those days was didn’t want her to see my tears.” P.35 - 36
always pulled up in front of the radio.” p.1

“’But,’ Opoe said, ‘the potatoes and beans “I stamped my foot. From downstairs Dientje
were fried in the same pot with the meat. called, ‘For God’s sake, girls be quiet.’” p. 89
Now, you ate those. So, you also at the
pork, in a way.’” p.68

“The Germans had not come back to search “That’s right, you don’t’ have to anymore,
the house again, Johan told us after they Annie. The war is over. You’ll get used to it. I
had left. They had come to tell him that pulled the shade down and got into bed.” p.176
they needed part of the house for their
headquarters.” p. 143