Inventing Elliot

by Graham Gardner

Elliot's life wasn't always the way it was- before the incident, he was just a regular kid with regular friends living a normal life. But after what happened to his dad, his life had started to rapidly go downhill. Elliot and his mother were forced to live their lives as if nothing had happened while his father just sat on the couch staring at the TV screen. Every minute. Every day. Elliot constantly got bullied in school, and he felt he could not do anything about it. He made no effort. It felt as if he was living as an already-dead person.
That's when he moves to another town, transfers to Holminster High, and tries to start a new life. Things are different in Holminster high. A group called the'Guardians' rule over the school, and soon enough Elliot finds himself trapped in a position he doesn't know how to get out of. In his 'new' life, he tries to invent a new Elliot, as he tries to push the past Elliot away. But he knows that the old Elliot will always be a part of him, because that is who he was and what he would always be.
This book handles the biggest problem that exists and will exist in schools all over the world. Many kids suffer from the physical, verbal, and psychological violence that they are given in their everyday lives. Just like Elliot, they feel like they can do nothing about the problem. This book will help readers to understand that there is a solution to this undying problem, and that the problem can only be solved if one is brave enough to face the task. Also, readers will understand through this book... how much it hurts to be bullied. They can experience this through Elliot's eyes as he realizes that moving and transferring schools is not the real solution to the problem.

SPOILER ALERT
This book ends with Elliot turning the doorknob to the principal's office. Of course, this means he finally realized getting an adult's help, letting them know what's going on might just help solve the problem. Maybe he knew it all along, but he was just afraid to confront the fact, afraid to work up the courage to put the truth into action.

Les Miserables

Victor Hugo

Les Miserables is a must read classic. In this book there are a few rants on history by the author, but it is one of the greatest novels of all time.


If you find the book hard to understand, i recommend seeing the movie first, although the movie slightly alters some parts of the story.

Jean Valjean is a character you will find yourself looking up to. Even as a peasant and an ex- convict who continually has to run away from Inspector Javert, he manages to turn his life around and also find the new light of his life, and live in complete honesty and nobleness.
The book illustrates the poverty on the streets of Europe and criticizes the French political system at the time.  Victor Hugo manages to link many character's lives together in to one dazzling story. His tale of injustice, heroism and love will touch the heart of every reader and let them criticize the history and meaning behind this story.

Life of Pi

Yann Martel 
This story starts as an Indian father takes his family and his zoo on the deck of the Tsimtsum. One stormy night, the boats  sinks and our main character, the son of the indian father,Piscine Molitor Patel climbs- or, falls- aboard on a lifeboat with an orangutan, a hyena, a broken legged zebra and a bengal tiger named Richard Parker.
Life of Pi is about a boy and a tiger on their adventure on the wide pacific ocean. They face sharks, an acidic and carnivorous island, hunger, and everything that is thrown their way. 
Is this book worth reading? definitely. This is a must read, expanding the reader's imagination, with a slightly mysterious ending that the reader themselves must solve.
Is this book worth buying? I recommend just borrowing in a library.

-SPOILER-
Do not read if you have not read to the end of the book yet!

At the point where Pi and Richard Parker is stranded in the middle of the vast ocean, I started to think that it was amazing how the author could illustrate such a blank part of the story where only hunger and starvation was half of what was going on. The parts where nothing was actually going on except the main character's narration was fascinating because you could see inside the mind of someone who was struggling to survive in the middle of nowhere with a bengal tiger beneath him. 
The ending was a bit confusing, but at the end of the book, during the interview, Pi Patel says "So tell me, since it makes no factual difference to you and you can't prove the question either way, which story do you prefer? Which is the better story, the story with animals or the story without animals?" I think we can agree that the story with animals was much more thrilling and adventurous. The author is asking the reader which ending they prefer, expanding their imagination and belief. Through this the author leaves the ending up to us, and we find the answer in how we see the world, and how we want to see it.
The way the author said'Tigers exist, lifeboats exist, oceans exist. Because the three have never come together in your narrow, limited experience, you refuse to believe that they might', I came to realize how narrow our imagination can come down to, only believing in what we see and can prove. Also it brought an urge for adventure and experience in
me and I am sure it can do the same to any other reader.