Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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.
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
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
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
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
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