Copper Sun

I really enjoyed reading this book. It actually surprised me on how quick of a read it was; looking at the cover and reading the back I thought that it would be kind of slow moving but I was hooked from the very first page.
Something that I think that Sharon Draper did really well was telling the story from more than one perspective. I have read books like that before and some of them work but most of them just get really confusing and messy. She did a good job at transitioning into the two girls view on the world, which made it a lot easier to read. I think that it was really important that she chose to tell this story from a slave and a white indentured servant's perspective. This allowed us a better understanding of everything that was going on in this time.
My favorite character was actually Mrs. Derby. Her kindness and love really made her a charismatic character and (like said in class) allowed us to look back and see that some people were aware of the injustices being done and wanted nothing more than them to end. The whole situation with her, her baby and Noah was heartbreaking. While reading this part I was really hoping that by some miracle the baby would live and be raised a slave and that Mr. Derby would never find out what had happened. When he shot Noah and the baby was the worst part in the book and I definitely had to put the book down for a moment to recollect myself. Although many situations in the book were just awful to imagine this one was the one that really got to me the most.

I would teach this book to 7-9th graders. The main characters are about that age and I think that it is a really good book for kids to really understand what it was like when we had slavery. We are taught about slavery around this age but I don't think that any one can really understand the magnitude at which this happened. This book helps kids to realize the truth about this time period and not just facts. It is also useful in order to stop predetermined prejudices that kids may have had about other races and teach them to be more loving and excepting of each other.

This book was excellent and has definitely made it into my top 20 favorite books. I loved it!

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

This was my first time reading this book but I really enjoyed it. It took me a little bit to get into the writing style of the book but the content definitely made up for that. One thing that I found refreshing about this book was the overall outlook of the main character. He didn't always do the right thing, or say the right thing but he was always looking for ways to make himself a better friend, brother, son, student, etc. Even though not all of his situations were completely relatable, the overall feelings and emotions behind Charlie are ones that adolescents face, especially in their first few years of high school. Another thing that I liked about this book is that it reaches a wide group of students since Charlie is a freshmen and his friends are all seniors.

This book had a lot of surprises in it. The first major one was Brad and Patrick being gay. I liked that it added this because I think that it reaches out to those in high school who are different and feel as though they will be outcasted because of it- a group of kids that don't always get that kind of attention in literature provided at schools. The biggest surprise in the book for me (and I'm assuming most) was when we found out that Charlie's aunt had molested him when he was little. When the psychiatrist asked him to focus on past memories, I kind of gathered that he had some sort of repressed memory, but I would have never expected that to of happened to him. When it came to that page I actually had to put the book down for a couple minutes because I was so shocked!

One thing that I liked and also hated, was the secrecy of the letters. I would have enjoyed finding out AT LEAST who "Charlie" was writing to and why this person stuck out to him so much. On the other hand, it was a creative way to write a book and the mystery of it left it to focus more on the overall moral of the book.

I enjoyed the ending. Even though it wasn't a happily-ever-after, it gave us hope for Charlie and it gave a good message about valuing family and friends who love you.

I think that I would consider teaching this in a classroom but I would probably rather recoomend it to an individual student. Some of the content may not be perceived appropriate for students (even though all of his letters are expressed in an innocent and relatable way) so I think it would be easier to be able to talk to an individual students parent(s) and discuss the content of the book.