"The River" + Book Recommendation

"The River" + Book Recommendation 

If you liked reading "The River," the I recommend that you read "About Average," by Andrew Clements. 

"About Average" is basically the story of a sixth-grader named Jordan Johnston who's a perfectly average student. She's not short, tall, gifted, failing. She's just perfectly average. But Jordan wants to have a special talent like how everyone else in her grade and age seem to have. Everybody else in her grade seems to be gifted in a unique talent. And when Jordan looks at herself, she finds that she seems to have no unique talent. And if she did have a unique talent, she just hadn't discovered it yet. 

As the story develops, Jordan tries her hardest to find a unique talent that she has herself. But more than half of the story says that Jordan still hasn't figured out her special talent

Throughout the whole course of the story, the weather of Jordan's area and hometown seem to change as well, and near the end of the story, out comes a giant tornado that hits her school just a week before her sixth-grade graduation date.

This is when Jordan finds her special talent; helping others and not leaving anyone behind. When the tornado hit her school, she devised a well-thought plan in four minutes that helped her, her orchestra classmates, and their teacher survive the tornado, and she actually saved the lives of 24 people, including herself. 

At the sixth-grade graduation a week after the tornado, Jordan is clearly recognized for her extraordinary efforts in helping others and not leaving anyone behind. So here, Jordan realizes her unique talent as well.

Overall, I recommend this book for reading because this book and "The River" have similar themes of caring for friends and not leaving anyone behind. It is one of those books that grabs your attention in a unique lead, and then it leads you into a ride of events that sound sensible, well-thought, and very realistic. The first time I read this book, I loved Jordan's character throughout the whole book, and she is a dynamic character. The book's setting of being in an Illinois area that had possibilities of experiencing a tornado, really gave it a unique opportunity of having unique events, like the tornado scene. What if it had been set somewhere else? How would Jordan have found her extraordinary talent?

So therefore, I recommend reading this book if you liked reading "The River," because it engrosses you in a unique manner, and follows with some great, realistic events.

"The River" Update + Analysis Prompt

"The River" Update + Analysis Prompt

Well, it's about time I finished "The River." Overall, the book was really engrossing to me and intense events followed one after another. The most intense event was found near the end of the book, and after that intense event, comes an epilogue. 

The development of the theme within the novel is evident throughout the whole story. The theme is mainly to look out and care for friends and not leave any friend behind under any circumstances, based on all the events of the story. Gary Paulsen does seem to have this primary theme guide his decisions within the plot and main events of the story.

Gary also supports this theme through the main events, conflict, and the resolution of this conflict. The main events before the conflict are that Brian accepts the task to go into the wilderness for his second time, with Derek by his side this time, and while during these events in particular, Brian and Derek work and look after one another to prepare for their survival adventure. Soon after they arrive, they create a good well-created surviving habitat. The main conflict within this book is that while Brian and Derek are sleeping in their self-made shelter, a huge rainstorm came over them, and lightning was intense. Then this one particular streak of lightning hit a nearby tree and it also struck Derek, and Derek was then in a coma. So Brian needs to find some help to save Derek. He finds a map showing him a nearby trading post. And the way to get there is by the current of a river. Brian quickly builds a solid raft and he ties Derek to this raft, and so he starts to paddle down the river. Although the river is really intense, fast, and Brian encounters a waterfall, Brian soon manages to get the raft and Derek to the trading post. That is the conflict. And the resolution is that Brian gets the raft and Derek to the trading post. Therefore, this conflict and resolution present in the story clearly supports the theme. 

This theme that Gary Paulsen chose clearly guided his decisions within the whole plot of the story. If he hadn't chosen this theme, then the events that happened in "The River" probably never would have happened. 

As the main events, conflict, and the resolution occur, the originality of the theme is definitely one of a kind to have created a story, such that it is set in the wildernesses of Canada. In my opinion, the author probably never would have made their own opinion towards the story's subject more distinctive, because he himself has made the story in a way that throughout the story, Brian and Derek are working together to create a survival experience and all through the rest of the story, including the river scenes, it is clearly shown that they are not leaving one another behind under any circumstances. 

Fun Reading/Writing Update

Fun Reading/Writing Update

 

 

 

As I am reading "The River," and many other books written by many different authors, I am finding that all good authors don't like try and rush through their story. They take time to describe every detail they can find to describe whenever they can. I can see that they start off with a good lead that grabs the reader's attention and then they go ahead and slowly flow along with the plot. And as every action occurs in the book, they don't rush to get to the next part; they try to describe every action and they also try to show us how experienced they are in writing based on figurative language, diction, syntax, theme, and many other aspects of writing contribute as well.

 

It really isn't that easy to write a good novel; one that engrosses the reader and he/she actually finds it ionteresting so that they are encouraged to read on.

 

Like this happened to me and my cousin sister. We decided to write a novel of our own and so we got started. My cousin sister's dad had published three books on his own and he wanted to write a fourth book, so my sister and I decided that we should give him a break, and so we started writing one on our own. And when we got to work, we had no idea where to start. But after we saw a movie, we came up with a plot similar to that of the movie, and so we got started. We borrowed the first half of the movie's ideas into our book, and then we made up the second half of the book and ending. The first book has already been done, but now, we are on the second book, and we promise, it will be better than the first one.

 

But when we looked over the first book and compared it to a real published book in English, we found that the major difference we had was that we just typed in huge big paragraphs and we never indented lines whenever a character spoke. Also, we seemed to be rushing through the plot within the pages, so that's where we hit a wall. The thing was that we never actually took time to stop at moments within the book and describe every single detail that was taking place at that time. A good book's writing needs to describe details very thoroughly all the time in order for the writing to be considered juicy. So after me and my cousin sister saw the errors we had made, we decided to edit the first book from start to finish and try to make our book's writing more juicy.

"The River" Update + Reading Skills

"The River" Update + Reading Skills

As of Chapters 1-15, a prediction I am making is that Brian will be able to transport Derek via the log raft through and down the river all the way to the trading post. I say this because since Brian has put a lot of work (with the help of some beavers) into making the log raft, one that can float, along with the help of an oar, then he'd be able to carry himself and Derek down the river and to the trading post.

I also predict that the journey might have a few rainstorms and some unexpected bad weather. I say this because ever since Brian and Derek have arrived in the wilderness, they had to go through two rainstorms. The first one was when they spent their first night making a shelter, and the second one happened when Derek got shot with electricity.

But still, I question why and how exactly Derek got shot with lightning in the first place. And what move did Derek make that made him get shot? Why didn't Brian get shot? Or why didn't anything else in the area get shot?

A text-to-text world connection I can make is that in this case, when Brian needs to transport Derek to the trading post by a raft, and there are no raft supplies readily anywhere in the wilderness, that means that Brain would have to be creative and make a raft from scratch. Brian decides to be creative and make a log raft out of old fallen logs with the help of a family of beavers. In another case, the movie "Ice Age: Continental Drift," where Manny, Sid, and Diego get washed up on the island, is where another example of creativity takes place. The three characters need to find a way to get Captain Gutt's boat in order to reach their home, but they couldn't do it by themselves without help. So when they meet all these little gophers who also live on the island, they decide to be creative and use the gophers (who are ready to help them) to help them derive a plan in order to steal Captain Gutt's boat. They eventually succeed in taking the boat. So these two examples from "The River" and "Ice Age: Continental Drift" both exemplify a time where the main character(s) had to be creative in order to do a task that would help them succeed. In Brian's case, he needed to build a log raft to transport himself and Derek to the trading post, and in Manny, Sid, and Diego's case, they needed to find a successful method in order to get Captain Gutt's boat, so they use the gophers' help.

A text-to-text connection is that in Brian's case, he needed to be creative in order to build a raft to transport him and Derek through the river, to the trading post. Well, I read an article about Native Americans not too long ago off some website that said that Native Americans needed to find a way to protect themselves from harmful and wild creatures, so they built spears and other weapons from nature that helped them fight against wild creatures at anytime. So here, the Native Americans had to be creative in order to do a task of defending themselves, and they used natural resources to build basic weapons to help them fight. That's the connection.

A text-to-self connection I can make is that I remember having to be creative a lot of times throughout my life, but the most memorable time where I had to be creative is when me and my cousin sister had to build a small fishing rod in order to retrieve something we had accidentally dropped into a fountain. This happened last summer in India. So basically, we had to be creative to retrieve our item from the fountain pool. So then we went back to our house in a hurry to find some supplies to help us retrieve the item. We finally settled on a metal necklace, a basket and a large metal rod. We got the permission to reshape the end of the metal rod into a hook for the necklace to hang on. Even though we only had three supplies, we still had to be creative in order to find those supplies and make use of them. We went back to the pool and hooked the necklace onto the metal rod's hook and one end of the basket, and then we tried to fish the item we had lost in the pool. After about five minutes of trying, we succeeded and got out item back. This is the connection from the book to the time when me and my cousin sister had to be creative in order to retrieve an item we had lost in a fountain pool. 

"The River" Update + Character Prompt

"The River" Update + Character Prompt

I wish I had more time to read these days, because I find that the main reason why I seem to be going slow with this book is mainly time conflicts, and procrastination. With time conflicts, high school freshmen studies are piling up to mountain loads of work, and with procrastination, it's a long story. Some days, I seem well-determined to finish up a chapter of the book, but at other days, when I try to finish my homework up till 10 in the night, I get a little cranky and lazy (I have to admit) to crack open the book. A goal I'd wanna make to my general reading life is that I will resist procrastination and do my duty to read more often. 

Anyway, apart from those two problems that conflict with my general reading life, I have now read as of today, Chapters 1-15. The newly read parts of the book I did read are Chapters 12-15.

So now, Derek is still in his unconscious state, and he is basically in a coma. Brian is still struggling to try and help save Derek. Just when he thinks this trip is gonna be catastrophic, he opens up Derek's briefcase and finds a map. He had seen this map with his mother before leaving. As Brain observes the map, he finds the Brannock Trading Post. He thinks there would be help there in order to save Derek. 

But to get there, the only course of transportation is through a nearby river not far from where Brian was located. Over some time, he manages to craft a raft made out of logs (with some help from a group of beavers) which would help him travel to the trading post to get help. Then he decides to take Derek with him to the trading post. That proves to be a struggle. The course of the journey down the river is going to be revealed in the next few chapters. This might be a big important part of the book because the book has a separate part (that I am gonna begin later) called "The River." 

Brian, a major character within the story is comparable to another character I have seen in another book. There is a book called "Troublemaker," written by Andrew Clements. The main character in that book is named Clayton Hensley, and in the beginning of the book, he is this one absolute troublemaker. But when his older brother Mitch gets in some serious jail trouble, Clay (for short) realizes that he'd better change his mischief-making ways and start doing things that are good for his society. In "The River," Brian decided to teach the modern-day society how he survived in the wilderness, but in "Troublemaker," Clay decided to help his town after a Halloween graffiti incident, clean up all the graffiti in the town. He was really devoted to do that, and eventually, he succeeded. So basically, both Brian and Clay are alike, in a way that they want to help others like how Brian decided to teach his society about survival, and how Clay decided to clean the town's graffiti after the Halloween incident.

I real life, I can compare Brian to a person I know in real life. I don't want to tell the name of the person, but he is someone I see in school, in my orchestra class. This person always likes helping other people, like tuning instruments, supplying people with extra music if they don't have some, and this person does many other things that make the whole orchestra class successful every day. He is a really happy person who cares about others, and not just himself. Like how Brain cared about others in his own society and then he agreed to go on another journey into the wilderness to teach the people how to survive in the wilderness. 

"The River" Update + Theme and Summary Prompt

"The River" Update + Theme and Summary Prompt

Now, I have read Chapters 1-11, and Chapter 12 awaits.

It's now been three days since Brian and Derek's arrival to the wilderness, and during these three days, Brian and Derek have managed to create a whole new tent shelter. They have also found food sources like various types of nuts and berries that are safe to eat, according to Brian's previous experience in the last book. 

But just when things looked like they were going well, something bad happens, that is described in Chapters 10-11. Another rainstorm hits the area where Brian and Derek are sleeping one day. And this rainstorm is far more massive than the last one they encountered on their first day. This happens in the middle of the night, when Brian and Derek are sleeping. Brian is awakened at the sound of the thunder that follows the rainstorm, but Derek wakes up later, and right after Derek wakes up, he starts to reach for his radio, and then lightning strikes a nearby tree and travels all the way down to the ground and what happened next? The lightning hit Derek hard. 

Brian sees all of this, but then he suddenly falls asleep again, forgetting all about Derek. In the morning after the rainstorm, Brian decides to try and help Derek. Derek's hair is burnt and his body is really warm, but his heart is still beating. Brian now needs to decide what the right thing to do is, if Derek is at this state and the whole wilderness experience is turning around this unexpected corner. Brain's next action will probably be revealed in Chapter 12.

Now, a real life issue presented in this text is: How do you treat someone who has been electrically shocked? In the world today, there are very many ways one can get a shock of electricity; through a circuit failure, getting struck by lightning, and many other events can shock a person electrically. When Derek gets hit, in the morning after the rainstorm, Brian decides to perform the C.P.R. procedure so that he can get Derek breathing again. A solution to this in the modern-world today, is to just call emergency personnel. But here in the wilderness, that is almost impossible. Brian's next step to helping Derek after trying C.P.R. (which worked on Derek so now he's breathing again) was to try and call the radio for help. But the radio transmitter was not working either at that time. The next steps that Brain will take will probably be revealed in the next chapter. Therefore, the real life issue of trying to take care of someone after they have been electrically shocked is significantly reflected in the text.

 

The River + "Hatchet" Book Reccomendation

"The River" Update + Book Reccomendation

"The River" is the second book in the series of books that are all about Brian's various adventures in the Canadian wilderness. The series is known as "Brian Saga."

If you want to know how Brian's adventures in the wilderness began in the first place, then I suggest you start reading "Hatchet," the first book in the series.

"Hatchet" is all about Brian's very first adventure in the wilderness.

At the beginning of the story, Brian is traveling by plane all by himself to visit his parent in Canada. On the way, the plane flies over the Canadian wilderness, and during this trip, the pilot has a surprise heart attack, and so the plane goes out of control and crashes into the wilderness below. Luckily, Brian survives, but the pilot does not and dies.

Brian now doesn't know what to do with just a hatchet and now, he needs to find a way to adapt to his new wilderness surroundings. He does all these awesome, unbelievable things, like setting up his own shelter, finding natural sources of food, as well as a river for water purposes. As the story progresses, Brian's survival skills improve and this is the twist that changes Brian's life.

Overall, I think you should read this first book in the series, like how I did, because there is tons of action occurring in the natural wilderness. Action in a book doesn't have to be set and done with the influence of humans. I think that based on this book, action can happen naturally as well.

I think this book is therefore, worth a read because this exemplifies a realistic-fictitious time where action can be shown naturally.

There is a book trailer on YouTube that you can view to see how great this book is for a read. Click on the URL below to see the book trailer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwuIto3zPSU

"The River" Update + Analysis Prompt

"The River" Update + Analysis Prompt

Now, as of today, I have read Chapters 1-7. All these chapters took up 42 pages of the book, meaning I have read about 32% of the book. Even though these chapters are really short, compared to an average chapter book, there are really good details to understand within those chapters, so I am taking some more time to clearly understand those details and proceed on to later events of the book. When reading a novel,  I learned that it doesn't matter how long you take to finish the novel; it all matters on how much you understand the story and other aspects of it as well. 

In Chapters 6 and 7, in terms of time, they refer to the first night Brian and Derek have in the wilderness, up to the mid-afternoon the next day. 

Analyzing the text, the setting impacts the plot of the text. As of now, I have only read the parts of the story where the exposition and the beginning of the rising action take place.

The beginning of the book is the exposition, where Derek is first introduced to Brian and he asks Brian if he can do the whole wilderness trial all over again so that the modern-day society can learn from him. The setting of the exposition is at Brian's home in Canada and that affects the plot events because this is where Derek requests Brian and his mother to let Brian do the wilderness trial again, and this event sets off the other events of the whole story. This setting of Brian's home serves as a good start to the plot events. If the setting of the exposition were not at Brian's home, how could Derek have found Brian and then made the request? That's how Brian's home, as the setting of the exposition, impacted the plot events.

The time when Derek and Brian first reach the wilderness area up till the morning after their arrival serves as the beginning of the rising action of the story. This setting of the wilderness impacts this plot event because the rising action is meant to serve as a time where the main events of the story start happening, in general. That's when the events that are crucial to the story's development start happening. In this story's case, the time of Brian and Derek's arrival in the wilderness and their first steps to adaptation in this wilderness serves as a part of the rising action because their arrival to the wilderness in the first place, serves as a time where the events of the rest of the story would start happening, based on what happened in the exposition, and Derek's request.


The beginning of the rising action of the story has some imagery that helps to promote an intensifying moment within the text. This is when Brian and Derek first reach the wilderness by plane. After their arrival, a huge rainstorm showers on them that night. There is imagery in this rainstorm part of the story that helps to promote the tension within this event. But this event also serves as an experience for Derek on what real survival in the wilderness is really like, and this gives him an idea on what Brian really had to do in order to survive this type of weather in the wilderness (This statement is not directly stated in the text, but can be inferred assuming from the fact that Derek has never been to the wilderness before.).

A quote of imagery that enriches the tension within the text is:

     "It wasn't just a rain. It was a roaring, ripping downpour of water that almost drove them into the ground,
     They had moved back into the lean-to to try to get some rest since the mosquitoes partially lessened, but the temporary roof did nothing, absolutely nothing, to slow the water.
     They were immediately soaked, then more soaked, sloppy with water.
     They tried moving beneath some overhanging thick willows and birch near the edge of the lake, but the trees also did noting to slow the downpour and finally they just sat, huddling beneath the willows, and took it.
     I have, Brian thought, always been wet.
     Always.
     Even my soul is wet.
     He felt the water running down his back." (Paulsen 37-38)

This quote enriches the tension within the text because the imagery present here shows and describes what both Brian and Derek basically tried doing in order to survive this massive rainstorm. But they ended up huddling beneath the willows and took the coldness of the rain. This imagery therefore, enriches the tension within this event of the story.