"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.