Reader Response #2

                                Black Beauty

 

  I am Taylor and I am doing my reader response to the book “Black Beauty.”  I read 186 pages out of 186 pages.  I think the theme of this book is the care of animals, particularly horses.  The protagonist is Black Beauty, and the antagonist is all of the cruel owners Black Beauty has had.  There really isn’t a main conflict in this story because Black Beauty runs into lots of different bad owners, not just one particular one.  The setting of Black Beauty is in England, and the author is Anna Sewell.  I think that the message is to treat animals with fairness, I think that because Black Beauty has gotten treated really bad in some cases and wished for people to understand that abusing animals is not accept able.  I also think that is the main message because several times in the story people treated other horses badly and by standers would threaten to call the police if they didn’t stop.

                                                     Retell 

  If I could summarize this story in 5 sentences I would say that Black beauty was born and raised by a mother who taught him great manners, she taught him never to bite or kick any human no matter if they treat you badly.  Black Beauty got broken in and was sent to her first home, she stayed there for quite some time until a drunken person rode him and he scrapped his knees very bad.  After that he has been sold off to many different people (some good & some bad.)  After black beauty fainted while pulling a very heavy load up a hill, he recovered in a horse hospital and reunited with a boy named Joe who used to take care of Black Beauty.  Joe swore never to sell Black Beauty and he had a happy life with his new family.  The story “Black Beauty” is told in the perspective of Black Beauty himself.   The worst part of the book for me was when Black Beauty`s stable had a fire and not all of the horses were able to get out, I didn’t like that part because I REALLY love animals and even in a book if animal dies I get upset.  My favourite part of the book was when Black Beauty reunited with Joe, I liked that part the most because all of Black Beauty’s pain was over and he was now in a permanent, happy home.

                                                        Relate

  I can’t really relate to Black Beauty personally because he’s a horse, but I can relate to the people in the text.  I can relate to John (Black Beauty’s first very nice owner) because he saw someone whipping their horse and told them to stop or he was calling the police.  I relate to that because I have a dog and if I EVER saw someone beating their dog I would tell them to stop and call the police too.  The person I felt bad for was Ginger.  I felt bad for her because all of her owners have been really cruel to her and just when she finds a nice home she gets sold.  Ginger actually ends up dying in the book because the owner was working her way to hard, whipped her under the belly, and only fed her minimal food at night.  My favourite character was Black Beauty’s mom, I liked her because she taught her son manners and Black Beauty carried his mom’s advice throughout the whole book.  She kind of reminds me of my mother because my mom always taught me to be respectful and say please and thank you.  If I could be anyone in this text I would be Black Beauty.  I would be him because he is very strong and brave, like one time he saved his owners from a bridge that was about to cave in and he is strong because he tried his best for every job thrown at him.  Even though he gets beat by some people I think he would be the best character to be.

                                                  Reflect

    This book was actually pretty good!  I didn’t find any parts hard to follow or understand, it’s very clear.  The author was born in England and since she was crippled she rode horses a lot to get around, so I think the author wrote Black Beauty to relate to her life which she did a really good job with.  The thing that boggled my mind was the fact that Black Beauty understood every word a human was saying.  I swear animals didn’t understand humans, which that could be sending the wrong message to other kids.  I say that because I read this book once last year during the summer and I spent a good portion of that summer thinking that my dog could understand me, so I was cautious about what I said about my dog wasn’t going to the bathroom when I told him to.  I am still very surprised that I read ANOTHER book not about war and history, I’m glad I am open to more verities now.  This book helped me realize that I like to read about/ learn about animals, I don’t know why I haven’t tried animal books before knowing that I love animals and want to be a vet (I guess it didn’t click in my brain at the time.)  This was a really good book and animal lovers would definitely like this book.

Taylors Reader Response

                     Reader Response

     I am Taylor  and I am doing a reader response to the book               “Confessions Of A Serial Kisser.”  I read 294 pages out of 294 pages of this book.  The antagonist and protagonist in this story is a girl named Evangeline.  She is both the protagonist and antagonist because she helps her friend tremendous amounts of times, and studies with rude smelly guys to make sure they do better in school but on the other hand she kissed almost all the guys in her school including her best friends crush (which to a girl, can obviously make your best friend an enemy in a snap).  The setting is at Evangeline’s high school, (which does not have a name) and Evangeline’s house.  The conflict in the story is when Evangeline’s best friend Adrienne finds out Evangeline kissed her crush, and Adrienne doesn’t talk to Evangeline for several weeks.  This book is fiction but I like to call it “teen fiction” because of the way the author writes in the book.   Instead of saying “OH MAN!” the author would write “OH CRAP,” and it’s like the author understands teenage lingo.

                                                   Relate

  The part of the story were Adrienne gets mad at Evangeline for kissing her crush reminds me of when I was little and I kissed a guy that my best friend Aidan had a crush on, Aidan got really mad at me and let’s just say we haven`t been best friends since grade 3.  The character I feel bad for is Evangeline`s mom.  I feel bad for her because her daughter

ends up hating her for a big portion of the book just because she wants to get back together with her ex-husband who cheated on her.  If I had to be any character from this text, I would be no one.  The reason for that is because in the story your either getting kissed by Evangeline or hurt by Evangeline and I don`t really want any of those!    The character I do not like is Evangeline`s dad, I don`t like him because he cheated on his wife and had the nerve to try to come back in the family.  I believe that people who cheat do not deserve a second chance because they committed their life to their partner and cheating breaks that rule.  When I was reading that part of the story I got very mad that Evangeline`s mom got back with her ex-husband.  What I don`t get about Evangeline is that she kisses all these boys in order to find a crimson kiss and even when they do have a ‘’crimson’’ kiss she walks away and immediately hates their guts, most of the guys she has kissed were really nice and gave her chocolates but, she turns them down and say something rude like “I don’t like you okay! Go away.”

                                                     Reflect     

   I think this book was actually really good, I usually don`t like other genres except for war and history.  I think this author is a very skilled writer because I`ve seen some of his other books and their not all about serial kissers.  Sarah has a book by the same author (Van Draanen) and they are completely different books, hers is about dragons and my book is DEFINETLY not about dragons.  I was thinking that maybe the author had teenage girls himself or, he did some really good researching.  I say that because he really understands the life of a teenage girl and what a

lot of us go through, especially the part where Evangeline says all of a sudden no one understands her, and the author also knows how a girl usually always cares about the way she looks.  Something I learned from this book is to be yourself and one day a guy will come along who likes you for the way you are ( No I`m not looking for romance.)  And you don`t have to try and impress people, just be yourself.

                                                  Retell

  The part that I found hard to follow was at the beginning because the author was jumping around a lot.  From talking about blue jeans to looking under her moms bed for books, it just didn`t make sense!  The worst part of the book was when Evangeline was depressed.  It was the worst part because Evangeline went from a good graded student to someone who skipped school and was no longer on the honour role.  In that section I got emotionally involved with the book and I remember  one time as I was reading my mom walked in and asked why I was so sad when it was just that`s the way I felt  Evangeline was feeling.  If I had to choose the best section (beginning, middle, and end) I would choose the middle.  I like the middle because Evangeline changed her look had a boy plan , and it just seemed like her life was at an all time high.  As for the beginning Evangeline didn`t know who she was yet, and wasn`t satisfied with her plain jane-ity and at the end everybody mostly hated her.  Overall, this was a really good book and i would definitely recommend this book to anyone. 

by, Taylor