Sunday, December 20, 2009

2nd quarter ORB review

Anna Wang

December 19, 2009

Mr. BG

Review

Second Quarter Outside Reading Book Review

The Lost Boy by Dave Pelzer. Health Communications, Inc. Genre: non fiction

The Lost Boy by Dave Pelzer is based on the author’s childhood life when he was in foster care, after moving out of his mother’s house. It is the sequel to A Child Called It and the second book of this trilogy. In this book, David has to face many obstacles including the fear of “betraying” his mother, going to court, and making friends, which is difficult because many people have prejudice against foster children, and calls them “F-child”. He seeks love from his foster parents, since he never really got any from his mother. This book is filled with obstacles and him overcoming them. As he got older, he became less of a timid child who only seeks to please, and more confident and less afraid of the world around him. You can see David as he matures and overcomes the obstacles in his life.

"The Lost Boy" is the harrowing but ultimately uplifting true story of a boy's journey through the foster-care system in search of a family to love. This is Dave Pelzer's long-awaited sequel to "A Child Called "It". The Lost Boy" is Pelzer's story--a moving sequel and inspirational read for all.” –Amazon.com

Dave Pelzer descriptively described his life while he was in foster care. He describes his emotions so that the reader can feel it as if they were in his shoes. While in foster care, he faced many challenges including rejection from his peers at school and even adults just because he is a foster child. David wrote the story as if he is went back in time and was reliving it, instead of writing it as if he was looking back. Throughout this book, you feel hope that he will come through in the end, that he will persevere and work hard to overcome his struggles instead of running away from them.

“I tried to imagine what it must be like for them to live with Mother now. I pray that somehow my brothers would forgive me. I felt like a deserter. I also prayed that the cycle of hate had not moved on to one of them. I felt sorry for them. They had to live in total hell.” (page 54)

I usually hate biographies, or any non fiction books for that matter because they bore me to tears. This book is an exception. It is very interesting, and instead of boring me to tears, it makes me cry tears of sadness as well as happiness as Dave goes through the ups and downs of this life.

8 comments:

  1. 1). The reviewer's overall impression of this book was that it was touching and brought her through an emotional rollercoaster called David's life.

    2). She noticed that the writing style was unique meaning that he wrote it as if he was reliving what was occuring, but not like a flashback.

    3). The passage was good, I thought it was deep and emotional.

    4). This book review is similar to others I've read, but I get a real sense of the book.

    5). I most likely wouldn't be reading this book. It's more of a matter of preference, because it sounds depressing and I don't think that I would enjoy it.

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  2. 1.The reviewer's overall impression of the book was that it was full of sadness and some happieness.
    2.The reviewer noticed that that author really describes the main characters feelings.
    3.The reviewer did pick an interesting passage from the book that summed up what the main character was feeling.
    4.This book review is very detailed and interesting.
    5. I would consider reading this book because it sounds good.

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  3. 1. Anna's overall impression of this book is that unlike most nonfiction she reads, it was very interesting, and had many emotional high and low points.

    2. She noticed that the author writes the events in present tense, and describes his feeling so well, you begin feeling them, too.

    3. I think this a really interesting passage. It makes you feel his sadness for leaving, along with worry for his brothers. It shows the writng style really well.

    4. The format of Anna's review was very similar to the others that I read, but hers gave you a good idea about what the mood is throughout the story.

    5. I would consider reading this because I have already read A Child Called It, and this sequal sounds very interesting.

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  4. Overall, Anna thought the book was very interesting. She also thought it was very emotional and full of very happy points as well as some very sad ones.

    Anna noticed that Dave Pelzer writes the book as if he was back reliving everything instead of as if he is just retelling it. She also noticed that he writes very descriptively about his feelings which allows the reader to see things through Dave's point of perspective.

    I think Anna picked a very good passage from the book. It really gives the reader a good idea of the types of hardships Dave had to go through, and it also gives us a good preview of the writing style.

    Anna's review is similar to others I have read but I think it is especially well-written and gives us a lot of details.

    I would definitely consider reading it because I read "A Child Called It" and "A Man Named Dave" which are the first and third books and I liked both of them as well.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Overall, Anna thought the book was very interesting. She also thought it was very emotional and full of very happy points as well as some very sad ones.

    Anna noticed that Dave Pelzer writes the book as if he was back reliving everything instead of as if he is just retelling it. She also noticed that he writes very descriptively about his feelings which allows the reader to see things through Dave's point of perspective.

    I think Anna picked a very good passage from the book. It really gives the reader a good idea of the types of hardships Dave had to go through, and it also gives us a good preview of the writing style.

    Anna's review is similar to others I have read but I think it is especially well-written and gives us a lot of details.

    I would definitely consider reading it because I read "A Child Called It" and "A Man Named Dave" which are the first and third books and I liked both of them as well.

    ReplyDelete
  6. 1. Anna thought this book was very good and interesting. She thought it had its points of very happy moments but also times of sad.

    2. She thinks that the author writes this book as is he is reliving or looking back at everything that happened to him.

    3. I think the passage she chose was very interesting. It shows Davids emotions towards his brothers and also the hardships he went through.

    4. This review was very good and very detailed.

    5. I'm reading "A Child Called It" right now so I would be interested in reading it's sequel.

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  7. Anna thought this book was very interesting and that it had many moments that had her feeling emotional.

    She beleives that the author wrote this book as if it were a flashback.

    I think the passage wsa very interesting because it shows some of the hardships Dave lived through.

    THis review was very detailed and gave a good flavor of the book. It was easy to read and was well organized.

    I will read the book because I have read 'A Child Called It' and it is the only non-fiction book I have ever read that I have liked.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 1. Anna thought that this book was interesting and very emotional.
    2. The author wrote this book as if it was a flashback to his teenage years.
    3. The passage that Anna chose was really good. It showed David's guilt and also gave a taste of how he viewed life with his mother.
    4. This review was great. The vocab was good and there were a lot of details.
    5. I've already read this book and I completely agree with Anna's review.

    ReplyDelete