Divergent

Veronica Roth

This month I read a book called Divergent, by Veronica Roth. Divergent is about a dystopian city where everything is run down, and to make it work well, everyone is split into factions. The factions are Dauntless, the brave. Amity, the kind. Candor, the honest. Erudite, the intelligent. And abnegation, the selfless. Dauntless are for protection, amity for food, candor for law enforcement, erudite for doctors and teachers, and abnegation as government officials. Beatrice, or Tris, is a mix of erudite, dauntless, and abnegation. She ends up choosing dauntless, for the trill and excitement. But she soon learn that being divergent, having more than one choice, is a very bad thing. She has to fight her way to get to the top of dauntless initiation, fight to keep her feeling away from her parents, and fight to not get found about being divergent. This story is about having a choice and love. And I really like it.

I like this book because it’s adrenalin packed, with lots of plots twists and some romance in it. It’s about how “one choice can transform you,” which is written on the front cover. It shows that everyone has a choice, and everyone has an opinion, like sure, your parents and family are all in abnegation. But being selfless isn’t for me. I’d rather be free roaming and happy, in dauntless. That was Tris’ decision by the way, I’d much rather be amity. I like this book showing how an opinion and then a choice is all the matters, your opinion, your choice. It’s not showing how you should always listen and do what you’re not loving. When I was younger, my parents put me in gymnastics, and I didn’t like it. My opinion, and choice, was to get of it. It made me do soccer, which I love, and okay it all the way up until twelve. Other peoples opinion and choice matters too.

My favorite character is Tris’ mother, Natalie Prior. She is the ultimate mom, she died for her daughter when the erudite started to attack, and died a heroic death. Also, when Tris decided to leave abnegation for dauntless, she wasn’t mad. She was happy for her daughter, because later, we figure out she was dauntless! My favorite quote is page 179. She came to visit Tris for visiting day, Tris’ old habits are back to treat other first, but her mom says this line “‘Todays is a special occasion,’ she says. “I came to see you, so let’s talk mostly about you. It is my gift to you’” this line warms my heart, showing how much her mother wants to hear about her, instead of telling Tris about what’s going on at home with her father.

My favorite quote is still the one above, that Tris’ mother says. I feel like it is so kind caring more about others than herself, sacrificing to talk about her self, and state how the family’s going, to talk more about her daughter. And being kind to listen patiently and not interrupting.

This idea took me a second. At first, I thought I would want to work at a boba place, and as much as I love boba, I can’t have it so that would be difficult to work in a store where I can only have a limited amount of the bobas. It’s because I can’t have it, but that’s not the point. I would want to work at Chick-Fil-A. Chick-Fil-A is my favorite restaurant, I just really love chicken, and fries. I would want to work at Chick-Fil-A for three reason, my first one is the free food! At Chick-Fil-A, I’m assuming I get at least one free meal a day. So I could have seven shifts a week and get Chick-Fil-A almost every day! You may be wondering, “Phoebe, won’t you get sick of it?” Maybe I will, maybe I won’t, but right now, I love it. My second reason is because people really love Chick-Fil-A, so I get to talk to a lot more people, I’m pretty shy around new people, so it will be good to boost my people skills from working at a small job, then I can get an even bigger job, and I won’t be afraid to talk to people! My third reason is because of the Christianity, it’s kind of weird, but I’m LDS, and I can’t do anything on Sundays, and they already don’t have stuff going on on Sundays. I guess it will just be nice having a job where people believe in the same things I do. Those are my three reasons for wanting to work at Chick-Fil-A, and no, actually, don’t think I’ll ever get sick of it!

The Baby-Sitters Club; Kristy’s Great Idea

Ann M. Martin

This book is about a group of friends who start a baby sitting club, as told by the title. Kristy and Mary Anne baby sit a lot, and they have fun. Kristy then thinks of something huge, a club. A group of a few girls (or boys) have meeting a couple times a week for a client to call in and get multiple baby sitters at once. So she invited Mary Anne and Claudio Kishi, and Claudia invited her friend Stacey McGill. The get jobs, and fine out the truth about Stacey.

I like this book because it’s relatable, it’s about middle school girls who do something anyone can do, but they make it work. It’s not like they are crazy popular people who have boyfriends and are so amazing, it’s just a few random girls who start a successful club.

My favorite character is Claudio Kishi. Claudia is a really good artist, and dresses for her, not other people, she wears fedoras to school and expressive clothing that shows who she really is. She also loves junk food, just like me, so I can kinda relate! To be one hundred percent honest though, a can’t find a really memorable quote from Claudia. Her words weren’t very interesting, just her attitude.

My favorite quote in the book is on page 71, it reads, “From what Mary Anne told me, Boo-Boo must truly be a boo-boo. What a mess of a cat.” I just think it funny because my personal favorite are funny quotes, and this doesn’t show anything particular, I just think it’s funny how she says, what a mess of a cat.