Classics

Frindle by Andrew Clements Review

April 18, 2014 by Daniel Johnston 4 Comments

There are a lot of kids books that are fun, that are exciting, that you enjoy.

There are very few, however, that you still love and treasure long after your childhood. The type of books that you remember perfectly, that you return to and read and like it just as much you did all those years ago.

Frindle by Andrew Clements is one of those books. Written for third to sixth graders, it’s a story that will keep any reader entertained throughout the whole book.

Summary

At the beginning of the book we are introduced to Nick, a fifth-grader in Mrs. Granger’s class. The school year is just starting, but Nick is already experimenting with ways to sidetrack his teacher (and maybe make her forget to give the homework). Nick is known for stuff like that.

Unfortunately, the plan backfires, and Nick is forced to answer his own bogus questions about where words come from. Even though Mrs. Granger intended it as a punishment, Nick finds the subject interesting.

When Nick’s friend drops a pen and Nick accidentally calls it a frindle, he gets a crazy idea: What if everyone started calling pens frindles? Since a word is given a name by popular usage, wouldn’t that make it a frindle, not a pen?

Nick recruits his friends to start using the word frindle instead of pen. When they go to the store, they ask for frindles. In Mrs. Granger’s class, people begin referring to pens as frindles. Unsurprisingly, Mrs. Granger doesn’t like this, and anyone who uses the term frindle in her class has to write, “I am writing this punishment with a pen,” 100 times.

The term frindle has become a fad, however, and many people look upon the punishment as merely a badge of honor. Before long the entire school has replaced pen with frindle in their own vocabulary.

The news media finds out about this, and it ends up making national news. The frindle fight is full blown. Will frindle be added to the dictionary, or will Mrs. Granger win in the end?

Review

This is an awesome book. Clements does a very good job of communicating a worldview in his books, and this one is no exception. Nick is a smart kid who has his own sense of what is right, and is more than willing to stand up for it.

Nick is a totally real person and so are his friends. We can also identify with his teacher Mrs. Granger, who in the end actually turns out to have been Nick’s ally all along!

This book also brings up an important point that words are only what we call things, not what the thing actually is. Although not very many kids will get this at a deep level, it will definitely get them thinking.

Plus, it’s a blast to read, so even reluctant readers will like it. You’re totally hooked on what Nick is going to do next and what will happen with the frindle battles.

A national fad like frindle is not going to come for every idea, but it definitely encourages kids to get creative and approach life with vigor and energy. For third to sixth graders, Frindle is a sure-hit.

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The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand Review

March 20, 2014 by Daniel Johnston 2 Comments

Once in a while you read a book that gives a glimpse of the beauty of life. Once a while you read a book that inspires you, that leaves you crying by the end. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (1943) is such a book. Reading it, I felt as if my valuation of man’s greatness had finally been understood by another human. I felt as though the main character, Howard Roark, really was an embodiment of that greatness.

Inventor vs. Second-Hander

In The Fountainhead, Roark is a great architect, who is also somewhat controversial. His designs go against the style of the day, and he is whipped by the media and the public. His dean does not even allow him to graduate from college. Yet to him none of that matters. The standard he lives by is the quality of his work. He doesn’t make buildings for people; he finds people who will buy the buildings he makes.

This attitude finds a great deal of resistance, especially in the Socialistic-leaning society he lived in. Through the masterful characters she creates, Rand displays a brilliant picture of one of her most fascinating intellectual ideas: The “second-hander” vs. the inventor. The inventor is the person who, through his own greatness, invents such great things as electricity and fire. The “second-handers” ridicule the inventor, yet steal their inventions. A perfect example of this concept can be seen when Prometheus stole the fire of the gods and was tortured for it.

Another perfect example was created in The Fountainhead. Roark is the inventor. Peter Keating, a competing architect, is the second-hander. He is incompetent and cannot create his own work, and so he relies on Roark. Roark allows him to do this, because Keating is viewed higher in the public eye and his buildings are allowed to be made while Roark’s buildings are not. But Keating fails to maintain the integrity of Roark’s design, a nightmare situation for an inventor. Roark will not allow this. Will he triumph, or will the second-handers trample him?

Also a second-hander is Ellsworth Toohey, a socialist. Toohey is trying to create a socialistic society. He masks his actions under the face of ideals, but really he wants only power over others. He manages to fool almost everyone, and is instrumental in turning the public against Roark. It infuriates him to see someone independent like Roark.

Gail Wynand is the owner of The Banner, a sensationalist paper that plays on public opinion. Although Wynand is viewed by most as the very embodiment of evil, as Roark says, “[he] was not born to be a second-hander.” Wynand is one of the few people who sticks up for Roark when the public persecutes him. But Toohey puts so much public pressure on him that he is forced to fold his paper if he wants to continue to support Roark. What will Wynand choose?

Rand switches through which of these four characters is the main focus throughout the book. The book is 752 pages, and it needs such a length in order to convey its message. There is a huge amount of character development, and you get to know Rand’s conception of the personalities quite well. Another huge character is Dominique Francon. Dominique is the daughter of Guy Francon, the owner of the biggest architectural firm of the world. Peter Keating works in that firm, and attempts to get close to Dominique so he can become a partner.

Dominique is an inventor, the kind of woman for Howard Roark. When she sees Roark working in a quarry she owns, she immediately senses his defiance of her authority over him; his recognition of his own greatness. Dominique is surprised to see this in a mere quarry worker, and it bothers her. Roark senses he has this power over her.

This is a complicated part of the book, where he rapes her, but knows she would enjoy it. Dominique is very frustrated by the mediocrity of the world, and has to learn how to function in it. She believes the world doesn’t deserve her, and so engages in a lot of self-defeating behaviors (some of which are sexual). Before she and Roark can be married, he makes her learn, so that she can be on his level. Roark’s confrontation with Keating – and society’s retribution for it – is her perfect test. Dominique marries both Peter Keating and Gail Wynand before eventually becoming one with her true love.

Review

Roark is the Mona Lisa of Rand’s masterpiece. She does an amazing job at describing him as the true human incarnation of greatness. He is independent, capable, and strong. Above all, Roark’s strength comes from his knowledge of his own mastery. Whether you agree with all of Rand’s ideas or not (and I certainly don’t) everyone can appreciate the triumphant picture of Roark, successful despite all the trials of the world.

I highly recommend The Fountainhead. It might be a good idea to read some of Rand’s shorter books first, such as Anthem, to make sure you like her writing style before engaging in this project. If you’re up to the task, The Fountainhead will not disappoint.

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From The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E. L. Konigsburg Review

March 13, 2014 by Daniel Johnston Leave a Comment

Oh yes, From The Mixged Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler. I must have read this classic book by E.L. Konigsburg at least fifty times, maybe more. There are a lot of books that I’ve read multiple times, but I don’t think any of them matches this one.

Even though it was written back in the 1960s, it still resonates with kids today. At least it resonated with me 🙂 Normally I advise people to never buy books that win awards such as the Newbery Medal, but this book is the exception.

Summary

The book is taken, as the title suggests, from the journals of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, a woman who recorded the adventures of two kids, Claudia and Jamie, as they ran away from home and camped out at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Even though it is ostensibly written in the first person, the vast majority of the book reads as third person, mostly focused on Claudia.

Twelve year-old Claudia first comes up with the idea to run away after she becomes tired by being ignored by her family. She doesn’t feel they are giving her the respect that she deserves, and comes to believe that running away will break her out of her ordinary world and send her family a message that they had better appreciate her.

Claudia decides to enlist her brother, nine year-old Jamie, as partner in her escape because he has a lot of money. “Twenty-four dollars and forty-three cents,” to be exact. In the 1960s, that’s practically enough money to retire.

So they go to the Met and settle into life there. Frankweiler was wise to stage the story there, because we learn a lot about the art and structure of the museum. Jamie and Claudia learn how to hide and mix in with the school groups, and they settle into a nice and peaceful life.

They have a bunch of cool adventures at the museum, including finding a pool filled with coins that allow them to continuously replenish their stash of money.

Eventually, the two become intrigued by a statue of an angel rumored to be done by Michelangelo. Claudia feels ready to return home if she can find the truth of the statue.

That’s where Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler comes in. She sold the piece to the museum, and they spend the rest of their money to travel to her house. There they ask her about the origin of the statue, and she says she’ll tell them if they can find the file on it in her mixed up office, and if they’ll tell her their story. The telling her the story part isn’t their favorite, but they agree.

Was the statue really done by Michelangelo, or is that just a wishful rumor? Will Claudia and Jamie return home different people? Most importantly, will they be more appreciated by their family, or will their plan backfire?

Review

This is an awesome book. There aren’t really many books that match it. Running away from home to give your parents a message is something I’m sure every kid has dreamed of (I sure have). This book captures that fantasy in a great way.

Aside from that, the characters of Claudia and Jamie are very identifiable. These are not characters created by some woman wanting to sell books or get good praise from reviewers. She really understands kids, and it shows.

The reader is quickly driven through the book with a desire to know what will happen to the two siblings, what will happen with their family, what escapades they will get into at the museum. This is a timeless classic, a book pretty much any kid will love. They may not read it scores of times like me, but they will definitely enjoy whatever time they do spend reading it.

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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Review

January 22, 2014 by Daniel Johnston 4 Comments

I’m so glad to be doing this review today. Whenever I used to think of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, I would always somewhat balk. After all, it was a “classic,” and sure to be a million pages. Thus, it was much to my amazement that it’s actually only 193 pages. Now I’ve read this great piece of American literature, and I’m ready to tell you all about.

I decided to review The Great Gatsby as part of Check Off Your Reading List Challenge 2014, where I made a commitment to read more of the classics. On all the “classics,” lists I saw on the internet, The Great Gatsby was the top book I hadn’t read. So I decided to read it first.

It’s kind of weird because most people read this book as part of a high school English class or something and hear a lot about different interpretations of the book. Besides chatting about it with a few of my friends, I haven’t heard of any special interpretations, so this is purely what I think of the book. Well, what’s better than a first impression?

Summary

The Great Gatsby is told in the first person from the point of view of a man named Nick Carraway, a nonjudgmental man who went to Yale and then decided to move out to the east (specifically Long Island) to work as a bond dealer. He lives across the street from a fabulously wealthy man named Jay Gatsby, but knows nothing about him.

We first start becoming acquainted with the story when Nick goes over to his cousin Daisy’s house. She is married to a rich man named Tom, and is an incredibly beautiful woman. We also meet their friend, Miss Jordan Baker. Although Daisy and Tom pretend to be happy together, Nick learns that Tom has been having an affair.

Over time, Nick starts trying to learn more about Gatsby. Gatsby always has big, fancy parties on Saturday nights that hundreds of people go to. Before too long, Nick gets an invitation and gets to talk with Gatsby, who invites him to hang out the next day. Nick assents, but also hears a lot of rumors about Gatsby.

Nick is also getting closer to Tom and meets his mistress, Myrtle. They want to have a life together, but are both already presently married.

Before long, Gatsby confides in Nick how he and Daisy used to be sweethearts and she made a mistake in marrying Tom while he was away at war. Gatsby arranges a meeting between him and Daisy in Nick’s house, and the same love is still present between them.

Eventually, everything comes to a head as Gatsby, Tom, and Jordan go over to Tom and Daisy’s house. We meet Daisy’s daughter, a girl mainly taken care of by a nurse and is not a big part of the story at all. It is an extremely hot day, and Daisy confides in Gatsby that she loves him.

All of them decide to go to a hotel. Tom eventually challenges Gatsby, who says that Daisy loves himself and not Tom. Tom says he discovered that Gatsby has been making his money by doing illegal bootlegging business, and Daisy says that although she loves Gatsby, she also loves Tom, or at least did once. Gatsby’s confrontation attempt failed. All the years of starting over at Daisy’s house and wishing for her to be his. All of it has failed.

After that, things go downhill quickly for everyone, including a couple of deaths. It is a very powerful story.

Review

The Great Gatsby is an emotion-based book, and is solely driven not on plot, not even on the characters, but on the emotions that the characters represent. For most of the book I didn’t really know what was going on or how it would connect, but it all did in the end. You have to patient to read the book, but you will be rewarded for doing so.

Parts of the book could definitely have been written more clearly, but that’s true with every book. Parts of the book stirred deep emotion inside of me, and I wished I could just sit by myself for hours and think about the book and the emotions they were bringing up. Maybe I’ll do that someday.

The most striking part of the book for me is the lesson on how powerful man’s imagination is. The statement, “No amount of fire or freshness can challenge what a man will store up in his ghostly heart,” is very profound. At the end of the book it emphasizes how man in his mind makes great fantasies and how nothing will ever end a man’s faith that one day it will be realized. To think about all of the times I have done that, have almost worshipped ideas in my mind, well it shows me a lot about myself.

This very thing is what I love about writing. I feel that it allows me to express feelings that I can’t any other way. Every story has its own emotions in it, powerful emotions that have really been felt. And you can go into that world by reading them.

I also find it rather harrowing how no one ends up caring about Gatsby in the end. He helped out so many people and hundreds used to come to parties, but where were they all at the end? I don’t know how to feel about that, but I know I feel something. Fitzgerald does a good job of not telling us what to think or how to feel about the story, but instead just presents it to us. It’s probably good for most people around fifteen/sixteen and above. While the writing isn’t complex, the concepts are.

Would I recommend reading it? Definitely. It’s a great American classic for a reason. Because it deals with some deeper stuff in a rather undramatic way, I’m kind of surprised it’s as popular as it is. But I guess readers have felt the same way as I have after reading, their emotions expressed in this wondrous story. I hope you can feel the same.

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Animal Farm by George Orwell Review

January 13, 2014 by Daniel Johnston 3 Comments

There sometimes comes along a book that influences people’s perspectives, that makes its mark politically and in society. Rare is it that one author has two books, but the great writer George Orwell, author of 1984 and Animal Farm. The latter is what I will be reviewing today.

Animal Farm is a small book, but tells a full story of revolution and corruption, patterned after the story of the Soviet Revolution. The animals in the farm are unhappy with how their owner is treating them, and thus, inspired by a vision of a wise horse called Old Major, start a revolution. Animals starting a revolution? But banding together, they manage to drive their owners out, taking control of the farm for themselves.

They have to do hard work, but it’s great now because they are free, enjoying the fruit of their own work, not doing it for any humans. The pigs assume the leadership, but Napoleon and his adversary Snowball always disagree on everything and it can only be decided on by a majority vote. Everyone lives in harmony and happiness. The old owner of the farm attempts to reclaim it, but the animals are dedicated, and heroic acts manage to drive them out.

A big fight breaks out about the building of a tower. One of the pigs says it will be good and will reduce the work to 3 days a week. Naturally, the other pig opposes it – citing as a reason that they have the upcoming harvest and need to work on that. Snowball, the one in favor of the tower wins out among the populace, but he is not as crafty as Napoleon, who trains several puppies into vicious dogs and sicks them on Snowball, driving out of the farm.

After that, Napoleon becomes more and more corrupt. The majority of the animals are illiterate, stupid, and trust Napoleon. Originally there had been a list of commandments in the barn, and Napoleon continually changes them (such as allowing animals to drink, sleep in beds, and, eventually, stand on two legs). When anyone questions it, the change is attributed merely to their bad memory. Everything that goes wrong is blamed on Snowball.

Napoleon decides that the building of the tower is a good idea after all, explaining his change by saying that it was his idea in the first place and Snowball had stolen it from it. It keeps getting knocked down and is never completed, however. Napoleon has them work harder and harder and get less and less food. They do not believe conditions are getting worse because of the lies Napoleon’s spokesman, Whymper, who claims that productions of all food is going up and they just don’t remember what it used to be like. At the end of the book it is revealed the animals on Animal Farm do more work and get less food than any other farm in the country.

They also kill many animals, claiming them to be Snowball’s accomplices. Before long, what was established as a free civilization after a revolution against humans leds to a leadership that is worst than the first. Near the end of the book, the pigs come out standing on two legs. The sheep have always bleated: “Four legs good, two legs bad,” but as the pigs come out, they now sing: “Four legs good, two legs better.” The pigs have quickly turned into semi-human, even sitting down with humans and playing card games with them.

What the book is supposed to represent is how corruption grows and relies on a stupid populace and manipulates them. This happened in many socialist societies at the time the book was first published, and serves as a warning. Although of course humans are smarter than the animals and would not be fooled so easily, the pigs (or the leaders) would also be smarter too. This book is based off the Soviet revolution and the consequent slavery that occurred among the people.

I think the book is a little bit of a stretch, but it is still intriguing. Although people like to draw parallel’s to today’s society, I do not support such views, but it rather serves more as a warning. My mind was a little messed up after reading it, but not too bad. It’s a fun book to read. One thing is that in animal nature their animal instinct for food would probably trump anything Napoleon told them, but it’s really an allegory.

At 97 pages, it’s a small book, but it contains a lot of ideas and actions and cannot really be described as short. His writing style is good and factual, which is why it’s called a fairy tale (as explained in the Introduction). It is definitely a book written for its time and a time that could come again. One of the reasons we don’t have to worry about such things today is because of books like this.

Overall, it’s a good book to read and I’d recommend taking a look at it, for the entertainment value but mainly for the educational information about socialism.

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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Review

January 9, 2014 by Daniel Johnston Leave a Comment

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is one of the great all-time classics which almost every schoolboy inevitably reads. It tells the story of racism in Maycomb County, Alabama.The book was written in 1960, and was made to question the mistreatment of black people going on in society at that time.

It is told through the eyes of a young, six year-old girl named Scout. Scout observes the happenings of the town through the eyes of her father, Atticus Finch, a local lawyer who defends black people.

This is a very upsetting book to read. It does not have a happy ending, and is in fact quite sad. Although this book includes details of Scout’s play with her older brother Jem and his friend Dill, the book is really a sad tale and transports us to great suffering in our country just fifty years ago.

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Summary

The book starts off with Scout telling us a little about her family and the town. Before long Scout goes off to school for the first time. Lee includes a criticism of the school system, with the teacher being angry at Scout for already knowing how to read. Although Atticus forces Scout to go back to school, he says she can still read as much as she wants.

The story intertwines itself with fun play; for example, an expose of the Radley house. There is said to be a young man named Boo Radley living in that house, but no one has seen him in many years. There are various rumors about him, and Scout, Jem, and Dill are fascinated. They make many attempts to communicate with Boo, and frequently play and make fun of him. Still, he somehow always manages to elude them.

Although Scout and Jem are doubting their dad’s prowess, due to him being almost fifty, he discovers a way to teach them a lesson of real love. Although Mrs. Dubose is racist and yells at Atticus, Jem, and Scout for not discriminating against black people, Atticus has Jem and Scout go and read to Mrs. Dubose everyday for a month. Mrs. Dubose is dying and is easing off medications because she wants to die gracefully. Jem and Scout read to her during the most difficult time of her day and thus help her a lot in recovering from the withdrawal. Even though Mrs. Dubose is racist and opposes him, Atticus clearly still respects her.

While at church with their maid, Calpurnia, Jem and Scout first learn about the main focus of the story; the trial of Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson is a black man accused of raping a white woman. Unsurprisingly, Atticus is the only lawyer who will defend him. Everyone else believes Tom must be guilty merely because he is black, and Atticus begins to become unpopular with other citizens in the town.

The trial of Tom Robinson turns out to be the biggest trial in a long time. Atticus doesn’t desire for his kids to come, but of course they do anyways. Although everyone believes the plaintiff, they have a rather weak case. Atticus, being a smart lawyer, tears the case apart. Still, the death penalty looms glaringly over young Tom’s head.

Review

This story is possibly the easiest book to read among the “classics,” while at the same time having the power to transport you to a different world at a different time. The book is 384 pages long, and is well-written in a clear way that is easy for people to understand.

Although the story is told through the eyes of a girl who is six-years old at the beginning of the book and eight at the end, I wouldn’t advise someone to read it until they are the age of twelve or thirteen. Otherwise, the content may be too disturbing. Not only does Tom Robinson not meet a good end, but people go after not only Atticus for defending Tom, but also his young children.

I first read the book at fourteen, and I still didn’t quite get it. The undertones of the book are quite disturbing, and may take a lot of thinking and reflecting before you can come to terms with them. This is also compounded because the narrator, eight-year old Scout, certainly does not understand what is happening. Maybe we’re not supposed to, either.

There are really not many weaknesses in this story. I guess the only thing I’d say that would make it better would be if the narration was done in such a way to help the reader digest the racism, hatred, and violence portrayed in the book better. On the other hand, it would be hard to do that while maintaining the narrator as innocent Scout.

While writing this review I can feel my shoulders tense up and my brain start to feel clouded. A couple of years ago I asked my dad if he wanted to watch the movie version of To Kill a Mockingbird. He declined, not wanting to get too upset. I can understand now what he’s talking about.

Despite the emotional impact that comes with reading the book, I recommend it for sure. As I said, you learn a lot about what attitudes were prevalent at that time, and how that effects the world today. To Kill a Mockingbird is a part of America’s culture that everyone would be wise to take a look at.

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