Banned Book Read Out, "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" By-Stanley Suter

Script-          Hello, I’m Stanley Suter. This week is banned books week and in honor of it I have chosen the banned book “Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets” to talk about.

                    “Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets” was a book that greatly changed me. When I was in 3rd grade, I absolutely hated reading. I thought it was time wasting to learn about other people, especially at that level with the stories that third graders read. You know how was, “Tom went the the store. He bought milk. Then, he dropped it and the container exploded, but he still had to pay for it! The end.” Maybe not the middle sentence, but again, you know what I mean. At that age, books where extremely redundant, and so I found them boring. Then, a close family friend sent me three Harry Potter books, #2, #4, and #5 (don’t ask me why). And because it was the first book I owned from young adult literature, I started reading it.

                    I loved it immediately. Over the summer, I timed myself reading and I had surpassed 26 hours in 4th grade with just that book. Now, the reason I have been talking about the book is because for a while now, it has been banned. For reasons that seem so silly, but they had taken hold. It had been banned for having witch craft and they feel it set a bad example. Some parents thought that the book was not age appropriate because it had witchcraft, which most people view as dark. I can show you that they are wrong, directly from the book.

                    I chose this quote because it shows how lighthearted the book really is. I would understand if the book was banned because it had black magic, or really violent parts in the story, but it is rated young adult, and if they can’t handle something as nice as Harry Potter, maybe they should look for help. I do not think that Harry Potter was banned for a valid reason, simply because it has nothing very offensive or explicit in the entire series.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows By:Stanley Suter

        Prompt-Who is your favorite character and why? who is your favorite character?

        This week I have been reading "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling, and I have picked up much more than I had the first time I read it. Right now, Harry is camping in various places in order to escape Voldemort and the Death eaters that are now able to track Harry, and he has no idea how they are doing it. He and his friends Ron and Hermione are trying to find out what Dumbledores gifts meant and fulfill their quests to set things right in the Wizard world. That is where I am so far.

        My favorite character in the book would have to be Ron Weasley. He is by far the funniest character in the book. This is mainly because of the supplies he uses, the rat/man that all of his brothers used, the wand that shoots slugs in his face, and mostly the tiny owl that is good for nothing but disobeyment. He is super quick to fight and argues with Harry pretty much every year except for their first year at Hogwarts.

        My least favorite character would be Snape. This is a "Of course" moment, but it is for different reasons than you might think. I don't like him because he liked Lily and Harry, but he treats Harry with no favoritism or affection at all. In fact, he often seems to abuse Harry and puts him in detention, even though the only reason Harry acts up in his class is because he was mean Harry first. So, I dislike Snape because of his seemingly Bi-polar attitude towards Harry and his friends.

         

Ripper, By Stanley Suter

        Prompt-Character development

        This week I finished the book, Ripper and I absolutely loved it. At the end of the book Carver finds out that his mentor, Mr.Hawking, is actually his dad. After he finds out he goes ballistic and starts trying to get back at Hawking. He meets up with him on a subway and saves everyone on the train, and then fights his father. He got his father chained up with a new special type of handcuff and it looks like he's going to end it, when they can slow down the train. He jumps and later finds out his dad broke his wrist and got free. I'm sorry, but kind of a disappointing ending.

        The first character I would like to talk about is Commissioner Roosevelt. He really adds a lot of imagery to the story. He is the wealth of New York, invited to all the parties and always wearing very fancy three piece suits. Through the story every place he goes is suddenly organized and never negative (unless he's upset). He's the head of the police force and is very formal up until the fight preceding the final battle. He adds the imagery of the book as very grand, formal, and usually very respectful (again, preceding the final battle).

        The other character that I would like to talk about is Carver young, the main character and the son of the Ripper. He happens to be very intelligent, well educated, and clever. However he is also a street rat basically through the entire book. He escapes from a sewer full of freezing cold snow water that would have given him hypothermia. Carver is easily spotted at one of Roosevelt's parties, mainly because of his clothes and the way he acts. He adds the imagery of a wild dog, unclean and loud, but very intelligent. 

Book List Challenge, By:Stanley Suter

1. Harry potter and The Chambers of Secret, By, JK Rowling

        I read this book in 3rd grade and it was the first chapter book that I loved, and what got me into reading other books. I read it probably 7-8 times, and it was strangely more interesting every time. It was my favorite book because it had such a good story line, but yet as a 3rd grader I was able to comprehend it and enjoy reading a 250 page book.














2. Ripper, By Stefan Petrucha
        I read this book in 8th grade, and it has been important to me because it opened my eyes to a new difficulty to the books that I like to read. This has been my first action novel that is interesting, and I've read on a regular basis, that has taken so long to read.
















3. Weapons of World War 2
       This was the book that opened me up to violent books. I read it in 4th grade and learned about all the weapons, including armored cars and tanks, that where used in the war. It brought me to read books about zombies or first person stories about war. In the book, it explains all about the components of the Nuclear bomb and where they where dropped in japan.















4. Huckleberry Finn, By Mark Twain
        Huckleberry Finn was the first piece of Old english literature that I ever read with the original
language still intact. I read this book in 7th grade, and it taught me a lot about the vocabulary of someone who lived in the 1800's. It also showed me how violent a person could get if they are fighting to survive. In the book, when a character gets bitten by a rattle snake, he drinks 2 bottles of whisky and somehow fights the poison off.

5. The Old man and the Sea
       The first time that I read this book (not completely read, I was on page 20/100) I found the literature sub-par and much of the book very redundant. So, I waited a year and when I read it again, I felt I understood much more of the vocabulary used in the book at that point, allowing me to enjoy it. I think that this book marked my passage into being a mature reader.













6. Quarantine By Lex Thomas
        If the stakes for life where not so high, I would actually love to be in this book. It is about a school that was quarantined  when a patient from a lab not far away escaped with a disease that would infect teenagers going through puberty, but would instantly kill adults or children.
     

7. The Outsiders, Hinton S.E.
        This book got me interested in books about the crime life, stealing, murder, hideouts, disguises, etc. It's what got me hooked on books like what I have listed for #2 (Ripper). Only this was the only book that had a character above the age of 10 named something like "Pony-boy".














8. Of mice and Men By John Steinbeck
        This was my first Steinbeck book, I read it in fith grade. This made me like Steinbeck as an author and read more classic novels. The only thing I didn't like was how the story would set you up. It took these two characters, very close together and practically brothers, and they have a dream to get their own land. Right as their about to have enough money to buy the place, one of them gets in trouble and the other one kills him for his own good. That was kind of depressing.














9.The Fear By Charlie Higson
        This has been my favorite horror book for quite a while now. I've read it at least 3 times and I'm still not bored with it. Each time I read it I get something different out of it. Last time I really picked up on details, the time before that I noticed more connections to things happening at different times in the story, picked up by different people, but that where all related. The first time I read the book, I was simply drawn in by the heroic scenes and their systems to survive the zombie apocalypse.














10. Charlotte's Web By E.B. White
        This was my favorite chapter book as a child and it made me much more interested in reading, and in talking animals. I was in kindergarden when my mom first read this book to me, and it opened me up to loving stories in general, especially verbal.