Mission #3

A Dog’s Journey by W.Bruce Cameron- Sanmantha Khoo

W. Bruce Cameron began his writing career as a humor columnist. His novel A Dog’s Purpose spent 52 weeks on the NY Times bestseller list, and A Dog’s Journey is the direct sequel to the book A Dog’s Purpose. Although I did not read the first book, I still fell in love with the sequel. A Dog’s Journey follows up the story of a dog named Buddy who reborned, and discovered his new destiny: which is to look after his deceased master’s granddaughter, Clarity June Mahoney. Through its reincarnation, Buddy guides Clarity on her journey through live, each time as a different dog. Clarity was a troubled teen and she made a lot of bad choices in her life. However, with Buddy by her side, he was able to give her comfort when she is in despair and accompanied her through the ups and downs of life.

A Dog’s Journey is a heartwarming story filled with bittersweet moments, making me teared up and laughed as I traveled through Buddy’s story. What makes it interesting is that it is written through a dog’s perspective but the story felt so real and believable as if it was written by a furry friend itself. W. Bruce Cameron takes readers into a dog’s mindset and allows them to view things in a different point of view; a simpler point of view. While reading this book, I could not help but wonder how my dog thinks about me. This book also speaks for troubled teens and offers them solutions. It provides the society an understanding of the reason behind a teen’s action. In addition, W. Bruce Cameron humorous and catchy writing style caught my attention and kept me turning the pages.

I would recommend this book to a dog lover, a non-dog lover, or even someone who is deciding to get a dog. Moreover, I would recommend this book to any teenager that needs help, but is too shy to ask. Also, for the people who work hard to rescue, foster, and save animals, this book would give you the reasons to continue your effort.

Reference :

Cameron,B.W, (2012) A Dog’s Journey. Available from: http://www.brucecameron.com/books/a-dogs-journey [Accessed: 9th September 2015]

Cameron,B.W,(2012) A Dog’s Journey. Available from: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13167796-a-dog-s-journey [Accessed: 9 September 2015]

Cameron, B.W,(2012), A Dog’s Journey:A Novel. Available from: http://www.librarything.com/work/12294886/reviews/115477366 [Accessed: 9 September 2015]

Betrayed by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast - Xin Ying

My most unforgettable book is Betrayed which is a work of fiction by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast. It is House of Night Novels Volume 2. This book reached 150 top selling books in USA Today and lasted for 58 weeks. The reason I like this book is because of the paranormal romance.

“I'm not perfect, and I'm not going to pretend to be.”, said by Zoey Redbird. My favourite character of this book is Zoey Redbird. She is the new leader for Dark Daughters. The reason why she is my favourite character is because, she never sought the limelight, she just want to fit in. Zoey is not a perfect person, she feels rather overwhelmed with guilt when she upsets or hurt those whom she cares.

My favourite part of this book is the time while she was preparing for her first ritual as a new leader of Dark Daughters, some of the football players from the ‘Local High’ started to go missing. One after another, the kidnapped turn up as murder victims. The boys died in ways like severe lacerations. Zoey believes that a human has murdered the boys, but trying to make it look as vampire attacks. She starting to investigate who is murdering the boys. There are a lot of mysterious parts. I love to guess and be teased to what is going to happen next. It is very surprise while the killer is announced.

On the other hand, I dislike some points of this book such as there is a lot of characters that I need to memorise to smoothen my readings. It is difficult to memorize all of the characters in one time. Moreover, the ending of this book makes me feel frustrated and cliff-hanger. I did not get any message from the ending which I have been looking forward for so long.

Lastly, I would recommend this book to young readers who like paranormal romance genre. Readers should start from the first series or the readers will get confused due to the complexity of characters.

References:

Cast. P.C., (2015) Betrayed: A House of Night Novel and Summary & Study Guide. Available from:http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-betrayed/#gsc.tab=0 [Accessed: 9 September 2015]

Cast, P.C & Cast. K, (n.d.) House Of Night. Available from :http://www.houseofnightseries.com/books/betrayed/ [Accessed: 9 September 2015]

Shrinking Violet by Jean Ure - Chris

Although I’m not an avid reader, but there is one book that I like to read and it is Shrinking Violet by Jean Ure. This story talks about the twin sisters, Violet and Lily. They may look alike but they have different personalities. Violet is the main character of this story who is a shy and timorous person. Her parents are worried for Violet as she intends of not having many friends. “She lives very much in Lily’s shadow”, (Ure. J,2000) and got her nickname as shrinking Violet. However, Lily is quite the opposite.Violet’s dad calls her Lily, Loudmouth because her voice can be heard every time she talks with her friends on the phone and everywhere she goes when she hangs out with the family. One day, Violet found a pen friend, Katie through girls’ magazine. She and Katie started off immediately by sending e-mails one another every week, but Violet twists some of her details that are half truth by taking some of Lily’s character. She did that in order for Katie not to think something weird about her. However, what is even more surprising is that Katie also has secrets of her own which she intends on telling Violet once they get to meet.

One thing I like about this book is that it really reflects on our teenage lives every day. The letters that Violet and Katie wrote to each other consists of jokes and funny stories. Sometimes they even drew some funny pictures.The story also express very well about the fears and concerns of the younger generation today. Furthermore, I love reading Jean Ure’s books as the author writes her stories in a creative way.

One thing that I would like to emphasize is that the story could be more interesting to read if the author could add some funny scenes where readers get to enjoy and feel more for the characters. Lastly, the message that I got from the book is being the real you towards others. By being true to yourself, people would accept the way you are. That’s how I get from reading the book.

Reference:

Ure.J, (2002), Shrinking Violet. Available from: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shrinking-Violet-Jean-Ure/dp/0007143907 [Accessed: 9 September 2015]

Ure.J, (2002), Shrinking Violet. Available from: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/u/jean-ure/shrinking-violet.htm [Accessed: 9 September 2015]

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - Zoro

One of the most interesting book I have read was unique in it’s description of writing which is a book titled Of Mice and Men. The novel was actually published in 1937 and written by an American author, John Steinbeck who is known for his style of literature as a prominent writer in the twenties and onwards. The novel was rated 5 out of 5 by Common Sense Media which shows the successful attempt by Steinbeck. The book started off with these two characters: The small and witty, George Milton with his special companion ‘the gentle giant’ Lennie as the author uncovers their hardship and struggle as low-classed Americans with a big to own their own land together. As the two find themselves in a uncharted teritory, readers will understand the true definition of companionship, loneliness and power as they only had each other to depend on. The setting evolves around the countryside of America based on Steinbeck’s background. Conflicts rises with twists and turns throughout the novel as George tries to keep 'childish' Lennie grounded from the chaotic life.

The most engaging character for me was George himself due to the fact that he has a very fatherly-like figure towards Lennie as the writer conveys how logical he is with his thoughts and tries to avoid mischief despite Lennie’s strange acts. The character George takes charge of being as a guardian for Lennie who suffers from a mental disorder that affected him to be in a child-like behaviour.

The short novel is definitely a ‘must-read’ for those who are engrossed with the thirst for drama. It teaches us many lessons and gives us a reality check as readers to what people had to sacrificed for survival in a life back during the days before. Additionally allowing the readers to have appreciation and understanding towards the culture of the American society.

Reference:

SparkNotes Editors, (2007) SparkNote on Of Mice and Men. Available from: http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/micemen/ [Accessed: 11 September 2015]

Girl Online by Sugg. Z. - Annie Gan

With me not being a keen reader and all, I found it quite hard to choose a favourite book. This was until I remembered how captivated I was to Girl Online by Youtube sensation, Zoe Sugg. The novel is currently positioned 7th in the New York Times Bestseller under the Young Adult category. It was also the fastest selling book of 2014 and broke the record of the most book sold in the first week for a debut author since records began. Zoe has written this novel in order to communicate to her readers about the consequences of anxiety and provides her own tips on panic attacks, also to include the struggles faced in school and teenage romance in order to relate to her young readers. She writes under a sixteen year-old character, Penny who shows similarities to Zoe’s own personality.

Under the alias Girl Online, Penny blogs her hidden feelings about friendship, boys, her quirky family and the panic attacks that has begun to take over her life. When things take a turn from bad to worse, her parents decided to take a trip from Brighton to New York for work purposes. Where she meets Noah: a gorgeous, guitar strumming American. Suddenly, Penny is in love and she captures her journey on her blog. Receiving a lot of positive feedback from her followers, she decided to write more about her love life still under an anonymous name to keep cover of her real identity. However, Noah has a secret that threatens to ruin Penny’s cover, and her closest friendship forever.

Even though, I may not have exactly been through what Penny has been through; I still felt like the story was easy to relate to as it not only focuses on the storyline, but through her emotions, we are able to feel how she felt in her situation and put ourselves in her shoes. I recommend this book to anyone who would like a light read but still enough to make them experience different emotions.

Reference:

Sugg. Z, (2014) Girl Online. Available from:

http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/2015-01-18/young-adult/list.html [Accessed: 11 September 2015]

Campaign Strategies and Activities to Cultivate #ReadingHabits

Readers obtain a lot of useful information while reading. Besides that, reading increases growth of accumulated knowledge and also improve the rate of literacy skills. According to the statistics from the National Library, Malaysians only read an average of 14 books a year. “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies” said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.” said by George R.R. Martin. Well, there is nothing wrong with reading a book you love over and over again. Therefore, we should encourage people to read more.

If our group is organizing a campaign, our first action is to set up a comfortable reading environment by forming an alliance with local coffee shops. Environment is the decisive factor for a reader to engage in a book. Who would want to read in a distractive and noisy environment? For example, most readers prefer reading indoors than outdoors because the glaring and humid surrounding makes it hard for them to focus and appreciate the context. Apart from than that, reading in a calm and comfortable area provides relaxation and offers readers an escape from the hustle and bustle of a city’s life. Therefore, we should prepare a pleasant reading spot for reader with adequate lightings and cosy sits. In addition, we could also provide them with some light refreshments, snacks and refreshing drinks, so that they will enjoy the reading experience and keep on reading in the future.

Moreover, we could reward passionate readers that read the most books in a period of time. This will encourage readers especially young ones to read more in order to be rewarded. Besides, we would team up with the school authorities to reinforce and promote the NILAM programme in primary schools and secondary schools. Other than that, we could also request readers to donate their old books to the nearest local library, so that the variety of books in the library could multiply. This enables other readers to have a chance read a variation of books without needing to purchase it. Additionally, the idea of recycling and reusing can be applied to old or used books so that the book would still have its reading value.

Organising fun games such as Scrabbles and word hunt would be enlightening for

children and adults to participate in our reading campaign. The objectives of these games is to let them know more about the advantages of reading. Apart from that, we can also share our favourite books with students and make reading fun and creative. Our minds easily visualise things , due to our ability to imagine and visualise the settings while reading a book. When you read with love and passion, you are able to escape from the reality into a story that is interesting.

Furthermore, in order to encourage Malaysians to read books, we can promote it through social media like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others. Then, slowly it will be a trend to read oftenly. In school, teachers and parents play a significant role to inspiring students to read books. Teachers and parents should set up themselves as role models for students to look up to. Reading improves your language, writing skills, gives you information of latest news and trends that are happening worldwide. Wattpad is an app which Malaysians can utilise to read and compose their own stories. By doing this, the rate of average reading in Malaysia will increase.

In any case, we will make an effort to collaborate with bookstores such as, Popular, MPH and Borders to provide promotions for readers, as an example, a 10-30% discount would be given on the purchase of the second book. Book fairs such as Big Bad Wolf should also be held more frequently to cultivate reading habits in Malaysians. Such action makes reading materials more affordable, thus prompts people to purchase more and book sales would be on the rise. On top of that, it contributes to the success of our reading campaign.

Dr.Seuss stated that, "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go." All in all, there are a lot of benefits for reading, we should not stop reading in order to grow more. As Jim Rohn stated that, “Miss a meal if you have to, but don’t miss a book!”.

Source: 52 Weeks of Habbits,http://www.52weeksofhabits.com/2013/05/21/week-1-daily-reading-habit/

Reference:

Goodreads, (n.d.), Quotes about Reading. [online], Available from:http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/reading, [Accessed: 9 September 2015]

Rohn.J, (n.d.), (n.t.) Available from: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/65094-miss-a-meal-if-you-have-to-but-don-t-miss [Accessed: 9 September 2015]

South Dakota State Library. (n.d.) How to Encourage Reading. Available from: http://library.sd.gov/LIB/CYS/tipsheets/encourage.aspx#.VfArRtOqqko [Accessed: 9 September 2015]

Roles:

Editor - Zoriff

Writers - Xin Ying, Christie

Researchers - Sanmantha, Annie