The Foreshadowing

The Foreshadowing By Marcus Sedgwick 291 pages It is 1915, a few months after the start of World War I. Seventeen-year-old Sasha is a sheltered English girl. Just as her brother, Thomas, longs to be a doctor, Sasha wants to become a nurse. As the hospital fills with young soldiers, she gets a chance to help. But working in the wards confirms what Sasha has suspected. She has a terrible gift: she can see the future. And as with Cassandra, the prophetess of Troy, no one believes her. Sasha's premonitions show her the horrors of the battlefields of the Somme and the faces of the soldiers who will die. One of them is her brother. In this riveting story, Sasha risks her own life as she races to find Thomas and-somehow-prevent his death. summary from the inside cover of The Foreshadowing This is a historical fiction book with an interesting spin on it. I liked it very much. Alexandra is an English girl with two older brothers when World War I breaks out. Her eldest brother, Edgar joins the army immediately, while her other, Thomas goes to medical school. Left alone with her parents, Alexandra begins to confirm a suspicion she'd had for years, she can see the future. It's a terrible gift, because she can only see people's death. Then, at Christmas time they get a card from Edgar saying he's fine. That night Edgar speaks to Alexandra telling her how he died. In the morning a telegram comes saying he's dead. Grieving, Alexandra realizes things could be much worse. Then Thomas joins the army and is sent to France. Alexandra begins having dreams of his death, and since nobody believes her, she takes matters into her own hands and tries to save him. It's a very interesting book because parts of it are very much about this magical sort of ability, while others are very much about the horrors of war. I liked it because it gives a very different twist to war and mystical powers. It also shows how important family can be for people. Rating: 4 Stars -kkuhar

The Classics: Wuthering Heights

Author Bio:

Emily Bronte was born on July 30, 1818 in Thornton, Bradford in Yorkshire, England.  She was the fourth daughter of Maria Branwell who died three years after her birth.  In 1824 Emily and her four sisters Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, and Anne entered the Clergy Daughter's School at Cowan Bridge where Maria and Elizabeth died a year later.  She and her two remaining sisters are best known for their novels and poetry.  In 1842 they went to the Penisonnat Heger in Belgium where they studied French, German, and literature in the hopes of someday opening their own school.  Emily left to go home first but by 1845 the sisters had given up their dream and were all together again.  It was Charlotte's idea to begin publishing their work and Wuthering Heights was published in 1847, one year before Emily's death on December 19, 1848.  
Citation:
Merriman, C. D. "Emily Bronte - Biography and Works." The Literature Network: Online Classic Literature, Poems, and Quotes. Essays & Summaries. Web. 06 Aug. 2010. .

Review:

Wuthering Heights
367 pages


"Emily Bronte's dark, brooding vision finds expression in her masterpiece of passion and force.  Her only novel, Wuthering Heights, published a year before  her death in 1848 at the age of thirty, stands as perhaps the most intensely original work in the English language.  In it Emily Bronte records the story of the passionate love between Catherine Earnshaw and the wild Heathcliff with such truth, imagination and emotional intensity that a plain tale of the Yorkshire Moors acquires the depth and simplicity of an ancient tragedy."


summary from the back of Wuthering Heights (Penguin Classics, 1985 paperback edition)


This book might be a little confusing because it involves  more than one generation of a family.  Many of them have the same name and how they are related can be confusing too.  The book is mainly about Heathcliff and how he affected so many people.  I really like the book but there were parts where I found myself wishing it would just get to the point.  It always made me want to know more about the characters and what would happen to them next.  Heathcliff was a frustrating character for me because I would want to hate him for everything he's done but then he would show you how much pain he was in over Catherine.  I don't really understand how he justified to himself what he did.  In the end I did like the book even though it was kind of weird. Rating: 4 stars


-mnm1309

Dead Girls Don't Write Letters

Dead Girls Don't Write Letters
144 pages

Sunny Reynolds' older sister Jazz died when her apartment building lit on fire.  Sunny's family is broken by her death.  So when months later, Sunny receives a letter from her sister, she is more than a little surprised.  The thing is, the person who shows up at their door isn't her sister and Sunny has to find out who this person is and what she wants with her family.

my own summary

Dead Girls Don't Write Letters by Gail Giles was a really surprising book.  Its a quick read, I read it one afternoon after school.  The author builds up all of the clues until you think you know who the girl is and what will happen at the end and then surprises you.  I really liked the ending and it was totally unexpected.  I would definitely recommend reading this book.
Rating: 4 stars

Tell us what you think, comment!

-mnm1309