Cathy's Book by Sean Stewart, Jordan Weisman, and Cathy Briggs is a break-out Young Adult first published September 12, 2006. A following of about 1000 members online of all ages and genders, it sold 6,000 copies in a meer 3 months of being published, and number 7 on the New York Times Best Seller list. And those are just the book's stats. Cathy herself is a very popular character with 1,200 friends on Myspace, 22 followers on Flickr, and 1,863 friends on Facebook. An impressive feat, considering she's a fictional character. After reading the book myself, I completely understand what all the hype is about. Cathy's book is a fully engrossing novel that blurs the lines between Young Adult genres and can definitely keep even the most hard-hearted of book critics distracted from their daily duties such as sleeping, eating, working, and the likes.
In Cathy's Book, our main character (by the name of the book I think you can guess her name's Cathy) meets Victor, the romantic interest. He's quick witted, seemingly perfect, and he's an older guy (scandalous). Cathy and Victor's relationship doesn't exactly end on a happy not; after their final date, Cathy wakes up with a needle mark on her arm (and of course her mom thinks she's on drugs. Insert eye-roll and a grunt that sounds suspiciously like the word "moms") and a message from Victor saying "I'm breaking up with you and never want to see you again." Suspicious? Totally. Cathy, not being the type to cry and let it go s̶n̶o̶o̶p̶i̶n̶g̶ investigating at Victor's house(the door was open so it's not technically Breaking and Entering, it's just entering), and gets herself caught up in a fast-paced mystery including murder, kidnapping, fake cops, real cops, and suspected drug dealers (I di...
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...nd read something like Fallen or Twilight. But if you're looking for a fantastic, addicting diary with a super fun and mysterious plot, characters you wish were real (and they could be with how realistic they were), and gorgeous doodles and pictures on every page, then pick up Cathy's Book and don't put it down until you're finished. And then possibly read it again.
Works Cited
Stewart, Sean, Jordan Weisman, and Briggs, Cathy. Cathy's Book: If Found Call (650) 266-8233. Running Press, 2006. Print. .
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Janet E. Gardner , Beverly Lawn , Jack Ridl , Peter Schakel. Boston: Bedford/St.Martin’s, 2013. 250-276. Print.
In today’s society you either have to work hard to live a good life, or just inherit a lump sum of cash, which is probably never going to happen. So instead a person has to work a usual nine to five just to put food on the table for their families, and in many cases that is not even enough. In the article, “Why We Work” by Andrew Curry, Curry examines the complexities of work and touches on the reasons why many workers feel unsatisfied with their jobs. Barbara Ehrenreich writes an essay called, “Serving in Florida” which is about the overlooked life of being a server and the struggles of working off low minimum wages. Curry’s standpoint on jobs is that workers are not satisfied, the job takes control of their whole life, and workers spend
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ed. Kelly J. Mays. 11th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 591-594. Print.
To begin, it is evident today that teenagers love being connected with their friends and family all at the tip of their thumbs. They love texting. According to a study by Amanda Lenhart, 88 percent of teens use a cell phone or smart phone of which 90 percent of them use text message. An average teen sends 30 texts per day. (Lenhart) As shown in this study, teens have easy access to text messaging. In her Ted talks called “Texting That Save Lives” and “The Heartbreaking Text That Inspired a Crisis Help Line,” Nancy Lublin talks about how she received disturbing text messages from young people that mentions how they’re being bullied, wanting to commit suicide, cutting themselves, and being raped by their father. She was exceedingly emotional when receiving these texts. She felt like she had to do something about it. So, with her knowledge about teens and the power of texting, Nancy Lublin created something that would help save these young kids’ lives, the Crisis Text Line. (“Texting”)(“Heartbreaking”)
and Fred Skolnik. 2nd ed. Vol. 17. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2007. 165-83. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 14 Jan. 2014. .
Kathryn Stockett's book The Help has sold over five million copies and has spent more than 100 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list. Stockett's book has also been made in to a major motion picture. The Help is a story about African American house maids based in 1960's Jackson, Mississippi. The story is told by three main women, Minny, Aibileen and Skeeter. Aibileen and Minny are both African-American maids, while Skeeter is the daughter of a privileged family. Aibileen is raising another white child by the name of Mae Mobley whose mother does not participate in her care. Minny is working for an outcast, newlywed, white woman who is keeping her employment a secret from her husband. Skeeter is working on becoming a journalist and takes the risk of interviewing Minny and Aibileen for her book that she publishes. All meetings are done in secret. All of the maids Skeeter interviews talk of a woman named Hilly, who holds the ideal that whites are superior to African-Americans and intends to get everyone in her “ladies group” ( in which Skeeter is a member) to join in the ideal and embrace it. Hilly is one of the specific antagonists in this story, which ends in her demise. This story describes everyone in Hilly’s circle to a T, but it is published with an anonymous author and the names get changed so that no one can figure out who wrote it. Most people will “rant and rave” that Stockett's book is an amazing story of the struggle for African American's in
Ed. Lynn Z. Bloom and Louise Z. Smith. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s, 2011. 494-507. Print.
The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 60, No. 3. Retrieved March 21, 2014.
In "The Rules of the Game," a short story about a young Chinese-American girl, Waverly Jong, embarks journey to become a chess master. Waverly's mother believes she is a key component during this journey. Even though the mother actually has no true role in Waverly's adventure, she continues to believe it is her as the one who is succeeding. This belief is a necessity for Waverly's mother because she has nothing for herself. Waverly's mother has to live through her daughter because of her own lack of success.
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At the age of ten, most children are dependent on their parents for everything in their lives, needing a great deal of attention and care. However, Ellen, the main character and protagonist of the novel Ellen Foster, exemplifies a substantial amount of independence and mature, rational thought as a ten-year-old girl. The recent death of her mother sends her on a quest for the ideal family, or anywhere her father, who had shown apathy to both she and her fragile mother, was not. Kaye Gibbons’ use of simple diction, unmarked dialogue, and a unique story structure in her first novel, Ellen Foster, allows the reader to explore the emotions and thoughts of this heroic, ten-year-old girl modeled after Gibbons’ own experiences as a young girl. Kaye Gibbons’ experiences as a child are the foundations for this.
William P. Cunningham . Ed. Marci Bortman, Peter Brimblecombe, and Mary Ann Cunningham . Vol. 1. 3rd ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=univca20&tabID=T003&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm¤tPosition=1&contentSet=GALE%7CCX3404800460&&docId=GALE|CX3404800460&docType=GALE
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