The boy next door
The authors of the book are: Josie Lloyd & Emlyn Rees
Title
The title of this book is: The boy next door. The authors choose this title for the novel, because Fred was "the boy next door" for Mickey. They spent a lot of their childhood together, because they were neighbours.
Pages
The book has 293 pages.
Year
The novel was first published in 2001.
Setting
The story takes place in the 1980s and also fifteen years later (about 1995). The story takes place in Rushton, a village in England and in a town in England, but its name hasn’t been told. It’s a love affair.
Plot
Fred is about to get married to Rebecca, but then he bumps into Mickey, his best friend and first love from the past. Mickey is a single mother and has a son, Joe. She has her own flower shop. At first Fred doesn’t know how to react, because he let his past behind him (later in the book you’ll find out why. It’s about his strange dad, Miles, who killed someone and later killed himself). After the weird meeting after fifteen years in the toy store, Fred decides to get in touch with Mickey. They see each other a few times and they both have a nice time. Fred also likes Joe and vice versa. Mickey is starting to fall in love again with Fred and Fred is also a bit falling in love with Mickey, but he’s getting married in a few weeks! They don’t tell each other about their feelings. When Mickey and Joe make a trip to Rushton, the place where Mickey and Fred lived when they were young, Fred comes also to visit. Together they drag up nice stories from their childhood. They are almost having sex, until Mickey decides that it isn’t good when they’ll have sex. It’s not good for Joe, not for Fred, not for Rebecca and not for herself, because then she really would be in love with him again and they can’t have a relationship because of Rebecca. Fred thinks she’s right, but when he comes home again he tells Rebecca that he can’t marry her because of Mickey. In the end Fred tells Mickey (through long-winded ways) that she should meet him and “if you want to, you’d know where.” Mickey goes to Rushton, to the place where they first kissed, but he isn’t there.
In the beginning years of Janie’s life, there were two people who she is dependent on. Her grandmother is Nanny, and her first husband is named Logan Killicks. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, “Janie, an attractive woman with long hair, born without benefit of clergy, is her heroine” (Forrest). Janie’s grandmother felt that Janie needs someone to depend on before she dies and Janie could no longer depend on her. In the beginning, Janie is very against the marriage. Nanny replied with, “’Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have, baby, its protection. ...He done spared me...a few days longer till Ah see you safe in life” (Hurston 18). Nanny is sure to remind Janie that she needs a man in her life for safety, thus making Janie go through life with that thought process.
Though Janie had three marriages in total, each one drew her in for a different reason. She was married off to Logan Killicks by her Grandmother who wanted her to have protection and security. “Tain’t Logan Killicks Ah wants you to have baby, its protection.” (Hurston 15) says Janie’s grandmother when Janie said she did not want to marry Logan. Though Janie did not agree with her grandmother, she knew that she just wanted what’s best for her. Next, she married Joe Starks, Janie was unsatisfied with her marriage to Logan so Joe came in and swept her off her feet. Janie did not like the fact that Logan was trying to make her work, so Joe’s proposition, “You ain’t never knowed what it was to be treated like a lady and ah want to be de one tuh show yuh.” (Hurston 29) was too good to pass up, so she left Logan and married Joe. Janie’s last marriage was to Tea Cake. Fed up after having been treated poorly by Joe, Janie finally found someone who liked her for who she was. “Naw, ...
The beginning of Janie’s marriage to Joe shows promise and adventure, something that young Janie is quickly attracted to. She longs to get out of her loveless marriage to Logan Killicks and Joe’s big dreams captivate Janie. Once again she hopes to find the true love she’s always dreamed of. Joe and Janie’s life is first blissful. He gives her whatever she wants and after he becomes the mayor of a small African American town called Eatonville, they are the most respected couple in town. Joe uses his newfound power to control Janie. When she is asked to make a speech at a town event, she can’t even get out a word before Joe denies her the privilege. He starts making her work in the store he opens and punishes her for any mistakes she makes. He enjoys the power and respect her gets when o...
The two, both dealing with the loss of someone tremendously important and close to them, would be better off supporting each other, but instead they break away from their bond and deal with the pain alone. Since “[Henry] and Marty hadn’t talked much since the funeral,” (Ford 9), “it made the hole in Henry’s life that much larger,” (Ford 9). Not too many years after Ethel’s death, and after awkward and unfamiliar encounters between father and son, Marty introduces his father to Samantha, Marty’s fiancée. Henry is overjoyed that Marty wants to show him a part of his life, and the three start to uncover Henry’s past, bringing them all closer. Finally restoring their bond, Marty and Henry find that it’s easier to cope with their loss of Ethel than to ignore the grief like they had
At age sixteen, Janie is a beautiful young girl who is about to enter womanhood and experience the real world. Being joyous and unconcerned, she is thrown into an arranged marriage with Logan Killicks. He is apparently unromantic and unattractive. Logan is a widower and a successful farmer who desires a wife who would not have her own opinions. He is set on his own ways and is troubled by Janie, who forms her own opinions and refuses to work. He is unable to sexually appeal or satisfy Janie and therefore does not truly connect with her as husband and wife should. Janie's wild and young spirit is trapped within her and she plays the role of a silent and obeying wife. But her true identity cannot withhold itself for she has ambitions and she wills to see the world and find love. There was a lack of trust and communication between Logan and Janie. Because of the negative feelings Janie has towards Logan, she deems that this marriage is not what she desires it to be. The pear tree and the bees had a natural att...
Janie’s first attempt at love does not turn out quite like she hopes. Her grandmother forces her into marrying Logan Killicks. As the year passes, Janie grows unhappy and miserable. By pure fate, Janie meets Joe Starks and immediately lusts after him. With the knowledge of being wrong and expecting to be ridiculed, she leaves Logan and runs off with Joe to start a new marriage. This is the first time that Janie does what she wants in her search of happiness: “Even if Joe was not waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good…From now on until death she was going to have flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything” (32). Janie’s new outlook on life, although somewhat shadowed by blind love, will keep her satisfied momentarily, but soon she will return to the loneliness she is running from.
& nbsp;   ; Second, Janie sees Logan Killicks' perception of marriage. In the beginning it appears to Janie that Logan is a very nice gentleman, who is. constantly treating her well. However, as time goes on, Janie sees Logan's the "true colors" of the.
As the novel begins, Janie walks into her former hometown quietly and bravely. She is not the same woman who left; she is not afraid of judgment or envy. Full of “self-revelation”, she begins telling her tale to her best friend, Phoeby, by looking back at her former self with the kind of wistfulness everyone expresses when they remember a time of childlike naïveté. She tries to express her wonderment and innocence by describing a blossoming peach tree that she loved, and in doing so also reveals her blossoming sexuality. To deter Janie from any trouble she might find herself in, she was made to marry an older man named Logan Killicks at the age of 16. In her naïveté, she expected to feel love eventually for this man. Instead, however, his love for her fades and she beco...
Although their love has endured through many years, it has come to an end in the story. All throughout the story the couple is reminiscing about their life and while they are there are some odd details that are strewn throughout.
When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton, the protagonist of the story, is into girls with the name “Katherine.” And when it comes to dating a Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Ironically, the day that Colin graduated high school, Katherine XIX had dumped him. Colin was beyond upset. Katherine XIX was the only Katherine he had truly ever loved out of the other eighteen he had dated in the past. Just as any other dumpee, (the person being dumped), Colin spends his days locked in his room, doing nothing, but think of Katherine XIX. One day, Colin’s best friend, Hassan, comes over to visit him since he last saw Colin on graduation day. He sees that Colin is depressed and Hassan does not like the idea that his best friend thinks his life is over just because of a break-up. While trying to cheer Colin up, Hassan says that there is one simple solution to solve his sorrow. But before Hassan could say anything, Colin interjected “What about a road trip?” Hassan found it to be a great idea, but his parents were not liking the idea. His parents had tried to talk him out of him by saying that if he wanted to become smarter, he needed to stay home. Colin still didn’t budge and before he knew, he was already packing his stuff and heading to Hassan’s car. Hassan too, needed to inform his parents about the road trip. Hassan was afraid that if he tried to persuade his parents to let him go, they would still not allow. Colin insisted that he just lie to them and say that he was g...
The wedding is celebrated an hour away from her hometown, so they are going to travel on a train. Every night, she would think about the long train ride over, but knew in the end, she would be away from the awful town. John Henry, her six-year-old cousin, always follows her around everywhere that she goes. He told her that he was running away with her, where ever she decided to go. After realizing that her brother was not going to let her stay with them, she runs away into the night. J...
The fictional life and death of a twelve year old little boy named Robert is vividly articulated in this moving tale by Thomas Wolfe. The reader learns of the boy’s life through four well developed points of view. The reader’s first glimpse into Robert’s character is expressed through a third person narrative. This section takes place on a particularly important afternoon in the boy’s life. The second and third views are memories of the child, through the eyes of his mother and sister. His mother paints the picture of an extraordinary child whom she loved dearly and his sister illustrates the love that the boy had for others. Finally, an account from the narrator is given in the ending. It is in the last section of this work that the narrator attempts to regain his own memories of his lost brother.
The Sudanese Civil war in 1987 broke out in southern Sudan and forced over twenty thousand young boys to flee from their families and villages. The young boys, most only six or seven years old, fled to Ethiopia to escape death or induction. They travelled thousands of miles before reaching the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. The survivors of this tragic migration became known as the Lost Boys of Sudan. Without the aid of the refugee camps and the support of America, the Lost Boys would not be educated, as successful as they are today or even alive.
Lost boy is a follow up to Dave Pelzer’s book A Child Called It. This Novel Is a Auto-biography by Dave Pelzer. It follows his experiences in the foster care system. After being taken from his mother Dave goes from one foster home to another and he describes his life there.
Nicholas Sparks’ book, The Best of Me, tells the story of two lovers-Amanda and Dawson- who grew to love one another at a young age. Both characters live in the same place geographically, but are in different worlds. Dawson lives in a trailer park and his family has a history of causing trouble around town, while Amada lives in a large house with an affluent family. Despite their differences, they come to fall deeply in love with each other. Once Amanda’s mother catches wind of her love interests, she insists that she end it. Amanda’s plans are different; she plans to run away with Dawson, but in the end they go separate ways. Years later they return to the place where their love once bloomed in hopes that it may be restored.