Second Quarter Book Review

Outside Reading Book Review: Second Quarter

Left Behind by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Tyndale House Publishers, 1995

Genre: Fiction

Left Behind is about God’s Rapture and how Rayford Steele is trying to find a way into Heaven, so he can be with his wife and kids. The setting of the story is the United States and the United Nations. Also there is a journalist, Buck Williams, get tricked into making Carpathia, leader of all of the countries.

“Even those who are not connoisseurs of fiction will be gripped by this novel,” wrote Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer, Chicago

Rayford Steel takes his wife’s suggestion and goes to church to find out more information about the Rapture. He wants to know why God did this and what will happen to those ‘left behind.’ To be ‘left behind’ means that god didn’t take you to heaven with him because you’re faith in him wasn’t pure. I have started to read the second book of the series, Tribulation Force. The second book is about the gathering of people who want to get into Heaven, so they have to figure out a way to survive the next seven years of the Rapture. The people just want to be with their friends and families. The story is written through the eyes of the characters, Rayford, Buck, Carpathia, Hattie, and Chloe.

“’ And you think that this was God’s doing?” said Chloe not disrespectfully”’

I absolutely loved this book. I can’t wait to read the rest of the series. I have all of the books. Once I finish reading the series, I am going to find other books written by Tim LaHaye. The way the plot is written just pulls you into the story. The details are amazing, so amazing that I could actually see myself in the story.

What would you choose, money or your family?

What is valuable to you? Your MP3? Your game system? Your family? Spending time with your family? Most people think that expensive items are the most valuable items to them, but sometimes that isn’t true. Some people think that spending time with the people who love and care for you is valuable. Family members are supposed to help you out in need and love you for everything you do. Expensive items may cost money and mean something to you but think about how much your family has given back to you. Now what do you think is valuable?

It was November; it was windy outside on the middle of football season. I was sitting on the couch at my grandparents’ historic house and my father calls me into the kitchen. I walked downstairs and across the hall into the kitchen. The kitchen smelled of warm soup and pot roast. When I walked in I saw my father leaning against the counter hold an envelope with his name written on it. He opens the envelope with a knife and pulls out two rectangular pieces of thick paper. I told me that they were the club seat $300 tickets to the next Cleveland Browns home football game. He asked me if I wanted to go since he had two tickets and I exclaimed loudly that I wanted to go. The game was going to be the Cleveland Browns versus the Indianapolis Colts.

The day of the game came around and my father was telling me that the game was going to be a little windy. He told me to wear long pants and a sweatshirt. Our seats were in the club section, so we were going to be up three levels from the field, where we could easily see the whole field. Our seats were also on the lake side, which means that we were sitting on the side of the stadium that was closest to Lake Erie so we wouldn’t get as much wind but we still got some.

Once we got to the stadium, we had to find the gate that was closest to our seats and to the elevator. Once we found the elevator and went up it, we would be inside the club. The club was filled with tables and food, had lots of TVs that showed the game, and it was heated inside since it was closed off from the rest of the stadium. When I looked around I understood why the tickets for the club seats were $250 each. My grandpa has season tickets to the club seats so that is why my father and I had club seat. The game started at 6:05 pm and it was only 5:30 pm I decided to go out to see the football field. I could see all of the football players practicing on the Astro-turf. The fake, realistic looking field was glistening from the sprinkling that Cleveland had experienced. The Astro-turf was out in so the football uniforms wouldn’t get covered in stains from being tackled hard, stepped on, or just being crushed by six football players trying to get the ball.

6:05 came way too fast and kick-off happened and before I knew what was happening the game was over. The Cleveland Browns beat the Colts and adding another victory to their record. I didn’t want to leave the stadium, I wanted to stay a little longer so I could take in a little more of the field and my first experience at a professional football game.

Every school vacation I go to Ohio to visit the side of my family I don’t get to see so often. I love spending time with my grandparents and friends. I have so many memories of going to places with my grandma. Last vacation my grandma, my brother and I went museum hopping. The first museum we went to was the Historical Society Museum. We got to look at all of the old cars and some new cars in the car display. There were, at least, 60 cars and 10 boats. The most interesting boat that I saw there was the Tinkerbell. A man traveled across the Atlantic Ocean in a small cramped boat where he had to kneel and only enough space for himself and supplies. The second museum we went to was the art gallery. There were so many different paintings and pictures. My grandma and I both loved the painting painted with gunpowder but we despised the whole modern art section. The modern art made no sense to us at all in any way. The last museum we went to was the Natural History Museum. It was filled with dinosaur bones, other prehistoric creatures, displays of animals, and an outdoors section where the birds, raccoons, foxes, and other wildlife was kept. It was the most exciting thing my brother and I have had with our grandma in a long time. We have never had so much fun exploring museums or even just spending quality time with grandma. My grandpa was too busy with work to come with us and my father didn’t come with us to Ohio that time.

Since my brother and I always play our Xbox 360 instead of spending time with our family, my grandma thought of an idea to bring all of us together. She came up with renting movies to watch every night before we went to bed. We only watched comedy movies since no one in the family, except me, likes horror movies. We had a great time watching the movies together as a family.

Both of the items that I value a lot are very similar. Both items have me sharing enjoyable and happy moments together. The Cleveland Browns Football game was in Cleveland, which is right down the road from my grandparents’ house. I love spending time with family and friends. The Cleveland Browns game and going museum hopping and watching movies with my grandma may be similar but they are also different. The ticket to the game may have been $300 but spending time with my family is priceless. Money and expensive objects cannot buy my family. I love my family too much to give them up for money, jewelry, and other pricey items.

Summer Reading Essay

Daisy- How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Ender- Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

When Daisy gets back from England, her step mom signs her up to go into space to be in the Alien Fighters Army. Daisy refuses to go but her step mom is an evil step mom so she lies to her husband and tell her that Daisy is going on a trip. Daisy’s father, of course, tells her to pack for her trip. Daisy packs up her stuff and walks out to the front yard, where a spaceship in waiting for her. She gets on to the loading dock and waves to her father.

“Good-bye, Dad. Since you don’t believe me, I’ll get going!!!!” yelled Daisy from the ship.

“See you when you get back,” yelled Daisy’s father. Daisy waves for the last time and walks away from the door.

As Daisy is leaving Earth, Ender is commanding all of the people who work for him. He is setting up new armies and planning new strategies to beat the buggers, if they ever come back to take over Earth. Ender is lonely in space with no one to share his glory with. He wishes that he had some one to be with, to love, to have a relationship with.

“Ender? Are you there?” asks Harold.

“Yes. What do you want?” responses Ender.

“The new recruits are here,” says Harold.

“Ok. I want to meet these new recruits,” says Ender

“Sure” Harold says as he leaves out the door with Ender

Daisy gets to the station, confused and interested by what she sees around her. One of the Officers tells her where she will be staying while 15 other people from the flight. She follows the light pattern the Officers told her to follow (purple, green, green). She notices that the luggage is carried on some sort of large hover board. She wonders why this kind of technology isn’t on Earth. After she gets into the room and gets settled in, everyone goes to the cafeteria to meet the Commander.

“What is for lunch?” asks Daisy

“Pizza, milk, peaches, and a pudding cup,” responses Patrick. Patrick is one of the new people Daisy has met aboard the station.

Ender walks out of his office to go meet the new recruits. Ender is only 16 years old so he is pretty young for a Commander. Most Commanders take command when they are 25-30 years of age so he’s really young. He gets to the cafeteria and stops at the door. He fixes his custom made suit before walking through the door.

“Hello everyone. I am Commander Ender. I am glad that all of you have decided to join us to fight the Buggers if they come back. Here on this Station you will learn how to defy gravity, shoot a laser, and fight Buggers.” Ender tells all of the new recruits. Ender goes off and talks to some of the Officers.

Ender looks at the new recruits and sees Daisy. He looks at her for a while but when she looks up and sees Ender looking at her she feels something rising in her heart. She doesn’t know what she’s feeling but she knows it’s a good feeling.

“Wow! Look at Commander Ender, he’s so young. I think he’s 16, the same age as most of us. Supposedly he’s a genius and that’s why he’s Commander,” exclaimed Daisy

“He is young, and I heard that he was a genius too,” replied Patrick

After lunch, Daisy and the other recruits go off to their classes. Although they are here for battle, they still get their needed education. Daisy has her new friend, Patrick, in all of her classes. All day during her classes Daisy was thinking about Commander Ender. She doesn’t know why she was thinking of him, she just couldn’t get him out of her mind. When it was time for bedtime, she finally thought of the reason why she couldn’t stop thinking of Commander Ender. She kept thinking about him because he reminder her a lot of Edward but at least Ender made something of his life and didn’t just sit at a window looking at flowers.

That night also, Ender couldn’t stop thinking about Daisy. He thought that she was very beautiful and graceful. The only problem about him liking Daisy is that she is a recruit and he is Commander. Everyone would think that it was weird that the Commander was dating a new recruit, but he just couldn’t stop thinking about her. He thought about how he’s only 16 years old and that he read that in Daisy’s profile, it said that she was 16 years old too. So he thought about how that wouldn’t be as weird because they are the same age.

The next day Daisy woke up when her alarm went off and she got dress for today’s activities. When she went to look at her desk she got a message from Commander Ender to come and meet him at his office. She reread it over 5 times making sure she read it right. Daisy was excited to talk to him but at the same time she was confused.

“Why does he want me to come to his office?” she thought to herself.

She opened up the door and walk down the hall to where Commander Ender’s office was. She knocked on the door and a voice from inside told her it was open, so she opened it and walked in.

“Hello Daisy. Please come in, sit down” says Ender. Daisy sits down in the chair next to her.

“Why did you call me her?” asked Daisy

“I wanted to talk to you about how you were in the war in England,” says Ender

“How did you know I was there?” questioned Daisy

“Well, our station has the most advanced technology in the world. So I know many things about almost everyone on this station,” responded Ender

“Ohh I didn’t know that,” says Daisy. When she looks at Ender she notices that he is wearing a tuxedo. She can’t believe that she is talking to Commander Ender.

“There is another reason why I called you down here. This might sound weird but since the moment I saw you I thought that you were beautiful and that I can’t stop thinking about you,” says Ender

“I can’t stop thinking about you either. You remind me of my cousin Edward and I also have all these feelings for you Commander Ender,” replies Daisy

Ender and Daisy stared deeply into each other’s eyes. Daisy leaned in and Ender leaned in and they romantically kissed. After they had kissed they talked some more about their lives and how much they have gone through. He told Daisy that he was only bored to become this great leader that would defeat the Buggers and one day become Commander. Daisy talked about her evil step mom and how many dead bodies she saw during the war when she was in England.

After a couple of months of being together they decided to leave the station and live together. After 3 years of living together they decided to get married and have children together. So they grew older together, raised their children, and stayed happy with each other.