Tags: Books, Sherman Alexie
This entry was posted on November 29, 2011 at 4:26 pm and is filed under Native American Literature, Northwest Literature, Young Adult Fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
bachbooks 
September 25, 2013 at 8:37 am |
Summary:
The book Flight is about the story of boy called Zits, a kid who went from foster home to foster home, because his mom died when he was six years old and his dad abandoned his mother when he was born. Out all the foster parents he had none of them treated him well, so he would run away. The last time he ran away he got caught by the police and sent to jail, and that was where he met Justice and they became good friends. They lived together and would practice shooting. One day Zits decided he was going to shoot up a bank, and that’s where the whole story begins.
Evaluation:
What I liked about the book was that Sherman Alexie was not scared to express his thoughts and write them down in the book the way he wanted. He didn’t care if he was insulting anybody which made this book very exciting. Also, something I didn’t like was that some of his ideas were not explained very well, so the reader would have to imagine what happened next.
Rating: 4
Recommendations: Lockdown, Kick, Shooter
September 19, 2013 at 8:50 am |
Flight, by Sherman Alexie, is a story about a time traveling Indian experiencing different points in history. The main character “Zits” is a troubled Indian orphan who has been hopping through foster homes all his life, since the death of his mother and abandonment of his father. Every new foster home makes Zits more sour and self-centered. On his time traveling journey to discover his own identity Zits faces drastic mind changing moments affecting his overall decisions for the remainder of the story.
Flight is a hilarious and tragic story that requires a certain state of mind to enjoy. Flight‘s brutal qualities subject one to disturbing images while the funny (and also sometimes brutal) parts maintain a lighter read. Flight is written in a very informal tone; this makes the book feel more personal, as if Sherman Alexie was speaking to you.
Rating: 4
Recommendations: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
September 19, 2013 at 8:50 am |
“Zits” is an Indian orphan boy who has been living in more foster homes than I can count on my fingers. He’s violent, rough and has a big mouth. He’s smart, but doesn`t give a s***. This book is a journey through time and history, and just when you think you’ve figured it all out, the author tricks you and that’s the reason you just have to continue.
When reading the book, I felt emotions like anger, hope, hopelessness, irritation and compassion. You meet characters you will love and hate, people you want to help, or spit on. Sherman Alexie will shock you with words and stories, he will make you laugh and feel sick at the same time. After finishing the book, I figured out my life wasn’t that bad.
Rating: I would give it 5 out of 5, but it might be too vulgar for some.
Recommendations: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Indian Killer, Blasphemy.
September 19, 2013 at 8:49 am |
Summary: Flight is a book about a teenage Indian boy named Zits. Zits is an orphan and never manages to stay in one place for long; he is in and out of jail constantly, and on one such occasion he meets a boy who calls himself Justice. Justice later helps Zits escape from his foster home and teaches him to shoot. With this knowledge Zits walks into a bank and starts shooting people, he is shot in the head by a security guard and wakes up in a place he doesn’t recognize with a man he doesn’t know and realizes he himself is in a different body and has gone back in time. This happens several times within the book often with humorous or surprising results.
Evaluation: I thought this book had a good mix of humor and action. If you are a very serious person, I wouldn’t recommend this book to you, however if you are the opposite type of person, I think you will thoroughly enjoy this book for its humor and would recommend picking it up.
Rating: 3 stars
Recommendations: The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Rangers Apprentice
September 19, 2013 at 8:49 am |
Summary:
In Flight by Sherman Alexie, as you soon find out shortly after reading, the main character in this story is Zits. Zits is a troubled violent foster home hopping American Indian child. His parents are both gone, his only other family left him alone, and he gets tossed around juvenile jail cells from time to time. During one of his “visits” to the cell, he meets a white boy who calls himself “Justice”; Zits and his new friend then go to live in a warehouse for a while, everyday Justice would ask him about the old style Indian ghost dance and how it would take all the white men away. This leaves Zits with two guns and bank, and thus begins the story in story, of a time-traveling body-sharing Indian boy. He goes to the 70’s the early 1900’s and even more recent times that lead to life changing revelations. After his journey through time, Zits realizes that he is a changed man after all, that one can change from hate and violence to a happy and lovable kid.
Evaluation:
I usually don’t enjoy reading books, but this one had my attention from start to finish. Sherman’s use of words and language is amazing and well done, well worth all the praise. To me, the only bad part was the ending. My favorite part though, was when Zits was done with his travels through time and was back in present times, and he just happened to meet up with his old cop friend and turns himself in, this states the change in him, from violent and angry, to mostly happy and understanding.
Rating: 5 out of 5, great work.
Recommendations: Anything from Sherman Alexie is worth a read.
September 19, 2013 at 8:39 am |
Summary: Flight, by Sherman Alexie, is about a young half-Native boy called Zits, because of the lack of clear skin on his face. His father left when he was born, and his mother died when he was 6 years old. Since then, he has hopped from foster home to foster home, usually causing a ruckus, and running away. The last foster home he was in, he ran away, and got caught. He was then put into Juvi, where he meets Justice, a stark white lone wolf with bad intentions. He and Justice get along very well and later they live together for a bit; Justice teaches Zits to shoot a gun. Then, Justice persuades Zits to shoot out a bank. Standing in the bank, he shoots everyone, and the security guard puts a bullet in his skull -But he wakes up, in 1975, as an FBI agent -what has happened? After this, he is zapped to different events in history, and learns along the way, who he is, and what he should do.
Evaluation: I found the book actually fairly interesting, because it catered to my exploratory needs. It was a good way for readers to experience something they might not have ever experienced. It was really a wonderful example of all different emotions, with a good character guide along the way.
Rating: 5 out of 5.
Recommendations: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
September 19, 2013 at 8:36 am |
Summary: The book Flight by Sherman Alexie tells the story of an extremely troubled native boy who goes by the nickname Zits. At this point in his life, he is very confused. Anger, caused by a lack of parenting and care, has been building up inside of Zits for years. He makes an attempt to release some of this anger by shooting up a bank, killing innocent individuals. As he’s on his homicidal rampage, he is interrupted and transported: taken through time. His mind possesses the bodies of people who lived through important events that affected his life. However, he returns a new person, dramatically changed by what he has seen. He is given a new life and tries to make it the best he can, with as little violence as possible.
Evaluation: I thought this was a pretty good book for the most part. Alexie’s writing style isn’t necessarily complex or deep. In fact, it’s relatively straight-forward. However, it still has just as much emotion as any other book. I liked that Alexie combined humor with serious topics. Some areas of the book were slightly confusing, but there was nothing really wrong with it. I would definitely recommend it!
Rating: 4/5
Recommendations: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Street Pharm
September 19, 2013 at 8:35 am |
Summary: Flight is an interesting book about an orphan named Zits who has nobody in his life, and he bounces around from foster family to foster family. In a holding cell, he meets a kid he only knows as Justice, and Justice promises to free Zits from wherever they send him. When Justice frees him, they go to where Justice is staying and Justice convinces Zits to go shoot a bank full of people. While Zits is in the bank he teleports to another man’s body from the past. Zits then finds himself traveling through time to various points in history and to various places. When he finally does return to his own body he realizes he now knows more about himself than he ever knew before. Sherman Alexie does a great job keeping the readers interested in finding out where Zits is going to go next.
Evaluation: I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and the sense of humor Sherman Alexie used throughout Flight. I also liked the way he kept us on our toes and wanted us to keep reading and see where Zits went to next and what happened to him while he was there. I enjoyed the end and the surprise that Sherman Alexie gave us. I know I wasn’t expecting to find him switching bodies with the man he did and what happened while he was in that man’s body.
Rating: 4 stars
Recommendations: I would highly recommend this book to high school students.
September 19, 2013 at 8:35 am |
Summary:
Flight is a book about a kid named Zits, and he is a kid with pretty much nothing he has no parents he bounces from house to house. Zits is a character who doesn’t know who he is so he does a bunch of things that a regular young boy would not do, and he does these things without thinking. Zits meets this boy similar to him in some ways and this boy’s name is Justice. Zits and Justice meet when Zits ends up in jail, and one thing Justice promises Zits is that he will get Zits out of the bad place they are in together. So Justice and Zits go on this amazing journey and many things happen with these two characters. Throughout this book Zits’ inner self changes bodies with a man and a lot of interesting things happen when this occurs because a young boy’s inner self is switched into a grown man’s body.
Evaluation:
The book Flight was an interesting and a good book. Something that I liked about this novel was when Zits switched bodies with his father. I appreciate that because he needed to know who his father was and what he was like and how he left and all the things he found out when he was in his father’s body. Also I thought it was interesting with some of the things that Zits did such as go in that bank and start shooting innocent people because he was mad at the world. Overall I thought Sherman Alexie was a good author, and he has a good writing style, and he has a good sense of humor, and I was surprised at some of the things he put in this novel but it was interesting and it was a pretty good book.
Rating: 4 stars
Recommendations: Books by Sherman Alexie
September 19, 2013 at 8:34 am |
Summary:
Flight is a book about a boy named Zits, an orphan who bounces between fosters homes and struggles with the law. The story takes direction when Zits meets a kid named Justice who convinces Zits to kill a bunch of random people in a bank. Right as Zits is shot in the head by a security guard, and after quite a few innocent casualties, he is teleported through time periods of war and violence.
Evaluation
The book had some views of the author that I personally did not agree with, and the transformation of Zits character was so miniscule that I was not sure if he would make any different decisions when he returned back to the time he came from. That lack of insight given to the reader on Zits’ character made it hard to care if Zits would get a second chance or if he would come back right as he was getting shot in the head. I personally felt it ended to well for the would be murderer.
Rating 3/5 /:
Recommendation
I would recommend this book to anyone who is against any violence regardless of motives or circumstances and who has never lived on the street.
September 19, 2013 at 8:34 am |
Summary:
Flight is a book about a teenager who has had a very challenging and confusing life. Bouncing around cruel foster homes has lead him to crime and anger towards everyone. One day he makes an incredible journey which leaves him to make some very difficult decisions, and he finds out who he really is as a person.
Evaluation:
I really enjoyed the book Flight by Sherman Alexie, but I don’t think it’s a story for everyone. Most books teach you a valuable lesson at the end, but Flight does not. Instead it’s a story about a teenage boy who has been abandoned so many times that he turns to a life of crime. Then he makes an incredible turn around one day and his life goes up hill from there.
Rating: 4 stars
Recommendation: I recommend this book to anyone above the age of thirteen because the language is not appropriate for children, and they wouldn’t understand a lot of the situations within the book anyways.
January 27, 2013 at 4:11 pm |
Summary: Flight is a story about a fifteen year old boy from Seattle who goes by Zits because of all the zits on his face. He was abandoned by his father, and his mother died soon after, so he went into foster care where he was rejected countless times by the families. He turns to crime as a way to cope when he meets a boy named Justice who convinces him to take revenge on the white people.
Evaluation: This book was outstanding, no surprise as all of Sherman Alexie’s books are simply jaw dropping.
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Recommendations: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Blasphemy
January 22, 2013 at 5:20 pm |
Summary: This book is about a fifteen year old Indian boy in Seattle who goes by the name Zits. His mother died and his father left, forcing him into foster facilities. Despising his foster homes, he gets into trouble and ends up in jail where he meets his best friend, Justice. They run away together and rebel from the rest of society while residing in a vacant warehouse. One day, a confused Zits goes into a bank and supposedly opens fire until he takes a bullet to the head. Immediately after he is taken down he wakes up in a different body; in a different life. This happens multiple times as he realizes that he is seeing important historic events through other eyes to learn a grand lesson about who he is that will change his life forever. He eventually wakes up and is right where he was before the gunfight. He was given another chance as a new and improved Zits.
Evaluation: This book was actually a great read. It delivered serious emotion and triumph but was relayed in a clever and unique way that related to teenagers, making it easier to comprehend. Sherman Alexie never fails to impress me. Deep yet humorous. I recommend it.
Rating: 4 Stars
Recommendations: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Looking For Alaska, The Hunger Games
November 9, 2012 at 11:40 am |
Summary:
Flight is a coming of age book that describes the highs and lows of a young teenage Indian boy whose hellish life was changed by a series of events taking place at a bank. Bouncing between jail cells and foster homes, Zits is one angry, argumentative, and dysfunctional child, venting his anger out into the world. Unfortunately, because of the circumstances of his past and continuum of bad behavior Zits finds himself listening to a self-righteous boy named Justice who channels his anger into a plot for murder. Zits’ mind is brainwashed into thinking everyone around him is the reason why he has no family and no way of ever belonging. Consequently, this led to his final decision: the murder of innocent people or reconciliation of his past.
Evaluation:
Of all books, I never thought that there’d be one to have as much profanity in it and be as well written as Flight. I definitely loved this book and recommend it to anyone with a good sense of humor and who’s a sucker for sarcasm.
Rating: 5/5
Recommendations: The Giver by Lois Lowry
November 5, 2012 at 6:26 pm |
Summary: “Flight” is the story of a 15 year old Irish and Native American boy, named Zits, who struggles to find peace of mind with all that he’s been through. His mother died when he was little, and his father left the second he was born. Zits has been to many foster homes throughout his life, and he has hated and run away from every single one. Zits goes to jail often and once in jail he meets a boy named Justice. Just as Zits is about to carry out a horrible deed that Justice wants him to do, he is transported through time. Zits finds himself in the bodies of an FBI agent, a small Indian child, a solider in the army, a pilot, and finally in the body of someone he least expected to be. Through his time travel adventures Zits learns that not everyone in the world is evil and that violence against others is never a solution to a problem. Zits awakens from his time travel to be finally put into the care of a foster family who will actually help him, and help him to be a better person.
Evaluation: Personally, I loved the book! It started off a bit pointless and confusing to me, but as I got deeper and deeper into the novel I couldn’t put the book down! I really loved the concept of time travel, and the way Sherman Alexie incorporated some historical events into the book. I also loved the redemption story that Zits has, and how Zits was able to change his life around for the better. So overall it was a great story, with an intense plot that kept me turning the page.
Rating: 5/5
Recommendations: The Hunger Games, Maximum Ride series
November 5, 2012 at 11:57 am |
Summary-
Throughout the book Flight by Sherman Alexie, Zits, the main character, learns his life lessons early on when he is forced into other peoples perspectives. He starts out as this no good low-life who doesn’t care much about anything other than being alone. When he really starts to screw up his life, he is allowed to gain more perspectives and experiences, which make him question his past mess-ups. With each transition into another person’s life, Zits figures out how to really enjoy the people who try so hard to nurture and comfort him, but he just takes them for granted. With all the things that have happened to him in his past, he realizes that people are not out to get him but more out to help him. He strengthens the relationships with those who have known him for a while, and gains new connections that weren’t there before.
Personal Evaluation-
We would all like to be able to just learn our life-lessons like this, but it’s just too unrealistic for me. Personally, I found this book to be pointless because I never cared for Zits in the first place, so even though he “grows-up”, he is the same to me in the beginning and the end. If a reader doesn’t care for a character in the beginning, why would they change their opinion of him when he is only forced to experience terrible things. Zits had no choice in the transformations, so I still don’t have respect for him.
Rating-
I gave this book a 2/5 because nobody can relate to an Indian boy who time travels without control. So if you are looking for a boy similar to this, the only one I can really think of is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. It is by the same author so they are somewhat similar.
November 2, 2012 at 12:25 pm |
Summary
Sherman Alexie’s ‘Flight’ is an intense novel focused on a fifteen year old half-Indian and half-Irish boy nicknamed Zits, roughly based off his own younger self. Zits’ father exited his life when he was born and his own mum died when he was six. Since then he has been in and out of foster homes and jail. Zits is heartbroken secretly, but all that is seen is his sarcastic and tough bad boy façade. When Zits hits his lowest point, he stands in a bank with a water gun and a handgun and then finds himself in and out of people’s bodies as he time travels. Zits learns about himself, his past and what to do with his future. He confronts others life-changing decisions of betrayal and death, or loyalty and life and his own life will never be the same. When Zits returns, he knows it will always be different now even if it took five different peoples’ stories to get him to where Zits will finally accept life and what it has to give him.
Evaluation
Sherman Alexie kept me completely hooked from beginning to end. Even at moments of absolute horror, I had to continue reading to know what happens. ‘Flight’ confronts very difficult decisions about betrayal and death, ones that shock and stunned me. Zits’ comical sarcasm in his narration keeps it going though, witty enough to balance out the terror of what Zits experiences. Alexie’s writing is witty and brilliant as well as thought-provoking and raw. The novel is unique in its concept and style and very well tied together.
Rating: Four/five.
Recommendation: War Dances by Sherman Alexie
November 2, 2012 at 12:02 pm |
Summary:
Sherman Alexie tackles a theme of violence and revenge in Flight: a coming of age novel that revolves around a 15 year old, half Indian and half Irish boy that calls himself Zits. Although he is young, he has a chilling and sometimes disturbing past. His mother died when he was very young, and his father left him even before that. Many other experiences in his life include moving from foster home to foster home. He refers to many of the families as “vultures” because they just use him to get money from the government. As he is about to make the biggest mistake in his life, he gets thrown through time to the distant past. Why is this so important? It is because he learns a very valuable lesson, time after time, and year through year. Overall, Zits gets a second chance to redeem himself and a shot to live a better life with caring people. He learns that not all people are bad, and he does not have to live as a bad person. In the end he settles in a seemingly hopeful environment.
Evaluation:
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Alexie is a masterful writer that can add humor, even to a dark story. It is mixed in with history, making it hard to put down. As well as being able to look at points in time from multiple perspectives. For me it was easy to follow, although thought provoking. I highly recommend this book to whoever is ready for a good read, and can handle topics, such as child abuse.
Rating: 4.5/5
Recommendation: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian
November 1, 2012 at 9:32 am |
Summary
Flight is the story of a 15 year old, half Indian, half Irish, parentless boy, struggling to blaze a path through adolescence. He is driven by his feeling of neglect and burning desire to commit crimes and antagonize his many foster parents. Zits, as he is called, is one day compelled to commit homicide in a Seattle bank when the story takes an unexpected turn: Zits transported through time, finding himself held captive in a body that is not his own. As he moves through time and strange bodies and lives, he sees the true nature of mankind: the impacts of the desire to seek vengeance, betrayal, loyalty and heroism. He finds himself looking through the eyes of the father who abandoned him and how his life has turned out. With this new perspective, Zits wakes up back in the bank full of people he is about to shoot. He contemplates everything he has learned and decides to reform himself and his views.
Evaluation
This novel really impressed me, mostly because of Alexie’s fearless writing style. It is raunchy, rough but beautifully illustrates the difficulties of adolescence and especially the trials of being Indian. It is loaded-with cusswords, ugly truths, life lessons and wisdom. Flight connects directly to real life even though it is all fiction. It is captivating in that sense, and I strongly recommend reading this novel!
Rating: 4.5/5
Recommendations: Dances With Wolves, White Fang, Into the Wild.
October 31, 2012 at 2:56 pm |
A fifteen year old boy named Zits has had a very hard life. Zits’ Dad left them when he was born, and his Mom died when he was five. Zits has been through many foster homes and has been in jail a few times. Zits meets a boy named Justice and they come up with a plan for Zits to shoot people in a bank. Right as Zits is about to whip the guns out, his mind is pulled from his body and sent back in time to a few different peoples’ bodies, an FBI agent, a pilot who trained a terrorist, and his own father are a few of them. Zits changes throughout this story, and these experiences he has change his life.
I liked this book a lot because it was very engaging and kept me reading. I found it interesting how Zits changed throughout the book. This story also speaks to people, mostly teenagers.
Rating 5/5
October 31, 2012 at 11:58 am |
Summary: This novel is about a boy who goes by the name Zits. He’s half Indian. His dad was a drunk and ran away while his mom was giving birth to him. His mom died while he was at a very young age, which caused him to start doing bad things such as, but not limited to, smoking crack, getting drunk, and running away from foster homes. At one point, Zits goes to a bank intending to shoot everyone inside but is instead whisked away on an adventure of time travel. Going through different bodies at one point he goes into the body of a CIA agent, and has to shoot an already dead guy.
Personal Evaluation: I loved this book so much that I couldn’t stop reading it. I read all the way through it in two days because it was funny and immersing. I especially liked the use of history and comedic relief in serious situations.
Rating: 5/5
Recommendations: The Pendragon Series
October 19, 2012 at 10:36 am |
Summary: In this novel, Flight, a 15 year old troubled teenager named Zits has gone through many hard and tragic obstacles throughout his young life ever since his mother died and his Indian father abandoned him. Zit goes through many foster homes, and does not like any of them. He doesn’t feel loved or any family warmth, so he feels alone in this confusing world. Zits decides to shoot people at random in the bank, making the most horrible decision anyone can ever make. Then, he experiences a number of body changes as he travels through time. As he’s going through these adventures, he gets closer to learning who he really is; someone who is deserving of love and does not have to be a violent person. He finally gets adopted by a loving family that makes him feel like he’s somebody.
Evaluation: Personally, I love this book. If I could, I would read this book until I get tired of it. I love how Sherman Alexie ties all these tragic adventures Zits goes through into a happy ending.
Rating: 5/5
Recommendation: War Dancers, Indian Killer, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part- Time Indian
October 19, 2012 at 7:57 am |
Summary: Throughout Flight, we observe fifteen year old Zit’s struggle with his Indian heritage, dead mother, and absent father. Flung from one white foster home to another, Zits escapes through inflicting pain on others, lashing out to get the attention he never received as a child. With his anger slowly eating away at him, he seeks to hurt, even enjoys it. Eventually, he finds himself standing in a crowded bank, gun in either pocket, about to make his biggest rebellion yet. Unexpectedly though, he is forced from his body into another. Spiraling through a maze of war, hate, pain, loss, and most importantly hope, he must confront his own fears through impossible decisions and endless turmoil. A last chance to change himself and embrace his nationality or an opportunity to hurt, kill, and surrender to his pain. The question is, in a world where killing is celebrated, encouraged, and even sometimes forced, what will he choose: revenge or peace?
Personal Evaluation: Sherman Alexie weaves an inspiring tale of choices and coming of age. We identify easily with the main character, Zits, or Michael as he faces many of the same obstacles the typical teen comes across in everyday life. I enjoyed the humor he incorporated into very heavy topics and was impressed by his ability to connect events in interesting ways. Flight grabbed my attention and held it throughout the entire book. I found it to be well written and offer something to both adolescents and adults. It is no wonder schools require their students to read it.
Rate: 4/5
Recommendation: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian.
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October 15, 2012 at 8:28 pm |
Sherman Alexie’s book Flight is about a troubled boy named Zits. His mother died and his father walked out on him at birth. He fights before trusting any one, but he craves love and attention. That is until he meets Justice, a boy who makes Zits feel important and cared for. But Justice teaches him to use a gun, and pushes him to massacre a bunch of people in a bank to “get his mom back.” Although this is impossible, Zits missing and hoping it will bring his mother back follows through. Thankfully right when he is about to start shooting he disappears. This sends him on a time traveling journey, where he becomes different people from different times. Through time traveling he learns many things about his culture and past. This helps him when he returns to his own body to let go of his deep seeded anger and finally accept help, allowing him take a chance with a caring family.
Flight is a novel that on the surface is a lite read, but go deeper and you will see strong messages that speak to your heart and mind and make you ask why we hurt each other. It’s also a hilarious read that keeps you laughing with its wise humor. This book can bring you to the point of tears in one sentence and in the next have you falling over laughing. I like that this book is always an oxymoron of its self, an easy but hard to understand book.
This is an amazing book and I would recommend it to anyone who can take some playful cussing. I give it 10 out of 10.
October 14, 2012 at 10:17 pm |
Summary: Flight is a book about a half white, half Indian 15 year old kid who has gone through hard times throughout his childhood, his Indian father left him at birth, and his white mother died when he was six. These events led him to become orphaned, and sent to several foster homes, all of which he has had experiences in. This causes Zits to develop into a very detached and pessimistic person. After running away from his newest foster home and being temporally jailed, he meets somebody who forces him to question his very beliefs, and his views on himself and the people around him. In his confusion, Zits then makes an unforgivable choice which causes him to go on a journey through time and space to discover who he is and what his purpose is.
Verdict: Flight is a fast paced, funny, and interesting book, that stays interesting from beginning to end, the book isn’t incredibly descriptive, but it doesn’t need to be, because it instead gets right to the point and gives you exactly enough information to understand what’s going on, this makes the book very easy to understand, and this style of writing fits the book perfectly, and I can’t see it written any other way. Another reason why I liked this book is because every single character in the book is very different, but they all have very specific similarities to the main character. Despite all the things I liked about Flight, I felt that the simplicity of the book gave me no reason to read it again to find more details, because the book pretty much gave it to you being with. Overall, it’s a fantastic book that will keep you reading from beginning to end, and never falters or loses pace.
Score: 4.5/5
Recommendations: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
October 12, 2012 at 10:11 am |
In the book Flight, a teenage foster child, nicknamed Zits, is stuck bouncing from home to home because of how much he hates his foster families and how angry he is with his own violent life. During one of these bounces, he finds himself in jail with a boy who calls himself Justice, and they part ways once they get out of jail. Later, Justice finds Zits and they run away to where Justice has been living in an abandoned building. Justice recruits him to go on a ‘mission,’ but during that mission, Zits starts falling through time and into the bodies of several different people in several different time periods. As he goes from one time period to the next, he learns a lesson about the value of life with each one. Each lesson he learns leads him to make a choice that saves his life along many with others.
The book has an almost surreal feeling to it, only grounded by the transitions between each time period and person that Zits goes into. At the beginning, it seemed like a very grim book, but as it neared the end it felt like that grimness had faded into a subtle hope that the future was going to get better. I liked how the book portrayed a feeling of not knowing whether what was happening was real or not.
Rating: 4.5/5
Recommendations: Leviathan, Of Mice and Men
October 11, 2012 at 4:38 pm |
Zits has always lived a life where nothing is permanent. Abandoned by his father at birth and his mother dead by the age of six, he has spent his life floating from foster home to foster home where hope has been non-existent. Zits has never had it easy, and now at 15 years old he stands in the middle of a bank with 2 guns in his hands and new found “Justice” hell bent and ready to kill. But as two bullets launch into the back of his head he is certain it’s over. But is it? Within the blink of an eye Zits wakes up in another time, another body, another life. Zits ends up taking several new names in many different forms, and with each name comes a new challenge that will leave him facing things he would have never found possible.
I found this book to be very interesting and captivating. After the first few pages I immediately fell in love with this character and the things he had to say. Zits is a character that everyone could relate to in one way or another. As the story got deeper and more complex I found every scenario Zits finds himself in to be more gripping than the last. The story takes turns that you never would have expected.
Rating: 5/5
Recommendation: Tell Me a Secret
October 11, 2012 at 10:11 am |
Summary: In the novel Flight by Sherman Alexie, 15 year old Seattleite “Zits” is full of hate. And with his sort of past, could you really blame him? Mom dead, Dad gone and endlessly shuffled from foster home to foster home, Zits doesn’t know anything permanent. And being half Native-American, half Irish, Zits has a unique perspective on the modern world and its occupants. Being as angry as he is, Zits is easily brainwashed into attempting to commit a terrible crime by using part of his heritage. However, he somehow ends up time-traveling. Yes, you just read that correctly. Time-travel. As he travels, Zits inhabits a new person for every era that he visits. Humor is evident in the universe’s choice of hosts for Zits, as he goes from being a small Indian child before the white men had forced the Indians onto reservations to being an old, white Indian tracker. As can be expected, Zit’s perspective on life in general changes with each new person he inhabits. When Zits gets back to the present he is faced with a big decision.
Evaluation: Personally, I couldn’t really get into this book and enjoy it. The writing style seems disjointed and at times very confusing for me. I do however appreciate the fact that hard to discuss topics were brought up and evaluated at some sort of length. The story line was extremely unorthodox, which helped keep me interested and reading the book.
Rating: 3/5
Recommendations: Flags of our Fathers, The Outsiders
October 11, 2012 at 9:47 am |
Summary: In the novel “Flight” by Sherman Alexie, a boy, called “Zits,” was a lonely, heartbroken kid. When he was born, his father ran out on him and his mother without a reason to go. When Zits was about 6 years old, his mom had passed away from cancer and had no family that he could be with. From then on, Zits had to move from foster home to foster home and never stayed at one house because he was rude and nasty to the families. He got into huge trouble and had to go to a place where juveniles went. He met a kid that was a few years older than him, and they became best friends. He was a bad influence on Zits. He convinced Zits to go do something that he would regret. Right before he nearly ruined his life, he transferred into a new body. He moved into many different bodies of different races to learn a lesson of what he has done and how it wasn’t the right thing to do, and that he could make his life into something better and be happy again like he was when he was a little boy.
Evaluation: I really loved this book. I think that it was an amazing story that really hooked you from the start. I thought that there was a great vibe with the way Sherman Alexie used his words and how he explained the scenes. I also admire how he fit humor with a sad, depressing, serious story. The story was a lot different than other books that I have read before, and I prefer these kinds of books if I had to choose.
Rating: 5/5
Recommendation: The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian
October 11, 2012 at 9:42 am |
Summary: The book Flight is a fast paced novel about a half Irish, half Indian boy who goes by the name of “Zits”. You don’t need to reach out on too far of a limb to guess that he has horrible acne, along with many other problems. Zits was abandoned by his father 5 minutes after he was conceived, and his mother passed away from breast cancer. This caused him to be in and out of foster homes, juvenile hall, and stuck on the streets. Zits finds himself getting into more and more trouble, when it finally comes to a point. He’s standing in a bank with 2 guns fully ready to shoot the place up. Suddenly something happens, he “blacks” out and wakes up in an unfamiliar place. Soon, he finds out that he did not black out but instead time traveled back to the 1970’s and was transformed into an FBI agent. As the story goes on Zits is transferred into many other bodies from ranging time periods, each body plays a different role in life and teaches Zits a new lesson each time.
Evaluation: Flight kept me on edge and eager to continue to read. I found myself always wondering what was going to happen next. Flight was an exciting and adventurous book that made it easy to read, because it was about someone my age, which interests me greatly. I think it’s something that all high school kids should be required to read, it puts out a good message especially if you have enough maturity to look past the bad language.
Recommendation: A book that I would recommend that is somewhat similar to Flight is The Catcher in the Rye. I found it interesting, along with Flight, because they are both about kids my age going through a rough time and you read about the journey they go on to figure things out.
October 11, 2012 at 9:24 am |
Summary: Zits doesn’t necessarily have the easiest life that an ugly, acne faced, half Indian boy could possibly have. Actually his life is so hard that it eventually initiates his awful bank massacre where Zits thinks his life is going to finally come to an end. But does it? He opens his eyes disoriented in the sight of himself in a mirror where he sees a handsome, middle-aged white man, who is forced to shoot an Indian man. As he does so he feels the feelings and thinks to himself, wondering if he’s doing the right thing. The next time he opens his eyes, it is to the outstanding sight of a thousand tepees, he is now a little Indian boy in the middle of a huge Indian camp getting ready for an attack, during which he again faces a predicament where he is expected to kill another person, this time a young white boy. As this elusive plot caries out, Zits learns multiple lessons which begin to manipulate his choices in crucial parts of his being in these other bodies. If he returns to his normal self, will he have learned from these various lessons?
Evaluation: This book teaches multiple lessons, but at the same time it’s almost like watching a good, funny movie. It was easily the best book I’ve read simply because it wasn’t difficult to understand, and it was all around a good book. It has a perfect blend of comedy, drama, and morals. This book doesn’t take long to hook you; I read the first few pages and I couldn’t stop! It was great.
Rating: 5/5
Recommendation: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
October 10, 2012 at 10:41 pm |
Summary: The main character is a 15 year old boy, by the name of Zits. He is a half Native American and half Irish boy who has had a very rough life. His father left him when he was a baby and his mom died when he was 6. Since then, he has been in and out of a number of foster homes as well as getting placed in juvenile detention. The boy has been around so much violence, that he reacts with violence himself. Themes throughout the book involve domestic violence/international violence and racism among whites and Natives back in the day. He encounters another boy along the way who convinces him to make a bad decision. But, that’s not all… he goes back in time throughout history as an FBI agent, an Indian boy, an Indian tracker, a pilot, and a homeless Indian. All the people he transforms into have problems that make him learn valuable lessons about what is right and wrong. These lessons change his life forever.
Evaluation: I really enjoyed this book in many ways. There was a funny but important vibe to it, and that made it interesting. Sherman Alexie did a really good job connecting the book to teenagers but also adults. The book makes a simple, yet perfect idea of using the mistakes of others, and of yourself, to change your future, and it is never too late to start now.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Recommendations: Deadline and The Hunger Games series
October 10, 2012 at 12:12 pm |
Summary:
A young orphaned Indian boy, named Zits, has a hard time trying to find out who he really is. As Zits walks into a bank, a gun in each hand, he is about to shoot but is taken back into a different era. He time travels through many different eras becoming a troubled FBI agent, a boy without a voice, a man on a mission, a pilot full of guilt, and a homeless Indian man craving respect. As he is each person, he experiences different situations and learns life lessons. He has little control of the person he becomes, but when he does have control, he faces many challenging situations. As he shoots back into reality, he is in the bank, a gun in each hand, and he has to decide if he wants to shoot the innocent people in the bank or walk away. After the challenging situations, he decides to walk away. He doesn’t want to shoot any more people. By walking out, he becomes a different person, a better person.
Evaluation:
Overall, this was a hard book to put down. Flight is an up-beat, fast-paced book that grabs your attention as soon as you start reading. There are a few parts that are hard to understand because you change characters all of the time. But, as soon as you come close to the end of the book, everything falls into place.
Rating: 5/5
Recommendation: The Hunger Games
October 10, 2012 at 12:10 pm |
This story is about a teenage boy named Zits who has a pretty bad life as a Native American. Zits’ parents are not around as he is growing up, due to death and a cowardly dad. Zits was transferred from foster home to foster home regularly and realizes that he will never be in one home for a long period of time. This book is very well written as it has the combination of sadness from the young boy and some humor from time to time as Zits goes about his life. Zits comes across some sort of time travel in the story, or is it just him imaging the past? In the end, Zits realizes his wrong doings and knows he can live a happy life. Zits has to learn to accept his life and will continue to be different and challenging as a teenage Indian boy in multiple foster homes.
Evaluation: This was overall a great book written by Alexie and well thought out. This book has great suspense, at the same time it shows the dreadfulness of Zits’ life. This novel will keep you reading until you’re done and is a very interesting book to read by Alexie. If you like books that will keep you intrigued and are full of emotional events that you can relate with, I would strongly recommend you read it.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Recommendation: The Absolutely True Dairy of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.
October 10, 2012 at 12:10 pm |
Summary:
Flight, by Sherman Alexie, is a story about a young boy, named Zits, who goes through some pretty interesting experiences, starting with a trip to the bank where he gets shot. From there, he goes from the body of a half-Indian, half-Irish boy to several different people from different places and times, including a white cop named Hank, the Officer that takes care of him, and a young Indian who can’t speak. The amount of violence and sadness Zits encounters as these people and in his own life is more than anyone should ever have to go through, but it teaches him a valuable lesson in the end. With his mother deceased and his dad long gone, Zits’ attitude toward life changes drastically as he faces the realization that bad things can be committed by both sides of any conflict, but more importantly, good can rise out of anywhere from anyone, no matter what side they’re on.
Evaluation:
For being someone who doesn’t usually enjoy reading in general, I found that this book to be a really easy read, and it was easy for me to want to sit down and do the reading for each class. The book was written in a way that I could relate to. Also, it kept me wanting to read more at the end of every chapter, which is important to me. The only thing I didn’t like was that sometimes it was a bit confusing, and hard to follow, but other than that overall I liked it.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Recommendation: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
October 10, 2012 at 12:08 pm |
Review: The novel “Flight” is about a fifteen year old boy named Zits whose mother died and father was never in his life. After going through many foster homes and getting in a lot of trouble through the years, Zits finds himself in a bank, holding two guns with the intent of shooting harmless people. Before he shoots, he blacks out, and is in the body of someone else in a different decade. Throughout the book Zits finds himself in a few different time eras. In each of these eras he learns a valuable lesson. When Zits wakes back up as himself, he realizes he has not shot up the bank and turns himself in to a police officer that cares for Zits. This officer is Officer Dave. After Zits has gone through many sessions of counseling and psychiatric sessions he is deemed not dangerous. Officer Dave then puts Zits in another foster home, and Zits is disappointed. But when he realizes that this new family cares about him, he feels a bit of hope and change for the future.
Evaluation: Personally, I loved the book. It was always engaging and kept me on my toes wanting to read more. Alexie does a great job of capturing the emotion of Zits and throwing humor into some horrible happenings without it being crude. Without a doubt I would read this book multiple times. I loved reading about Zits being in different times and bodies and how he felt about it.
Rating: 4.5/5
Recommendations: The Hunger Games series, Slaughterhouse-Five, Twilight series
October 10, 2012 at 12:06 pm |
Summary: A fifteen year old boy named after his horrific zit problem finds himself lost as a dysfunctional “half-breed” Indian. His mother, being dead, and his father having ran off, he has no hope for happiness in his life until he meets another mysterious “kid convict” who convinces him to do something horrible he wouldn’t think of doing before. As he is about to destroy whatever life he had left, a miraculous thing occurs. Zits finds himself in another body that is not his own. Throughout the rest of the book, Zits travels through time and different bodies. He sees things that would scar him for life. All of these experiences give him a different perspective. He learns the truth of his people and what the white people think of him. Although a lot of it is negative, Zits gradually finds the positive. At the end of the book, he finds himself as a new person who had found one thing he had never had… hope.
Evaluation: Flight is one of those books you just can’t put down. The connection the author makes with his readers is powerful. I would strongly recommend this book to young adults that are trying to find themselves, but it would be a great book for any mature reader. I plan on reading it many more times in the future.
Rating: 5/5
Recommendations: Slaughterhouse-Five
October 9, 2012 at 2:11 pm |
Summary: The novel Flight, written by Sherman Alexie, is about a 15 year old boy named Zits who is half native American and has had a tragic life. His mom died when he was six and his dad ran off right after his birth. After his mom’s death he makes a lot of bad decisions, and just as he’s about to do something terrible, Zits transfers into a different time and body. He experiences the lives of multiple people, white people and native Americans, and he learns that every person has problems and their own way of handling them.
Evaluation: I liked the book a lot. The author connected serious historical events with funny expressions, so the reader can’t just lay the book aside. While reading the book you feel bad for the main character, and you want to know the end of the story and if there’s going to be a happy ending.
Rating: 4.5/5
Recommendation: Holes by Louis Sachar
October 9, 2012 at 2:10 pm |
Summary: “Call me Zits.” An unexpected opening for the story of a troubled “half-breed” Indian. Zits is a fifteen year old half-Irish-half-Indian boy who has been through countless foster homes and his troubles have started even before he was born, when his father abandoned him and his mother. Zits’ life has been all downhill: his mother died of breast cancer when he was six, his aunt and her boyfriend abused him, he’s run away from foster homes, and he’s spent time in jail. In jail is where he met Justice. Justice, a seventeen year old white boy, with guns, teaches Zits to feel empowered and to kill. Justice sends Zits with his guns to a bank in downtown Seattle to put his newfound skills to the test. About to kill everyone around him Zits is suddenly transported through time and space taking on the personas of different people who all have or are going through similar trials as Zits. Each person he becomes teaches him the obvious thing.
Evaluation: Sherman Alexie skillfully paints this crude fifteen year old troubled youth and you immediately start to form a connection with Zits. Though this story has been told before, Alexie makes it his own with a colorful character and his own narrative. Flight is a book I would recommend you read, if not for the story, for the character.
Rating: 3.5/5
Recommendations: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Twisted.
October 9, 2012 at 2:10 pm |
First of all, if you don’t want to know the ending of this story, read a different summary. The novel Flight, by Sherman Alexie, is the grueling story of Zits, a half Indian, half Irish 15 year old boy. This foster child’s father abandoned him after his birth, and his mother died of cancer when he was a child. The plot follows Zits as his transient life spirals downwards. The story begins with Zits in the same patterns of his lost and lonely life. This changes when he meets a mysterious and charismatic young man named Justice who uses Zits’ anger to mold him into a monster prepared to kill strangers both innocent and guilty alike. In an odd and unexplained turn of events, Zits’ consciousness is transferred back in time into the bodies of various men in different times, but all in violent and painful situations, with a lesson to be learned in each one. Zits is somehow then transferred back into his own body where he discovers that he has not yet committed the crime and can make the choice not to. He chooses to turn himself in and earns a second chance at life. His new foster home is caring, and there is a possibility that Zits can live a non-violent life.
Personal Evaluation
I loved Flight. It was a simple but well told story with a believable character in realistic, blunt situations, told through an unbelievable occurrence. Throughout the brutal situations, Zits’ humor lightens the situation enough to continue reading the story. I also liked how Alexie presented the story in a way that made it more about Zits than how he was jumping though peoples’ bodies in different eras. He leaves that up to the reader.
Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars
Recommendations: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
October 9, 2012 at 2:09 pm |
Summary: A young orphaned 15 year old half-Indian, half-Irish boy, who goes by the name “Zits,” struggles from one foster home to another. In the middle of a lost culture, there’s a lost boy. Zits leaves nothing to faith as he stands in a Seattle bank, armed with guns. Is this it for him? Will he buy into the typical bad boy Indian stereotype? As he embarks on a remarkable journey through time, he is exposed to different points of view, and different people. He is transferred into an FBI agent, a young Indian boy, an American soldier, a best friend of an Ethiopian terrorist, and lastly a homeless Indian man. Zits knows some things about history but he has never been exposed to such reality. As he watches all of these struggles and past tragedies, Zits treads on a thin line between hope and destruction. What would you do if all that you loved had become nothing but a light in the past?
Evaluation: I really needed to read this book. Although it’s a fictional book it really opens your eyes to things that are happening in different parts of the world. There are orphans all over the world exactly like Zits. Some lose parents to aids, cancer and many other life changing things. They are left to deal with the losses of one or sometimes even both parents. Alone and left with no hope, they do violent things or join bad crowds. They aren’t bad kids, just kids in bad situations. I think this book is really good in the sense that it makes you think about things and opens your eyes. I love the time travel, because you can’t really understand something unless you go and see it being lived, which is what he did with his Native American culture. He saw why things are the way they are, and now that he has done that he can be hopeful. That’s why I love this book. It’s hopeful.
Rating: 5/5
Recommendations: Sold and Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick and The Slave Next Door by Kevin Bales.
October 9, 2012 at 2:08 pm |
Summary: Zits, a fifteen-year-old, half-Indian boy, has lived a life of sadness and struggle. Since his father left him as a baby and his mother died when he was six, Zits has been assigned to and run away from twenty-one foster homes. He continuously gets into trouble with the law, but is often studying Indian history to connect with his “real Indian” heritage.
One day, at a bank in downtown Seattle, Zits stands with a paint gun and a real gun in his pockets. He is fully prepared to shoot the whole crowd of people dead, but he suddenly wakes up in the body of a 1975 FBI agent, who is tracking Indians. He begins moving back and forth in time, through different bodies and situations including an Indian boy experiencing the Battle of Little Bighorn, an elderly Indian tracker, the adulterous flight instructor of a terrorist, and his own drunken father. Each person’s situation teaches Zits the consequences of violence, revenge and hate, but also brings the idea of love and forgiveness into his life. Drastic changes must occur inside Zits if he will ever be able to live as the person he wants to be.
Evaluation: I thoroughly enjoyed Flight. While being an enlighteningly educational book on the history of Indians, Alexie creates a remarkably relatable character and leads the reader on an incredible journey. I read Flight wanting the best for Zits, and I was constantly on the edge of my seat with the suspense of what I would learn next about history and morals.
Rating: 5/5
Recommendation: The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
October 9, 2012 at 2:08 pm |
Summary: Zits is a 15 year-old half Irish, half Indian boy with issues of betrayal, abandonment and loneliness. After his father leaving, his mother dying, and 20 foster homes in five years, he finds himself in a bank debating on whether or not to shoot the place up; when all of a sudden, he wakes up in the body of a killer cop with a wife and kids and a murderous best friend. He travels through the body of a young Indian boy, who has to decide between getting revenge on an old injury or letting the white soldier live. Zits also becomes an old man who is an older professional Indian tracker who is about to attack a Native American village; a pilot that taught a terrorist how to fly and cheats on his wife, and the body of his drunken father, who left as he was being born. Through his travels, he learns that maybe there is love, and he even has hope. Zits learns lessons about violence and hate, which in the end change him for the better.
Evaluation: I really enjoyed this book. Sherman Alexie combines the power of violence and comedy in this book full of hatred and loneliness. He makes Zits a hilarious, hurting boy that has humorous responses to everything. For example, when he gets put in his 21st foster home he says to them “ “plopping plop.” Jesus, I sound like a pissed-off Dr. Seuss character” (pg. 15). Flight is a major page turner, and I couldn’t stop reading till I knew what was going to happen next. Overall, the book was a great read and left me with lessons to apply to my own life.
Rated: 5 of 5 stars
Recommendation: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
October 9, 2012 at 2:07 pm |
Summary: The novel Flight stars 15-year-old Zits who has had a rather tough life. He has faced everything from abuse, abandonment, and his own juvenile actions. As part Indian, he sees himself not putting much impact into the world and doing whatever he pleases. His past was also somewhat of a train wreck; his father was a drunk who abandoned him at birth and his mother died of breast cancer when he was six. His delinquent behavior has made him go to several different foster homes that each had low tolerances for his disastrous behavior. After several arrests, Zits breaks out one day with a fellow inmate named Justice. As they rob a bank with fake guns, Zits experiences something no one has ever before, time travel. Through his explorations into several different bodies and time zones, from an Indian boy to an FBI agent, he discovers not only himself and his heritage, but also what he needs to do in order to fulfill the emptiness which controls his being.
Evaluation: This book in my opinion was exceptionally well written. It captures the reader to keep going further into the book and leaves suspense after each chapter. I knew after just the first couple of chapters I would be hooked. Flight is unique and takes time travel to the next level by making the main character learn a lesson after each travel. However, some parts are confusing; the first time travel was a little disorienting. Nonetheless, it’s all explained after each chapter with powerful plot points and a hopeful conclusion.
October 9, 2012 at 2:04 pm |
Summary: In the book Flight, by Sherman Alexie, a fifteen year old Indian boy named Zits has a terrible life. He has gone from foster home to foster home. He never spent much time in any of the foster homes before he would run away from them. Zits also has a bad attitude about life and has ended up in jail numerous times because of it. He met this one guy in jail named Justice. Justice taught him how to shoot a gun. Zits took this knowledge and was supposed to go to a bank and shoot the people inside. Just as he is about to open fire on the bank he gets thrown through time and ends up in the body of a white FBI agent. This FBI agent is supposed to go with his partner to meet these two Indian guys. This meeting takes a turn for the worst and Zits is then transported into another body. The new body he is in is the body of an Indian boy that is in the middle of the Battle of Little Bighorn. After this event takes a terrible turn, Zits is thrown into the body of a white man who tracks Indians. As violence starts to erupt, he switches bodies again…Zits finally returns to his own body with some new knowledge that may change his life forever.
Evaluation: I really enjoyed reading this book. Flight will keep you on the edge of your seat with all the action. It will also make you laugh at some parts with the humor that the author mixes into the intense scenes. I also like how the author mixed up the viewpoints throughout the entire book; he didn’t just stick with one. Another thing I liked was how he connected the plot of this book through some very intense situations and events.
Rating: 4.5/5
Recommendations: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
October 9, 2012 at 1:56 pm |
Summary: In Sherman Alexie’s novel Flight, a young half Indian boy by the nickname of “Zits” is sent on a journey that changes his world perspective entirely. When Zits meets another boy on the run and gets brainwashed into making a huge mistake, he is sent into the bodies of different men in various situations to learn that no matter what side one is on, everyone has their reasons, and we are all more alike than we care to think or admit. This touching coming of age adventure is a bit “out there” with its foul language but is a great read for teens and adults of all ages. Sherman Alexie’s Flight is a book people from all walks of life might find interesting to read.
Evaluation: I quite enjoyed the novel Flight by Sherman Alexie. It was a bit of a tough read because of the foul language and some of the vocabulary, but other than that, it was very entertaining. I had many questions that the book later answered, and it had me turning page after page to see what happened next. An excellent read for teens and adults in my book!
Rating: 4.5/5
Recommendations: Gregor the Overlander; Will Grayson, Will Grayson; The Naruto manga series
June 18, 2012 at 5:19 am |
A 15 year old, mixed race, Native American-Irish boy is on the verge of getting removed from yet another foster home for bad behavior. He is called “Zits,” and he assaulted his foster care giver and is in county jail, where he is taken under the wing of a anarchist named Justice, and they plan to rob a bank. The only problem is when he walks in and does it, he soon realizes he just about mowed down a lobby full of people, and he collapses. He wakes up as an FBI agent and witnesses an Indian killing mission, then he is a little Indian boy who commits brutalities to a white boy. Then he wakes up a white Indian tracker who saves a boy, then a pilot who commits suicide over teaching a terrorist to fly and cheating on his wife. Zits finally wakes up…
Evaluation: I found this book very exciting and a little bit sad. I liked the time travel; I felt it added good insight into the problems Zits had and helped him see the world though a different eye and was a very different and yet very interesting difference from other stories.
Rating 5/5
Recommendations: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Indian Killer
June 16, 2012 at 7:09 pm |
A young boy has had the worst life a “half-breed” Indian can have. As a 15 year old boy “Zits” holds a gun in each hand ready to shoot civilians in a bank. But wait? As he pulls the guns out, his mind is elsewhere, in 1975 posing as a white FBI agent. Zits being confused and scared, asks his FBI partner his name and what’s going on. As the answer concludes, Zits time-travels back into history as a little Indian boy at the Battle of Big Horn. He figures out that he must rise against the intentions to kill in his heroic ordeals. Not killing the white boy, he goes back even farther as a white man tracking Indians, a homeless Indian drunk, and a pilot talking to a Muslim terrorist. As each of his stories passes he gains knowledge that he can still lead a better life. Waking up he meets his new foster parent, who shows him that his zits can be taken care of.
I could not get over the fact that I kept reading this book even after I was done with it. With the combination of funny antics and captive writing I enjoyed every minute of this book. I love this author’s work and how he applies to common society of a young teenager of every race. I could really reflect this on my own life and what I could do better. I found that this book had a moral to it: don’t give up, because you will always find the light.
Rating: 5/5 stars
Recommendations: Deadline, The Pendragon Series
April 29, 2012 at 9:53 am |
It’s tough enough to be an orphan, let alone a so-called half-breed. Zits, being 15 years old, is on a downward spiral. Add to that a devastating history of abuse, and no wonder Zits, a gun in each hand, is about to exact revenge on strangers in a bank. Instead, Zits goes time-traveling, putting him in others people’s shoes. He is inexplicably catapulted back to 1975, where he inhabits the body of a white FBI agent confronting radical Indian activists, the first episode in an out-of-body odyssey. Smart, funny, and resilient, Zits is profoundly transformed, as the hero in a tale of ordeals is supposed to be, by his shape-shifting experiences as an Indian boy at Little Big Horn, an Indian tracker, a homeless Indian drunk, and a pilot in unnerving proximity to a Muslim terrorist. Throughout the book Zits gains a better understanding of his life.
I really liked this book and the author. I enjoyed the time travel and the way it makes you think of your own life. It’s a feel good story I think tons of people would like and be willing to read. I like the end the best, because it shows there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
4 out of 5 stars
Recommendations: Tangerine, Deadline, The Glass Castle
February 7, 2012 at 6:07 pm |
Summary: A 15 year old teen, who goes by the name Zits, has had a pretty bad life. To start off, his mother died and his dad ran off. He always gets in trouble too. He was going to do a really bad thing, but had a change in mind.
Evaluation: I liked the book; Sherman Alexie is one of my favorite authors. I kept wanting to read, and I definitely will read it again.
Rating: 5/5
Recommendations: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
December 22, 2011 at 1:32 pm |
Summary: This book is about a 15 year old boy who is very poor; his mother died when he was very young and his dad ran away. The 15 year old boy is known as “zits” because, well, he is very zitty. Zits is a trouble maker and he always goes to jail, but one day he wanted to do something worse then anything he has ever done before. As he was doing it, he goes back in time and thinks about what he is doing. and at the end he decides to correct what he would have done and make things good.
Evaluation: This book was pretty good. It was funny and it made you want to keep reading all the way until the end. It made me laugh, and it made me scared for zits, but I always wanted to keep reading it.
Rating: 4.25 stars
Recommendations: Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Hunger Games, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
December 9, 2011 at 6:08 pm |
Summary: This novel is about a poor fifteen-year-old boy whose mother died and father ran off, and because of that he has been to countless amounts of foster homes. He has hated every single one and has run and been in jail because of how he has been heartbroken and never loved before. One day he decides to do something awful that is worse than anything he has done before. But right as he is about to do it he gets transferred into someone else that would change his life forever to learn a valuable lesson.
Evaluation: Overall I found this book very interesting because it also teaches readers to not take life for granted and that good things can always come out of the bad, like second chances. The author tells the story well from the main characters point of view and described it well so I knew almost exactly how he felt and got very good visualizations. The only bad thing was that some parts of the book were confusing, except the ending tied it all together.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Recommendations:
Tunnels by Gordon Williams and
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
November 30, 2011 at 5:54 pm |
Summary: 15 year old “Zits” has never had a real family. His mom died when he was an infant, and his dad ran away. All Zits has ever done is get into trouble. One day he walks into a bank planning to shoot everyone but is taken back in time instead. Zits goes through three transformations where he has to face horrible things to do to people. When he ends up in the bank again he has a choice to fix the future.
Evaluation: This book was very well-written and exciting. Sherman Alexie delivers a unique, heart felt story about a boy who is given a second chance. For people who enjoy fast and exciting reads, Flight is the book for you.
Rating: 5 stars
Recommendations: The Memory Keeper’s Daughter, The Art of Racing In the Rain, The Kite Runner