Choice Book Report #1

The book I read for my choice book report is One Night That Changes Everything. By: Laura Barnholdt. The main character in this book’s name is Eliza. She is a junior in high school. I always pictured Eliza as a taller girl with straight, light brown hair. As for her personality, I would say in the beginning of the book Eliza is heart broken and vulnerable, but at the end of the book she is confident and proud. The reason I think that she was vulnerable at the beginning is that she had recently broken up with her boyfriend because she found out that he was just using her to get in a club at their high school. How he was using her is that he had to make a list of girls that go to their high school to “fake date” so he could join the club. Then, what makes her vulnerability worse is that the club that her ex boyfriend was in took her purple notebook because she wrote something about her ex boyfriend on a website that made him not get into a college he wanted to go to. That purple notebook contained all the things she wished she could do but she didn’t have the nerve to. The reason I think she becomes confident in the end of the book is because in order to get her notebook back she has to do some of the things in the notebook. For example she has to sing karaoke at a coffee shop, ask a guy at a club to dance, and tell her ex boyfriend that she still cares for him. She says at the end that she was kind of glad that the night happened, because she overcame many of her fears. I also think that Eliza is a little too self conscious and has a low self esteem. She is too self conscious because she talked about how gorgeous her friends were, and always compared herself to them in a unhealthy way. She also compared her self to her sister a lot in the same manner. Even though Eliza’s friends and family tell her that she is pretty she is always looking for that reassurance. She even said in the book how she feels like she is the only one of her friends who doesn’t have a perfect body. I think that Eliza needs to stop worrying about those things and see how lucky she is to have such good friends and family.
I think the theme in this book is to not be afraid to do something and let loose once in awhile. Obviously by that I don’t mean sky diving or anything, I mean simple things like telling your mom that you broke that vase three years ago instead of your sister. In this book Eliza had to do some of the hardest things for her. After she does them, she admits that it wasn’t that bad. For some of them she thinks they were fun! I connect with this theme in everyday basis. Simple thing like raising my hand during school and not wanting to do it because I’m afraid the answer might be wrong. Then I think “It’s not like something bad will happen if I get the answer wrong. It may be a little embarrassing, but at least I will be participating.” Plus by getting something wrong you usually learn something!
Another thing I think everyone can compare with being afraid is when you try something new. Like if you are moving to a new school and you don’t know anyone. You may me a little hesitant to be how you were at your old school because you want to fit in. If you over analyze your fears, it just makes everything more difficult, because then you think too much on what could happen on what is realistically going to happen. Or you don’t know if you should do something, like try out for a play just because you don’t anybody who is doing it. By doing the play you will be meeting new people, learn new things, and all of school activities are good for you. They beet being at home bored all afternoon. This example could count for anything like a sport, or student council.
Another theme I take from the story is that things aren’t always as they seem. Like when Eliza finds the list of girls that her boyfriend was fake dating, she just assumes that the list is true and that he was just using her. Yet through out the whole entire book he is saying how sorry he is and how much he cared about her. He wasn’t even talking to any of the other girls on the list! I think he definitely proves to her that he definitely cares about her and that he couldn’t be any more sorry. He sticks with her through out the entire night, making she doesn’t get hurt while she doing the what seemed to be impossible tasks.

In the City

Bright lights with multi-colors flashing every corner, the haunting aroma of hotdogs drift in the breeze. Sounds ofpeople shouting and having a glorious time. Well who couldn't have a glorious time? I'm talking about New York City, New York!
I went to New York during the spring of last year. My family takes a vacation every year to a place we want to go. We alternate turns on picking where we want to go. It was my turn and i picked New York City. I know i picked the right place, because I know I could've stayed there for weeks more than i stayed.
My favorite thing to do was go to Time's Square. Since my hotel was 2 blocks away, it wasn't very hard. I just loved viewing all of the different people and their ethnicities. I also loved seeing the extrordinary and crazy outfits that some of the people there had. For example we saw a lady riding around on a bike completely covered in flowers! I love New York for many reasons, these are just a few!