Book 3 Review

 Most parents that have little kids brag about their child scoring a goal in a soccer game or maybe getting a picture they drew in a school-held art show but at only four years old Colton Burpo has been to heaven and back. As the Burpo’s drove by the hospital in their small town in Nebraska on a trip to see family, Colton remembered being in there when the angels sang to him as he sat on Jesus’ lap. Colton had been rushed into the hospital for an emergency appendectomy. During the surgery he said to have left his body, gone to heaven, and came back.

This book is very well written and makes you think about what is real to you. Throughout the book the narrator, Colton’s dad, tells you about his son’s trip to heaven and back as they herd it. Colton would give them bits and pieces of his ‘adventure’ at random times. The book focuses on the dad’s experiences with Colton telling his and his reactions to the stories. The mom is there as a minor character with the sister, Cassie. The writing of the book was average. The father wrote the book but is obviously not a writer. The grammar was not bad or incorrect but it was too played up. The editor must have wanted to make it seem more ‘professional’. There are literary elements and visuals but they are not subtle. When I was reading I could tell they were trying to fit them in but didn’t know how or when to. “The three of us sat in the cold, narrow hallway, Sonja cradling Colton, his head against her shoulder. She was crying pretty steadily now.” This is a good example of what I mean. A real, good writer would show not tell this line. He could have said; sitting in that hallway felt like sitting on a stone in the middle of December. Or he could have said; there was a glimmering wet stream down her cheeks as she held Colton like he was a new born again.

The overall quality of the book was pretty good. The story they were trying to get across did. And sank in well. The book was not a religion book that said there is a heaven and all babies go there and everyone is happy. It gets those points across but through a four year olds view so it is the simple facts of heaven. A four year old could not make up those stories. Or could he? It is a very interesting approach to the book. If an adult were to tell me those things I would think yea ok that’s nice. But when a little boy tells me, I can’t help but believe him.  “Hey, Colton,” I said. “Remember when we were in the car and you talked about sitting on Jesus’ lap?”Still on his knees, he looked up at me. “Yeah.” “Well, did anything else happen?” He nodded, eyes bright. “Did you know that Jesus has a cousin? Jesus told me his cousin baptized him.” A little boy would not know this just from Sunday school. In one part of the book it shows a picture of Jesus that a little girl drew that said she too had been to heaven. Before every picture of Jesus had been wrong but this one he said was him. It was a weird feeling looking at the picture. It was different than any I had seen before. You have to see it to understand what I mean by a weird feeling.

I would give this book an 8/10 overall. It was a good book with a good message. I didn’t care for the writing style of the book but the story itself made up for it. I would recommend it to my friends and family. Even if you don’t believe in heaven or Jesus, it is still worth reading. 

                                                        

       

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Truth in Memoir

To be considered a non-fiction book I think the book should be 98% true. I think there can a small stretch; for example in A Million Little Pieces he claims he was in jail for three months when in reality was only a few hours. But if you were telling your friends how you went to jail you wouldn’t day you were only in there of 2 hours, you would say for a day or maybe even two. Three months is taking it a little too far. Another example from that book is how he says Lilly committed suicide by hanging herself when she actually cut her wrists. That ‘altercation’ was one that should not be messed with. That is taking it too far for me. Important details like that should not be changed but it think minor details can be to make things more interesting. Half-truths are ok as far as a book goes to write. But they should not be non-fiction. If an author is writing a half-truth then they should label it as a fiction. There is no harm in putting based on a true story on the cover though. If I see that I will know that this author had experienced some of the things in the story plot but may have made up the other half, I would be ok with that. I think most people would be too. Everyone starts to point fingers when the book is not the full truth. That’s why people get mad when an author lies in a ‘non-fiction’ story. If the author but it in the fiction side of the book store and put based on a true story on the cover it would sell just as well and there would be no fingers pointed over it. The only reason books should be labeled as fiction or non-fiction is for readers to find what they like easer.     

Readicide

            I think that schools should stop teaching some of the traditional school books; for example Romeo and Juliet. True it is a classic, but what does that really have to do with the direction schools are heading. In my class we are currently reading it and instead of getting meaning out of it and understanding the significance we are struggling to even know the just of what they are saying. To read act 1 scene 1 took a whole week. In a week with a normal book, it could be finished and the class could have moved on to something else. Instead classes are wasting up to a month reading one play. Whatever the reason schools keep the play in the curriculum there is another book to take its place. If they want to get across forbidden or doomed love, teach The Hunger Games (which also poses as a great book for class discussion). If the schools want a love tragedy, teach The Vow. The poem is replicable and I think it’s time it is. I don’t think there should be more of one try of genre. I think at the beginning of each year the students should choose from a list of books what they what to read as a whole. One genre is not better then another for teaching. It depends on how the students want to learn a lesson from a book. I haven’t read Mice and Men or Macbeth and I’m perfectly fine with that. I do not feel as though I am missing out. I don’t think that if there was a specific genre taught that that would “shape” future generations. “classics” are taught now and there is still a very wide variation in students today. People are still going to have their own personality and changing the books read in a class room is not going to change who they will eventually turn out to be.  

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Adapting Book

A film maker would have trouble adapting The Help into a movie because it is told from many different points of views. In a book it is easy to change points of views and still understand what is happening but in a movie it would be hard to flow from one person to the next and have everything still make sense. I think in the movie it would have to be told from only one or two points of view.

Three scenes I think are important to keep would be when Abilene is making food for Miss Leefolt and her friends and over hears them talking about the help needing their own separate bathroom so they do not have to use the same one as them . When Minnie gets fired from Miss Hilly’s house is also an important scene. Miss Hilly says that Minnie stole her silver and told everyone else. No one would hire Minnie after that even though she didn’t really steel the silver. The last important scene is when Miss Celia has Minnie come over to her house for a job interview. Miss Celia has a very large house and is in the middle of the cotton fields. No one she had interviewed wanted to clean it so when she was done showing Minnie around she assumed she didn’t want the job. Minnie said she would take it though so now she has a job and it is paying more than her last.

The first part of the book I would cut out is when Miss Hilly puts her mom in a nursing home. It is kind of important but is in not necessary not keep the plot moving and the movie would not be missing anything big without it. The second part of the book I would cut out is when Abilene is in the baby’s room in the beginning of the book. Nothing is happening in this scene. She is just talking about the baby and the house. It is one of the slowest parts of the book and the movie does not need it nor does the movie need it to stay close to the book. I have not seen this movie yet but I heard it is really good and stays close to the book.