The Happy Hippo Readers

 Welcome to my last blog. The tendency of The Catcher in the Rye being nominated to must-read recommendation lists for high schoolers surprised me. Therefore, when I inadvertently came across the book in the Mahomet library, I immediately checked it out. In a nutshell, The Catcher in the Rye is an account written by the main character himself, Holden Caufield, during his stay at a mental hospital. The narrative talked about the days he roamed around on the streets and hotels of New York after he got expelled from Percy High School in New York. More specifically, the narrative focuses on his emotional struggles and anxieties about adulthood, and how he wants to preserve his innocence because everything he has heard about adulthood is corruptive and chaotic.  Honestly, I found his worries relatable. During the days of aimless roam, Holden constantly looked for help from adults, whether it was teachers, prostitutes, drivers, or old friends; however, no one took the time to act...

Hi everyone, and welcome to my final blog of the frosh year. Let's finish the year with a bang, and a bang it'll be for this blog about some books that I plan to read for this coming summer. All of these books have been taken from reading other people's blogs, either from their reviews, recommendations, or even from THEIR summer reading list.  1. Scythe: I have already read this series once before, and it's still my favorite series. I always wanted to reread the series, but never found the time to do so. But blogs from Robenas and Krishna (off the top of my head) have inspired me to read this amazing sci-fi/dystopian book again. Also, I have seen that Neal Shusterman has added a prequel to the series, so I plan to read that as well. If you want to check out what the book is about, I recommend looking at Robenas or Krishna's blogs. 2. Dune: So far I have noticed many people that have read, are reading, or plan to read dune. To bve honest, I have very little knowledge...

We’ve almost made it through another school year at Uni! Unfortunately, this means that it is finally time to say goodbye to our beloved Language and Literature 2 blogs. To complete my set of blogs, I thought it would be fitting to share my opinion of these blogs themselves. One thing I appreciated was that these blogs forced most of us to read something . Outside of the literature we read for class last year – Akata Witch , Macbeth , and whatever you read for the Banned Book Project – I didn’t read anything else. Yet this year I picked up 7 books to read in my own time, in addition to the 4 books we read together in class. And I happened to enjoy it – I had the freedom to choose whatever I wanted to read, and other people’s blogs provided great recommendations for what to read next. But there were times where these blogs weren’t so fun. In my last blog, for example, I mentioned that I forced myself to plow through Animal Farm in one evening because I needed to write my blog soon –...

  As finals are approaching within less than a month, I know lots of us may be stressed. But, looking on the upside, summer break is approaching soon! Summer is a great time where we can read new books or even reread books. For this blog, I’m going to recommend some books while also talking about some books I’m interested in reading too. First, let's go over some books I’ve read during our independent reading days that I would recommend. The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie If you love mystery novels, this book is made for you. Agatha Christie is one of the most renowned detective novel writers, and The A.B.C. Murders is one of her best books. In the novel, the detective, Hercule Poirot, finds himself in a cat and mouse game with a serial killer. Poirot finds himself in a pickle where the killer seems impossible to find, but is able to find a sliver of hope through tiny clues. This novel is very well written, and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in mystery. The ...

       Alas, it is my final blog of the school year, and I'm relieved. I enjoy writing blogs, but it takes a while to write. Anyway, for my final book review, I will be reviewing Five Survive , a book by Holly Jackson. I first found this book by Googling my favorite type of genre, mystery books, and this book stood out to me. I first saw the number "5" and it immediately brought me back to my favorite book, One of Us is Lying,  I was interested in it.  5 Survive  is an interesting book, to say the least.     The book takes place during spring break. There was a group of 6 friends, Red, Maddy, Simon, Arthur, Oliver, and Reyna. Red was the main protagonist, a 17-year-old girl living in Philadelphia, and Maddy was her best friend. Simon (whose uncle owned the vehicle) was a classmate of Red, and he had also brought his best friend Arthur. To surpervise the group of teenagers was Maddy's older brother, Oliver, who brought his girlfriend, Reyna. T...

     In recent times, I'm sure we are all struggling to find time to pick up a good book to read. As a kid, like many of you guys, I built the healthy habit of reading before bed, but for the past year or two, that's changed. Now, I go to bed immediately after finishing my homework, completely exhausted from the day. This blog will be a sort of self-reflection, but also include discussions from articles found online.      Drew Whitaker, a student of De Smet Jesuit High School, blames social media: " It is no coincidence that the teenage reading rate has declined as technology and social media have taken over nearly all aspects of teenage life. With the downfall of teenage reading, may come the downfall of teenage education all together. With technology taking over the world, teenagers have all the knowledge they need and more right at their fingertips. There is no reason for people to open up nonfiction books anymore when they can simply pull out their phon...

Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, is a book I read two years ago over the summer. The recent conversation with RACES in health class reignited my interest in this book (definitely not partly because I didn’t finish the book I’m currently reading…). To me, this book left an indelible impact: it was really the first book that pulled me out of my innocent, fairy-tale world and exposed me to the real world, which is not purely so radiant and joyful, but also not completely gloomy and wicked. In short, Speak circles around the freshman Melinda being sexually assaulted at a party at her friend’s house immediately before the fall semester. In panic, she calls the police who come and ruin the whole party. Once school starts, Melinda comes to a similar fate to Hester, from The Scarlet Letter, she finds herself ostracized and widely discussed. As the novel explores themes of trauma and isolation, it shows the importance of speaking up. Readers were shown the bystander effect and the horrific p...

Ar ound a week ago, I picked up a random book – Animal Farm – and speedra n it in one evening because I thought I had to finish my blog the next day. But I didn’t, so now I’ve had more time to gather my thoughts about it. Animal Farm tells the story of the Manor Farm, wherein a group of mistreated animals come together under the guidance of the pig Old Major and rebel against their human oppressors, kicking the abusive Mr. Jones out of his house and renaming the farm “Animal Farm”. The animals set guidelines for themselves, stating that all animals are equal – every animal must do the same amount of work, and every animal is equally rewarded. But when the pig Napoleon seizes control, the Animal Farm quickly crumbles to dust, leaving no trace of the paradise that was meant to be. Orwell, a socialist, wrote this book (as well as 1984 , which I wrote a blog on last year!!) as a critique of how socialist ideals can be easily twisted by a corrupted leader – in other words, Stalin and ...

  As we’ve recently started a new unit on poetry, I’ve been motivated to read a book related to poetry. Long Way Down is a book that is written fully in verse. The book has been in the back of my mind for a very long time. In 6th grade, I first attempted to read the book, but stopped halfway. The book was interesting, but I never felt like I was able to really break down and understand what was happening and what everything meant. I kept the book in the back of my mind, but recently, I came back to the book, and it mesmerized me immediately. Like I mentioned, the book is written fully in verse. When author of the book, Jason Reynolds, was asked about why he wrote his novel fully in verse, he answered, “Well, first and foremost, I love poetry. It was my first discipline.” Many books that are written in verse sometimes end up sounding unnatural and weird, but Jason uses verse very well to create a unique style that catches the reader's attention. The plot of the book also makes th...

       I think it's easy for me to say that my current favorite author has to be Karen M. McManus. After reading One of Us is Lying  I picked up The Cousins  at the library during Spring Break. When I was reading this book, I kind of thought it was, "Meh," but that may be because of my high expectations for this book as I loved One of Us is Lying.     The Cousins  centers around three cousins (hence the title), Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah, who were cut off by their wealthy grandmother, Mildred, for an unknown reason. Milly, Aubrey, and Jonah didn't really know each other well despite being related. Sure, they met a handful of times, but they never really  got to know each other. One day, these three cousins receive an unusual invitation in their mail, an invitation to work at Mildred's island resort for the summer. Being forced to go by their parents (as their parents wouldn't take no for an answer) Milly, Aubrey, and Jo...

Key Words: Kindness from strangers, letters Unlike other works by Keigo Higashino, the book The Miracles of the Namiya General Store showed more of a warm fairy tale than those tempting murder mystery stories he usually writes. While other books showed despair and poignancy in life, this story tells readers that there is still hope and love. It proved to readers that, beyond friends and families, kindness can also be offered by strangers. Sometimes, the beauty of distance can help people create connections while keeping a decent level of privacy. Briefly, the story of The Miracles of the Namiya General Store follows three decadent delinquents who accidentally end up in the Namiya General Store seeking refuge after their most recent crime. There, they discovered a letter from the past asking for advice. Out of curiosity, the trio responded. To their surprise, not only did their correspondents respond quickly, but more and more letters came flooding into the general store. Through counse...

    Fahrenheit 451 written by Ray Bradbury, is one of most famous dystopian books ever, and not without good reason. I read this book a year or two ago, and was immensely pleased by the choice I made to purchase it.     The book follows protagonist Guy Montag in a futurist American city. In this dystopian  world, books are forbidden, and people who are found with books are to have their collections burned. Guy, is a firefighter, but he doesn't put fires out. He is the one who burns the books. People in this world are entertained by giant TV's mounted in their houses, or by the Seashells  they wear in their ears, like hearing aids. When I imagine this setting, I imagine a gray scale world, devoid of passion and liveliness. As the book progresses though, Guy becomes disillusioned with his job and the world he lives in, after his wife attempts suicide and a girl who he became friends with dies from a car accident. He becomes even more distraught when he arriv...

  My last blog talked about the dissatisfaction high schoolers expressed to  The Scarlet Letter . On that blog, I also expressed my personal opinion on the book too. I said that I hated the book and that I was dissatisfied with the book. Since we've recently finished  The Scarlet Letter , I think it's a perfect time to reevaluate my feelings on the book.                When I posted my previous blog, our class had just finished reading chapter 3. We had finished the Custom House reading, and we were starting to get into the actual story. I was very frustrated with how confusing the book was. The Custom House sketch was gruesome to read. I remember that there was a part where Hawthorne took a whole page just to describe a minor detail, but it didn't even make sense to me. The whole Custom house sketch was confusing, written in an interesting prose, and was just boring. When we started to read chapters 1-...

Ernest Hemingway was not exaggerating when he said that “all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called ‘Huckleberry Finn’.” The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn picks up in the aftermath of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer . Huck has finally become a functioning member of society – but not for long, since Huck’s perpetually drunk and abusive father kidnaps him because Huck has been too civilized. Eventually, Huck can’t take it anymore, and fakes his death and runs away. By sheer luck, he comes across Jim, a runaway slave, and they set off down the Mississippi River on a raft. Much of the novel tells of their journey, and their encounters with various characters, including a “duke” and a French “king” – and in addition, a very special Tom Sawyer makes an appearance near the end. One of the various qualities of this novel that make it unique is the contrast between the characters. Some were really entertaining, and some were extremely infuriating, yet still enter...

TW/ mention of drugs (only once)        As I have said in my previous blog, I always loved mystery books. I typically like listening to a podcast while doing my chores or homework, so when the podcast host covered the book,  One of Us is Lying  by Karen M. McManus, I knew I had to immediately read it.     The book takes place in a detention room with 5 students because they had their phones in class. They were vastly different.  Bronwyn Rojas was your typical straight-A student with the hopes of following in her family's footsteps to attend Yale University. In contrast to Bronwyn, there was Nate McAuley, who was the school's "bad boy" that does drugs and sells them. Then, there was Cooper Clay, who is the jock and loved baseball, and his best friend's girlfriend, Addy Prentiss, who always ends up in second place in anything she does. Lastly, there was the outlier, Simon Kelleher, who terrorized the students at his school for ex...

KEYWORDS: Sherlock Holmes In the TV series Case Closed, “Conan” became Jimmy Kudo’s alias because he was inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle’s renowned detective series Sherlock Holmes. As a fan of the series (I only watched the first 100 out of 1000 episodes…ok whatever) and a passionate reader of many contemporary detective novels. I thought it was about time to check out the most classic, paramount series in the detective realm – the Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle. The full Sherlock Holmes series is composed of 4 main novels and a bundle of short stories.  A Study in Scarlet is the first of the 4 main novels. In short, the story circles around 2 murders that happen in London, and (not unexpectedly) Detective Holmes takes the burden of solving the case.  From the way the story was plotted, I feel like A Study in Scarlet appears to be slightly inferior compared to the other books I’ve read. I was expecting a little bit more plot twist. However, I do find the themes e...

       I've only read three inherently sad books in my past: Planet Earth is Blue, 13 Reasons Why, and Bridge to Terabithia. All three of these books shared the common theme of an important character dying, but Bridge to Terabithia felt much more personal than the other two.     This review by  Henry Palmquist puts it best: " This book was a punch in the gut as a fifth-grader nearly thirty years ago. As an adult, it's a beating with a padlock in a sock. Just non-stop blow after blow because now after college English classes you know about things like foreshadowing and symbolism and dramatic irony and YOU SEE IT COMING FROM MILES AWAY AND CAN DO NOTHING TO STOP IT....  Because you're an adult now and your adult fears are different than your fears as a kid. This only heightens the contrast between Jesse's juvenile fear of falling into the creek and the reader's more mature fear of losing a loved one and makes the characters' pain stand out in ...

                As I was surfing the internet a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a Reddit thread that caught my attention. The reddit post shared an interesting statistic related to   The   Scarlet Letter . I was very amused by this post because we had just started to read   The Scarlet Letter  in our class. But when I looked at the comments, all I found was comments expressing hate towards   The Scarlet Letter .                 While looking through the comments, one in particular caught my attention. This comment was written by a college student, and it expressed the student's deep hate for the book and the effects it's had on his literary journey. The comment said, " Oh man, I was a book fiend before high school. Read all the Harry Potter I could stomach as those books came out, read many different young adult series, read encyc...