Water for Elephants

by Sara Gruen

Reviewed by Vishma Raj

REVIEW: Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

ISBN#: 9781616200817

THE STORY: Jacob Jankowski, an old man, is at a nursing home. As he feels like he is slipping, going downhill towards the end, he has flashbacks of when he was a twenty-three year old young man. His flashbacks begin with when Jacob was about to get his degree at Cornell’s Veterinary School and he received horrible news of his parents passing away in a car accident. He learns that he has no job or inheritance from his parents, so he gives up and runs away, hopping onto the first train he saw. He realized that he had just went on a circus train, but before he knew it, he was part of the show. A man named Camel introduced him to the ringmaster, Uncle Al. The Benzini Brothers, the show he somehow joined, brought him in as the veterinarian. At the show, Jacob has to work with August, who is the head of the animal acts, and Marlena, who is one of the stars of the circus. Marlena is August’s wife, but her and Jacob somehow fall for each other during his time at the show. As the circus traveled around, they got an elephant named Rosie. August hated Rosie, so Jacob helped, training Rosie and working with August to help her with the act. August starts to become more violent with the stress, while Jacob and Marlena slowly fall in love behind everyone’s backs. August becomes jealous, so he accused them of having an affair and hurt both of them. Marlena leaves August so she and Jacob can be closer together. While this was going on, the circus was running out of money, meaning they had to toss people out of the show to their deaths. Some of the ones who were tossed out returned, setting the animals loose and causing a riot. During the commotion, Jacob saw Rosie the elephant killing August. The show is ruined. Marlena and Jacob are finally free, so they try to rescue the animals and leave to join the Ringling Brothers Circus.  

MY OPINION: As someone who does not particularly like reading too much, I did not expect this book to be anywhere near as great as it turned out to be. I was entranced by the drama, the slight humor, the adventures, and every little part of this story. The author used so much detail to set the scene and tone for each part. I could clearly image everything the author was describing, whether it was the grand circus tent or the small cot that Jacob slept in. The author pulled you in so you could be attached to each of the characters, feeling the same anger, heartbreak, and overall emotions that the characters did. There was some advanced vocabulary, so some parts would be a little confusing. I would reccomend this book for anyone older than twelve or thirteen years old, since there is some strong language, confusing vocabulary, and mature scenes.    

STUDY QUESTIONS AND VOCABULARY:

FIRST SECTION

1. Who is the main character?

1a. The main character is a man named Jacob Jankowski. (pg. 7)

2. How did Jacob join the circus?

2a. He ran away from home and went onto a train that he soon realized was a circus train. (pg. 28)

3. What happened to Jacob’s parents?

3a. Jacob’s parents died in a car accident when he was twenty-three years old. (pg. 16-17)

4. What was Jacob’s job in the show?

4a. Jacob was the veterinarian. (pg. 59)

5. How old was Jacob when he joined the show?

5a. Jacob was twenty-three years old when he joined the show. (pg. 51)

reconstituted (pg.7)

coroner (pg. 17)

burnished (pg. 55)

apoplectic (pg. 78)

ingratiating (pg. 89)

MIDDLE SECTION

6. Who is Rosie?

6a. Rosie was August’s elephant. “She’s fifty-three and she’s perfectly brilliant.” (pg. 124)

7.  Why does Walter dislike August?

7a. Walter dislikes August because if you mess with him, “you’re going to find yourself dead [or] red-lighted, if you’re lucky.” (pg. 158)
8. Why is August different?

8a. August is different because he has something like mood swings, so he can be very nice, but also very mean. (pg. 170)

9. Why has Uncle Al always wanted to say “Hold you horses! Here come the elephants!”

9a. Uncle Al has always wanted to say that because that is what Ringling says, and he wants to be Ringling. (pg. 162)

10. Why did Jacob lie about the reason he joined the show?

10a. Jacob lied because he had never even heard of the Benzini Brothers before this. (pg. 204)

menagerie (pg. 125)

subsides (pg. 141)

recessed (pg. 149)

abscess (pg. 161)

roustabouts (pg. 200)

LAST SECTION

11. What is happening to Jacob?

11a. Jacob is “slipping.” He’s starting to forget important parts, and he is worried that “it’s all downhill from here.” (pg. 225)

12. Why did August hurt Rosie so much?

12a. Other than his anger, “there was no call to be that brutal.” (pg. 230)

13. What is Marlena planning in her tent?

13a. Marlena wanted to have a party to surprise August with a celebration after the show. (pg. 243)

14. Why did August go nuts when he saw the surprise?
14a. He thought Marlena was having an affair with Jacob, so he hurt both of them. (pg. 256)

15. Why does August act strangely?

15a. August acts strangely because he is ill and is paranoid schizophrenic, so he is “mad as a hatter, [but] he’s also brilliant.” (pg. 301)

promenading (pg. 235)

delirious (pg. 237)

assurances (pg. 256)

strenuous (pg. 287)

paranoid schizophrenic (pg. 301)

Pride and Prejudice

By Jane Austen

Reviewed by Krystal Lam

REVIEW: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

THE STORY:

The Bennet family is a family with a modest income. Jane, the eldest of the Bennet sisters, dances with Mr. Bingley twice, much to the delight of her mother. Mr. Bingley brought an acquaintance, Mr. Darcy, with him, and everyone assumes he is rude and arrogant. Jane catches a cold on the way to the Bingley’s house and Elizabeth walks over to the Bingleys. Mr. Darcy begins admiring her, and Miss Bingley, Mr. Bingley’s sister, notices his admiration for her she instantly feels jealous.When Mr. Collins a self important man comes to visit, and proposes to Elizabeth, she says no.  Elizabeth later goes to visit Charlotte, who has married Mr. Collins. She there meets Mr. Darcy’s aunt, Lady Catherine de Bourgh. Mr. Darcy also comes to visit, and while there, he goes to meet her, purposefully during walks. Elizabeth reads a letter from Mr. Darcy himself that he did not stop fortunes from going to his family’s ward, Mr. Wickham. Elizabeth goes to visit the Gardiners, where she learns of Mr. Darcy’s true nature. Mr. Wickham who hates Mr. Darcy, whom at first Elizabeth saw with a good light, she now learns he is distrustful, but he has eloped with Lydia, her younger sister. Elizabeth is now fearful for her family reputation because Wickham might not actually marry Lydia and goes back to Netherfield. But in the end, her family’s savior is Mr. Darcy, and Wickham agrees to marry Lydia. Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy come back to Netherfield, and both Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth says nothing about their current relationship with each other. Even though Lady Catherine does not want Elizabeth dating her nephew, she still does it anyway.(281 words)

The Old Man and the Sea

by Ernest Hemingway

Reviewed by Eric Zhang

Fall 2016

REVIEW: The Old Man and The Sea by Ernest Hemingway
ISBN: 9780099908401#

THE STORY:

Old man, Santiago is a fisherman that lives by himself on a wharf side in Cuba. This story takes place in 1940(s), when the baseball player Joe DiMaggio was still alive. In the 1940(s), people in Cuba went fishing every day and mostly talked about baseball. Throughout the story, the old man goes through hardships of fishing, mainly because the old man hasn’t caught a fish in eighty four days and needs to catch one, so that he doesn’t rely on other people’s help of surviving. Old man thinks that the eighty fifth day of fishing is a lucky day and he will catch something, like all the other days. Old man decides to go fishing further than anyone has been, which eventually leads him to the hardest days of fishing, he has ever experienced. One of major events that occurred in the story was when the old man caught his third fish which was a huge marlin. The old man had the fish tied to his boat and was on his way home when the old man saw two sharks heading towards him. The old man had a club and did his best to fend of the sharks. After a while of fighting, the two sharks left and the old man had reached his destination. Exhausted, the old man went to his shack and slept until the morning of the next day. The old man understood why the sharks had left, for they had gotten a free meal from the old man. What was left of the marlin was a huge skeleton. The old man learns that hard work is essential to achieving better outcomes, even though he fairly caught a skeleton. The old man never gave up and continues to go fishing.

MY OPINION:

When I began the book, I felt like it was boring, because the life of a main character was like every other fisherman’s life as fisherman. I felt like the story was going to have a lot of words that I didn’t understand and some of the words were Spanish words used to describe a certain thing. As I began to read further into the book, I started to see the conflict, and the story began to become more interesting. The Spanish words became more easier to understand, because I could interpret the word out of the context clues that came after the Spanish word. Some of strengths in the story, was that the author would give deep descriptions about subjects and used metaphors to relate one subject to another. I felt sad for the main character, but also admired him at the same time for the main character was having problems fishing, but the main character continued to go fishing and never gave up. I think that the message that the author was trying to convey was that: “No matter how old you are, you can never give up and you always have to advance, even if you feel like giving up.” I felt like there weren’t any weaknesses, even though there may have been some non understanding parts, personally for me, because some materials and skills and the ways of saying something in a fisherman’s language was kind of hard to understand. I would recommend this book to people in middle school and above, due to its use of hard vocabulary and some Spanish words located within the story.

STUDY QUESTIONS AND VOCABULARY:

FIRST SECTION

1. What is the name of the old man and the boy?

1a. The old man’s name is Santiago and the boy’s name is Manolin. (pg. 10 & 27)

2. Where does the old man plan to do, after his eighty-fourth day without fish?

2a. The old man plans to go far away from the harbor, farther than anyone has gone before.

(pg. 14)

3. What is the old man a fan of? What team does he like?

3a. The old man is a fan of the Yankees and he like to watch baseball. (pg. 17)

4. What is the part of ocean, the fishermen called Great Well?

4a. The Great Well is a sudden deep drop of seven hundred fathoms, where there are all kinds of fish. (pg. 28)

5. What is the first kind of fish the old man saw?

5a. The old man saw big dolphins. (pg. 34)

gaff (pg. 15)

resolution (pg. 23)

phosphorescence (pg. 28)

terns (pg. 29)

iridescent (pg. 35)

MIDDLE SECTION

6. What happened when the old man tried to pull the fish up?

6a. The old man used all his strength and pulled the fishing rod, again and again, and also pivoted the weight of his body, but nothing happened. (pg. 44)

7.What does the old man keep repeating?

7a. “I wish the boy were here.” (pg. 57)

8. Describe the fish that the old man had on his fishing rod.

8a. The fish’s back was dark purple and sides were stripped with light lavender. The fish had a sword as long as a baseball bat. (pg. 62)

9. What subject does the man talk about when he is bored?

9a. The man talks about baseball and how baseball players could catch the fish that was on the end of his rod. (pg. 68)

10. What did the old man dream of when he slept?

10a. He dreamed of vast schools of porpoises. He dreamed of being in a bed in a village. He dreamed of long yellow beach with lions. (pg, 81)

imperceptible (pg. 43)

undulation (pg. 60)

ptomaine (pg. 62)

kerosene (pg. 69)

ceding (pg. 83)

                               

LAST SECTION

11. Why did the old man choose the flying fish rather than the dolphin to eat?

11a. The old man knows that the dolphin is better tasting than the flying fish but the dolphin will cause nausea, so he decides to eat the flying fish instead, which will only cause a little dizziness. (pg. 85)

12. What did the old man describe the fish on the end of his line?

12a. The fish was big and had huge pectorals that were spread wide. The fish’s tails was higher than a big scythe blade and was a pale lavender over the water. (pg. 90)

13. How did the old man tell which direction he was going in without a compass?

13a. The old man knew the direction of the way he was going by feeling the trade wind and drawing a sail. (pg. 97)

14. How did the old man tell that the shark was going to die?

14a. The old man saw the shark’s eye and he knew that the shark was going to die, because the shark’s eye was dead. (pg. 102)

15. What happened to the fish the old man had caught?

15a. Two sharks started attacking the fish that the old man had caught by taking bit by bit of the fish. The old man tried to fight the sharks off, but the it was no use because the sharks kept attacking his fish. (pg. 112-114)

commenced (pg. 86)

bitt (pg. 95)

vertebrae (pg. 109)

perceptible (pg. 117)

barracudas (pg. 127)