Monday, October 28, 2013



 Hi LOL!

Please comment to this post about Where Things Come Back.  If we believe the critics’ buzz, he did a pretty good job. Here are some of the awards that his novel has won . . .

Michael L. Printz Award (Best book for young adults)
William C. Morris YA Debut Award (Best first novel of the year)
Publisher’s Weekly Best Book of the Year
Amazon.com Breakthrough Novel Award

So, the question is, “Why?” As in "Why is it considered an outstanding book?" What is it about this story that has critics and readers so crazy about it? Share your ideas with us.

Please comment below and feel free to respectfully respond to the comments of others!!!

We will meet Thursday November 21st to discuss in person over pizza!

See you then and we look forward to reading your posts!!!
Molly and Mr. O

9 comments:

  1. I feel that this book makes people frustrated. You start following whats happening to Gabriel trying to find out how he gets set free. In the end of the book you don't find out. You have almost everything left to imagination. Thats why this book is outstanding it gets you emotionally invested.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think this book earned a lot of awards because it is very similar to another famous work, "Catcher in the Rye." The main character trying to protect the innocence of a younger sibling. Holden Caulfield referred to everyone as phonies, well isn't John Barling suspected to be the biggest phony of them all. I personally enjoyed this book. I liked how each chapter seemed to end with a cliffhanger.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I guess it is maybe considered a good book because it shows how two people who have no connection what so ever and influence each other. It has stuff that really could happen and it has stuff that seems a little strange.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think the book won a lot of awards because it's not alike so many books out there. The whole book is more realistic than a lot of other stories out there. It shows that there isn't always a happy ending to every situation. I think it shows more of the narrator's inner most feelings than other books. I think this is part of the reason it won so many awards. It allowed the reader to feel what the narrator is feeling.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Haylee: I like the word "frustrated" used in a positive sense -- it's what keeps you turning pages.
    Dallas: Nice analogy. I see a lot of parallels between this book and Catcher in the Rye.
    Shannon: I think you have a good thought. The randomness of the events is a little unsettling.
    Marissa: I agree about the realism. There are many scenes that ring true.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I believe that this book won some awards due to the fact that it made you feel like you were just another character, and the narrator was talking to you as if you were just an old friend. I also agree with Marissa in the sense, that the realism was very heavy in this book. Almost so, that some would consider it pessimistic(these would be the "optimists"). I personally really enjoyed the book, due to the realism. I don't like feel good stories. I need things that open the eyes of the reader to the real world.

    ReplyDelete
  7. "Why is it considered an outstanding book?"
    Well i really didn't care for this book at all. I didn't intrest me at all. It just was not the genre of book that i like to read.
    But i guess i think is got awards because some people thought it was a really good book.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I think they won some awards due to it made you think. It was frustrating how it didn't give all the details. For example how he came back or where his brothers came from. I think people liked it for that reasons. There's not many books like this one.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Why is this considered an outstanding book? Well it was a very well written book, but I can't say it appealed to my tastes at all. I found the book very hard to sit down and read through because I found it kind of slow and boring. The author did a very good job writing it, but it just wasn't my kind of book.

    ReplyDelete