The Pelican Brief

In this story, Grisham talks about a 19 year old girl who is on the run from a group of people who want to kill her. They want to kill her becaause she wrote a brief about who killed two Supreme Court justices and she guessed correctly. It was the same people that later on, killed anyone who tried to contact her. She was forced to escape her city, New Orleans, and flee around the country.

In other stories, Grisham usually talks about lawyers and about their lives. He has great examples, too. In his other books that I have read, he talks about a kid in law school, a very important case, and much more. He tells you real life things that would be very important in the world today. I think he does a great job in this.

Besides informing you about lawyers, he also teaches you other things. For example, in this book he teaches you about life on the run and the life of a reporter for a newspaper. In other stories, he also shows you the life down South and a lot more.

The Pelican Brief

In this book, John Grisham writes a story about how two Supreme Court justices have been assassinated. The assassin is extremely professional and did not leave behind any evidence for the FBI to track. There were no witnesses, either. Now, everyone is trying to find the assassin but there is no one to blame. But one law student from New Orleans has a far-fetched idea that somehow has gotten all the way to then president. It's a long-shot, but it is the best that they have to offer.

The way that the author writes the story, there is no single main character. He has the view of all of the important people. It skips form one person to another throughout the entire book. Also, he tells the reader who the assassin is through his own perspective but all of the other people have no idea who the assassin was. What this story is really showing you is the way that the government handles the situation.

I find it very interesting the way he wrote the book. It is a very advanced piece of writing. It is also a little confusing to read. But while making it confusing, he shoes a lot of other things that you normally wouldn't know about the story. I feel that Grisham is a great writer and he uses many ways to write his stories.

The Lorax

"The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss is a children's book that teaches children to respect the environment in a kid-friendly manner. He does this by making the story rhyme. Also, it is based on a made-up world with made-up animals. He give these animals wacky names and gives them fake characteristics. For example, the fish get out of their pond and walk away.

In the story, a man finds a world that has a lot of fluffy trees called truffula trees. Lots of animals live there. The Lorax is an imaginary animal that represents all of them. The man cuts down the trees to make clothing out of their fluffy tops. The Lorax asks him multiple times to stop but he doesn't. Eventually, all of the animals start to leave because the business has destroyed their habitat. When the last truffula tree is cut down, the Lorax leaves, too. In the end of the story, the man is old and he gives the last trruffula seed to a child. This shows that the book is calling the children to action stop hurting the environment.

This connects to the real world because in the past, there used to be a lot of nice places such as forests, jungles, and lakes. Now, just like the man did in the book, people are destroying these fantastic environments to build factories and to mass produce items. When this happens, trees are cut down, animals are turning extinct, and water, pollution is happening. In the story, the air is smogged, the water is dirty, the trees are gone, and the animals left. Thhis shows how the world is in a perspective of an imaginary wolrd.

A Painted House

In the book "A Painted House" by John Grisham, people of different races are treated differently. This might have to do with the fact that it is the 1950's. As everyone knows, people were treated differently in the past based on their race. But in this story, black people are being beaten up. Also, the mexicans and the black people are being treated as dirt. They have to work for a living by picking cotton. They earn one dollar and sixty cents for each one hundred pounds of cotton they pick. The mexicans arrived to the farm in one small truck. There were 60 of them crammed in a little truck.

In the story, the women seemed disgraced at the way these poeple were being treated. For example, when the mexicans arrived in the crammed little truck, Luke's mother was furious with the people that sent them. Last year, they did the same thing and she asked them to send the mexicans in a big roomy bus. But they ignored her. Also, she brings the minorities a lot of vegetables from her garden. She is really nice too the less fortunate people and feel bad for them.

I think back into the story and I now realize how much the world has changed. Now, minorities are being treated a lot more human-like as opposed to being treated like dirt as they have been in the past. Although they are being treated dealt with more fairly in life they are still being mistreated.

A Painted House

The book "A Painted House," by John Grisham takes place around the 1950's in Arkansas. This was around the time that blacks and Mexicans were being paid little to gather their crops. The Chandler family own the cotton farm. They are not wealthy people, but they are poor, either. They are in the middle class. They don't get hot water. They still have lots of debts to pay but they're farm is paying for it. They barely cut even each year. They're dream is to have a painted house.
I think that they're "painted house" symbolizes wealth. They want to pay off all of their debts and start making money. So far, they haven't done that well. Slowly, year by year, they are sinking further into debt. So far in the story, it has explained they're daily lives'. It is showing how much the everybody has changed since the time-period of this family.
In the book, the Chandlers don't have hot water. Today, every single person that owns a house has hot water. Also, the Mexicans and black people do not do the same thing that they did a long time ago. They are treated the same as any other person. Lastly, Our "painted house" would be more than just a fresh coat of paint. It would be a lot more. This shows how people have changed.

The Rainmaker

The book "The Rainmaker," by John Grisham is about the life of Rudy Baylor. Rudy Baylor is about to graduate from Memphis State Law School. He is in a small firm. He is getting a salary of about 30,000 dollars.His life is a pretty good one and he expects to get into the "big leagues" and make millions.

As fast as he had gotten the "good life" it vanished. So far, the only person he has ever loved has dumped him for an Ivy League graduate that she met years ago. He lost his only job and can't get another one because they are all taken. He's been evicted from his apartment. Rudy is having a horrible life. Now he is trying to find a job and make something out of his now meaningless life.

I feel that there lots of people in the world around us that have this sort of problem. It might not be the same one, but it could be similar. Right now, millions of people are unemployed and looking for jobs. These people will try whatever they can to get their life going again.

Cats Aren't the Only Ones With More Than One Life

In The Partner by John Grisham, Patrick Lanigan is having a horrible life. His wife is cheating on him. He has a child that he realizes isn't even his (from a blood test). People who he thought he could trust turn on him and cheat him out of millions of dollars. Patrick can't stand his life. He has a horrible life, a child he's supposed to love as a father, but isn't one, and he gets cheated out of millions of dollars. So what does he do? He kills himself, at night, in a car crash off the side of the road. The fire was so intense the only thing the people find is his ashes. Or so they thought.

In Patrick's "second" life, his name is Danilo Silva. He loses tons of weight and shaves his beard, looking nothing like before. It turns out that Patrick had faked his death. But why? To steal the money that he was cheated out of. But he doesn't only take his share. He takes the whole ninety million and runs. He runs to Brazil to hide, not spending any of the ninety million. There, 2 years later, he meets the woman of his dreams. Her name was Eva. After a few days, he finds her trustworthy enough to tell her about everything. He gives her the money and she hides it in banks around the world. She never betrays him. 2 years after that, the people who lost the ninety million found Patrick/Danilo. They tortured him and asked him where the money was. He didn't know since he gave it to Eva. Eventually the FBI came and arrested him.

Now that Danilo/Patrick is in custody, he is thinking about how if he could escape one more time. Live with Eva and the ninety million without ever being found. He starts thinking: Patrick is dead. Danilo has been captured. He starts thinking: Why you can't just start over? Why can't you have more than one life? So Patrick decides to press his luck one more time. To see how it all ends.

The Partner

John Grisham is a great author when it comes to criminal justice. I've read many books by him. They were all outstanding. For example, one series I read was the Theodore Boone series, by John Grisham. This was about a kid who was 13 years old and obsessed with the court. I thought this was a great book for me because it was about the justice system but it didn't get too complicated because it was in a 13 year old's head. Another book I read by Grisham was The Last Juror. This book had the same idea as the other book except it was more mature. The perspective of this character is from a man in his later twenties. The book I am reading right now is a different category all together.

Like I said before, the Boone series is from the point of view of a 13 year old. The Last Juror is from the view of a 27 year old man. The Partner is from the view of a dead person.
Or at least a guy who's supposed to be.
Patrick faked his own death so he could steal 96 million dollars from a pact that he was in before and getting cheated out of. In the other two books, the main characters had done nothing wrong. But, obviously, Patrick had done something wrong since he had been chased down after 4 years of running. But for some reason, Grisham has decided to defend this thief. I think I understand why. The people in the pact were vicious, money hungry people. Though Grisham is defending a criminal, he makes him look like a good guy.

These books aren't completely different, though. Grisham still manages to connect these books. These books are all about the court. They defend the most innocent person and prosecute the criminal. The Partner is a different story, like I explained. Grisham's books are complicated. The book is the court, and Grisham himself, is the judge.

"Am I Blue?"

In the short story, "Am I Blue?" by Bruce Coville, Vincent gets beaten up by a kid at his school because he thinks he is gay. The truth is that Vincent doesn't know. After getting beaten up, his fairy godfather, Melvin appears. Vincent doesn't know if he should trust the man but decides to talk to him. Melvin helps Vincent by talking to him and explaining to him that there are tons of straight people that believe that they don't know any gay people but really they are just hiding. Vincent started to change when he met Melvin and by the end of the story he is a different person.

In the beginning of the short story, Melvin is trying to hide from his problems like the bully, Butch Carrigan. Melvin appeared and started to teach him that it's okay to not know whether to know if he was gay or not. Melvin taught Vincent that there were lots of gay people in the world. This made Vincent feel better that he wasn't alone. When Vincent's fairy godfather appeared, Vincent got three wishes. One was wasted on his coffee. The other two were still untouched. At the end of the story, Vincent decided to use one of his wishes to turn every gay person in the US blue for a day. Vincent did this so that they would stop hiding and so the straight people would accept the fact that there are gay people in their lives. Vincent was a lot less afraid at the end of the story than he was at the beginning. He decided it was okay.

This story relates to the real world because there are lots of gay people hiding in the real world. Also, many people judge others by their appearances, like Butch did to Vincent. There are lots of people in the world that bully others based on their appearepances. You should never assume anything about anyone else because it could not be true and it could really hurt them.

The Drummer Boy of Shiloh

In "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh" by Ray Bradbury, Joby the drummer boy is the protagonist. Joby changes throughout the story. He goes from feeling alone and afraid of what was going to come to prepared and not concerned.

In the beginning of the story,Joby is feeling lost, hopeless, unprepared, and uncertain. For example, Bradbury says "If he stayed very still, when the dawn came up and the soldiers put their bravery on with their caps, perhaps they might go away, the war with them, and not notice him living here, no more than a toy himself." He was afraid of what was going to happen in the battle.

In the middle of the story, Joby is talking to the general. The general is helping Joby by teaching him how important he is. For example, in the story, the general says to Joby "He must keep at it, at it! Long and steady, steady and long! Then even though shot or torn, those wounds got in hot blood-in blood he'd helped stir-would feel less pain. If their blood was cold, it would be more than slaughter, it would be murderous nightmare and pain best not told and no one to guess." He tells Joby that if he is slow and unsure, the soldiers will be. But if he is fast and steady, so will the soldiers.

In the end of the story, Joby is ready. "He swallowed. He wiped his eyes. He cleared his throat. He settled himself. Then, at last, very slowly and firmly he turned the drum so it faced up towards the sky." Joby is prepared and ready for battle. Joby will go into the battle beating a sure and steady beat to the battle.

The Unnameables

In the book The Unnameables by Ellen Booraem, Medford Runyuin is on an island. On the island there is a very strict society. Medford wasn't born on the island. The main rule on the island is that everything must have a purpose. If it has a purpose it has a name. If it doesn't have a purposemit does not have a name. Everyone is named after what they do. For example, if you were a weaver then your name would be Weaver. If you made something that didn't have a use, then you would be banished and brought to the mainland. The problem is that Medford doesn't want to follow the rules and be like everyone else. He let his mind go wild and carve whatever he wanted. One day a goatman appeared in front of his house one day. He could call the wind but couldn't control it. The peopel found out that Medford had created these useless objects and had a trial to banish Medford. The way the conflict was resolved was that almost everyone on the island had something useless or unnameable. The council decided to allow these useless objects on the island. They decided to name them runyuins.

One theme to this book is that it's okay to be different. I think that the theme was showed when Meedford didn't have a meaningful last name like everyone else. Another theme was let your imagination flow. Medford let his imagination flow into carving. He carved things like seagulls, fancy bowls, and anything he had on his mind. The last theme that I saw was to ignore what others think about you. In the beginning of the story, kids made fun of him and called him names for being different. Medford didn't let this stop him.

The way that this book connected to the real world is that the island was just an island off the coast of the any place in the real world. The island was just an example of what the people thought was a "perfect society." Some of the problems are the same as problems people have today.

Theodore Boone: The Accused

Theodore Boone is a 13 year old kid that is obsessed with the law. Both of his parents are lawyers. Theodore was always a good kid and always tried to follow the rules. But one day, Theodore found out that his locker was open and his hat was missing. Theodore decided not to report to the principal and thought that he had just left his locker open. Later that day, he saw that his bike tire was slashed. Theodore got a little worried when he noticed a knife had cut his tire. Then he got accused for robbing an electronic store and stealing lots of devices. When the detectives checked his locker, they found three tablets that Theodore didn't put there. Theodore tried to deny everything, but all of the evidence pointed to him.
Theodore tried to follow the rules, but when some kids started calling him guilty, Theodore got into a fight. He got suspended for two days. This was the first time Theodore had gotten in this much trouble. Theodore realized that if he didn't find out who really robbed the store, they were going to blame it on him. He talked to his uncle, Ike, and Ike came up with an idea. He thought that the people who were framing Theodore was connected to his mom's work as a lawyer. Theodore broke into his mother's files and learned who had framed him. Ike taught Theodore that it is okay to break the rules if you are trying to do something right.