Reader Response Journal #5

This is my book report for the novel "Sister of my Heart."

Hi everyone, I am Sudha from the novel Sister of my Heart. I play one of the main characters in that novel. I live in a place in India called Calcutta with my mother, my two aunts and my cousin Anju. Anju is from an upper-caste family member while I am the black sheep(outsider) of that same family. Anju and I were born on the same date and since the date we were born, our fathers were mysteriously killed. Anju and I are very close. We share almost each and everything with each other. The turning point was when I turned twelve, I was very eager to know the dark family secret which my aunts and my mother had been hiding from Anju and me till now. So, I asked my aunt to tell me the story and she did. And there I came to knew our father's weren't mysteriously killed instead my father had killed Anju's father for some rubies. And I also came to knew that Anju and I weren't related at all. Since the day I had learned the dark family secret, I felt an embarrassment which I cannot share with Anju. I thought Anju wouldn't be able to handle the secret if I told her. I would spent time alone in my bedroom and ask Anju weird questions which will sometimes leave her confused. After few days, I got over the fact that my father had killed Anju's father. So, on our thirteenth birthday, Anju and I skipped school to watch a movie knowing that we would be in a great trouble if our mother sees us. While watching the movie, I met Ashok. Without knowing much about him, I completely fell in love with him. When we got home, our mothers somehow already knew we skipped school to watch a movie in a theatre and also my mother arranged an early marriage for me because she thought I was falling for a guy from a lower caste family. After few days later, Anju mother got very ill and decided to arrange an early marriage for Anju too. I hated the idea of me getting married to a man whom I had never seen before so I decided to run away with Ashok. But later, I discovered that if I do so, I will ruin Anju's opportunity for a happy marriage. So, I decided to get married to the man my mother had arranged for me. After we got married, we went to separate paths. Anju went to America to live with her husband and I stayed back in India to live with my in-laws.Even though we were really far away from each other, we kept in touch through mails and telephones. After years later, we both got pregnant and I was thrown away from my in-laws house for having a baby girl.I was very upset with them especially my husband who even thought that I should either be thrown away or abort the baby. When Anju heard that I got thrown away from the house, she decided to get a part time job even though it is bad for her own health. She wanted to earn enough money so she can invite me to America to have a better life.
The theme of this novel is that, you could do anything to the person whom you love dearly. Such as in this novel, Anju did everything to earn enough money so she can invite me to America and the way I sacrificed my own love for her happiness.

Evaluation: I think what I did well in this presentation is that I spoke out loud and made eye contact with the audience. I think what I should improve is that I should speak more with enthusiasm and more confidently. I learned a lot by being this character such as love between sisters, sacrifices and what you can do to sacrifice your love or happiness to the other. And, yes it did made me understand the novel better by being one of the character because you can actually feel what the character goes through and understand the theme better.

Reader Response Journal #4

Which celebrity would I use to portray the characters from the novel "Dark Secrets."

Vanessa Hudgen will be played by Lauren(the main character). I chose her because the way they described Lauren in this book reminds me of Vanessa Hudgen and they are even the same age.

I picked Jesse McCartney as Nick in this novel. I chose him because Nick is blond like Jesse McCartney and both are attractive and same age.

I picked Angelina Jolie to play Lauren's godmother, Julie. Julie is a very nice character in this novel and I think it will be suitable for Angelina to play Julie.

Response Jounal #3

For my presentation, I have selected my first novel which is "Sister of my Heart." I am playing one of the main character, Sudha. Sudha is an Indian girl who wears Punjabi dress so in my presentation I have decided to wear the cloth that Sudha wears in this novel. Sudha is a very shy and a very calm girl. So I might kind of have to talk like Sudha and also kind of act like her. She doesn't really have an accent so it is going to be like my normal accent. And I will try my best to act and talk like her.

Romeo's diary entry-Sunday and Monday

Dear Diary,

I was so miserable this morning because Rosaline, my love does not return my love back. I wonder why she does not love me back since I had always tried to impress her and be nice to her but I still don't know the reason why she does not love me back. First I felt a bit lonely and wanted to spend the time all by myself but later Benvolio told me to forget about Rosaline(which will never happen) and told me to examine other beauties. He advised me to go to the ball which Capulet had thrown and there I will meet Rosaline. I took his advised and went to the ball even if it was really dangerous. And at the ball, I met Juliet. When I first saw her, I was dazed by the beauty of her. Oh god! She was the most beautiful women I had ever seen in my entire life. I completely forgot about Rosaline. I asked her for a dance and kissed her. She was gorgeous. However, I knew I can't fall in love with her since she is a Capulet. After the ball, I went to see my fair Juliet once more. And there she was looking out from her balcony. I was hiding behind a bush and watching her talk and there I came to knew that she had fallen in love with me.I told her how much I love her and she told me she feels the same way. So we decided to get marry tomorrow morning and we kissed each other good night!

Dear Diary,

Today has been the happiest and also the saddest day of my life. This morning I went to Friar Laurence and asked him to marry me with Juliet. I told him how I fell in love with her and surprisingly agreed to my request because he thought that this marriage will end the families feud. After getting married to Juliet, I saw Tybalt, Benvolio and Mercutio on the street. Tybalt wanted me to challenge him to a duel but I denied since Tybalt and I are related now. And instead Mercutio fought with Tybalt, and I came between them to stop the fight and Mercutio got stabbed under my arm by Tybalt. After what Tybalt had done to my friend, I killed him. Oh, I was Fortune's fool! After killing Tybalt, I was banished from Verona forever which means I wouldn't be able to see my love Juliet ever again! Oh why, did I come between them. Friar Lawrence wanted me to go see Juliet one last time and I went to see my Juliet one last time.

Questions-Sunday and Monday

The play begins with a fight between two families who are the Capulets and the Montagues. While they were fighting, the Prince arrived,and warned both families that further fighting between the two will be punished by death. Romeo's parents were worried about him since they saw him looking all upset and avoiding everyone. His reason for sadness is that Rosaline, his love does not return his affections. On the other side of the family, Paris was asking Lord Capulet's permission to let him marry his daughter Juliet but Capulet told him she "hasn't seen the change of fourteen yet" but decided to throw a party.

When Romeo and Benvolio learned that there is going to be a ball, Benvolio advices Romeo to go to the Capulet ball where he will meet Rosaline and also will examine a lot of other beauties.Romeo goes to the Capulet party and meets Juliet. When Juliet discovered Romeo was a Montague, she says to herself, " My only love sprung from my only hate! Too early seen unknown, and known too late! Prodigious birth of love, it is to me, that I must love a loathed enemy." She said that line because since Romeo is a Montague, she cannot fall in love with him but it was too late since she already fell in love with him. During the famous balcony scene, Romeo an Juliet exchange vows and decided to marry the very next day!

The first thing Romeo does in the morning is visit Friar Laurence. He asked the Friar to marry him with Juliet. The Friar agreed to Romeo because he thought once Romeo and Juliet gets married, the feuding between the two families would end. When Friar says, "Wisely and slow, they stumble they ran fast" which means that Romeo should go slow because people who are in rush mostly fails.

When Mercutio and Tybalt got into a fight, Romeo tried to break the fight down and Mercutio got stabbed under Romeo's arm by Tybalt. When Mercutio is dying, he says, "No, 'tis not so deep as a well nor so wide as a church-door, but 'tis enough, 'twill serve. Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o' both your houses! Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat to scratch a man to death! A braggart, a rogue, a villain that fights by the book of arithmetic! Why the devil came you between us? I was hurt under your arm”. It means that Mercutio was really mad at Romeo for breaking the fight and of course mad at Tybalt for stabbing him. He blamed the Capulet and Montague. When Romeo heard that Mercutio was dead, he became furious and fights Tybalt and killed him.

Reader Response Journal #2

As I was reading the novel "The Dark Secret", the visual images that came to my mind was the way Nora acted with Lauren. Lauren had came back home seven years after her mother was mysteriously killed and when she returned, she found out that she was being watched from behind a tree.

Another visual that came to my mind in this book is when Lauren goes down to the boathouse. I chose this because Lauren's mother was killed near the boathouse and Lauren goes there to see if there is any clues left of the suspects because after a staying there for a while she started to think that her mother's death was not an accident. And it is very imaginative how the author described the boathouse and this is the picture of how I think the boathouse looks like.

Reader Response Journal #1

The title of my novel is "Dark Secrets" and it is written by Elizabeth Chandler. The basic summary of this novel is that a girl name Lauren had came home seven years after her mother was mysteriously killed. Her god-mother daughter, Nora was acting all weird and the other daughter was suddenly very nice to her. While staying in that town, she receives death threaten wherever she goes. After seeing her best friend Nick, dangers start to get worse.

I chose this novel because it seems mysterious which I enjoy a lot. I think I made the right choice by selecting this novel because after reading the first few chapters, the story was very interesting.

This is a website of the author and the books she had wrote.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/