I've kind of been neglecting this blog lately...I'M SORRY (don't hate me hehe. School happened. You know the drill.)
Before I start...I HAVE NEWS. As you know I write reviews for the Guardian, and on Thursday (was it the 13th? Idk) I went into the headquarters to take part in a sort of awards thing. I WON A COMPETITION. There's this thing the Guardian runs every year called the Children's Book of the Year (or something like that) which ties in with something called the Young Critics Competition. Basically I had to review one of the shortlisted books for the Book of the Year prize, one of which was We Were Liars by E. Lockhart which is one of my favourite books EVER. So yeah, I was one of the ten winners and I got to meet SF Said and other authors (I also won all eight shortlisted books, an awesome Guardian bag and some other things.) We also found out the winner of the best book prize who was Piere Torday, author of the Last Wild and the Dark Wild!
News over, on with the review:
This is a book which you will always end up reading. Whether you're forced into it by your parents, you read it for school or you just want to see what the hype is (basically me). Whatever the reason, it's just a book that you will always end up experiencing. So what exactly is so amazing about this book? To be honest it took me a while to find out.
Set in the early 1900's, this is the story of a lawyer defending a black man on charge of the rape of a white girl. Told through the eyes of his children, Jem and Scout, the story follows them as they begin to open their eyes and realise the cruelty and injustice of the world.
I said it took me a while to work out how it was regarded as a work of literary genius. This is true. It was a perfectly good story if a tiny bit complicated in bits; I liked finding out about the town and its people through the eyes of someone so young. It wasn't until maybe three quarters of the way through when it really started to make sense.
'Shoot all the bluejays you want but it's a sin to kill a mockingbird'. These are the words of Atticus' (the lawyer) brother to Jem and Scout. That's when realised that it was a metaphor for white people and black people.
All mockingbirds ever do it sit and sing for us; they're not pests, they don't do anything wrong. Black men (in this story and setting) are a lot like the mockingbirds in that they do nothing wrong; they work for the white men, they help them out. They work a lot harder in general. Yet they're treated so unfairly for no reason. This book was really eye opening for me, especially around the part when the black man that Atticus is defending is (spoiler alert) sent to jail, even though the evidence to let him free was so great.
The ending of the book was quite surprising too, when a character I'd almost forgotten made his long-awaited appearance.
Though I found my mind wandering off at points so I had no idea what I'd just read, I did quite enjoy this book, and thought it truly was very clever.
Bye :D
Before I start...I HAVE NEWS. As you know I write reviews for the Guardian, and on Thursday (was it the 13th? Idk) I went into the headquarters to take part in a sort of awards thing. I WON A COMPETITION. There's this thing the Guardian runs every year called the Children's Book of the Year (or something like that) which ties in with something called the Young Critics Competition. Basically I had to review one of the shortlisted books for the Book of the Year prize, one of which was We Were Liars by E. Lockhart which is one of my favourite books EVER. So yeah, I was one of the ten winners and I got to meet SF Said and other authors (I also won all eight shortlisted books, an awesome Guardian bag and some other things.) We also found out the winner of the best book prize who was Piere Torday, author of the Last Wild and the Dark Wild!
News over, on with the review:
This is a book which you will always end up reading. Whether you're forced into it by your parents, you read it for school or you just want to see what the hype is (basically me). Whatever the reason, it's just a book that you will always end up experiencing. So what exactly is so amazing about this book? To be honest it took me a while to find out.
Set in the early 1900's, this is the story of a lawyer defending a black man on charge of the rape of a white girl. Told through the eyes of his children, Jem and Scout, the story follows them as they begin to open their eyes and realise the cruelty and injustice of the world.
I said it took me a while to work out how it was regarded as a work of literary genius. This is true. It was a perfectly good story if a tiny bit complicated in bits; I liked finding out about the town and its people through the eyes of someone so young. It wasn't until maybe three quarters of the way through when it really started to make sense.
'Shoot all the bluejays you want but it's a sin to kill a mockingbird'. These are the words of Atticus' (the lawyer) brother to Jem and Scout. That's when realised that it was a metaphor for white people and black people.
All mockingbirds ever do it sit and sing for us; they're not pests, they don't do anything wrong. Black men (in this story and setting) are a lot like the mockingbirds in that they do nothing wrong; they work for the white men, they help them out. They work a lot harder in general. Yet they're treated so unfairly for no reason. This book was really eye opening for me, especially around the part when the black man that Atticus is defending is (spoiler alert) sent to jail, even though the evidence to let him free was so great.
The ending of the book was quite surprising too, when a character I'd almost forgotten made his long-awaited appearance.
Though I found my mind wandering off at points so I had no idea what I'd just read, I did quite enjoy this book, and thought it truly was very clever.
Bye :D