7th Grade Summer Reading #3
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
The book Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about two young sisters, Isabel the oldest and Ruth. Their parents both died and they lived with Mary Finch who owned them until she died. At her funeral, Isabel tries to convince the pastor that in Mary Finch’s will it says that they are free. But the will is not close so now they are owned by Robert Finch who sells them to a strict couple, Madam Lockton and Master Lockton in New York. When they get off the boat in New York, Ruth is sent to the house and Isabel is sent to fetch water. Since she doesn't know the way a boy Curzon offers to bring her. Isabel and Ruth become very good friends and meet every day when they go to get water. Every day the two girls work hard following the Locktons orders precisely not wanting to get punished. Until one day when Isabel was sleeping Madam Lockton took Ruth and sold her. Isabel learns to work hard but she's missing Ruth even when she tries not to think about her.
A quote that is significant in this book is “I opened my eyes, dipped the quill, and wrote out my true name: Isabel Gardener, being a Free Negro, has the Commandments Permission to pass from this Garrison to whatever place she might think proper.” Isabel was making her plan to how to set herself free with Curzon. This is significant because this whole time that she worked for the Locktons she wanted so badly to be free and have her old life back. Isabel gets to sign her real name instead of Sal Lockton which is the name the Locktons gave her. This a big part because she's sneaking out and if she gets caught then she's in big trouble. Those are a few reasons why this quote is significant. (RO)
Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez
Before We Were Free, by Julia Alvarez is about a girl named Anita and her family. Anita lives in the Dominican Republic which is not safe at this time. Anita’s family and she are trying to escape to the United States of America. All of her cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents have succeeded, her family is the only one left in her family compound where everyone stayed before. Now their family is getting separated and they have to hide. They don’t see each other for a few months. There was a lot of chaos going on and a lot of people were getting arrested for things are illegal. Anita and her mom have to hide in a closet and they couldn’t go anywhere for a few months!
A quote that I found interesting is “To be free inside, like an uncaged bird. Then nothing, not even a dictatorship can take away your liberty.” I found this interesting because this was right after they escaped to the United States to be free after they were in hiding for so long. This was in a letter that Oscar wrote to Anita. This is important because it's kind of like what she was living through. This is why the quote is important. (RO)
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
Salva is eleven years old when the civil war reaches his home in Sudan. He starts traveling with a group of people away from the war, hoping to find his family who was separated from him when the war started. While he is walking, his uncle joins the group and soon becomes the leader of it. But one day while they are walking through the desert, men come and kill Salva’s uncle, leaving Salva on his own again. A couple of days later, the group reaches a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Salva stays there for six years until soldiers chase everyone out of the camp, forcing to cross Gilo River, which was infested with crocodiles. Salva lead a group of boys to another refugee camp, which he stayed at for 2 years before deciding to go to a different one, which he stayed at for 3 years before finding out about a program where families in America were taking orphans from refugee camps in Africa to come and live with them. Salva goes to America, and starts working on a project to give people all over Sudan clean water.
A significant quote from this book is, “Salva remembered Uncle saying, “Salva, see those rocks over there? You only have to walk to those rocks”. So Salva told himself, you only have to make it through today, no longer. And he did. But he never imagined staying at the camp for six years”. This quote stood out to me because Salva’s uncle strongly impacted Salva during their trip to the refugee camp. A day before he died, Salva’s uncle told him that he only had to make it to the rocks that were just ahead of them, no further. That's how Salva made it through all the camps and journeys he took to get there. (VO)
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
Isabel and her little sister Ruth watch their master free them before she dies. She tells Isabel to read the will, and then hands it to her lawyer, but he goes to Boston with the will. So when Isabel's master dies, nobody believes that she and Ruth are supposed to be freed because the lawyer went to Boston. So they are sold to a family named the Locktons. The Locktons are patriots, so a boy asks Isabel to listen to what Mr. Lockton and his friends say, and if it could help the rebels, to deliver the news to him at midnight. She does what she is asked, sneaking information to the rebels, until the british captures them and puts them in cells to die. Isabel starts sneaking food to them so they can survive. Eventually, Isabel gets tired of being a slave for the Locktons so she decides to try to run away.
A significant quote from this book is “I laid down a long road of a sentence in my memory, “for all men being originally equals, no one piper could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others forever”. The way I saw it, Mr. Pain was saying that no one deserved a crown or was born to be higher than another. That's why America could make its own freedom”. Isabel had been a slave all her life, and this is when she figures out nobody that “owned” her had had the right to boss her around, making her do their chores. She was equal to them, and she deserved to be free just like them. (VO)
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
Chains is a book that takes place in the year of 1776, right as the Revolutionary War begins. Isabel and her little sister, Ruth, in the beginning of the book are attending their former mistress’ burial. In their mistress’ will, she had set both Isabel and Ruth free, for they were slaves as was common during that time period. Isabel and Ruth's parents had both died, leaving it up to Isabel to care for herself as well as her sister. Isabel was also in a tough situation. She was only thirteen, and since she was set free, this meant she had to find a job and learn how to live on her own. All of the sudden a rough man tells them to get in a carriage. Confused, Isabel demands the reasoning for following this unknown man. He explains to them that he is going to go sell them to a family because they belong to him now. Isabel, of course, argues, saying she was set free in her former mistress’ will, but of course the other man gets his way, being white. So reluctantly, Ruth and Isabel get into the carriage. The man takes them to a restaurant type place, and tells Isabel and Ruth to go help a woman in the kitchen. When they are called back out, a stingy-looking woman inspects them. After a long talk with the man, the family buys them. The next thing you know, Ruth and Isabel are sitting in a dark cabin inside a boat headed for New York. Once they get to New York, they begin to work for the family known as the Locktons. Mrs. Lockton, their mistress, turns out to be an awful person, and treats Ruth, whom is only five, terribly, and Isabel even worse. Ruth and Isabel keep working for the Locktons for what feels like forever. While they are working for the Locktons, Isabel begins to meet some new people and become friends with them. One of the people she meets is a slave boy named Curzon. Curzon tells Isabel things about the Locktons, making her realize how much worse the Locktons could get. He asks her to be a spy after telling her that they work for the British. She declines at first, but then agrees later on. Isabel keeps sending information to Curzon as the days go by. Then, one morning, Isabel wakes up to find that Ruth is gone. Her mistress tells her that she sold Ruth. Isabel gets very mad at her mistress, and her mistress grabs a painting on the wall and wacks Isabel over the head with it. Mrs. Lockton runs away screaming and Isabel dashes out the door. She is headed towards the dock to try and find her sister, but it is too late. Her mistress catches up and takes her off to jail. After a couple days of concussions, pain and rage in prison, Isabel gets hauled into the courtroom. Her mistress argues for her to be hanged, but instead she gets banned. Her mistress makes them burn a capital I in her cheek, which would stand for insolence.
Isabel then has to take a couple days to recover, so Mr. Lockton’s aunt takes care of Isabel until she is back to full health. Isabel begs Mrs. Seymour, Mr. Lockton’s aunt, to stay and work for her because she is very kind to Isabel, but Mrs. Seymour has to reluctantly send her back to the Locktons, as she was told. So she goes back to her usual slavery, except she is a different person. She was almost just a body. She felt like someone without a soul. She wouldn’t talk to Curzon, and she went to bed every night without praying. Then the British attacked and took over New York. Lucky enough for Isabel, Mrs. Seymour's maid had fled and she needed assistance, so Mr. Lockton insisted that Isabel go and work for her. Mrs. Seymour treated Isabel very well and makes sure she is healthy, and has almost everything she needs. But a couple days later a fire starts in New York and spreads everywhere like crazy. Isabel wakes up to it and saves Mrs. Seymore from the fire, but her mistress is in a bad condition and needs to stay with the Locktons. So Isabel is back to working for them. The British then capture a bunch of American soldiers and Curzon, Isabel's friend, is one of them. They put them in dirty and cold jail cells. Isabel ends up going to the cell to secretly feed the soldiers and passes on messages to secret American colonels in hiding. But her mistress soon finds out, and when Isabel gets home, she is infuriated. She yells at Isabel and lets something slip. She says “I will sell your dreaded sister to the worst master and sell you as well to the worse master!” Isabel then asks about Ruth, and Mrs. Lockton says that she never actually sold Ruth, she had just kept her away. Mrs. Lockton then locks Isabel in a potato bin. After an hour or so, Isabel finds a way to escape. Once she gets out, she thinks of a way she can save Curzon. She saves him from the cell and she grabs a boat on the water. He is dreadfully sick and can not do much, so she has to row them all the way to New Jersey. When Isabel gets to New Jersey, she says something that really stuck out to me and that was, “Curzon we just crossed the river Jordan.” At first this didn’t make sense to me because there is no river Jordan in between New York and New Jersey. And then it came to me that she meant it as they just narrowly escaped hell, escaped death. They had made it into a new part of life.
I really liked this book because it made me realize what it was like for slaves back then. I appreciate that it is based on a true story, and I’m excited to read the next book. (BK)
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is about a little orphan girl named Mary who is sent from India to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven in England when her parents died. Mr. Craven is sour in his life, because his wife died while having a baby, so he doesn’t want to raise Mary and makes the servants take care of her. Mary makes friends with everyone at the manor and her mood improve and her body gets stronger and then she discovers the walled garden. That garden was a secret, because ever since Archibald’s wife died there, he has kept it a secret, because it makes him think of his wife and makes him sad. There is another secret in the manor which is that Archibald has a son, Colin, who is sickly and keeps himself hidden, because it breaks his dad’s heart to look at him. Mary and Colin decide to bring the secret garden back to life so it would make Archibald happy, and a wonderful thing happens, while working in the secret garden, Colin’s health improves and he starts to believe in himself. When Archibald comes back, he is happy to see all of these changes and to find Colin healthy again.
Throughout this book, all of the characters go through some kind of change and development, that is represented by the secret garden as it comes back to life. Mary changes by learning how to do things on her own and showing her real feelings to the world. Every risk she takes makes her stronger. Colin learns to trust other people and explore the outside world, which makes him more healthy and he stops thinking about dying and what other people think about him. Archibald moves on from some of his sadness and most of all he is really grateful and happy to see his son, Colin, growing and thriving. Even the robin changes, because he welcomes the others into the secret garden instead of going out to find them. I thought about all of this when I read a quote from Martha to Mary about how being outside had improved her: “Th’ air from th’ moor has done thee good already. . . tha’rt not nigh so yeller and tha’rt not nigh so scrawny.” (pg. 75). All of this is like the summer is for students. We all need change of schedule and scenery, and fresh air for our minds and bodies to grow. (SS)
The book Chains, by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about two young sisters, Isabel the oldest and Ruth. Their parents both died and they lived with Mary Finch who owned them until she died. At her funeral, Isabel tries to convince the pastor that in Mary Finch’s will it says that they are free. But the will is not close so now they are owned by Robert Finch who sells them to a strict couple, Madam Lockton and Master Lockton in New York. When they get off the boat in New York, Ruth is sent to the house and Isabel is sent to fetch water. Since she doesn't know the way a boy Curzon offers to bring her. Isabel and Ruth become very good friends and meet every day when they go to get water. Every day the two girls work hard following the Locktons orders precisely not wanting to get punished. Until one day when Isabel was sleeping Madam Lockton took Ruth and sold her. Isabel learns to work hard but she's missing Ruth even when she tries not to think about her.
A quote that is significant in this book is “I opened my eyes, dipped the quill, and wrote out my true name: Isabel Gardener, being a Free Negro, has the Commandments Permission to pass from this Garrison to whatever place she might think proper.” Isabel was making her plan to how to set herself free with Curzon. This is significant because this whole time that she worked for the Locktons she wanted so badly to be free and have her old life back. Isabel gets to sign her real name instead of Sal Lockton which is the name the Locktons gave her. This a big part because she's sneaking out and if she gets caught then she's in big trouble. Those are a few reasons why this quote is significant. (RO)
Before We Were Free by Julia Alvarez
Before We Were Free, by Julia Alvarez is about a girl named Anita and her family. Anita lives in the Dominican Republic which is not safe at this time. Anita’s family and she are trying to escape to the United States of America. All of her cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents have succeeded, her family is the only one left in her family compound where everyone stayed before. Now their family is getting separated and they have to hide. They don’t see each other for a few months. There was a lot of chaos going on and a lot of people were getting arrested for things are illegal. Anita and her mom have to hide in a closet and they couldn’t go anywhere for a few months!
A quote that I found interesting is “To be free inside, like an uncaged bird. Then nothing, not even a dictatorship can take away your liberty.” I found this interesting because this was right after they escaped to the United States to be free after they were in hiding for so long. This was in a letter that Oscar wrote to Anita. This is important because it's kind of like what she was living through. This is why the quote is important. (RO)
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park
Salva is eleven years old when the civil war reaches his home in Sudan. He starts traveling with a group of people away from the war, hoping to find his family who was separated from him when the war started. While he is walking, his uncle joins the group and soon becomes the leader of it. But one day while they are walking through the desert, men come and kill Salva’s uncle, leaving Salva on his own again. A couple of days later, the group reaches a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Salva stays there for six years until soldiers chase everyone out of the camp, forcing to cross Gilo River, which was infested with crocodiles. Salva lead a group of boys to another refugee camp, which he stayed at for 2 years before deciding to go to a different one, which he stayed at for 3 years before finding out about a program where families in America were taking orphans from refugee camps in Africa to come and live with them. Salva goes to America, and starts working on a project to give people all over Sudan clean water.
A significant quote from this book is, “Salva remembered Uncle saying, “Salva, see those rocks over there? You only have to walk to those rocks”. So Salva told himself, you only have to make it through today, no longer. And he did. But he never imagined staying at the camp for six years”. This quote stood out to me because Salva’s uncle strongly impacted Salva during their trip to the refugee camp. A day before he died, Salva’s uncle told him that he only had to make it to the rocks that were just ahead of them, no further. That's how Salva made it through all the camps and journeys he took to get there. (VO)
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
Isabel and her little sister Ruth watch their master free them before she dies. She tells Isabel to read the will, and then hands it to her lawyer, but he goes to Boston with the will. So when Isabel's master dies, nobody believes that she and Ruth are supposed to be freed because the lawyer went to Boston. So they are sold to a family named the Locktons. The Locktons are patriots, so a boy asks Isabel to listen to what Mr. Lockton and his friends say, and if it could help the rebels, to deliver the news to him at midnight. She does what she is asked, sneaking information to the rebels, until the british captures them and puts them in cells to die. Isabel starts sneaking food to them so they can survive. Eventually, Isabel gets tired of being a slave for the Locktons so she decides to try to run away.
A significant quote from this book is “I laid down a long road of a sentence in my memory, “for all men being originally equals, no one piper could have a right to set up his own family in perpetual preference to all others forever”. The way I saw it, Mr. Pain was saying that no one deserved a crown or was born to be higher than another. That's why America could make its own freedom”. Isabel had been a slave all her life, and this is when she figures out nobody that “owned” her had had the right to boss her around, making her do their chores. She was equal to them, and she deserved to be free just like them. (VO)
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
Chains is a book that takes place in the year of 1776, right as the Revolutionary War begins. Isabel and her little sister, Ruth, in the beginning of the book are attending their former mistress’ burial. In their mistress’ will, she had set both Isabel and Ruth free, for they were slaves as was common during that time period. Isabel and Ruth's parents had both died, leaving it up to Isabel to care for herself as well as her sister. Isabel was also in a tough situation. She was only thirteen, and since she was set free, this meant she had to find a job and learn how to live on her own. All of the sudden a rough man tells them to get in a carriage. Confused, Isabel demands the reasoning for following this unknown man. He explains to them that he is going to go sell them to a family because they belong to him now. Isabel, of course, argues, saying she was set free in her former mistress’ will, but of course the other man gets his way, being white. So reluctantly, Ruth and Isabel get into the carriage. The man takes them to a restaurant type place, and tells Isabel and Ruth to go help a woman in the kitchen. When they are called back out, a stingy-looking woman inspects them. After a long talk with the man, the family buys them. The next thing you know, Ruth and Isabel are sitting in a dark cabin inside a boat headed for New York. Once they get to New York, they begin to work for the family known as the Locktons. Mrs. Lockton, their mistress, turns out to be an awful person, and treats Ruth, whom is only five, terribly, and Isabel even worse. Ruth and Isabel keep working for the Locktons for what feels like forever. While they are working for the Locktons, Isabel begins to meet some new people and become friends with them. One of the people she meets is a slave boy named Curzon. Curzon tells Isabel things about the Locktons, making her realize how much worse the Locktons could get. He asks her to be a spy after telling her that they work for the British. She declines at first, but then agrees later on. Isabel keeps sending information to Curzon as the days go by. Then, one morning, Isabel wakes up to find that Ruth is gone. Her mistress tells her that she sold Ruth. Isabel gets very mad at her mistress, and her mistress grabs a painting on the wall and wacks Isabel over the head with it. Mrs. Lockton runs away screaming and Isabel dashes out the door. She is headed towards the dock to try and find her sister, but it is too late. Her mistress catches up and takes her off to jail. After a couple days of concussions, pain and rage in prison, Isabel gets hauled into the courtroom. Her mistress argues for her to be hanged, but instead she gets banned. Her mistress makes them burn a capital I in her cheek, which would stand for insolence.
Isabel then has to take a couple days to recover, so Mr. Lockton’s aunt takes care of Isabel until she is back to full health. Isabel begs Mrs. Seymour, Mr. Lockton’s aunt, to stay and work for her because she is very kind to Isabel, but Mrs. Seymour has to reluctantly send her back to the Locktons, as she was told. So she goes back to her usual slavery, except she is a different person. She was almost just a body. She felt like someone without a soul. She wouldn’t talk to Curzon, and she went to bed every night without praying. Then the British attacked and took over New York. Lucky enough for Isabel, Mrs. Seymour's maid had fled and she needed assistance, so Mr. Lockton insisted that Isabel go and work for her. Mrs. Seymour treated Isabel very well and makes sure she is healthy, and has almost everything she needs. But a couple days later a fire starts in New York and spreads everywhere like crazy. Isabel wakes up to it and saves Mrs. Seymore from the fire, but her mistress is in a bad condition and needs to stay with the Locktons. So Isabel is back to working for them. The British then capture a bunch of American soldiers and Curzon, Isabel's friend, is one of them. They put them in dirty and cold jail cells. Isabel ends up going to the cell to secretly feed the soldiers and passes on messages to secret American colonels in hiding. But her mistress soon finds out, and when Isabel gets home, she is infuriated. She yells at Isabel and lets something slip. She says “I will sell your dreaded sister to the worst master and sell you as well to the worse master!” Isabel then asks about Ruth, and Mrs. Lockton says that she never actually sold Ruth, she had just kept her away. Mrs. Lockton then locks Isabel in a potato bin. After an hour or so, Isabel finds a way to escape. Once she gets out, she thinks of a way she can save Curzon. She saves him from the cell and she grabs a boat on the water. He is dreadfully sick and can not do much, so she has to row them all the way to New Jersey. When Isabel gets to New Jersey, she says something that really stuck out to me and that was, “Curzon we just crossed the river Jordan.” At first this didn’t make sense to me because there is no river Jordan in between New York and New Jersey. And then it came to me that she meant it as they just narrowly escaped hell, escaped death. They had made it into a new part of life.
I really liked this book because it made me realize what it was like for slaves back then. I appreciate that it is based on a true story, and I’m excited to read the next book. (BK)
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett is about a little orphan girl named Mary who is sent from India to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven in England when her parents died. Mr. Craven is sour in his life, because his wife died while having a baby, so he doesn’t want to raise Mary and makes the servants take care of her. Mary makes friends with everyone at the manor and her mood improve and her body gets stronger and then she discovers the walled garden. That garden was a secret, because ever since Archibald’s wife died there, he has kept it a secret, because it makes him think of his wife and makes him sad. There is another secret in the manor which is that Archibald has a son, Colin, who is sickly and keeps himself hidden, because it breaks his dad’s heart to look at him. Mary and Colin decide to bring the secret garden back to life so it would make Archibald happy, and a wonderful thing happens, while working in the secret garden, Colin’s health improves and he starts to believe in himself. When Archibald comes back, he is happy to see all of these changes and to find Colin healthy again.
Throughout this book, all of the characters go through some kind of change and development, that is represented by the secret garden as it comes back to life. Mary changes by learning how to do things on her own and showing her real feelings to the world. Every risk she takes makes her stronger. Colin learns to trust other people and explore the outside world, which makes him more healthy and he stops thinking about dying and what other people think about him. Archibald moves on from some of his sadness and most of all he is really grateful and happy to see his son, Colin, growing and thriving. Even the robin changes, because he welcomes the others into the secret garden instead of going out to find them. I thought about all of this when I read a quote from Martha to Mary about how being outside had improved her: “Th’ air from th’ moor has done thee good already. . . tha’rt not nigh so yeller and tha’rt not nigh so scrawny.” (pg. 75). All of this is like the summer is for students. We all need change of schedule and scenery, and fresh air for our minds and bodies to grow. (SS)