Jessica's great books!!

Name: Roxy's baby

Number of pages: ??

Author: Catheraine Mc Phail

Summary: The book is about a 15 year old girl, Roxy, who becomes friendly with a troublesome gang of teenagers.. Roxy becomes pregnant. She feels ashamed and is afraid of what her mam might say when she finds out. Roxy sees an add for a place who look after girls who become pregnant. She decides to leave home and go to this place but she is regected because she is to young. The owner of the place gives Roxy a number for people who would take her in.. She is taken in by a loving couple but Roxy doesn't trust them.. There is one condition, that is that while she is staying with them Roxy must have nothig to do with the outside world.. Roxy soon makes friends but still finds something strange about the couple... One day as Roxy is taking a walk through the field the gardener who Roxy had always found creepy tells Roxy that she has to leave because after the baby is born the couple that is suposidly loving and caring is actually going to kill the baby and sell its organs.. He also tells Roxy that they will not let her leave alive in case she would reviel their secret... Roxy comes up with a huge plan but it involves burning down the house where they all stayed in.. In the end Roxy is re-united with her family..

Front cover: The front cover of the book is black with a picture of a girl pushing a pram.. "Roxy's Baby" is written in pink writing across the front of it.

Characters: The main character is Roxy. She is an outgoing and rebellious teenager at the start of the book but after sheruns away from home she begins to understand the importance of family and by the end of the story she is mature and responsible.

Thoughts: I thought this was a brilliant book but i thought they should have made Roxy a year or two older because i found it hard to believe that a girl around the same age as me could go through everything that Roxy did.. I would give this book a nine out of ten because i could hardly leave the book down.!!!!!!!!!.

Summary: Romeo and Juliet begins with two servants from the Capulet family, Samson and Gregory. They start a row with their enemies, the Montague family. The fight breaks out on the streets and soon everyone is involved. Prince Esculas stops the brawl and tells both of the families if they disturb the peace again they shall be put to death.

Later Capulet decides to throw a party. Romeo and his cousin Benvolio find out about it. Rosaline, a girl who Romeo believes he loves, is going to be there. Romeo decides to go to the party to see her. When he gets to the party he sees Juliet for the first time and forgets all about Rosaline and falls totally in love with Juliet. Tybalt, Juliets cousin, sees Romeo at the party and swears revenge because Romeo is a Montague. Romeo and Juliet talk and kiss but it isn't until after the party that they find out they cannot be together because Juliet is a Capulet. That night Romeo sneaks into Juliet's garden and below her balcony. Then and there they decide to secretly get married the following morning.

Just hours after marrying Juliet Tybalt comes looking for Romeo and he finds Mercutio, Romeo's friend. They begin to fight. Romeo tries to stop them but Tybalt stabs Mercutio and he dies. Romeo gets mad then and kills Tybalt.

 For this he is banished from Verona for ever. He spends one last night with Juliet. Just after he leaves Lady Capulet comes into Juliet's room and tells her that her father has arranged a marriage for her and a man called Paris. Juliet refuses but Lord Capulet threatens to throw her out onto the streets if she disagrees. She goes to Friar Lawrence and he has a plan. He gives her a potion to take that will put her in a coma for two days. That night Juliet takes the potion. Everyone thinks she is dead and she is buried in a tomb. Friar Lawrence gives a letter to Friar John explaining to Romeo about Juliet and that he is to come, free Juliet from the tomb and bring her to live with him. But Friar John was unable to deliver the letter and Romeo thinks Juliet really died.

Romeo buys poision and decides to go to the tomb and kill himself beside Juliet. When he arrives Paris is already at the tomb. They begin to fight and Romeo kills Paris. Out of respect he lays him in the tomb beside Juliet. Just after Romeo kills himself Juliet wakes up and sees him dead beside her. She takes a knife from its holster in Romeo's belt and kills herself. When the two families find out everything that has happened they decide to try and get along with each other.

Characters: At the start of the play I didn't really like Romeo because he was very secretive and spent most of his time moaning about Rosaline. But when he falls in love with Juliet he becomes brave and willing to do anything for her. He falls apart when he is banished from Verona but pulls himself together for Juliet's sake. You can really see how he matures during the play.

 I didn't like Friar Lawrence because he was very selfish and it was mostly his fault for marrying Romeo and Juliet that everybody died. Even when he came up with a plan for Juliet to be with Romeo he was really only trying to protect himself from everyone finding out that he went behind their backs and married the couple. When they are in the tomb he tells Juliet that he is going to dispose of her in a nuns convent and then when the police are coming he runs off leaving Juliet alone.

My thoughts: I thought the ending of the play was a bit too dramatic. I think everybody over-reacted. Even if Romeo really loved Juliet that much I don't think he should have killed himself. I also didn't see the reason for Romeo to kill Paris because Romeo was going to kill himself anyway, and it wouldn't have made much difference if Paris killed him and then that way Paris would still be alive. I can see why Juliet did kill herself because she had just woken up to find her husband and Paris dead beside her and her family would probably have disowned her for letting them believe she was dead and secretly marrying Romeo. She would have had nothing to live for without Romeo.

Themes: Love is the main theme of the play. The whole play is based around Romeo and Juliet's love for each other. Romeo and Juliet's strong love causes both of them to take their own lives at the end of the play.

Rating: I would give this play 8 out of 10. The reason I didn't give it full marks is because I thought it was unrealistic. Romeo had only seen Juliet for a very short time before they decided to get married.

Name of book: Diamond girls

Author: The author of the book is Jaqueline Wilson.

Rating: I would give this book an eight out of ten!!

Summary:The book is about four girls and there pregnant mam who live in a tiny apartment. They finally get a new house but when they arrive at it, it is a tip in a run down estate. Their mam then goes into labour and is rushed to hospital leaving the girls on their own. The house is a mess with broken windows and rubbish everywhere. It isn't long before the girls grt into fights with their neighbours or going off leaving the youngest girl Dixie, to try and clean up the house. When their mam comes home from hospital with her new baby she wont let anybody near the baby and she starts acting really weird.. But Dixie finds out her mam's biggest secret ever!!!

The front cover: The front cover of the book is black with a huge blue diamond on it. Inside the diamond "diamond girls" is written in silver writting. Under that there is five smaller diamonds with a picture in each to represent the five main characters.

Themes: The main themes of the book are love, family and friendship.

Characters: The main characters in the book are Dixie, Jude, Rochelle, Martine and their mam. My favourite character is Dixie because she is the youngest and yet sshe is left to do all the work but she doesn't mind.

Name: "Roll of thunder hear my cry."

Author: Mildred D. Taylor

No. of pages: 220

Summary: This book is about a girl called Cassie who can't understand the unfair world and why white people should get served before black people. Every day while Cassie and her brothers walk to school they watch as the white people in a bus on their way to school splash muddy water at them. One day Cassie has enough and refuses to apologise to a white girl but in the end she is forced to. During the book a gang of white people burn the Berrys.  Papa Logan decides to stop shopping at the Wallace's store because they had something to do with the burning. Cassie's brother Stacey has a friend called T.J. but he is always getting in trouble. He goes too far when one day he gets Mama Logan fired from teaching. T.J. becomes friends with some white boys and gets himself into more trouble! At the end of the book Papa Logan has to set his own cotton on fire just to save T.J.'s life!!!

Front cover: The cover of the book is red and peach. "Roll of thunder, hear my cry" is written in big black letters. There is a picture of a small house surrouned by land and the authors name is written across the bottom.

Themes: The themes of the book are, love, family, friendship and unfairness.

characters: The main character of the book is Cassie as she is the narrator. She is quick tempered, tough and bossy. She can't seem to understand the racisim in the world. Another character is Stacy. He is Cassie's brother. He is smart, sensible and looks after the family when his dad is gone away. Other characters are Christopher-John, Little Man, Mama Logan, Papa Logan and Big Ma.