Laura's Library Lookout

Name of Play: Romeo and Juliet

Author: William Shakspeare

This is a play about to families who are feuding, or, do not get along. These are th Capulets and the Montagues. Lord Capulet's daughter, Juliet Capulet, falls in love with Lord Montague's son, Romeo Montague. They first met at a private Capulet party, but Romeo and his Friends Benvolio and Mercutio, invited themselves along too. The reason for the party was that County Paris wanted to marry Juliet and so aske Lord Capulet. Lord Capulet said that it was up to his daughter and so they held a party to see if Juliet liked Paris and would agree to marry him. The reason for Romeo and his friends for going along was because Romeo was in love with Rosaline and Rosaline was invited t the party, so he went to see her. The only problem there was that Rosaline didn't love Romeo, so Romeo ended up very deprsessed and sad. This is where his friends come in as they want him to see that there's more than just one person that might appeal to him. It's at this party that Romeo and Juliet first lay their eyes on each other. The talk and kiss twice. However, problems occur for the pair as Romeo is a Montague who came to a Capulet party and was in a Capulet house. They were masked as it was fancy dressed but it was also a good disguise, but, Tybalt, from the Capulet family and Juliet's cousin, recognises him by his voice. This is when trouble starts to kick as Tybalt pledges to kill Romeo and sends him a challenge.

After the party, Romeo goes back to the Capulet's orchard and meets Juliet on her balcony. The two talk and decide to get married. The next day this happens and the local friar, Friar Lawrence makes this happen. But, yet again, there's more trouble ahead for the lovers. Just after their secret marriage, Mercutio, Benvolio and Tybalt have a running in. Tybalt is looking for Romeo, looking for him to fight as he said in his challenge. Romeo soon arrives and refses to fight Tybalt as he is now related to him. But Mercutio can't handle that and he fights Tybalt himself. Tyblat kills Mercutio and Romeo gets angry and kills Tybalt. Prince Esculas then appears and banishes Romeo from Verona for his violence. Romoe and Juliet are devasted at this, but Romeo has no choice but to move away and he moves to Mantua. The only people that know of Romeo and Juliet's marriage are Romeo, Juliet, Friar Lawrence, Romoe's servant Balthazar and Juliet's Nurse. Friar Lawrence keeps Romeo informed of all the happenings in Verona via letters, but, this doesn't always work as wre shown when a vital letter does not reach the hands of Romeo. This part of the play starts with Lord Capulet telling Paris that he may now have Juliet's hand in marriage even though she wasn't even informed until everyone else had found out. Juliet has no choice to marry Paris but is desperate not to as hse is already married, so, seeking urgent help she runs to Friar Lawrence who gives her a remedy to take which will have the effect of death on her. Then, after she is discovered supposedly 'dead' she is then placed in the Capulet tomb. Friar Lawrence wrote to Romeo explaining this plan and Romeo was supposed to travel from Mantua and break into the tomb where Juliet would have woken up and they could run away and never be found again. But, again, this did not work as the letter, as I already said, did not reach Romeo as no one was allowed in due to fear of the plague.

Romeo's servant, Balthazar, then came to Romeo in Mantua and told him that Juliet was dead, as he had seen her being put into the tomb and thought she was dead as he had no knowledge, as did Romeo, of Friar Lawrence's plan. Romeo then bought a poison and travelled to Verona where he intended on breaking into the tomb and drinking the poison to die with Juliet. However, once again, this did not work as when Romeo reached the tomb Paris was there and fought Romeo for setting foot back in Verona when he was banished. Romeo ended up killing Paris and then drinking the poison. Shortly after all this happened, Friar Lawrence got word that Romeo did not receive the letter so went to the tomb himself to save Juliet. When he reached the tomb, Juliet had just woken and found her husband dead. Friar Lawrence told her to come as the watch were on their way, but she would not leave her husband. Friar Lawrence then ran away and Juliet stabbed herself so as she would be dead as well as her husband and they could be together forever.

When the watch and the two families arrived Friar Lawrence, Balthazar and Paris' servent all told what they knew of the incident to Prince Esculas. He believes them and the two families decide to end their feuding as they see what pain and harm it's caused. Are they telling the truth or are they just saying that ???

Main Charachters: Romeo, Juliet, the Nurse, Lord and Lady Montague, Lord and Lady Capulet, Benvolio, Mercutio, Prince Esculas, Paris, Fria Lawrence and Balthazar.

Favourite Charachters: Benvolio is one of my favourite charachters as he is the peace maker and always tries to do right by others. He is very unselfish and loyal to his friends. My other favourite charachter is the Nurse as she's very funny and quite often in a good mood. She always seemsed to reassure me in parts of the play and helps cheer it up at times.

Least Favourite Charachter: My least favourite charachter is Lord Capulet as he quickly changes his personality and is capable of doing anything. He even threatened to disown his own daughter and can sometimes be violent. He also seems to have a lo9t of power over his wife as she seems to always agree with him. I think this is because she herself is sometimes afraid of him.

Main Themes: The main themes are love, frinds, family, frinedships and relationships, sadness and violence.

My Thoughts: My thoughts on the play are that it's a great plot and I found it very enjoyable. The charachters were very interesting and I could get into each of their roles quite easily. I thought the ending was good, but I definitley don't believ the families when they say they'll keep the peace as there is still a sense of competiton and uncertinty. Very enjoyable read though !!!

Rating: I would rate this play 10/10 and I would definitley recommend it !!

Colette (Coll) loves to swim. She cycles to the local swimming pool every Thursday, does her thirty lengths and leaves, but not before she catches, or at least tries to catch, a glimpse of Art. He also came most Thursdays to swim and Coll spent most of her time fantasizing about him. She always told herself she'd talk to him, just not yet. Then one day, se ran smack bang into him. She stuttered and apologised. She couldn't think of anything else to say, so the conversation ended after him asking if she was okay.

A few weeks later, he spotted her this time at the pool and asked her to the cafe in the swimming centre. From then on they were a happy teenage couple, her sixteen, him seventeen. But soon things started to get a little pushy and Coll started to get nervous around him. What if he wasn't the guy she thought he was?? What if he was just some creep trying to get close to her so he could make fun of me or rob me or something?? All these negative thoughts bean creeping into Coll's head and for once she began siding with her mother in her "hating of the male species". Will she take her friend's advice and back off before it's too late?

She started to hang out with friends more so from then on, and one night on her way home from the local centre where they all met up, her self defence classes, which her mother had signed her up for as her price to pay for the swimming membership, came in useful. She heard a scream and went running towards te nearby park. She recognised the voice and realised that it was a girl from her class. She was cornered by two drunk people and couldn't find a way out. Coll quickly became the heroe as she helped her classmate to escape. After that she began siding with her mother on a lot more things than before and, as she quickly realised her mother was quite often right, even though she could be loud, deafening actually, and loved to hear herself talk.

But Coll does go back to Art and quickly finds herself in the deep end. How will she get out of this one??!

The main themes in this book are love, friendship, family and school.

The characters are Colette, Art, her friends Gregory and Val, Colette's mother and father and her little sister.

My favourite character is Colette because she's brave and friendly. She tries to stay loyal to her friends even though sometimes she finds that it's not the easiest thing to do.

I would rate this book 8/10.

I would recommend this book as it's different and interesting, a good read.

It has 245 pages.

The name of this book is Before I forget by Melissa Hill.

This book is about a woman named Abby who is in her thirties. Her boyfriend, Keiran, has just broken up with her after 5 years together as he went off with another woman and had gotten married, leaving Abby behind in a slump. She had eventually come to the conclusion that she would "keep herself busy with work" as she called ( aka: overworking herself at her job as an accountant). She is a very fussy eater and is rather large in size, needing a bit of exercise to put it nicely. She is very self-concious and, well since her and Kieran aren't together any more, she's not living life to the full. She won't go out at night, won't go on holiday with her friends and won't go out for dinner or any of the sort. She also hates shopping and refuses to go on any form of shopping spree. The only shopping she does is grocery shopping.

She has a brother, Dermot, who's twenty-six, and two sisters, Caroline and Claire. Caroline and Claire are both older than her and are both married. Caroline is married to Tom, a very wealthy man, therefore, she hasn't worked a day since she got married. Her favourite hobby is shopping and she always shows off to the family by buying expensive gifts and taking them out for expensive meals and buying the most expensive champagnes and so on. Basically, she loves to flaunt her hard working husbands money, but he doesn't mind, as he loves his wife and is very laid back.

Abby's oldest sister, Claire, lives in New York where her husband, Zach, is from. She hasn't seen her in a long time due to the fact that she's terrified of flying.

Anyway, one morning Abby is on her way to work and a roof tile falls on her head (how convenient!!), she goes unconscious and when she wakes up, she's in hospital with her mother at her bedside. Abby used to have amazing, long hair, which she treasured and was her favourite thing about herself, but when she wakes up, it's cut into a bob, so they could get to her head wound in surgery, and she is horrified. Abby gets out of hospital after a few tests but is warned to keep a close eye out for anything unusual, such as dizzyness or memory problems, which do occur.

But since this accident, Abby started to live her life again for the first time in a long time. She travels to New York with her sister and mother, to see her other sister and her brother-in-law. Also, the newest member of the family, her niece. She found out while in hospital that her sister had had a baby. Abby also took to shopping as her sister Caroline took her on a weekend away to London for some pampering and shopping. She even started to try new foods.

One day in New York, Abby stumbles upon a man called Finn. After talking in the park for a while, he offers her a tour of the city and she accepts. After all, her resolution since the accident was to see more places and live life larger. A few months later, she stumbles upon Finn in a park in Ireland. The only problem though is that she doesn't remember him!!! They decide that in a weeks time or so he will come to her apartment and see if she remembers him. If she doesn't he will list out a sheet of things about Abby that no one would know unless she had told them. Finn shows up at her apartment and she doesn't remember him, so he does as planned and reads out the list. Her friend Erin is there and witnesses it all. He comes in and explains it all in detail to both Abby and Erin. From then on, Finn is a big part of Abby's life and he helps her to keep a record of all the new and important things in her life and make files of them on her computer.

After spending a lot of time together, Finn and Abby grow close and end up engaged after a romantic trip to Paris where he proposed. Finn and Abby are busy planning their wedding when Abby suddenly runs into Keiran on the street one morning out walking. Finn is on a business trip abroad. Abby sees keiran and his wife and son. She realises that there's no way that they could be married that long and have a son, but Keiran tells her that it's 2008 and not 2007 like Abby thinks it is.

After that Abby realised the truth. That she had skipped a whole year of her life while unconsious. It wasn't the first time she had woken since the accident like she thought, it was actually the fourth. She had woken up a number of times before hand but had several blackouts, and as her family told her she was not informed of this because the last time she had woken up, she herself had asked that nobody mention the rest of it as it got more and more upsetting each time she found out.

Then she had the problem of Finn to deal with. She didn't think it was fair to drag him along like this and the thought that one morning she might wake up and not know who he is?? She thought this was too unfair on Finn, even though he had reassuered her many times that he didn't mind that she might forget who he is, again. Finn however did not know that she missed out on a year of her life, so she decided to let him go another way. She told him that she was getting back with Keiran and that she was leaving him. She couldn't bear to tell him the real truth.

Will Abby loose Finn forever, even though she still loves him???

The main themes in the book are family, friendship, love and work.

The characters in the book are Abby, Caroline Claire, Abby's mam, Finn, Zach, Dermot, Erin and Keiran.

My favourite character is Finn because he's so caring and unselfish, generous, concerning and loving.

My least favourite character is Keiran as I think he is a mind- controlling person, a bad influence, selfish, grumping and un-concerning.

I would definitley, definitley recommend this book!!!!! It's great!!!!

I thought it was a great idea and very effective using the internet for book reviews because it's just tiring when you have to write it all out by hand on refill paper and when you look at it, all you see is a pile of words on a sheet of paper that you dread having to read. On the blogs though, theres colours, pictures and comments, and it's fun sitting down to read them!! You also don't end up losing pages!!

I thought it was a brilliant idea and would definitely do it next year and recommend it!

The name of the book is "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry" by Mildred D. Taylor.

The Logan family lived in Mississippi in 1933-1934. Mama Logan was a teacher, Papa Logan worked on the railroad and Stacey, 12, Cassie, 9, Cristopher-John, 7, and Clayton Chester, otherwise known as Little Man, 6, were all students at the Great Faith school where their Mama worked. All the Logan children were smart for their age and knew quite a bit about the things that went on around them, such as the fact that they had to pay the bank regularly so they could keep the land, they had to get a good crop of cotton every year or else things would end up bad as they wouldn't have enough money for food and to pay the bank, and that white people were bad and that they must stay away from them, especially the Wallaces who owned the Wallace store and Mr. Harlan Granger who was in charge of everything in the surrounding area. But what they didn't understand was why? Why was all this the way it was? Why did white people have everything so easy? It just didn't make sense to them. White people, everyone thought, were better than black people, except black people of course.

This novel is about the Logan family's journey through racism in Mississippi in the 1930's and how they survived. It talks about their differences from white people, like the fact that white children got a school bus to school and black children had to walk for miles in their bare feet, how white people got served first in the store even if the black people were in front and many ridiculous things alike. The thing was, they had no choice wether they were going to abide by these things because if thy didn't, they wouldn't be around to tell the tale as the Night Men would be out. The devilish Night Men whom Most black people feared, were a group of white men who came around in the night to teach black people a lesson if they thought they were stepping out of line. Black people would be immediately hanged. Things start to go bad, though when Mama Logan gets fired from her job and Papa gets injured in an accident so he can't work on the railroad. There is no money coming in and some of the coton is badly burnt due to a crisis with Stacey's friend, T.J., and the Night Men. The logan family are struggling, but luckily for them they have Papa's brother, Uncle Hammer, if they need money urgently and they have Mr. Morrison, a tall, broad, strong man for protection. T.J. has gotten into a lot of trouble as he associated with to white teenage boys. Everything seems to be going wrong, so does it turn out in the end for the Logans?!

My favourite character is Stacey because he is so brave and sensible when it comes to making decisions. he also helps out his old friend T.J. who hadn't been a very good friend to him but because he was in time of trouble, he helped him and didn't hold any grudges.

My least favourite character is T.J. because he is constantly showing off and trying to impress people. He is also selfish, unfair and mean, especially when it comes to other people.

I would definitely recommend this book and i would give this book 10/10.