Dear John- Characterization

John Tyree wasn’t always the nice guy he is today.  John Tyree used to hang out with the wrong crowd and flunked his classes, even though he knew he could do better.  He didn’t always make the right decisions. Some nights he came home with his breath reeking of alcohol and his jacket lingering with the smell of smoke.  He acted this way because he never had a stable parent to lay down the law for him.  He took advantage of his lack of rules and control. While John grew out of his teenage years he was getting tired of his troubled life. He didn’t want to stay the way he was.  He wanted a job and real friends. He then decided to join the army.  The army was a good thing for John.  He was finally doing something important with his life. He felt it actually mattered.  During this time he became a stronger smarter man. His personality changed for the better.  He was nicer and more genuine.

Mr. Tyree was John’s humble father.  He was a very quiet man.  His life was a reoccurring routine day after day.  He had the same meal plans, did the activities and could not ever imagine deviation from his routine. He would always answers questions with just a simple one word answer. He was unable to hold a conversation with anyone unless he was talking about his wonderful coin collection. His coins seem to be the most important thing in his life.  He knew everything about each coin, even the date, type, history of it and what it’s worth.   He was very socially awkward in all situations.  He would never go out of the house except for work and to get groceries.  He did not like change.   He had a hard time giving his car keys to his son.  He could not deal with idea that he had never done that before.  He does not show emotion to others.  He never even hugs or kisses his son.  He does however show some emotion when he is ill in the hospital but not like a normal father would show.  Because he did start to develop a relationship with Savannah, his son’s girlfriend, she started to see some personality traits that convinced her that Mr. Tyree was mildly Autistic. Savannah was studying special education in college and could see that he fit into many of the characteristics.  John was not happy when they discussed his dad’s problems. 

Dear John- Conflict

Dear John was a novel filled with conflicts between the characters.  I liked the believable characters and their real life activities. John Tyree was the main character and he had chosen to live a wild life for many of his younger years.  He did not really listen to his father and did not seem to have any guidance and no stable upbringing.  He was getting into to trouble and his dad could not even help.  His father never got angry with him or grounded him.  His father was out of touch.  John just continued doing the wrong things.   He was so mad his father did not act like other “normal” fathers.  He seemed to want to get into trouble with his dad.  He really wanted his dad to act like he cared.  His father did care but was not able to show normal emotion.  He was not able to have normal relationships. That is probably why the mother left them.  John and his father just lived together. Everyday seemed the same for Mr. Tyree. He had to follow his schedule and care for his coin collection.  John finally realized he needed to change for the better. He joined the army. 

When he was on leave from the army, he went to visit his father back home.  His dad’s life was exactly the same routine.  When he was surfing, he met a girl named Savannah and he helped he get her purse that had fallen into the water.  He was normally not very nice to people and would not have done a good deed.  But since he had joined the army he had changed.  She was a nice girl and really liked him.  They started spending more time together.  He even let her meet his unusual dad.  Mr. Tyree liked Savannah because she was different from most girls.  She knew how to act and talk to people like Mr. Tyree.  She understood him.  She asked John questions about things. She was not afraid of the answers or of how he would feel about the questions.  Savannah was always interested in Mr. Tyree’s coin collection and the more time she spent with him the more she figured him out.  She was going college to become a special education teacher and after some time with John and his dad she was convinced he was autistic.  John had a hard time with this information and went back to his old violent ways.  He punched out a few people and got mad at Savannah for intruding in their life.  After some he realized that she was very right.  He finally had some answers to the big question he always had.  He may have known something was not quite right but never really wanted to hear the truth. 

Savannah was his true love.  He had to go back to the army and leave her.  He was almost ready to leave the army when 911 occurred.  He then could not turn his back on his men so had to reenlist for more years.  His life was going by so quickly.  Savannah waited for him for years.  She finally realized he was not going to come back so she married a long time friend.  The conflict continued for years as they tried to get together but it never worked out. 

In the end the conflict between John and his dad is resolved and his dad even hugs him and tells him he loves him.  John and Savannah do continue to be friends. 

I do not know how I would handle the choices of military vs. true love.  I think this is a common conflict today as so many people are in the military.  I do think I would do things a bit differently than John.  I would most likely follow my heart and think about the relationship and the other person’s life too. 

I liked this book and it felt real. The author made it so believable.  I would recommend this book to my friends.

Summary

Pretty Little Liars
The book Pretty Little Liars is about 5 girls who are very very close friends Alison, Aria, Hanna, Emily, and Spencer. They live in Rosewood, Pennsylvania. They had sleepovers all the time. Even though they didn’t always get along were always there for each other. Alison was the most popular and prettiest girl in the school. She was never a follower she was always the leader and it was either her way or the highway.  Nobody ever questioned Alison or stood up for themselves when Alison said something about them, besides Spencer. Spencer was Alison’s friend; she was one of the only people that could question Alison without being afraid.
         One summer night after 8th grade, Spencer had Alison, Aria, Emily, and Hanna over for a sleepover. Spencer and Alison got in to a small fight, and then Alison stormed out of there. Later on Alison never came back; the girls didn’t know where she went. Later the police were searching everywhere. Alison wasn’t found; she had disappeared.
         Life went on for the other 4 girls, Aria came back to Rosewood, Pennsylvania after living in Iceland for 2 years, Hanna got a total new appearance. They were juniors now. When they passed Alison’s old house they thought of all the good time they had and all the bad times. They also felt a bit a relief that she was gone. Hanna, Aria, Emily, and Spencer never hung out or talked to each other since Alison disappeared. They grew apart and had separate lives, had new best friends, new attitudes.
Then on a random day, Aria got a text from a person that shouldn’t know about what the text said because she would get in a lot of trouble for it. She didn’t know who sent the text all it said, was from “A”. She didn’t know what this meant. Was Alison still alive?
Emily, Hanna, and Spencer also got letters or texts from “A” they didn’t know what to think. Since they didn’t talk to each other much anymore they didn’t know they were all getting these creepy messages.
The 4 girls keep getting these messages from “A”  ever since Aria got back from Iceland the girls have been coming closer together.  After finally talking, they find out that they all are getting messages from “A”. They thought Alison was sending the text
At the end of the book the police found Alison dead and they finally had closure. The four girls attended the funeral, but all got a text at the same time reading “I’m still here, and I know everything”—A. They were so confused, now who could “A” be?

Recommendation

I would recommend this book teenage girls who like drama, suspense, mysteries and if they already like the television series Pretty Little Lairs.  It was a very good book!! I liked this book because it always was interesting and never had slow or boring parts, it kept me interested. It wanted me to keep reading all day long, I could hardly put the book down.  It always kept you wondering and wanting to know who “A” is, they just keep you guessing.  I like the book and the show evenly, but I liked how the book gave me way more details than the movie did.

The book and the T.V. show weren’t much different. Only a few small details were different, like in the book Emily has an older sister named Carolyn, while in the show she is a single child. The physical appearance of each character was different too.

There is a series of the pretty little liars there are 8 books including this one, in the series. First Pretty Little Liars, Flawless, Perfect, Unbelievable, wicked, Killer, and Heartless.

This book was really easy to understand the author Sara Shepard wrote it out really well. She uses lots of great detail so you have a very good picture in your mind on what’s going on. She evokes images with the small simile’s, and metaphors she uses.  She did a great way of setting everything with the girls and the messages; it was very well thought out. She used lots of flashbacks with the girls and Alision referring to the messages they got, because the messages are something only Alison would know about. So they thought it Alison was the one writing these “A” messages.  The author also did lots of foreshadowing , in the begging of the book, that shows up later on in the book involving “A”  and the girls.

This book is acliff hanger, because at the end of the book at Alison’s funeral when they knew Ali was dead, the got a text from “A” it never said who “A” is and t defenantly can’ t be Alison. It left me wanting to read more and left me interested into knowing more wanting to read more. It will leave you wondering.  You will have to read the other books to find out who “A” really is.

Flipped Summary

One day a boy moved into a neighborhood and was helping his dad unload the moving van.  They were interrupted by a neighbor girl.  She was outgoing and her name was Juli.  She had just waited on the curb for a long time watching before she went over there.  She really wanted a friend and thought  Brice was perfect for her.  First, Brice described what happened when they met and it did not sound like the best way to start out a friendship. In the next chapter we hear Juli’s side of the story and it sounds like he really likes her and things were going great.  During the years from second grade to seventh grade Bryce did everything he could to be away from Juli.  He even got a girlfriend to show her he really did not like her. Juli couldn’t help how she felt all she did was think about Bryce.  Then in the eighth grade he looked at her picture that was under her pillow.  He started noticing things she was doing like caring for the lawn and the trees.  He finally saw her as a girl that he did “like”.  By that time Juli did not really him anymore so now the feelings are switched. 

One day Juli found out the city was going to take down her favorite tree.  It was a sycamore tree.  She climbed up the tree and sat in it to prove a point.  She really did not want anyone to cut down the tree even though it was not her tree.  Her dad finally got her to come down out of the tree. Juli did not cry much but she did cry about the tree.  Her dad came in and gave her a picture he had drawn of her and the tree.  The local paper took a picture of her and printed it that is how Bryce’s grandfather found out about Juli. Then granddad started asking Bryce about Juli but Bryce did not like Juli and couldn’t figure out why his granddad would  talk about her. Juli raised chickens and picked eggs everyday.  She always gave some to Bryce’s family.  He started throwing them away because he thought they were bad because their yard was so dirty.  Juli cried about this too and Bryce saw her.  Juli wanted to fix up their yard and found out her family did not even own the house.  When she started to fix up the yard Bryce’s granddad came over to help.  Granddad did not really ever talk to everyone. He thinks Juli is so much like his wife who has passed away.

I like when Bryce finally sees Juli as a nice person.  He sees her cry and really likes her.  I think this story could go on for years.  I think they will get together someday.  If there was a book two. I think Bryce and Juli could be married and live a life similar to granddad and grandma. 

Flipped Recommendation

       I would recommend this book to people who like books about real people.  I have not found a book I liked this much this for a long time. I like this book because it was so easy and quick to read and the characters were believable. The characters went through 2^nd -8^th grade so it is everything a reader my age could relate to.  I could keep up with the characters and liked when they told their side of an event and how it happened on every other chapter.  I also think others would like this book because it’s from the point of view of kids, and it makes it easier to understand and easy to relate to.  The book starts out when Juli and Brice first meet when they were young children and it explains their relationship along the way as they grow up.  It is a book teenagers should read it really makes you think about other people’s point of view. When  events happen to you, you maybe only can see your side of the story.  This book will help you think of what the other person might be thinking, especially if things do not go your way.  I like that Juli was always ready for an adventure and felt strong about her causes.  She was not afraid of what people would think of her. Juli believed in three things, saving her favorite tree, her precious eggs, and that someday she will kiss Bryce.

  Brice was not too thrilled with Juli until about 8^th grade and that is when she did not really like him anymore. I like this book because I felt it could keep going and have book two. Then we could find out what happens to them in the future.  I really did like these characters and everything they did seemed so real.  I am sure that in real life many people have probably liked someone and as soon as that person likes them they do not feel the same way. I found out this is also a movie.  I hope to watch it someday.  I  like Juli because she liked trees, yard work and animals but she was a bit too boy crazy and could be annoying at times.  I think she was a kind hearted girl who always tried to do the right thing.