"Geek Charming"

"Geek Charming" by Robin Palmer

Blog Post By Natasha S
 

        Geek Charming is about Dylan, a popular girl at her school, who meets Josh, a "computer nerd," who needs to make a documentary about something. When Dylan's bag falls into the fountain at the mall, Josh saves her bag, and so Dylan has to repay Josh by being the subject of his documentary. At first, they both believe that they will both hate it and that it will never work out. They end up having lots of fun, although Dylan's boyfriend, Asher, keeps ignoring her and not hanging out with her. As a result of this, Dylan keeps hanging out with Josh, which makes Asher mad. Asher and Dylan break up, and Dylan ends up helping Josh with his crush, Dylan's ex-best friend, Amy. What will happen to them? Will Dylan and Asher get back together? What will happen with Josh and Amy?

      I would rate this book a 5/5. I have probably read it over five times because I love the moral of the story: Don't let yourself change because someone else wants you to change. "Not that I don't already adore him just the way he is. But, you know, I'm me," (Palmer, page 338). This shows that Dylan had changed herself to fit in and be in the 'popular' crowd, but it wasn't really 'her'. She ends up changing back to what she really is and that's when she feels like she fits in and she has fun. There is lots of humor in it and you can relate to the conflict that Dylan feels, with Asher and Josh.

         They also have a movie titled, "Geek Charming," and I have also watched that and I enjoyed it very much. It showed the book exactly the way it was in the book, except at the end, Dylan and Josh date and Amy and Asher date. The moral is the same, and you always want to know what happens next. I also like how the author added both Josh and Dylan's perspectives, because one chapter would be from Josh's perspective, then the next chapter would be the same scene, but from Dylan's perspective. You can tell how they had differing perspectives on the same topic, for example, in the movie, Josh thought it was funny how he spilled food on Dylan, but Dylan was very mad about it. It added lots of humor and I love both the book and the movie. This book would be for someone who loves funny books, but also books about finding your center and finding who you really are.
  
     

"January First: A Child's Descent into Madness and Her Father's Struggle to Save Her"

January First: A Child's Descent into Madness and Her Father's Struggle to Save Her by Michael Schofield

Blog Post by Natasha S

 

      The central idea of "January First: A Child's Descent into Madness and Her Father's Struggle to Save Her," is love and family. The book is about Janni, Michael Schofield's daughter, and their struggles with Janni's illness, schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is an illness that makes you hallucinate, up to the point where you don't know the difference between reality and fantasy. Janni has many imaginary friends, like 400 and Monday, who she thinks are real. Throughout their journey, Janni has many ups and downs, including hitting her parents and her little baby brother, Bodhi, to loving Bodhi and her parents. They visit many hospitals and psychology wards, but none of them help Janni. When Janni and Bodhi eventually have to live in different apartments so no one gets hurt, Michael thinks everything is over. What will happen to Michael, Janni, and Bodhi? Love and family are a big part of the book because they add the idea of, "Love will make families go the extra mile." This is true because Michael and his wife, Susan, had to go many hours just to visit Janni for one hour every day. 

For a news article about schizophrenia go to this article: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/04/living-with-schizophrenia-the-importance-of-routine/?_r=0

For more information about schizophrenia go to this website: schizophrenia.com/szfacts.htm

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This is a picture of Janni, Michael, Susan, Bodhi, and their dog.
The picture was taken from: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/edge-of-the-abyss-20120820-24h4r.html
If you want to read a summary of this book, go to: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/edge-of-the-abyss-20120820-24h4r.html

I loved this book and would definitely read it again! It was eye-capturing and had so much suspense on what would happen to Janni and Bodhi? At the beginning it was suspenseful because it made you wonder why was Janni hitting her parents and Bodhi and who are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday? I would rate it a 5/5 because I love reading biographies and this was so interesting also because I want to be a doctor/pediatrician when I grow up, so learning about the different diseases would prepare me for doing that in the real world.


I can connect to Michael because he explains how they went so many miles just to see Janni and how he always played with Janni even if she was playing with her hallucinations. This relates to me because when my grandpa was sick, we went to visit him across the world. If Janni was my daughter, I would want to play with her so that she wouldn't feel excluded from the world.