book 17

Dear Ms. Zrihen,                                                                       01/1/12

 I enjoyed reading the book, Peak, written by Roland Smith.  The genre is definitely realistic fiction.  The store takes place mainly on Mount Everest, but also in New York. The main characters are Peak Marcello, and his dad, Joshua Wood (Josh).  The are round/dynamic.  The plot evolved in the following way through the story: First, Peak tries to scale a building, next he goes to jail, last he comes within 10 ft of the peak, before turning back for his sisters birthday.  The main problem is Peak is having trouble at the lower camps. The tone or mood of the book is not very suspenseful, because Peak has access to almost everything. A theme that appears in the book is “Don’t do the crime, if you can’t do the time.”  The moral is you should obey the law.  From my point of view, I can see that Peak can be irresponsible at times. The author organized the story through time order.  The author’s purpose is to entertain people. His perspective is that Peak is a very caring brother.  

 “I’m going home,” I said.  “What do you mean? Back to New York? We’ll talk about that when I get back down.  I won’t be there when you get back down, I said. What’s the hurry?  You wouldn’t understand.  Try me.  Okay.  I want to be home for the twins’ birthday. By the look on his face, he didn’t understand.  I haven’t missed one yet, I said.  This was written on page 237.  I picked this passage because it shows that Peak is a caring older brother.  The passage is significant to the story because he was going back from Mount Everest. 

I used several reading strategies throughout the book. Before reading, I skimmed and scanned through this book, or I flipped through the pages looking for text features to see whether or not I would like this book.  Also, my mom recommended it to me.  While reading, I would quiz myself on what I read after each story and re-read parts I didn’t understand.  After reading, I am writing this, and I discussed it.

Figurative language I saw in the book: personification, simile, oxymoron, metaphor,  illiteration.

 I would rate this book 5 stars *****because at the end of every page, there is a cliff-hanger so you want to read more all the time.  I think Peak is a wonderfully written realistic fiction.  ( YES I DO RECOMMEND IT TO THE CLASS )

Sincerely, 

Mikey Rogatinsky