I am a huge bookworm. I'm the kind of elephant who has two stacks of books next to their bed and who's camp counselors get pissed when I still have my flashlight on at 12:00 am. But when a teacher assigns Hoot by Carl Hiaasen for my summer reading assignment, I'd rather twist my trunk into a knot. There are so many things that bother me about that book!
Here's a tip I like to read by: it's a crappy book when you hate the character you're supposed to like. Now, I know there are exceptions but generally and in most cases it's true. Try naming a book where you liked reading it but disliked the characters. Part of enjoying my reading experience is falling in love with the characters and caring about them. I seriously cried when Beth died in Little Women.
Besides wanting to strangle the hypocritical main character who's character traits were misleading I thought that the book was very much outdated. It was written in 2002. Obviously Shakespeare's plays aren't outdated, they're timeless. Yet if the teacher picks out a book because it's 'modern and relatabale', and characters are saying to each other "No way Jose!" she is seriously mistaken. Harry Potter is a hundred times more relatable than that! It could just be poor dialogue, Stephanie Meyer wrote that Edward said to Bella "Do I dazzle you?" for example. Hoot isn't even my level of reading, or my grades!
Sigh, now I have to go write essays about what parts were relatable and summarize conflicts. Isn't school fun! Supposedly teachers want constructive criticism when, really, if I were to hand in something like this they'd fail me. Yes, the brilliant authoritative figures at my school who give us only 10 minutes to eat lunch resulting in malnourishment.
The Flying Elephant
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