We are in the early 40’s involved in the middle of the Second World War. Bruno is a little son of a wealthy family from Berlin, he is really clever but he has many unanswered questions about the life and especially about the job of his father. He is only 9 years old and his father is one of the trusted people of Hitler’s Dictator.

A few days after an important lunch in which the “Furer” had come with his friendly wife to talk with Bruno’s father, Bruno finds Maria (the family’s Maid) pulling all his belongings out of the wardrobe and packing them. From this moment, the life of Bruno’s family change completely as they go to live in a new place, empty of houses and schools and without friends of Bruno nor of his sister Gretel.

One day, Bruno goes to explore what is behind the fence that he can see far away from his bedroom’s window and, after a while walking, he arrives at the fence and knows Shmuel at the other hand of the fence. Shmuel is a boy with the same age as him, even he had borned at the same day. He looks extremely skinny, has shaved hair and wears a striped pyjamas. For a long time they meet almost every day.

After more than a year on this place, Mother convinces the father so that she and her children can return to Berlin. Although Bruno firstly had missed his friends from Berlin, now he has meet Shmuel and is happy seeing with him without anyone knowing.

Before to move to Berlin, Bruno want to help finding Shmuel’s father who had been disappeared a few days ago and ask Shmuel to bring him a stripped pyjamas like all of the people of the other side of the fence. Innocently, Bruno for the first time, goes through a small hole under the fence and they together goes towards the huts.

In a few minutes they end with the same fate that millions of Jews had in the concentration camps.

Charlie and the chocolate factory

Charlie Backet lives with his family, his four grandparents his mum and his dad. They live in a little wood house and are very poor. His grandparents are really old, so they stay in bed all the time .

Charlies father is working hard every day in a tooth paste factory but not matter how hard he works he never make enought money to feed his family.They live on cabbage, so Charlie is always hungry.

This young boy loves chocolate and gets one a year for his bithday. Willy Wonka’s cocolate factory is close to where Charlie lives. But this huge factory closed years before because Wonka’s workers were sellying his new chocolate recepies to his rival companies.

One day willy made an annoncement that he will open the factory to the five lickly people who are goig to find a golden tichet in his chocolate bars.

The luckly winners were Agustus Gloop, Beruca Salt ,Mik Tearee,Violet Beauregarde And finaly our Charlie who Bought the wright chocolate with his grandpa’s Joe savings. Little by little allbody exept Charli had  have been eliminate by several accidents they had inside the factory releted to they’r opsetions.

The little Backet, our hero was the last remmining child and wins the prize.Mr Wonka wants him and his family to live with him and to takeover the factory when he gets old.

In conclution, this book had both feelings inside, there was plenty of humor despite Charlies poor live at the begeaning so this has made an important contrast.

Natalia

TITLE & AUTOR: Wonder, R.J. Palacio

BRIEF SUMMARY: August or for friends Auggie is an almost normal ten-year-old boy who likes ice cream, riding his bike, is a fan of Star Wars, and loves to play with his console. August lives with his family: his father, his mother, his sister Olivia (Via) and his dog Daisy on the Uper West Side of New York. Our protagonist was born with a hereditary disease of unpronounceable name and as a consequence his face is deformed, that is why from that moment August has to go many times to the doctor and undergo many operations, in order to have a normal life.

Despite the numerous surgeries, August’s face remains deformed and people continue to look at it in the same way; horrified and scared. After all these years, August is already used to being the topic of conversation but also to the glances and gossip of the people. This situation for August is a routine and tries to make these comments affect him as little as possible.

Due to his deformity he can’t attend school so his mother is in charge  of his education, but there comes a time when his mother doesn’t have the necessary knowledge to help him with his studies and believes that it is best for him to go to school. This idea at first doesn’t excite him, like his father, but in the end he agrees to see the director of the school, Mr. Traseronian, who will introduce him to several children who will show him the facilities. But one of them isn’t as kind to him as he should be and in the successive days of the course he will make August’s life impossible. So much of the story revolves around the comings and goings of August at school. If he makes friends,  how the children treat him, how the parents react to the fact that he is there.

The everyday life of August at school is going to be complicated; we all know how bad children of that age can become. And August for being like he is will be the center of attention. Little by little, August is making his space at school, making friends, and feeling as he has always wanted to feel, like a normal child. But to get there, he has to go through very difficult situations for him. Thanks to the school August will learn a lesson that is not taught in the classes; that is to accept himself as he is, smile the grey days and know that in the end you will always find a helping hand.

OPINION: The book shows a story of overcoming and tolerance. First I didn’t like the book but as I was reading I liked it more because it is a book that makes you reflect on things you never thought before; you put yourself in the harsh situation of the father, mother, sister and friends, but especially August. I was also impressed because the writer was inspired by a girl who has a deformation and imagined her story. This book, for me transmits that we are as we can be  in some way, especially if you have people around you who value you as you are, that your physical appearance is not important, it does not matter what race you are. People who love you only value the most important things, which are your feelings and emotions.

WOULD YOU RECOMMEND IT?:
I would recommend this book to people aged between 15-17 years old and I believe that  everyone could read it without age differences because it is a real story.

A. CASTELLS

BROOKLYN

Author: Colm Tóibín

The protagonist of the book is a girl named Eilis Lacey, who lives in a town in southern Ireland, Enniscorthy, with her mother, who is a widow, and her older sister, since her brothers have gone in search of work .

Eilis is a clever girl, with accounting studies but she does not find work in her village, she only works in a grocery store on Sundays in the morning.

One day they receive the visit of a priest friend of the family, Father Flood, who tells them that he comes from New York and there probably he would find work for Eilis in New York.

Her mother and  Rose think that it is good for Eilis to go to New York, a few days later Eilis bought the ship’s ticket to New York.

The trip is very long and hard. In New York she meets Father Flood who helps her to find a job and a sleeping-house in the Brooklyn neighborhood. Eilis works in a department stores as a shop assistant  and lives in Ms. Madge Kehoe house with other girls.

She decides to go to accounting classes at night so that she will be able to find a better job, she gets a lots of letters from her mother and her sister and she feels increasingly homeless at her house, but gradually she gets accustomed to the daily life of Brooklyn.

Sometimes she sees Father Flood whom she helps with the meals that he organizes for the poor. She also begins to go to the neighborhood dance on Friday night with the girls in the guest house.

On a Friday afternoon, she meets Tony, an Italian-American boy, who is a plumber, he also has to work to help his parents and brothers. Eilis and Tony fall in love, Tony introduces Eilis to his parents, everything seems to go well, but one day Eilis arrives home and finds Flood who brings bad news, he tells her that her sister Rose had died while he slept because of the heart. Now she had to return to Ireland next to her mother.

Eilis tells Tony that she will return to Brooklyn but Tony is afraid that this does not happen and he proposes that they get married so she will return, she accepts and they get married in secret before leaving to Ireland.

At home with her mother everything is sad, she does not tell anyone that she is married. Eilis easily gets accostumed to his old life in the village, she  begins to walk and go to the beach with his old friends. Like this, she begins a new friendship with Jim and increasingly thinks less about Tony.

I really like Brooklyn, it teaches us how difficult it is to emigrate and start a new life alone, far from the family and usually with little money.

I would recommend it a lot, I could not stop reading it, as it makes you think about what Eilis can finally decide.

Montse Bosch

4th English

August is a special boy but not a boy with special needs as he says. He is ten years old and he has a particularity on his face that does not allow to be like the other boys. He was born with a facial deformity, a bizarre illness named genetic disorder characterized by craniofacial malformations.

He lives like a normal boy, playing in the playgrounds, watching Star Wars films, enjoying with his dog and all those stuff that  children  usually do. However, due to this illness, he has been studying at home, overprotected by his parents. But this year, he will start to go at school like the other children.

In the beginning, he feels out of place, although he starts to meet new friends, some of them more sincere and honest than other ones. But all of them  are finding out about the good and sweet August’s bottom, a simple child that just wants to be normal and that with his naturalness and his good sense of humor even joking about himself, he is winning little by little to all his school companions.

In my opinion, it is a very good book. It is a book that makes you think about some important things in your life like friendship, tenderness, sincerity, optimism and effort.

I would absolutely  recommend it.

Abigail Jené Teixidó – 4th Anglès