8th Grade Reading Log by Yuko Kat.

Turtles All the Way Down, John Green

yukok251_1 — 2023-09-01 02:44:49 UTC

Aza Holmes, a 16 year old young girl who’s in high school goes through complex relationships and perceives the truth about her neighbors secrets relating to a billionaire. Aza learns to strengthen her mental issues of anxiety and gloominess, knowing that she suffers with ocd and some disorders. While she faces these unpredictable conflicts, she ends up reflecting on herself and realizing who she really wants to be. I really look up to these young adults because they have their own journey and they can be themselves and who they are. Around half way through the book, she had many things to take in and lost who to trust and who not to. She questioned why she was living like this, as she said in the book “—“ (I have to get the quote). But the more and more she went through she built up her own mental strengths. Before reading this book I may have thought that these people were not like me and they were just overthinking all the time. But being aware that there are thousands of other people in our society who are around our age that go through the same things, I felt like the world we are in right now experiences many complex things so we shouldn’t underestimate someone by how they act. In the very beginning of the book, she led us with a few quotes. Such as, “You're both the fire and the water that extinguishes it.” “You're the narrator, the protagonist, and the sidekick.” “You're the storyteller and the story told.” “You are somebody's something, but you are also your you.” I found these quotes very influential and made me confident to being myself.

小学五年生、重松　清　5th Grade, Kiyoshi Shigematsu

yukok251_1 — 2023-09-25 01:15:12 UTC

Being a fifth grader means you’re small and you’re still trying to get used to this society. But it also means you have to start getting through your own struggles and solve problems by yourself. This character struggles with making friends, with the fact that he lost his father, but at the end he learns how to make his own decisions in life and why humans are all different and unique.

ある日、透きとおる　三枝理恵 One day, it’ll be transparent Sarie Saegu

yukok251_1 — 2023-11-10 03:43:57 UTC

In life, we might have times when we feel insecure about our selves, and want to turn into a completely different person. Or you might have an impression you show to people but isn’t the real “you”. The main concern with this is that we have to control these feelings, or we would lose our true personalities and characteristics. If you are not satisfied with who you are and who you represent, it is crucial to remember that you have many parts that should be kept as good characteristics of you. This book shows how a girl has different sides to herself and loses control of who she actually is.

4:50 From Paddington Agatha Christie

yukok251_1 — 2023-11-10 03:54:17 UTC

街角には物語が.....

yukok251_1 — 2023-11-10 03:55:58 UTC

This book walks through the many small, and happy moments in this town and the stories of different individuals going through their own section of their life.

前に読んだ「僕はイェローでホワイトでちょっとブルー」のストーリーに少し似ていて、読みやすかった。主人公が周りの人や自分の街についてどう思っているかが書かれていて共感やすかった。

本日も教官なり

yukok251_1 — 2024-01-17 03:40:47 UTC

When I read Japanese books, I always read Onodera Fuminori’s books because his writing style is very relaxed and easy to understand. Especially in this book, he would explain each scene descriptively rather than telling directly, and his choices of the characters were really good too. The story is about a man and how he suddenly get’s a phone call from his former wife that their daughter made a new baby. While he struggles with his relationships to approve his daughter, he also works as an instructor for teaching people to drive (for their drivers license) and helps a variety of people.

When he got the phone call, he seemed very disappointed about his daughter, but he was also happy to hear his former wife’s voice. I think this was a unique characteristic for the author to choose.

Spinning Tillie Walden

yukok251_1 — 2024-03-04 01:05:26 UTC

This book was about a girl who ice skates and tries to become braver as a person. In the book, there were many scenes where she experienced abuse physically and mentally, and I learned things that I didn’t know could happen in this world. At times she would have a mental breakdown, and at other times she had accidentally made a car accident, but she was still able to stay strong by herself and be an independent person.

The 57 Bus

yukok251_1 — 2024-03-07 22:33:30 UTC

Snowglobe Amy Wilson

yukok251_1 — 2024-03-26 05:53:18 UTC

The book is based on a fantasy story about a girl named Clementine who explores the majestic and imagery world she had never seen before in a Snowglobe. She get’s drawn to a mysterious house, and after her curiosity she goes in the house and finds a lot of snow globes. A particular one with a boy named Dylan trapped inside. The story is about how Clementine frees Dylan from the mystical snow globe.

Clementine has a strong personality, very brave and adventurous. She is also warm hearted and would do anything to save a precious life of her new friend. She is my favorite character in “Snowglobe” because she has a very heroic position in the story.

Overall this was an amazing book, almost reminded me of another book called “The One and Only Ivan” where a girl tries to free a Gorilla from a captive.

Break

yukok251_1 — 2024-04-15 23:12:44 UTC

The main character Olive is spending Spring Break with her dad, and the story is about her trying to go through her social life and her personal life in the trip.

Olive is a similar person to me, who tends to be embarrassed and shy most of the time. Since we had Spring Break as well, I was able to make some connections to the book and reflected on some improvements I can make for myself.