Book Report on Leverage

    Have you ever felt like you were too small to help, or that no one cares? I thought this in elementary school but thought it stopped there, Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen proved me wrong and took it to the next level. Kurt and Danny the main characters thought that they were to small to help that cost them a friends life. They learned from there mistakes though and try to make things right.
 The book is about a small gymnast and a huge orphan who is the new star of the Oregrove high school football team. The captains of the football team take steroids and beat up everyone who are smaller then them. Kurt the football player and Danny the gymnast are sick of them and when a kid commits suicide because of them they work together to make sure the captains get what they deserve.

    Lamar was Kurt's best friend in the orphanage. He was raped there by an older kid who eventually murdered him. In high school when Ronnie is being raped he tries his best to stop it because he doesn't want anyone to feel Lamar's pain. Kurt thinks that its his fault that Lamar died but now he isn't afraid to stand up for what's right.
Danny was in the same closet as the kid who was getting raped. He didn't try and stop it because he was afraid he was too small and that he would get raped too. When Kurt came to stop it Danny learn that you should always stand up for what's right. Later Ronnie (the boy) killed himself. This made Danny feel even worse and learns that any one can make a difference. Later in the book Kurt and Danny collect enough evidence to prove that the captain's raped Ronnie and they should be punished. This is how Danny learned from his mistake.

   Sometimes it takes a small incident when you were a baby, or you learned it from your favorite teacher. In this case though the high school boys learned it after death of friends. Still the lesson is the same even though this is much worse than when you were a kid. It's that you learn from your mistakes. When I was in elementary school I was a peer mediator. I was in fourth grade and was fine mediating the fourth grade and down, fifth grade was the only grade I was afraid of because they were bigger. One day there was a fight and I was supposed to help but I was too afraid and I just watched. After the fight a fifth grader screamed at me for not helping. I felt really bad for not helping and decided to help in all fights. This is how I learned from my mistake. Everyone once learned from their mistakes, what's yours?

 

Book Report on Peter and the Starcatchers

   

    This summer I read the book Peter and the Starcatchers, the book is about Peter Pan before the movie happened. In the book Peter is sent on a boat to Rundoon with four other orphans. In the ship there is a treasure that gives people lots of different power and creates superhumans like the greek gods or Albert Einstien, this is called Starstuff. Peter and a girl named Molly try to give the treasure to Molly's dad so bad people called the others won't get it. After fighting will the others Peter gets soaked in the Starstuff and becomes ageless and can fly. Peter and the four other boys get stuck on an island and stay there.

    The theme of the book is never give up because when the boys got to the island there was a tribe called the Mollusks and they put Peter and his friends in a cage so they could get eaten by a huge crocodile called Mr. Grin. Even without anything to fight with they still got out by using Starstuff to make the crocodile fly. Also when the others were about to take the Starstuff Peter used his abilities to save the Starstuff and Molly even when it looked like there was no chance of saving both. This is why you should never give up.

   Another theme of this book is you should also give everything 100%. I think this because if Peter wasn't then he probably would be dead because if he wasn't paying attention then he might have been shot from captain hook. Also if he didn't try to stay alive against Mr. Grin he would have been eaten and so would have his friends. Another reason why peter can't give up is because he is the leader of the group and the other boys are relying on him.

    Throughout the book Peter showed that he never gave up and always gave 100% even when the chances were very slim. This is why I think that the themes were to give 100% and never give up. Peter can be an inspirational person because of his actions even though he is a fantasy character.