Reader's Journal # 4 Slob by Ellen Potter

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

          This book I started reading is Slob by Ellen Potter.  This is a really good book about a fat kid who loves Oreo cookies.  Here is a passage from the book that I enjoyed reading:

          It felt like Mason Ragg was leaving me a message.  Something like:  I can get in and out of your lunch so easily that I even have time to seal up your eco-container.  And PS, and eco-container is very hard to seal.  You are powerless against me.

            I picked this passage because it shows the part where Mason Ragg wasn’t going to give up stealing the Oreo cookies; if it was him, because we don’t know if he did.  Without this passage the book wouldn’t have the same feeling of the kid stealing the Oreo cookies.

          The two before reading strategies I used were to read the cover to try to get an idea what the book is about, then I read the synopsis on the back of the book.   The two during reading strategies I used were to read and understand all of the vocabulary words and to understand what the story was talking about.  The two after reading strategies were to think about what I read and used the bookmark you gave me to mark where I left off.

          The genre is realistic fiction and its characteristic is that it seems like a story that really could happen, unlike science fiction that will never happen.

          The characters are Owen, Owen’s mom, Andre, Caitlin but she changed her name to Jeremy and is Owen’s sister, Mason Ragg, and Izzy Shank.  The characters seem like people coming alive because of the way they made the book you literally see the story in your head.  So far the characters in the book are flat, no one has changed.  The protagonist is Owen and the antagonist is Mason.  Owen’s motive is to stop Mason from taking his Oreo cookies.  Mason’s motive is to be a bully.  Owen has two foils, Nima and Jeremy.  Nima sells momos, which are a kind of dumplings.

          The book is set in New York and we don’t know when it is set.  The conditions I guess you can say are bright and sunny.  The social conditions aren’t explained. 

          The exposition is at the beginning of the story.  Owen starts off being a fat kid at gym class.  The other kids mutter to themselves around him.  Andre calls him “flapjack”.  He’s well treated at home because his sister thinks he has a lot of potential.  Owen is working on a machine like a television called “Nemesis.”  His mother has him on a diet.  And Owen loves his Oreo cookies.  Every day he always looks forward to eating the three Oreo cookies his mom packs in his lunch.  The conflict starts when Mason steals Owen’s cookies.

          In the rising action, Owen reacts to his cookies being stolen by looking to see if anyone has cookie stuff on their face.  He sees Mason sitting where he and Izzy usually sit.  Owen sees that Mason has three cookies stacked on the side.  That is where he gets the suspicion that Mason has stolen his cookies.  Then Owen walks home from school with Jeremy sad that he didn’t get to eat his cookies and that his coach tortured him.  Further into the story Nima tells him to make a machine like Nemesis to stop Mason from stealing his cookies.  Owen builds the machine and sets it up in the beginning of the day.  When he sees that Mason Ragg comes back from the bathroom not hurt.  Then Owen goes to the bathroom to check on his machine and he sees that his Oreo cookies are gone and the machine didn’t go off.  Then Owen goes back into the classroom walks up to Mason and asks him to give back his Oreo cookies.  Mason said that he knew nothing about his Oreo cookies.

          I haven’t gotten to the end of the book so I can’t talk about the climax, falling action and resolution.

          The main conflict is Owen wants to keep his cookies from being stolen.  The conflict is character vs. character.  The tone of the story is witty and the mood is light.  I haven’t read enough of the story to say what the motif is.  I can’t say what the moral of the story is because I haven’t gotten to the end of the book.  The point of view is first person because Owen is telling the story.

          The pattern of organization is the book is divided into chapters.  The author’s purpose is to make money.  The author’s perspective is that she is sensitive to fat people.

          I think the book is good.  It’s very funny.  I would recommend this book to everybody because it is very funny and there is no such thing as people who don’t like funny books.  Everyone likes funny books.   I rate what I’ve read five star out of five stars because it is really funny and I like humorous books. 

I think this is a really good book and I can’t wait to finish it.

Sincerely, your student,

Michael Heskiel