Dear Mrs. Zrihen,
I just finished reading the book Nerds by Michael Buckley. It is a science fiction book that is definitely the best book I’ve read. Here is a passage from the story I really enjoyed:
“Jackson met Flinch in the parking lot of the school. The nerd’s face was covered in caramel, and there were a dozen or so candy bar wrappers lying at his feet. He had a cup of convenience store soda in his hand that was bigger than his own head. He was also trembling with caffeinated joy.
“So, I suppose you’re going to beat me up too,” Jackson said. He could still feel the burning laser stings on his behind, the bruises from the back scratcher, and the place where the kindergartener’s lunch box had hit him in the skull.
Flinch shook his head wildly. It seemed everything he did was over the top. “No way! We’re going to play a game of catch, bro.”
“Catch? OK, that’s something I’m very good at,” Jackson said.
“But you’re going to have to use your superbraces to do it,” Flinch said. “All that technology in your mouth is awesome! We have to teach you how to use it. Luckily, a lot of it is responsive to what‘s going on around you. Here, I’ll show you.”
Jackson watched Flinch step over to a teacher’s car. He turned the dial on his harness and then, in one swift motion, leaned down and picked the car up off the ground. He held it over his head like it was a feather pillow. Then he tossed it at Jackson.
Jackson screamed and instinctively ducked, though he knew it would do much good to prevent his impending death. What he couldn’t have imagined was the braces in his mouth springing to life. The forced his mouth open and several strands of metal caught the car in midair.
“Hombre, that is awesome,” Flinch shouted. “Throw it back.”
Jackson didn’t have time to think before his braces hefted the car back at the little boy. Flinch snatched it out of the air and set it back down in it parking space.
“You just threw a car at me!” Jackson yelled.
“Fun, isn’t it?” Flinch shouted as he tossed another of the teacher’s cars at him. This time the braces seemed ready and stopped it long before it closed in on his head. Still, the experience was heart-attack inducing. Jackson set the car down just in time to spot another sailing through the air at him.
“Cut it out!” Jackson shouted as he caught it and set it back on its four wheels.
“I’m strong like bull!” Flinch shouted, oblivious to Jackson’s complaints. “Let’s make this interesting.”
He snatched a car tossed it, the snatched another, then tossed it, and on and on and on. The cars sailed through the air fast and furious. Jackson’s braces spun around in his mouth like a blender as the attempted to catch them all, but there were too many. The best he could do was try to swat them away. His efforts did little, and soon one of the cars crashed to the ground next to him. Then another landed right behind. Soon the cars were piling up around him, locking him inside an automotive pyramid. He was safe and unharmed, but he was trapped.
“You are supposed to catch them,” Flinch shouted.
Jackson stewed with anger. “Get me out of here, you freak!”
I chose this passage because it’s one of the funniest passages in the book. The significance of this passage is that without this passage they would have been excluding one of the special abilities in the book.
My two before reading strategies were one, to skim and scan the book for text features, and two, to read the synopsis of the book. My two during reading strategies were to one, image a picture of the story and to look at the vocabulary that I didn’t know and figure out their meaning with context clues. My two after reading strategies are to one, review what and comprehend what I’ve read, and two, to prepare for a Reader’s Journal.
The genre of this book is science fiction. It is characterized by fantastic things or events that involve science or technology.
The characters in the book were the following: Jackson, Duncan, Matilda, Ruby, Heathcliff, and Flinch. There were also Agent Brad, Miss Holiday, Doctor Jigsaw, and the Hyena. All of the characters are flat until the end of the book when they get very static. The protagonists of the book are every one of the characters except for Dr. Jigsaw who is the antagonist. The foil is the Hyena. The setting is in many places, but one of the main places is the North Pole.
The exposition is when Jackson is a cool kid and one of the most popular in school. One day he goes to the dentist and he finds out that he needs to get braces. Once he gets braces every one treats him like he’s a nerd. One day he was spying on the nerdiest kids in school and gets caught falling through a hole in a locker. When he gets to the bottom a bunch of scientists try to capture him. And exactly at the same time this is happening, the Hyena waits for her boss to picker her up because she is a professional assassin. The rising action is when Jackson goes into this strange place where the scientists were chasing him and gets locked in one of the rooms. He starts clicking randomly on the buttons that are in this room. Somehow he manages access technology that should only have been used by the scientists. That technology that he accesses turns his braces into robotic defense claws. At the same time, the Hyena is introduced to Dr. Jigsaw’s Doomsday Device. It has the power to move any land mass to another part of the world which would kill millions of people. The climax is when the team gets captured and then Jackson saves the day. Jackson goes to save his teammates and ends up killing the villain. The falling action is when the Hyena turns to the good side and becomes an agent. The conclusion is when Jackson moves on to sixth grade.
The conflict is man vs. man because the team is going against Dr. Jigsaw. The tone of the story is exciting and the mood of the story is thrilling. The theme of the story is finding different ways to do things. The moral of the story is don’t judge a book by its cover. The point of view of the story is third person, because the author uses words like “he”, “she”, and “they”. The pattern of organization is cause and effect. The author’s purpose of the story is probably to entertain. The author’s perspective is in agreement with this book because he probably enjoys science fiction.
I would rate this book ten out of ten because everything in it was amazing. It was very understandable and was a good cliffhanger. I would recommend this book to everyone from middle school because there are words in there that you could understand even if they sound hard and it’s very entertaining.
Sincerely,
Michael
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