Readers Journal #3 Zach's Lie

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

        I have just finished reading the book “Zach’s Lie” by Roland Smith. The reason that I have picked this passage is because I got the recomendation from you Mrs. Zrihen. The significance of this passage is that it explains every single event in great detail and very specific. I did six things before, while, and after (two for each) reading this astonishing book. First I did two things before reding this book. I had read the synopsis in the back to get a heads up on what the book would be about. When I read the back I noticed that it said what happens if you take the “v” out of lives? This caught my attention because it gave me an obvious guess that this book would be about a family or a boy who lied about something and had his life in danger. After that I also flipped through the book and looked for some text features and noticed that on top of every chapter the book mentioned the date. I then did two things while reading this book, the first thing I did was I imagined all of the events happening, like for example when the family was getting robbed I felt like I was inside the book watching the family getting robbed. With every detail written in the book happened in my head I imaginined it. The second thing I did was after every single chapter that I read I stopped and thought carefully exactly on what it is that I have read. After reading this book I felt very good with the ending but then again I thought about it and didn’t really accept/like it. One thing I did after reading this book is I thought about the whole book and what it is that I have read. The second thing that I did after reading this book is I went online and checked for a summary to see if I had read and understood the book correctly.

The genre of this book is realistic fiction. The characteristics of this book being realistic fiction are because all of the characters are life like and the setting is too. The protagonists in this story are Jack Osbourne, his mother Patricia, and his sister Joanne. The antagonists in this book are the robbers who broke into the house. This book took place mostly in Nevada. The time, weather conditions, and social conditions were not applicative. (exposition) There was a family of four. There was jack who wrote everything that was happening to him in his journal. There was joanne who is jacks sister. There was the mom who took care of the kids with the care that they needed. Finally, there was the father was caught with the possesion of drugs and selling them. (rising action) The father worked for someone named Alonso. Alonso and two other men broke into the family’s house and threatened them if they tell anyone about them breaking in or the father or him being with posession of drugs they would find the family and kill them all. Anyways the cops had known and came by the following morning and asked for answers. (climax) Anyways when the police had heard the story they told the family that they had to move to a different location with new names. Jacks name turned to Zach. They moved to nevada and were safe there, or were they? (falling action) Peter short, one of jacks enemies, had found all of jacks journals and showed them all to alonso because he knew where he lived therefore he showed him the journal about where they are, what school he goes to, etc. Peter had also had jacks dad’s journal which showed federal information about alonso so he had to give it to the police. (resolution) zach and the costudian a former agent, had set a plan in the stages at school. When alonso came in jack pulled the lever hitting alonso and knocking him unconcious. Alonso was put in jail, but zach and his family had to move.

The main problem in this book is that zach and his family had to move states and switch identities because of something there father had done. The conflict is external, man vs man.

The tone of this article is the author felt pretty sad about what was happening at first but then satisfied at the end. The mood of this passage is very surprising, and it gave me an action feeling with what I was reading. The theme of this book is when you are in trouble you could always get help from someone around you. The moral of this book is not to do something wrong that you cannot only put yourself in trouble but your family or friends. The point of view in this passage is third person objective. The pattern of organization of the passage is cause and effect. The author’s purpose is to entertain. If I was in jack’s position I would be furious with my dad for what he was doing and putting me in danger.

This book was pretty astonishing book. Like I said I didn’t really accept the resolution because of how it was being taken care of. If I was to rate this book out of ten, I would probably give it an eight.

                    Sincerely,

                               Ofek peer