1. When I think back to my childhood, the book that really stands out the most in my mind is none other than Captain Underpants. What really stood out in this book above the rest was the fact that it wasn't like any other book in the past. While most books were just words written on the page, I enjoyed the way that this book allowed you to interact through its many flip-o-ramas and made you laugh with all of its immature jokes. This was one of the few books that I feel really just let kids have fun and encouraged them to have fun and goof off. It taught me that school wasn't all about work, but should be treated like an adventure and to let the fun moments last for as long as you can.
2. A character that I identify with would probably be Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games. I believe that people should be free to choose their own path and believe that I have the same protective attitude towards my friends and family. Constantly throughout the series, Katniss shows cleverness such as when she used the tracker jackers to get rid of the careers that were chasing her or using the apples to blow up their food supply. Furthermore, she has a leave nobody behind mood to getting through the games. Whenever one of her friends gets hurt or has to rest, she never goes on ahead or wants to leave them behind, but helps them through their struggles. Personally, I believe that I am a creative thinker that can find solutions to problems quite easily and am always someone who tries to help a friend if they need help or don't understand something.
3. A book that I would highly recommend to friends is The Martian by Andy Wier. This is a novel about an astronaut named Mark Watney who is in quite the interesting predicament having been recently stranded on Mars with the next ship arriving months later. The story is told from Mark's mission log which allows the reader to know exactly what he is thinking and truly get to know Mark while also being put in his footsteps along his journey to get off Mars. Some of the great qualities to this book are Watney's humorous, optimistic nature and all of the science and thought process behind his problem-solving. The novel is full of twists and turns where one moment you think he will survive and then suddenly be on the edge of death. This book is a must-read book and I would recommend it to anyone interested in sci-fi and survival stories.
4. The top book on my must read list for this year is probably Insurgent by Veronica Roth. This is the second book in the Divergent series in which a society has been created in order to prevent war. Within the story, there are five factions that were created to each get rid of one of the "traits of the corrupt" which include cowardliness, selfishness, violence, deception, and ignorance. The five factions are Dauntless, Abnegation, Amity, Candor, and Erudite respectively. The story is told from the perspective of a young woman named Tris who was originally from the Abnegation but had her life changed when she underwent her choosing ceremony. I really want to read the second book in this series because I enjoyed the first book due to its fast paced plot and that there was always something happening with little time in between events, creating a fuller story. Many times I believe that I could be in the same position as Tris and enjoyed finding out how she would solve the next problems that would come her way.
5. My favorite book that went to the screen was probably Q and A. This is one of the few books that I thought was very accurate to the events that happened in the book. I enjoyed the fact that they were able to capture the pressure that Ram was facing during the competition and the humorous aspects like the time he made money by giving fake tours of the Taj Mahal. This book opened my eyes to the many struggles in other countries such as poverty and abuse faced by children that were my age. Although it did scare me in a sense, I was glad to have read the book and see it adapted so well into a movie.
6. My favorite book that I have read so far in school has to be Fahrenheit 451. This was the first real dystopian world that I was introduced to besides the Hunger Games and I saw the many negative effects of censorship. This book really challenged my views of books and how important they really are in both keeping history and spreading ideas to people. I also enjoyed the fact that even though this book was written quite a while ago, that we could still relate to the author's predictions for the future. The idea that we are slowly becoming more self absorbed and obsessed with technology is a real growing concern that should be addressed.
7. My favorite coming of age book was Lord of the Flies because it not only showed the side of human cooperation for survival, but also humanity's savage and animalistic side. At the beginning of the book, the main character Ralph and all of the other kids don't care about what they need to do and nobody takes responsibility over keeping them all alive. However, once Ralph and the others are unable to signal a distant fire since their fire went out, Ralph slowly starts to take charge of the group and organizing parties to preform all the necessary tasks to survive such as gathering food and water and building shelters. While half of the group turns to primal instinct, Ralph matures fast and tries to use civilized methods to survive and overcome the madness that has engulfed the other kids' minds.

These are some pretty cool books! When I was a kid, I read some of the Captain Underpants books as well. I thought they were funny, and they were very popular!
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