Upper Arlington High School
2007 Teen Read Week Favorite Book Essay Contest

 

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Meredith

The Last Juror by John Grisham

In the midst of the civil rights struggles in the early ‘70s, Willie Traynor wandered into Clanton, Mississippi in search of a steady job and sufficient cash flow.  By breaking the barriers of racial segregation and stretching social acceptances, he created a type of journalism completely unfamiliar to his time.  John Grisham’s novel The Last Juror portrays the development of the main character, Willie Traynor, a 23-year-old male from the city, who I like to consider much like myself.  Much like Willie has a passion for journalism and a determination to expose the truth, I , too aspire to solve life’s mysteries through my writing.  Willie Traynor is an inspiration to me to follow my dreams and to let determination battle me through my struggles.

 

Jordan

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson

The twisted adventures of Dr. Gonzo and Raoul Duke are portrayed in the artwork of the British cartoonist Ralph Steadman.  His works are found all over the novel; across the cover, filling page after page, and by splattering ink across the text like a gunshot.  His grotesque scribbles of sleaze, danger, addiction, warped realities, and false illusions depict the sinful indulgence of the journalist and his attorney.  Their arsenal of drugs – from uppers, downers, hallucinogens, and tranquilizers – are gobbled down whenever possible, and wherever.  The heroes of this brave tale of sweet ignorance bleed life in the literature, and come to light in Steadman’s sketches.

 

Lauren

Weslandia by Paul Fleischman

When I was nine I created a brand new language, all symbols and shapes, and no one could read it but me.  I drew pictures of tree houses and snuck outside after dark so I could count the stars until I fell asleep.  Adults forget that kids have an even bigger world to learn to live in; they forget that we sometimes have to dream up our own for a little while until things start to make sense.  The little boy in Weslandia knew this just as well as I did, so he made up languages and stories, and built towers to view the world from.  Once I wondered how it would be to meet him, and I concluded that it would be exactly like looking into a mirror.

 

Tu

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

Ella enchanted: elastic, bitter, ambitious, rebellious; laughs and wishes to be free from her obedience spell.  She talks. I talk. She cries. I cry. She hopes and dreams and wishes to be who she wishes to be, without ties.  I dream and live, free from commands but not free from wanting and needing so much and so little everything.  Ella is loud.  She talks…too much…too little…always wondering and enduring obstacles of life.  Ella mirrors a fairytale ending, but her life is full of thorns: knowledge gained, mistakes made.  She resembles an ordinary girl, who longs for a happy ending: Me.

 

Claire

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The cover of The Great Gatsby does not show us Jay Gatsby’s light-colored linen suits or the dainty, feminine features of Daisy Buchanan’s face.  Rather, it shows us the extravagance and excess of the Jazz Age with an illuminated, hazy picture of the New York City night life.  Above this muffled carnival are the sad, watchful eyes of a woman witnessing the “moral decay” of the age.  This balance between intoxicating extravagance and the gradual loss of ethical reasoning is what F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel is all about.

 

Henry

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

The word Freakonomics is an insightful hybrid of two words with polar meanings.  It is astonishing that the “dismal science” would ever have anything remotely “freaky” about it, but here it is on the cover of the book daring the reader to explore its pages.  The apple skin with orange flesh presents the prospective readers with another enigma to be later cracked.  The idea that things are not always as they seem is often discussed in the insightful book, relating to the thesis of the fruit.  Freakonomics is unique in the way it renders economics readable.

 

Rachel

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

A woman leans on the splintered wooden post of her porch, the only support in her life; her waist down is all that is visible.  She is wearing a handmade cotton dress and is bare foot.  Two brilliant purple petunias envelop the bottom corners of the cover of The Color Purple.  The woman’s face isn’t shown to portray her social status as a black woman in the rural south.  She is a person of no importance; she has no face. Yet, the flowers, in full bloom, illustrate the hope that buds as sure as the petunias.