Freshman Voices, 2019-2020: Waltham Hawks Write

Amanda Silva The Fault in our Stars John Green After hearing such good things about the book I knew I had to read it. The Fault in our Stars by John Greens is a love story between two sick cancer patients. 16 year old Hazel Grace, a girl with thyroid cancer falls in love with Augustus Waters also a 16 year old with an osteosarcoma. They meet at a support group for fellow cancer patients. Hazel didn’t enjoy going to support groups until she met Augustus. After watching a movie together and telling each other about their lives they realize they have a lot in common. They bond over the novel Imperial Affliction. They emailed the author Peter Van Houten and got themselves invited to Amsterdam to ask questions about the book. They board the flight to Amsterdam and are excited to talk to Peter Van Houten even though he refuses to tell the ending of his story. On the airplane Augustus confesses to being in love with Hazel.  After reading the Fault in our Stars I would definitely...

Ron Bajrami The Firm By John Grisham What would you do if your dream job turned out to be your nightmare? The Firm is a novel written by John Grisham that gained popularity in the ’90s; this is a story about the life of Mitchell Y. Mcdeere, who has worked hard to become one of the most renowned and well-respected lawyers in Memphis. Mitch seems to shock everyone because he joins a small private firm called Bendini, but little does he know that his new job is going to be the toughest challenge that he has yet faced. I would recommend this book to most people because the author does an excellent job of setting up Mitch’s story throughout the book. I personally chose this book because it was a novel that had drama and thriller involved. The Firm had countless cases of employees that died in car accidents, suicide, homicide, and drug addictions that sparked Mitch to accuse them of killing their own employees. The protagonist - Mitch had just started working at his new job and he was stay...

Mina Alkhafaji The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie Imagine being bullied and hated by your own people just for the conditions you have and the education you want. In the book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, a Native Indian boy named Junior goes through these struggles.  Junior lives on a Native American reservation where the conditions are very poor. Nobody there has the opportunity to get a good education and have a carrier because they’re forgotten by the world. Junior didn’t want to end up like the rest of the people on the reservation so, he decided to go to an all-white school outside his rez. He was considered as a traitor just for following his dreams for a better future. Junior always felt “Zitty and lonely, I woke up on the reservation as an Indian, and somewhere on the road to Reardan, I became something less than Indian” (Alexie 83). Junior tries very hard to please both sides while foc...

Lori Tnkjian  Pride  Ibi Zoboi  Your roots are what make you the person you are today. Even if you move onto bigger and better things, you should never forget where you came from.  In the Novel Pride Ibi Zoboi, Zuri Benitez, an African/Latino young women, has pride. She - and her 5 sisters - grew up in a small town near Brooklyn New York. The neighborhood isn't the best, but they make the most out of it. Across this street from their house, there is this huge mansion. Two boys, Ainsley and Darius Darcey move in. When Janae - Zuri's older sister - comes home from college, she forms a connection with Ainsley right away. Darius and Zuri also have a connection, but she keeps denying it because she just wants to spend time with her sister and family. Throughout the Novel, Zuri tries to figure out a way to get Ainsley away from her sister, but while this is happening, she forms a connection with Darius. Will her 4 other sisters rip it apart? Or will Zuri stick...

Sheila Butler Eleanor & Park Rainbow Rowell How would you go about wanting to be with someone but you both don’t know how to work it out since people are trying to bring you apart? In Eleanor & Park, by Rainbow Rowell there is a wonderful story about a relationship that has its ups and downs but gets through it. The first half of this book really focuses on the coming of Eleanor and Park’s relationship. It all starts with them sitting next to each other on the bus to school. At first they never really talked to each other or even looked at each other; instead they would just sit on the bus and just get to school. But one day, something changed; Park had brought a comic book to read and Eleanor “was reading his comics” (Rowell 35). From that day forward they bonded on two things: comic books and music. The two begin to not want to leave each other -- since they’re always thinking about each other -- and really want to start seeing each other out of school. This is diffic...

Vacation Mystery Aidan Sacco Murder on the Orient Express By Agatha Christie “And now a passenger lies dead in his berth- stabbed”( Christie 48). As a murder has been committed on the express train, Poirot tries his best to find clues to solve this crime. Will the killer be caught or will they escape the crime scene uncaught? Murder on the Orient Express is a fictional novel written about a terrible murder that occurred on what was supposed to be a relaxing train ride through Europe. I have only read about halfway through so I am not sure as to how the book exactly ends. The story begins as detective Poirot boards the train ready to vacation for a few days through Europe. The next day as Poirot and his friend M. Bouc are in the diner eating lunch, Poirot notices two men who are also seated near him. The two men happen to go by the name Hector MacQueen and Ratchett. As the dining car slowly empties out Ratchett approaches Poirot, “I want you to take on a job for me”(Christie ...