The Boundless Book Review

 

 

The Boundless, by Kenneth Oppel, is about a seventeen year old boy named William Everett who is trying to stop a gang leader from stealing the very wealthy Cornelius Van Horne's will.  Will's father, James Everett, has been working on the rail road for three years, but that all changed when Van Horne invites Will to the mountains to see his father. When Will sees his father for the first time he is probably the happiest boy on earth, but shortly after an avalanche hits and sadly, Cornelius Van Horne died.  Three years later Will rides the Boundless, the longest train  in the world.  The first stop the boundless makes Will gets off to explore to the town and after a few hours he goes into the woods to pee but is stopped when he sees Brogan, a devious thief killing the security guard to get the key into Van Horne's funeral car, but Will grabs it first.  Brogan chases Will, but Will is too fast and climbs a tree so Brogan can't see him and after a couple minutes he realizes he has to go or the train will leave him, and suddenly he hears the train whistle.  Will sprints after the train and is able to get onto the caboose but then is attacked by Mackie, one of Brogans men, but is saved by Sticks, the other guard on the caboose.  Will explains his story and with a good night's rest and a good meal Mackie agrees to take him up to the next break car but realizes it's Brogan and tries to run but Mackie held him tight, with a little wiggling he is free and runs. Eventually he runs to the circus cars and meets Mr. Dorian and Maren.  Mr. Dorian and Maren agree to help Will get back to his father by taking him to shows slowly making their way to first class.  Will considers telling one of the brake men, but is stopped when Mr. Dorian spills his evil plan of robbing the funeral car to get a special painting.  Will agrees to help Mr. Dorian and Maren get the portrait from the funeral car, but as they were getting the painting they were approached by Brogan and his men.  As Will, Maren, and Mr. Dorian fight for their lives many of Brogan's men died, and eventually Mr. Dorian died too.  Brogan and Mackie blast the funeral car to get the gold. He forces Will, Maren, and Will's father to hop the train but before he can the avalanche hits and Mackie and Brogan die.  To end the book Maren finds out that Mr. Dorian left the circus to her and Will gets to go to art school.

A  great theme for this theme would be don't trust someone you just met.  My first example is when Maren steals Will's sasquatch tooth.  "He realizes he doesn't even know her name- And that she still has his sasquatch tooth!" (9-10)  My next example is when Mackie lies about being apart of Brogan's crew and tries to kill him.  "Will tries to wrench his arm free. Why won't Mackie let go of him?" (106).  My last example is when Mr. Dorian tells Will his plan of robbing the Boundless.  "But you do want something inside the funeral car?" "Indeed." "You want to rob the Boundless?" (205)  These are the reasons I think why this would be a great theme for this book.

I would definitely recommend this book to other seventh grade readers because of all the action and adventure. The Boundless is full of excitement! One of the most adventurous parts of the book is when Brogan approaches Will, Maren, and Mr Dorian as they were trying to steal the very valuable portrait. You will not regret your decision of reading this book!

 
Practice Book Reveiw: The Veldt

The Veldt, by Ray Bradbury, is about George and Lydia Hadley and their two children Peter and Wendy.  They are a family from the future who get too dependent on technology.  They have many technical features in their house, they even have a virtual reality nursery room where you can imagine any place in the world and it will feel like your there. George and Lydia realized that Peter and Wendy spend too much time in the nursery. When George and Lydia threaten to shut the nursery down for a few days Peter and Wendy break in to the nursery with out permission and set it to Africa. George confronted the children but Peter and Wendy acted confused and said that it wasn't sent to Africa. Peter and Wendy were sent to there rooms for bed but in the middle of the night George and Lydia were woken by the sounds of two screams, and realized that those screams were theirs. Lydia convinced George that it was a good idea to leave town to go to Iowa and George agreed. The next morning George had a local psychologist inspect the nursery while George and Lydia packed for Iowa. Suddenly they fell right into a devious trap planned by the children. They ran into the nursery and heard the door slam behind them. As they banged on the door the lions came to life and ate them. 

One of the main themes in this book is that spoiling your children can lead to bad consequences. My first example is when Lydia considers shutting down the nursery for a few days but remembers the tantrum Peter and Wendy through. "You know how difficult Peter is about that. When I punished him a month ago by locking the nursery for even a few hours- the tantrum he through! And Wendy too. They live for the nursery." (12) My next example is when George and Lydia realized what their children have become- secret, and dishonest. "We've given our children anything they've ever wanted. This is our reward- secrecy, disobedience?"  My last example is when George shut down the nursery when Peter begged him not too. "Don't let him do it!" wailed Peter at the ceiling as if he were talking to the house. (24) As you can see these are the three reasons why I think that spoiling your children can lead to negative consequences.

I would recommend this book to other seventh grade readers because of all the cool technology. This book is filled with many technical features such as the shoe tie lacer so you won't hurt your back. Or the shoe tie lacer so you won't have to brush your own teeth. Many of the technology in this book exists! For example, the automatic motion lights. I would defiantly recommend this book to others.