Sober Faith

Topic: How did the opening chapter lead you to anticipate the ending? In the first chapter Payton and her friends were leaving their debutant ball and Lynzi's escort Bam had alcohol for them to toast to their coming out all of the girls went along with it but Tad Payton's escort refused to be apart of it. But the entire time Payton was debating drinking with them in the end she did drink and it got her into a lot of trouble. Based on the purpose of the book I figured by Payton failing the test the first time that at the end she would be presented with the same test again and see if her decision would be different after all the things she saw and went through. By the end she was faced with the same scenario drinking with her friends to celebrate but after her friend was almost killed by driving under the influence and how her friends destroyed her parents house while they were drunk she made a decision not to drink and to tell her friends if they were going to drink they wold have to do it away from here.

Sober Faith

Topic: Did this book come to a satisfactory closure for you? Why/Not? It really didn't end in the way that I thought it should. It ended with her getting back with her boyfriend Tad and having a breakfast with her friends after prom. I didn't like the way it ended because I wasn't expecting it I was expecting her to go at least through their graduation that would be a break point in the series before they go to college and all the problems they face in college. But instead she ends with the night of prom and I felt she could have went a little further and finished off their high school life. It sort of felt like she left the reader hanging. Even if she decided to end with the night of prom the story around it could have been more developed, she could have added some interesting cushion to it to keep the same story and out come but lead her to set them up for the next book in the series. Just like the end of the first book it felt very choppy towards the end of the book.

Sober Faith

Topic: What do you think is the defining moment for the main character? I think Payton's defining moment is when they are on their spring break trip in Myrtle Beach and she is trying to convince everyone to do the right thing instead of giving in to the pressures around them. Payton's entire attitude is completely different than before. When she is presented with certain temptations she fights the urge to give in to these temptations and she stands her ground but this time not only does she stand her ground she also tries to help her friends stand for what is right. Even though what she did and said wasn't what they wanted to hear at the time later her friends thanked her for stopping them from making a mistake that they were going to regret. This in my opinion was Payton's defining moment, because not only did she stand up for what was right despite how it made her look, she also helped her friends do the same and this showed that she was a person that knew what was right and wrong and stood for exactly that.

Sober Faith

Topic: Why did you choose this book? What were your expectations? Why did you expect what you did? How did this book live up to your expectations? I choose this book because it is the second book in the Payton Skky series and the first book was very interesting. So I was very eager to read the continuation to the story of Payton. I was expecting this to be a very interesting story with lots of drama and choices. I expected this because this is how the first book was. The first book was a lot about Payton making choices in her life when faced with trying times. The second book was the same but she was faced with a different problem teens face everyday. This book was great I completely lived up to my expectations based on the first book. It presented the problem of substance use and peer pressure that so many teens experience. I am looking forward to reading the rest of the books in the series and learn of some of the other things that teens go through and how different people choose to deal with them.

New Semester....More Books

Book #5 title:
Sober Faith

Author:
Stephanie Perry Moore

Date of Publication:
2000

Last Man Down

TOPIC: What does the writer do at the beginning to draw you into the book? At the beginning of the book Paisner talks about "the 5" Which is a 5 bell ring that would be sounded over the internal bell system to signify that a firefighter had died on duty. After which a moment of silence would occur. He goes on to talk about how normal the day was up until "the 5". At that time he says what would normally be just the bells followed by silence turned into a constant hum and a day of silence across New York. Immediately following that he gives a list of all 343 firefighters that were killed that tragic day. In that list he includes their full name, rank, and their assigned unit. This defiantly step the story up even though this was very sad it gave you a on look about how all these men risked their lives to save the lives of innocent people. They could have easily been selfish and said no i have a family but instead they were selfless not selfish and because of them many people live today. This most certainly caught my attention and made me want to read the book.

Last Man Down

TOPIC: From what perspective is the book told and how does this affect you ability to relate to its content? What other perspective would you be interested to here the story told from? and why? The book is told from the perspective of a FDNY Battalion commander on duty at the time of the attack. He was on one of the squads that responded to the call. This helps me relate a lot better to the topic because he has first hand knowledge of what happened. Its not like he researched the topic then told the story for someone to document it. No this man actually live what he told Paisner. If it was possible I would love to get the story from the perspective of someone one who was aboard one of the planes because their interpretation of the hijacking would be very interesting. Also from a bystander that was watching this whole thing happen because i would like to know how watching this event changed their life and their outlook on the things around them.