Divergent: The book or the movie? by Kashish Bhatia

Kashish Bhatia
The Book or the Movie?

Imagine you are living in a world with five factions, where each one represented the smart, brave, kind, selfless, or honest people. That is precisely what the book and movie "Divergent", by Veronica Roth, is about. Tris Prior has to choose which faction to live in, and face the challenges that come with it. The book is very different from the movie. The narration, characters, and events in the plot all vary from the movie. The presence of the characters, plot, and the change in narration, all make the book more intriguing.

"Divergent" is a story based on the life of Tris Prior. Because she is the main character, the book's narration is mostly a monologue. This helps the readers to understand and feel the main character's thoughts and feelings. However, in the movie, the dialogue between the characters does not reveal all the characters emotions and feelings. This change made the movie less exciting, while the book was able to portray all the characters emotions and feelings. Readers of the book could relate to the characters because of the choice in narration.

Characters create any book or movie to come alive. By their actions and dialogues, they spark the interest inside an audience. Without certain characters, a book or movie can become dull and boring. In the book "Divergent," the character Uriah was a good friend of Tris, and often helped her face certain challenges. However, the character of Uriah was not in the movie, and his place was substituted by a different character. Also, one of Tris' enemies, Drew, was not in the movie. In the book, he created problems for Tris, so that she would not pass initiation. In the movie, however, Drew was not present, and therefore many scenes from the book that included Drew were missing in the movie, which forced the movie to be less interesting.

Many people prefer a book over a movie. Why is that? This is because a book has the complete story line of a plot. However, most movies refrain from including many scenes to keep the movie short and to the point. Likewise, many well liked and preferred scenes from the book were not present in the movie, which cut out to the interest of it. For example, the scene where Peter stabbed Edward in the eye because of their rivalry failed to show up in the movie. Also, the book showed Tris ranking first in initiation. The movie, however, showed her ranking last, barely passing. Many other minor details like these were also missing from the movie, which is why most people enjoyed the book more than the movie.

Overall, the story line of "Divergent" was the same in the book and the movie. In both, Tris meets and falls in love with Tobias Eaton, another main character. Also, in both movies, Jeanine Matthews tries to take control of everything, using simulations, but Tris and Tobias stop her. In my opinion, the book was better than the movie. It had all the characters necessary for bringing the book alive, it had a better narration than the movie and helped the reader feel and understand the characters and emotions, and it included all the scenes and details to make the reader enjoy the book.

Amazon Fire review by Srikar Ayyalsomayajula

Looking for a new smartphone? Well, here's the new Amazon Fire! This phone has a 13MP camera in the rear, and a 2.1MP camera in the front to fit all of your selfie needs! But the camera isn't the reason I want it. I want it because this is the only phone with Amazon's newest dynamic perspective. Just tilt, swivel, and peek your phone to scroll pages and view notifications. The best part is, you can use it fully with one hand! This phone also comes with Amazon Firefly. This can be activated with the dedicated camera button on the side. With firefly, you can take a picture of a book, record a portion of a song, or record a movie dialogue, and the phone will take you to the Amazon site to buy it. This can be both good and bad. The good part is, you'll know exactly what that tune is you hear on the radio. The bad part is that the button comes off as a sort of scheme to buy more things from Amazon. You can also find the Mayday button that was on the Kindle Fire. This button calls an Amazon employee to help you when needed. This is a good idea for people who have absolutely no experience with technology. But for me, it just seems lazy. I like to figure things out myself. With Dolby Digital Plus sound,  the audio is very good quality. The Kindle store has lots of apps that you can find on the Play store as well. This phone is only compatible with AT&T for now, but I can imagine it to be with many other service providers in the future. Plus, it comes with one whole year of Amazon Prime. So, I guess this phone is a fresh new idea in the market. The Fire is available at www.amazon.com.    

A Lively Flower by Shruti R. Patel

A Lively Flower

I am a blossoming soul of nature. My petals are smooth like silk, soft like cotton, and sparkly like a jewel. They hang from my stem, curved a little on the edges. I burst out with spectacular colors of deep and rich shade. I look beautiful in vases, bouquets, and garlands. My attractiveness, filled with magnificence makes people admire me. I am a queen of beauty that spreads its uniqueness across the world. I start as a sprout and grow higher each day towards the sun. When the sun awakes, I take a shower in its splendid rays. When the rain gently falls down from heaven, I start to blossom, growing tall and elegant from the ground. I am a precious miracle of life – a gift to the earth. I am occupied with full of fragrance. Sniff the air around me; I release a sweet smell from my delicate and fragile petals. I sway in the wind, dandling and whirling up and down. The arriving breeze envelopes me, making me dance freely. My personality is so capturing and captivating. I am a sunshine that brings a radiant smile on everyone’s face, producing an amusing feeling of pleasure and bringing a splash of life. Thus, I am a symbol of love and life. I am a character of hope, purity, and wisdom. Indeed, I am a lovely golden treasure that everyone admires.

~ Shruti R. Patel

Spring (a poem in Iambic Pentameter) by Shruti R. Patel

Have you ever heard about iambic pentameter?

There are many examples of iambic pentameter in William Shakespeare's plays including Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. His plays follow a rhythmic pattern.

Iambic Pentameter is a poetic device with five beats of measure in each line which contains an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable, with a total of ten syllables per line.

Spring – Iambic Pentameter

It’s Spring, it’s Spring, it’s Spring, a world of joy.

Enjoy the presence of this lovely day.

The sun is shining high above the sky.

I see the wind is blowing through the trees.

The birds are chirping, flowers blooming out.

The slimy bugs are coming out to play.

The plants are dancing, leaves appear on trees.

The rain is pouring down the muddy ground.

This lovely nature bursting out with life.

I shout, “It’s Spring, it’s Spring, it’s life, it’s Spring!”

~ Shruti R. Patel

Frozen versus Tangled by Ananya S.

Tangled vs. Frozen

In the end, it isn’t about which one is better; it’s about how they differ and what they each offer to their audiences. So, let’s take a look.

Tangled: In general, Tangled stayed true to the typical love story: Guy meets girl, girl meets guy, they fall in love, and they get married. However, in this version of “Rapunzel,” the heroine is more developed; rather than a weak, damsel-in-distress princess, Rapunzel is adventurous, loyal, and quirky (although she does become a bit of a damsel in distress towards the end). And her prince isn’t exactly a prince; he’s a thief. Through the characterization and development of Flynn Rider, Tangled explores love in relation to redemption and sacrifice, which is far more refreshing than love by itself. Additionally, many elements of Tangled were developed very well, leaving a good amount of the audience feeling satisfied with the conclusion, even if it was a little trite.

Frozen: Frozen, unlike Tangled, focuses more on the love between siblings rather than the love between a man and a woman. Like Tangled, however, Frozen demonstrates the sacrifices that people make out of love. But while many of the modern Disney princess movies simply create stronger, more complex heroines, Frozen subtly mocks the classic princesses and “normal” fairy tales. It seems to follow the path of a regular love story…and then suddenly takes an unforeseen turn. Additionally, Frozen is musically spectacular. (“Let it Go,” performed by Idina Menzel, received much critical acclaim and won an Oscar). However, it is important to note that Frozen is not as developed as Tangled; there were many opportunities to develop certain elements of the movie, but only some of those were taken.

Overall, Tangled is not better than Frozen and vice versa; they are both good movies, and they both succeed in satisfying most of their audiences. 

~Ananya Swaminathan

Review of Code Name Verity by Ananya S.

Review of Code Name Verity

We all have that one person, that special someone: a best friend. In Code Name Verity, Elizabeth Wein explores the friendship of two girls against the backdrop of World War II.

“Verity” is a noble lady. Maddie is a commoner. Under normal circumstances, the two girls never would have met. But this isn’t normal circumstances; this is war. Working in the ATA, the girls are thrown together and eventually forge a strong bond. During an assignment, however, they are fired upon and their plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France. In the midst of the pain and terror that follows, Maddie and “Verity” are kept alive by each other and their friendship…but ultimately, only one of the girls will survive.

Told from the point of view of both girls, Code Name Verity is a heartbreaking novel of the power of friendship, loyalty, and courage in times of trial.  

~Ananya Swaminathan

Hollow City review by Ananya

Review of Hollow City

            Hollow City, Ransom Riggs’ latest novel, is the sequel to Miss Peregrine’s Home to Peculiar Children. It continues with the adventures of Miss Peregrine and her peculiar wards.

The peculiars are on their way to the peculiar capital of the world: London. Miss Peregrine, their caretaker, is trapped in the form of a bird, and the peculiars hope to find help. However, it quickly becomes evident that their journey is going to be difficult, dangerous, and filled with murderous wights. Will they be able to save Miss Peregrine in time? Or will they (and Miss Peregrine) end up in the hands of the wights?

There are many things about this book that make it a fascinating read. However, one of the most important is that Riggs provides very thorough characterization in his novel. For instance, Jacob, the protagonist and narrator of this story, has recently discovered his powers and joined the peculiar world. He has left his parents behind with limited knowledge of his whereabouts in order to save Miss Peregrine, whom he feels he owes as it was she who truly showed him the peculiar world. Additionally, Jacob struggles with his emotions for Emma Bloom, a “spark.” Throughout the novel, readers witness Jacob’s transformation from a self-doubting teenager to a courageous, confident hero. Using character development, Riggs creates a credible and complex hero whom teenagers can relate to.

Hollow City is an enjoyable, well-written sequel to Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.

~Ananya Swaminathan