Funny Video on YOUTUBE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=900AKq3d3_k

The url is to a video on youtube that would be the perfect preview of a movie for the book.

I Choose This Book Because...

I choose this book because I didn't have anything else to read and it looked very interesting. It really stood out on the shelf and the bright colors caught my attention. As it turns out this is a very interesting and well written book. I am very happy with my decision.

What I Would Change

I wouldn't change anything about this book. It is very intriguing, keeps the reader interested, and is hard to put down. It also isn't that long where it's unbearable to read, but at the same time, isn't too short where your done and wondering what just happened. It is very easy to follow and is a book that many teenagers can relate too. The only thing I would suggest is that someone make a movie or a sequel to this book.

Summary

Ever think that there is just no one out there who has it worse off than you? Meet Steve York. His parents are divorced, he lives with his father, whom he resents, he finally falls in love, but she goes for another man (the teacher they most respect, nonetheless) and he has so given up on school that he has turned to drugs. But one man thinks that maybe there is still something of Steve York's life to be salvaged. Rats Saw God follows Steve York, through his senior year of high school. He is simply trying to graduate. After spending the majority of his junior year at a new school and mostly stoned, Steve is now at the mercy of the guidance counselor, DeMouy, to see if he’ll graduate. DeMouy gives him an ultimatum: write a 100-page paper anything, and he’ll graduate. Steve decides to open wounds that have never really healed and write about his past. It almost feels like a past life. Through this paper, which the reader reads piece by piece as Steve writes it; we get to see how Steven’s interactions with friends and family really lead him to the spot he is in as a senior and where he wants to be after high school. Steve York is the son of famed astronaut Alan York, and because of that, it’s all anyone knows him by. Steve is tired of his identity being tied to his dad, so he begins to rebel. He joins a group at school called GOD, Grace Order of the Dadaists, a group bent on rebelling against any order in society. Through this group, he meets some of his greatest friends, Doug, Veg, Missy, as well as the girl who will soon be the love of his life, Dub. Dub, which is short for ‘W,’ which is short for Wanda, is a perfect match for Steve. She’s sarcastic, witty, smart, and they spend the majority of their sophomore year head over heels for one another. All of that changes when they both enroll in a creative writing course. Sky, the cool teacher who lets them call him by his first name, has all of their respect and is actually teaching them literature that they like. However, things start to fall apart when Dub starts pulling away from Steve, and starts gravitating towards Sky. Now Steve has to come face to face with who he really is now that Dub is gone. He must decide if he is going to go back to his dead end friends from GOD, relinquish the fight he’s been fighting his whole life an accept his role as Steven York, the astronaut’s son, or if he’s going to look deeper inside to discover who he was truly meant to be. While in California Steve meets his mother’s fiancé, sister’s boyfriend, and his next girlfriend who is the Valedictorian at his high school. They spend the last half of their senior year together and a majority of their summer together before they agree on a split that keeps them friends and makes seeing one another again not awkward.

Critique

LIKES:
The story is very detailed and keeps the reader interested.
I like the trasition between the present (California) and the past (Texas).

DISLIKES:
I dislike that there is no sequel or movie because I really liked the book and want to know if anything happens in college.
I also dislike the way the book ended.

Other Sites

http://www.amazon.com/Rats-Saw-God-Rob-Thomas/dp/0689807775

http://www.bookrags.com/Rats_Saw_God

http://books.google.com/books?id=necmDhXa9uwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=rats+saw+god&source=bl&ots=WZ2cEB4EHT&sig=c4kiTyuNKWOlf3dMQihJ8TYWNK4&hl=en&ei=2y8FTKXYEpT4Mumy6Ts&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q&f=false

Link to Review

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/Rats-Saw-God.html