Independent Reading Response #9

Oliver Twist

The book which I read during this semester is called “Oliver Twist” written by Kathleen Olmstead, retold from the Charles Dickens, and illustrated by Dan Andreasen. The main boy named Oliver Twist had a lonely life since he born, because he lost his mother and father. However, he escaped from the orphans which he lived and he went to London to get something more interesting. However, after he arrived at London, he still suffered by taking communication with the other event that he faces to. Here is the quotation that I felt either interesting or confused about.
“Good-bye, Oliver! God bless you!” – in this part, I just wondered what happened to Dick after he says good bye each other, because at the end, the book ends with a lot of Oliver’s happiness, and I thought the author will talk about Dick again, but he doesn’t also called him. Therefore, I was wondered.
“Mr. Brownlow, the man who lost his wallet, brought you home when you fainted.” – I surprised about this person what if I got stolen my wallet, which is very important things, I will not help the person who he/she took the wallet from me even the stealer is a child. Therefore, I was really surprised that when Mr. Brownlow brought Oliver to his house.
“ I am so happy for you Oliver,. You have found your family! – when I read this part I also felt happy because Oliver doesn’t have a family since he born, but after that sentence that picked, he got a warm kind family! So I really want to celebrate Oliver..
Over all, I enjoyed this book and I want to recommend to everyone, because you will learn how important the things are, such as family and friendship. If I were Oliver, I will not be able to success. Actually Oliver is a challenger, because he went to London by himself without looking the map. Therefore, I also like the main character’s personality. If people have a chance, please read it.

Independent Reading Response #8

Oliver Twist

Response #8: Pg 54 - 109

Response Type: Reaction and Evaluation

“Oliver Twist” is the book that I am reading and it written by Kathleen Olmstead, retold from the Charles Dickens, and illustrated by Dan Andreasen. The main character, Oliver is a young orphan boy who escaped from the house which he belongs in. The place where he goes after his escaping is London, the place where he thinks he can success his life in the future. Now, he arrives at London and finds a boy named Dodger who is very kind at Oliver and allows him to stay in his house. However, this house has a secret thing that Oliver still doesn’t know. I don’t finish reading this book yet, and I like this book so far, because of this main character and the conflict that the main character faces to.

First of all, I like the main character, Oliver. The author describes him as a pureness which people usually don’t have such characteristics. In the chapter 2, when Dick who is his first friend in the orphan house has hard disease and need some food, Oliver gives his little food and said “You’ll be better with more food.” This sentence shows me how kind Oliver is because I knew already that Oliver also doesn’t have enough food to eat. He sacrifices himself and gives the food to his first friend. Also in another chapter, he doesn’t know what he is doing even though it is illegal thing because he is too innocent He doesn’t know anything about the world and society. However, as the story goes, he learns the moral and he might distinguish what is good and bad. I like his personality because he is too pure. What I mean by this is that he doesn’t have any feeling of hate and grudge. I think he also doesn’t even know how to feel so, therefore I like him. I want to recommend to young children to read this book and they can learn how to be a good person in the future.

Secondly, I like the conflict that the main character faces. The first conflict that Oliver faces is that he stays in Mr. Bumble’s house since he is an infant. Everyday, he has problem with the food, and relationship between other orphans and him. However, after he escapes, he had fewer problems with the others, but he faces on the problem which he starts to live in the house where the thief lives but Oliver is too innocent, so he believes everyone in that house. I predict that he will have the conflict between the thief and Oliver because Oliver will say to the people that stealing the people’s stuff are not good, so he might persuade everyone to stop stealing. Therefore, I like the conflict between Oliver and other people.

I read more than half pages so far and I really like this book. This character shows the pureness of child and gives the conflict between many people, so that the character can solve it with the pureness. I want to recommend everyone to read especially young children because this is easy to understand and also this has pictures. Also each chapter has few pages, so when I want to stop reading, I can stop after I read one chapter. Therefore, I like this novel and I want to keep reading this until the end.

Independent Reading Response #7

Oliver Twist

Response #7: Page 1-53
Response Type: Connections through experiences, memories, or issues

The book that I have been reading is called “Oliver Twist” written by Kathleen Olmstead and retold from the Charles Dickens. This novel is about a boy who named Oliver and he is staying in Mr. Bumble’s house as an orphan. Mr. Bumble is very strict person and always gives him hard work with less food. Dick who is very weak and he is the only one friend that Oliver has. He couldn’t do any work and even though he has very heavy sick, Mr. Bumble doesn’t care about it. When Oliver asks Mr. Bumble to give him more food and meat, he gets mad and advertises to every citizen that if someone takes care of Oliver, the person will get five pounds. Oliver is sold by Mr. Bumble and bought by Mr. Sowerberry who is also strict as Mr. Bumble. Oliver worked hard in new house without much food. Finally, he got tried of it and escaped from the house. Where he is going is London where he thinks it is the best place to get more opportunity to be success in his life. This is what I read so far and I can connect to two stories with this novel. Those are Harry Potter and Cinderella.

Firstly, I think this Oliver Twist has very typical plot. In Harry Potter, it has the similarities with this novel. The first similarity is the beginning which begins with that the main character is placed with someone’s house. In Harry Potter, Harry was placed with the relative’s house but for Oliver, he was just sent in a house where he doesn’t know and doesn’t have any relatives. Even though the place where they stay is different, it is the same that they don’t know and have never seen their parents face before they become aware of the things around. The other similarity is that both Oliver and Harry had to do hard work, even though the people in the house don’t treat them well. Oliver doesn’t get much food and he had to sleep on the floor. Harry had less work, but he had to sleep in the lumber room and he had to wake up early to make the first break for his relatives. Therefore, those are the similarities between Harry and Olive.

Furthermore, I found the other similarities between Olive and other story which calls Cinderella. As people know the story, Cinderella’s sisters and mother forced her to clean their house up while sisters and mother go to the party. Actually, she doesn’t want to, but she couldn’t argue them, so she just followed what they asked. It is same as Olive that even though he doesn’t like to do the work, he should do, because that is what Mr. Bumble forces him to do. Also even Olive asks to give him some more meat for his friend, Dick, Mr. Bumble yelled at him and doesn’t give any food. However, Cinderella had better treatment than Olive. Here is the similarity of the treatment between Cinderella and Olive that both of them had bad treatment as well Harry.

Harry and Cinderella have similar problem as Olive, but I predict the ending of this novel that Olive will be rich person or lucky person because as we know about the Cinderella, she got the happiness at the end. Also for Harry, he goes to school which he loves. Therefore, I hope Olive will get the happiness at the end and he will be kindest person in the world. I really love this book, because this story has very common plot that I can predict what will happen next and also this novel has many chapters which means one chapter is very short, so when I want to stop reading it, I can stop at that chapter. I love this book so far and I want to keep continue to read it.