Summary:
Set at Selwyn Academy, a private school for students who excel in the arts, is the new host for For Arts' Sake, a reality television show that uses the academy and the academy's students. The winner of the reality television show will receive a scholarship, but we all know that reality television shows are just pulling in as much drama as possible ruining the contestants in the process. Ethan and his friends want to take this show down and show the students of the academy how evil it is. They plan on doing this by writing a poem, distributing it, and raising a protest. After all, they are studying Ezra Pound's Cantos, so what better way to practice their learning? As with anything that happens in high school, things don't go as planned.
My thoughts:
This book will easily have you laughing. It is witty and the sarcasm that flows off the teenage tongue is definitely intertwined with the narrator's self-actualization. This is a book about growth, acceptance, and learning. While the book includes several Pound quotes and poems from the characters, it is completely accessible for people who believe they do not like poetry. The poems are very good without being dumbed down. Altogether, this book does an excellent job of three things: 1. showing how reality television is good and bad (the teens often understand completely what is going on, but they also know that what they gain is better than what they started with), 2. Every character has major growth with revelations along the way, and 3. It is inspirational to those that read it. I almost guarantee that you will leave the book feeling motivated to do something that you thought you couldn't do.
Set at Selwyn Academy, a private school for students who excel in the arts, is the new host for For Arts' Sake, a reality television show that uses the academy and the academy's students. The winner of the reality television show will receive a scholarship, but we all know that reality television shows are just pulling in as much drama as possible ruining the contestants in the process. Ethan and his friends want to take this show down and show the students of the academy how evil it is. They plan on doing this by writing a poem, distributing it, and raising a protest. After all, they are studying Ezra Pound's Cantos, so what better way to practice their learning? As with anything that happens in high school, things don't go as planned.
My thoughts:
This book will easily have you laughing. It is witty and the sarcasm that flows off the teenage tongue is definitely intertwined with the narrator's self-actualization. This is a book about growth, acceptance, and learning. While the book includes several Pound quotes and poems from the characters, it is completely accessible for people who believe they do not like poetry. The poems are very good without being dumbed down. Altogether, this book does an excellent job of three things: 1. showing how reality television is good and bad (the teens often understand completely what is going on, but they also know that what they gain is better than what they started with), 2. Every character has major growth with revelations along the way, and 3. It is inspirational to those that read it. I almost guarantee that you will leave the book feeling motivated to do something that you thought you couldn't do.
