Smokescreen is an “adrenaline-pumping adventure” by Nancy Hartry where nothing is as it seems. It consists of four parts which includes twenty-seven chapters and is two hundred and two pages long. There are 3 “books” in which transition based on the setting (book one is The bunkhouse, book two is The novel is told by the main character, a seventeen year-old girl named Kerry, in first person. The target audience is teenagers and young adults.
The main protagonists in the novel are Kerry (in which the story revolves around her) and Yvette (Kerry’s co-worker at her summer job in which they become friends). Kerry Yvette isTheir boss; Harcourt (the fire boss at base one), is an arrogant man and treats Kerry and Yvette like trash and could care less about their needs and safety as he sends them out without any radio or communication system and says, “Do I look like I’m worried? Your chariot awaits, girls” (Page 25). There are countless numbers of firemen, but the ones that hang around Kerry and Yvette the most are Didier and Aubrey in which Kerry falls in love with Aubrey. Didier is a sympathetic young man and treats both girls with much respect and helps them when they need help. Aubrey is quieter, and is different compared to the rest of the firemen which Kerry finds appealing. He helps Kerry and when Kerry is stuck with confusion, he explains to her to put trust in him, “Let your mind and heart work like friends-who love and trust each other” (Page 153). Later in the novel, there are new characters including Matt (a pilot in which Yvette sort of has a crush on), Rolf (an older man who is the chef of the kitchen), Slash (a man Rolf hires to help Kerry and Yvette in the kitchen) and Sirois (the fire boss at base two). Matt is a kind...
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... usually good alone but in front of people I get nervous and tend to mess up and not just in sports, but in general.
Overall, I would recommend this novel. I found it entertaining and the part with the kidnapping really startled me as Didier never looked like he would be the one starting the fires. I personally thought it was Aubrey since he randomly disappeared. Throughout the entire book there is lots of action, humorous and entertaining parts. I chose this novel because it was around two-hundred pages long which met the criteria of the assignment and I found the title and cover interesting to read. Smokescreen is a good blend of action, mystery, and adventure all in one book so if you are looking for a new novel to read, I strongly suggest reading Smokescreen as it isn’t overly long, tedious and repetitive as other novels I have read in the past that were longer.
I would recommend this book to people who love realistic stories. Personally for me it is hard to find books that interest me and this one felt like if I was watching someone else's life while I read it. It has so many interesting points. When you think something might happen
Spencer Morgan is a young religious boy who is caring and trustworthy to practically anyone he meets. Spencer is the type of person that loves life but sometimes can make some mindless decisions. He is your average American boy who wants to join the military as soon as possible to show sign of courage to those close to him. At the age of sixteen, Spencer decides to drop out of highschool to join the military as a paratrooper. Dieter Hedrick is a diligent worker, who does not care what other people ponder about him. He is the type of person who believes he is always right and only the things
My overall opinion of this book is good I really liked it and recommend it to anyone. It is a good book to read and it keep you interested throughout the whole book.
The major theme of the book is shown through the bonds of friendship and how in the most of unlikely circumstances friendship can survive and exist between people possessing an extensive and most restrictive division. A second theme is the evil and the intolerance which existed around these times of the Nazi regime and the Holocaust, as seen by the Germans having the Jews in the concentration camp. And the third theme is the curiosity and innocence of Bruno, Shmuel and Gretel, who all seem to fail to properly notice and understand what is really happening in the world around them, all contrasting with the well acknowledgement of others, such as Lt. Kottler.
The book starts out by talking about how they all went to school together. He introduces all of the characters and describes what they all are like. The characters in this book learn to deal with the cold nights and their growling stomachs. Some of the soldiers would sneak out and get hay to cover up with during the night. (Page 40)
War slowly begins to strip away the ideals these boy-men once cherished. Their respect for authority is torn away by their disillusionment with their schoolteacher, Kantorek who pushed them to join. This is followed by their brief encounter with Corporal Himmelstoss at boot camp. The contemptible tactics that their superior officer Himmelstoss perpetrates in the name of discipline finally shatters their respect for authority. As the boys, fresh from boot camp, march toward the front for the first time, each one looks over his shoulder at the departing transport truck. They realize that they have now cast aside their lives as schoolboys and they feel the numbing reality of their uncertain futures.
For Finny and Gene, the summer session at Devon was a time of blissful happiness and a time where they allowed themselves to become utterly overtaken by their own illusions. The summer session was the complete embodiment of peace and freedom, and Gene saw Devon as a haven of peace. To them, the war was light years away and was almost like a dream than an actual event. At Devon, it was hard for them to imagine that war could even exist. Finny and Gene forged the Super Suicide Society of the Summer Session and acted out in the most wild and boisterous ways. Missing dinner or being absent from school for days to go to the beach did not even earn them a reprimand. “I think we reminded them of what peace was like, we boys of sixteen....We were careless and wild, and I suppose we could be thought of as a sign of the life the war was being fought to prese...
With Jim and Wilson by his side, Henry and his men with different outlooks on the war will fight and be the ideal team. Being the youngest of three men Henry desires honor along with a high reputation and will let nothing stand in his way. Jim was pragmatized about war. If the other soldier's were going to fight he was going to fight with them. Being classified as the "Loud soldier" and transitioning to a more mature man, Wilson undergoes many trials. These hardships show him the true meaning of life and how insignificant his life when there are other lives in the mix. As war wages on these men will fight for their own personal cause's and together will strive for a victory.
Thinking that the war was just an ideal character. Convincing the reader to believe the boys didn't know the risk they were taking by being in this war. They way the boys viewed it, shows that, true their are some hard times in wars, but their minds are young and they thought it was just another thing to talk about. When they should have been taking things more serious, but thinking about the good parts helped them to keep a hold on their sanity. "They ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity, the world of work, of duty, of culture, of progress to the future", was the beliefs of the boys after their friend Behn dies. Their generation thought that the authorities were going to look after, and take care of them, the authorities were thought of real highly by them. Until their friend passed away, then everything changed. "We had to realize that our generation was more to be trusted than theirs", this is where they came to reality that, everybody was taking care of their selves, and didn't want anything to do with other peoples problems.
These secondary characters give the viewer insight into what other young men were thinking about the war and how they acted together as mates. They were very important to the story and linked well with the main characters in Archy and of course Frank. At the beginning of the movie where we first meet these characters at the railway line where they worked, Billy was reading the newspaper and friendly jibes and plans followed. In the paper there were things about the war obviously and Billy said how he felt about it in this quote, “Bastards! That’s it, I’m gonna join up”. It was followed by a conversation between all four of them (Frank, Billy, Barney and Snowy). Snowy agreed on going, “Yeah, me too, we could all join up together!” and Billy was asking Barney if he wanted to but he wasn’t quite sure about it, “What about you Barney?” his reply, “Hmm nah”. This is where the friendly jokes came about, “Oh be in it, girls go wild over a uniform”. Now Barney isn’t one of the brightest ones so gets easily persuaded as you can understand through his response, “Oh really?” but then Billy came out with another joke at Barney’s expense, “Well in your case, I don’t think anything’d help”. They decided they wanted to join up together but Frank wasn’t up for it, “No thanks, if you blokes all want to go get yourselves shot, go ahead”. Throughout the film these four were
The main character in this story is Cassie Logan. She and her three brothers go through an extremely tough time in this story. They go through everything from racist driven petty things to the death of a friend. Cassie's age contributes a lot to this story. Since Cassie is about 10 years old she doesn't fully understand everything that happens and why they happen. This book is written in first person so the reader knows her thoughts and feelings, but not everyone else's. This provides a better grasp on Cassie's inner conflicts.
As we progress though the novel, we a introduced to a variety of characters in the story like Rachel Turner
Characters: Buck is one of the three people who are kidnapping the children. He is tempered easily. He doesn’t really care for others much. Rita is Buck’s wife. She is not very pretty and gets drug into schemes by Buck. She feels he will leave her if she doesn’t follow directions. Juan is the other kidnapper who does more of the dirty work. He is the one who calls the parents for the money. He’s the one who shot the bus driver. Glenn is one of the boys who were kidnapped. He’s very popular and has friends and thinks that nobody dislikes him. He’s handsome and very athletic. Glenn’s brother Bruce is into more technology stuff. He is not very handsome and looks up to his brother a lot. He is physically challenged because his body is underdeveloped. Dexter doesn’t have a mother or father. He lives with his bachelor uncle who’s always away on business trips. He is liked fairly well. He is happy with his life. Jesse is new to everyone. She moves around the world quite a lot. She’s very mature compared to the others. Marianne has two brothers. Her parents are divorced and her mother remarried another man. She thinks that her real dad still loves her and will rescue her and doesn’t care much for her new father.
The story follows three girls- Jeanette, the oldest in the pack, Claudette, the narrator and middle child, and the youngest, Mirabella- as they go through the various stages of becoming civilized people. Each girl is an example of the different reactions to being placed in an unfamiliar environment and retrained. Jeanette adapts quickly, becoming the first in the pack to assimilate to the new way of life. She accepts her education and rejects her previous life with few relapses. Claudette understands the education being presented to her but resists adapting fully, her hatred turning into apathy as she quietly accepts her fate. Mirabella either does not comprehend her education, or fully ignores it, as she continually breaks the rules and boundaries set around her, eventually resulting in her removal from the school.
Passing and beating defenders down the line come effortlessly to me as if I don’t even have to think about every move I make and it just comes naturally. I remember a horrible day I had one time. I accidentally slept in one morning and had 10 minutes to get ready so I came to school looking like a complete mess. Later in the day I totally forgot I had a math test so I basically failed it. I got home from school already in a bad mood and my dad starts yelling at me for the dumbest reasons which puts me in an even worse mood. Thank goodness I had practice later that day because it honestly saved me. Right when I start to play I instantly forget the terrible day that I just went through. Everyone has that one outlet that makes them forget all of their personal distractions and once they find that escape, they will never want to leave. It seems as if I temporarily step foot into a completely different world where I know I