Book Recommendations, Navena Chaitoo, Period 10
Questions Asked:
1. Given your almost four years at Stuyvesant High School, what book would you recommend to incoming freshmen?
2. Why would you recommend this book?
3. Has this book helped you in/with a particular subject?
4. Can you give a brief synopsis of this book without any spoilers?
5. Finally, should freshmen enjoy this book, are there any others that you would recommend (i.e. by the same author or in the same genre)?
Responses Received:
Radmila Radailova:
1. A Quasi Biography by Ned Vizzini
2. Because it is written by a Stuy alum and it has a lot of really funny anecdotes about Stuy in it.
3. Not really, but it made me look forward to meeting the people at Stuy.
4. It’s basically this one guy just talking about his experiences. And it’s really funny.
5. Be More Chill also by Ned Vizzini, it teaches you how to be cool.
Rosie K.
1. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
2. Honestly, just because it’s a nice combination of humorous and clever. It’s not really freshmen-specific, either, but from what I recall it’s appropriate.
3. …it makes me smile every time I read it, it has inspired interesting questions about the duality inherent in apparent “goodness”, and every time I reread it I discover new facets that’s not really specific to one subject.
4. The novel technical spans time itself, come to think of it, but it really focuses on the present. It does involve some Christian theology, although none of it is complex and taken seriously. Goodness, any attempt I make at summarizing this is likely to slaughter it — just read the book 
.
5. Consider the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, and all subsequent novels in the series. Also consider Terry Prachett’s Discworld, and maybe Robert Asprin’s MYTH series.
Jonathan Lerner
1. Strunk and White
2. Because grammer is important
3. Yes.
4. No.
5. N/A
Jacob Rath
1. Holes, Louis Sachar
2. The book provides a strong sense of adventure. The way that mysteries unwind in the story is interesting, and the multiple story lines wind together gracefully.
3. THis book has not helped me in any subjects.
4. Stanley Yelnats has to go to a camp that forces him to dig holes . That’s as far as I think I should go.
5. For some reason I class Rule of the Bone in the same category. Both are adventurous reads.
Molly French
1. The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings
2. These are amazing books and you probably won’t ever read them in class. I hate reading books in class that I have already read because I hate pretending not to know things I already know.
3. I used them in my English regents and I’m using them in my Senior thesis for AP Ancients and Moderns with Mr. Gern.
4. I feel like a synopsis is unneeded here, everyone basically knows what they’re about. Basically, in The Hobbit, a hobbit goes on a quest with dwarfs to get their treasure back from a dragon. In the Lord of the Rings, Sauron is trying to get the ring of power and destroy middle earth and frodo and his friends have to bring the ring to mount doom and destroy it.
5. Yes. Watership Down, by Richard Adams. It’s like the same thing, only with rabbits, kind of.
Christopher Cusack
2. It is an excellent coming of age novel that explores many different aspects of ethics and morality.
3. This book has not been particularly helpful schoolwise.
4. A young boy, nicknamed Bone, grows up in a broken home with a struggling mother and an absent father. This causes him to runaway and fend for himself. While alone, he stays with many interesting individuals form all walks of life, while at the same time, searching for his father.
5. I would recommend it. I’m not sure what is in this category.
Navena Chaitoo
Book recommendations by Stuyvesant students for Stuyvesant students and readers around the world. Also known as Stuy Bookshelf/Book Box. Submissions are open—click on register below!