Every Soul A Star Wendy Mass Published: 2008 Genre: Coming of Age- Fiction Emily Gonzalez 4 th Period

Setting  The setting for this book is on an eclipse campground hours away from any suburb area. There are campsites, telescopes, and different fun activities for visitors. The book would not make any sense if the setting were different, because the entire story is based on the campground.

Characters CharacterPhysical Characteristics Adjectives of Personality Text Evidence /Explanation of Adjectives Allymatted, wavy hairVery Outgoing/Sporty She loves to go outside and play all the time. Not very skinny but not at all fat- “medium sized” As Bree described her Doesn’t care what other people think of her; different than most girls her age. When bree was talking about appearance, and why it’s important she just thought it was stupid to care what others think. Fair skinVery nice, never rude Her parents told her that sometimes you have to be rude when you're running a business, and she just couldn’t. Breesilky, straight, brunette hair GirlyShe’s always checking her make- up and hair. Tall & SkinnyPopularShe is Co-leader of the a-clique. Big brown eyesNot understandingWhen her parents told her they were moving she immediately got angry and wouldn’t give it a second thought.

Conflict  The conflict of this story is Man Vs. Man. Two girls: Ally (country girl) & Bree (city girl) are forced to switch lives. Ally and her family are giving up their family business and moving to the city while Bree and her family are moving to the campground that Ally’s family owned to take over their business. The two girls are very unhappy with their new homes, and work together to try and change their parents minds.

Summary of Plot  Ally is 13 and lives on an eclipse campground that her family owns. She is very sporty and doesn't care what she looks like, or what anybody else thinks. Bree, also 13, lives in the City with her mom, dad, and younger sister. She is co-leader of the “a-clique” at school, has tons of friends, and is very girly. Jack is 13, and has a pretty laid back life. He lives in a normal city with his mom, and brother. His grades aren’t so great, and he isn’t what you call “popular”. He’s just, Jack. It’s summer time and there is supposed to be an Eclipse, so Ally and her family are getting ready for their visitors. Jack’s science teacher just so happens to be giving a summer class on the eclipse so Jack goes. Bree’s family goes because after this eclipse they will be taking over the family business,and Ally and her family will be leaving for good to go live in Michigan. Ally and Bree are just finding out about this, and are very unhappy with their new lives. The two girls work together to change their parent minds and keep their lives the way they are. Throughout this experience Ally, Bree become close friends. In the end everything works out Ok, and the girls are happy.

Theme  Sometimes change is good, and it’s good to try new things. You never know where you will end up in life. It might be the lest expected place ever, and you could end up loving it.  “If this could be repeated everyday for a year, I would never budge from where I stood.” Page: 297  “I can’t really describe it except to say it was really different from what I thought it would be.” page: 312  “…There are thing I sort of like about this place…” Page: 313

Point of View  This book is told in 1 st person, but by three different people who alternate telling their story throughout the book. (Ex: 1 st Chapter- Ally is talking, 2 nd Chapter Bree is talking, 3 rd Chapter Jack is talking.) I think this is the perfect point of view for this book, because you get to know what all of their thoughts and feelings are. If, say only Ally was telling the story then you wouldn’t know Jack and Bree as well or what their personal everyday lives are like.

Symbolism  There wasn’t much symbolism in this book except for the constant connection between Ally and the stars. She thought of them as her guardians and when they were out at night she felt safe.

Recommendation  I definitely recommend this book. The characters are about our age which make the book even more enjoyable for year olds because they can relate to a lot of things that the characters do and talk about. I loved it because it had a lot of voice, meaning it made me feel happy and sad and it even made me laugh a little at different times in the book. If I had to rate it on a scale of one to ten I’d give it an 8 because it was very entertaining, but at times it did get boring, (Not often) and I feel like the author just threw an extra character in there for fun. Jack really was not apart of the conflict in any way, and he was just kind of there to be there. I feel like if Wendy Mass wrote this same book and just took out all of Jack’s chapters the book would have been just as good. But besides that I thought it was perfect!