Reading Circle

Book Title: Paper Towns

Author: John Green

Discussion Director: April Joyce Pasaol

Literary Luminary: Judy Ann Diaz

Connector: Ethel Mae Billones

Vocabulary Enricher: Roanne Claudette Calaclan

Character Captain: Jemima Nadine Bentaib

The story revolves on a guy named Quentin Jacobsen and his miracle... Margo Roth Spiegelman.

Question 1: Why does Quentin begin to believe that Margo may have committed suicide?

Answer: When Quentin read the highlighted lines from “Song of Myself” by Walt Whitman which Margo left for him saying “I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love. If you want me again, look for me under your boot soles”. Quentin begins to think that Margo have killed herself and she wants him to find her body. Quentin also thought that maybe Margo’s last string may have broke that’s why she may committed suicide.

Question 2: Which philosophy of life do you most agree with: Margo’s strings? Whitman’s Grass? Or Q’s Cracked Vessel? Why?

Answer: I agree with Margo’s Strings life. I agree that we have strings in life and as soon as we get closer in to death,each string starts to break until nothings left.

Question 3: Why do you think Margo picks Q as her accomplice on her campaign of revenge?

Answer: It’s because Q was always been a paper boy to Margo, one person with two dimensions. She wants Q to find his real self and get out of his comfort zone.

Question 4: Who made an imaginary place called “Paper Town”?

Answer: Margo Roth Spiegelman

Question 5: Do you think Margo wants to be found? Do you think Margo wants to be found by Q?

Passage 1:

“Everyone gets a miracle.” – Page 1

Passage 2:

“The town was paper, but the memories were not.” – Page 227

Passage 3:

“The way you think about a person isn’t the way they actually are.” – Page 266

Passage 4:

“What a treacherous thing it is to believe that a person is more than a person.” – Page 282

Passage 5:  

“Forever is composed of nows.” – Page 296

Explanation for Passage 5:

Life is simply short for us to do just everything in the world. There are countless opportunities and choices that are yet to be explored but life doesn't give us that satisfaction. Life makes us decide on the constant questions we encounter and face the consequences of our actions. 

We don't have an UNDO button in life, we live with our mistakes and learn from them. We shouldn't be afraid to make our decisions because if we do we will forever regret not choosing the path we oath to take and will forever wonder of that infinite “What Ifs”.

Margo Roth Spiegelman

Margo is often cool and aloof. "She never acted as if she liked anyone all that much" , and she refers to her "friends" as her "various and sundry minions". Not a social circle we'd want to be in. She's also self-absorbed, illustrated by the fact that "she never really asked [Quentin] any questions"; she only talks about herself.

 Quentin Jacobsen

At first Quentin was a very shy and quiet person because his life was not very adventurous. Quentin is more confident “You’re cute when you’re confident and less when you are not”. When Margo says this Quentin is most likely wanting to be seen as cute in Margo’s eyes, so he tries to act more confident. He is kind-hearted person because he is followed by true friends who are always by his side through thick and thin. He is also concern to the person he loves.

 Ben Starling

Trapeze (pg.15) A short bar that is hung high above the ground by two ropes and that is held by circus performers who perform athletic tricks on it

Context in book: “Margo Roth Spiegelman, who spent three days traveling with the circus – they thought she had potential on the trapeze.”

Felonies (pg.26) A serious crime; typically one involving violence and usually punishable by imprisonment for more than one year or by death.

Context in book: “Remind me if breaking and entering is a felony.”

Earth-inheriting (pg.30) A saying adapted from the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount. Note: The saying implies that those who forgo worldly power will be rewarded in the kingdom of heaven.

Context in book: “The first shall be last; the last shall be first; the meek shall do some earth-inheriting.”

Vindictive (pg.41) Having or showing a strong or unreasoning desire for revenge.

Context in book: “I found myself feeling slightly bad for Jason – it wasn’t his fault he had a micropenis and a brilliantly vindictive girlfriend.”

Hustle (pg.55) Force someone t move hurriedly or unceremoniously in a specified direction.

Context in book: “We gotta hustle, okay? Time’s wastin’.”

Usurped (pg.62) To take the place of someone illegally or by force.

Context in book: “I’m the new queen of vocabulary! I’ve usurped you!”

Squinting (pg.77) To look at someone or something with one or both eyes partly closed in an attempt to see more clearly or as a reaction to strong light.

Context in book: “She was staring past me, her eyes squinting almost closed.”

Succulent (pg.88) (in food) Tender, juicy, and tasty.

Context in book: “Your six words are pink, round, firmness, succulent, supple, and pillowy.”

Anarchic (pg.94) An absence of government and absolute freedom of the individual, regarded as a political ideal.

Context in book: “High School is neither a democracy nor a dictatorship – nor, contrary to popular belief, an anarchic state.”

Narcissistic (pg.106) Having an excessive or erotic interest in oneself and one’s physical appearance.

Context in book: “Margo’s parents suffer a severe narcissistic injury whenever she acts out.”

Idle (pg.140) Without purpose or effect; pointless.

Context in book: “I learn that it is not the idle fantasies of someone who maybe wants something important to happen to him, even if the important thing is horrible.”

Shushed (pg.183) To tell or signal to be silent.

Context in book: “But then Becca and I had a huge fight and she called me a whore and then she stood up on the couch upstairs and she shushed the entire party and then she told everyone I have an STD.”

Pseudovisions (pg.209) A neighborhood that was never built.

Context in book: “But Collier Farms was like none of the other pseudovisions I’d seen, because it was wildly overgrown, as if it had been abandoned for fifty years.”

Purportedly (pg.249) To appear or claim to be or do something, especially falsely; profess.

Context in book: “Ben manages to get the bottle underneath his robe without showing us the world’s purportedly largest balls, and then we all sit and wait, too disgusted to look.”

Frail (pg.302) Easily damaged or broken; fragile or insubstantial.

“I go to seek a Great Perhaps.”

Book Title: Everyday

Author: David Levithan

Discussion Director: Roanne Claudette Calaclan

Literary Luminary: Jemima Nadine Bentaib

Connector: Judy Anne Diaz

Vocabulary Enricher: Ethel Mae Billones

Character Captain: April Joyce Pasaol

1.) What is A? 

- A is a thinking being but not human and apparently not demonic. He has his own memories but is able to tap into the memories and knowledge of the person whose body he inhabits.

2.) Why does A avoid making real connections with people? 

- He avoids connections with people because he knows he'll be gone the following day and to avoid the pain of losing the ones he love.

3.) How did Nathan Daldry get a hold of A’s email?

- A  made a mistake by leaving access to his email on Nathan’s computer when he inhabited it.

4.) Who was like A?

-  Someone who inhabits Reverend Poole is actually someone like A though inherently evil.

5.) What did A do for Rhiannon to show her his love for her?

Passage no.1

“Answer less questions can destroy you. Move on.” ― David Levithan, Every Day

Passage no. 2

“It would be too easy to say that I feel invisible. Instead, I feel painfully visible, and entirely ignored.”

― David Levithan, Every Day

Passage no. 3

“Kindness connects to who you are, while niceness connects to how you want to be seen.”

― David Levithan, Every Day

Passage no. 4

“The clock always ticks. There are times you don't hear it, and there are times that you do.”

― David Levithan, Every Day

Passage no. 5

“When first love ends, most people eventually know there will be more to come.

They are not through with love. Love is not through with them. It will never be the same as the first,

but it will be better in different ways.”

― David Levithan, Every Day

 Explanation in Passage no. 1

“Answer less questions can destroy you. Move on.”

― David Levithan, Every Day

Though were only human being we are not perfectly made of, somehow we are lack on capability to know things such as even own questions bothers own minds.

Sometimes there are certain happenings that left us behind towards reality, though we are fully hanging by those questions that bothers, we are already far behind the truth in present or in future can be.

All we need is just a perfect analysis and realization, fulfilling the truth that leads us for our own freedom, freedom to explore and exposure.

Being expose to the world of reality, is just like simply setting your mind for good. Leave your doubts stop thinking, leave your bleak world and look forward for the future.

A - selfless, sacrificial and kind

A is a being of unknown origin who does not remember a time when he didn’t hop from one body to the next each night at midnight. He has grown progressively older though the years and inhabits the body of someone about his age in the same general area of his current body. By this means, he has aged to become sixteen years old mentally and inhabits the bodies of teens who are also about sixteen. He has no control over when or how he finds his way into a new body. He says that he’d tried remaining awake in the hope of putting off the change but that experience was horrible and he never tried it again. A is careful with the lives of the people he encounters.

Rhiannon - nice, loving and understanding

Rhiannon is 16 years old. She is a nice girl. His boyfriend, Justin, is abusive but she is deeply in love with him. A was astonished by her beauty and passion. Everyday, A tracks Rhiannon and tries to see her. She is the only one who knows about A and cares a lot for him.

Justin - rebellious, harsh and hot-headed

Justin is known to be somewhat rebellious. He likes to smoke but not as much as he needed it every time he wakes up. He doesn’t care about anything including his girlfriend, Rhiannon, who loves him so much. 

Nathan - curious, determined and goal-oriented

Everyday by David Levitan

It is a story of someone named “A” who travels from one body to another every single day. He could access any information in the body’s memories. Like a parasite living in a host for a day. He doesn't know what he is nor why or how he got here. 

Then one day he came across Rhiannon, the girlfriend of the guy he was in; A girl that changed his ordinary days into ‘extraordinary days ’. He finds ways to keep him near her even though it might jeopardize the body he was in.