Nasiba P Bahridinova
24th of April, 2014.
Extra Credit Book Blog- Mystery Fiction and Realistic Fiction.
7-3
The Year Of Secret
Assignments
MLA for the book: Moriarty, Jaclyn. The year of secret assignments.
New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2004. Print.
Summary: This is a book filled with love letters,
diary entries, date plans, revenge plots, and hate mail between pen pals from
different schools. Cassie, Lydia, and Emily are three normal Ashbury girls but when
their English teacher Mr. Botherit assigns a Pen Pal Project, everything
changes. The Pen Pal Project will be
between Ashbury and Brookfield students which teachers think will be a safe,
friendly and an exciting experience for the students. Well, Lydia and Emily had a friendly, safe and exciting experience but Cassie…
Uh poor Cassie, what the Brooker (a name their English teacher Mr. Botherit
uses to speak about Brookfield students) kid did to her was unforgivable! Mathew
Dunlop, is he even a person? Maybe he’s an alien? Maybe Cassie is making this
person up because, she’s getting letters from a person who’s not even in
Brookfield. Did a Brooker use a fake name to hide his identity? No one knows
who what so called “Matthew Dunlop” actually is but, Lydia and Emily are going
to find out with the help of their pen pal partners. Who is this mystery guy,
and what does he have against poor innocent Cassie? Sebastian, the artist with
a huge soccer obsession was assigned to be Lydia’s pen pal. They had an amazing
time writing to each other and giving each other secret missions. Who knew they’d
become friends so quickly? Well, that also goes to Emily and Charlie (Emily’s
pen pal partner). Charlie is a charming and sweet guy who is willing to help find out who Matthew Dunlop is. Writing letters, getting to know each other better, and assigning places to meet was a good start of a new friendship to Lydia, Emily,
Sebastian, and Charlie but not for Cassie. Together they will find the jerk that’s
hurting the sensitive soul of Cassie’s. What did he do to her? What did he say
in his short letters? When three people from Ashbury trashed Brookfield’s
classes, a war starts between Brookfield and Ashbury. Cassie, Emily, and Lydia
are accused of starting this war but why them? How can they
convince the principal that it wasn’t them?
Will they get expelled for something they didn’t do? Find out on your
own.
This book is Realistic Fiction and Mystery Fiction. I think its
realistic fiction because, these teenagers are writing love letters, hate mail,
diary entries, etc which can defiantly be real because, the pen pal project is
old school but, now around the world schools have not gotten rid of this
educational project for students so, teenagers are still doing this and I’m
sure many of them will enjoy reading this book and can relate. As I said in the
summary, Matthew Dunlop is being very mean to Cassie by sending her hate mail,
and today teenagers have strong attitudes towards each other that cause them to
send each other hate mail. An example of hate mail from Matthew or whoever he
might be is on page 26. I think this book is mystery fiction because; Matthew
Dunlop is a mysterious guy who is sending hate mail to Cassie so, who’s this
Matthew guy? That’s Emily and Lydia’s duty to find out with the help of Charlie
and Sebastian. Why do you think Cassie doen't want to find out? An example of Emily and Lydia trying to find out who Matthew
Dunlop is on page 170 , where Lydia is giving Sebastian a mission to find out
who that jerk is. That’s part of the mystery in this book, the other part is
finding out who actually started the war between Ashbury and Brookfield. Page 278 shows a message from the form
mistress saying that the pen pal project has been cancelled due to the fight
between both schools, and the teachers are immediately in search of the people responsible
for this mess.
The three main characters in this book are Cassie, Lydia and Emily.
Cassie was insecure and quiet in the beginning of the book but, towards the end
of the book, she became brave and faced her fears. Before, she never believed
in herself, and she didn't realize that she was capable of so many great things
in life. Her dad died from cancer, which caused her often in a melancholy state. However, she finally believed
in herself, she realized that she couldn't do anything to return him so, she
sang in front of an audience towards the end of the book to make her father
proud and face her fear. An example of her insecurity is on page 259 where she
started thinking about her father’s death, and what she could have done better to
keep him alive. On pages 337 and 338 Cassie explains how her performance went
(in her diary entry), and she shows the lyrics to the song she sang during her performance.
What Lydia and Emily have in common is that they both were so concentrated in
writing to their pen pals that they forgot about their best friend, Cassie. They
realized how quiet she has gotten, and how she shut down all her emotions when
the pen pal project started. So, what I’m trying to say is that in the beginning
of the book they were so self-concerned, and throughout the book they figured
out what they did wrong and started changing things. They did have their own
problems going on but, they realized friends come first no matter what, and
that’s when they became closer. On page 155 it shows how they’re trying to
help Cassie and realize what’s wrong with her and why she’s quiet all of a sudden.
Jaclyn Moriarty
uses Letters, Email Exchanges, and Diary Entries to develop the characters in
this book. Letters, Email Exchanges, and Diary Entries are what this book is
about, and it’s a very smart technique that she uses to develop the characters, and explain every event happening in this book.
On page 55, it shows how Emily and Charlie are sending letters to each
other, on page 11 it shows Cassie’s diary entries, on page 153 it shows Lydia’s
notebook entries, and on page 131 it shows a letter signed by Mr. Thompson (Emily’s
father) informing the reader about her weekend.
This book takes place in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. On
pages 16, 308, and 333, Emily and Cassie reveal that the book takes place in Sydney,
New South Wales, Australia. However it does not mention when this book takes
place, only where but I believe it's in contemporary times.
Through all their letters, diaries, notebook entries, etc, the
characters talk in first person point of view. The first person point of view
helps me concentrate on what’s going on with the characters and what they’re
feelings. I think it’s a good strategy because, it helps the characters express
themselves and their feelings through this point of view, especially since they’re
writing in letters, diaries, notebooks, etc. It shows the reader how the characters are developing, and it helps the reader compare the characters in the beginning, and end of the book.
The primary theme of this book is friendship. It’s friendship because,
they’re childhood friends and they put friendship first thing. When Cassie is hurt
by the words of her dumb Brooker pen pal, Emily and Lydia as amazing friends
will do ANYTHING to find out who he is and why he’s doing this to her. They
will protect their friend no matter what! This is absolutely true friendship!
On page 192, Emily writes a letter to Charlie talking about how the investigation
is going. Emily and Lydia are trying to find out who Matthew actually is, and
Emily explains the event to Charlie through the letter on page 192.
This book matters because; it teaches the reader about true
friendship and sticking up for a friend. It was very fun reading this book because the
author used letters, diary entries, notebook entries, etc to explain the story.
That technique she used really attracted
my attention, and that is of why I liked this book. I also liked this book because I enjoyed the
story and it was very mysterious. I love reading mystery! What I didn't like
about this book is that when they first started writing letters to each other,
they used inappropriate language. I don’t think that’s a good first impression.
I think the character “Emily” and I have things in common. Like Emily, I would
stick up for my friend if she was in a bad situation. She has a brother she dislikes like me, and
she’s a good spy. Over all, I would give
this book a 10/10.
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