Troy’s Letter Essay #3: [Book Title]

Dear Classmates,

Currently I am half through a book called the compound written by S.A. Bodeen. Bodeen grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. She graduated from UW-River Falls with a degree in Secondary Ed., then joined the Peace Corps with her husband and went to Tanzania, East Africa. Bodeen came up with the idea of including cannibalism in the novel after watching a television show where “a dinosaur fed a favorite offspring the bodies of its less fortunate brothers and sisters. The Compound is a 256 page realistic fiction book.

The Compound has won many awards such as the 2008 honorable mention and many more. The Compound is a very successful book just like the author.  The book has sold thousands of copies in many different languages and the author has made a second book to the series called The Fallout. I decided to read this book once Mr. Jocker’s told us to pick a realistic fiction book and recently S.A. Bodeen came to our school and the was pretty interested in Bodeen so I tried the book and it has been pretty good so far but has some strange parts through out the book. But it is definitely a good read that hooks the reader in.

The book, The compound the main character Eli and is stuck in the compound with his family because of a nuclear Bomb. Eli’s Father is a very wealthy man and has built the compound to keep his family safe and has the supplies to keep his family in the compound for 15 years until it is safe to come out again. But it has been six years into the compound and Eli’s family is starting to get annoyed of each other and the food supplied is starting to get low. Eli has already lost his twin brother Eddie and his grandma when they where trying to get into the compound but they didn’t make it. Eli is starting to not trust his father and think he is telling lies to his family and is trying to do what ever he wants to survive for example cannibalism. Eli is starting to get in fights with his siblings and does not know what to do except for getting out of the compound. He wants to trust his family but he doesn’t think his father is telling him the full truth. For example Eli and his mom believes that his dad knew the exact date of the explosion because he planned a trip the week of the explosion, and the trip was a camping trip right next the compound. So that means that Eli’s dad could of saved Eddie and Eli’s grandma. Right now the book is starting to get intense and Eli is stating to question everybody and wants to get out of the compound.

The book reminded me of the maze runner, because in the maze runner a group of people are trapped in one place and that reminds me of Eli’s family being trapped in the compound. Also I herd that The Fallout is when Eli gets out of the Compound and everything is destroyed and burnt. That reminds me of the second book in the Maze Runner called Scorch Trials and once the group of kids get out of the Maze every thing is burnt and ruined. A quote that shouted out at me is

“That night I dreamed of Turducken’s”(pg. 101)

Even though it is such a short quote it says so much. If you don’t know what turducken is it is a chicken stuffed in a duck and a duck stuffed in a turkey and because Eli is running low on food at the compound all he thinks about is food. And I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to know that some day you will be out of food and have to starve to death so all you think about is all the good food you had before you were running out of food. The main character Eli would be going through a lot only being 15 and being trapped under ground for 15 years. Especially Eli’s little sister being six losing everything and being told that she has to stay in the same place for 15 years and might run out of food on the way. It surprised me of all the things that Eli’s dad did to survive, for example he kept on getting his wife get pregnant over and over again and keep all those kids in a room so when the time comes they can eat them. The kids are call supplements, but the most messed up thing is that one of Eli’s little sisters job is to take care of the supplements. This shocked me that they would have a little girl take care of babies that she will eventually have to eat.

This book has so far been very good. I can tell that S.A. Bodeen put a lot of effort into it and I look forward to reading the next book in the series The Fallout. If I had to rat this book on a scale 1-10 I would give it a 7.5. Over all this is a good book and one of the better realistic fiction books that I have read before.

From, Troy Andreoli

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3 thoughts on “Troy’s Letter Essay #3: [Book Title]

  1. Dear Troy,
    I liked how detailed and elaborate your summary was. That showed real effort. I also really liked how you did such a long analysis of such a short quote. One thing I would change is that your summary is kind of spoiler-y. Overall pretty sicknasty Letter-Essay, bro! Haha. Sick.

    Rene

  2. Troy
    I liked how you gave really good information and told us a lot about the author and her back story. And I really liked in your summary paragraph you told us a lot about the book without giving too much away. I don’t feel like your piece needs any advise because it looks fine just as it is.

  3. Troy

    I really liked your piece. I think you did an excellent job with including information from the Q&A with S.A. bodeen. I also like how you compared the book to the maze runner because in my opinion there very similar. one thing I would suggest next time is giving away the ending and going off what a friend told you.

    BJ

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