Book ReviEW
LEAH
LEAH
J.M.Reep
Rating- 4 stars (self)
Contents-229 pages, 24 chapters
As the name of the novel suggests, the
story revolves around a 14-year old shy girl named LEAH NELLS who is very much
addictive to books unlike the folks of her age who find their interest, on a
contrary, socializing themselves.
OTHER CHARACTERS
v REBECCA
NELLS-Leah’s mother
v ROBERT
NELLS-Leah’s father
v GRANDMOTHER(maternal)
OTHER STUDENTS AT
SCHOOL
MEGAN
DAVID
PARKS
MELANIE
HEATHER
ALEX
KIM
KELLY
TEACHERS
MR.
SIMMONS-history teacher
English
teacher
SYNOPSIS
The author unfolds the story by presenting
before the readers that time of gap after which Leah will join the High School.
In the mean time she enjoys doing the work which pleases her most-reading
books. So her mother takes her to the garage sale where she can purchase books
for Leah. Going to the garage sale and opting a second-hand book is not
something unusual for her to do, in fact it is a part of her frequent
activities that she does apart from going to school and reading books. Garage
sale is like a haunt for both mother and daughter. Apart from garage sale,
there are other second hand book stores where Leah’s mother would drive her to.
In fact, Mrs. Nell would drive her to any part of the city but this reluctant
teenaged has shrunk her world to only limited places like these.
Leah, by nature, is an extremely shy girl who loathes the idea of socializing.
She does not find it interesting to get involved in the world outside her room.
She is a very quiet and calm girl who even occasionally speaks. When asked she
would answer by giving the gestures of her body by nodding her head or utter
few very very short words to indicate her approval or denial like yes or no.
She entirely lives in her own world of books with no people in which she feels
very comfortable. Her shyness prevents her from conversing with people around
her. Her life is dull, monotonous because of devoid of adventure. She would
sometimes feel as if she is suffering from a typical disease which has
paralyzing effect over her mouth, thus making her a mute. She always wishes to
speak freely like other girls of her age and lead a normal life. (Even though
her life is just normal yet she feels it is
not)
Leah’s shyness and reluctance to get mixed
up with the world are certainly the matters of concern for her parents who are
very worried about her nature (like most of the parents caring for their
children). Her mother would always try searching out ways by which she can help
Leah to come out of her own self. When Mrs.Nells was of Leah’s age, she was
very charming and talkative. She had no problem in talking with the girls
around her. She does not mind buying books for Leah from garage shop every
weekend, which she thinks, provide company to Leah and help her come out of her
loneliness. Her deepest desire is to see Leah as independent and confident to
converse with people around her.
Leah becomes very anxious to go to High
school. Although she is very excited yet very nervous. She tries to imagine her
first day at High school. Will she be able to make friends or stay alone like
she always stayed. In her imagination, there is anticipation of some wrongs
like getting late to school, unable to find the correct classroom and blah blah.
Her days at the High school do not
affect her loneliness until she meets a charming and handsome boy David. David
Parks is the main centre of attraction for Leah, who at the first meeting
snatches away Leah’s book from the clutch of some notorious boys. But in later
days, her silence accompanies her. She wants to talk with David but her shyness
chokes her throat and prevents words from coming out of her mouth. She wishes
to be a good friend of David.
Fortunately, for history
presentation Mr.Simmon instructs the class to get separated into several groups
consisting of 4to5 students. Then David, on seeing Leah alone, invites her to
join his group which has already consisted of 4 members- Heather, Melanie, Alex
and David himself. Leah silently gives her approval. Leah finds that David and
Heather are close friends. She becomes jealous of their intimacy and wishes to
be in the place of Heather but she knows that it can never happen in reality
because of the fact that they like each other. She, being a part of David’s
group, has to contribute to the topic of ancient GREECE and every group has
been allotted 3 weeks to prepare with the time limit of 15 minutes to give
their presentation to the whole class. David decides that every week they must
devote 1 hour for the preparation. For this they must stay one 1hr in the
school library after the school to collect all relevant matters on the topic.
This week it is the turn of Leah and Alex to take down the notes from the books
issued from library. Leah wishes David to be there in the place of Alex with
her so that she can know him much better. When the day comes, Leah goes with
Alex to the school library and writes down important things in her notebook.
She sees this as a chance for her to impress David.
Everyone starts giving their contribution
to the history presentation by collecting information and preparing the report.
In the last week, David invites the team members to his home to discuss about
their presentation and work on it. They all decide to record their report on
the camcorder but the camcorder goes out of function. So
everybody rehearses their report within 3 minutes which Heather supervises.
Alex is asked by David to prepare the charts on the topic. Among all these, a
fight occurred between David and Heather which eventually gets over soon. Leah
wishes that their fight to linger so that she gets a chance to be with David.
Leah’s maternal grandmother visits home.
That day Leah has already taken her mother’s permission to stay at home not
because her grandmother would come but because of some other reason. The reason
is that she cannot bear seeing David and Heather’s intimacy. One day ago, there
was a dance programme organized in her school for freshers and all her
classmates were present there let alone David and Heather. She gets worries by
thinking that dancing with each other might have strengthened the bond between
them.
Grandma is dropped at home by Leah’s
mother. Leah goes downstairs to welcome and greet her. She is happy that she
has been given a leave of 5 days from the school for the occasion of Thanks
Giving.(It is a tradition in USA that people visit their relatives on this day
and spend time with them). They all take their dinner together. The pumpkin pie
prepared by the Grandma proves to be the tastiest dessert which completes their
dinner.
The next day, Mrs.Nell invites Leah to
join her and her grandma in shopping. She also promises her to buy her some
more books because she knows that Leah is running short of new books. Leah, as
usual, with reluctance gets ready to go with them.
Shopping complex is the place which Leah
always avoids because it is the most crowded place and she does not want to get
encountered with a lot of strangers. There she discovers a compartment
completely reserved for books which surprises her because she has never
witnessed a mammoth collection of books of all kinds and languages. She picks
up a book and checks its price which she finds out to be of $30. The price is
about 30 times more than the one that she purchases from the garage sale. She
puts that back in the shelf and searches for another with low cost. Finally she
is able to get the one satisfying the conditions: low cost and interesting. Her
mother asks her to go to the counter and hands over the money to the cashier.
Mrs. Nell, this time, will not help her daughter in getting the book. Leah, all
alone, heads straight to the counter, gets frightened on seeing the length of
the queue and returns back. Leah’s inability to get the book annoys Mrs. Nell
which in turn embarrasses Leah. Grandma pays the money and gets the book for
Leah.
Grandma’s understanding nature drags Leah
even more close to her. She, through her words of wisdom, advises Leah not to
feel pressurized because of the expectations of the parents. She encourages her
to look into herself and to search for that gift that God has uniquely
presented her. She makes her believe that she suffers from no abilities and in
fact she possesses certain qualities which no one else in this world possesses.
Grandma’s departure makes Leah sad, at
the same time Grandma promises to visit her very soon. School reopens after the
vacation and the day has come when David’s group has to present their history
report. Leah, with nervous and frail voice, reads out the report and so do
other members of the group. Their style of presentation impresses the history teacher
which helps them in earning the highest grade.
According to Leah, the end of the
history project will mark end of her efforts to get close to David. She will
henceforth never get any chance to speak to David. This happens in reality also
in subsequent days. After few days she meets David near locker who
congratulates Leah for speaking so well in the presentation. David understands
that how difficult it is for a shy girl like Leah to read aloud the report to
the class. This elates Leah but at the same time feeling sad for thinking this
to be her last conversation with Leah.
She, during the lunch break, occupies the
loneliest corner of the cafeteria as usual. Today, she is not in the mood to
take out the book from her book and start reading. She is unable to concentrate
on the multitude of thoughts flowing in her mind. She stares at the graffiti of
the table silently and finds a phrase-I love. She wonders that who might have
written this and also she ponders that about whom she can write this. Amidst
all such thoughts, the words of Grandma get revived as if those words have
formed a deep root in her conscience. The powerful words of Grandma make her
cheerful and happy instantly and she starts to feel good about everything
around her. She quickly takes out a red pen from her bag and converts the
phrase into a word by adding the word ‘myself’. Thus the sentence reads out to
be I love myself. She laughs, smiles ad giggles. Her happiness and expressions
get mixed up with the laughter of the students present there.
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Language
The language is simple yet interesting.
What makes reading it an enjoyable experience, is the interesting way in which
the sentences have been framed. The text is very very descriptive which one of
the important features of novel writing is. The readers may anticipate the
story to end with the acceptance of Leah by David as his friend. The story
takes another turn at the end. It helps Leah to get win over her gloomy
thoughts with the help of Grandma’s thoughts. The story also very well depicts
the concern of Leah’s parents towards her. Leah’s parents do not want to leave
her alone but they also want to see her daughter as a winner in her battle
against her shyness and loneliness. The writer has taken every care to project
a teenage girl’s thoughts and behaviour by mentioning every slight action that
she performs. Thus Leah’s approach towards self adoration is very encouraging.
The entire story plants the idea in the minds of reader that self adoration and
realization are elementary steps for a healthy and happy life. I appreciate the
idea of the author to introduce a character like Leah who is addicted to books!!
Thumbs down for:
The
entire novel revolves around Leah, the central character who acts as a mute who
seldom speaks. Words have to be prized out from her mouth. There could have
been introduction of other adventure in Leah’s life, for making the script more
interesting. Some of her actions have been described with a lot of intensity
which makes the script a bit boring for readers who directly want to jump to
the end of the story.
Overall, it is a must read novel. It
gives the message that one must love himself the way he is. After all, it is
the only way to get loved.
Swati Sarangi
12.08.2011
By
"You are the only you, God made... God made you and broke the mold."
ReplyDeletegod made everybody unique and did it brilliantly. It is our duty bring out the uniqueness in ourselves conquering our fear as the girl did. Those people will never be known who followed the world, those who made the world follow them shall always be known.
Thank you for bringing out such an interesting review. A really interesting book indeed. Some readers ( at least readers like me) won't find the plot boring altogether. Because of a sense of congruity of personality with the central character they can instantly connect to the script
p.s: don't mind any spelling and grammatical mistakes I made in my comments. A review written in a manner more concise would be better. :)
always a delight to read such posts! Keep writing!
Your words much appreciated!!
ReplyDeleteIn the words of Abraham Lincoln, "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt."
Thanks for reading this post!! :)