Rating: 
Summary: The Beet Fields
Review: I personally don't read books that often, but I needed a books for a class project,so I chose this one. I was surprised because this book is really good. I would recommend it to anyone that just wants something to read. There are many interesting facts that the author portrays in the book. This book understands some of the different things a young adult may go through in life. The author did a very good job on writing this book.
Rating:
Summary: Another great paulson book!
Review: I really liked this book. Despite some more adult conten that, no, would not be apropriate for even i think 13 and/or 14 year olds, for the appropriate age group it is a great read! I have been through so many paulson books I can barely remember them all, but it still amazes me that gary can write on so many subjects. A breakaway from the usual adventure outdoors books, and even the indian and american historical books, this book still shows off paulson's love an talent for drawing in all kinds of people. This is not just a book for tean-age boys, though if you refuse to read anything else read this. The struggles "the boy" goes through are very real and very interesting. His freindship with the mexicans helps to show that when in need and in the real world diversity does not matter, and his latching onto carneys is a great turn of events. This book shows the value of hard work and is of course a coming of age book, but if anything it is definately a paulson book and i thouroughly enjoyed it!
Rating: 
Summary: My Review
Review: I think the book was pretty good. It started of slow and i didnt think i would like it, but it didnt get interesting until the middle of the story. The story is about a sixteen year old boy who spends his hot summer days in the beet fields on North Dakota. He works from early that morning till almost dark along with Mexicans. The Boy meets to friends named Bobby and Rudy, who teach him many things and change his life for the best.
Rating:
Summary: The Beet Fields is truly memorable
Review: Paulsen's The Beet Fields does indeed evoke Hemingway in its spare, evocative prose. I have been a bit underwhelmed by some of Paulsen's recent fiction for young adults and was pleasantly surprised to read such a superb memoir. Yes, I did buy it for the young adult collection of my library and am puzzled by another reviewer's comment that it was "inappropriate" for her library. It is indeed unflinching in its look at Paulsen's often brutal childhood experiences, but that makes it all the more memorable.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful prose, but . . .
Review: The Beet Fields is full of wonderful writing and imagery, but its characters lack the redeeming qualities that I would hope to find in a YA novel.The 16-year-old boy who is the protagonist of the novel is introduced to us as his mother is attempting to seduce him. From that point, the confusion that he must feel develops into a nearly uncontrollable urge for sex. As he works to support himself, he encounters many people, but none take on a true role as mentor, or even friend, to the boy. When he finally fulfills his sexual desires with an older woman, we see no consequences either for the woman or the boy; in fact, the boy has now become "a man" who continues his rather unfocused life by joining the service. Paulsen further complicates matters (for want of a better phrase) by presenting Mexican migrant farm workers who buck the stereotypes, yet the carnival workers and most of the other characters he encounters follow the stereotypes with a vengeance. The story needs redeeming characters or, at least, consequences for actions that occur. All we see is a boy wandering through life with no purpose other than making it through each day. While that might be the case for some adolescents, I found no hope presented for those young people in this novel.
Rating: 
Summary: The Beet Fields Memories of a Sixteenth Summer
Review: The Beet Fields Memories of a Sixteenth Summer is a book about the author's, Gary Paulsen, experiences. After "The Boy," as he is called, runs from his drunk parents he ends up working the beet fields with the Mexicans. As he juggles farm jobs, runs from the cops, and seeks love, he has many adventures. This book never has a dull moment and always keeps the reader on his or her toes. Each job ends quickly with split second decisions to take another. You never know if he will fall off a barn or fall in love with the farmer's daughter he has seen only once. The best part of all was the fast pace which never bores the reader.
Rating:
Summary: The Beet Fields Memories of a Sixteenth Summer
Review: The Beet Fields Memories of a Sixteenth Summer is a book about the author's, Gary Paulsen, experiences. After "The Boy," as he is called, runs from his drunk parents he ends up working the beet fields with the Mexicans. As he juggles farm jobs, runs from the cops, and seeks love, he has many adventures. This book never has a dull moment and always keeps the reader on his or her toes. Each job ends quickly with split second decisions to take another. You never know if he will fall off a barn or fall in love with the farmer's daughter he has seen only once. The best part of all was the fast pace which never bores the reader.
Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: The book The Beet Fields is about Gary Paulsen's teenage years. Paulsen is famous for the books that he writes and for running the Iditarod, a 1200-mile race for Iditarod Alaska to Nome. His accomplishments in The Beet Fields are that he runs away from home at sixteen, works the fields with immigrants, and learns to support himself. The book focuses on people helping other people because they want to, not because they have to. The parts that seemed glossed over were why he left home, where his father was, and that the book just ends.
The book was easy to read and understand. Information is well organized and in order. The strongest aspect of the book was that a sixteen-year-old boy ran away from home and supported himself by doing odd jobs. The ending and beginning need to be improved because the end just ends and the beginning does not give you any background.
I gave four stars to the book because it is an incredible book, and has a lot of details. I would recommend the book to people who enjoy adventure, and suspense, because it takes you all over South Dakota. Paulsen is trying to tell us that there is more to people then we think, and that we should get to know people before we put them down. I think it is an important message because I get to know people first, like he dose in his books. Paulsen passes his message successfully through his books.
Rating:
Summary: The Best One Yet
Review: This is Gary Paulsen best book yet. His images are spectacular, and make the words turn into pictures in my mind. The action packed scenes kept me interested and wanting to read more. The plot is outstanding, and Paulsen's writing makes it that much better. The book takes you through the summer of a sixteen year-old runaway, not only physically, but mentally. He shows what he is thinking. It is a very well written book, and I recommend it to anyone who is willing to read a great book.
Rating:
Summary: great book
Review: Welcome to the school of hard knocks son. Driven from home by the sexual advances of a drunken mother, a teenage boy closes the door on life as he knows it when he runs off in the dark of night. The 16-year-old boy, who goes the length of the novel unnamed, soon finds a job thinning beets in the fields of North Dakota with a group of migrant workers from Mexico. The boy is given little shelter, little food, and the labor is backbreaking; and the fees charged by the farmer for food (dry peanut butter sandwiches doled out by the farmer's crab of a wife) and the use of a hoe eat up what little he earns.
Before long, one of the Mexican men takes the boy under his wing and invites him to partake of their tortillas and beans. The boy marvels at the Mexicans' easy camaraderie and ability to transcend their intensive labor. Through them, he learns that good food, friendship, and a little music go a long way in easing the rigors of life.
When he's offered a permanent summer job on a nearby farm, the boy accepts after seeing the farmer's lovely daughter. Although he never gets a chance to speak to her, he dutifully plows the fields and does what is required of him without comment. The boy avoids town while accumulating quite a bit of money for his work, aware that the law may be looking for him because he is a runaway. A corrupt sheriff's deputy eventually rounds him up and steals his hard-earned cash, but leaves him unattended in an unlocked cell. Spurred on by his fellow inmate, a drunken old man, the boy walks out of jail without looking back.
Before his 16th summer is over, the boy has witnessed a fluke death, worked as a farmhand and substitute son for a widowed woman, learned the "carny" trade and been initiated into the wonders of sex. What more could a teenage boy ask for? I dont know about you but thats all good for me so gust read it
|
