Slave Day

Rating:
Summary: thrilling, fun, and entertaining
Review: "Slave Day" by Rob Thomas is an excellent read for teenagers and young adults. If you were a childhood fan of the Sweet Valley High or Babysitter's Club collections, you'll enjoy how this novel takes high school life to the next level. Focused on Lee High School in South Carolina, the book offers insight to the minds of eight different people: seven students and one teacher. Rob Thomas tells the story of a controversial school event, "Slave Day", where participants can purchase Student Council members as their complete and utter servant for 24 hours. However, conflict arises when Keene Davenport, an African-American student, is angered by the degrading affair and plots to put a permanent end to Slave day. Each character falls under a typical high school stereotype: there's the popular cheerleader and football player couple, the computer geek obsessed with sci-fi, and the history teacher who doesn't cut you any slack. But the characters aren't over-exaggerated or unbelievable. Thomas's authentic detail and description allow you to relate to the individuals. I found myself thinking, "Wow, I know someone exactly like that person". Another aspect of this book that I enjoyed was the humor. There was a scene where Mr. Twilley, the aloof history teacher, was chasing a student while wearing an Indian headdress and carrying a cap gun; all in the strange spirit of slave day. There were several other amusing episodes that kept me snickering to myself throughout the novel. I'd have to say the only shortcoming of this book was its abrupt ending. Overall, I give it a 9 out of 10 for the fun time I experienced reading it.

Rating:
Summary: By any means necessary. . . .
Review: 4 pairs of characters--"slaves" and their "owners"--narrate this tale of one day in the life of Robert E. Lee High School in "Deerfield", Texas, and that day is "Slave Day," the day upon which student council members and teachers put themselves on the auction block to raise money. The story begins with Keene Davenport, a black student who finds the entire idea insensitive. But "Slave Day" is not simply a story of American racial problems and "political correctness." It is also the story of the ways in which boyfriends and girlfriends manipulate each other; of the ways the "haves" and "have-nots" manipulate each other; of the ways close contact, even if undesired, can bring about understanding. Meet Tommy "Trailer" Parks, who sleeps through class sometimes because he works so late at Whataburger and who buys Mr Twilley, a mostly hated straight arrow history teacher. Meet Chris DeFriesz, a dumb jock [or is he?] who buys his girlfriend Jenni. Meet Tiffany, daughter of the car dealer who buys a computer "nerd" because no one else is left. And follow Keene, as he protests "Slave Day" by buying Shawn, a black star basketball player whom Keene considers an Uncle Tom. Confusing at first, as the reader tries to keep all the narrators separate, "Slave Day" soon becomes a first-rate involving tale, not just for teenagers, but for adults as well

Rating:
Summary: a young man fights for people to respect his ancestors.
Review: An easy read for young adults, about a young man in high school fighting against Slave Day because he thinks it disrespects his black ancestors. The book is well writen but was not for the stop and go reader, you lose track of what is happening if you don't read large chuncks at a time.

Rating:
Summary: Think About it
Review: At Robert E. Lee High School's annual Slave Day fund-raiser, sixty student council members and a few choice teachers are auctioned off to students as "slaves" for a day. Eight alternating first-person narratives relate the day's events, allowing eight distinct individuals to emerge from their initially apparent stereotypes-jock, geek, and cheerleader, et al. They all are affected by the day's events and would never be the same again. Rob Thomas did a great job trying to show present day students how life was if they were a "slave" or "master" during the Slave Trade Era. It is a professional job written in every-day language so it would be better understandable towards high school students.

Rating:
Summary: Interestingly Different
Review: By alternating between the perspectives of the eight main characters in the book, Rob Thomas lets the reader inside the life of many stereotypes. For some characters, such as Mr. Twilley (a strict teacher disliked by many students), it provides us with great insight into the character's life. For others, however, it shows just what we think they are, which can often become disappointing. The story comes to life with the delightful details, which is perhaps the best part of the whole book. The book is well written in the sense that it truly captures the daily language of teenagers, but includes too much profanity for a book to be read by any younger audience. Though the book is one of the "better" reads that I can remember, it is weak in several aspects. For one, the story is divided into too many characters and perspectives, which makes it hard to follow until halfway through the book, when the reader become used to the many names. It also involves too many other minor characters and no one unifying plot (only a general theme), which make the story even more complicated. All in all, though, it kept me turning the pages and had a powerful ending, which is essential to any good book.

Rating:
Summary: Interestingly Different
Review: By alternating between the perspectives of the eight main characters in the book, Rob Thomas lets the reader inside the life of many stereotypes. For some characters, such as Mr. Twilley (a strict teacher disliked by many students), it provides us with great insight into the character's life. For others, however, it shows just what we think they are, which can often become disappointing. The story comes to life with the delightful details, which is perhaps the best part of the whole book. The book is well written in the sense that it truly captures the daily language of teenagers, but includes too much profanity for a book to be read by any younger audience. Though the book is one of the "better" reads that I can remember, it is weak in several aspects. For one, the story is divided into too many characters and perspectives, which makes it hard to follow until halfway through the book, when the reader become used to the many names. It also involves too many other minor characters and no one unifying plot (only a general theme), which make the story even more complicated. All in all, though, it kept me turning the pages and had a powerful ending, which is essential to any good book.

Rating:
Summary: Great for thoughtful teenagers (p.h.-3)
Review: During the course of this book, Rob Thomas never failed to teach his readers anything. Reading this book was definitely a good choice. I could relate to each one of the characters, although some more closely than others. Tiffany is one of the characters that I barely connected with. She is a "poor little rich girl", and since I am not, I could not connect with that aspect of her life. However, since she is the mayor's daughter, she is somewhat of a role model whether or not she wants to be. Throughout this book, I pondered what would become of each of these students and Mr. Twilley long after Slave Day is an erstwhile tradition that everyone in Deerfield has forgotten about. Ironically, Mr. Twilley was one of the best characters in the book. He managed to stand the test of time within the school system by refusing to conform to the belief that athletes are super people that deserve special academic treatment. All in all, Slave Day was one of the best books I have read and is right on the level of Thomas' other books.

Rating:
Summary: quick but good
Review: I found slave day to be a provocative book for its limited format. The book is an extremly quick read yet it is able to adress some important sociatal issues. It is definatly worth the time it takes to read.

Rating:
Summary: Rob Thomas fails at an attempt on teen drama in Slave Day
Review: I found the book "Slave Day" by Rob Thomas to be both predictable and dull. It simply used teen stereotypes to tell the story of these high schoolers. The author didn't tell us anything about Tiffany's picture of her grandfather and why she was ashamed of it. You didn't see anything happen between Mr. Twilly and the theater teacher, which the author set you up for the whole time. If the author wanted to make it interesting by keeping us guessing he could of supplied some supprises in the plot which was utterly pretdictable. I was dissapointed with this lame teen drama.

Rating:
Summary: Slave Day, what I day it was!
Review: I Have read two books by Rob Thomas, "Rats Saw God" and "Slave Day". Because I Read the former of the two books, "Rats Saw God" first, I assumed that Thomas was a fairly good novelist. NOT SO!! Slave Day follows the lives of several different high school students and one high school teacher over the course of one day. The book piles too many subplots into too little a writting space. In one plot, a supposed "rebel" deals with an evil teacher. In another, a nerd does all he can to impress the "hottie" of the school. The book's content was very depressing, and the ending was FAR TO ABRUPT. When rating this item, I seriously considered giving it a "3" because it does have its good points. Unfortunatley, the good points do not outshine its bad points.