Today's Reader Q&A comes from 13-year-old Katrina Santillan from Los Angeles, CA. Below, she explains why she's so envious of Hermione Granger, lists her top three favorite tear-jerking novels, and describes why movies can never live up to the books on which they're based. If you could trade places with any character from a book for a day, who would you be and why?
Hermione Granger. who wouldn't want a day of her life? It's so full of excitement and surprises. You'll never be bored. Plus, she''s smart. It's fun being smart, the best in class (in magic!), and pretty, too. And let's not forget the two cute guy best friends. :)
Tell us about your top three favorite books of all time.
1. THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak: The story is amazing. I fell in love with the characters really quickly. Despite the situations they were in, they always found a way to have fun and to entertain themselves. The style of writing only made the whole thing much better. More importantly, the story touched me in a way that I cried so many times reading the book. It's the best!
2. DEAR JOHN by Nicholas Sparks: This is the best romance novel ever! It's not one of those happily-ever-after kind of stories. The book teaches the reader what true love is all about. It's about sacrifices and happiness and being thoughtful. And the ending was just amazing.
3. THIRTEEN REASONS WHY by Jay Asher: The story is really unique. I've read other books in the same genre, but nothing is quite like this. It made me understand what life is about, and how even the little things in life can make a huge difference (good or bad) to a person's emotions. I recommend it to every teenager.
What movies have you seen that were based on books? Did you like the book or film version better? Why?
I've seen a lot of movies based on books. The Harry Potter series, the Twilight Saga, the Series of Unfortunate Events, The Princess Diaries, and Pride and Prejudice, to name a few. I've come to conclusion long ago that no movie version of any book would be better than the book. The book tells you a lot of things that the movie never can, like the character''s thoughts, for example. Also, movies always cut some scenes from the book, and that is just stupid (I think). Sometimes, they remove the best parts of the book thinking that its not really important to the story, but it is. The worst film adaptation of a book is (in my opinion) The Princess Diaries.
Tell us about your favorite book series.
The best series ever written is the Harry Potter series. I'm sure heaps of people think so as well. The story is just brilliant. J. K. Rowling thought of it so well. And I like her writing style too. She put in a lot of time making it as ''realistic'' as it can get because of the amount of description into every book. I especially love the many twists and turns that occurred in the books. They made me cry and laugh more times than I thought I would. It's the best.
