Reading Log Exemplars

You can use the response starters listed below to help you begin your personal responses. Alternatively, you can create your own.

• I found this text easy to follow because...

• This text is set in _________. I can’t imagine being or living in such a place because...

• The setting for this story fascinated me because...

• The character _____________ really made me feel ______________ because...

• I could relate to the character of ___________ because he/she...

• The one character I admired the most in this text was ________ because he/she...

• One thing I have learned from this text is...

• I was horrified / excited / frustrated / moved when I read about...

• This story really made me laugh, especially when _______________ because...

• This is a book that I can easy recommend to other junior English students because it...

Here is a model response at Level 5:

“The Fault in our Stars”, Author: John Green, Published: 2012, Text Type: Novel, When Read: July 2015

The book, “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green, is about two teenagers diagnosed with cancer but still allow themselves to find love and enjoy the most with the time they have left. Hazel meets Augustus at her cancer support group and they become friends really quickly. Augustus is a very optimistic person and teaches Hazel to find happiness with their lives despite having their serious inevitable conditions. Hazel allows herself to fall in love despite her fear of hurting others for when she passes away due to cancer as she knows that with cancer, death will be near and unexpected.

I really liked this book as it teaches us to enjoy what we have now. We shouldn’t live our lives fearing our death. Augustus never shows how serious his condition actually is and doesn’t allow his sickness to get in the way of enjoying his life and what he has. He puts a cigarette between his lips but never smokes, “It’s a metaphor, you see: You put the killing thing right between your teeth, but you don’t give it the power to do its killing.” This is what he believes in and wants us all to know that just because we might have a disadvantage, we are still the only ones who can choose how to live our lives. We will only destroy our own wellbeing if we choose to let it affect us.

We don’t have to be pulled down by others if we stay strong and keep doing what makes us happy. Augustus is great at doing this, “I’m on a roller coaster that only goes up.” His optimism is something we should all learn to have. It not only makes him able to enjoy his own life more, it also affects the people around him. By only focusing on the joys in life, he manages to ignore his troubles while he is having fun. He doesn’t want to worry about the bad possibilities all the time. He wants to be able to enjoy what he has now. We don’t see his pain at all as he covers it exceptionally well with his brightness and smiles. I think this is very important as focusing on the bright side of things will make the problems we have to face less daunting which makes them easier to deal with as we can look forward to the things we enjoy in life. “Our fearlessness shall be our secret weapon.” Not fearing what the end will be is the technique to living a happy life that we want.