For 3rd Quarter in World History we did a book a project over a historical book. The book that I choose is Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. 

Abi Wohlgemuth 

Miss Bockelman 

World History 

3/12/19

Revolution

Title of Book: Revolution
Genre of Literature (historical fiction or non-fiction): historical fiction
Author: Jennifer Donnelly
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Copyright Date: 2010
Number of pages (150-page minimum): 470
Setting(s): Part of the setting is in Brooklyn, while the other part of the setting is Paris now and Paris two centuries ago.
Main Characters:

Andi Alpers: She is a girl from Brooklyn who lost her brother and is spiraling out of control. She doesn’t know what to do to try and get her life back, the only escape from her daily life is her music that she plays. Alone in her grief caused by her father devoting himself to his research and her mother just painting while not noticing her daughter losing control. 

Alexandrine Paradis: A girl in Paris during the French Revolution. Her and her family are struggling to find money to buy food. But one day she gets the opportunity of a life time to be the care taker of the prince. She tries to provide for her family but they become greedy and they think that they can make it on their own without her so they leave. She stays and takes care of the princes through all of the struggles that they face while there is trouble in the kingdom. When the king and queen are killed and the prince taken into captivity she becomes some what of a vigilante, always trying to find fireworks to set of for the prince. She does it to make him smile even tough she knows if she is caught she will be killed. 

The time period is during the French Revolution and during the 2000’s. Revolution is a book that is full of people going through struggles and losses. Andi is a senior in high school who is going through the struggles of losing her baby brother two years ago. She tries to drown her guilt in antidepressants, partying, and making music. She attends one of the most prestigious high schools in Brooklyn and is about to be expelled from school for grades and not getting one of her requirements to graduate. Her father gets a letter about what is going at school and forces her to come to France with him while he puts her mother into a hospital to help her. When she is in France the only way to leave is to finish the requirement for school, when she is staying with family friends she finds a diary about the French Revolution and reads about a girl in the French Revolution. She gets transported to back to the French Revolution and sees how to was for people during that time period. 

It is told from Andi’s point of view, first person. It influences it by allowing for emotions to show through her struggles she faces in the book. We don’t get to see what others are thinking or what is going on around them away from Andi. But it also allows for us to better understand what is happening to her and her family after her brother was killed. 

Many events in this book could be considered the most important event, one of them is when Andi first finds Alex’s diary. She found the diary in an old guitar case that was unlocked by a key her bother found. It is one of the most important parts of the book because it is when Andi is at her lowest points in her life. She is able to figure out how to process the emotions that came with lose her brother two years ago and also basically losing both of her parents the same year as they distance themselves from her.  She found the diary when she was at one of her fathers friends house inside of a guitar case, page 106.
And is a young girl who is struggling to get passes her brothers death and the impact it had on her family. While she is trying to battle her depression she was prescribed pills to take to help her for when she things that are caused by her depression. One day see took too many pills while reading Alex’s diary, she thinks  ““It’s the drugs.” I whisper. “I took too many pills again, I’m seeing things.””: Andi (106) which caused her to see things. But while reading Alex’s journey during the French Revolution she comes to understand that things will get better even if you can’t see them right now. “I lift my face to the night sky. It’s still dark. But I can see the stars.” (464)

From this book I learned many different things about this time period, the French Revolution. One thing that I learned is that many people were starving, just trying to stay alive in any way they could. But they were able to move on because of those around them and the though of the future. “It was dark and cold on those nights. The world was harsh and I was hungry. Yet I had such joy from the words. Such joy.” (220). I also learned that the king during the French Revolution was taking money that was for the people putting it into his families pockets. Letting the people go hungry while he and his family are happy, warm, and well feed in the castle. Also “It was shouted in the streets that the king had spent six hundred thousand livres on a funeral for his child, while thousands of French children died from hunger every day.” (140) which caused for the people to have more reason to try and over throw the king because he was selfish. 

Many different things would be different if the French Revolution didn’t turn out how it did. If the monarchy didn’t fall and the king and queen weren’t killed to would have set back the date for when they moved to a different system of government. Another thing that would have also been different if the prince wasn’t killed and kept alive, there most likely would have been supporters of the prince and would have done anything they could to try and restore the prince to the throne. 

There are many lessons that are present in Revolution whether it be friendship, suffering from loss, or dealing with unknown surprises. Friendship, it shows that in this book having people who are there for you even when you want to be alone can help you in the most unexpected ways. Even though you may be suffering from a loss of a loved one, there is a reason that you are still alive today. Being able to learn from unexpected surprises, whether it be bad or good,  and being able to turn them into something that is useful for me and those around me, is something that happens often in our world today;. 

If I were to give this book a different title it would be The Key. Would I would call it the key is because without the key that her brother found she wouldn’t have found the diary and would still be struggling with the death of her brother and her parents falling further away from her every day. 

Revolution is a book that I would definitely recommend for many different reasons. One is because it allows you to see how two people in two completely different time periods have something in common. Also because it allows you to learn more about the French Revolution in a different setting rather than from a text or in a classroom.