Ship Breaker recommendations

I chose this book for a couple of reasons. The main reason is a lot of my friends where reading the book, they all said they enjoyed it or found it entertaining, so I decided to try it. I have found with other types of media, if my friends like it, I will probably enjoy it also, like with television or movies, which shows how powerful recommendation is. The second reason I picked this book is I enjoy just reading or watching the beginning of any type of entertainment and deciding based on the beginning if I will enjoy the rest of the book or movie. With this book I found in the first couple of chapters, it was filled with intense action and suspense. I would recommend this book to people who are up for adventure. This book is filled with the life of a boy who lives a life of stress and one day finds something amazing. I think People who enjoy the water or boats will also like this book because its all about boats and the ocean. If you decide to get this book I hope you enjoy it. I have included some different things that take place underwater, like a real underwater hotel as well as an underwater civilization from Star Wars.

Ship Breaker attention grabber

The following selection comes from chapter four; I really enjoyed this selection because of the intensity and action in this chapter. In this chapter Nailer was under water in a sunken boat looking for anything that could make some money. However one of the people in his group, Sloth, trapped him in the boat, and he thought he would lose his life. In this part of the text he has managed to escape from the boat and is coming out of the water. This part of the text it is really descriptive, and shows him coming out of the water barly alive. I hope you enjoy this passage, I have also included two versions of the cover for your enjoyment.

He blasted into open air.

Nailer's stomach dropped out of him. Free fall. Involuntarily, his eyes opened. Stinging oil and scalding sun. A mirror bright ocean, almost white with its intensity. Blue waves rushed up to meet him. He had only a second to twist—

He smashed into water. Sea salt swallowed him. The surge and swell of an oily sea. The roll of breakers. Nailer surged upward, kicking for the surface. Broke out into sunlight and waves, gasping. He sucked air, flooding his lungs with shining clean oxygen, starved for all the life he’d been sure he’d lost.

Ship Breaker theme and structure

My book is structured in a pretty standard layout. Like most books it is written in third person about the main character. However as he crawls through the ship his internal thoughts are italicized, like when he thinks, “Don’t panic. You took this wire down yourself. You just need to keep following it—” (Bacigalupi) One of the themes that is starting to develop is how valuable teamwork is. Each person has a vital role to help make sure the job gets done. Also, competition comes into play because among each team, members have to compete to make sure they keep their spot. So far there is one main goal Nailer has, which is shared by most of the characters. His goal is to survive. He has to work really hard to make sure he keeps his job so he can get food to live. I think another goal he has is to learn his family history, but he is unable to complete or work on that goal because of his quest to survive. I would like to know how he is going to try to balance both ambitions. I speculate that Pima who is really bossy, and has taken the leadership role plans to make sure she is in control of all of the people in the group. I have attached a video that support the idea of teamwork.

Ship Breaker characters and conflict

For my sophomore summer reading assignment, I am reading the book Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. The core character in my book is Nailer. Nailer is part of a unit of children who work under a strict boss to take metal and other supplies off of boats that have sunk. Nailer is the finest in his group at retrieving things from the boats. His group competes with other groups in order to acquire the most money. They are required to do this because it is the only way they can make money. However as they grow older they will not be allowed continue it because they will be too big to fit in the crevices of the boat. I predict that at some point in their search they will find something really valuable or magical or something of the sorts. The other characters in the crew are Sloth, who is Nailer’s best friend and Pima, who is really bossy.  There is also Moon Girl, Tick-Tock and Pearly who we don’t know a lot about yet. I am curious to know how these characters will serve in specific roles. A remarkable detail of the book is Nailer’s mom is dead and and the story of her death is sort of mysterious, and his dad is very abusive, increasing the mystery. Also, it is emphasized that Nailer’s past is unknown, so I predict we will learn more about that through the book. His past reminds me of Harry Potter from the Harry Potter series. Both characters don’t know at least one parent; live with some one now who doesn’t love them and it is a big mystery. The pictures are of the Titanic, which is the most famous sunken ship and shows some of the danger the characters may face.