Customer Reviews

California Blue

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Young John Rodgers enjoys tramping through the forest of sequoias in his home town, Kiowa. This forest is home to the small town's lumber mill and home to a rare species of butterfly found by John. Should he fight with ecologists to preserve the forest and the rare species or should he stand by his family and the whole town of lumber workers? To further complicate John's decision, his father has leukemia. John and his father have always had a tumultuous relationship but can John turn his back on his family in such dire circumstances? _California Blue_ by David Klass, explores family relationships and ecology versus industry conflicts. The young adult novel has a compelling storyline that can hold an adult's interest as well as youth. This book also gave me a new perspective on ecology issues. At a town meeting, one question asked was, "What does it [the butterfly] do that's important? If it died out, who would miss it? What right does it have to exist?" Being from the city and not a scientist, I guess I never realized that when people are against saving a species, they are fighting for their livelihood, for a way of life they have known for years. Is the spotted owl more important than people's lives? This may seem an obvious question to some but _California Blue_ transformed this question to a reality for me. An excellent novel, not just for the young

I teach this book in my upper-level Reading class. It is a marvelous book with a quiet voice that subtly makes you question your attitudes about animals, the environment, industry, realtionships, and nature. This is not an action-packed thriller, which is a turn-off for some kids--at first. I have found that once they get into the story and realize the questions it brings up, they really enjoy it.

I live in a community where hunting is a major pasttime. This book offers the hunters (and those who are against it) different perspectives on the issues of animal rights and the preservation of nature. This book leads to LIVELY discussions and arguments. I highly recommend it for young adults as well as those of us who are older.

While out running one day through the forest belonging to the local sawmill, John comes across a butterfly chrysalis like none he's ever seen. Being a good science student, he takes it home to let it hatch. When it does, a beautiful blue butterfly that doesn't match any category in his identification book emerges. It is possibly that there is an undiscovered species of butterfly living in this forest set to be destroyed by the loggers.

John shares the butterfly with his science teacher, who contacts an old college professor of hers who is an insect expert. When the man comes to town, suddenly things are stirred up. He wants to study the habitat of the butterfly and probably eventually declare it a protected species. Those who live in town, including John's father, make their living off of the sawmill. If they aren't allowed to cut down the trees where the butterfly was found, it is likely the mill will shut down and the entire town will die with it.

Death is weighing heavily on the minds of John and his family, anyway, as his aggressive and overbearing father has been diagnosed with leukemia. All of his life John has felt that he has never been able to do anything to make his father happy and proud, and he worries that his involvement in finding this butterfly will only make things worse in his family. Will he stand by his discovery, or will he side with those who think the sawmill ought to have the right to cut down all the trees they want?

I liked the complexity of the conflict in John's life, with his father being very sick and so tied to the mill while John felt pulled in the direction of science and wanting to help his butterfly. I also liked Dr. Eggleson's character--he seemed the perfect professor activist and I liked that he wasn't afraid of the people in John's town who were against him.

I thought that John having a crush on his teacher and her almost returning his feelings was a little creepy. It was sad to me that John never really made an effort to understand or really get to know his parents. At the end of the book he was just starting to figure out what made his father tick, and he was only barely thinking there must be something more to his mother than what was on the surface.

John likes to run and collect butterflies, sometimes while he is running through the forest he takes along his net, and he never imagined that he would catch a butterfly that would lead to a scandal in his mill town.

The butterfly turned out to be a missing link in the evolutionary chhain of butterflies and moths, but the mill workers could care less, they want to keep their jobs and don't want tot stop progress because of an insect.

The real conflict arises when John's dad takes the opposite side, but of course as a mill worker you would expect that...it's another thing in a long list that keeps John and his father apart...but now they are even more apart after his father is diagnosed with leukemia.

Just how much can John handle...the town is about to explode, his family life is falling apart, and how is he going to get out of this mess?

In the book california blue the main character is john. He has two older brother that are extreemly good at foot ball and basket ball. he on the other hnd is not so good at sports. he run's track and only has 3rd and 4th place ribon's. His friends led him to smoke and drink. He disides to run away to his old teachers house and his mom has to draghim home.

This book is very deep. If you read this book you have to pay attention to the details in the story. I wouldn't recommend this book to anybody undernine years of age. I think that kids under nine are to immature for this book because it involves drugs, alcohol, and sex therefor should not be read by children under nine years old.

This book is about a boy named John Rodgers who runs track and has a relationship with his father while having a crush on his biology teacher, Ms. Merril. Johns father works at the logging mill and doesnt have the time or patience to deal with John. Also,John loves catching butterflies around the logging mill and around the tons of sequia trees near the mill. One day, John finds an unusual blue butterfly and he discovers that it is a rare unknown he discovers that it is a rare unknown butterfly which signifys the discovery of an unknown species. The only problem is ecologists want to shut down the mill in hopes that the butterfly can live peacefully and flourish. I recommend this book to just about any age and it is a great book that is a quick and fun read.

This book was uninteresting and I would not recommend reading it. The story line did not draw me in.

This book inspired me to become a distance runner. There should be a warning sign on the front of this book that says, "Caution: This book could change your life."

I read the book at the end of eigth grade, and the imagery and freedom of distance running appealed to me.

This is my seventeenth season of distance running.

Read this book. It could change your life.

Although I may not have agreed with the environmentalist's point of views, I thought the book was very well written. The boy, the main character, reminded me of myself in a lot of ways. I would recommend this book to anyone.

This is a traykewl book! The way the author shows the teenage feelings is very effective and the relationships between John and Miss Merill and John and his dad are very realistic! This book rings true to what is happening in society today and the war between loggers and enviromentalists. A GR8 read!!