°Write a conclusion about the book. How did you like it? Would you recommend it?

The book is very interesting from a content point of view and attracts attention as soon as you start reading it. In this book, the author stages his own fantasy of what the sky looks like. With the question: “Did the girl who saved Eddie survive?” has the whole book a tension. The end touched me very much and it shows that you can make up for mistakes.

I think the question if I liked the book clarifies itself. After the initial skepticism the book grabbed me. I would also recommend it to other people but they should have a pronounced vocabulary

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words: 102 29.05.2019 ronja spuehler

° Name five of the main themes of the novel or play and elaborate on at least two in more detail.

I think the first theme would be “hope”. Eddie always had the hope that the girl was still alive. That he doesn’t give up is admirable. The second main theme is in my opinion “the willingness of people to make sacrifices”. This theme goes through the whole book from beginning to end. The third theme is for me “love knows no boundaries”. The fourth theme is “gratitude”. The fifth theme touches me very much and it is “forgiveness”. The girl Tala forgives Eddie and is at the same time also grateful although he left her alone at that time.

words: 99 27.05.2019 ronja spuehler

° Write about something happening in the book that you can relate. How did you react? Try to put yourself in the characters’ shoes and say why you think they feel the way they do.

In the book, Eddie keeps asking all the persons he meets a question: “Is the little girl he saved still alive?” But he hasn’t received an answer yet. When Eddie asked the blue man the question and the blue man said he couldn’t answer it, I felt sorry for Eddie. If I had been in this situation, I wouldn’t have been able to get this question out of my head and I think Eddie was similar, because he asked the question to the captain as well.

I ask myself how must Eddie feel if he doesn’t know if a person is still alive or not? If this human is healthy? And does this person still remember his/her life saver and does this person know his/her life saver? I think these are all questions you ask yourself only when you arrive in this situation and I hope very much for Eddie that the girl lives.

words: 154 27.05.2019 ronja spuehler

° At any point in the story predict how some character is going to change/ develop (character development) as the story progresses. How will they change?

There is a lot to tell about the character Eddie. On the one hand about his life before death, on the other hand about meeting the different completely different people. His character has changed because he asks himself more profound questions since he is in heaven. He sometimes seems like a wise man.

Between the chapters the author writes again and again about birthdays. It seems as if he had no real fun with his family in his childhood. For example, he doesn’t tell them about his acquaintance when he was 17 years old.

I don’t think Eddie’s going to change that much in character now. He took the largest step after his death. I hope he knows at the end of the book if the girl he died for is alive. If the girl would life there would be Eddie self-confidence and the joy of having done a good deed.

words: 151 26.05.2019 ronja spuehler

°Write about a sentence that moved you in the book emotionally.

As already in chapter 7 the sentence touches me very much: “That’s what heaven is. You get to make sense of your yesterdays” . It’s a nice idea when you become aware in heaven what the meaning was of life itself. The sentence means in German: “Das ist es, was der Himmel ist. Du bekommst einen Sinn für dein gestriges Leben.”. I also think the author wants to say with this sentence that everyone has a certain task in his life, but the most people will notice that at a later point in time when they think about their life and where do they do that more than when there life is over?

I believe that everything that happens happens for a certain reason. Every human has his own story to share with others and to trigger something in them.

words: 140 25.05.2019 ronja spuehler

° At any point, write about you feel while reading a section of the book. Say what is happening makes you fee and why.

As you know, the book is all about the idea of what it could be like in heaven. I thought about it a few times before I started to read the book. I also think everyone has their own idea of what it looks like in heaven. I have always imagined a pray where peace and joy reign. This book has shown me a side that someone else might imagine. Partly I am really touched by the unusual sentences and think about them. In this chapter this sentence made me especially think: “That’s what heaven is. You get to make sense of your yesterdays”. The sentence may sound a bit poetic, but it triggers something in me.

words: 117 25.05.2019 ronja spuehler

°Analyse the style of writing the author uses. Pick out certain words and phrases and explain why they are used in the connection and what they express.

The writing style of the author is very different and he has use many unusual words. There are therefore very different words, such as: solace, which means comfort, or limber, which means flexible, and so on.

Another noticeable feature of the author’s letter Mitch Albom was that he abbreviated a few words. So the sentence “Come on Eddie, you aren’t smart enough for that” became a sentence that read: “C’mon Eddie, you aren’t smart enought for that”. Another example is on page 44. Instead of “Nothing worked out” the sentence is called “Nothin’ worked out”.

Certainly there are other conspicuous features but these two are the ones that caught my eye the most.

words:113 22.05.2019 ronja spuehler

° Write down five questions you would like to ask the author. Say why you would like to ask These questions.

Now I’m almost in the middle of the book. As I already wrote in the first blog, the book is quite special, so I would like to ask the author some questions. My first question would be how the author came up with this idea of writing a book about history after the end of a human life? An ordinary book is about the life of a person and not about the life after the death. However, it’s a very creative and unexpected subject. That brings me to the second question: What is the author’s opinion on the subject of faith and religion? Because these topics can have an important role. Some people want to have their own ideas after death.

Another question to the author would be: What would Mitch Albom like to achieve with the book respectively which kind of message he wants to give to the reader? It would be interesting to know that. My fourth question is: Does he believes in a life after the death and that something like Eddie experiences in the book could really happen? I have also noted down a fifth question that relates to his personal life. The question is: Did he write this book out of an experience or is it fictitious? All these questions are interesting, because this book is something very special and I don’t know any other books who are like this one.

words: 236 20.05.2019 ronja spuehler

° Recount in your own words what has happened in the film or book. At any point in the story, retell the major details of the story’s plot so far.

The book has started with a bad accident in ruby pier. It’s a story about the life after the death. At the beginning Eddie, an 80- years old man, wants to save a girl. But before that, the fun ride where the girl was sitting in there an it brokes on the top. The rope ruptured and everyone was shocked. The ride slittered down and in these few seconds, Eddie wants to save the little girl. The tragedy was that Eddie died.

After that he was first somewhere, nobody knows where. In this time he didn’t have any emotions or feelings. But then abruptly he came in heaven. There was a blue man who was waiting for him. Eddie first didn’t realise why this unknown man expecting him. Then the blue man explains Eddie that he will meet five people and everyone of them has an experience with him and the blue man is the first person. As Eddie was young he meets the blue man. The blue man died for Eddie. This story the blue man told him and Eddie went into this situation and he went through the story of the blue man. Eddie asked the blue man if he knows something about the little girl but the blue man didn’t answer the question.

In this book is always a chapter in which the reader travels to a birthday of Eddie. Sometimes the reader also return to the moment after Eddie dies and what happend then.

words: 231 19.05.2019 ronja spuehler

° Write about a character and how he/she is changing or developing.

In this chapter with the title ” The first person Eddie meets in heaven” Eddie unterstands where he is and the reason why. Before Eddie dies he was an old man who lived he’s life and don’t has any fears. Eddie was a child-friendly person, but was he happy? I don’t know. Maybe Eddie’s wish was, that he has someone who cares about him.

Then the accident happend. The world has changed. Eddie didn’t know, how he should feel like. It was curious. After that he meets the first person in heaven. In the first moment he didn’t realise what happened to him. But then the first person Eddie meets, the blue man, explained him, that he is now in the heaven. He told him that he would meet 5 people in heaven that he meet in the real life. I think Eddie was excided and was looking forward to meet these people.

words: 152 18.05.2019 ronja spuehler