'Escape from War' by James Riordan (The Book Review)

'Escape from War' is a novel written by James Riordan. It is a novel with an interesting feature since it contains two stories, front and back, of two people during the beginning of World War II.

Part one of the novel is written in the perspective of Frank, a 12-year-old English boy from London. Frank and his sister Violet, 10, must evacuate their bomb-bombarded neighbourhood in London to a peaceful country side farm away from anyone they know and must learn to live with a German Jewish girl, Hannah, who is also an evacuee, but from Nazi German.

Part two of the novel is of the perspective of a 13-year-old girl, Hannah. After the brutality in Germany towards the Jewish Community and the death of her father in Nazi hands, Hannah’s mother decides to send Hannah and her brother Hans to England, the only nation who will accept Jews. On the journey Hans is taken away by Nazi soldiers and never seen again, once in England Hannah must learn English and cope with life on a farm with two naive English children, Frank and Violet.

Both perspectives express nostalgia for home and peaceful times, racial and social tolerances, death but also the fear that they may never see their loved ones again.

The aspects of 'Escape from War’ that I enjoyed were the concepts that the reader reads and understands both sides of a story from two different people, from two different backgrounds and experiences and how both stories harmoniously interweave with each other. I also enjoyed that the novel includes real events that occurred throughout World War II; this makes this book interesting but also educational. Also, the conversational language of both sides of the story creates an atmosphere as if the characters are writing in a journal or talking to the audience personally, which then the reader feels part of the story just as much as the character. The aspects that I disliked about this novel were that the stories of both characters Hannah and Frank seemed brief and did not continue after a certain point, it would have been a more interesting story if it further continued and mentioned further events during the war and how it would affect the lives of Hannah and Frank.

I definitely recommend this book to both boys and girls aged 11-13 because it is a fascinating story that gives insight into one of the most horrid wars in modern history, from a male and female perspective and also gives an insight into the thoughts and emotions going through people who are the same age as the target audience during this period of time.

'The Karate Kid' Movie Poster

This 'Karate Kid' movie poster is the advertisement that I have chosen to undertake analysis on, for part (a) of this assessment task

The purpose of this advertisement is to promote the movie ‘The Karate Kid.’ The form and structure of this advertisement is in movie poster form, it includes the leading characters names in the top left hand corner with the two characters to the right of the poster, the title near the bottom left hand corner and underneath contains information stating the director and companies involved in making this movie, followed with a ‘Coming Soon’ statement which states that this movies is coming to cinemas soon.

‘The Karate Kid,’ is a movie aimed at everyone in the general public but most especially it is targeted at 12-year-old boys and/or girls. This advertisement suggests this by firstly, the title because it contains the word ‘kid’ and 12 year old boys and/or girls are ‘kids’ and would have so often been called a kid throughout their lives because they are not yet old enough to out grow the term. Secondly the large image of Jaden Smith as the focal point of the poster who is also 12 years old both in the movie and in reality also suggests the 12 year old target audience. If this advertisement were not directed at a preteen audience then the movie would not contain a preteen boy, as it’s main character.

This advertisement certainly brings attention to its audience due to the advertisements overall red tint, this colour symbolises tension and danger. This ad also brings interest to its audience by the body language (classic martial art stances) and the determination in both the characters eyes, both looking in the same direction, these together promote a 'fighting' and alertness theme. Also the temple in the background is another symbol that tells the audience that this movie is about sacredness and discipline, since that is the general idea of temples. These symbols and techniques create a mystic ancient vibe towards the movie poster. This ad brings desire into the audience to go see the film by all overall techniques such as the colour, body language and placement of the characters, symbols and the vibe received from it. There seems to be no action techniques telling the audience to come watch the theme, possibly because the movie isn't out yet and promotion is the purpose of the ad.

The characters are placed in the foreground of the movie poster and both are large and prominent spreading into the mid ground. There are subliminal sight lines made through the arms of the two characters and these lines create a reading path to the faces of the main characters, but there is another reading path when you look to the lines made with Jackie Chan’s legs, they lead into the body of the main character Jaden Smith. Also the written slogan near the poster, ‘A challenge he never imagined’ and ‘A teacher he never expected,’ creates tension and refers to both characters of this cover to again suggest that this movie is about a journey that is challenging but defines the lives of the character. This together with the stances suggest that this movie is about martial arts and determination, therefore, many boys and girl aged 12 would definitely find this ad satisfying and will go see the film. This poster is most definitely an excellent advertisement to promote the movie 'The Karate Kid.'