Okay, this might seem a little strange to you, but I have a problem that I felt is good enough to post on Vizzed. You see, we have to do a book report this month. We do the report over this winter break, and I chose the book, A Wrinkle In Time. But, now I regret this choice? So why is that?

Okay, let me just say...making a good book...that is hard, but is it really hard for your book to make any sense? (This is my problem) Not only does the book not match the COVER, I can go on for hours talking about that, but this book makes no sense as a stand alone book. Characters come out of nowhere, there's no logic to where Meg, Charles, and Calvin are going, what they're doing, and WHY, and a lot of the characters make no sense when it comes to personality and what they're trying to explain. And people, I have to summarize the plot to this book, and I'm not comprehending this plot.

And the report is due on the 14th of January, and yes, I'm done with the book.  

   Is the summarizing of the plot the entire report of the novel or is there additional work that must be completed in order to complete the entire report of the novel? This Thread does not provide enough information to the point a user may assist you with your issue.

Sorry, I had a whole story lined up basically saying that the best thing you can do is to make an outline of what you do know rather than focusing on what you think you don't, but it got kicked saying the forum didn't exist.
Essentially, if you outline what you do understand about the characters and plot, you will realize you know more than you think about the story. Outlining is key to forming all of your thoughts coherently, especially when you are having trouble grasping the concept.
It seems like extra work at first, but believe me when I say 30 minutes to an hour spent detailing an outline can literally save hours of scratching your head wondering where you were going with your own writing (I have been on both sides of that fence, back and forth, many times in my own career.)
Lay out the characters one at a time; major plot points one event at a time; your understandings and misunderstandings one phase at a time. Before you know it, you will be writing your report one page at a time.

I hope this helps, and Merry Christmas

Can you switch books? If not, send and e-mail to your teacher. Maybe he/she will let you choose a different book or give you an alternate assignment or something.

I haven't read the book, so I really cannot help you there.

DenzGamer135 : You have to do extra stuff too, but the summary section is creeping me out

tgags123 : We cannot switch. Man, I was better off doing War & Peace. And I think it's too late at this point.

PixelBrick :
Well to make things easier on yourself try to do an outline. As you are reading through the chapters write down what you feel like the most important things are. For example, what characters did or what caused them to respond the way they did. Also try to get the main idea of the chapters and go from there. When I was in high school and I had to do book reports that is how I did them. I think going with an outline format will help you.
Blessings
 

That's what I tried to do! But there's BARELY any detail! Sorry to sandwich post, but there's no detail on how or what the important events are/going on. How did Charles get brainwashed? Flip to page 157 and he's instantly brainwashed with no explanation!

   What other tasks must be required to complete the report of the novel?

The way some of my friends, and sometimes myself, try to understand a story is to rewrite scenes that don't make sense to you in a more understandable way.

Like, say there's this really descriptive paragraph that you're not really sure what's going on. But from what you can infer, it's about a character waking up in the morning. Then make a little note next to it saying that the paragraph is about the character waking up.

We call this 'annotation'. Just make little comments about what YOU think is going on in the scene. As long as you can understand what it is you wrote, you'll eventually be able to connect the dots and see the big picture.

You might try exploring The Fountain of Knowledge" forum. I'm sure one of the teachers there would be willing to give expert advice, possibly even help.

Other than that, my only idea would be to try and watch the made for TV movie. You might get some idea of what you are missing in the text. I KNOW, I KNOW, I'm probably going to get shot at for discouraging a student from reading. Oh well, I've been shot at for much worse.
Seriously.

thephantombrain : We can't pick a book that's a TV series or movie. That's the gist of it. Well, this is great. 

Mistress : Thanks for the help. I may need to try this. Good thing this book is only 204 pages.

You're not enjoying "A Wrinkle in Time"?  That's a great book.  I'm sorry it's not fun for you.

Just start keeping track and taking notes as you read.  Write down what happens each chapter, notably the beginning and the ending.  You should be able to piece together the action in between.

If you know you're having problems already, talk to your teacher and see what they have to say.  Tell them exactly what you told us in your first post and see what their recommendation is.

Ask for help.  That's what teachers are there for.

PixelBrick :  What the Phantombrain was saying is that they did make a movie based on the book.  It is called a wrinkle in time and it might help you to understand what you are missing from the book.

One of the things that helps me is to re read the book several times and if I still don't understand it look over it and find the parts I don't understand and write them down.. sometimes it takes a lot of thinking for me but I work it out! I hope it works out for you!




Bintsy<33