Boekverslag : Marilyn Sachs - Underdog
De taal ervan is Nederlands en het aantal woorden bedraagt 1863 woorden.

Samenvatting
Oxford University Press
Oxford Toronto Melbourne
First published in 1985


Verwerkingsopdrachten

5. Door wiens oog (ogen) zien we de verhaalgebeurtenissen? Welke gevolgen heeft dit voor de informatie die jij als lezer krijgt? 2 pnt.

The reader views all the occurrences through the eyes of Izzy. Izzy is the central figure of the book. In the beginning of the story her father just died and he was her only parent (her mother died when Izzy was very young) so his lost meant for Izzy that she became an orphan. She lived with her father in Washington, but there was no-one to take care of her. The only family she has got left were her uncle and her aunt in San Francisco, so she had to go there.
Everything Izzy goes through from the moment she hears her father has died, until the end of the book, you see as reader through the eyes of Izzy. You don’t only get to read everything she says and is said to her, but also every thought of her.
Thanks to that point of view you can really enter into the feelings of Izzy, you can sympathise with her. And when Izzy describes an occurrence in the story, you can image how she is going to react.

17. Met welk probleem krijgt de hoofdpersoon te maken? Verwachtte jij de oplossing die door de hoofdpersoon gekozen werd? Waarom? 1 pnt.

In the beginning of the story Izzy hears her father has died in a car-accident. That occurrence made her an orphan, because her mother has died when she was very young. She lived with her father in Washington, but there was no-one to take care of her. The only family she has got left were her uncle and her aunt in San Francisco, so she had to go there. She hadn’t really ever know them, so that move was very hard for her. But Izzy accepted it and tried to make the best of it. That was something I expected, because I got the impression that Izzy was a very social. She does everything to make other people comfortable. In this situation Izzy tries very hard to adapt herself to the way of living of her uncle and her aunt. Sometimes you know Izzy is thinking something, but then she says it an other way, just to please her uncle and her aunt.
The other problem was Izzy search for her old dog Gus. In a photo album of her uncle and her aunt she saw a picture of him and then she realises he was a very important member of her former family and she wants to find him back. Her uncle promises her to help her with her search, but later. As a reader you could expect that Izzy didn’t want to wait with her search and she goes looking all over the city by herself.





22. Typeer de hoofdpersonen in karaktertrekken. Welk karakter vind je het meest interessant en/of bewonderenswaardig? Leg uit waarom. 2 pnt.

- Izzy is the central figure in the book. I got the impression Izzy is a very though girl. In the beginning of the story Izzy hears her father has died in a car-accident. That occurrence made her an orphan, because her mother has died when she was very young. I think a kid would be very sad and may be depressed after such things, but Izzy just accepts it. She didn’t come over as sad or depressed. I also got the impression that Izzy was a very social girl. She does everything to make other people comfortable. Izzy tries very hard to adapt herself to the way of living of her uncle and her aunt. Sometimes you know Izzy is thinking something, but then she says it an other way, just to please her uncle and her aunt. She also cares a lot about animals and she is very nice to Mrs. Firestone, an old lady with only cats and dogs in her house. Those thongs made me think Izzy is a sweet kind of girl.
- Izzy’s father doesn’t live anymore in the book, but thanks to a lot of memories of Izzy, her uncle and her aunt, you can understand how he was like. He is described in the book as ‘ a brave, courageous lawyer who fights for the abused and neglected.’ (p. 115)
- Uncle Roger is the uncle of Izzy,he is the brother of her father. He is used to get along with children and is more like ‘the standard urban people.’ He does not show much of his feelings and business is always the most important thing. But he tries hard to make Izzy comfortable, he wants her to like him.
- Aunt Alice is the aunt of Izzy, she is married to Roger. She is a very neat woman, who wants everything clean and tidy. She is also not used to get along with children. To Izzy she tries to be nice, but sometimes you know she is faking it. She rather sees Izzy go than come. She is also very fashionable and finds appearance very important.

My sympathy goes out to Izzy, because I think she is a very brave girl. She is an orphan, has got no family left but her aunt and uncle who she doesn’t know at all,in a city very far from her former home. But she goes over there and she makes the best of it. I also appreciate her support of animals. On very much points I can see myself in Izzy, she acts the same way I would do and so I think Izzy is the most interesting person of the story.

31. Verklaar de titel. Vind je het een goede titelkeuze? Leg uit. 1 pnt.

The title of the book is Underdog. The word ‘underdog’ means something like loser, the one who is getting no attention. In Underdog there are actually two losers: Izzy, the neglected orphan and Gus, the neglected dog who had once belong to her family. Izzy’s father was a brave, courageous lawyer who fights for the abused and neglected. But his own daughter is neglected and uncared-for. She is as much an underdog as the underdogs he protects.
On one point I think it is a good title, because it referrers to three people in the book: Izzy, Gus and Izzy’s father. But on the other site I don’t think it is a good tte, because when you read the title, you don’t know where the book is going to be about. I don’t think the title is very stimulating to read the book. Until I read the back site of the book, the book didn’t look very nice to read. If I had only read the title,I think I wouldn’t have read the book.

37. Schrijf een dagboekfragment uit het dagboek van een hoofdpersoon, die bij de gebeurtenis betrokken is, naar aanleiding van een door jou gekozen belangrijke gebeurtenis en voeg dit toe. 2 pnt.

Dear diary,

I have never been so happy in my life, like I am today. I have found Gus today.
May be it is not my old Gus, but this one needs me just as much. I really want to keep him. Because he is Gus even he is not that Gus. May be that Gus found a family that wanted him, but this Gus didn’t. Nobody wants him, only me.
And uncle Roger and aunt Alice let me have him! That was something I didn’t even dream about! Mrs. Firestone told me today I could live with her, but Gus can’t get along with her old cat, Loretta. And Gus is more important to me than living with Mrs. Firestone, so I can not accept her offer.
But when we were sitting in the car, back from Mrs. Firestones house, uncle Roger asked me to stay with them. I know it is a big thing for my busy uncle and my busy aunt to let me stay with them, but I’m am very happy it is all solved this way. I have a home to live and my big love Gus is able to live there with me. My uncle and my aunt can’t ship me off to boarding school with Gus. I feel kind of sorry for them.
May be I can learn to live with waking up every morning and see the pigeon-dropping painting in my room. May be I can even get to like it.
May be I could even get to like them.

Yours,
Izzy

86. Welke incidenten, scènes of momenten in het verhaal zijn volgens jou essentieel voor het verhaal als geheel? Noem er minstens drie en verklaar je keuze. 2 pnt.

1. The first very important occurrence is the dead of Izzy’s father. On the first couple of pages she doesn’t know yet, but once she has got the bad news, her life is changed. She became an orphan.
2. The next very important event in the book is her move to San Francisco. She lived with her father in Washington, but there was no-one to take care of her. The only family she has got left were her uncle and her aunt in San Francisco, so she had to go there.
3. The day that Izzy looks in the photoalbums of her uncle and her aunt, she sees her former dog Gus in one of the pictures and then she remembers all about him. Thanks to this event Izzy start her search for the dog.The search is one of the most important things in the book, so I think the moment that Izzy starts her search is very important.


My opinion
I really liked reading this book, because it is very easy written. It contains very simple words, it has never happened that I didn’t knew a word during reading the book. This easy reading helped me to read the book in just a little time.
The story was kind of predictable, when Izzy becomes an orphan you just know that before the end of the book she will find a home. And when Izzy starts her search you also think that she will find her dog, but that was just a funny part of the story. Because you get to read the book through the eyes of Izzy, you think she has find the original Gus, but afterwards you get to know that wasn’t the Gus she was looking for. I thought that was kind of funny, as a reader I got the impression that even this part of the story was very predictable, but that wasn’t true. It ended not the way I thought. I thought Izzy would find a home and find her Gus back. The first thing became true, but the second didn’t and that was one thing I liked about the book.
I also appreciated the book because I saw very much resemblings between me and the central figure Izzy. She is also social and she wants to make the best out of all things. She tries always to make other people comfortable, even when she has to let something of herself go. That is something that I could recognise in myself.
All in all I really liked reading the book.
Andere boeken van deze auteur:

Home - Contact - Over - ZoekBoekverslag op uw site - Onze Boekverslagen - Boekverslag toevoegen