When looking for a book to review as an example of a fancy book report for my students to use as a guide when they do their own book reports, I thought of author Nevada Barr. She has a new book coming out April 1. It’s called Winter Study. I decided to review High Country, because I was looking for a book that I had a lot of personal connections to. I wanted to write about my connections, so that my students would include connections in their own book reports.
Here’s my review of High Country:
Summary:
This book is the twelfth Anna Pigeon novel by Nevada Barr. In almost every book, Anna is at a different National Park. There’s always a crime for her to solve.
In the beginning of High Country, park ranger Anna Pigeon arrives at Yosemite National Park. She’s a law enforcement park ranger who is undercover to find out why four employees have disappeared.
In the middle of the book, Anna’s undercover job is posing as a waitress at the park’s restaurant. The problem is that Anna is a terrible waitress. Meanwhile, she has to investigate the mysterious disappearances of the park employees.
Near the end of the book, Anna has to go on a very long hike into the wilderness of the park, because she has an idea of why the park employees disappeared. Armed with pocketfuls of granola bars, Anna sets off alone into danger in the woods.
Setting:
High Country takes place at Yosemite National Park during present day. Readers are introduced to the park’s historical buildings, jobs that park employees have, as well as the best hiking, camping, and rock climbing sites in the park.
Connections:
I connected to Anna in many ways. As a child, I used to visit national parks every summer. It’s great to imagine the beauty of the park as the author describes every detail. I feel like I’m in the mountains with Anna.
I’ve always wanted to be a park ranger. Through Anna’s adventures, I get to live out my dream. Anna deals with campers, views wildlife, and gets to go on amazing hikes.
When I read about Anna’s adventures as a park ranger, as well as Nevada Barr’s beautiful descriptions of our national parks, I am inspired to write my own novels about park rangers. I’m also encouraged to get out into nature and hike, bike, swim, canoe, crawl through caves, and just sit under a shady tree with a book down by a river. It’s always a wonderful and inspiring experience reading a Nevada Barr book.
Character Study:
Anna Pigeon is a very independent person. She’s also very tough and brave. No matter how dangerous a situation is, Anna always manages to hold on, persevere, and pull through. For example, when Anna gets hurt, she continues to work on her own to save someone who is in danger.
Anna’s also a very loving person and a good friend. She has a dog and a cat who she misses when she can’t be around them. Her dog is also a great companion when Anna wants to walk around campsites to meet with park guests. This is her secret way of not letting them know she’s a law enforcement park ranger. That way, the park guests will talk to her like they would any other park guest.
Anna is very intelligent. Through research, observations, interviews of people, and general police knowledge, Anna makes a very good detective. She always figures out who is causing problems and she catches the bad guy by the end of every story.
I’m making a construction paper cube and attaching each section to a different side. It will make a great book report that can be viewed from four sides.
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