About this title: High school student and science lover Kate Malone has only one goal in life--to be accepted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is so single-minded in her goal, that she doesn't even bother applying to any other schools--and is devastated when she is not accepted. MIT's rejection letter sends Kate over the edge, resulting in a ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Speak
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780142400012ISBN:0142400017
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Slight edgewear. Previous owner stamp on first free page, otherwise pages unmarked, bright and tight. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 232 p. Audience: Children/juvenile; Young adult. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Speak
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780142400012ISBN:0142400017
Description: Very Good. No DJ Issued. Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 232 p. Audience: Children/juvenile; Young adult. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780670035663ISBN:0670035661
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Dust Jacket has some edgewear present. -, Hard Cover, Very Good / Very Good. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Viking Juvenile
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780670035663ISBN:0670035661
Description: A wonderful copy with some minor edgewear to the cover. Dust Jacket has some edgewear present. -, Hard Cover, Very Good / Very Good. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Very good. Book has appearance of light use with no easily noticeable wear. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Purchasing this DVD supports the North Central Regional Library. Thriftbooks and NCRL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Library ID found on DVD and case. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Fair. Purchasing this book supports the King County Library System Foundation. Thriftbooks and KCLSF have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Speak
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780142400012ISBN:0142400017
Description: Good. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 232 p. Intended for a juvenile audience. Intended for a young adult/teenage audience. read more
"I am thankful this book found its way to my nightstand because I have been in a terrible reading slump for the last few weeks. I needed this book in my life right now because it reminded me of no one, nowhere and nothing. It was Perfect with a capital P for decluttering my crowded, messy brain.
This dramatic story follows Kate, a high school senior/chemistry genius who is obsessed with being accepted by MIT. During the course of the school year, her dream becomes a disillusion and her worst enemy becomes her savior.
There is death, intrigue, questionable agendas, domestic violence, house fires, childhood illnesses, theft and angst in this story but it never feels heavy handed. The author has a way of subtly casting aspersions without calling attention to the action. She brings the readers to their own thought processes, which I love.
This book taught me to ponder the essence of the concept of "else.""
"Not anywhere nearly as good as Speak. Kate, the science brain who is nevertheless too stupid (or too driven) to apply to any other college than MIT, doesn't get in (that's not a spoiler, it's the first twenty pages) and her life is turned upside down when her reverend father takes in Teri Litch, an outcast girl, and Teri's mother and young brother. Teri is the catalyst of the hackneyed title, altho we never see anything from her point of view and never get to know her as a character. We don't get to know any other characters, either. Where Melinda, in Speak, was believably acid-tongued because of the trauma she was enduring, Kate's bright brittleness is blamed on the early death of her mother (whom we never see, either). The division of her character into outward, conforming Good Kate and bad, caustic Bad Kate is as binary and simplistic as the nomenclature. Unlike the year-long exploration of the art program in Speak, the chemistry talk in this book feels painted on, a thin literary contrivance that can't support the thematic weight it's asked to bear in place of real structure or characterization. The real story here is Teri's, but nobody tells it -- not Teri, not Kate, not Anderson herself. Kate's English teacher "still thinks understanding Greek mythology is the key to happiness. If you ask me, Theresa Litch is a living, breathing Greek tragedy." In an especially annoying and typical trend in modern literature, the plot and its problems are never resolved -- there's just a fake 'epiphany,' and the book simply ends. Melinda herself from Speak makes a cameo as a student building an art installation on campus, but it's just a gag since she and Kate only exchange a few words and she means nothing to the story. I paid two dollars for this book at a Value Village, and it was too much.
Probably Catalyst's biggest disappointment, and the biggest reason for its failure, is its heroine -- or rather, heroines. Anderson falls into one of the oldest narrative traps of all: how do you write about a boring character without being boring? Kate isn't boring, exactly (well, probably not intentionally, anyway) but she's closed-off and defensive and shut down. Teri is the one with the story which drives the plot, but we're stuck listening to Kate; Melinda couldn't speak to the people around her in her own world, and so her voice, speaking directly to us, created a unique bond between the character and the readers. Her story not only had a clear arc and well-defined end, there was a reason she was telling it, to us; the storytelling itself became part of the plot an theme, as it does with all good first-person novels. Kate, by contrast, doesn't speak to -- or for -- us, or anyone else, at all."
"This novel centers around a girl who is obsessed with getting into MIT, which ultimately rejects her. During the novel she gains some perspective on this conflict when she is forced to room with a girl who struggles with much more meaningful conflicts: incest, survival, death. The author cleverly, maybe too cleverly, titles each short chapter with a chemical term and definition that apply metaphorically to the action in the chapter. The ending is somewhat positive after a book full of really negative attitude. Religion gets a really bad rap in the novel, though the protagonist's pastor father is shown to be a fairly good guy, especially at the end. I think most adolescent readers would have a hard time identifying with the protagonist being totally devastated, her life ruined, almost mentally ill because she didn't get into the prestigious college she expected to be able to attend."
"This is another emotional story written by Laurie Halse Anderson. "Catalyst" is a novel about Kate - high school senior who thinks she has all her life planned out and under control. She is a perfectionist and does everything to make sure her life doesn't steer away from her plan. Some might think that Kate is self-centered and almost obsessive, but in reality she uses this orderliness to shield herself from the deep pain caused by her mother's death. After a series of events, some catastrophic, some not that vital, Kate is forced to lower her "shield;" she finally starts to understand what is really important in life and faces her emotional issues.
I enjoyed this novel. Anderson's writing, although it requires some getting used to, is superb and deeply personal. This is definitely one of the better YA books. Although I didn't come to understand Kate and Teri as much as I would like to (sometimes Anderson's writing is too subtle for me) and this book wasn't as focused as her other book I've read "Wintergirls", I enjoyed "Catalyst" enough to continue on reading this writer's other books."
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