BOOKS: the notebook

Hi !

My brother just arrived at the airport a few hours ago: he had been to Brazil with his wife and his child. Now he's home again and he's very tired, so I didn't have the chance to meet him. We're all very happy he's with us again!
Tonight, my brother (he's twelve) has his musical. It was his last day of school today and next year he starts at our secondary school, which is like seventh grade in the US.
Today I wanna talk about books, and one book in particular: the Notebook. It will not only be about the book 'the Notebook', but also about the movie.
Enjoy !



Short summary of the book
Noah Calhoun is an old, retired man, living in a retirement. Everyday he reads to a woman in his notebook. The first part of the book is about Noah, thinking about the notebook. Then, in part two, he thinks about his life when he was younger, and he first met his first, real love.
His first real love is Allison (Allie) Hamilton. She spends the summer with her parents in their other house in Seabrook. They fall in love and spend the summer together, till Allie has to go back with her parents. Her mother doesn't like Allie hanging out with Noah and decides she has to come with them. They go to their other house and the two lovers are seperated from then on.
Noah doesn't want to forget Allie and he starts writing letters to her. He writes every month to her for two years, but his letters stay unanswered. Allie misses Noah too, but her mother hides the letters for her, so the two don't communicate with each other.
Noah leaves and goes to Europe. He fights in the war and after the war, he returns home. A few years later, his father dies.
Noah decides to buy the house he and Allie had so many memories with and tries to renovate it. He spends the next years with rebuilding the house. In order to find someone for the house, he puts his photograph in the newspaper. Allie seems him with the house and wants to meet him. She's engaged now with another man, but still decides to visit Noah.
The two fall in love with each other again, but Allie is engaged and she has to make a choice.
The third part of the book is about the older Noah Calhoun, still in the retirement. The woman who he reads to everyday, is his wife. She has Alzeihmer and she starts to remember things again, although that's impossible according to the doctos. At the end of the book, we find out who Noah Calhoun is married to and how the story of the two beloved ones ended.

Differences between the book and the movie
The book and the movie have a lot of differences.
- First of all, the book focuses more on how Noah and Allie met, which is a whole lot different than the book. In the movie, Noah kind of 'forces' Allie to go out with him. In the book, Noah is a shy guy who asks her to go out with him shyly.
- The physical characteristics of Noah in the book and the movie are similar. Allie, on the other side, is blonde in the book and has read hair in the movie.
- The book focuses more on the thoughts of Noah and what kind of disease he has, in the movie it's not even told.
- Some things in the book are left out and replaced by other events that don't occur in the book. For example, Allie tries to play the piano again and she succeeds in the movie. In the book it's not even mentioned.

The book or the movie?
To be honest, I like the movie better. The main characters are very good actors and the love between those two is very passionate.
Noah Calhoun is played by Ryan Gosling and Allie is played by Rachel McAdams.
The movie illustrates it much better than the book. The book has approxamitely 150 pages, which is quite small for a book. The movie is very beautiful and I recommend it to everyone! On a scale from 1 to 10 I would give the movie an 8.

In short: the movie is better than the book, although the book is pretty good too. It's a very nice love story and I recommend it to everyone.

xoxo Sabrina