One for the Books “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”

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Kaitlyn Craig, Columnist and Human Interest Coordinator

For this edition of “One for the Books”, I have decided to review a book that is slightly different than what I normally do. “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” is a story about a nine year old boy on the autism spectrum named Oskar who lost his father in the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. One day, he is looking through his father’s closet when he finds an envelope with the word “Black” on it and a key inside.  So Oskar decides that he is going to try and meet everyone with the name Black in New York City to try and find something out about the key. He feels that this might be the last bit of closure and make him feel close to his dad one last time.

I read this book for my AP Literature Independent Novel Study, but I chose it because I saw the movie a few years ago and absolutely loved it. The story is a very unique one that you can’t find in a lot of other books. Most books that are from the perspective of younger children are written in a younger child’s vocabulary. But since Oskar is very smart, the book reads very much like a child who is very intelligent and just wants to know more. Another thing I really liked about this book was that there were pictures of the things that Oskar was talking about thrown in. Things like pictures he saw and things he was experiencing, this gives the book another aspect of being through a child’s eyes.

This book was very easy for me to read, when I would sit down to read it, I would read for hours because it was so interesting. It really helped me while doing my assignments on it, since I actually chose the story for myself and I got to tailor my assignment directly to my interests. I also got the chance to rewatch the movie (starring Tom Hanks as the father) after I finished the book, and it definitely gave me a whole new insight into what I was seeing. I would definitely recommend reading the book, and then watching the movie to compare. I would give this book a definite ⅘!