gnome-murderer

[gnome-murderer]

| -Alex, I think we're about to crash...

(Here's the source)

[gnome-murderer]

All in all — recommendation?

🌙🌙🌙🌙 /5

This is our statement at the end of the book but no, it's not gonna be the last post... We still have some pictures and little texts which we're gonna upload about the characters. Just as a disclaimer ;)

So all in all the book was very good even though it might not be the genre we usually read — one of us likes to read fantasy and something that goes into the witchy direction, we have one who likes to read non-fiction like political stuff or mental health stuff and then we have one who reads fantasy too and science-fiction and romance stuff. We mean, considering that we usually aren't the type for teenage books, it was really good and we enjoyed it. Coming-of-age books are mostly pretty similar — teenagers finding themselves and growing as a person. But honestly the friendship between Alex and Sol just adds the finishing touch to the book. They both are similar what makes the storyline interesting because you get to see how two so similar persons help each other to grow as a person. You see the friendship blossoming between them and the whole time you read you hope that the book is not going to break your heart... (Though little spoiler: It did break our heart.) The book just helps you to reflect on yourself as well. Like do you have habits that you'd like to change about your behavior? Do you have a problem with distancing yourself from others and not telling them what you actually think? If in general you're interested in coming-of-age books — definitely a recommendation. Like go ahead, you'll enjoy it! And even if you generally don't read books about teenagers don't worry, we don't either tbh and we still enjoyed the book nonetheless. It's worth your time because all of us once went through being a teenager. Being a teenager is literally stressful a lot of the times and the book represents that really well. Tell us if you actually pick it up and read it ♡ that would be cool but have fun with whatever you doing in general.

[gnome-murderer]

| -Laurie, the best friend of Alex and future girlfriend ???

[gnome-murderer]

I leaned toward her, suavely raised one eyebrow, and made my voice low and gravelly: "How about a new year's kiss?" She laughed, said, "In your dreams, buddy boy," and punched me in the arm, hard.

[gnome-murderer]

Midnight Driver inspired by Jordan's students?

So, yeah, when it came to 'Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie' Jordan wrote it for his students as well as for others in the situation of having, for example, a family member diagnosed with cancer. And yes, you guessed it, also 'Notes from the Midnight Driver' is inspired from Jordan's teaching experience. Jordan normally as a teacher had a class he taught. There was one day though where he was absent from the classroom and needed a substitute to fill in for him. That didn't went well if we can say it so bluntly. Jordan's students didn't behave and even when he confronted them afterwards they just rolled their eyes at him and blamed the incident on someone else. He obviously gave them a punishment which was that each of them should write a note of apology to their parents. As Jordan said himself "They were flippant, self-serving, non-responsible, blaming notes so much so that I couldn't even send them to the parents." So as before he literally put the situation into a storyline for a book and then later read his story to his students and apparently they realized that it was what they had done and written on their notes back then. All in all, respect to Jordan to handeling the situation so well. Seems like we should just deal with our frustration through writing a book about it. That's like a rough cut why he wrote the story. And no, the characters are not directly inspired by his students. Jordan actually created Alex after himself, Alex's best friend, Laurie, is inspired by his students — a compilation of some of his students. And Sol, the one who plays a major part in Alex's character development is actually inspired by Jordan's grandfather. And honestly his grandfather must be great because Sol was literally amazing.

[gnome-murderer]

| -Alex, drunk on his way to his dad... let's behead some lawn gnome

It's the picture we use as a profile picture, if you're curious.

[gnome-murderer]

Jordan Sonnenblick

Jordan Sonnenblick is, if you haven't guessed it so far, the author of 'Notes from the Midnight Driver' which he published in 2006. In general he started writing way before in school but started to actually publish books in 2003. We're gonna tell you a little bit about his life that you have a rough overview but Jordan tells his lifestory best so we recommend to just read his fun facts about himself and his "usual life stuff" as he calls it himself on his website. He's born in 1969 in Missouri and spent most of his childhood in Staten Island, NY. Jordan went to Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan where he met a creative writing teacher who taught him a lot about writing. At graduation his teacher actually gave Jordan a big creative writing award. After high school Jordan went to the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia where he majored in English. He joined a lot of activities like literally it feels like everything you could think of — that man is impressive — he played the drums in theater group, wrote his own stuff, announced for the marching band and even dressed up as Santa Claus to entertain patients at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Don't worry guys we're finally getting to the part of his life where he starts writing. After college he joined an organization called Teach for America. Jordan got sent to teach a 5th grade in Houston, Texas but later he and his wife moved to Pennsylvania to be closer to their families — that sounds totally cute and honestly hope they're happy. Anyway, Jordan then started teaching an 8th grade. In 2002-2003 he had a student whose little brother was in treatment for cancer. So Jordan searches for a book for her that would be helpful in her situation to deal with it but it turns out that he can't find one — so surprise he writes his first own book 'Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie'. Since then he has written a book every year.

[gnome-murderer]

Heeey guys

Hey guys, this is a fan account for a book named 'Notes from the Midnight Driver' by Jordan Sonnenblick published in 2006. To be honest we were reading the book in our English class and our task was to write or make a book review — a presentation or an instagram account. So our group — we are three people btw who don't even know what they're doing half of the time xD — thought about making a Tumblr blog about the book because why not? We're gonna upload our review in seperate posts and add quotes, aesthetic pictures for specific characters, maybe a little character analysis and our favorite scenes... We'll see. If you've read the book and are a fan then hey tell us what you think about it. Who's your favorite character? What is your favorite aspect? If you're new to the book then welcome ♡ Join us, you might only read the quotes and look at the pictures but we hope that you have fun nonetheless. Here's a little description of the book if you haven't heard of it. You could say that it's a typical coming-of-age / teenage book... But it's so much more honestly: A 16-year-old boy named Alex gets drunk and "borrows" his mother's car. His adventure doesn't last long because he gets into an accident. Did he just behead someone??? It turns out that his parents just got divorced and that the situation between him and his parents is quite tense. Even though the story starts with a drunk driving accident and the topic of divorce, tense families and over the course of the book also talks about death — it mainly focuses on the teenager life of Alex and his character develops. And no surprise here, the police catches Alex when he caused an accident and he gets a 100 hours of community service assigned at a nursing home as punishment. And from that moment on the storyline starts to begin. Because even though it's Alex's mistake and accident he blames it on every person around him. He's that typical mostly careless teenage boy but through meeting someone who's quite similar to him he starts to develop into someone taking responsibility for his actions. It's moving and heartwarming as well has heartbreaking at times. Did it make us turn pages and pages without stopping? ...Weeell, yes. And did it put us into an emotional spiral? Yehes. You experience the situations from Alex perspective and start to feel for him — might even relate to him when it comes to his behavior and decisions because being a teenager can be stressful and draining tbh. Have fun reading the book or just looking at our opinions if this description made you interested in the book. ♡