conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide a description for a book titled Setting Free the Kites about Nathan, Robert, It's with the genre: Literature & Fiction, Dramas & Plays.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: It's 1976, and on the first day of eighth grade, Hollis Calhoun is flushing Robert Carter's head down the school's toilet. Enter new boy Nathan Tilly, and the scene changes as a friendship forms. Robert and Nathan bring out the best in each other just long enough to cope with the deaths of Nathan's father and Robert's brother. Despite the tragedies, readers won't feel weighed down. Like the kites Nathan sets free, the prose soars as the author tackles first loves, best friends, and clever acts of revenge. the author employs a style similar to that of Jean Shepherd (author of A Christmas Story), conjuring up a run-down amusement park, a man with a toe for a thumb, a dead mongoose, a chain-smoking dragon, and more. Also included are an oddly placed World War II flashback story and an unnecessarily long epilogue, but neither will detract from readers' enjoyment. The humor and poignancy of the boys' parallel experiences will give teens something to consider and discuss. VERDICT A wonderful tale that's full of boyhood charm and meaty enough to engage fans of literary historical fiction.Pamela Schembri, Horace Greeley High School, Chappaqua, NY
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the first sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Enter new boy Nathan Tilly, and the scene changes as a friendship forms. Robert and Nathan bring out the best in each other just long enough to cope with the deaths of Nathan's father and Robert's brother. Despite the tragedies, readers won't feel weighed down. Like the kites Nathan sets free, the prose soars as the author tackles first loves, best friends, and clever acts of revenge. the author employs a style similar to that of Jean Shepherd (author of A Christmas Story), conjuring up a run-down amusement park, a man with a toe for a thumb, a dead mongoose, a chain-smoking dragon, and more. Also included are an oddly placed World War II flashback story and an unnecessarily long epilogue, but neither will detract from readers' enjoyment. The humor and poignancy of the boys' parallel experiences will give teens something to consider and discuss. VERDICT A wonderful tale that's full of boyhood charm and meaty enough to engage fans of literary historical fiction.Pamela Schembri, Horace Greeley High School, Chappaqua, NY
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide the first five paragraphs for this book.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Setting Free the Kites
  Nathan never asked me if I wanted to have a go on the hook, but that was fine with me. I enjoyed being the pilot. He couldn't operate the controls himself while he was flying. Just as I needed him to clamber up the iron ladder and let me into the building, now he needed me, too.
  The old mill was every boy's dream. As we roamed its enormous rooms, we were confined only by our imaginations. Our games were grander, our ideas bigger, our sense of adventure never more joyfully fulfilled. There we found a refuge from all that plagued us. I could escape Liam's illness and the desperate heartbreak of my parents, and Nathan was able to forget about his father's death and his mother's slow unraveling behind her study door.
  But no matter how much we relished our escape, the sanctuary offered by those redbrick walls wouldn't last forever.
  It had been several months since he'd been admitted with pneumonia, and I had begun to hope that the worst might be over. Maybe, I told myself, his body had become more resistant to the threat of infection.
  Then there was my father's hand on my shoulder in the middle of the night, shaking me out of my sleep. The blue flash of the waiting ambulance lit up my bedroom wall. I stumbled downstairs in time to see my brother being carried out of the front door on a stretcher, my mother leaning over him. She climbed into the back of the ambulance with Liam, not looking back at us once. We followed behind in the station wagon. My father drove in silence, his face a mask of fear.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Delete the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Setting Free the Kites
  Nathan never asked me if I wanted to have a go on the hook, but that was fine with me. I enjoyed being the pilot. He couldn't operate the controls himself while he was flying. Just as I needed him to clamber up the iron ladder and let me into the building, now he needed me, too.
  The old mill was every boy's dream. As we roamed its enormous rooms, we were confined only by our imaginations. Our games were grander, our ideas bigger, our sense of adventure never more joyfully fulfilled. There we found a refuge from all that plagued us. I could escape Liam's illness and the desperate heartbreak of my parents, and Nathan was able to forget about his father's death and his mother's slow unraveling behind her study door.
  But no matter how much we relished our escape, the sanctuary offered by those redbrick walls wouldn't last forever.
  It had been several months since he'd been admitted with pneumonia, and I had begun to hope that the worst might be over. Maybe, I told myself, his body had become more resistant to the threat of infection.
  Then there was my father's hand on my shoulder in the middle of the night, shaking me out of my sleep. The blue flash of the waiting ambulance lit up my bedroom wall. I stumbled downstairs in time to see my brother being carried out of the front door on a stretcher, my mother leaning over him. She climbed into the back of the ambulance with Liam, not looking back at us once. We followed behind in the station wagon.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide five more paragraphs.. End with the sentence ' He was bedraggled and soaked to the skin.'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: I tried to escape, but he was too strong for me. I twisted my head toward Nathan and Hollis. Hollis was holding Nathan's head beneath the waves, that familiar smirk on his face. Nathan hadn't made a sound from the moment that Hollis had first hit him.
  As the submersions continued, the cold crept deeper into my bones. My teeth had begun to chatter ferociously. Just as I was starting to wonder whether Tommy and Hollis would ever get bored of their vicious little game, there was a yell from somewhere behind us.
  At this Hollis shrugged and dropped Nathan into the water. Nathan slowly got to his feet. Tommy let go of my shirt. The four of us stood there with the freezing surf washing over our ankles, all watching Faye. She looked at me and then at Nathan. "Are you guys all right?" she asked.
  Hollis took a step away from Nathan, as if the half-drowned boy on the sand were nothing to do with him. "We were done, anyway," he yawned.
  Faye turned and began to walk back up the beach. Hollis and Tommy followed. Nathan and I watched them go. Neither of us said a word. Only once they had reached the fire—we could hear the distant cheering and whooping—did Nathan turn and look at me. He was bedraggled and soaked to the skin.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide the last paragraph.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: I began writing this novel at the very bleakest time of my life. Back then, Hallam and Catherine George were the two points of hope and joy that illuminated my existence. A few years later, three more stars were added to my little firmament: Archer, Nate, and, of course, Alex. Where once there was darkness, now I am dazzled with light.