Pay It Forward

Rating:
Summary: Incredibly powerful concept...
Review: Based on a comment from my boss at work, I found and read the book Pay It Forward by Catherine Ryan Hyde. It's an incredible story and concept that has powerful implications.

Trevor McKinney, a 12 year boy, is given an assignment by his teacher, Reuben St. Clair. Think up a project that will change the world. Trevor comes up with the concept of Pay It Forward. The concept is simple... you do something important and valuable for 3 people. Instead of taking payment for it, those three people have to "pay it forward" by doing something for 3 other people. Through multiplication, pretty soon everyone is looking for ways to do good to others. Trevor picks three people to do something good for, but it appears that all three people fail to pay it forward. But unknown to Trevor, those good deeds do get paid forward, and soon the concept and movement jumps to the west coast and catches on. An enterprising reporter traces down the source of the project and Trevor is highlighted to the country as someone who has changed the world. But tragedy strikes the family and things don't turn out well. But the movement takes off and changes the world.

So how'd I find this book? I boss at work used the phrase "pay it forward" in conjunction with an email I had sent him. I also had another blogger use that phrase in an email exchange. After using Google to figure out exactly what it meant, I checked out the book from the library. Very glad I did. The idea of "paying it forward" is powerful and would change lives if it ever caught on. I'm not so naive to think that something like this would ever happen, but there's nothing to prevent me from implementing this in my own life. Sorta like changing the world one person at a time.

Rating:
Summary: What's wrong with being Utopian?
Review: I loved this book, but was not going to take the time to review it--but the last review about it being "overly utopian" ticked me off. In the movie, the teacher tells Trevor that the class thinks he's come up with an overly utopian idea. He says, "So?"

I'm on his side.

Also, I wish people wouldn't review books unless they have read them carefully. In the movie Trevor is 11. In the book, when he makes that comment about Chelsea Clinton being "a major babe" he is just a day or two shy of his 14th birthday. And it never says the world is perfect and there is no greed. Also the book starts with the gift of a 2-year-old Acura, where in the movie it's a brand-new Jaguar. In the book the boy helps an old lady with her garden. How can anyone say the favors in the book are outrageous and unbelievable compared to the movie? I don't know what book "Overly Utopian" read, but it wasn't the Pay It Forward I read.

Please, people, it's okay not to like a book but be fair and get your facts right.

Rating:
Summary: Movie vs. Book
Review: In most cases the book is always better than the movie. In this case, I think I enjoyed the movie more. I am not sure if it is because I saw it before reading the book. I found the constant changes from one character's point of view to another rather annoying, and I think had I not seen the movie first, I may have had a hard time following it. I love the the whole concept of paying it forward and wouldn't it be a wonderful world if everyone did? I was disappointed with the changes made in the movie (casting, ending, etc.) but that seems to happen a lot when books go to movies. The only movie I have seen recently that follows the book exactly was The Five People You Meet in Heaven (which was on TV recently). Anyway, good book, enjoy it!

Rating:
Summary: Changing the World
Review: It is so cute the way that no matter what bad things happen to Trevor he always stays optimistic. A 13 year old boy gets an assignment to try and change the world and actually suceeds at doing this. The entire story is mainly told from the point of view of a reporter but sometimes it switches to Arlene (Trevor's Mom), Reuben (Trevor's Teacher), Trevor, or Jerry (A Person Trevor Tries to Help). The idea of paying it forward is one person is going to help three people and all of them have to help three other people and it just keeps going and going and it gets really high really fast. I would recommend this book to people who like the idea of someone changing the world or people who want a nice quick read.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most uplifting stories possible.
Review: Like other reviewers, I am a cynic. Like other reviewers, I saw the cover and it interested me. I came back from lunch and looked up the title and, after reading the synopsis, ordered it immediately despite a stack of books at home just waiting to be read. I finally read it yesterday. Amazing how such an uplifting message can be delivered in only a couple of hours. Despite my innate cynicism, I finished the book wishing that something similar would happen -- and believing that it could. As the book points out, the idea is not "random acts of kindness". They are not random. It is spending your time looking for people that you can help -- and then asking them to pay it forward. And you help them despite your feelings to the contrary -- as in the case of Matt and Sidney G., or the original gang member Chris interviewed.

I started a tradition a couple years ago of buying some of the best books I read that year for friends and family, so they would have their own copies to pass on. This year, I am already considering buying everyone the same book, just because it was so wonderful and carries such an incredible message. I only wish that other readers had reacted more like the adults of the book, rather than Trevor's classmates -- seeing the possibilities and responsibilities that come with paying a kindness forward, rather than questioning whether people can actually live based on an honor system.

Rating:
Summary: I'm really giving this 4 1/2 stars
Review: Okay, firstly, I command you to forget the movie ever existed. Done that? Good! Secondly, a warning- this is NOT a book for cynics who insist on being cynical.

Pay it Forward is a wonderfully refreshing novel about a boy in his early teens who decides to change the world. The characters are vivid and real- I found myself sympathizing with every one of them and really believing they were real. It's a fast read- if you've got some time on your hands and are determined to do so, you can read it easily in one sitting- the plot moves quickly and rarely ever slows down. It's sentimental, but not Hollywood sentimental, which is what the movie ended up being.

Hyde's style is crisp and terse, sometimes overly simplistic. This is a book that elementary school kids can read, it's that easy to understand, but this is also a book that older audiences can appreciate for its message and the inspiration it offers.

Rating:
Summary: A great read!
Review: Pay it Forward is one of my favourite all time books. I was so annoyed when a saw a reveiw written by a certain person called Steven, whoever he is, who said that Pay it Forward was unrealistic.
It is a wonderful book packed with imagination, cliffhangers, humour and even tragedy! The ending had me crying! You get to know the characters so well, that it almost makes you want to scream when anything bad happens to them!

Rating:
Summary: An amazing story, and better than the movie adaptation!
Review: PAY IT FORWARD tells of a young boy of 12 years called Trevor, who is given an assignment by his schoolteacher and mentor Reuben St. Clair, who unlike Kevin Spacey in the movie version of his character is an Afro-American former Vietnam vet who lost an eye in the war. Morgan Freeman would've been awesome at this part! Anyway, I digress. The assignment involves how one could make the world a better place. Trevor comes up with a plan in which he does a good turn for someone who then has to pass on three more favours or good turns to others. With his problems at home with an alcoholic mother, he still makes the effort. His first two attempts fail, but as the story progresses we learn more(than the movie!!) about how the favours and good acts of kindness are being passed on, in fact so much that a journalist, Chris Chandler(who we hear from in retrospective chapters looking back from his future perspective), is hot on the trail of who began the acts of kindness across America. Still in spite of family complications - Reuben and his mother Arlene are romantically involved thaks to his persuasion, and his redneck birth father Ricky suddenly shows up out of the blue, the PAY IT FORWARD movement becomes a huge event . . . but with tragic consequences. These are explored deeper and better in the original novel as well. All these little sories intertwine to create one of the most original novels I have ever read, and a big thankyou to Catherine Ryan Hyde for influencing me to just do that extra good turn for someone who might need it, and that there may really be a way to change human nature without resorting to violent or extreme means, you never know. Also a thankyou to those on a certain movie fan site who recommended I read this!

Rating:
Summary: I just can't bring myself to finish it!!!
Review: The movie is great! The idea is great! The book is... not so great.

I bought the book because the community where I live participated in the One Book program, where the entire community is encouraged to read one book. Events were planned, even a lecture and book signing by Ms. Hyde. I was excited.

I started reading the book and waited for the author to get into a groove. I waited for the writing to smooth out a little but it didn't happen. I got to chapter four and I just couldn't take it any more. I see why the screenplay writers changed the story so much. The book takes an absolutely fabulous idea and packages it in an unrealistic, contrived, poorly written package.

I wanted to give it 5-stars, I wanted it to be 5-star material but it just isn't.

Rating:
Summary: A great read!
Review: The story of the book is good, the way that Trevor makes his homework is amazing, the love story between Reuben and Arlene is fair enough, but the las two chapters and the epilogue you just can skip them, they make the story like a fairy tale, don't leave anything to your imagination, I think that is a big mistake.