Final Blog

I think blogging really helped me always think about my books while I was reading them opposed to just reading the words on the pages or just reflecting on a book after I was done reading it.  I think online writing limits me greatly because when I'm typing something , I always have time to second guess myself with my wordds and thoughts where as if i'm jsut writing I don't think as much the words just come onto the paper and then they're there.  I think people are more real inp erons because in person it is easier to speak your mind.  For example, when you text someone or have a conversation with someone online, its not instant like a real conversation would be.   It would be really awkward in real life if two people were having a conversation but replied to each other every two minutes, just because you are thinking about the best way to respond so that people don't judge you. 
I think we are influenced more by society online than in person.  I think we try to be "perfect" online and fit in.  Our brain is better linked to our mouth than to our hands. 

Romeo and Juliet Essay

     In Romeo and Juliet, I noticed that they way Romeo and Juliet are raised affects the way they act.  There are many specific example of this through out the story but a huge general one is when the Montagues and Capulets complain about who is more superior, and the children over hear, they feel more superior to the other family and feel like they cannot express there love towards each other to their parents. 
     I noticed that Romeo and Juliet must've grown up with the thoughts that there family is better.  I can interpret this because Romeo says, when he first sets eyes on Juliet, "Is she a Capulet? O dear account!/  My life is my foes debt." (1.5.131-132).  This lets me know that by seeing and falling in love with Juliet, Romeo already knows it will be an issue to have the two families intermingle.  It seems like Romeo is breaking rules just so he can "happily" be in love.  But is it really happy if they cannot make there love public and be accepted? 
     Lady Capulet also tells Juliet who to love.  She often discusses with Juliet and the nurse of marriage and being in love with Paris.   "Marry, that "marry" is the very theme/ I came to talk of. - Tell me, daughter Juliet,/ How stands your disposition to be married?"  (1.3.86-70)  In this quote, Lady Capulet says how marriage is such a happy thing and asks Juliet what her stand on being married is.  By this, I feel like Juliet's mom is imposing that Juliet should marry soon and hopefully marry someone like Paris.  I feel that by saying how much of a happy time she thinks marriage is, it will be hard for Juliet to say something along the lines of "No I do not want to marry now."  But she does, because Juliet, on the other hand, is not looking forward to getting married and responds to her mom "It is an honor that I dream not of."  (1.3.71).  It means that she doesn't want to get married.  I think that this can affect the way Juliet acts because by already saying no to her mom, and disobeying her mom makes her already like a rebel, and makes her mom feel weaker and Juliet feel stronger.
     In Romeo and Juliet, the nurse and Juliet have a very strong relationship.  I feel like the nurse is more of a mother to Juliet than Lady Capulet is.  I feel this because the nurse knows more about Juliet than  Lady Capulet does, as well as the nurse has more time to spend around Juliet, and one last thing is that Juliet was practically raised by the nurse.  For example, the nurse states "Thou wast the prettiest babe that e'er I nursed." (1.3.65) The nurse is proposing that she was always there for Juliet and she nursed her and loved her and cared for her.  The nurse also knows about the marriage proposal between Romeo and Juliet.  "Then hie you hence to Friar Lawrence' cell./ There stays a husband to make you a wife./ Now comes the wanton blood up in your cheeks;/ They'll be in scarlet straight at any news/ Hie you to church" (2.5.73-77)  The nurse says this to Romeo.  She is saying how Juliet wants to marry you and how the nurse knows how much they're in love.  Juliet sent the nurse to go get a message from Romeo.  Once she gets the message, the nurse teases Juliet and refuses to tell her for a while.  Eventually, she delivers the message which was discussing the marriage further.  Once the nurse knew about Romeo and Juliet getting married, she didn't tell Lady Capulet.  I thought this was interesting.  I thought this because the nurse is supposed to be loyal and respect the Capulets' orders and listen to them.  But she is sneaking around Lady Capulet's back and helping Juliet with something she knows is forbidden.  I think she did this because of her mother-daughter relationship with Juliet.  Maybe she also knows that Paris is not the right guy for Juliet but Romeo is. 
     In conclusion, I noticed that Romeo and Juliet have to sneak around to see each other.  This is because thye know there love is forbidden and there families will not deal with the two intermingling.  An example of when the two are sneaking around is the balcony scene.  Romeo sneaks onto Juliets' balcony and proposes.  Both the Montagues and Capulets were not aware of the couples engagement.  Another place where Romeo and Juliet had to sneak around is the night when Romeo was banished.  Lady Capulet was not aware that they spent the night together.  All of these examples prove that the negative way Romeo and Juliet are parented affects the way the two act and rebel. 

Two Little Girls in Blue by Mary Higgins Clark *Contains Some Spoilers*

This week, I read a very intriguing book by Mary Higgins Clark.  It was about two telepathic twins that got kidnapped on there 3rd birthday and the kidnapper wants an 8 million dollar ransom.  Steve, the father, pays the ransom but only one child is returned and the kidnapper (still anonymous) said that the other twin has died tragically and is dumped into the ocean.  Since the twins are telepathetic, the twin reunited with her parents, Kelly, can feel that her sister, Kathy, is still alive and is very very scared. 

I thought that this was a very scary book but not in a gross way, it was almost like you were scared for Kathy's survival and wanted to know what happened.

Something I noticed was how Mary Higgins Clark made the twins so young but made them have such an important part in Kathy's survival.  For example, Kelly was getting the feeling that Kathy needed help and wasn't actually dead.  The problem was that only the mother believed her daughter.  Not even Steve or the police.  I can see how that makes sense because she is a 3 year old girl. 

Eventually, the FBI and the police and all of the official people, decided to listen to Kelly since Kathy has been gone for so long.  But, I'm not going to say what happens at the end because then it'll ruin the whole book.

All in all, I thought that Two Little Girls in Blue by Mary Higgins Clark was a great book that had the plot going until the end of the book.  I would recommend this to anyone who likes mysteries. 

Rebel Spirits #2

I still haven't finished reading this book but I am really close to being done.  I think Lori's feelings deepended and became more complicated.  But now along with sorting out her feelings, she also has to work on solving Nathaniels murder mystery before he goes off into ike, the spirit world, or whatever.  I think despite whether they solve the mystery, I think that it is going to be hard for Nathaniel and Lori to say goodbye to each other because they love each other.  Also, they will never see each other again, which is really complicated because Lori's in love with a ghost.  Lori also feels betrayed right now because everyone is lying to her and she has to figure out whose telling the truth and whose bad and whose good.  I don't think that Lori will be happy with herself until she finds out who murdered Nathaniel. I predict that Lori will solve the mystery but Lori and Nathaniel will have to part forever so it will be like a bitter sweet ending. 

Rebel Spirits by Lois Ruby

This week, I started reading Rebel Spirits which is about  girl named Lori who has to help a ghost named Nathaniel solve a murder mystery before he has to leave forever.  The two only have about a week to solve the mystery.

So far in this book, one thing I noticed is definitely the romance between Evan, Lori, and Nathaniel.  Evan is one of the maintenance workers at the inn that Lori and her family own and live at.  Evan likes Lori but Lori likes Nathaniel (even though hes a ghost) and Nathaniel likes Lori but Nathaniel had a fiancé before he died in the Civil War. 

I think that romance is an issue/ idea in this book because it basically builds Loris relationship with everyone around her.

For example sometimes Lori could be flirty with Evan.  And Evan always helps Lori.

Also, Nathaniel and Lori spend some of there time being a couple and stuff but they also need to put there feelings on the side and focus on the murder mystery. 

I predict that Lori and Nathaniel will both be said on June 3rd which is when Nathaniel has to leave for good.  It might be the last time Lori can ever see him.

Calico Joe *Spoiler Alert*

This week,I started reading Calico Joe.  It's mostly about Warren Tracey (A mets picher) son named Paul Tracey who like Joe Castle who plays on the Cubs.  His father ended Joe's career after beaning him in the head with a fastball.  The book goes back and forth from when Paul is a kid and having very little time with his father, and the time spent with him was used in an abusive way.  And when Paul is an adult, and married with kids, and finds out Warren has terminal cancer and only has a couple of more months to live.  Paul decides before his dad dies, that he wants Joe and Warren to talk about what happened between them. 

I think through out this book, Paul shows a lot of determination.  For example, when he was a kid and his dad hit him after not pitching "properly" in one of Paul's youth baseball games, Paul didn't go run and cry to his mother or anyone. And he didn't want to leave the house until his black eye faded. I think that this shows a lot of determination because Paul could've cried over it and other things but instead he just acted natural.

Another point where I think Paul shows determination is when he finds out his dad has terminal cancer.  I think by this point, Warren realized that he raised his son wrong, but Warren also didn't try to do anything to fix it.  He just let the years pass without having any contact with his family.  Warren tried to use having cancer as an excuse to get sympathy from his son but Paul showed determination and didn't fall for it.

One last point where I saw Paul showing determination is when Paul traveled repeadedly to Arkansas just to try to set up a meeting between Joe Castle and Warren Tracey.

In conclusion, there are many points in Calico Joe that show Paul Tracey is a determined person.  I have not yet finished the book, but I think that there will be other points where Paul shows determination. 

Catching Jordan by Miranda Keanelly

Recently, I finished reading "Catching Jordan" by Miranda Keanelly.  And it is about a girl who is starting QB for her high school football team.  Everyone is jealous of her.  The boys are jealous because she is an amazing football player but the girls are jealous because she gets to spend so much time with the football boys.  Then a new quarterback named Ty comes and Jordan likes him.  They compete for starting QB.  Jordan's best friend, Sam gets jealous and feels that he is starting to lose Jordan because suddenly she spends all her free time hanging out with Ty. 

I think Catching Jordan was basically about Jordan finding her place.  In between chapters Jordan would write poems that were about her life and feelings.  There is a lot going on in Catching Jordan and all the characters play an important part.  For example, Ty adds to the emotion of the story with his family history and Jordan has problems with her dad because her dad plays professional football so he has seen many injuries and doesn't want Jordan getting hurt. 

Another issue was that all the high school kids in the story were seniors so they were waiting for their acceptance letters and it added a lot of emotion to the the story because when a character was anxious or stressed the reader could really feel that.

Level 2 by Lenore Appelhans

I recently finished reading "Level 2" and it was mostly about a girl named Felicia who dies and find herself now living in "Level 2" Which is like an afterlife.  It is technically in the middle of living and death.  There are other people in Level 2 and everyone can bond on reflect on memories from there lifetime.  Felicia meets a guy named Julian who I think likes Felicia.  Felicia thinks Julian is very mysterious and I agree with her.  He often pops up out of no where.  Julian thinks he can help Felicia become reunited with someone from the living life but Felicia doesn't want to trust him.

I think an issue is Felicia needs to learn to trust people.  She thinks Julian is mysterious but he could also be very helpful but that will only happen if she can trust him.

If I were Felicia I would probably trust Julian because, like, you're already dead so it's almost like you can do whatever you want. 

I thought it was a very good book because as the book goes on, we learn more and more about Felicia.  We learn a lot about how she lived her life and who was very important to her. 

Hooked by Liz Fichera

In this book, Fred is the only girl on the boys golf team.  The boys don't like Fred, especially this one boy named Ryan, whose best friend got kicked off to make room for Fred.  I thought that Fred was really passionate about golf and reminded me about how me and my friend Ashley act towards softball.  Not only can we be compared to Fred, but I think we can also be compared to Ryan.  I think this because Ashley and I can get a little competitive when it comes to new girls trying out for the team. 

One of my favorite characters was Fred's dad.  I liked Fred's dad because he was very supportive and trusting in his daughters decisions. 

I also liked Fred's older brother because the author set him up in a very mysterious way, revealing little by little about him, throughout the book. 

I think both Fred's dad and brother were very trusting in Fred.

New Girl by Paige Harbison

 I felt bad for two characters in this book.  I felt bad for Callie because everyone was being mean to her and Dana was trying to control her life.  I feel that Callie did good because she didn't let it bother her that much.  Callie knew that she could live her life the way that she wanted to.  So even though Max was Becca's ex, Callie still had the right to go out with him if they liked each other, which they did.

I also felt bad for Becca because even though she was popular and amazing, some people were mean to her and she had a hard time fitting in any school, let alone Manderley.  I also realized that Becca realized that she was mean.  She made Max stay with her by making him feel guilty and when she got pregnant she just wanted to be alone for a little but that turned out to be her death.  She did not know about the storm.

I also kind of feel bad for Dana because Becca was her BFF and she saw Becca die and she blames herself for not going after her when she fell in the water.

I thought that New Girl had a really rough beginning which took a something to get into but I'm glad I continued reading because it was a really nice book about a boarding school, with a mystery that the seniors are trying to solve via Facebook and history.

Blog post on Rebecca's blog

http://beccadoodles.blogspot.com/
This week, I reviewed Rebecca's  blog post on the book "Stay" by Deb Caletti. I think Rebecca started her post of in a good way by saying how she thought it was a complex book.  In Rebecca's post, I think she did a good job of adding in how she thought Clara felt.  Rebecca also added how she thinks she would've felt if in Clara's position which makes her post seem even more relatable and realistic.

Rebecca's post really makes me want to read this book and I think it is because of the intense details she used and the positive way she described the book. Rebecca used good structure for her post.   This post stands out compared to some of her other ones because I think Rebecca put a lot more ideas into it.

In some of her other blogs, she focused on one idea and found three or four details from the book to support it. In this post, she had a more broad idea and it was easy for her to add in her feelings and her thoughts about the authors choice on the dads perspective.

This Is Not A Drill by Beck McDowell *Spoiler*

In, This Is Not A Drill by Beck McDowell, there are two students, Emery and Jake.  They are tutoring in a first grade classroom.  The book is told from the point of view of Jake and Emery.  It is a very suspenseful book. 

Right when Emery and Jake are about to leave to head back to there high school classes, a man comes to the classroom and asks to take his son Patrick. Emery, Jake, and the teacher tell Mr.Stutts that he cant take his son without going through the mainoffice first.  Mr. Stutts takes a gun and threatens to shoot so Emery, Jake, the teacher, and all 18 students are held hostage.

Soon into the book, the teacher passes out from lack of insulin, as a diabetic. Even though Mr. Stutts does not want anyone to leave the room, the kids beg him to allow the teacher medical attention, so eventually he lets Jake carry the teacher down the hallway to the principle. 

During the book, Emery does a very brave thing and talked to Mr. Stutts, revealing to the reader some of his past.  We find out Mr. Stutts is a soldier who is suffering from PTSD.  It almost makes you feel bad for him because really, he only wants to be with his son, which his wife wont let him do. 

In the end, Jake and Mr. Stutts get into a fight with the hand gun, resulting in Jake getting shot, the class pet runs into the hallway, followed by Patrick who gets shot, causing Mr. Stutts to run into the hallway after his son, getting shot himself. 

All three characters lived, and the other 17 first graders were all okay.

Shut out byv Kody Keplinger

Recently, I finished Shut Out, which is about a group of girls, led by Lissa, that have boyfriends on both the soccer team and football team of Hamilton High. The two teams hate each other and are constantly pulling pranks on one another. So the girls decode to go on a "strike" where they vow not to show there boyfriends any attention.  The boys catch on to the plan and try to outsmart the girls.

I think an issue in this book is sexism. A lot of the characters underestimate girls. I noticed some of the teachers are sexist and favor boys in the book.

I also noticed that sometimes the girls are prejudice against themselves. They often underestimate themselves, especially when it involves the strike.

Girls Out Late by Jaqueline Wilson

Girls Out Late is basically about three girls who are boy crazy but have to cope with there crazy parents' rules.  For example, Ellie has a curfew of 9, Nadine has a mother obsessed with knowing every little detail of Nadines life.

Ellie meets a boy that, at first her dad doesn't approve of.  She is constantly hanging out with him after school though.  One time they meet at night but the older boy cajoles Ellie into staying out later, causing her parents to disapprove of the boy.  So they secretly met at McDonalds.  On there first date, Russell does not come.  Ellie thinks this is the end and becomes very sad. 

But then one day, Russell calls explaining that he got grounded and he is very sorry.  For some reason this makes Ellies parents approve of Russell and allow them to go out again.

I think a main problem in this book is curfews and what a good time is to call a curfew.  In the book Russell is 16 and Ellie is 14. They are older than most of the 8th grade students at Ms.51.  Ellie has a curfew of 9 and we do not know when Russell's curfew is but it is before 1AM.  When is your curfew?

Stealing Parker by Miranda Kenneally

This book, was a really good book, even though it took me a while to read.  It is about a girl who's mom leaves their family, turning it upside down.  Ryan, Parker's brother, resorts to dugs, Parker, quits softball and starts hooking up with almost ever guy that she knows, and her dad thinks that prayer can fix everything.

I think a main issue in this book is finding out who you are.  I think this because Parker's mother left because she didn't want to be with a man anymore, she moved to Arizona with a woman.  Obviously, her mother had second thoughts after marrying her husband and raising Ryan and Parker. 

Drew, Parker's best friend, also had to figure out who he is because Drew is bisexual and just broke up with his girlfriend.  Drew likes his other best friend so there is also a lot of confusion about who he is exactly.

Brian needs to find out what means more to him, his "love" for Parker or his career.

And last but not least, Parker has to decipher whether or not she was meant to play softball.  She deffinetly has the skills and we know that she has a passion for it, but honestly the way Miranda Kenneally describes it, it makes it seem like Parker is deciding what she wants. 

As you can see, there are many people in Stealing Parker that are trying to identify themselves.  I think Miranda Kenneally made the age group perfectly because it is about high school students who are also stressing about college and adulthood.  In real life, at around this age, people have to find out what they want to do with there life and who they are as a person.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

This book took place in the 24th century, in which no one reads books anymore. in fact, it is illegal to own books. Everyone in Fahrenheit 451 is tech savvy.  For example, people have seashell like radios that they can listen to throughout the day and they rely on virtual medical systems to save lives.  I wouldn't want my life saved by a robot, would you?  In this book, technology dominates society.  Literally. One day, when Clarisse finally made Montag, the main character who is a firefighter, understand how much of a negative impact technology has on the people.  He is ready to change his life when atomic bombs destroy his city and Montag is ready to start a better life, vowing to use less technology. 

Technology is a problem in this book that leads up to what I think is an even bigger problem, censorship.  I wonder why it became such an issue and a problem to obtain books.  In the book it states that books slowly lost there place and the futuristic people started to become offended by types of books.

The job of a fireman would be to go to houses where books have been spotted and burn them.  If the owner refuses to leave, they usually die as well.  Clarisse questions his job twice in the book and both times Montag gives a different answer.  The second time, I think he did realize that his job is just a little bit weird and that it's not at all right. 

The Winter Lodge by Susan Wiggs

 In The Winter Lodge, Jenny's house burns down and she has no family to stay with.  She moves in with a friend that she's known since they were younger.  They have a awkward history.  Then Jenny gets reunited with her father and she gets a job as a writer in New York.  But she feels she cannnot write well in NYC so she moves back to a place by an old camp.  Jenny has a job in a bakery, where she works with the mayors son, Zach. 

 I think Zach is a good person but Matthew pressures him into doing bad things.  For example, when Zach was stealing money from the bakery, Jenny walked in and saw him.  Jenny always catches Zach. I think this made there relationship stronger because Zach had to explain that Matthew wanted more money and that's why he was stealing the money.  It was almost like the two of them are now sharing a secret.

Also, Jenny's reaction when she caught Zach was a little sympathetic.  At first, she was mad because, well, isn't it obvious? A fellow employee, that you trust, is stealing from the cash register? Doesn't look good.  But after Zach explained and apologized sincerely, I think that Jenny could tell that Zach really was being honest and felt bad for stealing so she wasn't as mad.

Non-Fiction Blogpost on Sara Tucholsky Article

 In the article we learn that a senior, Sara Tucholsky, hit a homeroom in a playoff softball game.  After hitting 1st base, she fell and hurt her right knee.  She could not walk and no one from her team could touch her.  So two opposing members, Liz Holtman and Mallory Wallace, carried her around the bases. Tucholsky's team still won the game even with out Tucholsky's hitting.

I chose to write about this article because I think it demonstrates good sportsmanship which is a key component of the game. I think that Tucholsky was very thankful and the girls did the right thing. 

Overall, the Article is teaching us that sportsmanship is a good thing.  Like when two members of the opposing team, Holtman and Wallace, volunteered to carry Tucholsky around the bases so that she could be rewarded her home run. 

choke by chuck palahniuk

I think that Choke was a very interesting book because it was about a man named Victor whose mother is in a nursing home and has Alzheimer's.  Victor is very confused about his identity and who his dad is.  While Victor is on a mission to find out his true identity, he also has to pay a lot of money to pay for his mom's health care.  since Victor doesn't have enough money, he decides to go out to up-scale restaurants and pretends to choke on food.  People then save him, and feeling responsibly for his life, they pay for some of his health care bills.  

Victor is a selfish man and he only cares about himself so he really would want to just kill his mother, but his mother is the key to figuring out who he really is.  Eventually, Victor finds a small black journal that belongs to his mom victors mom wrote about how her son is Jesus, so Victor believes he's Jesus and goes and spends all his money, and then he goes crazy.  

In the book, everyone complimented Victor on how nice he was to spend most of the money he raised himself on his mom.  Really, they didn't know the truth.  No, it was not always obvious to other characters that Victor was scamming a bunch of people, including his mother.  The truth about Victor Mancini is that he is NOT Jesus Christ and NOT a trust worthy person according to one of the mom's nurses, Paige Marshall.  

Room by Emma Donoghue **SPOILER ALERT**

This week I read Room by Emma Donoghue.  It is about a 5 year old boy named Jack and his mom who are being held hostage in a garden shed.  The mom, who is just defined as 'Ma' in the story, has been held captive for 9 years and is a victim of sexual abuse.  Jack has grown up only knowing Room.  He also tends to call objects such as table, bath, and rug, proper nouns.  Eventually Jack and Ma make a narrow escape from Old Nick and make there way to a health care facility where they are reunited with old family. 

Jack often confides in his mother and wishes that he was back in Room.  Every time I read about Jack wishing for this I was thinking "Would it be better if Jack was back in Room with just his mother?"  Jack is only five and is very confused about how the real world works.  Even in room, Ma would often explain that there were tons of people in Outside.  I think Jack is very overwhelmed by all the things everyone is telling him. 

One place where I see Jack being overwhelmed is when he hops off of Old Nicks truck to find the police.  since the story is told from Jack's perspective, he is describing his emotions.  He is so overwhelmed that he can't even find the right words to describe his emotion.

I don't think it would be beneficial for jack to be in a confined space with Ma again.  There are two sides to the story.  Jack may feel like he wants the relationship with his mom to continue and he doesn't want to deal with Outside any more.  But the mother wants to be free. Jack didn't understand that Ma was forced to stay into the room, and he didn't know how bad everything really was.  Ma deserves to be free and raise her son normally.