2. Montana 1948

      I am reading Montana 1948 by Larry Watson. I am currently about half way through the book. Last time I blogged, I had basically only talked about the introduction of characters. A lot has happened since then. Basically, while Marie is sick, she has Uncle Frank check up on her, but when Uncle Frank goes in the room alone with Marie, she freaks out. Marie is screaming and is calling for David's mom (Gail). After Uncle Frank leaves, Marie tells Gail that a lot of her Indian friends have been taken advantage of by Doctor Frank. This of course shocks Gail because her brother-in-law is raping innocent women. There is a lot of dramatic irony because when Gail tells her husband, they don't know that David is listening. David knows everything that is going on, but no one else knows. Later, their family goes to David's grandfather's house and David's father confronts Frank about it. He gets upset and does admit to doing it. David's father says, despite being a police officer, that he will not release his secret. Gail disagrees with this. She believes that he should be busted. About a week later, after an afternoon of fishing, they come home and find Marie dead. This, of course, hurts David because he loved her. He also knows a serious secret that he isn't supposed to know which makes him feel guilty. 
       I think this book is good, but it is also kind of weird. The moral of the story isn't very clear yet, so it's hard for me to tell if I will like it.      
       To be honest, I have no idea why the author wrote this book. I have no idea what the moral of the story is yet. I believe that once I know the moral, I will be able to see the author's purpose in writing the book.
       If I had to take a guess at what the theme is, I would guess courage. It might have something to do with him having to admit the secret he knows. This will be extremely difficult for David because of his shyness.
      The best character so far is David. He knows a lot of secrets, but is kind of a shy a guy. It will be interesting to see how he grows because he will eventually have to let go of the secret he knows. I have seen a small change in him when he is making plans to tell his father what he knows. Before, he had no intentions of letting his mother or father know that he knows about his Uncle Frank's wrongdoings.
      "This was my chance. I could ride along with my father and, when we were alone, tell him what I knew." This demonstrates that David wants to tell his father that he knows everything, even though it will be really hard for him. It is important because it shows a little bit of the change he is starting to go through.      
      The only question I have about my book is what is the theme? I will have to keep reading to find out.

Jarrett Stalllman

4/19/2012

ms. Neilsen

English 9

     I am reading a book called "Finding Alaska". This book was written by John Green, I am about half way through this book right now.

    So far in my book Miles Halter who lives in Florida and he hates it there. He has no one to hang out with and is a good student. So he moves into his dads old high school, called Culver Creek. This is a private in Alabama and he will be staying there and only come back on holidays. So he get there and meets his room mate and his name is Chip Martin but every one there call him "the colonel" because he is the king of pranks there at Culver Creek. There principal is the called the Eagle and is a very mean principal. The second person he meets is Alaska a beautiful girl that he just falls in love as soon as he walks in her room. Some things they do so far is go and they always smoke cigaretts at the smoke hole and one day they get caught by the Eagle and have to go to "court". Now the Colonel is determined to find out who ratted them out because the kids at Culver Creek hate rat. He never finds out but the next day at 12:00 A.M while the Colonel is out of the room Miles gets taken by the kids called the "Weekday Warriors" and taken down to the lake and is taped up from head to toe and thrown in the lake and the only words the kids said to Mile was we don't like who ever hangs with the Colonel. Then thanksgiving comes and everyone leaves the dorms besides 10 kids and 2 of them where Alaska and Miles. And Miles is in love with Alaska and all he talks about but Alaska has a guy in her life who she really loves. So once everyone leaves Alaska takes Miles and they break into the "Weekday Warriors" dorm stealing all of the acohol and inappropriate magizenes in there dorm rooms.

 

 Now I don't read very much but I love this book and because of this can not put it down and just want to keep reading and reading it to find out what happens with Alaska and Miles and not to mention what kind of trouble the Colonel gets into. 

 The theme of this book is what we kids like to say is yolo (you only live once) and to live life to its fullest. Life is short and sweet make the very best of it and live every day like it is the last one and never look back on the bad and live up the good ones.

  I think the Colonel is the best character because you never know what he is going to do next. He has grown in this book because he felt he needed his "girl" just to yell at and she would fight with him. But they broke up now and now he knows he never needed that in his life.

 Alaska says to Miles  "This is so hard sitting here alone in my dorm with an amazing cute boy, while my boyfriend is sitting back at home" the reason this is important is because it give Mile a hint Alaska has feelings for him.

  I have one question and that is WHAT WILL HAPPEN NEXT?

 

2. Avalanche

            Right now I am reading the book Avalanche. It is by Arthur Roth and I am on page 106. So far in the book the main character, Chris, Is stuck under feet of snow. Right now he is at day five. He is on his last half of his grouse left and then he is out of food. For water he is just eating snow. Then while digging in the snow he found a branch of a tree that is long enough to stick out of the top the snow cave. In one of his dreams he remembered that his old compass has a mirror on it. He then took out the mirror strapped it on the stick and stuck it through the top of the snow. He has to rotate it once and a while so that it makes a flash and maybe his rescuers might find him before he dies from starvation and the cold.
            I think that this is a really good book because it has a faster pace to it. There is always something happening, which also helps the book move faster. Then when you start to get into action in any book then you can't set it down. So for me this is a hard book to set down each time I'm reading it.
            The reason I think the author wrote this book is to show to show that brothers are really closer than they are. They will always love each other no matter how big of a fight they get in. Maybe he had these moment with his own brother. I think the theme of this book is survival because it is about a boy trying to survive under feet of snow. That here are some ways to survive if you were ever stuck in a situation that Chris is in. My favorite character in the book is Chris because he is the only character that I really been able to make connections to. Through the book he has grown a lot. He has had time to think about he little things in his life. Like that he and his brother, Terry, may fight ,but he will always wish the best for him. A question I have in this book is will Chris make it out of the snow before he dies so he may tell Terry how much he really admires him.

1. The Lucky One

     I'm am reading The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks.  I am about half-way through my book.  I started reading it because of Tiffany's recommendation.  So far, Logan Thibault, the main character and a former marine, has been on a cross-country journey in order to find the girl in a picture that he believes keep in alive in Iraq.  After figuring out what he could from the picture he made his way to North Carolina and asked around about the girl.  Eventually, he found that she works at a kennel with her grandmother and they are looking for employees.  Logan takes the job and ends up befriending Elizabeth (the girl from the picture), her son Ben, and Nana (Elizabeth's grandmother).  However, Elizabeth's ex-husband is still interfering in their lives.

     I think this is a really good book.  I like how the perspectives are changed so that you see what each character is like and it keeps it interesting.  I think the story is interesting too.  I like Nana because of her sayings and how she is such a good judge character.

     I think one of the themes is destiny.  Logan had a friend Victor who strongly believed in it and because of that Thibault met Elizabeth and has finally gotten out of the slum he's been in.  It pops-up frequently in the book and Thibault tries to understand what his role is and why he's there.  I think the author wrote the book because that's what he enjoys doing.  It is a way for him to connect to people and get his ideas out.

     I am excited to see how things work out between Elizabeth and Thibault.  I wonder if Thibault will figure out why he's there and what will happen with Clayton (Elizabeth's ex).

3.) Beauty

        I am reading the book Beauty, by Robin McKinley. I just finished the book and  am glad I read it. Since my last post, Beauty has gone home to see her family and tell her sister Grace that her fiance, Robbie, has come back home to land. The Beast is sad to see her go, but lets her leave for a week. She goes home and realizes how much she really missed her family. Before she left, the Beast gave her a rose the would stay bloomed until the week was up. When the rose started to die, Beauty would know that the Beast was dying. When Beauty tries to return to the castle, she ends up getting there over a week after she left. She finds the Beast dying in his room and has to hurry over to him. He ends up being alive and okay. Beauty realizes that she loves him, and says that she will marry him. He turns into a handsome prince again and they are planning to get married that afternoon.  Beauty's family shows up with other people from the town and they end up having a double wedding with Grace and Robbie.

        I really liked the ending of the book, but I wish that it would have expanded a little more. I felt like I wanted it to go a little bit past them deciding to get married. I thought that the book overall was really good and interesting. It combined a lot of genres of books and kept the story line moving without it seeming really slow. I think that Robin McKinley wrote this book because maybe it was something that she could base off of herself. Maybe she modeled Beauty to be like her or somebody that she knew.

        I still think that the theme of Beauty is that it is what's on the inside that counts. I think that this comes out in the book because even though the Beast is extremely ugly, Beauty still falls in love with him because he is a kind person and loved her. Also, Beauty wasn't very attractive at all before she went to live with the Beast. Her family and people in her town love her and respect her because she is so kind hearted and full of life. I think that the best character is still Beauty because I admire how she fell in love with the Beast despite how he looked. She was very cautious at the beginning of the book, but she learned to love and open up. She also had a very low self-esteem because she was ugly, but it got better after she realized that she wasn't that bad looking.

         I think that an important quote would be when Beauty says, " It's magic, it'll fade away. It's not possible." This shows that Beauty didn't always believe the truth and only thought what she wanted. People today often are too closed minded to things and need to believe a little to make life better. Beauty thought it was just magic. I'm not saying that people in reality believe in magic, but more that they need to open their minds to the possibilities.

        I don't really have any questions left because they were all answered at the end of the book. I just want to know what happened after they got married. I wish that the book said something about this or McKinley wrote a sequel to Beauty.

4th quarter post 1

Right now I am reading Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling. I am about half way through the book. So far Harry and Ron have almost been expelled from school from flying a car to school and getting caught.  Other than that not a ton more has happened. Harry and the group are just settling into class right now. The school also has a new profesor Gilderoy Lockhart who is a total airhead and thinks he is the best thing to walk along the earth. I think it is good because it is never boring. I mean it is not super exciting quite yet, but the author sneaks in little details to make everything somewhat exciting or dangerous. I think the author wrote this to continue the series and to express her imagination. There is no doubt that the theme is fantasy. Almost everything in the book could not happen to the average human-being. I think that the author is trying to get readers to open their imagination and top shoot for the stars. I think the best character so far is Gilderoy Lockhart because the author does a great job of getting him under your skin.  J.K. Rowling develops him so well, it wants me want to go into the book and punch him. He has not change at all, he is still a gigantic airhead. "

Post One of The Member of the Wedding. Carlyn Haassssss!

I am reading my classic book, The Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers. I am about of a fourth of the way through it and it is just boring as all get out. Just awful. It's about this 12 year old misfit during World War 2 who hates her life, and her brother comes home with his bride to be and announces he is getting married next week. For some reason, not sure why, she is mad/jealous about it. The wedding is on Sunday and she's mad, but excited for it...? It's not a good book. I have no idea why the author wrote this. Maybe to teach us about jealousy? Or how everyone has troubles growing up? I have no idea what the theme is.
This is a quote from the book that I thought was pretty messed up, but memorable: "He smelled like a sour little rose. Frankie leaned down and licked him behind the ear." She just licks her little cousin while he's sleeping. Maybe if she wasn't so creepy she wouldn't hate her life so much.....
I have lots of questions about the book at this point: Why is she mad her brothers getting married? That doesn't make sense to me. Why did she start stealing things? Is the whole book just going to be her wallowing in self-pity?
                                                               ----CARLYN.