Last Post: #10

               As my Freshman Honors English blogging experience comes to conclude, sadly, I would like to share with you all my favorite author, Sharon M. Draper. She's the best realistic fiction writer that I've read so far, and I really enjoy her books. All of them are  relatable and about teens.  One cool fact is that she is also from Cincinnati.

          Harry Potter, the book I previously read was good as well but a couple weeks ago I returned it back to my friend so I don't have any good quotes for you guys, sorry. But for anyone who enjoys fantasy or loves imagination would love the sympathetic, adventurous Harry Potter Series.  I hope you check these out.

Ok, back to Miss. Draper, she has written these three expectacular books just to summarize a few:
November Blues, Link to description is down below
http://sharondraper.com/bookdetail.asp?id=16
 Favorite Quote:


Battle of Jericho
http://sharondraper.com/bookdetail.asp?id=14


Favorite quote:


Just Another Hero:
http://sharondraper.com/bookdetail.asp?id=25

Favorite quote:

Empathy for The Forgotten

Empathy.

         Empathy and heartbreak is what comes to my mind when I think about  "12 Years A Slave”by Soloman Northup. This autobiography on slavery really makes you grateful for the life you have and the fact that you are born free. It makes you reflect, not only on your own petty complaints, but also on how much undeniable, unfathomable cruelty man can bestow, if he chooses to. Here is a quote that most impacted me, "He looked upon a colored man, not as a human being-but as a 'chattel personal'-no better, -than his mule or dog." (Northup, 120.) Can you imagine being human and being treated less than an animal every day? It's horrific. Nobody should be made to feel inferior, especially on something so meaningless, like pigment. It's like calling a cloud better than the tree because its higher, so you decide to chop down all the trees so the clouds are seen more...what? That didn't make any sense...but in a way, it does; All nature is equally beautiful; and All people are equally valuable.


         When I was in 8th grade, we read the book "Night," by Eli Weasel for Mrs. Pate's English class. Yes. The book was very, sad. But when you hear statistics or describe how many people were suffering and dying...it did not make an impact on me as much.Until I saw the video clip of Eli Weisel's interview with Oprah revisiting the Holocaust site. And my heart broke. Sometimes when something sounds so cruel, its unimaginable...until, you see the visual. I'm sure many of you have seen the movie “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” or other holocaust movies/ video clips about the horrific mass murder of the Jews. The way I felt when I saw those the movie version of "12 Years A Slave" reminded me of the way I felt then.

Here are some powerful trailers. Sorry guys I know these are really sad so feel free to skip through. But it is necessary to feel other peoples pain and place yourself in their shoes to grow as people. Again, I'm so sorry these are sad but it is based on real life.

the 

Empathy.
       This is how I felt watching the movie "12 Years A Slave" with my mom and older sister. I wanted to cover my eyes with my fingers, and my stomach did flips, my eyes stung from tears as they whipped the innocent girl. It was when reality hit. I felt like I was in the movie. That I was one of the field hands working every day all day for nothing. And it simply broke my heart. This is why empathy is the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about this book and amazing movie. If All humans had compassion, and most of all love for one another, there would be no war, and there would be no pain, and there would be no human suffering, or there would be no discrimination; and one hundred years of slavery or the genocide of 6 million people, would go unheard of. https://www.goodreads.com/

12 Years A slave

Hey guys, I was at the book store a while back and I scooped up this popular book. This autobiography was so good they made it into a movie. The discriptions in the book are very detailed and difficult to imagine, unless you watch the movie. The movie is very impactful, and sad.
It is about a free colored man, Soloman Northup, that lives in the North, has family, and a musical career. One day, thinking he could make a little extra money, he took up an offer from two conmen that offered him a job to play his violin o a tour when their real intentions were something else, they were slave snatchers. Dangerous whites who come from the south and try to snatch any runaway slaves. But in most cases, free african americans who never experienced the horrors of slavery.

        Soloman woke up chained. Arm, wrist,feet, everything. And with at terrible headache. He was dissoriented when a brute white man whipped, and paddled him furousiously. HE HIT HIM SO HARD THAT THE PADDLE BROKE.  And he stung him with the venemous whipp until his arm tired.  He ripped his free papers in bits. Soloman was beat ruthlessly until he stopped denying he was free. His name was "plate" and now he was on his way to a plantation.
        During his 12 years as a slave,  Solaman never lost hope or surrendered thinking one day he would be free again.
      After Soloman regained his liberty, he became a abolitionists and wrote his autobiography with such grotesque, awful, and accurate discriptions that no one could deny the autrosities that had been put on him. Soloman also became very close with a slave named patty who was treated with the harshest disrespect out of all the slaves, from her lustful master. He beat her inhumanly that one of Solaman descibes it as you could still here the screams after a slave got a whipping until dawn. One particular actor also made this movie very unique and well acted her name is Lupita. She is now very influential and got nominated to be on the cover of People's most beautiful people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z02Ie8wKKRg

Thematic Prompt

             At the current time I  am not reading any books except for the ones a metioned in my previous post, Harry Potter  & Joyce Meyer,The Confident Women. I will get a review up with textual evidence for you guys soon. Umm....idk what to blog about. Blah, blah, blah. Sometimes Honors English can be a lil boring, but  reading is fun. I mean I like it well enough for a class, but its Thursday right now! Except its Friday basically because we don't have school tomorrow! Yayyyyy!
          I AM NOT, blogging over the weekend. So whatever I write in the next three minutes goes.
I am going to do sortof like a "author review". My favorite author is Sharon M. Draper. I love ALL her books. And she's from cicinatti. She writes realistic Fiction. Books I've read from her are: Copper Sun, Battle of Jericho, and etc. Bye!

Joyce Meyer & J.K. Rowling

Hey people, Happy Palm Sunday. I hope y'all are having a spectacular day. I would like to blog to you guys about ( well I would rather be outside but...) this new book I've been reading since spring break. Its called The Confident Woman, by Joyce Meyer. I am only a couple chapters in but so far it has been great. Obviously this is directed to women...short daily devotionals to empower. But hey if guys want to read it to go for it, I don't know why you'd want to though..but hey. Imma leave a link down below so you guys can read other people's full reviews on it if you want to.
Joyce Meyer: Book Review
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       Also, my friend let me borrow her Harry Potter book in spanish!! Sounds pretty interesting. Everybody loves Harry potter. I'm excited to read it in Spanish, here is the book title she gave me in español.  When I get to the 2nd book I'll let you guys know and do a review. Have fun with the rest of your  Sunday. Thanks for checking out this blog. Bye!

2nd Book: 

Maya Angelo

              Hey guys we only had to do 5 blogs right? Ok hopefully 'cuz its Sunday and I really don't want to be writing right now so hopefully this is my last blog til later this week.
             
              OK, so last trimester I was in Best Sellers ( a class where you read whatever you want and still get credit for it) and I stumbled across this book when I had some extra time. While I was reading it I was really into it and I was reading almost every single day. When I forgot my book at home I was so sad. That's how much I loved it.
 For those of you who may not know Maya Angelo is a very well known poet and actress. She's been in a lot of movies, and her stories are really well written. I don't read a lot of non-fiction 'cuz the only real non-fiction I've really read has been in science textbooks and history text books. I didn't even realize her book "Why the Caged Bird Sings," was about her until I finally caught on OOooooo...the main characters name is Maya...wow.  Some parts REALLY caught me off gaurd. I can not believe some of the horrible things she had to go through.

AnywaysI loved it because the book it self is a very interesting story and the sensory details, imagery and metaphors in this book are so good it makes you anticipate more. Great read. I won't disclose a summary so you can read it, but here's a link below with the details of this amazing autobiography.

Amazon- I Know Why the Cage Bird Sings, Maya Angelo

Farenhait 451

              Ok so I am on prt.3 pge. 123 and so far the book has been pretty decent. I probably shouldn't have waited till the day after the quiz to read the 100 pages of book I didn't know we should have already read (geeze). Needless to say, I failed that test.
              But anyways thats not important. Whats important is that I'm blogging Now (Which I'm also kindof behind on..but that all can be excused because at least I'm writing something.) and I'm all caught up on the book, ready for the next pop quiz. I'm going to evaluate all the characters and what they have done so far in the book. Briefly. But if you have not read thus far you might wanna skip this (or read this so you know whats going on w/o reading).

 Montag: So Montag finds out that the hound has been stalking him, he reads a peice of poetry to Mildred's friends, one of them freaks out. Montag hides the books, Mildred calls to report him, Montag saves a couple books, his house gets burned down. Montag kills Beaty.
Mildred: After tattling on Montag she packs up and straight leaves. In the cab she is mumbling about her T.V familyy and whatever. She has issues...she didn't even remember Montag. They are complete strangers.
Faber: He is timid and anxious. Montag comes to him for help and he helps him by reading bible verses to him and talks to him through a "seashell". Gives him advice.
Beatty: He dies. And he knew all about the books and Clarrisse for a really long time. Represented big evil government dicatatorship.
 & Thats it.  Thanks for looking at my blog post.

About to Read Something New

Hey guys, I have yet to find another book to read yet. I'll find one eventually. Some I'm interested in reading are:

•  Perks of Being a Wallflower, I saw the movie it was really good. 

• Insurgent, by Veronica Roth I read the 1st book.

• Finish reading Fahrenheit 451..because I have to (and last weeek I waited till the last sec. to read and annotate, then it took me like 3 Hrs. Just to read till part three... I was so excited.

In the mean time I'm just chillen'. I will try to pick up a good book soon though. Oooh! but I heard about this really good Crime action novel in this guy's blog post that I really want to read too. But I forget both the name of the guy and the author+ title of the book right now soo... I'll find it and get back to you guys as soon as I can. If I find it and read it. Well, have a good weekend y'all, bye.

Update: Book review

               The last book I've completely finished was a book of poetry. It is called Keesha's House by Helene Frost. The book is made up of small poems made from teenagers who are all going through rough situations and would find themselves homeless, had it not been for Keesha's house. This was a short read-for those of you who don't have the time (desire) to read 400 page dictionaries- nope not my book. It's nice to take a break and read a shorter book. Of Poetry! They only rhyme sometimes but it's still very beautiful and deep. This book is good, even if your not a fan of poetry.

 Here, I will read you a passage to see if you are intrigued:
 That One Word...Harris
I got invited to the winter dance
Think how that's supposed to be: Mom, Dad, there's someone i'd like you to meet,
someone special in my life, someone
who loves me as much as I love him.
Freeze frame on that word: Did you say

him? I used to try and think of how I'd say
it, how'd I'd let them no there'd be no dancing
at my wedding, no grande kids. Finally I just told them about him
and watched my world explode.
...(pg. 12)

                              (Kicked out of your house for being gay..wow. Rough.)

Other characters include:
Stephanie- pregnant, trying to make the right decisions for herself and those she cares about
Dontay-in foster care while his parents are in prison, feeling unwanted both inside and outside the system
Katie-angry at her mother's loyalty to an abusive stepfather, losing herself in long hours of work and school
Carmen-arrested for DUI charge, waiting in juvenile detention center for a judge to hear her case
& more characters...
               
         A friend of mine passed this on to me. I was moved by all the characters it was very emotional and real. Very thoughtful, great read.
- The theme for this story was probably compassion- had these kids had no one to lean on they probably would have ended up high school dropouts living in a car with no job, food, or money. Which is how Harris's story ends..well would have ended;had it not been for his guardian angels who lended him a hand.

The Best Thing About my Book is....

            The best thing that I like about the book I'm currently reading, Harry Potter ( Book 1) is the ability Harry has is so much better than others and he is already famous before he goes to his new school but yet he is so humble. He is a true character. He sticks up for others, listens to his instructors and is kind to strangers. He is also not fearful or cowardly of "voldermort" which I love.
          An example of Harry sticking up for his friend is on page 108 it reads, " He turned back to Harry. 'You'll soon find that some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making frinds with the wrong sort. I can help you there.' He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it. -'I think I can tell who the wrong sort is for myself, thanks.,' he said coolly. -Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheecks." This shows that Harry is his own man and can will not let himself or his friend be bullied. This is a great book, and I recommend it to teens.

 

My Best Sellers Prezi

Edy's books

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

by J.K. Rowling

Divergent

by Veronica Roth

Insurgent

by Veronica Roth

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

by Maya Angelou

The Notebook

by Nicholas Sparks

Reading Wishlist

What I want to read next...

• Insurgent by Veronica Roth
• Paper Towns by John Green-Book 4
• Beloved by Tonnie Morrison
• The Art of Racing in the Rain Garth Stein 
• Harry Potter Series (in spanish) by J.K Rowling
• The Book Thief 
• Sherlock Homes Series
• Maya Angelo Books
• Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
• The Perks of Being a Wall Flower 
• Similar authors to Nicholas Sparks

Edy's books

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

by J.K. Rowling

Divergent

by Veronica Roth

Insurgent

by Veronica Roth

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

by Maya Angelou

The Notebook

by Nicholas Sparks

BooK 3: Review

For my book 3 review I am comparing/ contrasting two different books from different genres. The 1^st book I am comparing is from a Fantasy genre. The book Harry Potter (Book 1) is written by J.K Rowling. It is about a boy wizard whose parents died in a car crash when he was younger. He grew up in a mean, normal family who made him live in a cupboard and never told him who he really was. Harry had no idea he was a wizard until Dumbledore (a giant) came and got him for his 11^th birthday, and revealed to Harry the whole truth.

The second book I‘m comparing is from a  Sci-Fi genre.  The book is called Divergent written by Veronica Roth. The story is based on what would happen to society and our world if everyone was divided into fractions and you can only be one thing without choosing to be any other trait for the rest of your life after your 16^th birthday. Beatris is the main character who discovers she is divergent after the recognition test.

 One similarity between Sci.Fi and Fantasy is that they both have very influential antagonist; villains- power hungry villains. That can’t get enough of their thirst for power and the only characters standing in their ways are the heroes who may threaten their cunning, controlling strengths (Harry Potter and Tris). Therefore the protagonists must keep their abilities a secret or else they can get hurt or worse, killed. For Harry keeping his magic a secret from the muggles is very important as well as making sure Voldermort doesn't find out that Harry Potter is back! DUN- DUM-DUMM!!

Another thing I found to be very common between these two genres is that the major character’s in each book share many of the same traits. For example: one thing is that Harry and Tris both discovered something new and particularly incredible about themselves they never even imagined doable on their birthdays. Tris turned 16 and Harry turned 11. They both have the ability to make things happen that normal people wouldn’t be able to do. These new abilities is what makes these characters unique, however, this is also what sets them apart from other characters (Tris’s Divergence, and Harry’s wizardry). These rare differences, is also what makes them famous or well known to other characters.

Another resemblance between these two genres is even though one of these is more whimsical and one of these “could” happen in the future, none of these events that occur in the book occur in real life. Also, another thing that is intriguing that occurred in both books is the capability for these characters to stand up for their friends in the midst of a situation of being intimidated by others. Tris stood up for Al and manages to get him out of the situation of getting stabbed by volunteering to go up herself.  She’s there for him when he needed her the most 

Harry, look how he reacts on the train ride to  Hogwarts for his friend Ron when he was being bullied.  These are both examples of good character and humility.Both characters in both books are very caring and like to share what they have with others.  For example: when Harry has a load of sweets and his new friend has none he shares.  And look how compassionate and caring Beatris is when Edward gets horribly stabbed in the eye with a knife and she is the only one who comes to soothe him when nobody else would.  She even helps clean up the area where he lays bleeding and is able to calm him down a bit before the ambulance arrived at his rescue.

                So even though these characters, Harry and Tris are so different and are from different genres, they resemble each other in many ways, and thus have been great, entertaining stories to read.

Blog Post 7

Noah and Allie, The Notebook

Harry Potter/ Blog post #9

Why is Harry Potter so bewildered to find out he is a wizard?

 Because basically all his life Harry has been forced to live with his only family, his aunt, uncle after parents died in a "car crash"; so at least that’s what they told him. Their fat,  only son beats him up constantly but gets everything he wants just by pouting; Harry might as well not even exist. He does not even have his own room, he is forced to live in a cupboard. Never realizing he was special, or that there was something extraordinary about him. But apparently all his life they have been keeping a part of Harry a way from him that he never knew about.

 That he was a wizard. All the kids know his name. Except for Harry himself of course.  So on his 11th birthday that nobody bothered to remember at the Dersley house, a giant magical wizard came to take him to wizard school. He was never going to get to find out anything about his real family or the real history of where he came from. For this specific reason is why the mougles he lived with forbade him to ever ask questions or where furious when Harry mentioned anything the least bit abnormal. The Dersleys also very much liked to complain about Harry. Even though he was a pretty god, quiet kid. Harry was never aloud to go on any family vacations, never got anything new for his birthday he got a pair of socks and a cloths hanger. But al that is about to change now that he has discovered he has magic and goes to school at Hogwarts.

Blog #8

A book has to be 100% true in my mind to be a non-fiction book because non-fiction means real, and if you’re not going to tell me the whole truth then its not really a true story is it? It’s bending the truth, and dishonest to pass off a interesting book and make your fans believe this actually happened to you when it’s actually just your imagination.  Half-truth is not okay. Just the same as when you tell someone an anecdote or personnel story of their life you would like for them to be honest. Not spice it up to make it interesting, unless you let that person know you are bending the truth/

                David shields are wrong. Nonfiction is important because sometimes people just want to know the facts, and the whole truth not just part of a lie. And fiction novelist try to entertain their readers with characters that could be real, but they’re stories are made up. Both genres are good but I disagree we should mix them because 1. no author would like to be plagiarized for their work and 2. A mixture is not a  good is not a good idea because some people  might have their preference on real or made up stories. so we don’t want to mess that up.

Adopting Your Book /Blog #5

 Making my book into a movie, some scenes that would be hard to recreate is when Beatris was fighting Molly mercilessly on the ground. It might be hard to recreate since that seen is too gruely, for the type of audience you want to attract.

 Another difficult scene scene may be when Tris jumps off the roof into the Dauntless building. It would be hard to recreate since the scene because it is so quick and the wind so strong in that part of the book. Another scene hard to recreate would be the face Tris gets from her older brother Caleb when she’s being scolded. The directors would have to capture the facial expressions perfectly so the readers know exactly how the characters are feeling. It would have to be obvious to the audience how annoyed Beatrice feels at these stern glares from her older brother Caleb, and how hard it is to live up to being as respectful and selfless as her whole family is.

         Since my book is too long to make into a movie, the parts I would have to cut out would have to be when Beatris meets Al. I would also probably have to cut the part where Eric makes Christina hang of the balcony for a long time.

        But for this film Divergent  to be great, I think the most essential parts to capture for this movie is When Beatris's mom cuts her hair and they are all eating dinner together all as a family. This is an example of how the Abnigation live and portrays their selflessness. After that seen the most important part to show is How Beatris gets trampled and bullied in the hall and how the people at school are antagonizing her and the abnigation. We need to include that because the cold treatment is forshadowing in the book for later when they go into war against teh abnegation.
 We would also need to include the Most important seen in the book which is how the whole book got started, When Beatris finds out from the hawk tatooed lady that she is Divergent. Her results were inconclusive, and that if she tells anyone her secret her life would be in danger. This seen would capture the tense alarmed look on both their faces and how bewildered Tris is.

BLOG: 6

Yes, readicide ( the death of enjoyment of books) is a problem at schools because kids don’t want to read boring, complicated books that stress them out over the summer. It’s summer. Of course no one wants to be forced into doing any type of schoolwork at any point in summer.  Especially not an assignment where you must do a written report on a terrible book that was 547 pages. It numbs your brain to think of such complicated meanings of books that adults probably aren’t fully know about. 

Teachers should already know, when they assign a book project to do over summer, 9 times outta 10 the students will wait till the last couple days to even crack the 1^st page open. Once the 1^st page is open…some students may even make it almost halfway through the book before they start skimming look up on the rest Spark notes. When you make reading a chore, no one will enjoy it. When you make reading a privilege, like elementary teachers used to do, (for ex: everyone be good today or no read aloud from Mrs. Lewis), reading for entertainment, and giving you the option to read whatever you want for the recommended time of ½-1 hr. each night kids will enjoy reading more. That’s how you combat readicide.

 I’m, not saying we should not teach classics at school, I’m just saying teachers need to find a way to appeal to young adult/ teen interests too, and yes teachers should add more genre fiction to the curriculum and meet us half way so more kids can fall in love with more books and read more important stuff with real world problems , instead of hating the books.  Green eggs and ham-try new things, you might like it. Magic tree house- its nice to have a good imagination and travel around the world. Barbara Parks- Junie B. Jones was a wonderful character that taught many people that being a kid can be fun. Obviously these themes are too childish for young adults now. But it was short books like these with a simple understandable message that made kids fall in love with books in the first place.