Summer Assignment #4

I chose to read looking for Alaska because John Green is the author. He wrote other books that I enjoy like, The Fault in our stars. I also read this book because I can relate to it.


Last December my close cousin, Coral, was in a very serious car accident. Just how Alaska did in the story. Luckily she is breathing still today. Coral was in a Coma for a month and was out for her birthday and Christmas. She was taken to 2 different hospitals and has gone through many surgeries. We are very lucky that she has lived through this because the chances of survival were very slim. Before the crash she had just graduated from University of Dayton and was enrolled in University of Cincinnati's Law School.


Today she is at a rehab center in Florida so she will hopefully be able to function and live a normal life again. What I have learned from this is cherish every moment you have with your loved ones and live every day like its your last one.


I would recommend this book to anyone in high school going through a tough time and need to put a smile on their face.




*side note, the pictures I tried to add were causing my computer to crash, sorry*

Summer Assignment #3

*SPOLIERS*


The point in the book when I was most hooked was when the gang (Pudge, Colonel, Takumi, Alaska, and Lara) spent a night in the barn drinking and planned a prank on The Eagle. The prank was to set off fireworks at his house so Alaska and Colonel could add hair dye into his hair gel," 'I saw the Eagle run out of hees house. He was wearing pajamas. He sure looked mad'"(108).


Later on in the story the gang was drinking in The colonels room and Alaska mysteriously leaves the room to answer a phone call. That was the last time they ever saw her.


The morning after is when the tone of the story completely changes. Pudge and The Colonel quickly find out that Alaska was in a car crash the previous night. The tone of the story goes from cheerful and radiant to gloomy and depressing.


The story is split into two different parts. The first is called "Before" and the second is called "After". You don't really understand that until you get to the After section of the book because of Alaska's death. When I got to the After section is when I was "hooked".

Summer Assignment - #2

Now that I have been getting into the book, Looking for Alaska, I am starting to notice some themes develop. 1 would be, Friendship.“And we’ll call you …hmm. Pudge”(14). This is because Chip and Miles begin to become very good friends and devolves a friendship bond by giving each other nicknames, "Pudge" and "Colonel".


Pudge is the main character in the book. He starts college at Culver Creek and meets his roommate Chip otherwise known as "The Colonel". The Colonel is from Alabama and has a girlfriend, Sara, they are not on the best terms. Chip comes off as very tough and stern.


Pudge, the narrator, has a crush on Alaska,"You're adorable,' she said, and i felt the intensity of her eyes on me and looked away nervously. 'Too bad I love my boyfriend'".He more of the whippy type ,"'Please guys, don't,' just before  they taped my mouth shut. Then they picked me up an hurled me into the water"(25). This is when 3 boys awoken Pudge in the middle of the night and dumped him into the lake, for no reason. He couldn't do anything to save himself.


Alaska is another student at Culver Creek. She is rebellious and hangs out with The Colonel and Takumi. She seems sweet but also can be a bit of a brat.

Summer Assignment - #1

Miles in the main character in the novel I have decided to read over the summer, Looking for Alaska by John Green. He is also the narrator in the story and happens to be a protagonist. He is given the nickname "Pudge" by his roommate Chip. He seems to be tall and skinny. After he finishes school his parents send him off to boarding school. He never really fit in with his hometown. Miles ends up meeting a young girl named Alaska and immediately falls in love with her.


Another Character that has been introduced in the beginning of the book is Alaska Young. She is quite the opposite of Miles, who is fairly shy and goes on with the bandwagon. On the other hand Alaska is rebellious and outgoing.


Chip is Miles roommate, he is nerdy boy and I predict the he might also have a crush on Alaska just like Pudge does. Chip went to Culver Creek for school, just like Miles and a few other characters.


So far this book reminds me of John Greens other work like The Fault in Our Stars because of the writing craft and the way the characters are described in the book.

The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones

Characters - The Lovely Bones

There are many different character in The Lovely Bones. They all portray a different type of personality and contribute something interesting to the story.

The main character is Susie Salmon. In the beginning of the story, Susie is just your average, Innocent 14-year old girl. The story progresses quickly and before you know is she has gotten murdered by her neighbor, Mr. Harvey. This was very random and out of the ordinary. You don't really see her personality until she is welcomed into heaven. She is quiet, reserved and optimistic. This leads me into the next character.

Mr. Harvey, is the one who killed Susie, but the only people who know that is Mr. Harvey and Susie. This means that he hasn't been blamed guilty. He just happens to be Susie's family next door neighbor. He is also reserved and quiet. If you ask me, I think he is very creepy. Toward the middle of the book Susie's dad, Jack Salmon, starts to become suspicious of Mr. Harvey. Eventually he says something to the detective, Len Fenerman, but sadly he informed to Jack, "There is nothing, no matter how much we strech it, to connect him to Susie's death"(151). Something else interesting about Mr. Harvey is while Susie is in heaven she sees him killing animals such as small rabbits. She begins to believe this is his way of resiting the earge to kill actual people.

The next character is Lindsey. She is a year younger than Susie. She seem so be turning into a rebellious teenager after her sister's death. When Susie first died her entire family was in complete shock, they couldn't believe what they heard. But Lindsey kind of didn't want to talk to anyone about it. She snapped at the school principle when he asked her if she wanted to play on the girls soccer team, "'I'd say it when would be pretty hard to play soccer on the soccer field when it's approximately twenty feet from where my sister was supposedly murdered.'"(36).

Predictions - They Lovely Bones

So Far In The Lovely Bones Susie Is dead and Mr. Harvey, the one who killed her, is not yet a suspect. I think that Mr. Harvey will eventually get caught for killing Susie by the end. The detective says to Susie's father, "'He's odd, i agree, but as far as we know he isn't a killer'"(152). He dumped her body in a sink-hole so it is virtually impossible to get Susie's body back. But, by the end I think all the clues will come together and he will be blamed for her death; even considering Len, the detective, said there is no way he could have murdered her. I don't understand how is able to live with himself knowing he killed an innocence girl coming home from school.

The Lovely Bones Movie Trailer:

 

 

 

We all have our own version of heaven

Every body's heaven is different. At least this saying seems true because nobody has came back to describe heaven. In the book The lovely Bones Susie describes her heaven as,"My favorite part was how the colored blocks were turquoise and orange, just like the blocks in Fairfax High so I could imagine myself there"(17). After some time in heaven Susie realizes,"The javelin-throwers and the shot-putters and the boys who played basketball...were all in their own version of heaven"(18). Susie is describing that every bodys heaven is different in their own special way. No matter if you believe in heaven or not, we will never truly know for certain if it is real, but if it isn't real will it really matter? When we die and there isn't a heaven we still won't know because we will be dead.

This past weekend I saw a movie called Heaven Is For Real. The movie is about a 4 year old boy, Colton, that claims he went to heaven while he was in surgery. I am sure you are thinking that 'He was just dreaming' but that's what I was thinking until he said he met his sister that the boy's mother had a miscarriage long before he was born. He also claims that he met his fathers grandfather that died when is father was very young. This sparked a realization that maybe it really is real.

Nothing is ever certain

In the novel The Lovely Bones a girl named Susie was murdered by her neighbor. Her family was devastated when they found out. You don't realize how much you can miss someone until they're gone for good. This made Susie's family, as well as myself, realize how much you should value the important people in your life. You can wake up one day and they will be gone. As they keep repeating throughout the beginning of the story, "Nothing is ever certain"(Sebold, 30). This statement can mean a number of things; something that you think is 100% true could be false or you never know what could happen next.

This is a list of quotes throughout the book on goodreads.com - http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1145090-the-lovely-bones

About the Author - Alice Sebold

Alice Sebold

Sebold was born on September 6, 1963 in Wisconsin. She underwent some childhood struggles. Her mother, Jane, was an alcoholic and suffered anxiety and panic attacks. So the only person their for her was she sister Mary. Sebolds father was a Spanish professor at The University of Pennsylvania.

Since Alice had a difficulf childhood, after high school she wanted to distance herself away from her family. She enrolled at Syrause University in upstate New York. During her first year of college she was walking back to her dorm from class and got pulled into a tunnel and got attacked and raped. Not only did that happen once, but it also happend again not long after it happened the first time in the same tunnel. The police found the attacker and her got sentenced to prison. It was diffcult for Sebold to find closure after those events.

Sebold never was able to gradurate college, Alice moved to New York City and that is when she began to experiment with drugs. She moved to Califorina and that is when she began to write. Sebold used her life experiences in her writing. You can see that in The Lovely Bones.

Jimmy - Fat Boy Chronicles

Jimmy is just your average incoming freshman that happens to carry a little extra weight. This Story is actually biased off a true story about a boy named Doug that went to Mason High School a few years ago. Jimmy gets teased for his weight by his class mates. Jimmy's goal in the beginning of the story is to lose 60 pounds. At first its a struggle with all the TV ads and his constant craving for a Big Mac from McDonald's. Jimmy eventually learns to control his cravings and begins to loose weight like no other. But there is just one problem; the kids at school are still making fun of him and it gets really out of hand.

At the beginning of the year Jimmy doesn't have very many friends. The only friends he has are from his youth group at church. He sits with them at lunch. As the year goes on and high school gets to his only friends the start to not like jimmy anymore. Jimmy's friend Whitney, starts getting into trouble and he thinks she is disgusting now. Now Jimmy is only left with Paul. Paul starts smoking and using drugs because his mom is drinking and his parents are fighting, but that doesn't make Jimmy think less of him.

Throughout the story Jimmy realizes that you should be excellent for yourself and not for anyone else. The kids at school still make fun of him for his weight even though he has lost so much weight from the beginning of the year but now he holds a lot of more confidence then at the beginning of the school year.

 

Fahrenheit 451- Quote Meanings

On page 59 Fahrenheit 451 Captin Beatty says to Montag, "School is shortened, discipline relaxed, philosophies, histories, languages dropped, English and spelling almost completely ignored"(59). The Author is trying to convey that if we don't do something about how they teach now the society could end up the the one in Fahrenheit 451.

On page 58 beatty says, "Classics cut into fifteen-minute radio shows, then cut again to fill a two-minute book column, winding u at last as a ten- or twelve-line dictionary resume. I exaggerate, of course"(58). The Author is trying to explain to the reader that the way we do things now are complelty diffrent then how we do things today and if we continue this what Beatty is telling Montag will become true.

Fahrenheit 451- What I've read so far... (Blizzard bag)

So far in Fahrenheit 451 I like Clarisse's character because she is diffrent and unique. She asks a lot of questions to Montag. i also think it is interesting how Mildred attempted suicide and didn't remember and said she would never do such a thing. Also it is strange that everytime Montag sees Clarisse she says she is crazy, "'Im seventeen and i'm crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane'". I think she always says the becuase she may have a problem that is not adressed in the story.

The Characters in the Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Most books and stories have a set of characters. Each character has different personalities. They're also a protagonist and antagonist. Some characters can change throughout a story -- called a round or dynamic. Some stay the same and do not under go a change -- called a flat character.

Bruno: Bruno is the main character who is 9 years old. At the beginning is stubborn because he didn't want to move but eventually warms up to his new home far from Berlin. He doesn't have the best relationship with his father because he is always working and they don't spend much time together. Ralph says to Bruno, "'You need to realize that you are at hom,' he said instead, disappointing Bruno. 'This is ti for the foreseeable future'"(48).

Ralph: Ralph is Gretel and Bruno's Father. They both call him Father. He is a commander in Germany and spends a lot of his time in his office or working at his job that neither of his children knew what his job is. Ralph explains to Bruno, "'This is my work, important work. Important to our country. Inportant to the fury. You'll understand that some day"(48). He seems to not care for his children that much since he doesn't talk to them very much because he is always busy working. Bruno talks to him very differently then how i would talk to my parents. He talks t him as if he were is boss or a teacher.

Maria: Maria is The housekeeper of their new home and the families old house in Berlin. She follows all the rules that she has as a house maid. She seems to keep her thoughts to herself and doesn't share her opinion because she thinks she would get fired. Maria is overpaid for her job as a maid. "She hesitated for a moment when she saw him lying there but then bowed her head a little and walked silently over toward the wordrobe"(56). This quote shows how Maria is very formal with the family even though she has spent a large portion of her life with them and sees them almost every day.

Throughout the story each character goes through some changes. Bruno sees the bad and good in the reality of the world. Ralph feels for is children and spends more time with them.