Blog for Week 11/11/15 - Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip

        In the book Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick one of the main themes in this book is need for change, this is supported by the main character Peter's actions. This means that something needs to change for the good. In the book it says that Peter broke his arm playing baseball, baseball was one of the only things he did and he was passionate about. His arm was hurting the whole season, he still insisted to play. He believed that it was nothing and he shouldn't tell anybody. After he got surgery, he was aching to throw a ball, but the surgeon said not too. This theme is supported by his actions on wanting to play baseball again, that was the only thing he did. He thinks that he can come back from this. This is what his mind is representing. By wanting to play baseball and doing nothing else, he is in a need for change. The message that the author is trying to send is that their are many things in the world that he can do, he just doesn't get it ore doesn't have the right mind set to think the other way around. If he would have listened to his surgeon, he probably would have his mind of baseball and have gotten into a different hobby that he really loves to do. Photography.

       Peter has a strong love for photography. His grandpa had recently retired as a photographer and gave all of his really expensive cameras and lenses to him. His grandpa wants Peter pick up where he left off. Peter is just a little to lazy to do that. In the book his grandpa says to him, "Sometimes, life's greatest accomplishments take place off the field." What his grandpa is trying to tell him is that he doesn't need to play baseball to do great things in life. His grandpa is thinking that their is a need for change for Peter. This is the author's message to the reader. You don't need a ball to accomplish some great things. Not only Peter's grandpa is trying to motivate him, it is his whole family trying to motivate him.

       The theme is also supported by this girl he just met in his freshmen year of high school. Anglelika. He told her the whole story about his arm. Since Peter knows a lot about photography, she is motivating him to become a photographer. Peter of course listens to her because she is a pretty freshmen. She also understands that their is a need for change for him too. She tells him you have the things you need and the talent to become a photographer. She also tells him not to forget about baseball, just to set it aside and figure out something else to do in the meantime. The character's in this book extremely support this theme because they all motivate him to change his hobby because he is incapable of doing his favorite.

Commented on:

Carter's Blog

Marcos's Blog

Sam's Blog

1st Quarter Reflection

     My forty book challenged has been tough for me. I am only on my forth book for this challenge. For me it is a personal goal to read at least 30 books by the end of the year. I don't read that much, but when I am hooked on a certain book I can't stop reading. But I think for quarter 1, reading 4 books for me is good. It has been hard to pick up a book lately though because I have been busy, but I am planning on making a reading chart to keep up with how much I read.

     My blogs have been at a good pace. I haven't missed any so far, that is great for me. But overall the pace of the homework and the work in class hasn't been overwhelming, it has just been a little bit hard to keep up with it. The prompts have really helped me make my blogs more interesting. It gives me more things to write about and helps me write more about the book and the prompt. Overall these blogs have helped me more with just writing about topics in a specific and general way.

     Keeping track of homework hasn't been that big of a problem for me. Just finishing my homework has been a bust. I always get distracted and end up doing something else. Sometimes it kills when get distracted. When I am on task and paying attention I can finish my work really fast. Since I know I get off task a lot, I look at how much homework I have set a time for myself to finish. This drives me to finish early and not get distracted. This strategy has helped me a lot in finishing things a lot quicker than when I usually would finish it.