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.

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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.

"Mme. Loisel"

Mme. Loisel

Mme. Loisel works till there are bags under her eyes and has wrinkles on her skin. She takes care of the house, while her husband works to pay the income. Mme. Loisel is thinking of her taking her own life. She works 10 long years to pay for 1 thing. She is thinking of telling Mme. Foreister, but at the same time she wants to keep the money. Her greediness is taking over her. She decides to keep the money.

“We just worked for that money, why would you just decide to keep it!” the husband says

“We need money, we’re poor and can’t even put food on the table for ourselves.”

The argument suddenly came to a stop. Mme. Loisel falls to the ground holding her chest breathing hard. Her husband couldn’t understand what she is saying.

“I’m having a heart attack.” Mme. Loisel says.

She suddenly stops. Mme. Loisel doesn’t move. The only thing her husband can do is take her to the hospital.

“Stay with me Mme. Loisel!” Pleads the husband as he rushes to the hospital. When they finally reach the hospital they tell the husband she is in a coma.

“Are you sure she is not just unconscious.” asks the M. Loisel.

“Yes, because she would have woken up by now.” the doctor replies.

Everybody in town knows now. They stop by the hospital every other day to come and see if Mme. Loisel is okay. Her husband sits on his couch all day waiting to hear a phone call that she is okay. He waits for months, those months turn into years. Finally he gets the a call from the hospital.

“Is she okay?” M. Loisel immediately asks the doctor.

“She hasn’t woken up yet, but now we are asking if we should just let her die, it has been years sir.”

“Keep her awake, I will never give up on her!”

Suddenly, Mme. Loisel wakes up, not where she expects to wake up. Its 3:00 in the morning, she is in bed with her husband.

“What just happened!” she yells at him.

“You went to sleep hours ago.” says M. Loisel.

“What happened yesterday?”

“You got a letter asking you to go to the ball.”

She realized nothing was as it seemed. She was dreaming about her own fate, and how she was in a coma, she was asleep.

The next morning she walks up to Mme. Foreister’s door with her hands trembling and her face is a red as a tomato. She knocks on the door.

“Why hello Madame Loisel, what can I do for you?”

“I just wanted to tell you that I lost the necklace,” tears start running down her face, “I lost it at the ball, I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

“No need to cry, that Necklace was only worth 500 francs,” she tells Mme. Loisel “It was only made out of paste, it was fake.”

You can see so much gayness in her face, she smiles.

“Thank you for your forgiveness Mme. Foreister, I owe you one.”

Her eyes changed from red back to white. Her hands aren’t trembling anymore. She is happy for once in her life.

Blog for Week 10/26/15- Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip

Prompt: How does the conflict drive the character development?

Curveball: The Year I lost my Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick

Pages 1-22

     The book I am currently reading is Curveball: The Year I Lost My Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick. This book is about a boy named Peter Friedman. Peter's favorite thing to do in is off time is pitch...A LOT! In the championship for Peter, his job is to close the game out pitching. He has been having problems with his arm all season. Every single pitch in the last inning hurt is arm a lot. On the second to last pitch he hears a crack in his arm. He ignores it, but on the very last pitch, he breaks his arm. His baseball career is over. After his arm is broken, the next day he gets arm surgery, after the surgery he wants to be a photographer. His grandpa talked him into it because he is a photographer.

     The conflict so far is his decision to train his way back to becoming a pitcher again, or giving up his biggest passion, in order to become a photographer. His decision of becoming a photographer will change him. He likes to take photos, but he also likes to play baseball, but if he chooses to train back to becoming a baseball player, it will take hard work to get back. He ultimately chooses to become a photographer. He sees the world differently, he sees that their is more to life than a glove and a ball. He made the right choice because only a few people recover form him. He is now not lazy, and tries to work hard into becoming a professional photographer. He develops a sense of desperation and hard work. Being a proffesional photographer is what drives him as a person.

Blog for Week 14/10/15-The Eleventh Plague

Prompt: Describe a character that you would like to meet (which doesn't mean that you would like the character, but that you think the character would be interesting). List 4 questions that you would ask.

The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch

Pages read- 1-32

      The Eleventh Plague is about a teenager name Stephan and his dad. A sickness as spread around the world. Stephan and his dad have to find ways to survive. Everything is abandoned. They have to make decisions that will change their lives forever. Their grandpa all ready met his fate. But they soon meet other people and start to see other peoples opinions on the plague. They mostly are all optimistic. But they soon make a decision that might change their lives forever.

      There are many interesting characters in this book. The one person that I would like to meet is Jenny. I don't like her that much, but she is very interesting. She is very determined and does not accept things the way they are. I would ask her what happened to her family members. I bet she would answer that she doesn't need them to survive. Another question I would ask her what was she doing before she met Stephen and his dad. I would ask her this question because they met her before they found that little community, and wonder what she was doing and what she did to survive.

       One thing I would like to know is what she is going to do in the future. One question I would like to ask her is what she is planning to do when the world is stabilized. She is very independent so I would think she is going to be very positive. The last question would be would she like to stay with Stephen and his dad. This is probably the most important question I will ask. It also depends if she needs them or if she wants to go on her own.

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Banned Books Vlog

Where the Wild Things Are

By Maurice Sendak

Commented on:
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Sources'

"About Banned & Challenged Books." American Library Association. 

           American Library Association, 2015. Web. 8 Oct. 2015.

           http://www.ala.org/bbooks/about 

"Banned Books That Shaped America." Banned Books Week. Banned Books Week, 2015. Web. 8                  Oct. 2015. 

           http://www.bannedbooksweek.org  

Doyle, Robert P. "Celebrating 30 Years of the Freedom to Read." Illinois Library Association.                        Illinois Library Association, 2015. Web. 28 Sept. 2015. '                                                                        https://www.ila.org/initiatives/banned-books-week 

Top Ten Book Blog

1. The Lost Hero By Rick Riordan

This novel is my all-time favorite book. It invokes my favorite sub-genre Fantasy. The main character's name in this book is Jason. This book is about trying to takedown the Earth goddess Gaea or make go back to sleep for another thousand years. This book got recommended to me in 5th grade.
I was automatically glued to it. I would read 200 pages of the book in 1 session at night. It influenced me because I thought that there were't that many good genres out there for me, until I stumbled upon this. This book is the reason fantasy is my favorite genre.

2. The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

This trilogy sets place in the future. The main character in this book is Katniss Everdeen. Katniss's sister gets chosen for this fight to the death battle, she volunteers for her sister and she has to participate in it. This book didn't influence me as much as my first pick but still it hooked me in and that is why it is my second favorite book






3. The Boy Who Dared by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

This novel takes place in the Holocaust. The main character is Helmuth. He is a german who doesn't believe that killing Jews or deporting them back to their country is a good thing. This book influenced me because I never knew that their were dictators as bad as them. It also made me believe that speaking your word isn't a bad thing, it is a good thing.






4. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

If I didn't read the lost hero, this would be my favorite book of all time. The main character is Ender. He is sent to space to fight in a intergalactic battle between teenage kids and aliens. He commands every single ship because he is the smartest. This book hooked me in. This book always has surprises.  It didn't really influence me that much, but it was still a really good book to read.






5. The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch

This book is about how I would their were to be an eleventh plague, this is how it would be. The main character is Steven. He is with his dad trying not to catch a virus while at the same time trying to forge food to survive. It hits very close to home in a disturbing way. It was still a very interesting book. I am waiting for the next book in the series to come out.






6. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

This book is about a girl about to enter college, but she gets teleported to a different place. Far up north. She faces many dilemmas such as armored bear etc. She has to get through this journey to find the golden compass which will lead her back home. This book will hook you in in a couple chapters.







7. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling

This series by all means is probably the best series of books of all time. Probably the most famous too. These series of books are awesome. It is that one book that you can't keep your eyes of of. The main character is Harry Potter. He was adopted because both of his parents died. He was recruited by Hogwarts, a magic school, which is just like any other school. But when he gets older he has to fight evil with his powers. If you haven't read this series I suggest it to any kind of reader.




8. The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

This is overall a great series. This is a great series about 3 siblings who are unfortunate orphans. They get adopted by a creepy old man. Than bad things start to happen. He starts to put them in bad schools and abuses them. But he dies in the end. This is a great book for anybody the age 11 and over. I suggest to many people.






9. The Perks of being a Wallflower by Steven Chbosky

The main character is Charlie. He is the new kid in school. He surprisingly becomes popular. He is one of those, shy, intelligent popular guys. He is trying to figure out if he should live with his life, or runs away from it. This is a really good book. I know it doesn't seem for my age but still, it talks about life in the teenage years. It is a really good book. I would suggest it to anyone.






10. The Maze Runner by James Dashner

This is one of those action packed books. I cannot put a book down if something is constantly happening. This book is about a boy named Thomas. He was put in a maze. They brainwashed him so he doesn't remember anything of what happened in his passed life. The maze is huge and is constantly changing. So he and his other friends have to find there way out. I suggest it to any reader who can't put a good book down.






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