A Seperate Peace #2

          Can people really change as they "come of age"? The book A Seperate Peace is a good way to show this. There are two characters Fineas and Gene. Fineas and Gene are total opposites as children, but are still friends. During this book you sense a silent competition going on between . They are both sort of recklass at one point in the book, but then sort of drift apart. This shows  that the two friends are both growing up. People often say that when friends get older they begin to drift apart and go their seperate ways, was that what was happening between this pair of friends?
   
           Gene and Fineas are one heck of a pair of friends. Total opposites that get along perfectly. A lot of people say that kids make friends with everyone, but as poeple get older its harder to make friends. This book explains a lot of growing up and making and losing friends. You get to hear the story of Gene and Fineas when they're oyunger and as adults. This shows how they acted when they were younger and how they act and what they have to say in response to the things they did.

          Changing as a person is a lot different than changing in looks. A person can grow taller and prettier or uglier but that doesn't matter. What metters is how the person changes on the inside. Some say that people never changes, but they obviosly do because how to people become mature and act like grownups? I love this book because it actually explains the changes from childhood to adulthood. It shows the difference between how different people change in different ways.

          In this story you can actually see the difference of how the boys think and act as they grow up and change as people. I keep thinking of how i want to be when I grow up but then I think back, can I tell myselfand then just be that person? Or does it just happen? I wont know until I come of age. :)

A Separate Peace

          I'm reading the book A Seperate Peace by John Knowles. This book is about two young boys who eventually grow apart as they get older. The connection between these boys is phenominal! One of the boys' names is Gene. Gene is a more quiet type of boy when compared to the other boy, Phineas. Phineas is more of the  daring type, he usually guilts Gene into doing danergous but "fun" things. This book, so far, is making me not want to grow apart from my friends. One important thing is this book has a lot of coming of age examples. One is that the boys cherish their time together and you can totally tell. I can't wait to read the rest.
          As I said, Gene is more of the quiet type. During the book you never witness Gene doing anything crazy unless persuaded by Phineas. This story mostly takes place during the summer.A way that this setting can effect what happens between theboys, is that they actually have time to spend together. Once they begin to hangout, the boys begin to grow toward eachother and bond. Gene is my favorite character in this book because I can relate to him in a unique way. The way he acts, but not how he is easily persuaded by people.
            Phineas on the other hand, is a daredevil! He is a very good friend to Gene, but he is able to trick him into doing many things. I don't think he means it for bad, but to make Gene have a good time. This friendship grows stronger as they begin to make everything perfect. What I mean by that is that, Phineas is the type of person to make everything good enough to be worth remembering. I guess this is his way of saying that he wants to only have good and fun memories.
          The two boys both have internal and external problems. Gene's problems are masked by his shyness and being lonely. Phineas' problems are mostly hidden behind his tough personality. The boys' problems are beginning to start a silent competition between themselves, but they don't seem to realize it. Every friendship has a silent competition going on even though you can't always tell what it is. This book has changed my opinion on what to do to make a friendship last. Love this book!

Fod memories

          I'm reading the book "Sweethearts" by Sara Zarr. This book is about a girl, Jennifer Harris, and her Sweetheart, Cameron Quick. These two love birds where outcasts or "Total geeks", as some would say.Cameron was Jennifer's only friend, as Jennifer was to Cameron. Suddenly Cameron dissapears unexpectedly. Jennifer fears she as lost the only person who understands her and ever will undestand her. When Jennifer gets to highschool, she is a totally different person. She is popular and she is now known as "Jenna". She is now the total opposite of "Jennifer".
          This change to er life has gotten Jennifer/Jenna to find her "true self". Is this who she really is? Why did her friend dissapearing make her so happy? She claims that Cameron was her one and only best friend and that he's the only one who understands her but maybe she finally understands herself and who she wants to be. When Cameron reappears, they both remember the memories of their past and how they both changed and took different paths. Was this what they needed? A little time appart?
          Friendship can bring back strong memories with how powerful it is. This  story is mostly about how much people can change when they spend time apart. This has to do with the different people you talk to, the environment you are in and who is around you. But can you really change that much...that your "only friend" cant really recognize you?
          Memories and Friendship have a strong bond. The most memories are made during relationships. So why, you ask, did this time spent apart change to people so much, and the answer is I absolutly have no idea! People grow apart and sometimes things happen for a reason, so maybe their friendship wasnt meant to be, or maybe was therefore why they met again. :)

Many stories to be told.

          I am reading the book "Red"and it is a book that consists of many stories of young teenagers on what goes on in their lives. These stories are really intriguing because they lead you  into their lives with their small moments. One thing I like the most about these stories is how you can feel all of the characters seperatly and you can connect to every character because they allow you into their lives for that moment. The best part about reading all these different stories is that you get new details and a new person to feel for in every other story.
          One story that I read was about this girl and how she would wake up every morning and feel good about herself but then once she got to school she would feel worthless because no one liked her. I connected to this character a lot because she gave me the chance to get into how she felt. This never happened to me because people's opinions dont bother me and if I had the chance to explain that to her, I would. She put a lot of detail into her moment that I forgot about all of the stories I had just read. I felt like her small moment was a whole other book itself.
          I cant remember all of the stories but a lot of them stuck out to me. They aloud me to open my ears and listen to where they were coming from, and I understood a lot more about people being hurt than I did. One line that stuck out to me and really pulled me into this persons story was "I can open my heart to anything and I found that out about myself as I started to believe." This reminded me of myself while reading these stories because I opened my mind to listening to these different stories because they allowed me to.
          These stories were absolutly amazing and I felt like I was sitting right next to them and watching their moment happening because like I said I was allowed into their lives. I was able to connect to a lot of stories because these girls were just regular teenagers talking about their everyday lives. I wish there was more books like this because I would read every one!

Love or not quite??

          The 8th grade is reading Romeo and Juliet and it's amazing!!! This story is about a fued between two famlies, the Capulet's and the Montegue's. The youngest in the family, Romeo and Juliet meet eachother at a party at the Capulet household. Romeo and his friends sneak it. This story allows you to enter into this complicated love affair between two young teenagers. There are different points of view on love in this story. There is confusion about love, force of love, happy love, sad love and more. I think Shakespeare used these different ways to show that one word can go in a lot of different ways. Love is not always easy and this story shows that They hid what they felt for eachother but there was still complications. Was their love meant to be? These are the things that run through my head as I'm reading this play.

          The director stated, "In William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, it is the story of youthful love in conflict with authority, only the language is that of Shakespeare's iambic pentameter." Right off the bat, even if you didnt know anything about the story, you know that this play is about a conflicted love affair. Once you read the play, you unravle the deep thought and feeling in the rest of the story. You begin to feel for the both main characters and you begin to pivture yourself in that situation.

          I love this story, even though it's sometimes hard to understand fully, you feel what's happening. There are a lot of unexpected moments in the play but they all make sence once you really think of it. One thing I love about Shakespeare's writing is that he uses specific ways to express what's happening in the scene. It's amazing how he put all of this together and made such a beautiful story.

          This play is overall just amazing and I would read it everynight over and over if I had the chance. The feeling I get when I think about the theme in the story, love, is unbelievable. I feel like I know Romeo and Juliet. I really only thought love would be full of joy and happiness, but reading this play, I found the many other ways to explore it. It can be complited and even be the cause of violence.

          I LOVE THIS PLAY!!!

Can love be defined by death?

          Im reading the book called, Roses Are Red. by James Patterson. This book is actually amazing! and here's why... It all started when Janee and Amanda were talking about it in school. They were having a great conversation and I wanted to read the book really badly.

          This book is about a Mastermind, or atleast that's what he calles himself, an bank robberies and killings.There is also a hint of love/hate relationships. I paid close attention to the detail put into the book and the author did a great job. I felt like the story was happpening right infront of me! It was so good! It had a lot of stories mixed in it and a lot of themes but they all came together in the end and I cant wait to read the next one.

          While reading this book I felt like I was one of the characters in the book. It was so amazing I barely even have any words to explain it! The characters felt so real to me and I wanted to be a detective with them and figure out all of the mysteries. I wish I was a character in that book! I cant get over how attatched I got to the characters. I felt like I knew them better than I knew my real friends. I was able to get into their lives and just see which kind of person each of them was. I was watching a TV show about bank robberies and the first thing that came to mind was the book! I just couldnt get my mind off of it!

          I recommend this book to people who like very mature, very involving mysteries! I loved this book so much! And I know you will too :)
         
         

my mentor posts!!

     Click here to see the post I picked from Zarrin's blog!!!!!!!!!

          I feel like this post shows a really good retell but not the whole thing is a retell. She really gets into detail about how she feels about this book. The things I might like to try like Zarrin did are... give a quick retell, put lots of big words, how i got introduced to the book, how i feel about certain characters in the book, how i feel about the certain decisions that the author made and more. This is only one of the great posts written by Zarrin, but this one really caught my eye because of the position it was written in, and how "attracttive" she made it look. I give props to her because of all the thought and effort she put into this post, and the feeling as well. Now I need to add these into my next posts!!!!

     Click here to see the post I picked from Keiame's blog!!!!!!!!!!!!

          This is absolutly my favorite postby Keiame! I love how in the beginning she gives astraight forward view of the book when she first picked it up, but then she gets into how her opinion changed! I also love how she connects characters together to show that one person would be attracted to someone with the same, but better, characteristics than the last. She also uses bigger words!!!! I need to do thatt!! Keiame puts a lot of thought and feeling into this post and I really enjoyed reading this. I also like how she didnt judge the book by its cover when she looked at the happy and sad face. :) :(

     Click here to see the post I picked from Janee's blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!

          This post is from two months ago but it really stood out as I was looking through Janee's posts. I love how she includes the amazing story of how she quietly took the book from her sister's room. It shows that she was already interested in the book before she began to read it. I got hooked into the post from the first line. I dont really include how I came upon the book but the next time I do, I'll be sure to put in as much detail, thought and feeling as Janee did. This post was so interesting and I will try to apply that to all of my posts from now on.

          These are my allstar mentor posts!! I hope you can get the same kide of influence as I did! :)

Soarer!

  
   But why do we fly when
   we can soar in the sky?

   Some may say hi but others,
                    bye.

   Keep the happy face and
   put your hands to the sky
   and soar no where but high.

   Reach down low, reach in
   front and soar, soar, soar.

   By soaring you can open
   a door to a colorful world
   keep on soaring wildy open.

FEAR!!

Fear

by Dara Wier

Dara Wier

In fall when we went the roads

for the pure reason of pretending

we were still and the world fell

away all around us, the dry fall

kept my tongue circling my lips.

Think how many paths

circles cross. What range

the tongue bringing moisture

to chapped skin laps.

I watched my grandfather rub

petroleum jelly on his hearing aid

ear. Each of his possessions,

package of black tobacco,

jar of mentholatum,

and, collapsed around a gold coin

he never let me touch,

a leather pouch soft

as damp moss, greygreen,

a lesson. He leaned

and touched his hearing aid

battery to my mouth

to burn my lips, a silver spot

of circular burn that comes back,

do you regret knowing .

he took your hands around his testicles

when it is easy to believe

those nights taught you

how one thing becomes another

His back had been a thing burnt

black when he was brought home

from the clinic to recover

from anthrax. I would not touch

a thing he touched. I watched

the black crescents his fingernails

drew as he drew melon seeds

from cotton sacks or wrapped raffia

around the wounds his knife drew

for citrus grafts.

When he squeezed ichthyol salve

on my instep to draw the thick thorn

back, it healed.

The cusp of the deer’s hoof

is static in our headlights.

There, a blow we’ve taken,

movement in shadow near the road;

we’ve shied, recovered,

and watch for other dangers.

There is the rabbit

whose carelessness could kill us

but she freezes in our headlights

for the next car coming or the random

truck whose driver has no thought

for her or us. Think how many

times it’s crossed your mind,

will they kill us, will the deer

rushing across the road for water

batter his neck on the windshield,

will your swerve to miss another skunk

land us in a ditch. What’s out there

eager to satisfy need or desire

does not care, knows nothing

about the paths we cross.

My tongue without thinking

drives back another wad of tobacco

to soothe a black jacket’s sting.

Think of the traffic a tongue congests,

how the heart crosses and compares

what might not have been

drawn together. Under a perfectly beautiful

moon and on its opening evening

the new highway kills eleven dogs

in its surprising traffic.

 

 

 

 

          As I was reading this poem I realized that there was one BIG stanza and not really any rhyme scheme. She begins to talk about all different sorts of ideas and thoughts and feelings and really random subjects. I also realize that she also puts relevent things together but its mostly irrelevent things. She talks about feelings and thoughts a lot and everytime I read it, it seems to give me another thing  to think about and its always lead up to deep thoughts.

 

          I feel like she does these things purposly because what author doesnt want their reader to do a lot of deep thinking?? I dont think there is a rhyme scheme because in this type of poem it would ruin the thought and feeling of wanting to read it over and over again. Some poems sound good over and aover again when they have rhyming, but some poems are written without it for a reason. I have no idea why she put all of those random subjects in there but I'm thinking maybe because if we dont understand one line, maybe reading the next line and looking at it differently will help us get the full view and picture of the poem.

 

          I think the author wanted us to walk away thinking about all the different ideas that she smushed into one poem! I feel like this wasnt done intentionally, but it happened and I was amazed with the final product of her poem because it was AMAZING! I loved this poem so much and she really inspired me to write an amazing poem like this! <3

make it what you want!

I'm reading the book "Smack" I think this book stand out because of its title and then when I turned to read the blurb.....there was no blurb!! This made me want to read it more because the author probably wanted to keep us waiting so that we actually read it! So I thought to me self...ayee why not?? So I started to read the first 15 pages (which as far as I got anyway) Once again it was just a typical teen book about a boy,girl and a couple of their friends' problems and running away. I was so sick of it by the 5th page but then I kept reading and there was so much detail in the book and I actually kinda sorta liked it. -_-

Thinking of how my opinion changed, I really started to think about what the author wanted me as a reader to think. Did she want me to not like it and then sorta kinda like it? Was that just my opinion? Was it supposed to be just another ordinary teen story? Or did she just want to keep me thinking and make my own opinion? This is what I think of it as......a dress. You see it in the stores and you go blah! And then when you actually try it on it looks nice. Its like unravling the secrets of an authors mind.

I reccomend this book to people who like to read books like crank, glass and more. I am looking forward to finishing the book to see what happens and if it was really worth reading. Well wish me luck as I do to u! :)