Along for the Ride

Explain why you chose the book you did. 

I chose the book Along fot the Ride because I heard Sarah Dessen is a great author. I know she has written a lot of books that are really good. I have never read a book by her so I wanted to try to read a book from her.  Along for the Ride made the New York Times Best Seller List. I also chose this book because it is a romance book which I like.  Also, the comments on the back of the book are amazing. People seem to be able to connect with the characters which I love.

Write a blog post about the author and include some research about their life and/or other works.

Sarah Dessen's fisrt book was published in 1996, it was called That Summer. She has written 10 more books since then and is one of New York Times Bestselling Authors.  Here is an interweiw of Sarah Dessen, I didn't watch it myself because it is over 8 minutes long.

Has anyone read Along for the Ride or any other books by Sarah Dessen?

Independence (Significance #4)-Character Prompts

How has a character changed since they were first introduced? What have they done or said that’s changed your opinion of them?

In the series Significance, Maggie changes a lot from the first to the fourth book. When first introduced Maggie was a teenager who graduated high school early so she could work because her mom had left Maggie and her dad. Since her mom left Maggie's dad moped around the house and didn’t really care what was going on, he also lost his job forcing Maggie to pay for most things.
The events in Maggie's life caused her to be distant and nor very friendly. Now in the fourth book Maggie has found a significant, which is someone that you are in love with, but it has many more things too. Maggie is also confident, happy, stronger, and dependent on her significant without being clingy.

My opinion of Maggie has changed from liking her, a lot, to not so much. "So...everything I always imagined it would be." In this quote Maggie dream of how her wedding would be is perfect to her, she has no problems with it. Books are supposed to be relatable and the first two books were, but the third and definitely the fourth books are not as relatable because of how perfect Maggie is and how she fixes almost all of the problems she has.

Would a book that has a perfect character be as relatable to you as books that dont have too perfect characters?

The Fault In Our Stars

Last trimester I read The Fault In Our Stars this book was amazing, but very sad. The voices of the character's were great. They were smart and sarcastic. The narrator of the book was Hazel. Hazel is a girl who is suffering from terminal lung cancer. Because of her lung cancer, Hazel was taken out of school except for a few lecturers every week. Hazel's condition keeps her at home all the time, at home Hazel reads and watches TV. Hazel reads An Imperial Affliction constantly. The book ends in the middle of s sentence and Hazel wants answers from the author Peter Van Houten who now live sin Amsterdam. Her mom forces Hazel to go to a support group, one day while she is at Support Group she meets Augustus Water who changes her life in many different ways.

Augustus is a kid who had cancer and had to get one of his legs amputated. He now has a prosthetic leg and can walk fine, but gets tired quicker. Hazel gets Augustus addicted to An Imperial Affliction. Augustus believes that kids with cancer shouldn't let the cancer rule their lives, Hazel quickly realizes that is what she has done and tries to change. Hazel gets Augustus addicted to An Imperial Affliction. Hazel and Augustus start out as friends and grow very close. When Augustus has his "wish" left he takes Hazel to Amsterdam with him. On the plane Augustus tells Hazel something big, which changes their relationship to more than friends.

This book is wonderful, but also very sad. A great read!

Safe Haven-Theme and Summary

   1.   What point is the author trying to make through writing this novel/poem/etc?

  I think the point in Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks is that you always have another chance for happiness.  

 "She was probably strapped to a bed in asylum somewhere, lost in an entire world of her creation."

 This quote from Safe Haven is Katie being happy again after running away from her husband who hit her, she is so happy she almost doesn't believe it is real.  Asylum used in the quote is a synonym to haven, which is used in the title. Haven means a place of shelter and safety, asylum. This supports the point I made about the book because Katie is finally happy again, so happy she almost doesn't believe it is real.

Allegiant-Analysis

1.       Analyze the impact of setting within the plot of the text.  How does the imagery help to promote poignant and/or suspenseful moments of the text?  How does this enrich the mystery, tension, or surprise within the text?

"As far as I can see, there are low buildings separated by trimmed grass and fledgling trees. The roads that connect them are well maintained and well marked, with arrows pointing to various destinations: GREENHOUSES, straight ahead; SECURITY OUTPOST, left; OFFICERS' RESIDENCES, right; COMPOUND MAIN, straight ahead."

This is Tobias's first look at a old airport, the O'Hare. It is a new setting within the book, one the reader's nor the characters have experienced before. The imagery promotes tension filled and poignant filled moments because the characters can either take what they see and like or or dislike it very much. The new setting can create a variety of situations for the characters  either good or bad. It enriches mystery because as the reader I want to know more about what the characters think about this new place.  It also enriches surprise because you do not know what will happen in this new place. Also there is no exclamation points or exciting words within the quote so you know that Tobias is not excited and doesn't know how to react to the new place because of syntax and diction. The words that are in bold are places Tobias has never heard of, but he doesn't give the places much thought allowing the reader to draw conclusions. The obvious meaning of the quote is that this is a new place for Tobias.

House of Hades-Reading Skills

"Annabeth's heart raced. She knew the exit was close. If they could make it out of the Mansion of Night, maybe they could leave the drak brood of demons behind. She began to run faster, which would have meant her death if Percy hadn't stopped her."
Question: Would she really have died if she ran off the cliff or is there something below the cliff?
Prediction: I predict that Annabeth will be shaken up after almost dying and will confide in Percy until she thinks that she can move on. Once she is ready to move on I think she will keep moving, and try to forget about it.  She won't let herself be completely held up by Percy because she knows he needs him just like she needs him.
Text-to-self connection: one time I was with my grandpa and we were doing some hiking trails with my brother, and two of my cousins.  The trails took you high and there were some major drop-offs were you could have fallen to your death. This was very scary for having a three year old around. I can relate to this quote because I was very scared for my three year old cousin. I was constantly looking out for him, and making sure he wasn't too close to the edge of the trails.
Text-to-text connection: In the Gone series Sam saved many kids from being killed and became a hero from it, but that left him so that he couldn't rely on others unlike Percy and Annabeth.
Text-to-world connection: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2416642/Rhys-Clark-killed-girlfriend-injured-falling-150ft-cliff-trying-rescue-puppy.html
In this article people die trying to save their dog. This shows that people are good and try to help one another.

House of Hades-Characters

1.       Describe a conversation that you would like to have with a character from your book.  What would this conversation sound like?

I would like to have a conversation with the character Pery Jackson in the book House of Hades.

I would ask him how it feels to be a demigod. I can guess that his reply would be something about it being very cool, dangerous, worrisome, and magical. He would comment on the many dangers he faces and how he knows every monster he fights he may be the last one, but he would also talk about the amaxing things you can see, and how amazing the other demigods are.

I would ask him how it feels to be a hero and if he feels alot of presure from being known as a hero. I think his reply would be modest and he would say that he is really not a hero, but that he is just protectign the people and things he loves.

I would then ask him how he learned to fight so well. I imagine he would reply that it was alot of practice and hardwork. I think he would say that if I tried i would be good at it too.

I would want to know about Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-blood. He would say the positives and negitives about both camps and how he would mix them together to create the best camp for demigods possible.

We would talk of the Greek and Roman gods, and how their personality defers. I would say that i like the Greek gods better and I would ask him which side he likes better.

The House of Hades-Analysis Prompts

    1.  Analyze the conflicts within the text in relationship to the imagery provided.  How does the imagery support the moments of conflict within the text?  Analyze moments of imagery within the text to explain the meaning and value that is added through the language choices.  Then, evaluate the author’s use of imagery and judge the quality of the descriptive lines within the text.

    "Out of the corner of his eye he saw Kelli lunge, raking her talons across Annabeth's arm. Annabeth screamed and fell.  Percy stumbled in her direction. The vampire on his back sank her teeth into his neck. Searing pain cursed through his body. His knees buckled. Stay on your feet, he told himself. You have to beat them...This was it. His luck had finally run out." 

    Because of the imagery provided it is evident that Percy must kill the vampires in order for him and Annabeth to survive.  This supports the conflict because it makes you fell like you are there and it makes you feel like you want to help Percy and Annabeth. The words lunge, raking, stumbled, sank, searing, and finally make the image more clear because it gives you the sense of urgency that Percy is feeling, it also gives the feeling of loss and hopelessness. These lines are good quality because you can picture what happening very well.  

Book Recommendations

I recommend the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. The first and second books are out, Divergent and Insurgent. The third book, Allegiant, comes out on October 22nd. These books are very well written, they are written from the main characters point of veiw, her name is Beatrice. The books have good vocabulary, characterization, plot, and theme. The books are about Beatrice and how she makes her life decision, and the gardships she has to face after she makes that decision.  One of her hardships is that she must survive the initation, while making sure no one finds out that she is divergent. She also meets Four, Four intigues Beatrice very much. In the books there are many twists and turns that keep you interested in the books.

This is the trialer for the movie Divergent, it can give you a better visual of what happens. The movie comes out in March 2014.

 

Light (Gone #6)- Theme and Summary

8. What does the work tell us about right and wrong? Or the nature of good and evil?

In the Gone series the characters have trouble finding the difference from right and wrong, or good and evil. When many bad things happen to the charcters they do things that they never beilived they would do.  The characters killed people, tortured people, cannibalized people, and lost all faith in everything. When people see the only way to survive, they will do anything to live. Once they do these things they loose all sense of right and wrong, only some distant part of them know what they are doing, but they don't listen to it.

A theme for this is- When it comes to right and wrong, one will loose all sense when put in life and death situations.

I can also relate this to The Hunger Games because Katniss blows up peoples food which will probably make them die, but let her live. In The Hunger Games kids must fight to the death, and they will kill eachother to survive and return to their families. Even though the characters know it is not right they do it anyways.

Fear (Gone #5)- Characters

1.       Similar to your narrative, choose a moment from your book that epitomizes the personality of the main character.  Describe the scene, and explain what it says about your character.

" Sam nodded, distracted. He was seeing a chess board in his mind. Most of the pieces he might have played, the powers that might have helped, his bishops and knights and rooks, were all down or missing. Dekka, Brianna, Jack, Albert, possibly Caine, all down or missing. His steady knight, Edilio, would have to watch over the lake. Which left Sam with pawns." 
In this scene, Sanjit is talking to Sam about what is going on in Perdido Beach (Sam left Perdido Beach in the book before this one). Sanjit tells Sam that Albert left, Caine's hands are in cement so he can't use his powers, how Penny tried to take over, and how Lana put Quinn in charge. After hearing this Sam starts thinking about his people, and who has the power to take down Drake. He realizes that his powerful people are hurt or missing and he has a very slim chance of finding Drake and destroying him without his powerful people by his side. This demonstrates that Sam likes to have a plan , and is in charge of a lot of people.

This clip from The Hunger Games shows that you always need a plan and that there is a leader and when you try to take over the power it doesn't work unless you have all the people and resources you need.  This relates to the quote because power always needs to be organized and it is even more important during bad times. This is evident in both the clip and the quote.

Plague(Gone #4)-Analysis Prompt

Analysis Prompts

1.       Analyze the way in which the author characterizes the narrator for the audience.  As the narrator tells the story, offer evidence which would support the narrator as being a reliable source of information.  If the narrator would be an unreliable source of information, offer evidence to support this from the text. Then, evaluate the audience’s relationship to the narrator.  Does the author successfully build a relationship with the reader, so that the reader is supporting the narrator throughout the text?  Why or why not?

The author does not have one narrator for the books, but many.  He uses all the characters as narrators to get the reader more involved in everything and to let the reader know what more than one person is thinking. I think that using multiple narrators makes the book more interesting and reliable of the information because it lets you know multiple characters perspectives.  I think that the reader can build a relationship with more characters since the books provide more opinions and stories in using the multiple narrator set-up. When the reader is learning about all the characters it gives them a choice of whom to support in the book, they may like some chacaters and not others.  It gives the reader more choice and I think it also gives the reader a better understanding of what is going on in the book.  He is a quote from when Edilio is the narrator, "He turned and ran, and fell down the steps. Heaving with sobs, blinded by rain and tears he ran for Clifftop." This lets you know how Edilio was feeling and the next quote is what Diana is feeling about Caine another narrator and chacater. "And Caine was definetly a  strong protector. It would take a suicidal guy to cross him."  This is what Diana is doing at the same time as Edilio runs. This gives you a broder understandign of the events taking place in different characters lives.

Plague(Gone #4)-Theme and Summary

Theme and Summary Prompt

1.       What does the work tell us about the relationship of people to nature?

The series Gone tells us that people need nature to survive.  In the Gone series there is no weather and things in nature are changing.  When one of the characters makes a cloud and it starts to rain the people of the town stare at first and then come with bowls to fill up with water.  A quote for this is "On the street below, other kids were comign out of their homes, carrying bowls and buckets. They advanced with wanderign eyes, edging toward the rain curtain as it edged toward them."  They characters also rely on nature for food. They plant crops and fruit in gardens and fish in the water.  This is how they get all their food since everything else ran out in the beginning of the FAYZ. These things show that people rely on nature.

Plague (Gone #4)- Blogging Prompts

  Characters Prompts

5. Similar to your narrative, choose a moment from your book that epitomizes the personality of

the main character.  Describe the scene, and explain what it says about your character.

"Orc wasn't drunk. Not drunk enough to ignore the sound of that stupid girl's voice.That took a pretty good drunk and right now he was only drunk enough that he didn't want to get up off the couch."

  In the scene Orc is drinking beer and laying on the couch, supposedly watching over the Drake/Brittney creature.  He does not want to hear the cries of Brittney so he wants to get drunk but he also doesn't want to get up off of the couch. This explains how Orc is because Orc is usually drunk and doesn't care much about what he is doing.  This says that Orc is lazy and doesn't care much about anything.

Theme of The Swimming Contest

In war, one must not lose their humanity and individuality.  This is because you could lose something important to you.

Gone series-characters

Sam is one of the main characters in the Gone series.  Sam does not want to take on responsibility or control when FAYZ first starts.  Sam ends up taking control of the FAYZ because he has the power to shoot light from his hands and is the guy everyone looks to for help. Sam develops rivalry between himself and Caine, Caine has powers where he move things without touching them and can throw people across a room when he is not near them. Caine runs the Coates school and is very scary in the powers that he has. Sam also forms rivalry with Drake. Drake has a hand that is a whip and loves to see people hurt and would kill anybody that gets in his way for fun. Sam protects himself and Perdido Beach from Caine and Drake. Sam develops in the series because he takes control over everything but when some of the responsibility is taken off his shoulders he starts to fall apart. Sam taking control helps the plot because he has to try and figure out how to feed people, how to keep them safe, and how to keep Perdido Beach from turning on each other. With each new hardship Sam turns more into a man, learns how to deal with bad things, and learns to take control when he needs too. But others seem to get in his way, such as Astrid, Sam's girlfriend. She does not want Sam to kill people, she wants to have rules and make sure that not just Sam has power. Sam realizes that he needed the responsibility to keep himself together.  Sam develops from a guy who hides in the background and tries not to get noticed to being the one with the responsibility and control.  

Hunger (Gone #2) -Reading Skills

In Hunger it says, "There was no one. And things wouldn't be okay.  It was all coming apart. He imagined himself facing a tribunal. Stone faces glaring at him. Accusations. You let them starve, Sam. You let normals turn against freaks."  I can relate this to Mocking Jay because Katniss feels that nothing will ever be okay again once she kills the president.  She doesn't know what to do but sit in her cell and wait for orders.  She also thinks she will be killed because she killed the president.  I wonder if Sam, the character from Hunger, will sit around or if he will carry on and try to make things better.

A poem by Bradley Westler helps describe how it may feel to have things coming apart called Things Will Get Better. Here is part of the poem.

So take the good inside, and take things day by day
Things will get better, as we move, along life's weary way
We all are special don't forget, we need this to believeThat one day things will shine for us, just close your eyes and dream 

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/things-will-get-better/

Hunger (Gone #2)-book recommendation

I recommend the series Gone because it keeps you interested with twists and turns. I love the Gone series so far because of plot twists, characterization, and cliff-hangers.  In Gone everyone over the age of 14 disappears in Perdido Beach, California where there once was a nuclear explosion.  The twon had a nickname-Fallout Alley. The FAYZ (Fallout Alley Youth Zone)is what kids start to call this new world. There is a wall that lets nothing in and nothing out. The kids must find a way to survive and they need someone to take control, but some kids have delvoped crazy powers that can kill. They also must try and find a way to stay in the FAYZ because when you turn 15 you disappear too, unless you find away to stay. In the second book, Hunger, they must find a way to feed everyone while a battle is forming between kids with powers and kids that are normal. This book also has twists in it. I would consider this book a mountion plot because of all the suspense.

Summer Reading

The book The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins is a very good book, i would rate it a 8.  The Hunger Games is about a dystopian society after the fall of the U.S.  There are 12 districts and a capitol within the U.S. The districts are run by the capitol and everyone in the districts are very poor and don't get much to eat, except for the victors of the Hunger Games. The Hunger Games take a boy and girl from each district between the age of 12-18, and put them into an arena to fight to the death until one person is left. If you win the Hunger Games you become rich. Expeirence the Hunger Games from the eyes of a 16 year-old girl from District 12.