Blog Reflection

                 Throughout the year, from typing blog posts and non-fiction critical analyses, to creating synthesis pages, I have become a more experienced writer.   Making a blog is harder than you think.  You have to be aware of your surroundings.
                I have learned several things as a reader from creating and keeping up with my blog this year.  Firstly, I have discovered what my taste is in young adult books and in books in general.  Also, I have learned that I enjoy the most dramatic and escalating scenes in realistic fiction books.  I like to read realistic fiction books because I feel that I'm experiencing the scenes that are happening in them.  I benefited from this experience by becoming comfortable with using the blog that I created.  It was interesting to learn something new that you and your friends in different homerooms could socialize about, even in school.
                In my opinion based on my experiences in writing, writing online is different than writing in your notebook. When you write online you have to be more conscious of the people who could read your blog and just the social media.  However in your notebook it can be very personal.  As long as you keep it in a safe place, you can write whatever you think, believe and want as a person.  If you hate what you wrote in your notebook you could burn it.  On the other hand, the parts you've written online will be hard to get rid of.  You will probably regret what you wrote if it was something private.
               Initially,  I think that people do create online personalities the best of ourselves.  In fact, people don't want to be judged online, so they exaggerate certain personalities  that they contain to make them seem "cool."  Nowadays, teens shouldn't worry too much about their image.  Furthermore, be yourself.  The people who criticize you aren't your friends!  To sum up, writing online can be difficult in many events.

Non-Fiction Critical Analysis

             The article "Native American schools are in such bad shape, some might be torn down" by Washington Post adapted by Newsela wants us to know that leaders in Washington D.C. "have not paid much attention to the Bureau of Indian Education," but this is going to change.  Washington Post quotes John Kline, a Republican and powerful lawmaker from Minnesota, "you've got collapsing roofs, leaking roofs, buckling floors, exposed wires, popping circuit breakers, gas leaks.  That's totally unacceptable."  This quote shows that the environment of the inside of the Native American schools are dangerous for the kids learning in the schools.  These schools have to be fixed for the children's sake.  According to Kline, "you can't be well-educated in my opinion when you're attending school wearing your coat, wearing your mittens and hoping that the blanket keeps out the 30-degree-below-zero air."  Washington Post chose to quote Kline because they wanted to get out the message that you can't have a good education if your school isn't stable.
            Washington Post persuades you that the schools need to be repaired.  They achieve this by saying "children are not getting the education they need or deserve."  In addition, they says "kids are shivering in classrooms with thin walls.  Some are studying under leaky roofs."  Lastly they state that "last year, the government said about 1 in 3 Native American schools were in poor condition.  It also said more than $1 billion would be needed to fix them."
               Washington Post adapted by Newsela has persuaded me that the schools where Native Americans go have to be fixed so they can get the education they need.  They quoted several people to support their opinion.  In conclusion the Native American schools will eventually get repaired with President Obama and John Kline's assistance.

Reading Response On "My Life Next Door" by Huntley Fitzpatrick

In the book “My Life Next Door” by Huntley Fitzpatrick, the message is that lying doesn’t get you anywhere with your issues in life, it just makes things worse.  The story is about a teen girl named Samantha Reed, who lives in a big house with her older sister named Tracy and her mother.  Next door, the Garretts are the opposite of the Reeds, loud, exciting, messy, and loving.  One day,  Jase Garrett climbs onto Samantha’s terrace and this alters everything.  Samantha and Jase end up falling deeply in love.  Samantha becomes part of Jase’s family, babysitting his siblings and hanging out in his room.  Out of nowhere, a challenging problem just falls into her lap.  How will Samantha resolve this problem?

Firstly, an example of lying is when Samantha’s best friend Nan lied to her about being intelligent and great at state tests/regents.  The truth was that Nan would cheat on each test by keeping an electronic in her backpack, that was open.  After Samantha figured this out, Nan stopped talking to her anymore.  Nan lying to Samantha about taking tests only resulted in Samantha getting hurt, which didn’t do any good.  Samantha thought Nan hated her!  When Samantha found Nan, she says to Samantha, “You’re rich and beautiful.  You have the perfect life, the perfect body, the perfect grade point average, and you never have to work for a thing.”  This quote shows that Nan is jealous of Samantha and can’t stand it any longer.  In addition, Nan says, “I don’t need your pity.  And I don’t want your friendship.”  Nan has given up on friendship, which portrays that she is hopeless.  Samantha was sad about this outcome, but decided that there was nothing she could do to stay friends. 

Secondly, another example of lying occurs towards the end of the book, when Samantha’s mother said she didn’t hit anybody the night that Jase's (Samantha’s boyfriend) dad got hit by a car.  However,  Samantha’s mom admits that she did hit Jase’s dad in the car by accident, while Samantha was asleep.  Samantha’s reaction to this is “Mom did something wrong.  You know it.  I know it.  Something that hurt someone seriously.”  Samantha said this to Clay,  her mother’s boyfriend and assistant for politics because Samantha’s mother is the President in their town Stony Bay.  Samantha is angry that her mom won’t confess for her mistake that she made and is annoyed.  Clay states to Samantha, “Shouldn’t your first concern be for your own mother?  You know how hard that she works for her job.  How much it means to her.  Could you really live with yourself if you tool it away?”  As you can see, by Samantha’s mother lying it just created chaos between herself and Samantha.

Overall,  I loved this book and the plot in general.  I would definitely recommend people to read this book who enjoy reading drama/romance. “My Life Next Door” shows Samantha’s thoughts and her perspective in a fascinating way.

 

Reading Response On Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson

         In the book “Second Chance Summer” by Morgan Matson, the message is that you should take life for granted.  The story is about a girl named Taylor Edwards, who felt like she was always in the shadows, except for when she ran away from things in her life that she was scared of accepting.  Suddenly, out of the blue her dad receives dreadful information about himself, so their family decides in the nick of time to go to their old lake house, for the summer.  Taylor hasn't been to their lake house in 5 years.  So, when she arrives there with her family, she is faced with her old best friend, Lucy and her first crush, Henry Crosby, who has changed a lot and is much cuter than she last saw him.  Throughout the summer, Taylor notices that she has a second chance to fix all the mistakes in her life from when she was twelve, in The Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania, in her summer house, possibly, also with love.

One way that Taylor left behind her reality is when she was little.  In the beginning of the story, it states, “ Though I hadn’t felt the need to do it for a while now, running away had been something I’d done with real frequency when I was younger.  It had all started when I was five, and I had gotten upset that my mother was paying attention only to baby Gesley, and Warren, as usual, wouldn’t let me play with him.” Warren is Taylor’s older brother by two years and Gesley was her younger sister, 5 years younger.  Taylor was the middle child, she didn't fit in to her family because she had no talent, Gesley loved ballet, Warren was fascinated by academics all the facts, but all she did was bike around town or relax with her dad.  She used to play tennis, but now she didn't do it any longer.  Taylor feared if she stayed in one place for a long period of time, someone would usually get hurt, and she didn't want that to happen.  Taylor didn’t seem to like to take risks in life.  This example shows that Taylor is afraid of the outcome and doesn’t have the courage to accept the outcome of her actions to certain people.

Another way that Taylor left behind a situation was 5 years ago, when she was twelve.  Things got complicated in her life in the lake house in Pennsylvania, so she decided to leave her life behind with her dad when he had to go back to their home in Lake Phenix to do his work.  Lucy and Taylor both had a crush on Henry, but then when Lucy left to live with her mom in New Jersey, Taylor started dating Henry and never told Lucy.  When Lucy found out, Taylor couldn't stay any longer.  So, when 5 years later, Taylor sees Henry, “standing across from me, 5 years older, all grown up, much cuter than I remembered him being, was Henry Crosby.”  Later into the summer, when Taylor’s dad is looking worse every day because in the beginning of the summer the doctor told him that he only has 3-4 months to live, Henry and Taylor become friends.  Henry tells Taylor, that his mom left his family and hasn't come back and he doesn't know if she ever will, but he said she had a reason for leaving.  On the other hand, Taylor doesn't have a reason to leave, she just doesn't want to make anything become bad.  As you can see Taylor has a habit of leaving.

In conclusion I really enjoyed this book and the author, Morgan’s way of writing.  I recommend this book to people who like to read realistic fiction/romance.  This book shows the emotions that Taylor is feeling and her thoughts in an interesting way.

Non-fiction Critical Analysis

              The article "2 of 3 Smokers Will Die If They Don't Quit, Research Shows" from HealthDay wants us to know that smoking can have a vast change on your life.  HealthDay quotes Emily Banks, scientific director of the Sax study and a researcher at the Australian National University, "we knew smoking was bad, but now we have direct independent evidence that confirms the disturbing findings that have been emerging internationally."  This quote shows that smoking is unhealthy for humans.  In addition HealthDay quotes the journal BMC Medicine, "compared with not smoking, having just 10 cigarettes a day double the risk of dying early." HealthDay quotes the journal BMC Medicine to portray how important your choices are in life.  Lastly HealthDay quotes Emily Banks again to show how smoking can affect the age that you pass away.
             HealthDay persuades you that smoking has an influence on your body's health and life span.  They achieve this by saying "we also found smokers will die an estimated 10 years earlier than nonsmokers."  Also they say that "it was long thought that smoking-related diseases would kill about half of smokers early, but newer research has put the figure as high as 67 percent."  Finally, there's always still time to quit smoking no matter you age or the amount of time you smoke.
             HealthDay has persuaded me that smoking is bad for your body and you should be thoughtful about your actions.  They quoted a couple of people to support their perspective on this issue.  In conclusion, smoking has a negative effect on humans bodies.

Reading Response On "Paper Towns" by John Green

        The message of the story "Paper Towns" by John Green is that, if you don't imagine things nothing will ever happen.  "Paper Towns" is about a boy named Quentin Jacobsen who has spent most of his life loving the funny, fascinating, adventurous neighbor named Margo Roth Spiegelman from a far distance.  So, when she climbs into his reality through his window, asking for his help to get revenge on a journey he'll never forget, he follows.  Once their journey ends the next day at school Margo becomes a mystery, but Quentin finds out that she leaves behind clues for him.  The more closer he becomes to Margo the less of her he sees of the girl he imagined he knew.
One of the things that Quentin imagines is Margo.  He imagines that Margo hates music, books, and popularity in general.  Margo is the total opposite!  When she leaves Quentin and the rest of her friends  on a new exciting adventure, he goes into her room with his two odd best friends Ben and Radar.  Her room is surrounded with stacks of vinyl records and a couple of books by Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman hidden in shelves.  Quentin thinks in his head, “I was distracted by Margo’s music collection.  She liked everything.  I could never have imagined her listening to all these records.” Later in the book, Margo says to Quentin that, “people love the idea of a paper girl.  And it seemed like a way to tell that paper girl who cared about popularity and clothes and everything else: You are going to the paper towns.  And you are never coming back.”  Margo explained earlier on in the book, that she imagined the towns in Florida as paper towns with paper girls and boys getting everything they ever wanted, and how she thought this wasn’t right.  Even thought when she was little Margo liked being a paper girl and still does.  This shows that Quentin didn’t actually know the real Margo, he only knew the Margo  that he imagined in his head.
Margo also imagines things in a certain way.  She imagined Quentin being this “superhot, superloyal defender of justice.”  She tells Quentin “but then- you know- you kind of were.    In addition, Margo loves to imagine going somewhere.  She says to Quentin that, “the pleasure isn’t doing; the pleasure is in planning it.  She could be planning anything from breaking into an aquarium to going to travel around the world in several days.  Lastly, Margo imagines in leaving.  Leaving to go somewhere to start a new life where she can just be her true self.  “Leaving feels good and pure only when you leave something important, something that mattered to you.”
“Paper Towns” by John Green is a tale about a young boy named Quentin who goes on an adventure to find out who Margo Roth Spiegelman, his gorgeous neighbor is.  At the end of the story, he discovers that, “imagining isn’t perfect.  You can’t get all the way inside someone else.  But imagining being someone else, or the world being something else, is the only way in.”  In conclusion, if you never envision things, then nothing will ever occur.     

Reading Response on "looking for alaska"

        In the book “looking for alaska” by John Green the message is that we are greater than the sum of our parts.  This book is about a young adult named Miles “pudge” Halter, who has an irksome life with a compulsion of famous last words.  Pudge is looking for the “Great Perhaps,” so he decides to go to this boarding school called Culver Creek which is exhilarating.  At Culver Creek he meets this beautiful, clever, interesting, and suicidal girls named Alaska Young next door.  She reels Pudge into her own world, brings him into the Great Perhaps and buys his heart.

For Pudge he had one issue in his life.  He had a non-fascinating life at home with his parents in Florida and had no friends.  When he went to Culver Creek everything changed.  Pudge becomes friends with his room mate named Colonel who is strong, and smart, Takumi who is shy but weird, and Alaska who is intelligent and nice.  He ends up doing pranks with them and going on adventures sneaking behind the Eagle who is in charge of Culver Creek.  Pudge gets to know Alaska for who she really is and falls in love with her, even though she has a boyfriend who she barely sees named Jake. Pudge is thinking to himself “she taught me everything I knew about crawfish and kissing and pink wine and poetry.  She made me different.”  Then  Alaska and Pudge kissed in a truth and dare game, but Pudge loved her even more after that.  To conclude at the Pudge’s issue is resolved at the end of the story.

For Alaska her problem is that she wants to escape her labyrinth, her life.  Alaska had her own perspective on life.  She says to Pudge “Jesus, I’m not going to be one of those people who sits around talking about what they’re gonna do.  I’m just going to do it.  Imagining the future is kind of nostalgia.”  She loves to read books, and smoke.  Alaska tells Pudge while they’re smoking with Colonel and Takumi “Y’all smoke to enjoy it.  I smoke to  die.”  In the book they give clues on what’s going to be the climax.  In “looking for alaska,” you get to know Alaska’s clever side and her mature side.  The climax in the story is when Alaska gets into a car accident and passes away.  Alaska finally leaves the labyrinth but leaves Pudge in it all alone.

The main idea of “looking for alaska” is that our soils are superior than what we contain.  “looking for alaska” by John Green is a tale about a boy name Miles “Pudge” Halter who’s reality becomes intriguing when he goes to this boarding school called Culver Creek and goes on a journey with his new friends.  At the end of the story Pudge finds the Great Perhaps, he realizes that we are indestructible.  “We cannot be born, and we connote die.  Like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations.  In conclusion live in the present not the past.

Reading Response On "AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES"

     In the book “AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES” by John Green the message is that you can’t stop the future from coming.  This book is about a child prodigy, who enjoys anagramming, named Colin Singleton.  When it comes to dating, Colin’s kind is girls who are named Katherine.  Every time he has dated a Katherine he’s gotten dumped exactly nineteen times in a row.  Colin Singleton and his chubby, religious, best friend named Hassan go on a road trip far away from home to take a break of from their issues.  On the road trip they go to Shotgun where there are no Katherines.  Colin’s goal is to validate his theory called the Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability.  Colin believes that this theory will predict any relationship between a girl and a boy depending on their characteristics.

Formerly, there is one issue that Colin is dealing with in his life.  Colin Singleton is heart broken.  The last Katherine that Colin dated was Katherine nineteen who just dumped him.  Colin tells his parents “she’s just- she’d had enough of me.  She got tired.  That’s what she said.”   In addition, Colin tells Hassan “all I ever wanted was for her to love me and do something meaningful with my life.”  Colin loved Katherine nineteen.  She had long eyelashes and pretty blue eyes.  Katherine was a kind person and had a friendly heart in assisting people.  Following that, Colin discovers that relationships don't always last for a reason because he can't predict them.  It's not the memories of Katherines that matter, it's the stories.  Colin thinks "because like say I tell someone about my feral hog hunt.  Even if it's a dumb story, telling it changes other people just the slightest little bit, just as living the story changes me."  In a minuscule way.  To conclude, Colin determines that we all matter, even in a small amount.

Earlier, there is one major problem that Hassan is handling in reality.  Hassan doesn't want to go to college.  He says he’s taking a “break” from school, but Colin thinks Hassan is just taking a vacation to relax at home and watch his favorite TV show Jude Judy.  Later in the book, Hassan experiences a realization, that the main problem is that he doesn’t do anything because he is lazy.  Furthermore, Hassan tells Colin “I never did anything that helped anybody.  Even the religious things that involve doing.  I don’t do.  I’m a total non-doer.  I’m just sucking food and water and money out of the world, and all I’m giving back is, ‘Hey, I’m really good at not doing!  Now I’m going to tell you some jokes.”  This issue of Hassan connects to my claim that you can't stop the future from coming.  Hassan is going to have to go to college sometime if he wants to get a good paying job.  In order to earn what you desire, you have to work hard and not think about the future unless it's necessary.  As you can see, Hassan just has to decide on what he wants and live in the present.

“AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES” by John Green is a story about Colin Singleton, who is really smart, only dates one type, girls who are named Katherine.  Towards the end of the story, Colin falls in love with this girl named Lindsey in Shotgun, his first Lindsey and they start dating.   Hassan  decides on what he wishes to do with his life, and signs up for college, for two classes in the fall.   Also, Colin becomes aware that the Theorem of Underlying Katherines doesn't work because the future is unpredictable. The future is "infinite and unknowable and beautiful." In conclusion nobody can block the future from approaching.

Reading Response on Regan's Blog posts

             This weekend, I read Regan's blog posts on Dr. Bird's advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos and I thought they were great.  The first blog post on this book was descriptive of how the main character felt and his problems.  Regan's second blog post on Dr. Bird's advice for Sad Poets talked about the main character's primary relationship.  This book is about a young adult named James Whitman who currently is in high school and is coping with depression.  His sister Jorie got evicted from their home by their parents and is now living in a nasty apartment by herself with no cash. 

             I found it most fascinating when Regan described James's problems.  When James asks his father if his sister Jorie could return home, the writing draws you into the story.  Regan uses very clever vocabulary and the way her sentences flow is just incredible.  Then she talks on about, how after James's father answers his question, it creates a bigger issue, which leads into him figuring out how he has to resolve it.  I agree with Regan, that James’s problems only increased when he asked his father if Jorie could return to their home.

I also enjoyed how Regan described James’s relationship with his parents.  His parents are negligent to James’s issues.  James’s parents hardly accept his existence, they are unconcerned about him.  Regan states “I don't think his parents really realize how hard they are making it for James and for themselves.”   I believe Regan is right because the parents don’t seem to be aware of how badly they are treating their only child in their home at the time.  James’s relationship with his parents is precarious.  

Overall, I think Regan did a fantastic job on her two blog posts, they were well-detailed, and had a nice structure to them.  I like how her second blog post only talked about the most meaningful relationship that James has.  I would like to try this method next time I do a blog post.

This is a link to Regan's Blog:http://reganhockenberry.blogspot.com