I Am Malala 4/14-4/18

Pages: 310 out of 310 (finished)
Prompt Miscellaneous: Describe a character that you would like to meet ( 4 questions)


                   Introduction to I Am Malala

    This week I started and finished reading the biography by the famous girl named Malala. The book starts off with Malala explaining her assassination attempt and the pain that she felt of letting her country down. The first few chapters contribute to the life and difficult situation of her parents mostly her dad Ziauddin. Her father's goal was to construct a school in which everyone should be able to go especially girls because of their inability to do anything in Pakistan. Ziauddin lived a poor life filled with hunger and terrible conditions at home. His house was falling apart but luckily he started a family in which he would never let them down. The book gives us a brief explanation about the life of Malala's mother which includes her lack of knowledge due to not being able to get an education. The chapters talk about the Taliban taking control of Malala's hometown Swat which includes her family leaving Swat surrounding the dangers of Ziauddin or Malala being killed.


                  The Perfect Character and Person of the World: Malala

    I would personally like to meet the "character" a.k.a person Malala in order to discuss with her my personal opinion about the peace on Earth. This "character" is very interesting because of her bravery and courage to fight against the Taliban. The Taliban were bombing schools and killing hundreds of girls because of them going to school. Malala spoke out to the media about her plan to make everyone in the world go to school no matter their race, sex, or background information. She even refused security guards to accompany her because he preferred to walk alone in a journey of success. This part of the book was very inspiring because of how much courage a girl of fifteen years old can have. The security part told us a little bit about her beliefs and religion. She mentioned in the book that she refuses to have security because as long as she has faith in god she will be alright.

                      The Questions that might make Malala happy.

   Another thing I wanted to mention is that Malala could change the world with only a few words something that politicians can never know how to do. When she speaks off making sure of something to her people she delivers it like a package. For example when she promised that everyone will be able to go to school that actually happened but until 2015. This is very inspiring and interesting that a little girl can keep her promises unlike politicians that promise nothing. If I ever got the chance to meet Malala I would help with her campaign. It would be simple she would help people in Africa, Asia and Europe while I try to help North America, South America, and Australia. The questions that I would ask Malala are:

1. How does it feel to be the youngest nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize?

2. Did you get excited to find out that you were the Runner-Up for Person of the Year?

3. How many prize or awards have you gained over the past year since your assassination attempt?

4. Have you ever visited Mexico? Did you find that Mexico will be giving you prize this year?

This picture shows Birmingham England the current resident of Malala. In the book they mention that Malala was flown into Birmingham in order to save her life after the shooting. The doctors in Pakistan didn't have the right materials to make Malala like new so a British doctor took the responsibility as a guardian of Malala. The city described as a wonder land but you can never get rid off the beauty of your hometown. This was also the place where Malala discovered Nutella sandwiches.


    This week I will comment on Carlos, Gustavo , and Nikolas's Blogs.

      

The Notorious Benedict Arnold 4/7-4/11

Pages: 352 out 352 (finished)
Prompt Test Readiness: Discuss what images appear in your mind as you read or how the author helped create those images.

                           Introduction to The Notorious Benedict Arnold 
 
        This book is more like an informational piece instead of an actual biography mostly because this book is filled with a bunch of adventure. It starts off with the author describing how a local hero turned into the most infamous villain of American history. The author first mentions that their is actually six Benedict Arnolds. The first one was a sailor from England, the second a fool who lost all of the family's money, the third one a barrel maker, the fourth a successful merchant, the fifth a baby who died after just ten months of being born, and the worst of all the villain Benedict Arnold born on January 14, 1741. At age ten Benedict used to cause a bunch of a pranks and he was known as being very patient throughout the town. The early childhood and teenage years of Benedict talk about how a dirty apprentice turned out to be the most famous hero in the Colonies of America. George Washington once quoted "The Merit of this gentlemen is certainly great. I heartily wish that fortune may distinguish him as one of her favorites".


                 The Dark Times of the Revolution and the Horrifying Images of War

   After the author finished up with the teenage years of Benedict he starts to mention the many battles that Benedict fought in. I imagined that they were going to give a brief description of the battles but they actually mention many horrifying specific details. In the Battle of Quebec Benedict and his men are planning to attack the British in order to take over Canada. The British surprise Benedict by blasting cannons at the men's faces. When I read this part of the book I had an image of men losing their limbs dying in the battle ground while I was also picturing the greediness of King George III. The author mentions in the book that "these men were not able to pour out imagination neither by breathing element 8". When I thought about this the element with the number 8 is oxygen so it popped into my head that these men where dead. The imagination part created a picture in my mind that the soldier's limbs were shot off in front of everyone.

          The Disappointed Images of Benedict's betrayal

  The last chapter was very suspending because I wanted to find out the true cause of Benedict betraying his country. You see Congress and the Board of Philadelphia never appreciated Arnold for the hard work he did to help his country. Later on George started to lose faith in Benedict which also cost Arnold to become a traitor. When I thought of this chapter images of a river by location near a house that looked like Jefferson's Monticello. I also had an image of Benedict shooting back to the many officers that tried to catch him before he escaped by boat. The last image I had was off Benedict living a poor life and even the British rejecting of his failure to conquer West Point. The author made me think this because he mentions in the book that even King George III didn't want anything to do with Arnold. This helped me create the image because of the kind doesn't like Arnold it obviously means that no one in England will hire Arnold as a chief officer for the British Army.

This images shows a memorial in Philadelphia  depicting the location of where Benedict Arnold injured his knee while escaping from the British. If you can see there is nowhere near the image the name Benedict Arnold. In the last pages of the book the author mentions that National Parks and Memorials agreed never to put the name Benedict Arnold in a memorial. This is kind of representing the hatred we have for Arnold even after hundreds of years have passed since his betrayal .



                   

      This week I will comment on Jenna, Bela, and Gabe's Blogs

Frankenstein 3/31-4/4

Pages: 130 out of 231
Prompt Miscellaneous: How did the reading make you feel?

              Introduction to Frankenstein 

    This week I started to read the class horror book Frankenstein and now that I'm reading it it seems that people in the 1800's were terrified of traveling by boat. The book starts off with a man named Captain Robert Walton sailing in a boat writing letters to his sister Margaret. He meets a man named Victor Frankenstein and Victor decides to tell him all about his terrifying tale. It starts off with a family of six a wealthy to be more specific having a splendid time in Geneva, Switzerland. The young Victor grows up to be a great scientist of philosophy. In his later years in college Victor decides to make life with his own scientific knowledge. He makes a monster that is murderous and suddenly goes on the loose to attacks Victor's family. The monster Frankenstein kills Victor's brother William and maid Justine. Victor feels responsible for the death of his brother so he escapes to the glacier area where the monster Frankenstein is waiting for him.


          The Reading that Improves Your Vocabulary

   At first I thought this book was going to be really boring but after a few pages the book started to get more interesting and descriptive. When reading this book it makes me feel smarter mostly because this book includes a lot of new vocabulary used from the 1800's. Since this is a horror book part of the reading made me feel scared because of the murders caused by the monster Frankenstein. In this part of the book they describe with full detail how the decaying corpse looks and the consequences of committing a crime in Switzerland. I also felt very disappointed because Victor never told the truth about the real murderer. The whole city thought that the maid Justine killed William so they took her to jail and they gave her a few days to confess. She was found guilty and condemned to death due to the very bloody murder. They beheaded her and soon after that Victor's cousin Elizabeth was dramatized.


      The Feeling of Happiness in Frankenstein 

  While I'm reading this book not all parts of Frankenstein are full despair but they're also filled of happiness and gratefulness. For example I just recently read about the confrontation between Victor and the monster. When I read this part I felt grateful because this monster is merely seed in this giant world while we humans are like elephants roaming this world. The monster has no feelings and all it wishes is to have the god-like abilities that we humans have. After this confrontation the monster escapes to a cottage where he sees the love of a family affected by poverty. He learns the communication of humans and how one little thing can make a family as happy as ever. This family doesn't have enough food but suddenly the whole family is taken to jail. The monster thinks that the family will become into horrible savages but the family is actually happy because they have one another. After this I felt very happy to have my known family with me.

I put a picture of Geneva, Switzerland the place where the Frankenstein family resides. Victor hasn't visited Geneva in six years but after the death of William he makes a trip to stop the horrid monster. This castle seems to be port of where traveling ships arrive, Victor takes a ship that almost leads to his own death. I picked this picture of Geneva because it shows the beautiful landscape of Geneva and part of the location where Victor created his monster.

This week I will comment on Emily, Nadrian, and Steven's Blogs.

Poetry Reflection

     

      When I think of poetry I always feel like I want to write about my origin city Durango, Mexico. The place that poetry makes me feel like a poet is Durango because when you describe this marvelous city a bunch of imagery comes up in my mind. I wrote a bunch of poems about this city and poetry helps bring out the happiness out of me. When I write about this city I feel like I’m actually there and poetry helps bring out the excitement/opinions about this city. The importance of poetry in my opinion is that a person can show what he/she really feels or they can poems to say something that can not be said with words. The importance of poetry in my life is that it taught me that poetry has to do more than just rhyming. In this poetry unit I learned a bunch of unique poetry forms and my favorite one was the spine poem. Overall this unit effected because now I can express myself using other types of poetry. 

 In my opinion I think that poetry does not belong to everyone because some people feel like they can represent their feelings another way. I think that poetry doesn’t belong to me because I’ve never been good with the concepts of poetry. I usually describe my feelings by writing narratives or sometimes when I have a great connection with a certain book. When I go through the hallways many people mention that they think they’re not good with poetry and some of them prefer writing in a journal. Another reason I know that poetry doesn’t belong to people because they usually write short stories and they make sure that their main character has some of the writer’s feelings. Overall I know because of personal experience and some of my friends have shared their opinions on this question. 

 The life and experiences of a poet usually effect the poem because the writer is writing about their own opinions. For example many poems have to do with lets say the Holocaust and these poem are tragic/sad because of the writer’s perspective on that certain event. These poems have to do about the situations that the Jewish people had to go through and a famous example of a poem like this is a poem by Anne Frank. When I went to Mexico it inspired me to write a happy poem in order to represent my feelings. This unit taught me that poetry can’t only be expressed by words but it can also be expressed through books. The type of poetry that truly effected me was the spine poetry because I could express my emotions through books. Instead of coming up with another character I was able to use my own favorite characters to represent my feelings. 

                                     

      

The Secret Garden 3/3-3/7

Pages: 230 out of 380
Prompt Test Readiness: analyze what motivates the main character's behavior

                         Introduction to the Secret Garden 

       The Secret Garden has to do with the life of a stubborn and miserable little girl called Mary Lennox. She lives in a large building with her parents, Ayah, and servants in the country of India. After a few days she realizes that her Ayah has died because of a rare disease. This diseases spreads and suddenly everyone in the building dies and poor little Mary Lennox is left alone. A group of officers discover her and they sent Mary to live with her uncle in London, England. She arrives in Misselthwaite Manor and she realizes that her servants aren't that obedient. Her head servant Martha tells Mary that once Mr. Craven's wife (Mary's uncle) had a garden that grew marvelous roses. Once Mrs. Craven sat on top of a tree branch she fell and died. Mr.Craven locked the garden, hid the key, and he makes sure that door will never be open. Later in the story Mary discovers the key and opens the garden which has rose roots growing out of the earth.

             What truly motivated Mary's behavior?

   In the beginning of the book Mary has such a rude behavior that some of the servants actually wanted to die. In my opinion I think that Mary acted this way because her parents ignored poor little Mistress Mary and her mother only thought about her beauty. At first Mary explains that she hated everything and everyone was because of the hot humid air of India. This terrible air caused her headaches which made her miserable and once she even slapped her Ayah. She hated life and she proved this by stepping on beauty blooming flowers during the beautiful daylight. I think that Mary hated life was because no one payed attention to her. The hot air might have not caused Mary's hatred, I think that the amount of food that Mary ate truly caused her pain. The book mentions that Mary barely ate and when she did she always complained about everything. The last thing that Mary hates is being with other people.


        How did the Garden truly change Mary?

   I mention in my last sentence that Mary hates being with people and the reason is because of a group of little children. At one point in the story Mary had to live with a miller and his family. The kids in this family used to annoy her by singing "Mistress Mary Quite Contrary" and truly made Mary contrary. When Mary arrived in the Manor the gardens in the house changed her because all she needed was cool clean air. After two months in the manor Mary cared more about people and she lived her life to the fullest. She enjoyed life and the person who inspired Mary was Martha's brother Dickson. Dickson is like an animal charmer and he made sure that Mary enjoyed life instead hating it. She mentions that she cares about Martha, Dickson, Martha's Mother, Ben Weatherstaff, and the beautiful robin. Martha told Mary that if she keeps hating life she'll end up like her uncle Mr. Craven. Those are the people that motivated Mary's behavior.

I put a picture of a red-chest robin because this little guy was the first friend that Mary ever made. This bird almost acts humans because he starts conversations with his chirping. He also lightens up people's day by landing on their shoulder or simply occupying them to their next destination. This bird even lighten up the day of poor cranky Ben Weatherstaff.

This week I will comment on Maria, Stanley, and Jesus's Blogs. 

The Muckthyical Land of Fairy Tales

Shark Girl Week of 12-24/12-28

Pages: 0-288 (end)
Prompt Miscellaneous: Does the title fit the story

                       Introduction to Shark Girl 
   
       The book I read this week was about a teenager that had to have her arm amputated in order to survive. One sunny day Jane Arrowood and her family go to the breezy beach of California where a terrible accident occurs. Jane goes swimming when suddenly a shark attacks her but luckily her brother Michael was able to save her life. Her arm is mortally injured and it needs to be amputated in order for Jane to survive. She spends more than a month in the hospital where people from around the country pound her with letters and flowers. On the news they show a horrible video of Jane which makes her go into a great depression. She has physical therapy with her therapist Mel and there she meets a boy named Justin. Jane is inspired by Justin because he doesn't really care if people ask him if he is okay or if they bother him about he legs. Throughout the book Jane seems to grow angry with her friends and family but she eventually finds the good side of the shark girl.


           Is Shark Girl a good title?

    In my opinion I think that the title does fit the title because it talks about a girl who has enough courage to survive her encounter with a shark. When I first read this book I though the title had to do with a nickname that people called Jane in order to make fun of her. When I walked around with this book many people that this book had to with a girl who becomes a shark. For example when we think of Spider-Man we immediately think about a superhero and the title Shark Girl could have confused people with a superhero. The title is a good title because it gives curiosity to the reader by providing information on why this book is called Shark Girl. Throughout the book Jane gives clues in her poems by calling herself a shark girl because she mentions that she is not perfect and nobody can do anything to change her. For example in the book Jane's friends Angie wants to change her but she doesn't let her guard down and she defends herself.
             
              What does Shark Girl really mean?

   In this book the term "Shark Girl" represents the personality and traits of Jane Arrowood. Jane grows anger and hatred in the book because of the name shark girl but she realizes that the name suits her fine. The only thing that Jane wants to do is show the world who she really is because in her opinion she is not inspiring. One day Good Morning America invites Jane to be in the show in order to share some of her inspiring words but she is furious because the show doesn't want to show Jane's true personality. For example even her family and friends want her to be someone that she's not, the only person that understands her is Justin. Jane realizes that Justin is the only one who saved her from her depression because he truly understood her situation. In the book they mention that Justin lost his two legs in an accident and he really does care what people say. Overall I think that the title does fit the story.

This might be obvious why I put a picture of a shark but later in the book the shark symbolizes more than just a dangerous beast. Jane feels that she grew stronger when she was attacked by the shark even though she can't do her favorite things anymore. The shark attack woke up Jane to reality because she finally realizes that she is not perfect.
                           

This week I will comment on Gianna, Carlos, and Jenna's Blogs.