Summer Reading Project: Looking for Alaska 4

I chose the book, Looking for Alaska; by John Green. One of the reasons I chose it is because it looked interesting to me! It had good reviews, and it just seemed like it would be good! Another reason I chose it is because it was written by John Green, who I have heard is a great writer. He wrote The Fault in Our Stars, which is a very popular book. I also read The Fault in Our Stars just before beginning this book, and I thought it was a really great book. So, this made me want to read Looking for Alaska even more! Although I enjoyed The Fault in Our Stars more, I still thought that Looking for Alaska was a good book. I would recommend this book to teenagers, because it is a book for teenagers. If you like books that are filled with action, I would recommend Looking for Alaska to you. This book has a lot of action in it! Also, if you don’t like books that are sad I would not recommend this book for you. This book is also very sad, so if you really don’t like sad books, this might not be the book for you!

Summer Reading Project: Looking for Alaska 3

“Between Mom and Dad and me, it only took a few minutes to unload the car, but my unair-conditioned dorm room, although blessedly out of the sunshine, was only modestly cooler. The room surprised me: I’d pictured plush carpet, wood-paneled walls, Victorian furniture. Aside from one luxury-a private bathroom- I got a box. With cinder-block walls coated thick with layers of white paint and a green-and-white-checkered linoleum floor, the place looked more like a hospital than the dorm room of my fantasies. A bunk bed of unfinished wood with vinyl mattresses was pushed against the room’s back window. The desks and dressers and bookshelves were all attached to the walls in order to prevent creative floor planning. And no air-conditioning “ (Green, 6).

This is at the beginning of the book, when Miles is just arriving to the boarding school. He is getting all of his stuff into his room, and is describing his room. This is just after he leaves from Florida. He walks into his room, trying to unload his stuff. He is trying to get comfortable with his new room, and school. He describes what he thought the room would look like, and what the room actually does look like, too.

Summer Reading Project: Looking for Alaska 2

I think that Miles, who is the main character just wants to make some friends. He tries to find friends since he did not really have many, from where he had used to live before he moved. I think he was excited to try and meet new people since he did not have many friends. I also think that Alaska, Miles’s friend, wants to prank people! I think that a common theme in this book is, always be kind. I said this because in the book, Miles was always very nice to everyone. He makes a few friends, and is nice to them too! He wasn’t even mean to the people that had done something very bad to him. He is always nice to everyone: his parents, his friends.... I also think that by adding the action to the book, and a lot of conflict made the book more structured. I think that if there was no conflict or action, the book would probably not be as good as it is now. It would probably be a lot more boring, and not be as popular as it is now. All of the things that happened in the book made it more structured, too.

Summer Reading Project: Looking for Alaska 1

The book I chose to read for my summer reading project is the book, Looking for Alaska; written by John Green. It is about a boy named Miles (his nickname is Pudge) who decides to leave his home in Florida to go to a boarding school in Alabama. When he arrives he meets his roommate, Chip (His nickname is Colonel) who he becomes better friends with. Chip talks to Miles, and then ends up going to see his other friend, Alaska. Miles meets her and they all become better friends. So the main characters of the story are Alaska, Miles, and Chip.  Also the setting in this story is the boarding school, Culver Creek which is in Alabama. A conflict in this story is how Miles tries to adjust to the new school. It was hard for him to find friends, and adjust to the new place. I predict that later in the book, Miles will get to know his friends much better. I also think that Chip will end up breaking up with his girlfriend, Sara. I think that the way this story is written is a little bit similar to John Green’s other book, The Fault in Our Stars.

Conflict and Character

In my writing The Argument, there are many different conflicts in the story. It is about how when I was little, I accidentally broke a window in my house. The biggest conflict in the story, is when the window broke. Like in the story I say, "When my mom came into the room she gasped, “How did you manage to do this?” She yelled. I stood silent. I couldn’t tell her, I mean the reason for the broken window was dumb anyway."

The other conflict I chose was in the show Drake and Josh. This show is about two brothers, who are constantly fighting with each other. But, even though they often are upset with each other, they usually forgive each other.

I think my examples are good because they both have conflict in them! In my first example, the conflict is easy to identify and shows it well. My second example is good because the characters are funny! There is also conflict in a lot of the episodes.

Character

The scene I chose is from the movie Mulan. In the movie China is at war, so when Mulan's father is  called upon to fight, Mulan begins to worry and become upset. Mulan already feels like she doesn't fit in right with the other women of China, because they are supposed to be proper, and perfect. Mulan makes a decision that effects the rest of the movie, by taking her dad's place at war. But, Mulan is technically not allowed to because she is a woman. Women are not allowed to fight at war, so Mulan dresses up as a man to try and trick the men in charge of the army. Mulan begins to prepare by taking her dad's armor and sword.

This shows good character because Mulan decides to save her dad from the dangerous war he was about to face. Mulan is not selfish because she risks her life by going into a war in which she has had no training for. She wants to keep her father safe. There are many conflicts in this scene, but the one I thought was the best is relationship conflict. The relationship with her father would be diffrent after she secretly took his place at war. But, she was okay with that because she does it to save him.

Specificity

I like this scene from The Hunger Games because it shows that Peeta is strong. He doesn't give up and Katniss helps to support him. He shows the other people that he is strong, and not weak. I also like it because the scene is filled with action. It is very entertaining, and action packed!

The Argument- Ill Advised Writing

It was the summer. A very hot summer, and there was not a lot to do. So, me being a 5 year old, I wanted to sit down and relax with some TV. This turned out to be a horrible mistake. Why couldn’t I have just played outside? Or rode my bike? Maybe played with dolls? At least that would have been a better choice.

 “No. I said it first, you said it after me.” I screamed.

“Na uh! You know I did! I said it first!” Katie, my older sister said to me. We were in this heated argument about the dumbest thing ever. Pokémon. We were watching it, and at the end of an episode, you have to guess the Pokémon. It is an outline of the Pokémon, so you have some sort of a guess of what it could be. I lay down comfortably onto my back as Katie screamed at me. My feet were resting against the window so that if I slid my head to the left, I could clearly see the TV screen. “Nope. I said it first.” Katie quickly told me. Every time she said this I got angrier.

“No! I said it first. I did!” I screamed as loud as I could. I wanted to make sure that she knew I had been the one who had said it first. I kicked my feet with anger, and turned my head. I screamed, and threw my arms into the air. “She is wrong. I know I said it first. “I thought to myself. There was no way I could get her to understand that I had said it first.

Kicking my feet over and over, hitting them onto the window. My foot then hit the window again, but this time was different. This time, there was a sound. It was a sound similar to plate cracking. A quick break of the glass, and shards went falling. My foot had broken the window. Not fully realizing the damage I had done, I quickly looked up at the window to see that the whole window had cracked. The topic of Pokémon quickly vanished. The attention was towards the broken window now. I soon became terrified at the sight of the broken glass, knowing I was in major trouble. I stood there, mouth wide open, and not making a move. Whereas Katie, eager to tattle on me, hurried to grab the attention of my mother.

“Mom! Mom! Megan broke the window. Come here!” Katie tattled. “I’m sorry! I’m so so sorry!” I said.

When my mom came into the room she gasped, “How did you manage to do this?” She yelled. I stood silent. I couldn’t tell her, I mean the reason for the broken window was dumb anyway.

Katie told her as quickly stood there, scared, silent, “Well, you know you dad, he’s going to be very mad” My mom quietly said to me. “When he gets home, he’s going to be furious. He gets home very soon.” She said, and at that exact time I heard that he would be home soon, I ran out of the room. I ran as fast as I could into my closet, and under all of the clothes hanging up. I hugged my legs as tight as I could to keep from being seen. I was very scared. I could feel the tears starting to form in the corners of my eyes. I stayed in there for as long as I could. I waited, and kept a look out for when my dad came home. I waited and waited, sitting as quiet as I could possibly be. I was very, very scared.

 Then a couple of minutes later, I heard it. The sound of the garage door opening. My heart raced at the sound of the door opening, and my father cheerfully saying, “Hey. I’m home!” I could hear my parents talking downstairs. Then I could hear somebody walking up the stairs and into my room. My heart was raced, and I could almost smell the aroma of fear seeping through the room’s walls. It was terrifying. I then heard a small turn of the door handle. All of the sudden every sound I heard became just about 10 times louder. The sound of the door very slowly turning, and the door cracking open was heart-stopping. Just about a second later, my dad came into the room. I was not ready for what I knew was coming.

 

I think that in this post I described what happend well. I think that I described the actual story well. I was also able to make the story pretty long too.

Final Blogging Assessment

The blog that I chose was my blog about meaningful themes in the book, The Mortal Instruments. A sentence that I chose in the blog that demonstrates my voice very well is in the following sentence. I say, "This is really important to the main story and to the themes as well!" In this particular sentence I was talking about how I believed the main character, Clary chooses to help others. I then follow that by saying how I thought that her choices of helping them was very important to the story. I was saying in this sentence that it is important, which is something that I obviously believe. You can then think from this that I like to share my feelings about things, and explain what I think something may mean. My personalilty is very straight-forward because I say my opinions about it!

In my post I use good syntax. For the example I'll be using I use a balanced sentence, which is sentence structure. I say," Even though in the book every single character is faced with a difficult situation, they make it through it." This is balanced because it is not too long, or short, it is balanced! In my post I also use some diction! For this example I am showing the elevated/formal diction that I used in my post. I say in the post,"supernatural", which I believe is elevated diction. This is because it is not a plain, or boring word, but it is very intresting. Also it is a very diffrent word from others!

Text to text 2- Mortal Instruments

A book I find to be similar to Mortal Instruments is the book, Harry Potter. This is because in each of these books, they both are very unreal. Like how in each of them they have super abilities. In Harry Potter they have magical wizards. In Mortal Instruments, they have special super human abilities. They are both fantasy books, which also makes them similar! They both also keep my attention during the book! But even though they are more similar to me they have their differences. But for the most part, I'd say that they're pretty similar.

What point is the author trying to make? Mortal Insturuments

In my book, the setting is a fantasy type scene. The characters have special abilities, and fight for good. They try to fight the bad off, which makes me seem like this has something to do with what they author is trying to tell us. I think the author is trying to say, do what is best. Or maybe, fight for what is right. But, during this the characters all face different struggles, and choices. So each of the choices could possibly be something the author wants us to know as well. I think the author has many different points to get across to us!

right or wrong, good and evil- Mortal Insturments

In my book the author does tell about right or wrong. This is because in the book they go against all of the "bad" people, and fight against the wrong doings of others. This also contributes to the good or evil, because they try as hard as they can to stop the evil people. They fight against crime and evil to make things right again. In the book there is a main villain in which they fight against, so he is the main "evil" character. They try and stop the things that he does because it hurts the society in which they live in. They try to restore peace, and good to it as well. They try their best to make sure that they villain wont win in this battle!

What does the work tell us about how people behave?- Mortal Instruments

In my book it is a fantasy book. So they usually have special abilities which make them stronger. In my book Clary has special abilities which make her smarter, and stronger. Also since in fantasy books, there is usually a villain, they all go and try to fight the villain. This makes every single character stronger! They usually behave very heroic and out-going. The villain acts very evil, and controlling. Even though this is how the characters behave in my book, it is how most characters behave in a lot of books.

Meaningful themes-Mortal Instruments

One of the most meaningful themes I picked up that were being displayed in the book was, "stay strong." Even though in the book every single character is faced with a difficult situation, they make it through it. Another important theme I noticed was, "always consider the choices." I say this because in the beginning of the book, Clary finds out her supernatural abilities, and has the choice to understand them or ignore them. Also, when she meets Jace, she also has the choice to follow him and help him, or to go on with her life. My last theme I chose is, "help when it is needed." Because Clary always decides to help in the booked when it is needed. She decides to help to save her mom, and to help Jace.