Entry Four Summer Reading Assignment

Since I have finished my book early, I am doing my final post tonight. I chose this book because I found the title to be interesting. I still wonder why Janne Teller chose to title her book Nothing. Also, I read the back of the book and it has a summary of the book. It has anxiety and depression throughout it as well, and I struggle with both of those myself so I thought this book would be rather easy to connect to. Now that I have finished it, I will admit that I could connect to it very easily. Pierre discusses his struggles with depression and I knew exactly how he was feeling so that helped a lot. I feel that if I couldn't connect to him this book wouldn't be nearly as wonderful as it was. I would recommend this book to anybody that is withing the 6th-10th grade since the characters in it are around that age. Also, I would recommend it to people that have struggled with depression and or anxiety since some characters struggle with that as well and it says how much they had changed and recovered from it. I also think that girls would enjoy this book a lot more than a guy would since the narrator is a female and you will understand her daily female struggles.

Entry Three Summer Reading Assignment

The book I have chose for my Summer reading assignment is Nothing by Janne Teller. I am so happy that I have finally finished this book! I am so excited! It was an amazing book! I would recommend it to anybody, it's so amazing. A very hooking quote that I found within this book was, "If you live to be either, you'll hace slept thirty years away, gone to school and sat with homework for nine, and worked for almost fourteen. Since you've already spent more than six years being little kids and playing, and you're going to be spending at least twelve cleaning house, cooking food, and looking after your own kids, it means you've got nine years at most to live." Pierre Anthon is telling a group of kids about this, as you can tell, he has a very pessimistic attitude. This is hooking to me because I like to see how the persons attitude will change from this over time and I believe that it is to other people as well because my best friend feels that same way about that too! Although there are multiple 'hooking quotes' in the book, this is by far the most intriguing.

Entry Two Summer Reading Assignment

In my previous blog entry I discussed the main characters throughout this book, in this blog post I will be discussing the desires and goals within each character. I will first begin with talking about Sofie. Sofie is the most "insane" character. She is basically a dare-devil. She is not afraid to do anything. Her main 'desire or goal' is to out do everyone else playing the game that they're playing. Pierre Anthon's desire is to prove to everyone that it is okay to be different and that you shouldn't let the 'norm' control your life and how your life. I believe that is a great thing to live by! Agnes is the narrator, her desire is to fit in with everyone else.

The theme that I am beginning to see throughout my book is dissatisfaction. Pierre Anthon is the main reason for this. Everything in the world is dissatisfaction to him, such as, he believes that humans are one step away from monkeys and that they are unintelligent. Pierre is a very dark and gloomy person and can find the bad within every situation and is sure that others feel that too.

My book has a very typical structure to it. It's told by a 7th grade girl from her point of view of the 'game' her friends are playing. She includes dialogue, lots of visual/descriptive words and explains the story by chapters and big events.

Entry One Summer Reading Assignment

For my summer reading assignment I am choosing to read Nothing by Janne Teller. I am just about half way done with this book, so far it's extremely interesting. There are many characters that have been introduced in my book so far, however...there are only about three main characters. These characters include Pierre Anthon, Agnes, and Sofie. Pierre is what the others consider, different. He wears hipster glasses, skinny jeans, and band t-shirts. Agnes is the narrator throughout the story, she doesn't really describe herself very much. She's very insecure and tends to compare herself to everyone else around her. She is a lot like a typical girl in middle school today. The last, but not least, Sofie; she is the most messed up character, she ends up chopping off someones finger to 'sacrifice' something to the mound. She also loses her virginity to a guy she doesn't even care about.

The setting of this book is in Denmark. It's in a small rural town where everybody knows each other, so when someone new moves in..the whole town hears about it.

The conflict throughout this book is that Pierre Anthon is not like the other kids. He's different so everyone feels the need to tease and bully him throughout the story. But, the kids turn it around into daring each other to do things. These dares turn to the extreme very quickly, for an example, a boy cut off his index finger just becaue of a dare.

I predict that someone will end up severely hurting themselves, or even killing themselves because of one of these dares. I can relate this to today because when you play 'truth or dare' qwith your friends, if you don't do the dare, they'll tease and ridicule you about it so I can understand why these kids are doing these dares.

Connection to modern day societty

The percentage numbers of teenagers doing drugs is moving up especially the males whose percentage is currently 65% and females 39%. On a sad note many people go to jail because of drugs and the percentage according to the findings in 2006 Census Bureau indicates that 2.2 million people are victims to drugs. (Jansen 1)

These numbers are quite scary. They're also rapidly increasing. If these numbers keep increasingly theyll eventually get to 100%. This is really bad because then everybody will end up in jail. This connects to my book because like I've said in every other blog post the girl uses drugs and they eventually kill her. She got in trouble with the police once but it was just because she had prescription pills with her that weren't  actually hers

Reflection of characters

My book is written in a different kind of style so there aren't really 'characters' like there would be in other books. However, I'm going to reflect on the girl that was writing on the diary entries. She is a 15 year old freshman n high school. She feels like she doesn't fit in with anyone. I can relate to this because I'm a 15 year old girl in high school and I feel the same way. She eventually moves away and transfers to a new school. At first she is sad to leave all that she has ever known but after she moves it's a huge relief because she finds people she can relate to. I don't know how this feels but I was going to move at the beginning of this year but I didn't. I still wish I would have though. :( the girl gets involved with the wrong kinds of people though.

This relates to modern day society because there are many people even in. Y grade that do drugs and are involved with the wrong kinds of people.

book review

Summary: Teenage girl that goes down the wrong path and gets involved with the wrong group of people. She explains her story through the form of her diary. She never states her name though. She gets into durgs and stuff as well. She first starts experimenting with marijuana and then she gets laced marijuana with LSD in it. LSD is really bad. It makes you see things that aren't actually there. These effects also happen afterwards as well. In her case, she truly thought there were bugs crawling all over her when clearly there weren't any bugs anywhere near her. This caused her to be admitted into a psych-ward. After this, she started 'popping pills'. This led to her over dosing. At the end of the book, she is talking about how suicidal she is and how sad she really is. Her last diary entry was real short. You could tell something was wrong with her. And then there's a disclaimer that says she died from pills.

I think any teenager would like reading this book because it has a lot of stuff that is relevant to our lives. I would give it 4/5 stars.

Final Blogging Assesment English 1B

I chose the blogging promt of

·         The most important line from a chapter is…  (and explain why it is important and how the plot develops from that line)

I find this promt to be relatively easy for my book because typically the character in the book (remains anonymous) repeats or reprases the same sentece over and over throughout each 'diary entry'.

Paragraph 1:

My writers voice is very distinct in my blog post due to my choice of syntax and diction. I used very low and informal diction because I believe this is the easiest way to connect with your reader. When you understand something, you tend to connect to it a lot better than if it were all fancy words. An example of low/informal diction in my blog post is when I wrote “Ha-ha, just kidding(that would be weird if the author didn’t know the answers to her own book)” This is low diction because these are all very casual words that you would use in a conversation with a friend. My syntax that I used helps the reader feel how I am trying to express my words and self. Such as the beginning of my blog post when I was talking about how I was feeling and how much I liked this book.. I stated, “  Hi, I am a freshman at William Mason High School and I am currently reading (almost done, however) your book Go Ask Alice. I love this book!” Using the parenthesis is describing where I am and how I feel without stating anything else or stopping the sentence. Also, an exclamation point makes it have a lot more energy and flow. By using these methods, it helps the reader and I have a connection without actually meeting or talking because you can hear my voice in the text.

Paragraph 2:

At the beginning of this trimester I wanted to increase my writer's voice within my posts. I have worked to manage this by including parenthesis with my own witty comments within my posts. I believe this brings out my writer's voice tremendously because I make witty comments all the time. My progression is very evident in my postsw throughout my blog. At the beginning of the trimester I would just write summaries and not discuss my personal input at all, but the more posts I did the more comfortable I became with blogger and eventually my writers voice just came to me naturally.

Explain why you chose the book you did. (Be specific).

I chose to read Go Ask Alice for my independent reading novel for this trimester because it looked like it was a really good book. Also, a few of my friends have read this book and I know that they loved it. Also, the picture on the cover drew me in a lot also. It's a picture of a face, hiding behind something. I have realized that this relates to the book because the main character(remains anonymous) iis a girl that is hiding behind her skin. On the inside, s he is very suicidal, depressed, and a druggy. But on the outside, she acts like a strong girl who can't be brought down by anything. This really realtes to our society today becayses a lot of teenages feel this way daily. It's really sad to think about but it's ujst the truth. Below I have attached a picture of the cover.

Letter to the author:

Dear Beatrice Sparks,
         Hi, I am a freshman at William Mason High School and I am currently reading (almost done, however) your book Go Ask Alice. I am loving this book! I have been really busy lately and have't been able to finish it yet. :( I am planning on finishing this week though! I have several questions for you regarding this book. The questions are as followed:

• Why did the main character (the girl writing the diary entries) remain anonymous? I understand that it's her diary that she's writing in but there is no name included anywhere within this book
• What inspirded you to write this? Did you get into drugs and then  you wanted to write about all the dangers about them and what they do to yo? Or, was it more of a writing based upon experiences you have heard about?
• Why is it called Go Ask Alice? I still don't understAnd that.
• I read the last page before I started reading the book so I know that she overdoses and dies, but why does it end so suddenly? Why is she just gone?

I think that is a few too many questions and I'm sure you don't even know the answers to all of them. Haha, just kidding (that would be weird if the author didn't know that answers to her own book). I would like the compliment you on your writing style though. I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower and it was the same style of book. A.K.A. a book that has diary entries within it. I personally like the way you wrote your diary entries better than Stephen Chbosky. Well, I need to go work on other school related stuff now(it's so annoying). It would be nice to hear back from you!

Yours truly,
Emily Davis

Go Ask Alice review

        I am almost done with Go Ask Alice. I am about 30 pages away from finishing it. This book has a lot of ups and downs. I don't want to give away a lot of spoilers because I know that this is a popular book for my age group. However, there wil be a few within this post so if youre planning on reading this book, I suggest not reading this blog post. The main character who reamins unnamed is approximately 15 years old. She doesn't make very good choices. She does drugs and drinks a lot. SHe also ran away from home and moved to California, which was also not a good choice. She is starting to feel a little suicidal as well. She struggles with her weight a lot. I believe she has an eating disorder of some sort but I am not sure because it isn't specified.


       Alice eventually gets drugged and accidentally takes LSD. afterwards, she believes that worms are always eating her. I feel like this would be such an awful way to live. I know when I have an icth on my nose it makes me go insane I couldnt' imagine believing that worms are ALWAYS eating at you and always feeling squirmy. Eventually, she checks herself into a mental hospital to get herself help. She realizes that she has a problem and she actually wants help. I know that this is very hard for people do to. I have seen someone very close to me go through the same exact thing,

Krista Ramsey

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/03/08/krista-ramsey-new-adoption-law-ohio/6222347/

This article is about the new adotion law in Ohio, and a girl that wants to find her birth mother. She doesn't want to meet her face to face, she just wants to ask her a few simple questions about siblings, her father, etc.

A qline that I really liked in the reading is, "A woman she couldn’t pick out in a crowd, but the only one on earth who could answer her most intimate questions." This line impacts the reader because it really hits home. I have a friend who is adopted and she doesn't know anything about her birth mother or father. She has the same questions as Coffee does. I also watch a show called 90210 and there is a guy that is adopted on there. Even though it's just a T.V. show, I can still feel his struggles. I personally want to adopt a child when I grow up and I would feel very bad for them if they had no clue about their birth mother/father.

Krista's writing style is very unique. She lies down the cold hard truth; no matter what the circumstances are. She has a lot of courage for doing that. I really repect that. In this article she mentions the new law and how it can change the future of the adoptees. She mentions how it can change their future in a negative and positive way.

If I could ask Krista 3 questions, they would be what inspires you to write? How do you get the topics to write about? and how long does a column take to write?

Predictions of further reading

I think that Alice (the main character) will start to get into some drugs. She is already experimenting with marijuana and she wants to try acid. From what I have heard, most drug addicts start with experimentation of marijuana. This is such a scary thought because shes only 15. I can relate to this because I'm 15 and I could never imagine doing any drugs..She has had a very hard time lately and felt suicidal at times and I've heard that drugs make people feel numb so maybe that's why she uses them.

Right now, shes about to go to California with her best friend. She isn't going to let her parents know where she is going either. Unfortuetly, she is not a good influence on kids my age. So if you are easily influence by others choices.. I would not read this book. Its really good but she just makes bad choices :(

March 17th, 2014

Unfortunately I recently abandoned the book Life of Pi. I just couldn't get hooked into this book. It is super long and pretty intimidating for me. But on the bright side, I started a new book and I LOVE it. It's called, Go Ask Alice. It's a diary from a teenage girl and her struggles throughout her life. I feel like I am a lot like her. She hasn't told us her name yet, so I will just refer to her as "A" as in anonymous. "A" is a teenage girl around the age that I am and she only has a few very close friends. It upsets her sometimes because she feels as if she doesn't exactly fit in. I feel the same way. She recently wrote in her diary that she is moving and shes so excited but very nervous.

I am only about 30 pages in but so far I am siked to read this book! I have heard nothing but good things about it. :) Heres a synapsis I found of the book on youtube!

Reflection

Reflection

http://emilydavisreadingblog.blogspot.com/2013/11/i-am-currently-reading-perks-of-being.html

I believe that this is my best blog post because I made quite a few predictions of what I believe is going to happen later in the book. My expectations of Charlie were that he would come out of his shell and eventually conquer his anxiety and depression. I also made another prediction that he will make new friends, which I soon found out that he did. He made lots of new friends. His friends truly helped him come out of his shell. I made a prediction of what I think he looks like. This prediction stayed the same which I mentioned later in another post.

 

Choice One: What goals do you have for yourself next trimester for reading? For writing? What areas of improvement do you want to work towards next trimester for reading? For writing?

 

Next trimester, I have the goal to stay up to par with my blog posts. I have really been slacking in commenting on others blogs. Also I haven’t really been writing long posts. They are all very short posts that talk about the same stuff in each post. I noticed that I enjoy finding quotes and analyzing them in my blog. I want to keep up with my reading too. This trimester I read a lot of pages on one night which was very stressful if I had other homework to do that night. So next trimester I want to spread it out throughout the week so I don’t have as much stress or pressure put upon me. I want to work toward improving what I read as well. Everything that I read is all about the same or by the same author. I love John Green and all, but I will admit that most of his work is about the same stuff/the conflict is the same. As I was going through my blog today I want to improve on how much I write in each post. They are all pretty short and boring.  Maybe I could add video links into each post, or even a picture.

LIfe of Pi

I started reading Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Pi is a very religous kid who is a really good student too. He also talks about how he was in a hospital in Mexico. It is still confusing to my why he was in the hospital. I can tell that something very tramatic has happened to him at some point in his life but he hasn't said what it is. I am thinking he may have been molested or abused very badly at some point in his life. He talks a lot about the zoo. That is where he grew up at. The zoo is an important place in Pi’s memory. Since he grew up in a zoo, it shaped his belief and taught him about animal nature, andtaught in him many significant lessons about the meaning of freedom. Zoos are places of habit: there are chores that the keepers must do every day, such as feeding and cleaning the animals and their cages. Pi learns early on the orderliness of the zoo and the comforting sense of regularity it gives him. Animals prefer the consistency of zoo life just as humans have their own rituals which could be their own sort of zoo. Zoo animals rarely run away, even if given the opportunity, and they enjoy the little water and food. In the wild, life is a constant battle for survival, a race against the odds and other creatures. Death is a constant presence and possibility of the animals so that is probably why they don't run away.Pi is a very routine kid. He's a little odd too. Growing up in a zoo definetly isn't the prefered life for someone.

Staying Strong

I really enjoy reading Demi Lovato's book Staying Strong 365 Days A Year. It is so inspiring. The books layout is really interesting too. It gives you daily advice, here's an example advice/quote...

"January 16th
Don't invalidate your feelings.
Honor them.
 

I used to run and hide from my feelings especially when I felt something that was upsettting, painful, or uncomfortable. But over time I've learned to accept all of my feelings. I know that in order for me to work through them, I mudt first honor and embrace all emotions. They are a part of me. Therefore they are meaningful and valid.

Goal: Pick a feeling that you're afraid of or asahmed of. Feeling fear, anger, or sadness is okay as long as you don't let it define you. Embrace your emotions and remind yourself how valuable they are."

This is such a great thing to remember. I love Demi so much. :)

 

 

Pre-reading Analysis

Pre-reading:

 I will be doing a pre reading analysis of Looking for Alaska by John Green. I predict that this book will be very interesting. I hope that they do find Alaska. I feel like Alaska will be a very unpredictable character. She seems to be very moody too. I have only read reviews about this book and I feel like I will be able to relate a lot to her. I found on a review website a quote from this book that I liked. It says, “At some point, you just pull off the Band-Aid, and it hurts, but then it's over and you're relieved.”
― John Green, Looking for Alaska.
I really enjoy this quote. I feel like it relates to 99% of the worlds problems. Such as ending a friendship with someone because its 'unhealthy'. Yes, it will hurt at the beginning but you will feel SO much better once it is over.

Another quote I found is,

“If people were like rain, I was like drizzle and she was a hurricane.”

by John Green

Wow could this not be anymore true. Girls tend to compare themselves to other girls all the time and tend to make themselves feel bad about themself even though their comparison may not even be correct. I know how Alaska is feeling in this situation because I compare myself to others all the time and always feel on the lesser side.

"Staying Strong"

I finally begun to read Staying Strong 365 Days a Year. It's a really good book. I personally love Demi Lovato and find her to be very inspirational. Who knew such a talented artist and actress could write a book too?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5jJQNKMRvA

This is a clip to a preview of her book. It dicusses her struggles with self hame, bullimia, and anorexia. She has been through more than the average girl should ever go through. Her books also discusses how to "stay strong". This book is very inspirational. She is a beautiful woman. I look up to her because of how strong she truly is.

New books!

I bought three new books last night! Boy am I excited! I bought Demi Lovato's Staying Strong 365 days a year, John Green's Looking for Alaska, and Jennifer Brown's The Hate List. I am so excited for all these books that I'm not sure that I know which one I am going to start! I think I will start with Demi Lovato's. :) I think that it will inspire me to help people who struggle with Depression, self harm, or suicidal thoughts. I know that I'm not a therapist but I can at least try to help. :)

Demi is a 21 year old actress and singer. Recently, she bean to struggle with an eating disorder and self-harm. She went to get treatment at a residential treatment center. Her goal is to make everybody feel beautiful and to help as many fans as possible. She is such a great role model. :)

I recently finished The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Let me say, it is an amazing book. It starts out with this boy, Charlie, he is ashamed of who he used to be. He feels like everybody is scared of him because he was in the hospital. Eventually, he begins to talk to this senior boy, Patrick. Patrick then introduces Charlie into several new people. They are all very nice and accepting. He begins to finally feel like he fits in. Then, he meets this girl named Sam. The second he saw her, he fell in love. She had a rough past with guys in the past but Charlie didn't care. He still loved her. I'm not going to give away what happens, but I would highly recommend reading this book!


I didn't expect Charlie to come out of his shell as much. I predicted that he would make a few friends, but not as many as he did. Personally, I would be friends with Charlie because I can relate to several of the problems that he faces in this story.