Coming of Age #1

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

In my book Jeannette, the main character practically raises herself. Her parents don't really want to take on the responsibilty of raising their 4 children. After living in so many places, she has seen many kinds of situations that make her strong. She is determined to make something of herself, she doesn't want to end up in the same situation as her parents, absolutley brilliant but doing nothing with their talent. She doesn't want to stay in the same place for the rest of her life, where she can't do what she truly wants.

The author is saying that not everybody has the same youth. Some people have it much worse than others, like the author, who lived a life of poverty but somehow made it through everyday. But that doesn't mean you can't have fun. She took the better of the situation and found her own ways to have a good time even with the little she had. She always tried to make things better than what they were and that made her who she is today.

Test Prep #3

The Bay Citizen

Mental Health Center for Youth Is Closing

By Trey Bundy

Published: April 19, 2012

   A center for mental health treatment in Sanfrancisco is being closed down. 14 teenagers that have come from traumatic backgrounds are being transferred to other places.  The children are so messed up that other programs have refused them, only that center accepting them. I find this very unfair, for the city to close down the only place that they could go to. I disagree with the city closing down the center and using that money for other programs.
  
  The most common diagnosis is post-traumatic stress disorder. They are the children with the highest level of any young person in the system. These teenagers come from abusive and neglected backgrounds. They are so scarred that they are even aggressive toward grown-ups and even other kids. The center was the city's only safe residential program these type of teenagers. It is unfair to send them away to other places where they are not accepted, to send them away where they cannot receive the enough attention they need.
  
   By the time the youth reaches the age of 13, they have already been in 10 or 12 different centers. The center uses $15,000 a month to maintain each client. But the city has come to a agreement to use the remaining money for other programs that serve at-risk youth. Over the last 5 years, there has been an increase in the number of teenagers who are psychotic or have schizophrenic. This is bad because many of the youth are going to go back to their communities, where there is a bigger chance of them being sent to the juvenile justice system, while others are going to other programs that don't offer everything they need.

    This is unfair. It is like sending a child who is autistic and needs to be sent to a different location to recieve different educational requirments to a public school who barely has any programs. It is like taking a animal that needs to be in the ocean and putting it in a lagoon. Some of the things that it needs are there, but not all. What will become of the teenagers? Will they go back to their old ways, or will they become worse?

       

      

Test Prep Entry #2

• What did the student do wrong? What could he/she have done to include the source correctly?:

The student could have put quotation marks around the source and stating the title of the work instead of just copying and pasting the text

• Write a sentence using the original source correctly; use a quotation or paraphrase. Also, make sure to cite correctly.:

"There is a peaceful essence flowing from the structures. Perhaps the cool dark colors and the fiery windows spark memories of our own warm childhood years filled with imagination of what exists in the night and dark starry skies." from A Brief Understanding of the Starry Night Paintings

 

• What are at least 3 ways to avoid plagiarizing?:

*paraphrasing
*citing the source
*not taking the easy way out

 

Test Prep Entry #1

I really like Joyce's post on "The Hunger Games" on how she compares Peeta and Gale. She gives a very thorough overview on the characters and how we might look at them and decide for ourselves who is better. She makes both of them seem like they are the best people in the world, making it really hard for the readers to decide who is truly worthy of Katniss, even though most of us have already fallen pretty hard for Peeta and don't even pay any attention to Gale now.
The second post I really liked was Aidan's post on "Unwind" on who he compares three very different characters. He makes you think who is truly right in this kind of situation. Is it Lev, who believes that just because authorities tell him it is the right thing to do, that technically you "live on". But it won't be the same you. Would it? Or is it Connor, who will give it his all to do whatever he can to get out of this situation, to not be unwound. Maybe it's Risa, who wants to get out of the situation, but sees it as hopeless and impossible to get out of.
I really like how Joyce compared Peeta and Gale and made it hard for the readers to truly choose how is the best of the two and who Katniss truly deserves. I really like how Aidan got me thinking about being "unwound" and if you truly live on or as someone new and what would happen if this ever happened in the future and who's decision is it really?
How I can improve my blog posts is by making them more thought provoking and discussing a topic were the reader can't chose sides and is battling with themselves trying to decide which side is better.

What We all Need - Sonnet

We all love each other so very much
We may not realize it at the moment
We may even deny it a whole lot
But the true answers we shall always hold
Which we ourselves barely know we have
Something so painfully hidden away
In the darkest corner of our heart
In a place so very difficult to reach

But we all wish to experience this
Something so hard to explain in detail
With very few words to describe this thing
Yet something so big and vulnerable

It is love we all so desire
Something every person requires

What Happens To... Poem

What happens to a body without a soul and a soul without a body?
Do they just wander around
Not knowing what their
Pupose in life is
To live with
Meaning they have
None that they can even
Have is really hard to
Get not given recieved by
Work to live that is the
Way to survive in
A world like this one
One that is full of
Mystery

What is Poetry? Poem

Poetry is...Beautiful
Art
A way to express yourself
Words with meaning
Strung together to proclaim something

Poetry is not...
A half - baked job
Just left to sit there to gather dust
Words randomly put together

But it also can't be really clear
It must be a bit cloudy 
The meaning hidden
Just waiting to be found

Pietà - Statue of Sorrow

   This is one of the greatest of Michelangelo's works, maybe even the best sculpture in the world. When this first came out for all to see, most of the other works of this kind were awkward and clumsy, but even though this type of style of sculpture was still uncommon in Italy, it was and forever will be accepted.
   Michelangelo was asked by a French cardinal to carve a pietà for his tomb. Peità means "pity". It shows the Virgin Mary holding her dead son Jesus, showing the message exactly. While others of this kind were blunt and not thoroughly made, this showed every detail, from the folds of the skirt to the ripples in the skin. It was also the only work he ever signed, something that he claimed he "made".
   I have always liked this piece. It is as if perfection has been caught in this pose forever. Its beauty still affects many people today. Michelangelo said that he didn't carve sculptures, that he just discovered them, forms just waiting to be uncovered. How can a lifeless piece of marble have so much life, so much emotion, so much soul? It's as if it is a beacon of hope for people, because even though in this work Jesus is dead, it gives one hope that someday he WILL return to save us.

Reading Response Eon

   I just started reading this book called Eon by Alison Goodman. It reminds me a lot of the series Song of the lioness by Tamora Pierce. It is about how a girl with immense power is secretly training with the boys to become a fighter, something forbidden to women, them two becoming the first of their kind.
   Eon is really a 16 year old girl training with 12 yer old boys. She has the power to see all the dragons, without really training. she has raw power withing her, more than any Dragoneye has. Even though she is a cripple, she is much stronger than any of the boys that are nobles, she only a orphan that was sent to work at a salting mine. She proves everyone wrong, she even resurrecting the Mirror Dragon, who has been lost for 500 years.
   This book, as I said before, reminds me much of the series Song of the Lioness. Alanna Disguises herself as a boy. She becomes very good, even winning the kingdoms' approvals when her real identity is revealed. These two girls go against what society has laid out for them, saying that girls aren't strong enough to bear the arms of a man, but they go way beyond that, winning the approval and trust of a goddess. They both have the weight of an entire kingdom on their shoulders and even though they are told they can't do it, against many odds, they save the kingdom.
    I'm only making inferences since i have only read about one third of Eon and when the sequel hasn't even come out yet and comparing it to Song of the Lioness. I think Goodman based of her series of Tamora's writing style, making girls the fighters who go against the odds all the time. Even Pierce commented on Eon. I really like this book so far. I can't wait to finish it and for the sequel to come out already.

Social Issue Song Reflection

Writer: LENNON, JOHN

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace

You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world

You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one

This is one of my favorite songs. Whenever I hear it, I feel at peace. It really gets me thinking "what if the world was truly like this, what that be good or bad?" My sister also really likes this song, but she doesn't really understand the true meaning of it, even though I take the time to explain it to her, but she just says "So, what?" I still don't really want her to know what the world is truly like, yet. This song I think units those of all backgrounds and religions, giving them hope for a better future.

Racism Poem

Racism

Racism affects all

I make the racist comments

I am the racist comment

The color matters

My paleness earns me power

Mine gets me ignored

Speech

My annunciation is perfect that my voice is heavenly

My accent is so bad that I can't be understood

Background matters

I was here first

I just came here for a better life

This poem is about racism, how it can be shown everyday even though it can't really be noticed. It was kind of easy of telling the story from the immigrants point of view but I can't say the same for the one making the comments. It was kind of hard, since I kind of had to make things up, things I really didn't know about. But I think it came out pretty good. Sweat and blood gives of good results.

Favorite Blogs

My two favorite blogs are Sadie's and Brooke's. I really look their writing styles, how they are so creative, original and unique.
Sadie's blog is really descriptive. In her piece on Shakespeare, I really like how she "dumbed" down a piece from Hamlet. I did a Hamlet play, but simplified. Even I didn't understand it completely, at the level they wrote it. I agree with her when she says that sometimes Shakespeare characters might get a bit boring. Yeah they can get a bit dry and confusing, with all that "thou" and adding all those "th" suffixes. But still they way the characters talk it feels as if they are talking in a lost foreign language.
Brooke's blog is full of amazing books. She describes the whole book so well that I really want to read it, which is rare because I usually don't read recommend books. She desribes the realistic/historical fiction book so good, it makes you see how life can really be like.
These two bloggers have such awesome writing styles that I might even sometimes borrow them. Hehe!

Reading Response Revised "Cuba 15"

I can relate to Violet or also known as Violeta in many ways, not just because we are both Hispanic girls and trying to find who we are, but because of what makes us who we truly are. Violet and I both come from Hispanic backgrounds. We both have to carry on our families' traditions but at the same time find who we truly are, trying to fit into a place that is constantly changing, wanting to make something of ourselves, a person. Sometimes we got lost in a sea of doubt and confusion, but we somehow find a raft with reassurance and answers.
We have two sides to us, the family side and the "American" side. With our family we have to be the perfect little "niñita", obedient and normal, but with our friends we get to show our true colors, our true self, be who we want to be, no rules or restrictions to hold us back. Sometimes we wish we could only be one person, instead of always changing our masks all the time, but we know our family won't approve, that they'll be disappointed in us. We just do what we can to make them happy and proud of us, so they won't worry, so they won't say "why did she turn out that way?" or "what did we do wrong?".
Even though Violet and I are about year apart, we can truly understand each other, beyond family and friends, not even sisters or that older cousin, but as Hispanic, all American girls.

Reading Response "Under the Persimmon Tree"

I never knew this book was going to be so deep when I read the blurb. When I told myself to read more realistic/historical fiction, I never imagined it would be so depressing. This book shows what true loss is, not just death, but loss of home, faith, but most importantly, identity.
The main characters, Najmah (Star) a Muslim by birth and Elaine (Nusrat) a Muslim by conversion. Najmah losses her family in a raid about a month after the WTC fell down, now must make something of herself and embarks on a long difficult journey to look for her father and bother who might just have survived. The story of Nusrat is entirely different,nothing that you would imagine it to be. Born American, she has always needed answers to questions that none could answer, but she found answers and comfort in Islam, something she had never truly had. She marries a Afghan doctor and moves with him back to Afghanistan. Shortly afterward he goes to Pakistan and sets up a clinic. Then shortly afterward a bomb is dropped on the village and he is killed, but news of this doesn't reach Nusrat for a really long time of the incident. Both women try to find themselves while clinging desperately onto a slight slimmer of hope.
These meet by fate. Nusrat runs a refugee school and Najmah is delivered to her. Nusrat helps her break her silence and the two find peace and hope in each other. The two become their new family.

Reading Response "Habibi"

I absolutely love this book! It is a graphic novel by Craig Thompson. This book tells of one if the greatest love stories ever. It takes place in a land full of poverty, where to live is a simple struggle to overcome each day. The main character, Dodola, shows something that is hard to become no matter what the age, a mother. She makes a life with a young child she rescues which a she later names Zam out of nothing, just the desert. The pair learn to survive while at the same living a simple but grateful life, even sometimes they are on the brink of starvation. Dodola teaches Zam what is truly wonderful and important in life by teaching him the teachings of Islam. The author makes this easier for the readers to understand by intertwining it with the teachings of Christianity in a such a exquisite way that it leaves us hungry for more, wanting to so how deep Christianity, Judaism, Islam go together. This book keeps on asking ourselves how deep is our faith and for what we were put here to do, what does God intend for us to do with ourselves, why are we even alive, how did this all come to be; the universe, how does science and math all tie into our lives, especially religion? I believe that one of the reasons Thompson wrote this book was to make ourselves ask these questions we barely think about. Well it definitely worked on me. I now feel as if I know myself better.

Reading Response "Cuba 15"

   I can relate to Violet or also known as Violeta in many ways, not just because we are both Hispanic girls and trying to find who we are, but because of what makes us who we truly are.   Violet and I both come from Hispanic backgrounds. We both have to carry on our families' traditions but at the same time find who we truly are, trying to fit into a place that is constantly changing, wanting to make something of ourselves, a person.
   We have two sides to us, the family side and the "American" side. With our family we have to be the perfect little "niñita", obediant and normal, but with our friends we get to show our true colors, our true self, be who we want to be, no rules or restrictions to hold us back.
   Even though Violet and I are about  year apart, we can truly understand each other, beyond family and friends, but as Hispanic, all American girls.

Reading Response "The Glass Castle"

   I absolutley love the book The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. It shows something most people wouldn't even, no wouldn't even bother to think of. It shows the true side of America "the Beautiful".
   When people think of America, they think of everything being perfect. Seldom do others think of the places that seem as if they were third-world countries. This book shows these places from a child that is growing in them point of view. Jeannette, the main character tries to make something of herself in these awful places, to not carry on who her father is; lazy, a drunkard, uncaring.
   Jeannette grows up in challenging places, where you have to do your most to survive, where you have to fight to simply live. But she does everything she can to change herself, to not turn into those that live in those horrid places, those that are cold hearted and unemotional. She wants to become succesfull, not poor, powerful, not weak.
   This book gives you many things to think about, especially that not everything is not what it seems, especially big, huge things.

Reading Response "Tiger's Curse"

   In the book Tiger's Curse by Colleen Houck it captivated me just a few chapters in. I really like how this book ties in Hindu culture into modern romance. But I couldn't help but notice that the main character Kelsey is a bit like Bella from Twilight, someone that I sometimes find very annoying.    Kelsey is trying to find who she truly is after her parents died. She works at a circus where she meets Ren, an 300-year old prince from ancient India who is put under a curse, forced to take the body of a tiger. When Kelsey frees him, they both embark on a mythical journey to free him of his burden. The two can't help but fall in love with each other, forming an unbreakable bond that no matter what can never be cut.
  Bella also has an unbreakable tie with Edward, they just love each other to all ends. These couples' undying love for each other is both a blessing and a burden. Sometimes it helps them and sometimes it just blocks them. Love can be a great burden to all, especially with a boyfriend that is sometimes that was thought that can only come myths. Sometimes the girls hold them back and sometimes just don't know when to simply let go.
  Love is something that should not be treated lightly. You should treat it frailly and nuture it with care, tend to it with care to make sure nothing goes out of place. Love is something wonderful.

Reading Response "A Wrinkle in Time"

   In the book A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle, I can realte to the main character Meg. She is the kind of character that gets upset quickly, that is very impatient, and very loving and caring.   We both get upset quickly, especially very angry real quick. Sometimes our anger leads us to act without really thinking, our emotions getting the better of us. We both get upset over little unimportant things, things that are so small that sometimes they are even noticed, but we make a whole big fuss over them, making them into these huge problems.
   We are really impatient. We always race ahead of others, not really looking into the future and seeing what would really happen if we considered the options we had. This fault leads to mistakes we make, but for some reason that doesn't slow our rapid pace. We don't really learn from those mistakes, even though we are supposed to.
   Even though we may not look it, we are both very loving and caring. We express this in different ways, ways that aren't very noticeable. We have our own styes of expressing these very strong emotions, we just display them differently. We both have a motherly instinct that we can't help but follow, looking out for our siblings first before ourselves.
   Even though Meg and I are similar in some ways, that doesn't mean we are exactly the same person. It's not just our emotions that make us who we are, but our soul.