summer post 4

The book I chose to read for my summer project was Stolen by Lucy Christopher. It is about a 16 year old girl named Gemma who gets abducted by Ty and brought out into the middle of nowhere with just him. I chose to read this book because it seemed interesting and intriguing because of the kidnapping and I like those kind of books. Even though I cant say I related to it a lot because I have never been in a situation like being kidnapped or anything like that I still enjoyed reading this book because the plot kept advancing and kept me interested.
If I had to recommend this book I would recommend it to people who like suspense and a little bit of mystery. Because what you think he is going to do to her is not what ends up happening and you start to feel for both of them and not just Gemma. I would also recommend this book to people who like crime stories because obviously she gets abducted. I would not call this one of my favorite books because I could not relate to it that much I still found it interesting and think that people should give it a try.

hook readers

"There were no buildings. No roads. No people. No telephone wires or side walks. No anything. Just emptiness. Just heat and horizon. I dug my fingernails into the palm of my hand, and waited for the pain that told me I wasn't in a nightmare," (Christopher, 19). This reading was from a section of the book Stolen by Lucy Christopher. This was right after she had gotten kidnapped and is notices, well trying to notice her surroundings and find out where she now is. She is scared and now she knows she is alone because there are no signs of civilization anywhere around her, which means that no one is around to help her escape.
Also in this section she uses a lot of alliteration with the repetition of the word no at the beginning of most of the sentences. The sentence lengths are short which keeps your attention and makes a statement. The diction is also more simple here making it not difficult to understand what her situation is at this part in the story. I chose this section because it is intriguing, it adds suspense and mystery making you want to find out what happens next in the book.

summer post 2

Ty is a 24 years old, has tanned brown skin, toned body, bleach blonde hair, and icy blue eyes. But when he was younger he mother left him and his dad and his dad was not around a lot when he was a kid and one day he and his crew all left behind the farm they lived at and also Ty. He lived off of the land until people had taken him and put him into foster care. When he was older his mother wrote him and told him she wanted him to come live with her in London where she left to but when he got there she was gone and involved in drugs so there he became homeless. That’s when he saw Gemma, he knew from then that’s what he wanted, to “save” her from this life. He also desired a companion so he didn’t have to be alone. On the other hand all Gemma wants is the opposite, to be away from him and back in London with her friends and family. A theme developing in the book is not everything is as it seems. I know this because when she first saw him in the coffee shop she thought he was attractive and wanted to be with him, but then he stole her and all she wants is to be away from him. Also she thought that when he took her he was going to kill/torture/rape her but all he has done is keep her as company. The book is structured like she is talking to Ty, like in a letter, she refers to him as you. It lets you know what she is thinking throughout the book and what she sees and does.

summer post 1

The book I have chosen to read is Stolen by Lucy Christopher. The main characters in this book are Gemma and Ty. Gemma is a sixteen year old girl who lived in London until her unknown stalker, Ty, took her away or as the title says stole her. He brought her to their current location in the middle of nowhere in Australia, some desolate place called sandy dessert.  The obvious conflict is that she is taken from her family and friends by a random man, but other than that she has to learn to deal with living with Ty who is a little crazy, being stranded in the middle of nowhere with little electricity and running water, and trying not to go crazy from being trapped in that small house and the boredom that comes with it. When Gemma asks how long he is going to keep her there with him he always reply’s forever, but I don’t think that she will be trapped that long with him and someone will rescue her. I also predict that Ty will grow on her and she will start to not to hate him anymore because she has stopped ignoring him and is going outside now. What I want to know is how Ty stole her away from the airport without anyone knowing and also how did she not notice him watching her since she was 10 years old? This book reminds me of the movie Tangled because Rapunzel was stolen from her family like Gemma but both after they were captured were not harmed by their kidnappers. It can also relate back to real life because there are so many cases about kids getting abducted and this book gives you a sense on what some cases could be like.

Connections

In this book they have moved around alot through out the country. They had lived in places from Arizona all the way to West Virgina where they are currently living. I think that it would be interesting to have lived in such diverse places with differant people like they did, but their reasons for moving i would not want. They move around because her parents dont have a steady job and they are just trying to make ends meet; so they sometimes have to bail out of a town when the debts get too high. Her father Rex is an alcoholic and wastes alot of their money on booze, and her mother is a quirky artist who spends alot on her art supplies. She has three siblings, one older and two younger, so her parents have four mouths to feed when they dont even have a steady job. Even though they dont have a near to perfect life they handle the situation well and Jeanette and her brother always find something fun to do and thats what i admire about Jeanette.

Even though i have only lived in Mason my whole life and dont have those kind of parents, i can stillrelate to this story because i do alot of traveling. i have been all across the west to places like Arizone(which was Jeanettes favorite place to live) and New Mexico, ive traveled up north to Maine and south to Florida, but my favorite vacations have been out of the country. I like out of the country vacations so much better because you get to experiance a whole new culture unlike american. I recently went to the Bahamas and everything was so differant, and since ive never been there i had so many interesting new things to do. And thats how id like to picture how Jeanette viewed their circumstances when they always moved around, a new adventure with new experiances. She also liked animals, exept for the fat rat in Welch, and so do I. She always found new pets in the places she moved to and i also encountered alot of new animals. While in the Bahamas we swam with animals like dolphins, sea lions, sting rays, and even sharks, and now I get why she loved new pets. So even though my family and Jeanettes family are completely differant, we still share similarities and can connect to eachother.

Living In Welch

Right now in the book they are the poorest they probably have been so far in the book. They were living with their grandmother in a samll town named Welch in West Virginia but after the grandma tried to molest her younger brother and they started fighting her they were forced to move out. the house they moved into doesnt have any running water that means no showers, no running toilets, no faucets, or anything like that. they only have electricity when they pay for the gas bill which isnt that often. Now there also happens to be a hole in the ceiling which they have tried to patch up, but did not do that good of a job at. And to make matters worse they also arent fiting in well at that school, it is a very weird town and the kids dont like new people.

If i were jeanette i would have a hard time adjusting to that situation. I think that it was a good thing that they moved out from their grandmas house though. She was abusive and you could tell she didnt love them like a grandma should, she wouldnt even let them call her grandma, they had to call her by her first name which was Erma. She also made them stay in the basement and if they talked too loud-talking loud to her was anything over a whisper- she would yell and threaten them. Also lets not forget that she tried to molest Brian until Jeanette noticed and stoped her.

But now their situation isnt the best either but their trying to make the best out of the situation, like Jeanette usually does. Their school also is full of bullies who used to beat up Jeanette everyday, that is until she helped the "leaders" neighbor and they stoped picking on her. I think that its very conserning that that can all go on, the bullying, the grandma, and now the house. I think they are pretty tough to make it through all that.

Blog Assesment

Throughout this trimester I have been blogging. I would say my blog which showed the most voice would be my Characterization of Jeanette Walls. A specific phrase that shows my voice from that post was, "I can connect to Jeanette because I am also a daddy’s girl, though my dad isn’t like hers." This shows my voice because I connected to the book. I also shared a little bit about my personality and personal life. Another phrase from that post that showed my voice was, “it is also common when you have been chilling in the sun, I also obtained freckles during my trip to the Bahamas this spring break." This illustrates my voice because I used words like chilling that show my personality. I also shared information about my life by saying where I went to vacation.

I incorporated purposeful diction and syntax choices into my post. An example of abstract diction from my post would be, “Since she's an optimistic person she also is very positive." This would be Abstract because I described an intangible emotion, being optimistic and positive. This helped show my voice because I didn’t just use some overused word like happy I found two other synonyms for that word which were less boring. A syntax choice I put into my piece was, “She has a very forgiving nature and that is what makes her Rex's, her father, favorite kid because she always is on his side when he does something bad." I used commas in this portion as my syntax. This helped show my writers post because instead of using the comma to just put a pause in the sentence I used it to help you know who Rex was by putting that in the middle after I mentioned him.

Book Recommendation

I would say that The Glass Castle is a great read. i would recomend it to many people, especially those who like reallitic fiction even though it was a memoir. It is about Jeannettes childhood and all the hardships she has had to endour. If you are more into science fiction and fantasy this might not be your favorite book but i think you would still enjoy it because some of the things she went through are hard to beleive. i also think if you like memoirs this could be one of your favorites because i had never read one before but i really like it and might think about reading more of them.

I think that this book will realy humble people. It made me be really greastful for everything  have and not to take advantage of it because she grew up on almost nothing at times. The story though is really interesting. Even though the first thing I think when I hear memoir isn't fun and exciting but this book may have changed my mind. She has had a lot of adventures in her life and she hasnt even been to high school yet, even though the adventures arent always fun they still are fun to read about. That's why I would recommend it to everyone.

krista ramsey

I read the column called Mennonites embrace the arts. it was about a certain type of religion and their art style. it also talked about how they are going to have an art show to show their conservative style. I think the best line in this article was, "Whatever you think of when you hear the word "Mennonite," it is probably not the word "art." I liked that line because it intrigues the reader and makes them want to keep on reading. It does this by making it seem rare or unique by saying its not what comes to mind. I observed while reading that her sentence structure is really spaced out. she has two to four lines then starts another one of those. This makes it seem shorter then two long paragraphs so more people will tend to read it

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/02/06/krista-mennonites-embrace-the-arts/5271241/

Krista Ramsey has a repetitive spaced out writing style. I know this because in all three columns she never has any full paragraphs. she also repeats the main idea of the column through out the text. an example of that would be, "Manning is a Southern-bred gentleman who's classic suits match up nicely with his classy manners". you can see in that quote she repeats the word classy, which also happens to be what the article is about, dressing classy. she also usually starts her columns with a relatable statement to make you  want to keep on reading. An example from her column For better vision, kids need time outdoors of this is, "you see it all the time. your teenager at the dinner table, waiting for his checkup at the orthodontist's office sauntering to his car- continually hunched over his smartphone or iPad." That quote is relatable because most kids have smartphone that their obsessed with or parents have a kid who is. A question i would ask her would be, do you ever have people come up to you wanting you to write about their topic? I would also like to ask her if she has always liked to write or just began liking it when she got older. and lastly I would ask how did she create her writing style.

characterization of Jeanette walls

Jeanette walls as you may know is the main character/protagonist in the glass castle. she is the middle child with 3 siblings and the daughter of Rex and Rose Mary Walls. Right now in the book she is still pretty young, around 12 years old. She is now living in a town called Welch where her father lived as a kid. She is very skinny because at times they don't have much money for food or any money at all. She had a reddish kina brown hair color. She also stated that she is pale which usually happens when you have red hair even though she lived in sunny places like Arizona. I also think she mentioned that she had freckles, also common with gingers. it is also common when you have been chilling in the sun, I also obtained freckles during my trip to the Bahamas this spring break.


Jeanette is a round/ dynamic character. She is very optimistic, when they are in a bad situation she always sees the good in things. Since she's an optimistic person she also is very positive. She has a very forgiving nature and that is what makes her Rex's, her father, favorite kid because she always is on his side when he does something bad. i can connect to Jeanette because i am also a daddys girl, though my dad isnt like hers. But as shes been growing up she has been starting to question her father. Jeanette is a little timid and wants to fit in with everyone in the book she says, "Since I wanted the other kids to like me, I didn't raise my hand all the time" (Wells 58). she also had a hard time making friends as a kid because of all their moving and people teased her because her family was poor.

about the author

The Glass Castle is written by Jeanette Walls. She is an american writer and journalist, most famous for her gossip column. She has written other books such as Half  Broke Hourses, The Silver Star, Dish: the inside story on the world of gossip. She started off her carrer at an internship for a newspaper  and eventually became a full time reporter. She then began writting columns for the new york magazine and contibuted alot to the gossip column in MBSN until she began working full time on her writting. One of her best acomplishments is the book im reading now The Glass Castle. It was well percived by critics and the public, and I can see why. It has soold over 2.7 million copies, thats alot, and has been translated into twenty two other languages. The Glass Castle has won numerous awards like the Christopher Award and Paramount has bought the film rights. the said that Jenifer Lawrence has been casted as the role of Jeanette and i am really excited for that because the story is great and i love Jenifer Lawrence, so with her as lead it should be amazing.

Alittle background after her childhood,which you should read about in the glass castle, she moved to new york and and attended Barnard college and graduated from there with honors. She married Eric Goldburg but they got divorced in 1996. She is now fifty three and is settled down in virginia with her second husband John Taylor who is also a writer, a journalist. Jeanette has wrote some good quotes. A good quote i found is “Nobody's perfect. We're all just one step up from the beasts and one step down from the angels.”  i like this quote because it shows noones better than everyone else and we are all made equal. Some more quotes from Jeanette are listed in the link below.
Author Quotes

the glass castle

I chose the glass castle as my independant reading book. i chose this book because i mostly like realistic fiction and this is a memoir so this actualy happened and isnt boring like most nonfiction. this book is about jeannette walls life as she was growing up. she had a rough child hood, her father was an achoholic and was always losin jobs so they didnt make much money, her mother never set rules and pretty much let them do whatever they wanted. she tells about how they were always moving around and rarely stayed in a town long. a lot of terrible things had happened to her from a very young age but she usually keept a good attitude becasue she wasnt used to anything better. she also has one older sister and two younger siblings, a boy and a girl. Jeannette was especially close to her brother since their ages were close and she did everything with him.

i really enjoy this book, it has keept me reading and im pretty far into it already. i like her diction and they way she describes the things that have happened to her. She has had a worse life than most but is so upbeat and dealt with it very well, i admire her for that. if i had to start living the way she had to live i would have a hard time adjusting and not having the privillages like electricituy all the time and running water, always moving and never making real freinds. this books helps hummble me and makes me realize that there are people who have it far far far worse then i ever have had and i should be more greatful. i would recoment this book to people who enjoy realistic fiction or interesting life storys.

characterization clarisse farenheit 451

Clarisse is introduced in the beggining of the book when she walks meets montag while they're walking down the street to their houses. Clarisse is a young teen, she is a month away from being seventeen. When clarisse is introduced they describe her with pale milk white creamy skin. They also mention that she has a slim and slender face. She has dark colored eyes, that as are said in the book, fixed to the world. She had a certain flow and slide when she walked, as if the wind was gliding her as she moved. She was clothed in a white dress that was flowing as the book said, it whispered. Clarisse was whimsical and generous look to her.

In the book when she meets montag she says to him "I'm seventeen and im crazy. my uncle says the two always go together." This shows that she thinks differantly than everyone else, she doesnt do what everyone else does. She is a thinker, she questions things while others just believe everything that they are told and just take the societys word for it. Montag says to Clarisse "you're peculiar, you're agrivating, yet you're easy to forgive." this shows that she is not the type of person he is used to. she doesnt go to school and talk and watch tv she goes out takes walks and just sits back and thinks. she agrivates him with her questions about the fireman job but he forgives her easily because shes just curious and is a learner unlike everyone else. So over all Clarisse is a curious whimsical thinker who wants to learn more about the past.