SA Q on my book!

In my book "Blood Beast" by Darren Shan I feel the perspective that is missing to this book is the main characters uncle! Sure, Grubbs has a pretty interesting life himself, I mean battling demons left and right, how cool is that! Its really fun to read what he is thinking but I feel the uncles perspective would give me a slower and smoother tone.

His uncle has gone through almost everything Grubbs is going through right now! It seems he always finds a way to calm Grubbs down and him through the situation peacefully. But at the same time, in the book you get glimpses of what he is doing in the background, but then he gets cut out because he is approaching Grubbs, causing him to flee!

This perspective of the uncle seems so interesting! He reminds of an old wizard who knows the answers to almost everything, but is that really the case? I want to know more about his background and the thoughts he has compared to Grubbs! If I see a book on his perspective, it will answer all my questions about who he really is.  

Argument Essay

There has been a big argument about if YA fiction should be banned from school. There is an article by Meghan Cox Gurdon that  has become public about YA fiction being too dark. Many people have responded with articles of their own, against or with Meghan. As I was reading articles based on "Darkness Too Visible" by Meghan, I came to a conclusion that teens should have the right to read books that they want without limitations so that, they can explore the world through books they read.

If age limits were confirmed, it would be pointless! "If there is a 18 year old rating, kids will find ways to get the books without their parents knowing, children aren't very good self censors." Ness told BBC Breakfast in the article, Should Young Adult Books Have Age Ratings?, by Husna Haq. This helps prove my point about limitations not stopping kids from reading these books. The best it could do is just stop a 13 year old from buying a 18 year old book! But just like videogames, they could have their parents go buy the book for them and then no one could stop them from reading this book. These are simple ways limitations are easily able to get through and are useless.

When teens read these types of YA books about how peoples lives are difficult, they are able to make a connection between the characters. They are able to connect like no other actual person could! "And there are millions of teens who read because they are sad and lonely and enraged. They read because they live in an often terrible world. They believe, despite the callow protestations of certain adults, that books-especially the dark and dangerous ones will save them!" Said by Sherman Alexie in, Why Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood. This is a way for kids to escape their world and go to another which can give them hope to escape their struggles like the books did.

Lastly, teens have easily written stories which are even darker than what actual authors write. "All you have to do is read what teenagers write themselves, and I've judged competitions for teen writing before, and it's darkness beyond anything I could come up with," Ness told BBC Breakfast. This helps prove my point. Why try to ban YA fiction for being too gruesome, when teens write books which extend past what people want to ban.

Limitations for books are useless. They make no sense to have, especially with all those loop holes they have and how much people can actually connect! Banning these types of books are not really able to do anything for schools to make them better.

 

Crank

Kristina lives in two worlds. One where she is her normal self, and one when her alter ego , Bree takes over her body.

Bree is everything Kristina never wanted to be herself. She is a drug addict who looks for the worst in people trying to bring it out in them. She makes horrible decisions... sometimes she gets Kristina in mega trouble not really knowing what she's doing, and tries to push everyone's buttons. Sometimes, Kristina does let her take over and do her thing.

Kristina is really a typical student with a messed up family, or she says. She gets typical grades and doesn't really care about anyone. She tries to ignore her life because she hates it, her lesbian sister, annoying brother, her stepfather who she discouragers, and her mom...who she just cant really get a hook on.

She decides to go to her dads home for 2 weeks to try and get to know him. She realizes he is just another typical drug addict, poor, not very good at parenting, and does what ever he can to get his hands on the drugs that he loves.


She decides she will never try to be in that life, EVER! But, that changes when she finds the boy of his dreams... To try to get him to like her better she tries drugs for the first time! But then she makes the mistake of choosing a horribly addictive drug...Crank.

 

Faithful Elephants

In Faithful Elephants: A True Story of Animals, People, and War, we are in fall in a zoo in Japan. There is a memorial about 3 elephants being ignored. A little girl is watching new elephants doing tricks in there cage. A man walks up near the little girl, and starts telling a terrible story about these three elephants in the memorial.

There were three innocent elephants, John, Tonky, and Wanly. These were amazing circus elephants who had nothing wrong with them, but the setting was horrible. They were in Japan, in the middle of WWII! Bombs were dropped on a daily in Japan, and it was terrible.

The workers worried of a bomb dropping on the zoo, and the animals going loose...and they made a horrible decision. The army ordered for all of the animals to be sentenced to death!

I'm gonna take a break from then and connect it to now... What were they thinking! Today they would have transported these elephants to a safer environment where when it is all over, they could come back unharmed. These people weren't thinking about what they were doing! Anyways, I'm gonna go back to the story.

They killed each other animal by poisoning there food and then feeding it to them, making them suffer and die slowly. (This was really horrible and like I said, could have had better results!) Last the elephants were to go, and they weren't going easy.

The elephants were able to smell the danger and protested to eat the food. The next approach was to inject it with a needle... well that plan literally SNAPPED! so the last way was to starve them to death... these people really make me so sick. (Why do they have to kill there most prized possession without thought.)

There were two animals left... they suffered the same fate. They actually thought they were being punished because they were doing something wrong. So for the last time they did there banzai trick, hoping to get a food. (this makes me so sad, but how could they be so naïve?) They died, next to each other as if they were going to heaven together...

The Workers finally broke, they burst into tears and rage. They were complaining and grieving over the animals they had lost.(Well at least now they showed emotion.) At these moments bombs were finally dropped, as  if they there future vision came true( you know, just except that no animals were running wild.). All the workers cursed the sky yelling "Stop the war! Stop all war!" this story is sad and I would hate for this to happen to me, I could only imagine what they were going through...

summer reading, 8th grade bites

This book was good! It was intense and was a good horror with some comedy in it. I thought the want was strong and so was the conflict. Vampires are cool and all, but this book made it even better!

This was probably the most realistic vampire book I read! It was so real and this would probably happen with a actual vampire in 8th grade! I can't wait to read the rest of the books

20 page play

This was a play that I made during drama. We were making 20 page plays. It seems easy, but it was the hardest thing in drama.

I kept getting complaints from my teacher. He wanted me to bring out the funny in me. But I couldn't and I kept going to drugs and other stupid stuff, but then I got help.

My drama teacher took me every PR. He helped me bring out my true talent of writing. He made me Create a real comedy, called how to rid of a magical boyfriend.

The sweet perfume of good bye

So it seems the world has no smell. This isn't earth though, they are on some other planet. The twist is, they can only smell in the presence of death.

It seems about an hour before someone dies, they are covered in this aroma. No one knows why they can't smell anything except death, it's kinda strange. Also, they call this good bye aroma.

It does make sense! They know that the person is going to pass away and well what other words to say except good bye!

Little Gerbil Man by Rachel Ewing

This is a one act play. It is about a 11 year old boy going through struggle with communicating with his mom. His parents were recently divorced and he isn't dealing with it well.

It seems he has a stronger relationship with his father. Now that he lives with his mom he has to try to connect with her more. He isn't connecting that much.

He gerbil has just died and believes that it will turn into a zombie because of how him and his dad believed in zombies. This might be showing how he connected with his dad and doesn't want his mom to be part of it, will it change?

Walking dead

How many hours, are in a day when you spend Half the time watching TV? When is the last time any of us really worked to get what we wanted? How long has it been since any of us really needed something that we wanted?

The world we knew is gone. The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been replaced by a world of survival and responsibility. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept the globe causing dead to rise and feed on the living, in a matter of months society has crumbled.
No government, no grocery stores, no mail delivery, and no TV. In a work ruled by the dead, we are forced to finally start living.

Hurricane song

In the book, Hurricane Song, by Paul Valponi, is about two characters. Miles, son of Pops who is not very close to him and cares about Football, and Pops, Father of Miles who doesn't know how to treat a son and wants nothing to do with anything that isn't music, who go through Hurricane Katrina. At first they are very distant and cant really communicate with each other well, but the storms hits and changes the characters to being close and loving toward each other.

In the begging, Miles didn't care much for his dad. He only wanted to play football and didn't want to play the drums that Pops wanted him to. He didn't even think his dad loved or cared for him, thinking music was more important to him then his own song... but when they have to stay with each other cooped up in the Super Dome, it changes that. Miles grew closer, He decided his father was a lot more important then his hobbies. He even tried the drums his dad wanted him to, and he was really good at it too! and he continued just for his father. Also, he realizes his father does care for him when Miles is being chocked to death till his father takes his very precious horn, and wacked it on the mans head. This is how Miles changed toward Pops.

In the Begging, Pops didn't know how to take care of Miles and started offish on being a good father. Also he only cared for his music and didn't show interest in Miles hobbies. After they bond in the Super Dome, he changes all these things. During a shoot out, Pops took Miles and pushed him to the ground out of sight of the fire, and kept him there till the danger was clear. He showed that Miles was officially his one and only loved son, he does this by beating a thug who was about to kill miles by drowning him, he smashed the man on the head with his horn and yelled to never touch his son again, and if he did he would regret it deeply. Pops also allowed Miles to join the High school varsity team. This is how pops changed.

In the end, the relationship became loving and caring, not wanting to let each other go. At first they were awkward around each other not showing interest in each other, then the storm came. That changed it all, putting them in an amazing father son relationship. 

IWP

It is really fun. I got to decide wat ever project that dealt with the the subject ela. I, chose to do a play.

It is a comedy sequel to my drama play I did. Lots of my friends loved my drama play and wanted to get a copy themselves. This made me think, for my IWP I should make a sequel to it. So I did.

I have a great feeling about this play. My only problem is you might not fully understand it unless you read the first play, but I'll work on that.

Lost Hero

They are going to try and save Pipers father now. The father was taken away by a giant monster. Piper is the daughter of Athena. She is with Leo and Jason trying to save him.

They found out that Gaea was the person controlling the giant. Now they have to go defeat the giant to get Pipers father back, but there is one problem. They are in Gaea's territory, where is strongest and in all control.

Piper is scared because she knows that all her friends are now in great danger because of something she did. She is trying to stop them, so nothing bad will happen, especially with the deal she was forced to make...

Lost Hero

Its been a while since I read Lost Hero. I started last spring, and never got a chance to finish it. So I saw it on my shelf of books, and said, why not? And boy have I missed out.

The book is incredible! Tons of detail in it, amazing story line, and tons of Greek Mythology. It reminds me so much of the Percy Jackson series, which I loved soooooooooooooooooooooo much!

I mean  all the new characters that are established! Jason, Piper, and Leo, so amazing! I missed Rick Riordan's work so much, and I cant wait to read even more!

soda ban essay

                                  Soda Ban essay

By Emmanuel Cano-Garraway                                                     Class: 705

                             I’m Against the Ban (NYC Soda Ban)

   The NYC Soda Ban, a ban in NYC allowing no more than 16oz cups should be opposed. I believe this because as a NYC citizen, believe it is pointless. I have three reasons to support my idea. First loop holes, second a majority of New Yorkers oppose it wants it, third and it takes away our freedom to choose.

   The first reason the law is stupid and shouldn’t be passed is loopholes. According to the NY Times video, you could still buy as many 16oz sodas as you want! At 32oz or more! Someone for the ban, might say “Well they could realize how much sugar is being put into them, causing them not to want to drink that much anymore.” But maybe they won’t, maybe they will just pay for 2 16oz drinks! Also if the drink has 50% milk, it’s ok to have any size drink! So you could have the most sugared drink ever, with 50% fake milk, and it would be ok to have 32oz of it! This is a big loophole, because there are too many ways people have access to sugary drinks. The ban only limits some access and why it won’t work.

The 2^nd reason I oppose the law is because practically a majority of New Yorkers oppose it! 60% of New Yorkers don’t even want this ban “But that’s not up to the people, it’s up to Bloomberg and his acquaintances.” But, why would a law be attempted to be passed if soooooooooooooooooo many people don’t even want it! Also the Soda Ban is unfair to the soda companies! According to Health Panel Approves Restriction on Sale of Large Sugary Drinks, soda companies can go out of business losing money on sales. “Well this could mean another way of stopping obesity, no more soft drinks.” ARE YOU TRYING TO RUIN OUR CHILD HOOD! People want soft drinks!

This brings me to my 3^rd reason, takes away our freedom to choose.

So the ban is still being debated either it will be opposed or approved. I already showed you why it was pointless, loopholes, nobody wants it, and it takes away freedom. All these things would make the law fall apart. I hope you are with me to rebel against this law.

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID #1

Ya I know im reading the hunger games and all, but I just wanted to read this again just for laughs. It was one of my favorite books when I was younger, and still is! I really want to read the newest ones, but this will have to do.

It's about this kid, Greg, he basically makes a diary, and this is it! He goes through a really funny, but tough life. He has to deal with his brother, Rodrick, his mom, Susan, his dad, Frank, his very annoying younger brother, Manny... and his best friend, Rowely. This are thhings that an actual person would have to deal with.

Honestly, this was one of the most realistic diary books ever. This was something that could happen to anyone who would read this. I mean, this could even be a book I wrote! This is why I love this book, except the fact that Manny is a little annoying kid -_-



 

Hunger Games

Sadly, I just started the Hunger Games. I know I'm late, and I don't understand why! The book so far is really interesting.
I realize that now the narrator, is Katnis. She seems like a interesting main character, especially since it's in 1st person. We get to know all the things she feels and thinks. I typically like 1st person books, and this won't be an exception.
So I now learn what the hunger games is. It's kind of like the title, but not. It is a battle of life and death, and the winner is rewarded with a great prize. That's all I know, let me find out more!
 

Tweak

AAAAAAAHHHHH! So good! All the suspense, surprises, what happened in his past! Just so freaking good! I just can't seem to put the book down!

I mean Nic has the bad life! Drugs, the girl, the family. All these have to go with his addiction. I bet he has practically tried every drug known to man! I'm even learning about new one's I  haven't even heard of!

I get to see what the side effects are, how it felt. Just imagining it, makes me feel strange and sick. I never want his life with all of these drugs and stuff, and I bet he didn't even want himself, but couldn't run away from it...

tweak

THIS BOOK IS SO INTERESTING! It is like a absolute replica of probably it would be like if you were on drugs. The reason is, because this is about the authors life when he was on drugs...

 All these characters in it, were actual people. I mean sure the names were changed and all, but it was still his life. All these things he had went threw were so tough.

His addiction to drugs, the girl, the thefts, he went thew all of it. This is why the book is so good, because this is what happened to him. 

Tweak

Once again I am reading this book. Not sure why though. Most likely because I got too confused to continue. Or just maybe it was too real.

I decided not to continue the book earlier in the year. I think it was too complicated and not what I thought would be. I knew it would be about addiction and all because it was in that section of the room. It wasn't gonna be some kitty book about addiction to video games or something, that was for sure. But really, I think it was too real.

All those hallucinations when he took the drugs was so realistic! As if the writer actually went through this! All these scenarios, the girl, the addiction, trying to recover. Just so real, I'll get back to the book and see if I can still go through with it.