Looking for Alaska- Summer Reading #2

  Throughout the beginning of this book, there have been many different characters that have been introduced, however, only a few are considered main characters. Each character desires different things in their life and their time at Culver Creek. Miles, for example, decided to move from Florida to Alabama to find his "Great Perhaps"; which basically is to seek a great adventure and to find himself along the way. The other main character, Alaska, desires adventure, excitement, and danger. She has courage and liveliness and to Miles, she is utterly fascinating.
  The way this book is structured is different than most novels. It starts out where the first half of the book is about Miles and what his life is like before he is completely captivated into the world of Alaska Young. The second half is what occurs after he falls under her spell. I would definitely say I haven't seen this technique before, but I have seen many different structures similar to it.

Summer Reading: Looking for Alaska by John Green

   For my summer reading project, I chose to read "Looking for Alaska" by John Green. This story starts off with the main character, Miles "Pudge" Halter, who moves all the way from his public school in Florida, to a new, exciting boarding school in Alabama. Culver Creek Boarding School. He is interested in the fact that it is gonna be a new school, filled with new people, and new experiences. By the time he ditches his boring life back in Florida, he never expected to meet the people he did in Alabama. Not long after arriving, he met his roommate, Chip, who is also known as "The Colonel". The Colonel is a tough, muscular guy who introduces Miles to his world. Along with that, Miles meets all of the Colonel's interesting friends but one of them, however, makes a lasting impression on him. He gets caught up in the world of Alaska Young, a daring, witty, self- destructive girl who is a handful. Chip has known Alaska for a few years and together, they are friends with Takumi, a skinny, Japanese boy who is all about adventure. All together, these friends hang out, pull pranks, smoke cigarettes, and carry on many other mischievous activities. Miles never expected his life to be the way it was at Culver Creek and eventually, he gets sucked into the world of bullies, Chip, and most importantly Alaska Young.

  At the end of this book, I predict that Miles life will never be the same and he is going to be a completely different person - whether that be good or bad. Culver Creek will change his life forever.                                                                

Final Blog Reflections

http://erinmullins22.blogspot.com/2015/03/the-perks-of-being-wallflower-stephen.html

  Throughout my 2015 blogging experience, I feel that my post about what I was going to read, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, was probably the most well-written response. In this post, I explained how I was going to start reading this book for independent reading and I explained what it was going to be about. This book is written in a different type of way; the pages are actually letters written by the main character. I think that I included a detailed summary of the book, but at the same time, not giving too much information away. By using different examples of strong diction in this post, it helped the reader visualize what I was talking about and what I wanted them to know about the book. There were also examples of figurative language as well like, "This book is a story about what its like to go through the roller-coaster ride of high school." and "...Sam and Patrick who takes him under their wings." which enhance the blog and make it relatable to the readers in the end. Overall, I feel like this is my strongest blog post because of the many different details I included and the use of literary elements to allow the reader to get a better understanding of this story.

Song writer helps kids summon courage to stop bullies- Krista Ramsey

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/11/29/krista-ramsey-keenan-west/19673489/

   This article, written by Krista Ramsey, is about a local song writer who comes to schools all over the  world and delivers a strong message about bullying. He tells the students about how you can prevent bullying and how you can help someone in need instead of being a bystander. He makes the assembly fun and interesting by including the kids in the presentation and allowing them to get involved. Krista Ramsey really goes into detail to explain how the students react to the speech and how it impacts them. It even says, "The gym went quiet," which shows how strong of a message it truly was. Overall, this article is very complex and interesting and Ramsey did a nice job on portraying one man's impactful speech.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower- Stephen Chbosky

  This week I decided to start a new book. Yes, it may sound like a cheesy, teenage-girl book, but in reality, I've heard only good things about it. In spite of all the preconceived ideas of what this book is about, I am going to read "The Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky. Throughout it's 206 pages, this book is a story about what its like to go through the roller-coaster ride of high school.

   The main character is a freshman boy named Charlie who meets a pair of teenagers named Sam and Patrick who takes him under their wings. They  introduce him to a whole new world of high school life. Of course, this would include drugs, parties, and shockingly literature. This story is written in a unique way where the events that take place are written in letters by Charlie himself. These letters are sent to a stranger who gets to learn about his experiences throughout his first year of high school. Overall, I think that learning about one boy's experiences from an important time in life will not only be interesting to read, but it will teach me a little about life along the way.

Satire

    There are many examples of satire in writing. It occurs in many different movies, books, plays, and it also occurs in music. Saturday Night Live is an extremely well-known t.v show that incorporates satire into its sketches and story lines. Sketches about politics and the government are very popular in this show and many times, they make satire based on these topics as well. It always keeps the audience on their toes and it definitely spreads more word about the show.


   Some viewers may find their satire content to be offensive and they may often complain about what is being said. Serious topics like diseases, campaigns, and current world-wide events are definitely an influence on this show and it shows it in their skits. A lot of the times while writing these skits, they try to make them interesting and they want to create the unexpected. The amount of satire content in this show is definitely big, and without some of it, Saturday Night Live would probably not be as popular as it is now-a days.

Help for The Haunted-Characterization

   In the begining of the story, there are not many main characters. Characters are the base of a story and with out them, there would be nothing to write about!  The main charcters in Help For The Haunted, By John Searles, are Sylvie,a 14 year old girl, and Rose, Sylvies older sister. These two girls have gone through many different problems and difficult situations in their lives, but nothing compares to the tragedy that strikes that affects their lives forever.
   Sylvie is a quiet, and very antisocial girl who struggles to find her place in this world. She doesn't have very many friends due to the fact that her parents work with ghosts and everyone knows about it. Her classmates think that what her parents do for a living is crazy and they think that she is apart of it. No one has gotten to know her on a deeper level to found out what she is truly like on the inside.
     Rose, on the other hand, is more outgoing and she is the exact opposite of Sylvie. She is wild and care-free and without Sylvie in her life, she would be absolutley crazy. Together, these girls manage to go through life and the many problems it brings them. They make eachother stronger and they help eachother grow as people.