I am now reading "The Poisonwood Bible," a novel about a baptist missionary, his family, and their jorney through the Congo. I haven't read enough to know what I think of it yet.

The Tenth Circle- Amanda Roehrich

Im currently reading "The Tenth Circle" by Jodi Picoult.
So far in the story you learn that its about a comic book artist named Daniel, and his wife whos a College Professor, and theyre freshman in highschool daughter Trixie.
You learn that Daniels wife has an affair on him with a student of hers, and her and Daniel become very distant which causes problems for Trixie, who also currently broke up with her boyfriend Jason, whos the most popular senior.
Trixie gets really depressed and makes herself isolated from her friends.
Then you find out that some bad stuff happened at a party and thats one of the reasons why they broke up, and it really bothers Trixie.
Thats as far as I've gotten.

Babe in Boyland, chap. 20

I'm still reading Babe in Boyland. Natalie has now spent three days at Underwood Boy's Academy as Nat Rodgers. The guys there have already firmly established her status as less than worthy. It's difficult for her to tramp down her instinctive girl behavoir, some things were so subtle I didn't even realize that girls do them until I read this book. Almost everything she does is wrong in the eyes of the guys she lives with so at first she is stuck at the bottom of the social pyramid with Tyler, Max, and Earl. All three of them are kind and willingly welcome her into their group, unfortunately they don't have any answers for her questions. She has to find a way to gain the respect of the "uppercrust" guys to get more information if she is to write her article. She accidentally achieves this when she is caught reporting her experiences back to her two best friends in the drama prop closet. Some incorrect conclusions are drawn and Nat is welcomed among the jocks. This book constantly has me laughing. I feel so bad for Natalie and all the awkward situations she finds her self in. Like when her voice acciddentally slips or she is faced with the all boy locker rooms and restrooms, or even when her ultra-handsome roomate sets her up on a date with his sister. I find this book opens up a new perspective on the differences between girls and guys, especially in the ways we act and how we respond to different situations or even how we judge others. This book is really good so I don't think it'll take until next Monday for the next blog. I suppose it's a good thing though. I wouldn't want to ruin the ending for anyone who wanted to read it, which I highly reccomend.

Week 4

I am still reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The man and the boy are still on their way to make it to the south. They live off of food from the celler, and it lasts quite a long time. Eventually, they meet an old man and the boy is nice enough to give a little food to him. The old man is grateful and keeps on walking down the road. The man and the boy then later on find out there are a few people behind them. The people pass them as they hide in the trees and the man notices that one of the women is pregnant. Later that night, the man and the boy found out where the people had camped and found a baby burned black in what used to be a fire. The man and the boy still keep heading south and eventually make it to the ocean. The ocean is not really blue anymore. The ocean is just gray with ashes. They are still cold and have no food.

I think this book is quite sad and depressing. There seems to be no hope of anything good happening to anybody in the whole book, besides finding food. It seems that it is just going to go on and on with the man and the boy looking for food and warmth. I don't have a clue to what can happen in this book later on, except for the man and the boy dying peacefully or something. I still think the book is interesting and it always keeps me wondering how the man and the boy are going to survive another day.

Week 3- Gunslinger & Road Work

Not much more happened in the end of The Gunslinger. The man in black told Roland about his future, or destiny, which involves finding three different people before he can get to The Tower, his ultimate goal. What he needs to do there is beyond me, but if I ever read the next seven books I'll probably find out. as of right now, however, I moved on to a new book. This one is by Stephen King and is entitled Road Work. So far this book is about a man, Burt George Dawes, that has both a house and his own business about to be destroyed due to a highway extension. He seems to be going crazy because of this, and often talks to a voice in his head, named Fred (Isn't that right, Geogie? That it is, Fred). This insanity seems to be due to the loss of a son, Charlie, who was raised in this house of Burt's. So far, nothing much has happened along the plotline, but King's style is to always fully develope setting and plot before the action of the story.

Week 4: The Raging Quiet

So, Marnie is going back to her hometown. She's taking Raven with her. When she gets there, everybody's happy to see her, but her mother and a few of the town's folk don't like seeing her with Raven. At the party in the town, Marnie gets extremely drunk and runs into Jonty, who was paid to lie in court against Marnie the beginning of the book. He starts to pick a fight with her, so Raven jumps in and beats the crap out of him. They go back to Marnie's mother's house to spend the night but get kicked out because everybody thinks that Raven's a madman. When they get back to Torcurra, they find out that their cottage had been ran-sacked by Pierce, who's still inside. Marnie tells him to leave and he storms out. Then, in the next chapter, Marnie and Raven are racing. Raven takes Marnie to his "hole" where he sleeps during the winter and the cold rainy days. Marnie tries to explain the word noise using "hand-words" and that the only reason people are afraid of him is because he is different. He gets upset and runs back to the cottage with Marnie chasing behind him. When they get back, a huge storm hits. Raven goes outside to get the chickens and the goat and brings them inside. While he's out there, a tree crashes down on the chimeney and soot and ash burns Marnie's feet. Raven runs back inside to help Marnie and finds a ring that fell out of the chimeny. The next morning, Raven and Marnie go to the church, and everybody is standing outside looking at the tree that broke through the church's glass stained window.

week four

Today I finished my book. Near the end of this book I noticed that the main character Sam loses the sense to hide from people. It all starts when he talks to this kid that is a reporter and he goes off and publishes stuff about Sam. Then I noticed that he talks to people and starts to invite people to his tree. I also noticed that he wanted to be found. I noticed that he becomes a different person in the end then what he was in the beginning. He doesn’t care about staying in known to people; he also starts to think of the company as an everyday thing.
I felt the lost in the sense that he wanted to stay hidden or unknown to the people outside of the woods. I also felt the need to talk to someone while reading this book just like Sam did near the end. I felt the fear that Sam had when the photographer found him. I also felt the joy that he feels when his family comes to visit him, and also the sadness that he feels when they try to make the woods homier for him.
This book reminds me of going camping and hunting and also fishing. This book reminds me of camping by how he stays in the woods and sleeps by the fire and cooks his own food. It reminds me of hunting by how he hunts and traps for animals. It also reminds me of hunting by how he gets deer during deer season because of hunters and how he takes the deer from the hunters. It reminds me of fishing because he goes fishing and also makes a raft to go fishing out in the middle of the steams to catch fish, just like I use a boat to go fishing out in the middle of a lake.
I have only one question and that is about how the book ended. My question is does Sam go home with his family? I ask this question because it just ends with his mom talking to Sam.

Week 4: Homecoming

Currently, I am on page 386 of my novel, Homecoming, by Cynthia Voigt. I finally got to the point now where Dicey entered her grandma’s farm and met her for the first time. She went alone, thinking that it would be best for her to see her grandma first so the others wouldn’t be disappointed if things didn’t go well with her. After meeting her, Dicey realized that she was fairly sane. As a bonus, she also had a large farm that the kids could roam around on that was even close to the water. After a bit of confusion on account of where all the kids were, they all came together and, courtesy of their grandma, stayed a night at the farm. They decided that if they kept busy and helped out without being asked, they could hopefully go on living there even though their grandma said they couldn’t stay. Eventually, this plan ran out, but the kids did find out that their grandma wanted them, but she couldn’t take care of them. So, they are now forced to move on and find another place to call home.

Lately, I have noticed that Dicey and the kids are even closer than before. They always cared for each other, but I feel now that they would go even to the extent of going against their deranged grandmother to protect the well beings of their siblings. This greatly reminded me of my brothers and myself. One will go out of his way to make sure I am okay if anyone is taking to me in any way he didn’t think was correct. The other, even though he wouldn’t like to admit it to his friends, makes sure any boy I talk to treats me right, as if I couldn’t handle it myself. As I believe Sammy does with Dicey in the book as well, I greatly appreciate my siblings and am hardly ever embarrassed by them.

In another situation, I notice how even though their grandma cares about them and wants them, she can’t seem to find a way to keep them at her house. However, she is trying to drag out their stay as long as possible. It is in a way ironic because everyone thinks she is a crazy bat of a woman, but in actuality, she has an odd way of showing that she actually does care. I actually have to question if maybe she has a underlying reason for not trying her fullest extent to gain control of the kids like she says she wants to. Why does she give excuses to them that really don’t seem too legitimate to result in them moving on? I still have 16 pages left, so I hope my questions will be answered.

Post 4

I’m on the last few pages of When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt. So far in the book, Wayne, Cal’s older brother, died in the war of Vietnam. Cal’s mother broke down once military police showed up at her house to tell her the bad news. After that happened, Toby seemed to have pulled back from the real world, just like the rest of the town. He stayed in his house for about 4 days. Toby’s father went to Wayne’s awake but Toby couldn’t go. Instead of going to the awake, Toby goes to the Bowl-a-Rama to get away from everyone. Farris, the owner is there and he didn’t go either. Then the funeral happened; Toby didn’t go either. He went to go see Zachary Beaver. Zachary asked who died and Toby couldn’t tell him without choking up. After that, Cal showed up and was mad at Toby for not going to his brother’s funeral. Everyone in the whole town went but Toby. Cal and Toby didn’t speak for a while. After they resolved their differences, Cal and Toby had a plan; they were going to get Zachary Beaver baptized. They had Farris do it because Zachary didn’t want a lot of people showing up to think he was a freak.

There’s one main thing I really related to in this book. It was when Cal’s brother, Wayne died in war. My boyfriend is in the military so I’m always afraid he’ll get deployed and sent off to war. I know things are a lot different now then Vietnam, but I always have something like that in the back of my head. My whole extended family has a military background. All of my uncles were in the military and served over seas.

Eragon and City of Bones

   I just finished reading Eragon by Christopher Paolini. The book ended in a big battle where Eragon killed a creature called a Shadow. When he killed the Shadow, all of the Urgal creatures started to fight agaisnt each other instead of Eragon and the rest of the people in the town. The book ends with a happy victory and everyone gets back to fixing up the town after the destruction.

   Now I have started a new book called The City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. Cassandra won the Locus award for best first novel in 2007.
   In The City of Bones, there is a girl named Clary who is with her friend Simon at a punk club. While they are dancing, Clary sees a boy with blue hair and thinks he is cute. She watches as he follows a girl into a closet area and notices that two people are following him. She decides to see what is going on and when she gets into the closet area she finds him tied to a post. There are also three other people in the room. Two of them were the guys who were following the blue haired boy and the other was the girl that the boy was following. She was horrified to find that they were going to kill the blue haired boy and tried to stop them. This resulted in the boy getting out of his bindings and attacking one of the guys who's name she later finds out is Alec. Alec stabs the boy in the chest and he dies in a swirl of black smoke. When Simon comes in with a bodyguard from outside the cub she realises she is the only one who can see those people. This scares her and when she goes home she sees a demon that attacks her and she passes out.
   Clary later wakes up in a hospital type bed but she's not in a hospital. It turns out that the three people she had met before had taken her and helped her get better. I ended at a part where she returns home to see how it looks and finds that it has been stripped clean of everything inside.

As I get further into the book "speak" I learn that she is very depressed and upset so much that she decides to cut school, she decides to go to the mall. This reminds me of when me and my friends went to the grocery store after a Latin Club meeting instead of marching band practice because we didn't feel like going, but she wanted to cut school just to get away from her depression. I feel sorry for her that people have to treat her so mean because she doesn't fit into a group, and people make her an outcast, even her friend Heather doesn't want to be her friend anymore because she's worried about her reputation. It reminds me of elementary school where I was the outcast, for some reason no one seemed to like me, I got bullied most of my elementary school life. I had a couple of so called "friends" but I felt like they just kept on using me because I was an easy target. I didn't find my closest best friend until half way through Middle School and that was because she was in my band class. Most of my good friends are in band, I don't know what I would do without them, they're always there for me, even the ones who graduated last year are there for me whenever I need them.

People were starting to get worried about Malinda so her and her parents went to go talk to the principle. I think the reason why she's so depressed i because her parents don't seem to understand her. This reminds me of me and my Mom, we are complete opposites, for example, she thinks every little thing me and my little brother do should be perfect, she get mad when I don't do my hair or makeup good enough, or when I wear baggy t-shirts to school, and when she tries to fix it, and tells me that I should look more like a girl, I tell her I like it the way it is, and she thinks I'm careless, but she doesn't understand that I have bigger things to worry about more than the way I look.

At this moment, Malinda is trying to change herself because she is tired of being treated the way she is, she starts buying new clothes to wear and she even went to a basketball game to try and feel normal. I disagree with her decision because I think she should be able to exspres herself in her own way, and not worry about what anyone else says because she will one day find someone that likes her for just being herself.

Ever notice how the doctor's 1st incarnation looks like Adam Sandler?

I finished reading the book "cut" and I'm now reading the book "speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson. I notice that the girl in this story doesn't seem to belong to a group and isn't trying that hard to find one of her own. It reminds me of how our school has different clicks and groups and sometimes there's always someone whose left out. For instance, you have the band geeks, the choir nerds, the athletes, the brainiacs, and others, but some people just dont feel like they belong in a group. It makes me kind of sad that our school has this, we shouldn't be separated into groups, we should act as one unit, I mean yes I'm in the band geek and choir nerd department but the athletes seem to ignore us and we usually ignore them. Which I don't think is right. I hope this girl finds a group tha would be good for her.

When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt

As of right now, I'm on page 139 of my independent novel, When Zachary Beaver Came to Town. What's been happening so far is that the main character, Toby has been having some internal conflicts within himself and conflicts with the world around him.  His first conflicts is when his mother leaves to pursue a career with being a singer.  So she travels to Nashville to enter a contest to win a record deal.  She didn't win and was only a runner up.  After the contect, another publisher offered her a deal , so she decided to stay in Tennessee.  She writes a letter to Toby saying that she just isn't happy there in their home town of Antler, Texas, so she decides to leave her husband.  This external conflicts sets out one within Toby about whether or not to accept his family falling apart; so he decides to lie.  Toby doesn't have anyone to turn to so he writes a letter to his best friend's (Cal) brother who's over seas in the war.  He signs the letter as Cal. But more recently in the book, Toby and Cal join together and try getting the new "drive by town freak" to go to the drive in move theater with them.  The "freak" is a 15 year old boy who is extremely over weight.  Once the boy's gardian abandons him, Toby and Cal try keeping him company. 

For my personal opion of the book, I like it.  It's easy to read and doesn't move at a too slow of a pace so it's easily to get into it right away.  I think the main character has some issues in himself that he tries to deal with, all when his parents are taking a break from each other.  Toby isn't the only person who is having some issues I think.  The fat boy, Zachary Beaver, seems like a more complex character then the book is showing.  It seems as if he's having trouble with how over weight he is.  He acts like he doesn't care about what people think of him, but then he shows little hints that he wishes people wouldn't stare and make fun of him.

In my book, Babe in Boyland, Natalie is Dr. Aphrodite for her school newspaper. However, Dr. Aphrodite has been getting a lot of complaints, mostly from the opposite gender, about what advice she dishes out to the girls at their school. So when Natalie hears about a writing opportunity she decides to do a piece on what guys really think. She makes a plan with her two best to infiltrate the private boys academy disguised as a boy herself. I love this story so far. It's hilariously funny. However, I can't help but think Natalie's plan is going to end in disaster.

Week 3-The Gunslinger

Roland and Jake have gotten closer and closer to the man in black, and as they climb the mountains before them, they come face to face with him. He laughs at their struggle, urges them to continue, and guarantees that he will meet them on the other side. The duo make their way to a cave in the rock face that they travel through in pursuit of the man in black. There, they find things that seem to come from our Earth (as I believe the setting is a different "universe" or "dimension") such as train tracks, a subway station, and dead bodies in uniforms. When they reach the man in black, they are above a huge, and seemingly bottomless, pit. Jake slips and hangs on for dear life, but the man in black tells Roland that if he saves the boy, the gunslinger will never talk to the man in black again. Jake sacrifices himself, mentioning that there are "more worlds than this" before he drops. Roland finally talks to the man in black, who explains that The Tower, something Roland has been looking for restlessly, is a "pylon" or "conduit" for all multiple universes and worlds. Really, I'm still lost with what is happening, and I'm hoping the next (last) few pages will clear things up.

Week 3-Homecoming

As of right now, I am on page 311 of my independent novel, Homecoming, by Cynthia Voigt. Many changes have happened to the kids since I had last blogged. When I had left you, I ended up talking about how Dicey and the kids escaped from their Cousin Eunice's house in search of their possible deranged grandmother. After riding the bus for some time followed by a fair distance of walking, the kids got help from two teenage boys to cross the bay separating them from their grandma's. Once across, they found work to earn a little extra money just in case on a small farm where a strange old man needed help picking in his fields. It turned out that the man was crazy, and wanted to kidnap the children for his personal gain! If it wasn't for the circus in town and its owner, Will, the farmer might have done just that. After staying with the circus for some time, they eventually ended up at the farm of their grandma's, where Dicey decides to go in alone......

At this point, I feel very anxious to start reading again. What could happen to Dicey when she goes to see her long lost grandmother? Will she great her with open arms? Or will she throw the kids out, only to have them start walking on an endless journey to nowhere once again? Only time seems to tell for these kids. Also, I feel increasingly sorry for the Tillermans because they are truly good kids, but no one seems to really legally want them.

Some of the things I have noticed is how the author has changed her writing dialogue as they move from state to state or even from town to town. I liked how Voigt described one of the clerks at a grocery store in the town and how here words “came thick and slow, like molasses-again, something like Momma”(308). This just seems to give a reader a sense of where the Tillermans started and what their background might be. While I have been reading, I just can't seem to get the Baudelaire children from The Series of Unfortunate Events. Everything that these kids go through, whether being chased by a crazy man or even working in a circus, seems to link back to this other story. So I believe it is only fitting to think the question, Did Cynthia Voigt use the other book as a slight reference at all to her literary work, or was it just a coincidence? Perhaps this question may not even be answered. Nevertheless, I guess I'll just have to read on to see.

Week 3

I am still reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The man and the boy keep trying to head south. On there way, they are always cold and is a problem. They try there best to keep warm, but they are still always cold. Eventually, they come across a group of men going along in a truck. One of the men tried to take the boy, but the man shot him with a pistol and ran away with the boy. They keep on heading south. Later, they come accross a house with a celler. Desperate for food, the man busts it open, only to find many hopeless people wanting help and out of the celler. The man relizes that two other men are keeping them to be eaten and the man and the boy manage to get away. After this, there is a night where they run out of food. The nights are getting colder. It all seems like they are going to die, because they can barely walk, and never sleep, because they know they will probly die if they fall asleep. Miraculousely, the man finds an old barn with clear water, and apple trees with old, rotten apples all around. He gathers some up and they eat enough to survive for a few more days. A few more days had passed, and the man and the boy come by another house. They are starving again and have no choice but to look for food. The boy is scared, because they found another celler. He doesn't want to open it, but the man is forced to because of their hunger. In the celler, they found crates of food, cots, and a lamp with oil. They are overjoyed.

The book seemed so sad the whole time. The man and the boy are always cold and hungary and looking for food. They always seem to manage though and just barely get enough food to keep on going. At the part where they found the celler with food, I was really happy. For once, they will be fed, warm, and safe inside.

Eragon

   Out of what I read this week there has been a lot more traveling and Eragon covers a great distance. I'll start with Brom, who was the man that traveled with Eragon. Brom dies in a fight against these creatures called Urgals because he cuts a deep cut in his side that Eragon can't heal. When Eragon buries Brom his dragon she touches the grave and huge gems grow out of the ground and cover it. Eragon places a tombstone on the ground and they leave. After about a week of traveling, he starts to have dreams about a girl captured in a cell. After talking about these dreams with Saphira(his dragon) another group of Urgals attacks. This time Eragon gets hit on the head and passes out. He later wakes up to find a boy not much older than him sitting by a fire. The boys' name is Murtagh and he saved Eragon. Murtagh accompanies Eragon on his journey to find the Ra'zac, but once again, they are attacked. This time Eragon wakes up in a cell and finds out he's been drugged so he decides not to eat or drink anyting the guards give him. When the effects of the drugs wear off he gets out of his cell and finds the girl that was in his dreams. It turns out she was an elf and he found her sleeping to where she wouldn't wake up. The guards find Eragon with her and he is outnumbered but right then Murtagh shows up and kills the guards. While they are trying to escape they run into someone called a Shade, which is basically a human possessed by an evil spirit. They barely escape by the time Saphira gets there to help them out.
   Murtagh and Eragon decide to cross the Hadarac Dessert to try and find the Varden. These people are against the Empire and live in a safe sanctuary the Empire can't get to. When they finally near the Varden Eragon learns that Murtagh is the son of a once very evil man who died long ago. Murtagh says he ran away though and is nothing like his father. The Varden take them in and know who Murtagh is so they keep him locked up. Eragon leaves the elf, whom he learns is named Arya, to be tended to. This is all I have read this week.
  

Week 3: The Raging Quiet

The Raging Quiet is getting really good. I'm on page 143 and the plots finally falling into place. Marnie and Raven are still getting progressively closer. When I started off again at page 97, Marnie goes into town to find Father Brannan. Instead of finding him, she finds out how much the people of Torcurra hate her. "Get out! Get out of our village! Get out afore we hang you!" (97) they yell at her, and throw stones. She runs straight back to her cottage without a second glance. She is so afraid when she gets home, that she doesn't go to sleep that night. She barricaded the door with a chest and passed out on her table with a knife in her hand. In the morning she heard a wagon rumbling and freaked out because she thought that it was the villagers coming to take her to her hanging. It was only Father Brannan with thatching to fix the beaten down, little roof on the cottage. After they fix the roof, they go through Isake's stuff. Marnie gave all of Isake's old clothing to Raven, who needed them desperately.
On page 120, Raven and Marnie are out fishing when a man arrives at the cottage. He is Isake's brother Pierce. When Marnie and Raven get back to land, they find Pierce in the cottage going through Isake's things and claiming that this is his families house and that Marnie and Raven are tresspassing. Marnie "signs" to Raven using their hand words to go get Father Brannan. While waiting for Father Brannan to show up, Marnie tries to keep her cool, but its very difficult. Pierce keeps threatening to take this issue to court and that he knows people in high places. When Father Brannan comes to defend Marnie at last, Pierce takes off with two very important things: The letter in Isake's chest and the last of the money Marnie had.
On page 134, Marnie asks Father Brannan to write down a few things for her. Her name, Raven's name, and the words father, mother, sister, brother. She wants this because: she can't write, and she wants to teach Raven names of people. While she's teaching him, Father Brannan notices "It was an undrestanding that went far beyound the finite language of their hands ; a soul unity, sacred and rare and beautiful.

Week three

I’m on page 131 in my book that I’m reading My Side Of The Mountain. I have began to notice more and more that as the story goes on Sam learns new things and that living off the land is getting that much easier. I also noticed that Sam has started to use everything on his food that he gets. He has gotten bigger and needs new clothes so he makes some using deer hides.
Sam knows that winter is coming by noticing the change in the weasel’s fur that lives next to Sam’s tree and also that the birds start to migrate south. He begins to prepare for winter. I noticed that he gathered more food and learned more ways to store his food for winter. I also noticed how he needed to store wood.
This part of the story reminds me how the weather changes and so does almost everything in fall to winter. For example the leaves on the tree change color and fall off. Then when the cold sets in it reminds me of going outside and then needing a jacket of some sort. When it finally snows it reminds and Sam begins to go outside and play and dig tunnels, it reminds me of when I was little and going and playing in it. This part also reminds me of going deer hunting just at the end when there is 2 to 3 ft of snow on the ground and walking for miles in it.
I felt worried like Sam did when he knew that winter was coming while reading this story. I was also felt lonely when Sam does when reading. I also feel pretty excited when reading just after it snows and pretty happy.
I have a few Questions for this story, they are will Sam stay out there in the mountains forever? Will he enough supplies for the rest of winter.

A Time to Kill- John Grisham

I finished A Time to Kill early last week. In the end Carl Lee Hailey was found innocent by means of insanity. I thought the end of this book was good I thought he would be found guilty, but one juror made the others picture their own little girl being raped and almost killed by those to boys. The jurors all changed their minds. The ending of the book wasn't entirely unexpected, most stories like this one the guilty are found innocent even if they shouldn't have been. I also watched the movie, not nearly as good.

The movie started out right and progressively got worse as it went along. Near the begging of the book right after Tonya was raped and Carl Lee decided he had to kill the two "red necks" a man by the name of Cat supplied Carl Lee with the gun that he shot the two boys with. In the movie they skipped that they actually skipped Cat entirely. The KKK also burned a cross in Jake's yard but in the book his family was asleep and it was 3 a.m. but in the movie it was later night and his daughter saw the cross first. They also missed many details like when Jake is shot at and Ellen (the law clerk) was kidnapped and tied to a post and beaten badly. They also skipped Tonya and her nightmares and the effect on the family. And one of the most important ones, well to me at lest, was when Cat hired a big shot, never loses, lawyer for Carl Lee and he fires Jake. But than Carl Lee's brother Lester convinced Carl Lee to fire the big shot lawyer and rehire Jake. That was a very smart move on Carl Lee's part because Jake won. But other than all of that the movie was really good if I hadn't read the book first I think I would have enjoyed the movie much more.

I just started Fletch. So far I've only gotten far enough to where I found out that Fletch is a reporter and is under cover at a beach. He's hanging out with the "washed out Druggies". A guys had been following him around for awhile and aproched him at a point and took him to his house and asked Fletch to murder him. He said yes and the man told him all the details. He has cancer and if he killed himseld his 3 million wouldn't be given to his wife and daughter so he needs to be murdered. So he planned it all out Fletch gets 50,000 for killing him and has to go to a south American country for a few years so they never find him. And that's about as far as i've gotten it's not one of the best books i've read so far but it's getting there.

I AM MORDRED

I have just finished the book "I Am Mordred."It's the story of king Arthur from his perspective.It was quite absorbing(and a little sad.)If you are familiar with the legend,then I completely recommend reading this book.

week 2 Dear John

Somethings new about the book, are mostly talking about him and Savanna. Savanna has been becoming his hole life going out to the beach telling each other about there pasts,mostly him telling her but it still counts.
John ends up taking her out a shack place that's has a bar for one of there dates. She hopes that it is nicer inside, finding out not by much she is still such a nice person and stays there without complaining. Even though they both don't have much to say that night they both ended up loving how it worked out so well.
Now that savanna is a big part of his life he starts spending all of his time with her realizing that the only time he spends with his dad is when they eat together. Knowing that he wants to make a barbecue with his dad one so they have one right, OK but then he starts talking about savanna and how great she is and how much his dad would love her. Well when they are done eating john walks inside and here's his dad say (I would love to meet her) in a sad and soft voice. So the next time savanna and john are together he talks about his dad a lot that day and that night she ends up wanting to go over there and have supper. His dad ends up loving it because they talk about coins, hes showing them to her and shes asking tons of questions. That next day john asks how she felt about yesterday she just said that (your dad has a very warm and caring heart).

I am on page 143 of The Gunslinger. So far, Jake, the boy from New York, and Roland, the gunslinger, have finally made it across the vast desert and into a large oasis at the basis of the mountains, behind which lies their goal. Roland still relentlessly pursues the man in black for whatever reason. There is another flashback, revealing the days when Roland and a friend of his were being trained as gunslingers and were forced to witness the hanging of a criminal the boys single-handedly discovered attempting to poison all of the children at their acedemy. I am slowly finding out what this book is about, and hopefully by the end of it I will know for sure. as of right now, i still know very little about the main character, and the setting is only partially "uncovered".

Week 2- 9-12-11

I am now on page 213 of my book, Homecoming, by Cynthia Voigt. A lot has happened since my last blog a week ago. So far, Dicey and the gang have met up with two kids who are also runaways in a park where the kids had stayed and fished for a week. When they moved on and finally reached the city where they could no longer keep moving forward, they felt like giving up until they were kindly taken into the hands of two college grads nearby that helped them on their journey by taking them to their aunts. There, they found out that their Aunt Cilla was dead, and her uptight daughter lived at the house now. This cousin “takes them in on account of her good heart”, where the kids lived and went to school for about two weeks until they finally couldn't take it anymore there. Now, they are on a journey to find their long lost grandmother once again, now knowing that there mother, who is in a mental hospital, will never be able to take care of them.

One thing that I have noticed when reading this portion of the story is how Dicey has changed throughout this short time. Now, she seems as if she is almost in a way excepting the fact that she can't do this on her own, and that it is okay to accept help from people. Prior to the many weeks that the kids had added onto their trek, Dicey was very head strong in the sense that any help given to her was declined because she felt that she could do what her mom left for her to do by herself. Another thing that grabbed my attention is that their cousin wants them to feel especially grateful to her for letting them stay in her house. This isn't really the way I would have expected a woman wanting to go into the convent to act.

As I read this story, many things have come to my mind. One little detail was when Sammy got into a fight at school, and he didn't even know the reason he was fighting. This greatly reminded me of Huckleberry Fin who occasionally did that in The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin. Another small remembrance I had in this book was when Dicey got a job as a window washer in grocery stores to make money for when the kids planned to leave their cousin's house. This reminded me of all the times I have used a squeegee as well to clean windows and the weird sort of thrill it is!

In the story, I began to feel sorry for Sammy especially because he is always being told to be more like his brother, who he knows is better than him. He is just a young boy that needs guidance, but instead gets reprimanded and told that he could be given to a foster home. I also felt a sense of happiness when Dicey said the only way they were going to get anywhere was, “together, because that is the only way the Tillerman's travel.” That made me feel good knowing that even though they have been through so much bad together, they still see the good in everything just knowing that they will be doing it together as a family. I do have some questions, however. I want to know more about the men that helped them, how their cousin reacted when she found out the kids had left, and what will be awaiting them at their grandmother's. I guess I'll just have to find out.

Week 2

I am still reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The story got to a point where the man has a flashback of what had happened in the past. It was when the man's wife was still alive. So far, it seems like she just gave up on everything. The man had hope that them and their child could still survive and his wife didn't think so. She thought it was best to just kill herself. The man tried to talk her out of it, but she was persistant. She just left and their child was sad she had left, but wasn't really surprised. I don't think that the man told his child that her mother killed herself.
I was really shocked at this part of the book. I had assumed from the beginning that their mother must have died some other way. I had thought that she died from natural causes, the fire, or got eaten by monsters or something. I never would have thought that she just killed herself because she couldn't take it anymore.
I actually am quite disappointed that the man married someone that just gave up. Thinking about the man, I expected that he would have married someone that would have tried to survive to the end, not some selfish woman that thinks it is best to just give up. I think that maybe this shocked the man just as much as me, but he couldn't do anything about it. I think the man in this book has the right idea to keep on trying.

Week 2: Cut

I just finished reading the book "Cut" I thought it was a very good story, and would recomend it if you're looking for a great book to read. The book got better and better as I read more. Callie finally decided to get help from her counselor because she really wanted to change. Then she finally started to talk. It made me happy when she started to talk because that meant that she wanted to try to get better. Later on in the story, her friend Becca ended up in the emergency room because she wasn't eating, she was out into "Sick Minds" because she has an eating disorder. It made me sad when she was sent there because she was just hurting herself even more, and it's really hard for her to stop her disorder, almost like she's helpless. A few weeks later, her friend Tiffany had to leave because her family couldn't pay for her to go to "Sick Minds" anymore, so she has to go someplace else for help. This also made me sad becuase Tiffany was one of Callie's freinds and she finally started to talk right when she had to leave. One night at "Sick Minds" Callie wanted to get out because she was afraid of her little brother Sam having an asthma attack while she was gone, so she ran until she got to a telephone where she called her Dad, who never comes to visit her while she is at "Sick Minds." They both agreed on meeting eachother at a dounut shop. Finally after waiting her Dad came rushing in the dounut shop, and they embraced eachother in a hug. This was my favorite part in the story because Callie now understands that nothing was ever her fault. Instead of going home with her father however, she wanted to go back to "Sick Minds" so she could see her friends for a little longer and so she could finally tell her counselor about everything.

A Time to Kill- John Grisham

Last time I was at the beginning of the trial of Carl Lee Hailey. Now i'm at the point were the trial is almost over. The lawyers have all given their speeches and had the witnesses on the stand. The jury is trying to come to a conclusion. The secratary of Jake, her husband died because the Ku Klux Klan beat him so badlly. Ellen, Jake's "understudy" so to say, was captured by the KKK and tied to a pole in the country and almost set fire too. She was found after a guy by the name of "Mickey Mouse" tipped them off. She only had a concussion and they cut her hair down to nothing. But she lived. The KKK also set fire to Jake's house and it burned to the ground.... it was a restored old home that the town and it's tourists took pictures of. Jake still has not told his wife (who is out of town). A short time after that the KKK had someone shoot at Jake while he was going to court. But luckly the national guard were surrounding him, butone of the guardsmen was shot in the neck. He lived but is paralized. I'm almost done with this book i find very interesting. I've never really like books like this but i really enjoy this book. A Time to Kill is definatly a good book if you like murder and law.

I've just started a new book it is Babe in Boyland by Jody Gehrman who won a New Women Playwrights award in 1996. I haven't read into it much but it is basically about a girl who is out on a mission to find out what guys really think.

Eragon

This book stars out with a boy named Eragon who goes into the forest to hunt when an egg suddenly appears next to him. He suspects it was sent there by magic and thinks it is a rare stone so he takes it home with him because he planned on selling it to get money for meat. When he goes to sell it the next day because nobody wants anything to do with magic. Later, he finds sees the egg hatch into a dragon and he keeps it in the forest. One day his house is burned down and he leaves to hunt the ones who burned it. I find the book taking too long to get to good parts at this point because it's a lot of traveling and every time they get into trouble Eragon passes out and wakes up later being ok. He gets captured where I'm at but escapes and that's as far as I got.

Week 2: The Raging Quiet

So far, this book is pretty good. I'm on page 97. Marnie, the main character, and Raven grow closer and closer with each turn of the page. Marnie gradually comes to believe that Raven is not mad, but deaf. She and Raven communicate through a simplistic system of "hand words" or sign language. Marnie, slowly but surely wins his trust and the two bond like crazy. When the Locals find out that Marnie can communicate with Raven, they all think that she's a witch using black magic to talk to the mad-man.The towns people really upset me. I dislike them a lot! They're so ignorant and quick to judge. I just want to yell at them through the book, but then I remember its a book and move on. I absolutely love Marnie. She's so strong and independent and I feel so bad for her at times. She just wants to live her life her way, and she's brilliant! She is so persistant and the way she interacts with Raven is really inspiring, especially back in those days.
There were a couple quotes in the book that I liked so far, one of them was said by Father Brannann. He told Marnie "All great changes in our lives are hard to abide. Sometimes at first they seem almost unbearable, overwhelming, and we shall never find comitment in them. But all things work together for our good , and God always has our hapiness in mind." when she was distressed about her marriage. This quote really stuck with me, mostly because it sounds like something my mom would tell me.

Week two

I’m at page 81 in my book. So far I have noticed that Sam is learning more and more every day. He trained his falcon to hunt for him. He learned to seasoned his food with salt from hickory and also wild garlic and other plants. He hides from people. He named animals for example he named a weasel and a raccoon. He also named his falcon.
He takes a deer from a hunter and uses it for food and other things such as clothing and a door. He learns how to trap deer. He stores his extra food. He smokes or dries most of his food. He finds a man. The man is a criminal so he thinks. He talks to him anyway and invites him to stay. Sam really misses other people to talk to.
What this story reminds me so far is camping. This story also reminds me of going hunting and fishing. It also reminds me of getting lost out in the woods. It reminds me of when I went bow hunting and a porcupine walked out in front of me and started making noises at me for the longest time and then ran off.
What this story makes me feel, it makes me feel lonely like Sam. It makes feel scared when Sam is scared or nervous. When I get really into the book I feel like I’m with Sam out in the woods trying everything to survive out in the woods. I can also feel the need to talk to someone when you are lonely. I can also feel how excited Sam is when he catches something big like a deer or something.
What questions I have. My first question is if his parents will ever come looking for him? My second question is who is this stranger? Third and final question is this stranger bad?
307 words

Week One: My Side of the Mountain

I’m reading My side of the mountain by Jean Craighead-George. So far I’ve read to page 47. I’ve noticed that the main character Sam Gribley has run away from home to his great-grandfathers land in the Catskills Mountains. I noticed the only things Sam knows about the living on the land are in books. Sam is a city kid and doesn’t have the best tools to live on the land. Although Sam does seem to know what he’s doing. Sam also knows how find his shelter which is a tree and he knows how to make tools he needs to survive. I’ve also noticed that he had a very nice family the reason Sam ran away was because he wanted to live on the land not on the sea like his Father.

What this story reminds me of is when I go camping for a couple of days with my family up at Lake Sweet Briar and got to get our own food and firewood. It also reminds me of hunting I think is cool how a story can do all of that. It also reminds me of being outside when I was little and trying and building a tree fort. It also reminds me of going fishing and having to get my own bait and then after catching the fish cooking them and eating them.

When I read this story it makes me feel like I’m there with Sam lost and trying to survive off the land. I also can feel Sam’s hunger or his fear when I Read this story. I find it cool that a book can make a person that is reading it make them feel and also remind them of past experiences in their life.

I have a couple of questions about the book and that is if he will stay there and never have to go back home? Will his family wonder where he is and then go looking for him?

Week 1: The Raging Quiet.

The Raging Quite by Sherryl Jordan starts off slow, but becomes more and more interesting. This novel is set in an undetermined time in the middle ages of Celtic Britain, or so its explained. The main character Marnie, is sixteen years old and the eldest sister of a family of tenant farmers. They work several days a week on the Landlords fields instead of their own. When her father grows ill, she agrees to marry the landlords son, Isake, who is twice her age and a widower, so that her family can keep their large house on the estate. In the beginning of the story, Marnie and her newly wed husband, Isake, are on their way from Fernleigh, Marnie's home town, to Isakes manor, about a day's wagon ride away. The only town close enough to either of those two places is a town named Torcurra. Isake, who stops here for business matters, owns a house by the sea in Torcurra. He inherited this house from his grandmother who was burned at the stakes for being accused of witchcraft and black magic. Isake, and the townsfolk both describe the house as "cursed". Mysteriously, even though the house doesn't look like much at all, Isake said that its worth more than all his father's land put together.
When Marnie first gets to Torcurra she meets Raver, a "devil possessed mad man", and Father Brannann, a kind priest in a small church in between where the "cursed" house resides and the town market is set up. The only people in Torcurra who are descent to her is Raver, who she renamed Raven because he doesn't give expecting to get something back, and according to the good scripture "Ravens neither sow nor reap, but the Good Lord feeds them.",
Marnie, however, is not happy with married life and has never been this far away from her family. Only a few days into their marriage, the bridegroom dies from a fall while thatching the roof. Marnie found him on the floor of the house with blood coming from his head. Screaming and crying she seeks help and runs to the church were Father Brannann is. She believes that her husbands death is her fault because she prayed to the Good Lord that something would happen to her, whether it be Plague or ugliness, and that he would stop loving her. The Villagers overhear this and become superstitious of her think that she killed Isake.
Gradually, Marnie comes to believe that Raven is not mad, but deaf. She devises hand signs and wins first his trust, then his devotion as she opens a world of communication to one who has been isolated his whole life, even though the priest tries to take care of him every now and then. The priest doesn't think that Marnie and Raven communicating is a good idea because the townsfolk are already thinking that Marnie killed her husband, and communicating with Raven may make it look like she's using black magic to talk to his demons

Week One: Flint

I decided to read Flint by Louis L'amour he won the Rough Rider award.

Eragon

I am reading Eragon by Christopher Paolini and he won the Quill award. So far this book has been slow but it has a good storyline. There have been a few parts I've enjoyed, like when there have been fights/attacks. I really like the travels they have and how they use the elven language for their spells.

A time to kill

A Time to Kill – John Grisham
A Time to kill is based in Ford County, Mississippi. The town is Clanton. A little girl named Tonya was raped and almost killed by two “rednecks”. The two men were caught driving around in a stolen, yellow truck. They were sent to jail and went to their bail hearing. After they were being escorted back to the jail, through a door at the top of a set of stairs. There was a janitor’s closet just before the steps; the little girl’s father was waiting in the closet with an automatic gun. He shot and killed the two men and accidently wounded an officer.
The little girl’s father is Carl Lee Hailey; he was taken to the jail after the shooting. Carl Lee hired a lawyer named Jake Brigance. He got Carl Lee’s brother off a few years earlier for shooting a black man. But in the south blacks who shoot blacks generally get off. So he thought he could get him off. After a while the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) started burning crosses in the lawyer’s yard and tried to blow up his house. Jake made his wife and daughter go to his wife’s parent’s house so they wouldn’t be in danger. The KKK beat Jake’s secretary’s husband and killed him. After all of that a third year law student showed up and asked him she could be Jake’s “gofer” (make the coffee so research all of that) so he hired her.
The trial has just started and blacks from all different counties came in by the bus loads to see the trial and to protest and hold vigils. The KKK started a huge fight and wounded many people and the only person that was seriously injured was the leader of the KKK. And that’s as far as I’ve gotten.

I am reading The Gunslinger by Stephen King, an author that has won many awards ad has written many books. The story is set in a large, barren, seemingly endless desert. The main character, Roland of Gilead, is pursuing a mysterious man simply known as the man in black, who seems to possess some sort of magical power. Roland's origins are strange and unknown, but it is said that he is born under the "High Speech", and flashbacks, although revealing little, has told me that he lived in a castle at a young age, in a world closely resembling our own. He is called the last gunslinger, and he has two cowboy-style revolvers that he has many years' worth of skill with. So far, he was attacked by a small town that was seemingly possessed by either the Devil or the man in black (which may be one in the same) and although all 50-some people were swarming him with knives and other various makeshift weapons, he killed them all, sustaining minimal damage. From there, he meets a young boy from New York, and you later learn that this boy has been run over by a car and died, seemingly brought to the desert by who appears to be the man in black. Really, as of yet, I have no clue what this book is about, when it takes place, or where exactly it is set.

Dear John

   In this book threw chapters one and two he talks about his life when younger and what he did or don't have. He also talks about his relation ships with friends and family. Moving on farther in the book you can see how different his life gets not only with his dad but with growing up. When he wants to join the military he has to go threw growing up and the different people, even tho he didn't have a life be four this it still was difficult. when he meets this girl he is surprised that she will talk to him and want to hang out. Not even realizing but he starts to like her. She asks about his tattoo's and what they mean one day on the beach.

   John never really liked coins or liked talking about them except when he was a kid. Even when his dad would take him on trips he started realizing that he dosen't have nothing like the other kids he new, including his friends. When he started growing up he started to be alone or hanging with bad people, getting into trouble with drugs and alcohol. Even sneaking around sleeping with all these girls.

  There is one thing in his life that he had in his life that is great and kept him out of a lot of trouble, surfing! Surfing was everything he lived on his board always late at night, sleeping in late the next day then going right back out to go surfing again. He barley met with friends or went home and talked with his dad. His dad always makes him breakfast the same thing every morning. This is a little about dear john and what i have read so far.

Week 1

Wednesday, 9/7/11

The book that I am reading is called The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The book starts out with just a man and his son looking at the countryside. I later find out that the book has to be in the near future, because there are cars, houses, and present things. I found out that the man and his son are trying to reach the southern part of the country because they won't be able to survive another winter. Everything around them is covered in ash and appears burnt from a fire of some sort. The author makes the world seem like a colorless and dull world.
The man and his son also are alone. There are no other people. They must have also run out of fuel for cars, because they travel south on foot with nothing but backpacks and a shopping cart. The man tries to care for his son, but is it hard to survive on limited food, warmth, and hope. The snow starts to slowly fall, but the man and his son keep on trying to keep warm and stay alive.
I think this is a very interesting novel. The first thing that went through my mind was why everuthing was burnt and coated with ash. Right now, I am thinking a huge fire, or volcano eruption somehow burned the whole country, and maybe even the whole world. I also wonder who caused the fire. Was it humans, war, aliens, or natural causes? I think it is war, but I am not sure.
The next biggest thing that caught my attention was why there aren't any people around. It seems like the human population is non-existant. Are these men the last humans alive? They did see many dead bodies around, but there are signs that other humans or creatures had taken food and resources from places like houses and grocery stores.
The thing that admires me the most is how the man reacts to everything. He has hope and is optimistic. He is kind to the boy and doesn't let all the bad things in his life make him go mad. He always puts his son first and tries his best to do what is best for the boy.

I am reading Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. So Lily starts this whole fiasco by leaving her red moleskin notebook in a book store with the words ‘Do You Dare?’ written across the front. So of course when Dash finds it he has to go through with what’s written inside. Soon enough the two are sharing their thoughts through this red notebook, never actually meeting but leaving instructions on where to leave it. Despite the fact that they choose not to meet, Dash even refuses to share his name, they send their friends and relatives to go check each other out. Though they both end up getting betrayed and are left description-less of each other. Lily’s relatives give only enough information to earn Dash the nickname Snarl.
I really like this book. Lily is such the optimist while Dash sets the record for most sardonic character ever. When their two vastly different personalities mesh the outcome is hilarious. I had to keep myself from laughing out loud in class. I like now they are slowly changing each other’s world. Lilly is pushing Dash to believe and hope while Dash makes Lilly aware of the more ironic side of life. Just in time, I think, for Lilly’s world to begin to crumble. Now when she is faced with all kinds of obstacles she is able to stand up for herself in ways she couldn’t have before she began talking to Dash.
I cannot wait to read forward. I’m anxious for the two of them to finally meet in person and what their reactions will be. It makes it even more suspenseful because Lilly accidentally left Dash notebook-less and without any way to get it to him. I can’t help but wonder how they are going to manage to meet if they can’t communicate anymore, and in a city like New York it won’t be for them to find each other. I must continue reading to find out how this wayward scenario all works out.

I am reading the book “Cut” and it’s about a girl named Callie who doesn’t speak and cuts herself to feel good about herself. She was put into a help center they call “Sick Minds.”
They get separated into groups, but Callie is the only one that cuts herself so she doesn’t belong in a group. During a day at lunch she sneaks a piece of a pie plate to cut herself because she is so desperate for relief.
Her counselor was starting to give up on her because she would never talk. Until, one day, she started talking because they were threatening to take her out of “Sick Minds” because she wasn’t accepting any help.
Then, one night when she was able to, she cut herself with the piece of the plate. But, instead of feeling a rush of relief it gave her pain and she even tried to stop the bleeding.
In this book I’ve noticed that she would not talk until after she was told by her Mom that they were going to give her bed to someone else who was willing to work, I’ve also noticed that she doesn’t seem like she tries to kill herself or has any thoughts of it, cutting just gives her a sense of relief.
This book reminds me of a couple years ago when my best friend used to cut herself, and she told me she would never think of killing herself, but cutting just made her feel good inside. She doesn’t cut herself anymore, instead she finds other ways to make herself feel better.
I feel depressed because this book has a very depressing background. I also feel very sad for Callie because she is too afraid to talk, and people are trying to make her talk all the time, and they think she’s trying to kill herself but she never plans on doing it.
Some questions that I have are: Why does she cut herself in the first place? I think it’s because she feels so alone in this world that she doesn’t know what else to do. Why is she afraid to talk out loud? I think she’s afraid to talk out loud because she is worried about what other people will say about her.

September 6, 2011 post

I am reading Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt. So far, the three kids in the story, Dicey, James, Maybeth, and Sammy, have been horribly abandoned by their mother after she realized she could no longer take care of them. Therefore, she decided to leave the three children in the care of their “not even teenager” sister, Dicey. All Dicey knows is that she has an Aunt Cilla living close enough to them that a bus could get them to her in an hour or so. However, that is not the situation at hand, for Dicey has only about twelve dollars to get them to their aunt's. So currently, the kids have been walking for close to a week now to her house, lying to avoid being taken into custody, scrounging for food, and learning how important their family really is.....

I have noticed in this book that Dicey seems to be accustomed to take on the role of the motherly figure for her younger siblings. She just seems to know what to do at all times and understands the ways for a young girl to be resourceful in her surroundings. Another thing that greatly grabbed my attention was how she is immediately aware that if they were to get caught, the four of them could easily be put into the system, facing the possibility that they could go to separate homes, never to be seen again by one another. This seems to raise question to the fact that maybe they could have as a family been subject to the eye of the Child Protective Services previously. Even though personally I have (thankfully) never been in that situation, it seems to remind me of the kids you see on the side of the street in movies that do not have a home, the kids in books such as the Baudelaire children in The Series of Unfortunate Events, or even the kids in the Boxcar Children.

Even though I realize it is fiction when I read this book, I can't help but have that feeling of sympathy for the kids. This sympathy arose when I read the back of this book's cover and seen in a brief description what these kids had to go through at the cost of their mother. It wasn't their fault that she decided that she couldn't handle them alone anymore. It just breaks my heart knowing that some kids actually have to get hit the hardest with the aftermath of their parents faults such as this.

Finally, I wonder how these kids' futures will pan out as the book progresses. Will they ever make it to Aunt Cilla's house? Will James be okay after his minor concussion? Will they ever get to see their mom again? These and many other questions are ones that I can be sure have been asked by anyone who has read this book. Now all I have to do is sit down and read the tale that unfolds when I investigate the questions and problems this author poses in front of me as I move from chapter to chapter.

Total Word Count:

522 words

What I'm reading...

I am reading When Zachary Beaver Came to Town by Kimberly Willis Holt. This book won the National Book Award.

I'm reading...

I'm reading "Hothouse" by Chris Lynch He's an Printz Honor Award-winning author of many novels.

What I'm Reading

I am reading The Raging Quiet by Sherryl Jordan, this book won Wirral Paperback of the Year and another one of her books won the ALA Best Books for Young Adults.

I am reading The Stolen One by Suzanne Crowely, this book was selected for the Indie Next List and another of her novels was nominated for the Georgia Children's Book Award.