Monster

This week I began a new book called Monster by Walter Dean Myers. When I first started this book it was a little weird for me because it is written as a movie script! Pretty unusual huh? Well I thought it would be another boring prison story but this is a book about a young mans journey through his trial to prove that he is innocent. The first part of the book is a very interesting description of 16 year old Steve Harmon who is being accused of murder. Harmon is described as a monster by the prosecuter and is also described as a shame to his family because of what he has done. Steve has brought his friends into this big mess by giving them information without them even knowing. Steve wants to make a movie about his journey through the trials and his experience while in prison. My question that I would like to ask is why? Why would you want to make a movie about, what are most likely the aboslute worst years of your life. my thoughts are that maybe there are things that happen while on trial that people don't know. Steve may be trying to expose the judicial system for something that he thinks is not right. I am only a little ways into the book so I am not sure. Hope this might make you want to read this interesting book sometime.

Why I Fight

Why I Fight by James A. Oaks

During my hiatus I read 3 different books, Why I Fight by James adams Oaks, IQ by Roland Smith and Baseball 365 written by various authors. In this post I have chosen to write about my favorite book, Why I Fight, I havent finished this book yet but I hink I will be able to finish it over springbreak.                                                                                                                                          
 So far I am about half-way finished with the book and up to this point it has not dissapointed me at all. One of my teachers reccomended this book to me last year and told me it was a great book (naturally I dismissed it as every book that an english teacher reads is "great"). This book is about 15 year old Wyatt Reaves and his journey to realization. Wyatt is a fighter, he competes in the bare-fist Fight Club. This is a band of fighters that fight for money and do not want to draw a ton of attention. The men who run this league do not care how much you get hurt or how old you are but only about how much money they make. When Wyatts mom turns to drugs and his dad turns into an alcoholic Wyatts uncle Spade offers him "saftey". When Wyatts uncle heard that he had nobody to turn to he saw a money factory. Wyatts uncle thought that because of Wyatts anger he would be an excellent fighter. Just 12 and a half years old, Wyatt had never fought before. By nature Wyatt was a good kid and hadn't gotten into trouble earlier in his life. Wyatt was in for a big surprise when he first stepped into the ring.
"The boy is a natural" (Oaks, 149) uncle Spade thought. Standing 6'2" weighing 150 lbs. Wyatt was a tall lanky boy who would eventually stand 6'4" and weigh 265 lbs. He was a natural fighter with instincts like no other, it was hard to think that he had never been in a fight before the way he moved and fought. "This kid is so big he will be the most demanded fighter in the league, more fights more money." (Oaks, 150) Needless to say Wyatt ended up winning the fight. One of the things I couldn't help but wonder about is if Wyatt had seen fights or even just watched them on T.V. prior to the first fight. I hope you consider reading this great book sometime as I have loved it and I am only halfway through the book

Blog Reflection

     The quality of my posts has gotten better as I have gone through my 9^th grade year. As I learned more during this first trimester I started to use it in my writing. I started to use the spell check feature as I had lots of grammatical errors in my first posts. In my later posts I used more meaningful quotes. An example of this is when I took the quote from one of the platoon officers in the second post. At the start of the trimester my posts were only about 10 sentences and were very brief. By the end of the trimester I had been writing longer, more in depth posts.

     I had many things that I improved on and a few things that I struggled with during this experience. One thing that I struggled with during this blogging experience is posting two times per week. When I did the first post I always had something to blog about but when I went to write my second post I always struggled to find a different thing to blog about. I overcame this barrier by reading more online articles and blogging about them. I would also blog about articles that I had read in school sometimes. One strength that I had while blogging was being able to elaborate on a topic when I needed to. I could always give more in depth information when I felt needed. I met my reading goal and exceeded it by one book by reading 7 books this trimester. I used goodreads.com to find books that I might like to read and also to see what other students are reading and maybe read those books also. Another way I used goodreads.com was to keep track of the books I read and to recommend books to other classmates. I improved as a reader by using strategies that I learned to figure out the meaning behind the words on the paper.

Georgia Football Coach Touches Lives

     Today I read an article on a Georgia football coach named Scott Hamilton who measures wins and losses a little differently than others. The coach of the Paulding County High School football team has a special way of making kids feel special.  Every friday night Hamilton chooses one or two kids get chosen to run out on the field with the team. These kids are always kids that have Autism, Downs Syndrome or other disabilities similar to that. These kids get to wear a jersey and be in the locker room before the game, at halftime and after the game and also be on the sidelines during the game. The kids even get to chose the first play or plays in the game.
     Hamilton said, "It just gives them a chance to be part of something they normally don't get to be a part of." Some of the parents of the kids said "He's opened these players' eyes. You know honestly I don't think even Coach Hamilton realizes what it does." The players have said that they have been exposed to a whole new level of energy that was hidden inside of these kids. They also said that they would like to continue this tradition even when coach is gone.

Book Recomendation

     I highly recommend the book The Night Children by Alexander Gordon Smith. This book is set during World War two and follows an american troop through Germany for about a week. I know some of you think this will be a boring book with nothing but fighting in it and partially you are correct. Throughout the book things happen that don't seem possible. The book gets its name from the monstrous things that roam the forests at night. These things are described on page 97 as follows, "These things looked like humans that had been cut open, stuffed with 200 extra pounds of muscle and then sewn back together. When they took you during the night all you heard was a laugh that should have belonged to a 6 year old then you would be gone." (Smith, 97). Taking the sound of the laughter and the way they acted the troop began to call them Night Children.

     This book is very interesting in how the author chooses to present certain information about characters. Also this book has a lot of myths that were spread throughout entire countries such as Hitler's scientists performing tests on live humans. This book has a lot of truth in it in the form of names, troops, location, and also how the dead troops were found. These scenes were described by Corporal Donnie Brixton, the only living survivor of her platoon. She described the experience like this, "This place was like hell only it was below freezing and you were still alive. You could feel emotion and now I have to remember this for the rest of my life." (Smith, 22) This just shows how brutal the conditions were during the war. Maybe this book will give you a new perspective on just how hard it is for a former soldier I sure gained a new respect for them.

Anonymous Donation

     An 11-year-old boy's anonymous donation to his local police department captured the attention of his parents and also of the police force. Police wanted to thank him for it but first they had to do a little detective work. Two days after Sept. 11 a young boy walked into his local police station in Greenfield, Wis., and pulled out more than $10 in change out of his bag. He told the woman at the desk he wanted to make a donation to the police, but walked out before she could ask him his name. Later that day the head of the police force decided to start searching for the boy.

      They discovered the boy was sixth-grader Max Siepert, who had heard stories in his social studies class about the police and firefighters who responded to the Sept. 11th incident. Max rode his bike to the police station without his parents' knowledge and didn't expect the attention.Max's mom said that she would match his donation of $10.03, and Max plans to give that donation to a little girl in Wisconsin who needs a kidney transplant. He hopes his gift will encourage others to do the same. Below is the footage of the donation. 

Finished with Inferior by Pedar O'Guillen

     I have finished my book finally and I thought that the ending was really a cliff hanger. During the final few pages a woman named Idriani had come "from the Great Roof". The people of Stopmouths tribe had never seen a woman like this. She had dark skin that had a strange glow about it and her teeth were perfectly straight instead of crooked. She came into the tribe and could not speak their language. Idriani could hunt though. She seemed to know where animals would be and exactly when they would be there. The tribe didn't care that they couldn't talk to her because she could hunt and there was little food to be had.

     By the end of the book Stopmouth had taken Idriani under his wing and taught her their language. Idriani had learned the language and this was not a good thing. She told them stories of times that were tougher than now. These stories were rumored to be foreshadowing by the tribes elders. Everybody had been talking about these rumors when things started to get worse. People started to shy away from Idriani because they feared she was bad luck. That is where the book ended. I wish I could say there is another book but it is not out yet.  

Characters in Inferior

     The main character in Inferior by Pedar O'Guillen is Stopmouth. Stopmouth is a 14 year old boy who is a very fast runner but is not the strongest or most good looking. He is described to be about 5' 9" and about 140 pounds. Stopmouth is also very short-tempered in the beginning of the book. I am about 3/4 of the way through the book and Stopmouth has gotten a lot better at keeping his cool. Stopmouth faces a major problem when he goes on a hunting mission that brings him to a Tribe called the Bloodskins. The Bloodskins are creatures that are like lions that can walk on two feet and have bloodred skin. They are the most viscious tribe when provoked and are also the most protective of their homes.
     When Stopmouth and his hunting partner Wallbreaker decide to go into Bloodskin Ways to hunt things begin to turn bad for nimble-footed Stopmouth. When Wallbreaker decides to go after a bigger Bloodskin things turn for the worst very quickly. On page 166 O'Guillen writes, "As Wallbreaker went in for the kill the creature turned and bolted in the opposite direction as we had planned. We chased it into a crumbling house. Wrong move. As I was moving up the stairs they buckled and about 300 pounds of brick and concrete came down on my legs, crushing the bones." (O'Guillen, 166) What happens to Stopmouth after that? I do not know yet but as soon as I do I will be sure to tell you.

Setting in Inferior by Pedar O'Guillen

The time of the book Inferior is in a very distant future from all I can tell. The people are all gathered into one tribe and  they struggle to survive against and with other tribes around their region. The other tribes are all based off of animals but O'Guillen makes them seem like they are human. They all fight in a manner that is organized for the most part and they all make houses and villages like humans. One of the tribes are the Armourbacks. The Armourbacks are like armadillos except they stand on two legs and are about 6 feet tall. O'Guillen describes them as follows, "they were massive creatures that stood six feet tall and were built like men that competed in the worlds strongest man competitions. As the name states they had plates on their backs that deflected most weapon strikes as if they were paper." (O'Guillen, 38) The Armourbacks were the only tribe that attacked other tribes without provocation. They were the dominant race and have remained in that position so far.

Characters in One Shot at Forever

 

The characters go through many changes in the book One Shot at Forever. One of the biggest character changes is when Lynn Sweet changes his whole lifestyle and changes Macon forever. In the beginning of the book Sweet was a man that was called a floater because he never stayed in one place. on page 49 of the book Ballard writes "Sweet was very disliked in the community and was called a "floater" and a "radical" by many people. They had never experienced a man that slept on a new persons couch every night."
When the second baseball season comes around Sweet begins to change. He began to date a woman by the name of Barb Jesse. After Sweet married Jesse they bought a trailer home. This changed sweets image in the community and also the lifestyle he led. Sweet was a radical man with ideas that nobody had ever thought of. Sweet began to be "normal" by the standards of the community after he married Jesse.

In an article about One Shot at Forever the book was said to have brought back memories to some about their days of watching sports and being caught up in the action. People love the book because it is very action-packed and keeps them on the edge of their seat.