Semester 1 Reflection

          The books I read for independent reading this semester were Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, Divergent, Insurgent, and The Maze Runner. I selected a lot of these books from a lot of recommendations from friends and the books were some of the best books that I have ever read. When I was reading the writing from Veronica Roth I couldn't put the book down the writing always had me wondering what would happen next in the book. I just loved the plot that was exhibited in The Maze Runner, I also liked how the author created a new kind of setting in the book and just kept me reading on. I can't wait to finish the series during the next semester and know what actually happens in the series and how it actually plays out.
          When I went back to reading my past blog posts I was surprised by the quality my blog posts were they were beyond my expectations and I feel like I learned a lot from this experience. In my older blog posts I feel like I didn't put much of my emotions into it and didn't really show who I was from them. I had evolved a lot from my first blog posts now I keep the reader engaged more in the post and I engage the reader with more questions to keep the posts more interactive. I also consistently used pictures, and videos in my posts on a regular basis and showed my understanding of the text that I was reading for that blog post.

          Even though I feel that I have improved through out the semester I feel like I can still improve for next semester. One goal that I have in my blogging is to have a lot more emotion in it and show more of who I am in the posts. Another goal I have is that in my blogging is to have my textual evidence fit in more in the paragraph and have it not feel forced in. For my last goal for the second semester I need to incorporate more technology in my blog posts instead of the usual pictures and videos I could use some articles. I feel like blogging had been a very rewarding experience and has thought me how to incorporate writing in the real world a little more.

Maze Runner Post 2- James Dashner

         The post that I will be sharing today will be on Thomas's struggles in The Maze Runner and the character of Thomas in the book. As the picture on the top shows when Thomas first enters the book he doesn't remember anything except his name and I don't know how this would feel for him. Can you remember a time where you forgot something and you can't remember it after some time? This has happened to me before and I can't imagine what life would be not remembering anything from my past I would always have the nagging in my mind that I would be forgetting something. When Thomas is first introduced in the book he is frightened and scared. A quote that supports Thomas being scared is, "Someone...help...me! he screamed; each word ripped his throat raw" (Dashner 3). Thomas is very scared and doesn't know what's happening in basically a new world.

         Thomas is pretty much a simple character in the book since he basically doesn't even know what is happening. But I feel like later on in the book he is going to evolve into a dynamic character and emerge as a leader. With everything going on in his life he is going to have to be a dynamic character and very brave to even survive. Right now Thomas really wants to know what is happening and is very curious. The thing that probably helps him the most is the fact that he has people around him to help him out. If he was by himself he would have a very hard time with all the events going on in his life it would be basically impossible to go through life. In what ways can you relate to Thomas as a character?

Maze Runner- James Dashner

              This week I am starting a new book called The Maze Runner which is the first book of the trilogy. I read only part of the book but a character in the book named Thomas has no memories of his name. A quote that supports this is," My name is Thomas, he thought. That was the only thing he could remember about his life." Including this  he is stuck in a maze and their are mechanical creatures in the maze called grievers that roam it at night. How would you deal with something like this happening to you especially after losing  your memory. There are also many other mechanical creatures in the maze and they spy the gladers and have WICKED written on them. Now Thomas's friends are trying to find a antidote to try to retrieve his memory which may be the solution to getting out of the maze but it is going to be very hard for them to get it.

              This book has been adapted into a movie called The Maze Runner which is a lot like the actual book. The book is filled with a ton of suspense and I love how the book is playing out so far and how the plot is adding to all of this.This is probably one of the best science fiction books I have ever read and the author just makes everything feel more realistic. I just can't wait to find out what happens in the end of the book and will Thomas get his memory back. If you have already read this book how would you rate it out of 5 stars?

The Grace of Silence -Michele Norris

       Link to picture
                 

                  The picture above shows the author's dad and his family and in the book the author keeps on expressing the importance of family. The author shows how her father was so close to her family and she also shows about how close she was with her family. Especially with all the problems of segregation happening during that time black families would have to look out for each other whenever they would be outside.

                  The central idea was surrounding around the idea that blacks were being mistreated and how family was a very important thing to have. As this book is on a family memoir it would be obvious that the book would be surrounding how family was important. The book would describe the struggles blacks would face by giving an example of her own father's. He was arrested and would have been proven innocent if he was white. The author also gives other instances on how blacks were mistreated when she gives a police case on how police officers beat up a black man for basically no reason and made him blind. When the case arose the court decided the police officers were innocent and the police officers said they did it in an act of self defense and the case lasted for a couple of days. Then the case rose and had become very popular and many blacks found this act to be very evil and showed the way blacks were treated.

                 Family was important to and was a central idea in the book for many reasons. First off when the author's dad went to jail after being discharged his family would try to help him out. His brother came out and used the money he saved to buy some real estate to bail his brother out and also paid him for a lawyer. The author emphasizes family when her mom and dad divorce, and also when her father dies of cancer. The whole reason the book was made was probably because she wanted to share her dads story and how he was mistreated as a black.

               I have a question for you how close are you to your family and can you relate to the book in any way?

The Color of Water

             In this blog post I will be giving you an over view of the character James McBride and his life situation throughout the book. The character lives in a big family and very poor family as a kid he had to literally fight for food with his siblings even for a little crumb. He was only older than 3 other kids in a family of 12 which meant their would be a lot of bossing around for him. The older siblings would torment him and abuse him as if he was a stuffed animal. In the book a quote that shows him getting abused is," When I stuck my head in, he shoved me in from behind and slammed the door, holding it shut." (Pg.72 Hardback) James McBride was a shy character and he would imagine a world where he could be free and do anything he would like he would play with his reflection and think his reflection lives in a better world. Which shows that James is living a hard and emotional life during that part in hid life.

            After James's stepfather died his mom did not know what to do and the house was turning into a mess and James started getting bad grades and decided to drop out of school. When his mom found out she sent him to his sister over the summer for summer school. But he would do worse stuff there because his sister was too busy he could do anything he wanted to do. He started meeting up with people in a place called the corner where they would do a lot of bad stuff including illegal stuff. But then he realizes he does not want to live a life like that and decides to go back to school. When he comes back to school he tries even harder and when problems arise he goes to God for help and James turns into a new character and has a new meaning for life.

Insurgent- Veronica Roth

             The book that I just started this week is Insurgent the second book of the Divergent series and the book just picked up from the end if the first book. Now the few surviving Abnegation and Divergent are in the Amity compound after not knowing where else to live and now the Erudite have found them and now they are on the run to find a safer place to live. If I were them I would have just stayed at the Amity compound and hope that the Erudite would not find me and capture me. But in the book 4 characters escape and decide to move in with the faction less and at first the faction less are resistant and then they allow them to live with them. What would you do in that situation would you try to escape or would you stay and hope that the Erudite would think you are part of the Amity? The answer to this question could mean the difference between life and death for the characters in the book.

            Many of the characters from the Abnegation are dead and now the only reason they are alive is because of the Divergent characters in the book. The whole town or civilization is now falling apart and the world is becoming worse and worse for many of the characters in the book and they want to live the peaceful life they once were living in. The Amity are staying neutral in this situation to keep peace in their faction and as a democratic faction which votes for everything the citizens in the Amity are staying neutral. A quote that shows that the Amity are staying neutral is, " We feel the only way to preserve our relationships with both factions is to remain impartial and uninvolved" (Page 21).In this situation I would hate life if I was part of the Abnegation where I would have to see all my friends and family die and I would have to fight for survival as of before when I would have lived a peaceful life. 

           If you could chose what faction you could be in in this situation in your life what would you choose?

Divergent Veronica Roth- Post 4

                 I have finally finished divergent and near the end came the best part of the book. The abnegation and erudite are now in a war and the serum made by the erudite causes all the dauntless who are not divergent to kill the abnegation and I will not spoil the ending but it is up to the people who are Divergent to save the abnegation. You also find out that four another character in the book who is former abnegation now dauntless is divergent. I would still agree that this is the best book I have ever read and I would still recommend it to anyone. I can't wait to read the next book in the series I heard that the next book is very good also and I would probably agree based on what I read so far from the author. I heard that Insurgent is mostly based on the Candor faction and I realized that all of these book titles have actual meanings,

                I have recently seen the movie Divergent that the book was better then the movie. The movie did not have all of the parts or the book but the movie and the book were almost exactly the same except for some minor points.The movie had the same plot structure and everything it was basically a very detailed summary of all the events. I would also recommend anyone who read the book to see the movie it basically puts all what you read and puts it visually and it can also help you understand some parts in the book that you didn't understand. I could match some of my visualizations reading the book to the movie and the movie just reenacts the important events in the book perfectly.  

Divergent Book Review

Divergent Veronica Roth- Post 3

           
             I am almost done with Divergent and I must say it is one of the best books I have ever read. whenever I turned to the next page the author would create suspense immediately. The book was filled with suspense and action and always had me on the edge of my seat. Compared to other dystopian novels that I have read this one was probably the one that had the best plot structure through out the whole book. I would say that Tris the main character faces a ton of hardship through out the book and comes through some of that but new conflicts are rising and Tris has to fight for survival. An example of this is where Tris says," I touch my throbbing head and liquid slips across my fingertips"(Page 436).The different factions show how the society is divided and the growing conflicts between Erudite and Abnegation creates a all out war between the two factions and the divergent have to find a way to stop this from becoming any worse.

            I can't wait to read the next book I hope the same suspense will be carried over to the second book and create a even better book. Veronica Roth is probably one of the best dystopian writers of all time she sucks the reader in through suspense and action. There are many other writers who do this but I don't know any other writer who has made a book come with those two ideas so perfectly and planned out. I would recommend this book to anyone and would say that if you need a book you should read this book. The character is going through so much in her life and this is really what makes the book so good. In the beginning the character was not perfect like you would expect she had to make any hard decisions and was not perfect in her faction.

            I would give this book 4.5 stars out of 5 stars because the book had always created suspense and action which made me want to keep reading. But the book was repetitive at some parts in the book and this made the book boring at some parts. The book also had a lot of good scenes like capture the flag where you could feel like you actually captured the flag and won for your team. Overall I would say that Divergent is a very good book that you should read and I would recommend it to anyone especially the people who like dystopian novels.
                                                                     
                                                   Divergent Book Review

Divergent Veronica Roth-Post 2

                  I am now about halfway through Divergent and I am wondering why I dropped the book. It was probably one of the best books I have ever read in this book I am at the point at where Tris the main character is trying to make it through initiation to become Dauntless. The main character chooses the faction Dauntless which is with people who are courageous and brave. The main character changes her name to Tris originally Beatrice when she was asked in the Dauntless first parts of initiation. Choosing to become Dauntless was a big deal for her because she is leaving the faction she is currently leaving and has basically betrayed her parents. In the beginning of the initiation was very hard for Tris she was basically the worst person there during initiation and now there are people who get cut if they are in the bottom of the group which she currently was in.

                   But now Tris starts practicing for real and tries her best in all of the events. She was doing terrible in the first three events but then she outshines past everyone and successfully wins the events. The instructors were amazed by how a person from her faction before choosing Dauntless could improve so quickly and be so good at the events. The bad thing about this is that the instructors could think that Tris is Divergent and this would make her considered dangerous and she could get killed if they find out that she is Divergent. This makes it so Tris has to stay under the radar and she has to now do stuff that people who aren't divergent do so she can't be herself when it comes trough all the Dauntless activities.

                   I love books like this were characters live in a dystopia and the characters want to change society and how the people live. The author keeps on throwing new things at me and this only keeps me on the edge of my seat and want to keep on reading. You don't know whats going to happen next it could be a amazing thing or not you just have to keep on reading to figure out.

Divergent- Veronica Roth

                                   

                  I am currently reading Divergent by Veronica Roth. I choose this book because I have read the hunger games series and people have told me that if you like the hunger games series you should read the book Divergent. I also picked the book because so many people read the book and saw the movie so far I have done neither. The book is about people who are split into factions based on their characteristics and when they are placed in their faction they have to do everything they would need to do in that faction they have certain jobs to do. In the beginning of the book the main character takes a test to decide which faction she would go into.

               When placed in situations she always did something different normally a person taking the test would keep on doing the same thing based on characteristics. She had all the different types of characteristics and this made her in the divergent. Very few people know about this and it is a top secret thing that no one else can know about. Now she has to choose what faction she is going to go into on the choosing ceremony day. Will she stay in the faction she's in right now or will she betray her faction and switch.
             
                   Right off the bat the book has been good I hope it continues the same way. So far Divergent has been a very good book and it has had a very good plot so far. The book is so hard to put down when reading I just can't stop.

Tunneling to the center of the earth article
               
                 When I chose this book the book Tunneling to the Center of the Earth I did not know what it would be about but then I realized that it was about 13 different stories and the characters were all experiencing something that was different.

               
                The central idea in my book is surrounding hope and that you can change your life for the better. The characters are placed in a harsh or bad place in their lives but then they realize that they can change their lives and not live the same way anymore. "Finally alone in my house that is only mine, I allow myself to understand that I am not leaving these families but losing them" (Wilson 26). This quote shows how the character is facing hardship and in this quote the character is changing her life by quitting the job she just realized was not a good job and takes a huge step in her life.

                The characters try changing their lives but with all hardships they are facing changing their lives for the better was a huge process. Some characters had lost some of their best friends along the way. There was even some characters that lost their jobs which involved other families and a high paying job. This is what I mean by the characters lose some of their most important things just to change their lives. They had to sacrifice everything for the better in life.

This is an interview with the author and he talks about a book called Family Fang and references the book I read for my summer reading project.

Author Interview