Bliss has now been going to Crestview for two full weeks. Bliss expected Crestview to be different, not the way it actually is “I have to laugh at how different it is from what i expected” (56).  She has realized a lot of things about Crestview. One of the things she realized was that the students that go to Crestview are not honest and decent. The students do not care about being honest and decent, they do bad things like smoking in the bathroom. I can connect with Bliss because when I was in 9th grade I walked into the bathroom and I saw two girls smoking. I know that there are young people that smoke, but I did not expect them to be smoking in the school bathroom.

Chris McCandless’ story of travels go down hill when he neglected the rising of the Teklanika River over the course of the winter.  He had been living in the “Magic Bus” in Alaska with no map, watch, phone, and many other helpful tools of civilization, for the first half of 1992.  In fact he hardly brought any supplies with him on his trip to Alaska.  As he began to run out of game, and knowing how long it has been since he has had any human contact, he began to contemplate his own death.  He wrote in his journal “I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness.  A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them;then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor- Such is my idea of happiness. And then, on top of all that, you for a mate, and children, perhaps- what more can the heart of a man desire?”  This is the first time in Chris’ life that he has ever mentioned the possibility of living among other people.  Before his “Alaskan Odyssey” (McCandless, 169) he has always considered living in seclusion in the wild, the only way to find true happiness.  I think that as his death came closer, he began to regret his way of living; and wished that he had spent more time with people, and had relationships with others.

The book I am currently reading is called “Hate List” by Jennifer Brown. The book is narrated by a girl named Valerie. The book is about a school shooting that happened and her boyfriend is the one that did it. Her boyfriend even shot her in the leg.  After her boyfriend shot her, he shot and killed himself. Valerie cannot seem to stop feeling like it was her fault. Her school cannot decide if she is a hero of the shooting, because she jumped in between him shooting another student or if she is a villain because she may have helped him plan it. Valerie and her boyfriend even had [a hate list of people they did not like and they talked about death all the time](Brown 20). I feel like if they talked about death all of the time and had a hate list that Valerie had to have some idea that something like this was going to happen but just ignored the red flags because she loved Nick (her boyfriend).

Tiarra Andrews-Owens: Evaluation

This book makes you feel as if you are in the book and you are experiencing the feelings that the main character feels. I even felt worried and scared when the reporter in the book “paused for a moment and swallowed saying that Cape Cod has been completely submerged.” That author Susan Pfeffer uses such graphic words that I was able to picture it in my head. It was frightening to think all of the panic that would happen in our world if our oceans began doing that.  That author is able to create these images in your head of how people all over the world are panicking from using descriptive words. When I read “”My cell phone is out!” someone screamed a few doors down, and she sounded the way we’d felt when we saw CNN was gone. Civilization had ended,” I could see all hell go loose.

Lia Niebauer- Visualization

Jenna’s botfriend Scott is not being a good friend although and her bestfriend Courtney did lie about stealing nail polish she is telling the truth about Scott buying drugs. Courtney is trying to be a good friend by telling Jenna about her boyfriend because he won’t tell Jenna himself. Scott is being a bad friend because he bought drugs to give to Jenna with out her knowing and he also blackmailed Courtney not to tell anyone. He is also not being trustworthy or honest when it comes to Jenna and Jenna seems not to know who to trust between her bestfriend and her boyfriend.

JaVaun Martin: Evaluation

Marley came home for the first time. He sniffed the whole house until he has smelled every last corner. “When we got home, I led him inside and unhooked his leash. He began sniffing and didn’t stop until he had sniffed every square inch.” John put Marley in his bed which was in the garage. He closed the door and Marley started whimpering. This went on all night and John had to stay with Marley until he fell asleep. One day while Jenny was brushing him, she saw a swarm of flees. She started to panic and put Marley in a flea bath to hopefully get them away. I think Marley will always have fleas. I heard about “Florida’s legendary flea and tick problems.”

Laura Lee McHugh-Prediction

After buying their new puppy, the challenge was to come up with a name. John and Jenny fought for a week because they could not come up with a name. “Chelsea? I said. “That is such a chick name. No boy dog would be caught dead with the name Chelsea.” -John “Like he’ll really know,” Jenny said This quote shows how The married couple could not come up with a name. Jenny was so mad so she played Bob Marley so she did not have to listen to John. A light bulb went off in both of their heads and their puppy’s name was Marley. I understand this better because it reminds me of my family when we got our dog. We could not think of a name for such a long time. My mom really wanted Lucy but my brothers trashed that idea. We came to an agreement of Casey.

Laura Lee McHugh- Connection

Everyone, teachers, students, guards,even the janitors stared at me like i was a monster with horns growing out of my head.  “Psycho”, Clarence said rubbing his jaw as i left the locker room. “You’re done, Sanchez” Steve yelled with a cold smile on his face. “Outta here. Have fun in juvee”. Thsi is a quote from the book from the Bluford Series named “The Fallen” it is about a kid that would get into multiple situations in school. This is a connection to that because I used to be that kind of student. I never meant for some things to happen but they did. I was kicked out of school several times just like he was.

For this week i am currently reading Divergent a book written by Veronica Roth. It is all about a sixteen year old who as it it is the towns tradition to devote herself to one of the five factions she will devote her rest of her living in. So she is left with making a decision between staying with her parents or being with herself.  “Tomorrow at the Choosing Ceremony, I will decide on a faction; I will decide the rest of my life; I will decide to stay with my family or abandon them.”  She says . The independent blogs have made my reading my fluent and has hyped up my reading speed.

the reading strategy that I am going to use is connection. I can connect to the character in my book because he felt out of place when he went to a new school. I can connect to the character because i also felt very out of place when i switched schools from DC to Maryland. It felt wierd moving from two completely different environments. The character in my book felt like that because he was he onkly Indian in his school. Then to add on to that he came from a very poor reservation, and he dressed like a poor person. So everyone looked at him as if he was homeless.