Eclipse 12/15/14

Prompt - Draw a picture of what you've just read

     I drew this picture of Edward, Bella, and Jacob. First of all, I drew Jacob as a wolf because he obviously is one in the book. I drew Edward as a lion and Bella as lamb because throughout the whole series, (especially in Twilight) it is said many times that Bella is like a lamb and Edward is like a lion. I drew the lamb annoyed and the lion and wolf glaring at each other. I did this because Edward and Jacob don't like each other and Bella doesn't like it that they fight/dislike each other. 

    A direct quote from one of the books was "...and so the lion fell in love with the lamb." Bella is a lamb because she is delicate/fragile. Edward also constantly says that he has to be careful with Bella because she is so easy to break (in all the books). Edward is a lion because he is strong and is always described as cat-like or like a lion; especially in the meadow scene in Twilight. Edward's big cat like qualities are highlighted when he plays baseball during a thunderstorm while he was also described by Bella as fast as a cheetah as he quickly outran the rest of the Cullens.

     The first time that Bella visits the Cullen house, it said in the book (when Bella gets a cut and Jasper loses control because of the blood when Edward tries to protect her but he knocks her over and her arm starts bleeding) that Edward's body is described as, "shifted suddenly, half-crouched, tenses like a lion about to pounce." So, that is my description of my drawing.

     

Sisters 12/8/14

Prompt - Are the characters realistic (do they seem like they could be read people)? Why

or why not?

     In the book Sisters; by Raina Telgemeier, all of the characters seem realistic. First of all, I know this because it is a memoir, so, for sure these are all like real people. Second of all, there is a lot of realistic things about them. One thing that Raina (the main character) did which was very realistic was to tell her parents that she wanted a little sister.

     It was all she talked about every day. Then, when her parents surprised her and told her that they were going to have a baby, she was happy. But, as soon as the baby grew up and knew how to talk, Raina noticed that they didn't get along well. They would fight over little things and Amara (her sister) threw tantrums; which is realistic for little kids to do. 

     Something that also makes the characters realistic is that they don't have any un-realistic characteristics like super powers or anything like that. They also make mistakes in the book, like everyone does. One example of a realistic mistake was when Raina stepped on a snake.

     This happened when she was on a camping trip with her parents (before Amara was born), and she went in to the woods where she found blackberries; as she went further, she found a lot of them (blackberries) and she started going through all of the bramble, when suddenly, she stepped on a dead snake. So, that is another realistic thing about her. Lastly, I also noticed that in the picture of when she went back to her parents, she had a lot of cuts which would happen in real life if you ran in the woods with all of the branches. 

Eclipse 3 12/1/14

Prompt - List five major events in order from which happened first to last.

     In Eclipse, there was a lot of major events. I will list the five most important things that happened. The first major event that happened in Eclipse was when Rosalie tells Bella her backstory on before she became a vampire. This was in chapter 7. 

     Rosalie was born in a middle class family in 1915. She always dreamed of having a perfect life; having a big house, a rich husband, etc. One day when she was coming back from her friend’s house, she came across Royce (her fiancé) and his friends which were drunk. They left her dying in the street until Carlisle found her and changed her (into a vampire).

     

     The second important event that happened after Rosalie’s backstory was Jasper’s backstory. His backstory was told in chapter 13. A brief summary of his backstory is that he used to live in Houston, Texas and he mined the Confederate Army in 1861 at 17 years old. He was ‘Major Jasper Whitlock’ before he was a Cullen. One day, he came across there vampires; one of them turned him because she wanted a superior army to fight off other vampires. 

     She thought Jasper had potential to be a leader. After a long time with her, he decided to go away. Then, he met Alice; because of her talents (seeing the future) they both set off to find the Cullen family and added on (to the family).

     The third major event that happened was when Jacob told Bella that he loved her and that he would never give up on trying to get her to be with him instead of Edward. Then, he kissed her but Bella got mad. She then broke her hand (because he is a werewolf) trying to punch him. This was on page 330 in chapter 15.

     The fourth major event in Eclipse was the Cullens' and Bella’s graduation. Edward told Bella that it was very important because it’s the only time she is going to graduate (as a human). Another reason it was important was because all of her friends, Charlie (her dad), and Jacob were there. This was on chapter 16.

The fifth major event was when Edward proposed to Bella on page 460 and chapter 20. He actually proposes to her in New Moon, but she thinks it was a joke (which it wasn’t). So, he gave her time to think about it and in Eclipse, he actually proposed with a ring. 

     The last thing that I know was a huge event was all of the planning/training and the actual battle with the newborn vampires. This was all in several chapters throughout the book. Edward also finally killed Victoria (a vampire that wanted to kill Bella since the first book).

Eclipse 2 11/17/14

Prompt - Are the characters realistic (do they seem like they could be real people)? Why or why not?

     Most of the characters in this book seem like they are not real; this is because there is vampires in this book and of course; they are not real. For example, the Cullen family are all vampires and have non-human like qualities. Sometimes, a vampire is born with a special talent. Some of the members of the Cullens can do supernatural things.

     Edward can read people's minds, Alice can see the future, and Jasper can control a whole room of people's emotions. Some of them have less strange talents, for example, Emmett, who is unbelievably strong (even for a vampire). Also, another way that the characters aren't realistic is that her best friend Jacob is a werewolf. Wolfs are real, but, in real life; humans can not turn into giant wolves.

     The Volturi (vampire royalty), who are in charge of the people who live in the same place as they do, are kind of realistic. I say 'kind of' because in some places there can be royalty like a king or queen, but, they are vampires and they have very strong talents. There are still some realistic characters in Eclipse which are most of the students that go to Bella's school. They have no supernatural powers, and, they are not immortal. Even in page 133, Bella thought "Angela's easy human dramas were oddly reassuring. It was nice to know that life was normal somewhere." This shows that in Eclipse, most of the characters are not realistic, but some are.

Eclipse 11/10/14

Prompt 1 - Analyze the impact word choice has on the meaning or tone of a text.

     In my personal opinion, I think that the book Eclipse has very good word choice. Word Choice in books is something that makes the book a lot more interesting. In this series, they (the author) are every descriptive.

     One part that had good word choice that made the mood/tone clearer was on page 9. "I felt my face harden. "What about him?" I asked through stiff lips." The mood here was nervousness in the atmosphere. I know this because it shows that Bella wasn't expecting to talk about this topic (Jacob) and was nervous to talk about him with her dad.

     A section that impacted the text was "My former best friend who was now... what? My enemy? I cringed. Charlie's face was suddenly wary. ... "Well, it's about Edward too" My eyes narrowed. Charlie's voice got gruffer." This was on page 10 and it was all directly telling us how they felt which helped make the text better. The tone here was confused because Bella didn't even know who Jacob was to her anymore and Charlie didn't know why Bella didn't want to talk about Jacob.

Prompt 2 - Analyze how dialogue or specific incidents reveal information about characters. Make sure to include textual evidence.

     In Eclipse, one scene that revealed something about one of the characters (Charlie) was on page 18. "Good evening, Charlie." Edward was always flawlessly polite, though Charlie didn't deserve it. Charlie grunted at him, and then stood there with his arms crossed over his chest." This clearly showed that Charlie (Bella's dad) disliked Edward.

     Another part that revealed something about Charlie was when on page 15 he wanted Bella to spend more time with Jacob. "And then you were always so happy after spending the day with Jake."(Jacob) Charlie sighed. "I'm happy now." I growled fiercely through my teeth. The contrast between my words and tone broke through the tension. Charlie burst into laughter, andI had to join in. "Okay, Okay," I agreed. "Balance." "And Jacob" he insisted." This section showed how much Charlie like Jacob and encouraged Bella to talk to him again.

   

Reflections on Poe 11/3/14

     Before I did read about Poe's life and his stories, I knew nothing about him. In the beginning of the year, I just knew his name but I had no idea who he was. Now I know a lot more about him. Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor, and literary critic. He loved to write and he mostly wrote mystery short stories.

   
     Poe went through a lot of difficult tragedies throughout his life. One of the major (bad) things in his life was when he lost his wife, mother, brother, and foster mother all from tuberculosis. Also, he had a very hard time being poor for a long time so he even had to burn his furniture to keep warm. Another bad thing that happened was when he left college to come home only to find that his fiancé cheated on him.

     While working for The Messenger, he was dissatisfied with the low pay and lack of editorial control. So, he decided to move to Pennsylvania; he spent his time wiring for different magazines. Poe always wanted to become famous for is writing; and that came true. The January 1845 publication of his short story "The Raven" made Poe a household name. He was now famous enough to draw large crowds to his lectures, and he was beginning to demand better pay for his work. 

      His life may have affected his writing a lot. I think that when he wrote, he based some of the character's emotions on what he was feeling and expressed it in his stories. Since he suffered a lot of tragedies, he probably made one character insane because of all of the emotions and things going on that would be enough to drive someone mad. 

     Life in the 1800's compared to the 2000's was very different. Back then, people didn't have advanced and modern things; they also didn't have much ideas on how to create a cure for diseases. That's probably why a lot of Poe's family died of tuberculosis. Also, not everybody had a job (that they get paid for); now, most people can at least work somewhere like McDonalds, but still get money enough to buy things that they need. Poe even had to make a fire with his furniture to keep warm so that shows how different life was then and now.

     There are still some similarities between both the 19th and 21st century. One thing that they both have in common is that there are still the wealthy, the middle class, and the poor. Edgar Allan Poe was first the poor, then when he got famous, he was wealthy. You can still go from poor to wealthy, then back. Lastly, in both times, there are famous writers/authors. There are still a lot of famous authors today. 

New Moon 2 10/27/14

Prompt - Describe the most important event. Give at least three reasons why you think it

is the most important event.

     In New Moon, there is actually two major events. The first one is when Edward moves because he thought it wasn't normal for Bella to be hanging out with vampires the whole time; and Jasper almost killed her (Bella) after an accident when she got a paper cut. This was a major event in the book because Edward leaving caused Bella to be really depressed. So, she started to become less depressed when she started to hang out with her best friend Jacob which she later found out is a werewolf. 

     One day, Jacob started to avoid Bella, then completely, and Bella became depressed again. He was avoiding her because he was going through the transformation of becoming a werewolf; which Bella didn't find out right away. Since she was looking desperately for something to do, she noticed that when she did dangerous things, she would hear Edward's voice in her had. So, one day she jumped off a cliff. Alice (Edward's sister) saw Bella jumping off the cliff in her mind and thought she was committing suicide and died. Alice saw this because she's a vampire also and can see the future.

     When Edward found out, it caused him to go to the Volturi (vampire royalty). He wanted to show the humans that he was a vampire so he can get in trouble and the Volturi would kill him. He didn't want to live without Bella. When Alice saw this, she (and Bella) went to Italy to try to save Edward. They ended up making it on time and saved Edward.

     The second major event was when Bella and Alice went to save Edward and the Volturi saw that Bella was human. This was an important event because it was 'illegal' for a human to know about vampires. So, they said if one of them didn't turn Bella into a vampire soon, she would die. This was probably the second most important event because Edward leaving caused all of this, so, that would be the first major event. 

"The Black Cat" by Edgar Allan Poe 10/20/14

Prompt - Draw 4 objects that represent you reading. Write a sentence for each, telling what each item says about what you've been reading.

1. A Tree

This represents the tree in the garden that the man used to hang Pluto (his cat). I chose this because the story is mostly about the black cat. That's why the story is called The Black Cat. So, the tree was associated with the cat. Also, the second cat that the man got after hung Pluto from a tree was when he was drunk; this cat looked a lot like the original. The only difference was that it had a white patch on it's chest. But, when it grew out, it formed the shape of the gallows (a wooden device to hang people) After that, the man was afraid of it.

2. A Grimm Reaper

This picture represents death. This story has a lot of deaths in it. One of them is when the man killed Pluto by handing it from a tree. The second one is when he killed his wife with an ax in the head when she tried to stop him from killing the second cat. Lastly, I picked this picture with the Grimm Reaper holding a suitcase because the narrator wrote this the day before he died in jail, confessing what he did. So, the suitcase represents nearing death or traveling there.



3. Guilt


This picture shows a weight/sack of guilt. The man felt guilty, so, he confessed by writing what he did the day before he died. Every time he did something bad he regretted it, but he did a bad thing after another, and they kept getting worse.





4. Bad - Temper




This picture shows a bad-tempered and easily mad face. This describes the narrator because he got mad easily and did a crazy thing after another.

The Twilight Series 10/14/14

Write the biography for one character

Character - Edward Cullen

     Edward Cullen was born on June 20, 1901 in Chicago Illinois. His full name is Edward Anthony Masen Cullen. He was an only child to Elizabeth Masen. His father provided him with a lot of opportunities. For example, he had music lessons and the chance to go to a private school. However, him and his father were distant because of his busy career as a succesful lawyer. The absence was made up with the relationship of him and is mother: he was the center of her life.

     Edward exceeded in his studies and soon became a skillful pianist. As he grew older, he became in love with the life of a soldier. World War I raged during most of his adolescence, and he dreamed of joining the army as soon as he turned 18. He reminisced about his dreams of becoming a soldier in the Midnight Sun, saying that the love of his mother was the only thing that made him reluctant to the thought other than his underage. That changed, however, when he and his parents became sick with The Spanish Influenza in 1918. His father died in the first wave of the influenza.

     Edward's mother later contracted the Spanish Influenza and begged the doctor who was taking care of them, Dr. Carlisle Cullen, to do everything within his power to save her son. (quote from the book) Elizabeth said "You must do everything in your power. What others cannot do, that is what you must do for my Edward." Carlisle acted on her wishes when Edward was near death himself. Shortly after Elizabeth died, Carlisle took Edward from the hospital, brought him to his house, and there changed him into a vampire.

     He and Carlisle formed a deep bond with each other and Carlisle became a fatherly figure to him; gaining Edward's trust and love the way his natural father never had. It was Carlisle who first realized  Edward's telepathic abilities; he noticed Edward answering questions that Carlisle had not asked aloud. Edward always had a knack for reading people; after his transformation, this ability turned into  a true psychic talent. In 1921, he finally got a mother. This happened when Carlisle changed Esme into a vampire to save her after her suicide attempt. Edward was still young enough to appreciate a mother's care, and Esme gave it to him.

     Edward did have a rebellious side at the beginning of his vampire life and he left Esme and Carlisle on 1927. He used his mind reading ability to attack the worst people of society. He thought he was serving justice; but he still was feeding on humans. His first victim was Esme's abusive ex - husband, Charles Evenson. A few years later, he regretted his decision and returned to Carlisle's family and their diet of animal blood in 1931. 

     Carlisle and Esme were concerned about how Edward was lonely and didn't have any love in his life. So, in 1933, Carlisle found a girl named Rosalie Hale on the street after she was left dead by her fiancé. He changed her into a vampire to save her, and for Edward to not be lonely. As stunningly beautiful as she was, Edward took no interest in her because of her shallow and self-absorbed mind. So, the two became nothing more than siblings and were not always on good terms. Later on, Rosalie found Emmet near death from a bear attack in 1935, and she fell in love instantly.  So, she took him to Carlisle and he became Edward's adoptive brother. 

     Then, in 1950, already-vampire Alice and Jasper sought out to find Carlisle's family to escape their tragic past. They found them by Alice's talent of seeing the future. While living in Alaska, they encountered the Denali coven; the only group that shared their diet of animal blood. The leader Tanya showed affection toward Edward, but he did not share that interest. 

     By 2005, he had attended several colleges and universities, earned two medical degrees and studies several subjects. When his natural parents died, he inherited his the Masen house in Chicago, about every 50 years, he would inherit the family fortune from himself, pretending to be a new heir. 

    Since his talent was mind reading, he never encountered a person that was immune to his power. Until Bella shows up and he realizes that her mind is impenetrable. At first, this infuriates him. but it's also the start of his obsession with her; How and why is her mind a mystery to him? As Bella finds out the truth about The Cullens, she continually begs Edward to turn her into one of them, She dreads that fact that she grows older than him every day. 

      His brother, Emmet teases him about being the smartest, but since he can not sleep at night, he has a lot of free time. He has become the most fluent in foreign languages, and he has read the most books, second to Carlisle. He also loves to run; he is the fastest runner of them all. He is also the most musical. He's always composing songs on the piano including Esme's favorite, and Bella's lullaby.

    His siblings include Alice, who can see the future, Jasper, who can control your emotions, Emmet who has supernatural strength (even for a vampire), and the amazingly beautiful Rosalie. Alice and Jasper's parents remain unknown. 

    In the books, Edward is described as being impossibly beautiful. His face is portrayed as angular with perfect high cheekbones, a strong jawline, straight nose, and perfect lips. He is said to have a dazzling, crooked smile. His hair is an unusual bronze shade inherited by his biological mother. As a human, he had emerald green eyes; now his eyes are golden brown or topaz. But, when he has not had blood in a long time, his eyes are onyx or coal. He stands at 6' 2", has a slender yet muscular body, and is physically 17 years old.
   

   

New Ending to "The Lady Or The Tiger?" 10/7/14

"Without the slightest hesitation, he went to the door on the right, and opened it."

   The arena went silent with anticipation. He had put all of his trust in the princess. Now was the time to see if the she lied to him. He had not the slightest idea what awaited him. With a quick inhale, he placed a firm grip on the handle of the door and gave it a hard pull. As light floods the space revealed, a growl is heard as well as gasps from the onlooking audience.

     His own breath is still being held in his lungs despite their silent cries for release and a new supply of oxygen. The tiger creeps out of it's confinement, eyes set on his meal. A small low exhale is barley heard as he can not hold his breath any longer. He backs away slowly, though it's more instinct as he knows there is no possibility of saving himself.

The princess still keeps her face expressionless; she is determined to let not even a small grimace take upon her features. She will not amuse her father with letting him see that he has reached his goal. Though he knows he has, her decision never wavers. She attempts to occupy her mind with this but her thoughts of her decision make it difficult to.

She had stayed up all night deciding which door she should tell her lover to open. She decided on the door of the tiger because she would be very jealous if the man she loved married the woman she despised. But, even as she sat in her spot looking down at him, her heart begged at her to reconsider. But, it was too late. She watched as her lover got mauled by a blur of orange and black and he screamed in agony.

Half of her was enjoying this; her semi - barbaric side! Then, on her other side she is very miserable. She suddenly realized that she has turned into a sobbing mess, her tears fogging up her vision, as she wipes them away trying to silence her cries. She has killed him! she thinks, with her choice. It is she who has done the deed.

The arena starts to empty, the people going back to their daily duties, the tiger back in the cage on a full stomach, and the king back to his throne to have his own meal. The princess stays a while longer, before painstakingly realizing that it is over.

1st Quarter Reflection 9/30/14

     This quarter, I have learned a lot of thing in Mrs. Larson's Lit/La class. I have learned about how to annotate, write proper paragraphs, new vocabulary, and a lot more. Now that it's the end of first quarter, things like these are easier for me. One thing that we did in class every week is vocabulary and root words. I learned a lot of new words from practicing them each week. I even saw a lot of these in the book I last read; Twilight.

    I read Twilight for my 40 book challenge. This is another thing we are doing. So far, I'm on my seventh book. This challenge is very good to help learn new things and vocabulary. I like this because we learn about totally different topics because we have to read a certain number of different genres; instead of reading our favorite genre the whole time. That way, we wouldn't learn that many new things.

     Another thing I learned was how to write a proper paragraph and use correct punctuation. There are some things that I had to learn again because I forget things. For example, I learned that I had to indent each paragraph. I forgot how to do that over the summer. Another thing that I remembered is how to use the semicolon again. I also know synonyms to a lot of words now. When I am writing something and the words are to easy, I have to use the thesaurus.

     Lastly, I learned how to do research on certain topics. We did this in the Aow's. Something that I learned from this was how to look for something instead of taking it straight from an assignment. Like, instead of being told what to do in step by step directions,  you have to go out and look for your answers. So, so far, those are some things I've learned in first quarter.

New Moon 9/23/14

Direct and Indirect Characterization -

     From the book New Moon, that I am currently reading (again), there is mostly direct characterization. On page 8, it says "Of course Edward and Alice weren't really related (in Forks the story was that all the Cullen siblings were adopted by Dr. Carlisle Cullen and his wife, Esme, both plainly too young to have teenage children), but their skin was precisely the same pale shade, their eyes had the same strange golden tint, with the same deep, bruise-like shadows beneath them." This was direct characterization. It show that they were related because it was describing the similarities between them.

     The second piece of direct characterization that I found was, "Uh-oh," Jessica said apologetically as she returned the camera. "I think we used all your film." on page 64. This was direct because it said that she said it apologetically. So, this means that she was upset or sorry that she used all of the film on Bella's camera.

Lastly, on page 94, there was a part with indirect characterization. "Charlie's fist came down on the table. "That's it Bella! I'm sending you home." This was indirect because it didn't describe any of Charlie's (Bella's dad) emotions. But, readers can assume that he was most likely angry. A clue that shows that he was mad, was that it said his his fist came down on the table. Also, what he said he said it loudly, because of the exclamation point.

Twilight 9/16/14

Prompt - Draw 4 objects that represent your reading. Write a sentence for each, telling what each item says about what you've been reading.

 Pages Read - 0-416

     The book I'm currently reading is Twilight. I really love this series and I'm reading it over again. This book is about a 17 year old girl named Isabella Swan who has a normal boring life; until she moves to Forks,Washington to live with her dad Charlie (her parents are divorced). She doesn't expect anything to change in her life in the beginning of the book. But, it all changes for her when she meets Edward Cullen. She thought he and his siblings were so beautiful, she couldn’t stop staring. That’s because they were vampires; which she realized later. At first, she tries to ignore him, pretending that he is annoying, but really inside, she’s dying to get to know him. Even though Edward tells her it’s dangerous for her to be with him, she proceeds to try to talk to him at school and finds any excuse to be near him. But, overtime, their relationship strengthens and they run into a lot of danger along the way.

Picture 1: an apple

     The apple represents the forbidden fruit from the book of Genesis. It symbolizes Bella and Edward's love, which is forbidden, similar to the fruit of The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil as is implied by the quote Genesis 2:17 that is quoted at the beginning of the book, It also represents Bella's knowledge of what good and evil are, and the choice that she has in partaking of the "forbidden fruit, Edward, or choosing not to see him. Stepenie Meyer (the author) also stated this herself. 


Picture 2: worn-out shoes

These shoes represent Bella's clumsiness. In the book, she always is falling down or getting hurt. That's why Edward always feels he has to be close to her. He always is protecting her. Also, all of the vampires always choose to target Bella. For example, one in the first book was named James. The Cullens had to take her out of the state to protect her!

Picture 3 - Wonka Chocolate Bar

The chocolate bar represents how much Edward can't resist Bella. Just like the Wonka bar was irresistible, he couldn't resist the smell of human blood. He was the most attracted to Bella because he said she had a special scent that he couldn't resist. He also found it unusual how Bella's mind was the only one he couldn't read. So, Bella was different, so he was attracted to her.


Picture 4 - a red truck

The red truck represents this book a lot. First of all, when Bela arrives to Forks, Charlie (her dad) gives her this truck as a gift. He bought it off of Jacob's (childhood friend) dad. Next, this was in the part when Bella almost got run over by a car but Edward pushed her away. Lastly, when Bella and Edward weren't as close to each other yet, they would always fight about who would drive whose car. It was mentioned at least three times.

Banned Books Week Vlog 9/9/14

The Goosebumps Series

Book List Challenge 9/2/14

1. Wonder by R.J Palacio

I read this book very recently this year. This book taught me one thing; and that is to never judge someone by how they look. In the book, it stated that everybody judged this one boy just because he had special needs and they thought he looked different. I know that he felt really bad because almost the whole school was against him. From reading this, I learned not to judge a book (or a person) by the cover.





    2. The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein

When I read this book, I was probably still in elementary school. But, I still remember what the moral was. What I learned from this book is that you only appreciate what you had when you don't have it anymore. *SPOILER ALERT*A boy had an apple tree and he would always climb it. As he got older, he didn't appreciate it and he used it for other things. This book was very sad because the boy didn't realize it until he was a lot older.

 3. Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk Middle School by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Madeline Clapps, Valerie Howlett.

This book has many life lessons in it. It teaches kids about friendship, love, respect, and more. I think this book is important for everyone to read because it has stories everyone should hear about. It is also very interesting. So, this book taught me a lot of different life lessons.                                                                                                                                             

 4. Divergent by Veronica Roth

From reading Divergent, I know that the lesson is that everyone has a different side to them. People aren't going to make the same kind of decision when they are faced with a different situation. They are usually going to come up with an answer to a problem differently then what they would usually do when they are in danger.



5. The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

*SPOILER ALERT* This book's lesson is that if you fight with someone because of your problems, they are going to fight back. In this point, it was Katniss and the government. Killing President Snow wasn't going to solve all her problems. If she wanted to help the children from the districts, she could help with building schools, hospitals, and houses. So, that's what impacted me from these books.


6. Helen Keller by Stewart and Polly Anne Graff

Helen Keller (the book) has many life lessons/morals. One is that you should focus on the positive side of things. Another thing is that you should have a vision of what you want to do with your life. Even though Helen was blind and deaf, didn't mean she couldn't learn to do things like everyone else. She  said that nothing is impossible. This is what I discovered from reading this book.





7. Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O' Dell

When I read this book, I was in 5th grade, so I still remember most of the lesson. This book was important to me when I read it because the lesson taught that sometimes, you have to figure things out on your own. Karana learned overtime how to work independently. Also, she got better at a lot of different skills; like hunting for example.


8. Oh The Places You'll Go! by Dr. Suess

This book, I read many times. I really enjoy these short books and each one has a lesson in it. This one influenced me because it teaches, if you are having a difficulty in your life, for example; loneliness or fear, you are able to take it on with a straight face and get over it easily. It basically shows that people can face their fears or something hard in their life with a positive attitude.




9. Matilda by Roald Dahl

I read this book and watched the movie and I saw that it was about how Matilda felt alone because her parents mistreated or neglected her. Until she met Mrs. Honey, her teacher. I think that Matilda the book teaches people that read it that even if things get bad, life all sort itself out. This book educates people on how to be independent.




10. The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer

This was always my all - time favorite book and movie series. I've read it over and over and I know that in this book, Bella has a lot of bad luck. She is always getting hurt while making bad decisions. This book series lets people know that not everything is always going to be perfect.

About the Author 8/26/14

My name is Giovanna Garza and I am 12 years old. I'm in 7th grade and my favorite subject is reading. I like to read fantasy and science fiction. For example, some of my top books that I've read are, The Twilight Series, The Hunger Games Series, and The Divergent Series. Some of my favorite movies are the same as my favorite book series because they are both books and movies. 

I want to read The Vampire Diaries Series and The Pretty Little Liars Series. I actually just found out that they have book series. I found out because I watch both of the shows on Netflix. That's one thing I like to do in my free time. I like to watch Netflix and watch Youtube videos. 

Some of my favorite youtubers are Lily (Superwoman), Coleen (mirandasings), and more. I also like to go on Instagram. When I go somewhere or eat something cool, I have to take a picture of it and post the picture. Another thing I like to do is bake and cook. I am very good at doing both because when I was little, my mom taught me a lot about cooking and we used to bake a lot.

I also like to shop a lot. I prefer going to the mall then separate stores because that way, I could stay in the same place at once. I've been to a lot of different malls. My favorite mall that I've been to is Mall of America in Missouri.  Some of my favorite stores are Forever 21, Hollister, Wet Seal, Charlotte Russe, Pink, and Journeys. 

When I am bored, I like to listen to music. I actually listen to music everyday. I like a lot of different genres. Some songs I love are ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ by The Arctic Monkeys, ‘All About That Bass’ by Meghan Trainor, and ‘Eyes On Fire’ by The Blue Foundation. I listen to these on my spotify account. 

I have over 100 songs on my spotify! I always make sure to have my earbuds when I go somewhere because if I don’t have them, I cant’t listen to music. I especially need them on road trips! 

My favorite places to eat are Panera, Bakers’s Square, The Cheese Factory, Taco Bell, and Starbucks. The best thing I’ve had in Panera is a chipotle sandwich and an iced coffee; that is my top thing I pick when I go there. Baker’s Square is known for their pies, but, I always order only the food there because I don’t really like pie. But, I love their tomato soup. I love everything at The Cheesecake Factory because there food is really good and cheesecake is my favorite dessert.

My favorite fast food is hard shell tacos so I love going to Taco Bell. Lastly, Starbucks is my favorite place to get coffee/drinks. I can’t wait for the fall Drinks! 

Some interesting facts about me are that I have 1 sister that is 15 and a mixed breed named Daisy. My favorite color is pink. I love to have pink and white things in my room; for example, flowers. My four favorite brands are Ugg, North Face, Chanel, and Moschino. One thing that I want to buy is a teddy bear Moschino phone case. That’s a little bit about me.