Summer Assignment: Entry Four

One reason I choose Looking for Alaska is because I was familiar with the author. As many of you may know John Green also wrote The Fault in Our Stars. I did not read that book but almost all of my friends have and they all loved it. I don't recall hearing a single bad thing about that book so I assumed John Green was a phenomenal writer. In my opinion I was correct. The way he described simple objects was incredible. Not only did his descriptions paint a picture but they seemed real. The emotions he evoked from the characters were so realistic the reader couldn't help to feel along with them. Also a boy from my church was telling me about his favorite book and it was Looking for Alaska. He told me how he loved it, even though John Greens writing style has a reputation of being a little more romantic this book surpassed the expectation of a soppy love story. There were so connections I had with this book. Almost all the characters are teenagers. Teenagers that go to school, have friends, have kids that are not friends, and have real life problems so relating to this book was easy, which I kept me reading. I would recommend this book to just about anyone. John Green perfectly balances comedy, mystery, romance, sadness, action, and excitement. There wasn't a single dull page in this book. I highly recommend it!

Summer Assignment: Entry Three

"I stood up and ran outside. I made it to a trash can outside the gym, five feet from the double doors, and heaved toward Gatorade bottles and half-eaten McDonald's. But nothing much came out. I just heaved, my stomach muscles tightening and my throat opening and a gasping, guttural blech, going through the motions of vomiting over and over again. In between gags and coughs, I sucked air in hard. Her mouth. Her dead, cold mouth. To no be continued." (Green 140). In this section Miles is in shocked about the news he just heard. This passage propels the book into it's second half. It is difficult to fully analyze this section without giving away one of the biggest secrets and excitements of the book. I chose this section because it is one of the many cliff hangers the author leaves you with, practically forcing you to turn the page. This is a book packed with action, mystery, comedy, and romance. I don't remember reading a part of this book feeling bored. John Green does an excellent job giving the characters personality. To me it really felt like I was there at Culver Creek experiencing the same things as Chip, Miles, Alaska, Lara, and Takumi.

Summer Assignment: Entry Two

In Looking for Alaska the character Alaska Young desired mostly to be happy and care free. Alaska tried to achieve this by getting wasted and pulling pranks. When drinking could not solve her problems Alaska took drastic actions which altered every character in the second half of the book. Her best friend Miles wanted to seek a "great perhaps' and make new memories and experiences. Chip's desire was to keep his girlfriend happy even they had a horrible relationship, keep Alaska safe, and pull pranks. a theme from my book is live what you have to the best. This is because most of the characters have gotten a rough life and situations in life. They spend most of their free time complaining about it and grieving instead of learning from it and moving on. Finally toward the end of the book Miles came to the realization that you can't control what you get in life. However you can control how you deal with it and how your let it shape you into what you can become.

Summer Assignment: Entry One

I started reading "Looking for Alaska" by John Green. It is about a rising junior, Miles who is transferring from an ordinary public school in Florida to a nitty gritty boarding school in Alabama. After arriving at Culver Creek Preparatory High School he learns that there are two social groups. The Weekend Warriors who are the rich kids that pull pranks on all the other students at school. Kevin who is the leader of the Weekend Warriors is at the least to say, a bully. He and his gang of stuck-up kids go along with almost everything he says. Then there are the ordinary kids that pull pranks on the Weekend Warriors. Miles soon realizes that in order to survive at this school you have to be tough. His roommate Chip, a tough, smoking, drinking, goes-with-whatever kind of guy explains one simple rule to Miles. Do not rat anyone out. After Chip, who prefers to be called "The Colonel",  gives his intense  lecture to Miles they walk over to another dorm. There we meet Alaska. She captivates Miles' attention in a minute with her beauty but we soon notice her moody, clever, wild, and unpredictable personality. A couple days later Takumi is introduced. Like all the other characters he is very intelligent however he is very nosey. Last summer two students were caught breaking three of the school's biggest rules by "The Eagle" who is the dean of the students. They were expelled and all the students are curious to find out who ratted them out. This starts the book's conflict because the Weekend Warriors accused Chip for ratting them out and then for punishment they wrap Miles up in duct-tape and threw him in the lake. This starts the never ending suspicions, accusations, and pranks. I predict that the pranks will get so out of control someone else will get suspended. So far this book reminds me of "The Outsiders" just because of the two totally different social groups. The Socs are like the Weekend Warriors and the Greasers are like the other students.

Final Reflection

Emmaline Russell
For my final reflection I decided to use my Blizzard Bag blog. In this post I feel that I used exemplary voice. One example is, "If I am reading something (that in my opinon) is boring, it can be torturous." This shows my personality simply becasue it is my opinon. The format of this sentence is not commonly written. More examples of voice in my post is "If a book is too ordinary I ussually toss it." and,"Even though I am very busy I always enjoy kicking back and reading a good book." Too me this is all my voice. It shows my personality because it sounds like something that would naturally come out of my mouth. I'm not trying to sound sophisticated. I'm not trying to impersonate anyone. I'm just writing down my thoughts and opinions.

I decided to use mostly informal diction. That way I could expand my audience because it would be highly comprehendible. However I din't strain away from my love of using a high vocabulary. I included formal diction by using words such as "conventions", "torturous"and, "despise". My sentence structure is all over the place. None of it is consistent. I don't think I have a punctation trade mark either. I would say that most of my diction is abstract. I include lots of characteristics like, "complex", "prejudging", "admire", "despise" and, "controlling".  However I also use concrete words such as, 'book", "title", "lacrosse", "school work", "bean bag" and, "chapter". Overall I think I included a lot of different techniques in my blog post.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Blizzard Blog

I really like independent reading. I just finished reading A Walk to Remember and I'm about to start reading Divergent. I like independent reading because you get to experience new things while staying cozy on your bean bag. I get to go to futuristic societies and learn their conventions. I get to watch the sappy love novels of Nicholas Sparks unfold in my lap. I can go anywhere anytime and learn anything. My imagination is able to make me a movie, a new scene every chapter. Most of all I can escape from everyday life. Trade out all the school work, lacrosse, and occasional drama for adventures. My vocabulary expands with every page. Don't get me wrong, I really only enjoy reading if I like the book. If I am reading something that (in my opinion) is boring, it can be torturous. I usually don't end up reading the entire book, just snippets and sections that hold my attention and then I skip to the last 50 pages. If a book is too ordinary I usually toss it. A book can't be something I would be able to experience everyday.

To me a good book has to have one of the following; take place in the past or future, action... lots of action, at least one extreme point of view, a controlling force, a complex protagonist with layers that the reader rips off, the characters can't ask too many questions that is just annoying, the plot actually has to be substantial, If the plot isn't substantial then the characters need to make up for it, a character that I admire in someway, a character that I absolutely despise, a tiny hint of romance, MYSTERY, history, and lastly I have to relate in somehow. A bad habit I have is prejudging a book. I know probably one of the worst thing you could do as a reader but it is easy to. Titles, cover pages, even the first couple of lines can ruin a book for me. However without reading my life would be very boring. Even though I am very busy I always enjoy kicking back and reading a good book.

Blizzard Blog

I really like independent reading. I just finished reading A Walk to Remember  and I'm about to start reading Divergent. I like independent reading because you get to experience new things while staying cozy on your bean bag. I get to go to futuristic societies and learn their conventions. I get to watch the sappy love novels of Nicholas Sparks unfold in my lap. I can go anywhere anytime and learn anything. My imagination is able to make me a movie, a new scene every chapter. Most of all I can escape from everyday life. Trade out all the school work, lacrosse, and occasional drama for adventures. My vocabulary expands with every page. Don't get me wrong, I really only enjoy reading if I like the book. If I am reading something that (in my opinion) is boring, it can be torturous. I usually don't end up reading the entire book, just snippets and sections that hold my attention and then I skip to the last 50 pages. If a book is too ordinary I usually toss it. A book can't be something I would be able to experience everyday.

To me a good book has to have one of the following; take place in the past or future, acton... lots of action, at least one extreme point of view, a controlling force, a complex protagonist with layers that the reader rips off, the characters can't ask too many questions that is just annoying, the plot actually has to be substantial, If the plot isn't substantial then the characters need to make up for it, a character that I admire in someway, a character that I absolutely despise, a tiny hint of romance, MYSTERY, history, and lastly I have to relate in somehow. A bad habit I have is prejudging a book. I know probably one of the worst thing you could do as a reader but it is easy to. Titles, cover pages, even the first couple of lines can ruin a book for me. However without reading my life would be very boring. Even though I am very busy I always enjoy kicking back and enjoying a good book.

Letter to the Author

Nicholas Sparks,

I have just finished reading your book, A Walk to Remember and I really enjoyed reading it. The whole book was very dicriptive and every page came with a new picture in my mind. Also it was full of cliff hangers. At the end of chapter 11 the very last line was " 'I'm dying, Landon.' " It was impossible to put down after that. Although the ending wasn't exactly your fary tail ending you would expect, it was subsatntial and did not leave me wishing for a better conclusion. One of my favorite examples of diction is on page 217 "The sun continued to lower itself, casting its glow as far as the eye could see, before finally, slowly, vanishing beneath the waves. The moon continued its slow drift upward, shimmering as it turned a thousand shades of yellow, each paler than the last, before finally becoming the color of the stars" (Sparks 217). To me this image is vividly painted and even better this kind of diction is throughout the whole book. The only thing I disliked is how sappy this book is. I know I should expect that, it is a romance novel. However I felt like some of it could have been left out. Over all this book was amazing, I will defiantly read another book by you. Thank you for all of your great book!

                                                                                                     Sincerely,
                                                                                                       Emmaline Russell

Character Development: A Walk to Remember

I am nearing the end of my book which is actually upsetting because i really liked it. However for the character Jamie, and unexpected turn happened in her life last summer that the reader is just now finding out about. I can't give too much information away without ruining the book but this plot twist has made this book hard to put down.Over the course of the book the main character Landon Carter has made some biggest character changes. At first he was a jerk. All he cared about was what people thought of him and trying to be cool. Now at the end he is a much bigger person. Eventually he asks Jamie out but it took him awhile to get over himself. Also he used to be embarrassed to be seen with her which is very shallow in my opinion. Now he could care less about what people think about him. He is OBSESSED with Jamie, he told her that he loved her and will do anything for her. He lost a lot of his friends because to them he changed for the worst. Now Jamie has revealed her well kept secret to Landon and it has totally affected him. However this has made him more understanding and patient in my opinion but you can also tell that he is scared for Jamie. He is trying to find a way to fix things which shows how much more determined he has become but he doesn't understand... Some things just can't be fixed.