Spoon River

http://animoto.com/play/WQGbibTDghnbcVfGOvvqkw#



http://animoto.com/play/tFMG2w7id0EOWoZuEfvr7w

last blog!

Well it seems like just yesterday that I was starting blogs in Mrs. Hayes English 3 class. Now this is my last post. Where has the time gone? Junior year went by pretty fast, and I actually enjoyed English this year. Blogging made it so much easier to keep up with unlike the traditional five paragraph essays which everyone hates. We had more freedom with everything that we wrote about, which I liked. I could actually use humor on here which I couldn't do in an essay or research paper. They also weren't strict, we could just make stuff up connect it to our book and we had a post.

Fremdenging was also a new experience. It was cool how we got to interact with other students in a different school. We got their input on our blogs and we got to see and comment on their blogs as well. I think blogging and fremdenging also helped our technology skills. I learned how to make animotos and word mosaics and all sorts of other things so I could add them to my blog. Overall, I liked the new experience of blogging and getting away from the boring old english papers. It was fun and creative. I only hope that next year in my English 4 class we will do something fun instead of papers... haha. For now, I'm done with blogging and I have SUMMER 2012 to look forward to! (:

Thanks for reading my blogs this year!
So tell me... How did I do my first year of blogging?

Custody battles

In my book What Happened to Goodbye By Sarah Dessen, the main character, Mclean's parents are divorced. They went through a bad split where her mom left her dad for the coach of the Defriese basketball team, which happened to be their favorite team. Mclean resents her mom after leaving her dad, so she chooses to stay with her him after the split. When her mom remarries and has two more kids, Mclean pretty much wants nothing to do with her. Her mom always tries to get her to come spend time with her, but she always refuses. At one point in the book her mom is trying so hard to get her to see her that she wants to take her father to court. Mclean doesn't want to deal with court cases so she agrees to certain times she'll go visit her mom.







In my opinion, it's Mclean's choice whether she wants to see her mom or not. I know it's just a book but her mom can't force her to come see her. If she doesn't want to she shouldn't have to. In most cases, divorced parents sometimes take each other to court and fight for custody of their children. But why don't the kids ever get any say on who they want to live with? Thats why in the book Mclean's mom bothers me, she doesn't realize that Mclean just doesn't want to live with her and she wants to live with her dad. My parents got divorced when I was little, no custody battles happened, my sister and I just chose to live with my mom and went to visit my dad whenever we wanted to.

What do you think? Do you think kids should have the right to choose which parent they want to live with without any of the court drama?

http://animoto.com/play/Q09qBWfTunfJ1zWnvPe0TA

i found bubble wrap.. I am a happy girl. (:

This is the cover of my book, looking at it for the first time I wasn't quite sure what the book was about. It didn't quite go along with the title. Soon into the book though you realize what the cover means.





Mclean's mom and dad are divorced.




Her mom then marries the coach of their favorite basketball team.





Then her mom had twins.




After the divorce, Mclean stayed with her dad because she was angry with her mother for what she did to him. Her mother tries reaching out to her throughout the entire book but Mclean tries her hardest to push her away. She didn't really want anything to do with her.





Moving around so much, Mclean never got to really get to know people. Each place she moved she made a new name for herself and had a totally new personality from the last place. The place shes in in the book, Lakeview is the only place she's used her real name.




When Mclean first gets to their new house there was a boy in their backyard, and when he saw her he smiled at her and ran across the street. She later went to a party next door and when the cops came, she ran and got pulled down under a house by someone to avoid getting caught drinking. It was the same guy who turned out to be her neighbor, Dave. They become really close in the book, and you can see that they have feelings for each other.






Her father is the head of a restaurant called Luna Blu. He comes in and makes a lot of changes to the restaurant that upset a lot of the workers. The biggest change is taking away their famous rolls and replacing them with fried pickles. They turn out to be a big hit with all the customers, and after the big ordeal Mclean reveals to one of the workers that her dad doesn't even like pickles.

saran wrap. you salty? but it's actually a link up

http://sarahdessen.com/

This link is to Sarah Dessen's page. She is the author of my book, and also one of my favorite authors. This page shows all of her books and her bio. By knowing the author, this link could help the reader better understand the book.

http://sarahdessen.com/book/what-happened-to-goodbye/

This is another link to Sarah Dessen's page. This one is her words about What Happened to Goodbye. This link could help the reader get to know the book more before they actually read it.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8492856-what-happened-to-goodbye

This is a link to a page that has book reviews. This book review is on my book What Happened to Goodbye. Reading other readers reviews on the book could help you understand the book. It could also help you decide if you want to read the book or not.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/fried-dill-pickles/

I know what it looks like.. a random link to a recipe to fried pickles. Well it is. In my book, the main character's dad owns a restaurant and when he gets there he changes the main appetizer to fried pickles. When I read about the friend pickles it made me want some, so if it's the same way for you, you can go to this page and learn how to make them!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basketball

This is a link to a page that explains the game of basketball. In the book,  Mclean and her dad used to love the Defriese basketball team. That is until her mom left her dad for the coach of the team. This link could help the reader just get a better understanding of the game so they can understand some of the things that Mclean and her dad talk about. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_service

This link is to a page that explains community service. It lists the different reasons for people to do community service as well.In the book, Mclean's neighbor, Dave, got caught underage drinking so he had to take part in a community service project. Understanding what community service is could help the reader understand why Dave is participating in it.






Have you ever read this book?
Are there any other things I should have linked about?

4th quarter! so close to summer...

So this quarter I chose a book by Sarah Dessen called What Happened to Goodbye. This book is actually kind of long.. well at least to me. I chose this book for two reasons. One, Sarah Dessen is my favorite author. Two, there were no other books on the Read for a Lifetime list that fit my preferences. I'm too picky. Anyway I'm only about 15 pages into the book so far. It's any easy read but probably one of those books that only a girl would want to read. A guy could read it.. but they would just complain about it most likely. Even thought I'm not that far into it yet, I already know I'll like it. Every book of Sarah Dessen's that I have read I have liked. So i have no doubts about this one. So if you like Sarah Dessen and you want to read this, the book looks like that. (: >>

So from what I have read so far, the main character in this book is a girl named Mclean. She lives with her dad and they just recently moved to a new town. Her mom and dad are divorced because her mom fell in love with the coach of their favorite basketball team and married him. Mclean stayed with her dad because she felt as betrayed as he did. Her and her dad move around a lot and each new place she moves, she creates a different personality. She switches her name around and acts like a totally different person. When they move to the newest town she decides to just be herself and use her real name. The problem is, she doesn't quite know who the real Mclean is until...(wait for it...) she meets a boy. Shocking right?

Has anyone else read this book?
What did you think about it?
Have you read any other Sarah Dessen books?
Which one was your favorite?

Last blog of the quarter!

So this will be my last blog post about my 3rd quarter book The Sky is Everywhere. This book had a lot going on in it. The way it opened up was just kind of in your face, where Bailey's mother had left her and her sister was dead. I would expect that to come a little more into the book not right on the first page. I chose to read this book because some of my friends had read it and they said they really enjoyed it. To me the book was kind of disappointing. I guess I just couldn't really get into it like my friends had.

In all honestly, I just didn't like my book this quarter. It wasn't that it was a bad book. It just wasn't my taste. There were things in the book that bothered me. One example being Bailey had a "thing" with her dead sister's boyfriend. I might be going too far on that considering it's only a book, but that was just something that popped out for me and I didn't like it. I'm supposed to keep this blog positive, so I will end it with saying, it is a well written book, just not a book for me. Depending on what you enjoy, you should read this book and see if you like it!

Have you read this book before?
Do you completely disagree with me?

animoto... (i have no creative titles for today ): )

http://animoto.com/play/6QVWu0BAfF1hwXSg1YlhNA

So here is my animoto for my 3rd quarter book., The Sky is Everywhere. There's not very much information I can put about the book in there because there is a time limit. (boo!) But this short little video pretty much sums up the main points of the book. Hope you enjoy!

links are cool...

http://danahierholzer.hubpages.com/hub/Coping-with-the-Grief-of-Losing-a-Sibling

This is a link to a page about coping with the loss of a sibling. In the book Lennie, loses her sister Bailey. Looking at this page could give you insight on what Lennie is going through.

http://www.jandynelson.com/
The author of my book is Jandy Nelson. This link is to her website that includes her biography and about the books she's written. Looking at her website could help you understand her writing and understand her book even more.

http://www.steadyhealth.com/Mothers_who_leave_their_children_t105138.html

In my book, the main character Lennie's mother left her when she was a baby. This link is to a comment page on people who give each other advice on what they should do without their mother. Reading these comments could help the readers better understand on what Lennie is going through without her mother.

http://www.poetry.com/

Lennie was always writing poems on random things in the book. This is a link to a page with all sorts of poems where you can also enter your own. Reading the different poetry could help you understand why Lennie wrote all these poems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_triangle

In the book Lennie is involved in a somewhat weird love triangle with her dead sister's boyfriend Toby, and the new guy at school Joe. It can get pretty confusing for Lennie throughout the book. This link is to a page that explains what a love triangle is so you can see what Lennie is dealing with.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6604794-the-sky-is-everywhere

This link is to a review page of my book. It has a review and comments from other readers on their opinions of the book. The review can give you a feel on what the book will be about so you can see if you're interested in it before you read it.

http://www.musicarts.com/Clarinets-Woodwinds.mac

Lennie plays the clarinet and she is very fond if it. This is a link to a page all about clarinets. Looking at this can help you better understand what it's like for Lennie to play one and how it helps her get away from everything.

How do you think I did on this blog?
Did anyone else read this book that has any suggestions for more links I could add?
Comments would be appreciated!

another sparknotes blog.. exciting isn't it?

Sparknotes, googling book summaries.. we all do it. It's okay, you don't have to lie about it. It may be the easiest solution if you don't understand a book and you need someone to dumb it down for you. You don't catch every single detail of the book, but you get the main ideas which is needed for the quizzes and tests the teachers give. (Yes i said it, you know you were thinking it). Teachers hate it, students love it. But in the students defense, I've seen some teachers use it as well. Everyone is guilty.

http://www.basicallyamazingashley.com/2011/11/review-sky-is-everywhere-by-jandy.html

That right there is a link to a blog someone posted. It just happens to be a blog about the summary of the book I happen to be reading. I didn't read it of course. I don't want to spoil it for myself. I am actually reading my book, well trying at least. My book seems to have a lot of emotion. All of which I would miss out on if all I did was read the summary of it. So as hard as it seems to all readers, you should actually read your book and not use sparknotes. (Except on A Tale of Two Cities.. that book confused me..)

Be honest, have you ever used sparknotes or any other summaries of books so you didn't have to read them?

Do you think you missed out on the main points of the book?

blog block blog... say that 5 times fast.

Second blog of the quarter, and I already have blog block. This is going to be a long quarter. To be completely honest I still haven't gotten that far in my book. This is probably the main reason for my bloggers block. I don't know much that has happened in my book so I have no idea what to blog about! My book is starting out slow and not much has really happened so far. Because of this, here I am blogging, about blog block, as I have blog block. Are you as confused as I am?

http://www.lifeclever.com/10-tips-for-beating-bloggers-block/

Each of our blogs are required to have media, so ^ there's mine! My media is a link to a page about blog block. It has 10 tips for beating the block. The so called definition of bloggers block is when a blogger doesn't have any idea what to write about. Once it strikes you're just sitting there staring at the computer screen, trying to come up with ideas in your head of what to type. It can happen to even the best bloggers, just as writers block happens to even the best writers. So my link to the page about the 10 tips can really help a blogger in need, and prevent you from committing blogicide. (< new term? I think so!)

Have you even had block block?
What did you do about it?
Do you have any advice for the bloggers who experience blog block?
Comments greatly appreciated! 

I'm blogging while it's snowing? what?

New year, new quarter, new book. Whoo! For the 3rd quarter blog, I chose the book The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson. I chose this book because one of my friends said it was good and I figured I would give it a try. This quarter our blogs have more freedom so I have to be more creative. Not to be negative or anything, but I am not a creative person whatsoever. I actually liked the semi-structured blogs better like the ones we did last quarter.When I try and be creative it will usually be me attempting to be funny but it's only funny to be and everyone else will think I'm weird. I want a good grade though.. so here is goes!

  I haven't gotten very far in this book yet, only to about page 30. Surprisingly, it's pretty good so far. I can already tell what the storyline is going to be like (and no I didn't just read the back of the book to see this). The main character is a seventeen year old girl named Lennie. In the beginning of the book, it announces that her older sister Bailey had just died for weeks earlier. So in the first couple sentences you're already wondering how it happened. She also hasn't had contact with her mother for sixteen years. She returns to school after a month of absence due to her sister's death. When she comes back there is a new boy. I have yet to find out what happens next. Hopefully this book stays as interesting as it has first started out.

Has anyone else read this book?
What did you think of it?
Did you like it?
Feel free to comment and give me your opinions!