DG and DP

-->

        In the inspiring book, Drums Girls and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick, a thirteen-year-old boy named Steven Alper sacrifices many things for his little brother with Leukemia. Steven was an average eighth grader with a normal little brother named Jeffery. But one day, Jeffrey fell off of a chair and started gushing blood, and they knew something was wrong. At the end of that day, Steven found out that his baby brother had cancer and his life took a big turn. To live with a family member with cancer, Steven had to change in a lot of ways, mature a lot, and give up a lot of things. He refused drum lessons when they got too expensive for his family. He didn't let the girl he really liked into his house because she had a cold at the time and would make Jeffrey sick because of his weak immune system. Most of all, he missed his big concert to go on an unexpected trip to the hospital with Jeffrey.

        In Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie, Steven refused drum lessons when the expenses were too much for his family. Steven's family was having a money shortage due to Jeffery's cancer treatments. Cancer treatments are not cheap, and can cost thousands of dollars, that the family didn't have. Steven thought that he could take his councilor’s advice, to change what he can change and not worry about the things that he can't, and apply that to his problem, and he could save his family a little extra money by not taking drum lessons, and therefore, help them pay for his little brother's treatment that he needed so desperately. Drum lessons cost $20 a lesson, and Steven went up to his drum teacher and quit. Luckily, his drum teacher already knew his situation and was willing to give Steven drum lessons for free. Even so, I don't think Steven would have even thought about giving up before Jeffrey got cancer. The drums were one of the many things Steven was willing to give up for his brother.

        Steven Alper had a very big crush on a girl named Renee Albert until the end of Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie. When Steven asked her to help tutor him at his house he was beyond excited. Unfortunately when Renee walked in, he realized that she had a cold, and that she couldn't come in because of Jeffrey’s weak immune system. So he couldn't let her in at all. If you need to get a better picture of this situation, the boy had a crush on this girl since the third grade! So you can safely say that it took a much more mature Steven to give up the chance to turn down the prettiest girl in the eighth grade, and to give up the chance to be tutored by her.

         Finally, Steven had a big concert that he had been looking forward to and practicing for all year, but something unfortunate happened; Steven noticed Jeffrey throwing up in the trashcan, and felt his head. He had a temperature. They had to rush him to the hospital, because a fever could endanger a child's life if he has cancer. Not always, but a lot of the time. Right after Steven's best friend comes up to him that the concert he just found out he had to leave, already raised a lot of money. See, the concert was a benefit for Steven's little brother to help the family pay for all of the medical expenses. Steven was faced with the decision to stay and look like a jerk, or go with his brother, misses his big concert, but look like a hero. He picked the latter, but I am not so sure he would have gone with Jeffrey so fast at the beginning of the book.  Giving up his concert for his brother was the biggest sign of Steven’s maturity in Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie.

        Lastly, that is why Steven changed and matured so much between the beginning and the end of Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick. He refused people, and important events in his life for Jeffrey's well being, and gave up things that were very important to him, like his big concert and the drums. But all in all, Steven went from being pretty selfish, toa not only mature, but to being a much better brother.

       

Fallout blog post

          I started to read Fallout a couple weeks after I read the prequel to it, Glass. Unlike Glass, Fallout is not from Kristina's point of view, its from three of her kids'. Summer, Hunter, and Autumn.  The chapters are still in verse, but they alternate from different character's point of view. First it will be Hunter, then it will be Summer, and so on, but it has an order. They all live in different places, but they all have one thing in common; they all were rejected by their mother, Kristina Snow. They also share different fathers. Hunter's father is Brendan the rapist, Summer's father is Trey, and Autumn's father is a druggie named Ron. Hunter lives with his grandmother, who is now his legal mother. Summer lives with her aunt and her grandfather, and Autumn lives with Ron, after leaving a foster home. Besides the living situation, it seems that all of the siblings are in love. Well, maybe not Hunter who has cheated on his girlfriend at least twice, but at least he says he loves his girlfriend Nikki. Besides that, it seems that the girls are loosing their virginity to these guys they've only dated for about a month. Maybe a little more. Maybe.  Keep in mind one of them is only 15. What has this world come to?
          
           Besides what you might think, these children have not tried crystal meth yet, even though they were kind of set up for failure with their parents being dealers and users. No, but they have been offered, and tempted. They have all said no, but hunter does pot, and sometimes takes random drugs that his friend get from pharmacies or elsewhere. Besides, Hunter is in college, and the girls are not of age yet, so legally, they can't even smoke. Not that that ever stopped anyone in their family. I have yet to read the rest of the book, but I am at the end of it. I wonder what the end will bring. I am guessing that they will all meet each other or at least I hope. For Pete's sake, one of the sisters didn't even know that her other sister existed! I also think that at least one of them will try meth. I know I don't exactly look on the bright side, but sometimes you have to look on the realistic side. I also hope that they will make a movie out of these books. If done well, they could be excellent. 

           All in all, that's what I think will happen in the rest of Fallout, and all of the reasons that Autumn, Summer, and Hunter's lives are truly messed up.  

           

Ellen Hopkins blog post

              I got the idea of doing a blog post about the author instead of the book for a change from Aleyna, as she did a blog post about the author of the book she was reading instead of her actual book. So, I decided, because my book is so intense, I should research the author, so here she is, in all of her glory, Ellen Hopkins. Ellen Hopkins actually started writing non-fiction novels before she wrote books in verse. She has more books besides the crank series, which includes Glass, Crank and Fallout. She also has the Triangle novels, the Impulse novels, the Burned novels, and other one word titled novels. ellen Hopkins didn't exactly have a dandy life while she was married and with children. She dropped out of college and had two kids, then got divorced. Then she got rid of her business and had a baby with an abusive man, who kidnapped the baby for three years until the man's grandmother found Kelly, the baby. She is now married to John Hopkins, and they adopted Crystal's(their daughter) son, Orion. In the end of glass and Crank it states that Kristina's mother was the official mother of the little boy when he was three or four.

            I saw a picture of Ellen Hopkins, and it wasn't what I expected. She is bottle blonde, and older. I guess I was expecting someone younger. But don't judge a book by it's cover. Even though she dropped out of college, Ellen Hopkins is a very good poet.She published her first poem when she was nine, in a magazine. Ellen Hopkins was adopted, and she didn't know who her birth mother was until later in life, just a fact. But it makes me wonder if that was an inspiration for many of her poems. She also had a half-sister, who she hasn't met, and her dad did not want to meet her at all, or have any recollection of him being together with her biological mother. I learned this by looking at Ellen Hopkins' website and Wikepidia. I look at it and think about how much writing this woman has done. she has written at least half a dozen 3-inch thick books, and even if they are in verse, it still takes just as much thinking. Now here is some more about the Crank series related to Ellen Hopkins' life.

             If you were wondering if Crank, Glass and Fallout were real stories, well go read my last post. I told you there. If you are too lazy to do that then I will tell you; yes, it is a true story. It is rough, yes, but I am guessing from the info on her website that is is roughly similar, and that all of the basic parts of the story are there. Crystal is Kristina in her books, and Orion is Hunter. Who knows who the new baby is, if that is a true part of the story. my goal for this series is to find out more about who is who, and read the last book in the series. Well, thats all for now. Au Revoir!

Glass blog post

Lucie Pascarosa         705

This girl is screwed up. That is about all I have to say. She lied. She cheated. He did drugs. She slept around. She got raped. She got pregnant at the end of each book. That is about as low as they get. She did meth at the age of seventeen, and then was introduced to crystal meth. She continued to smoke and do meth though out her first pregnancy, and while she was nursing her son. I am not sure why I am reading this book. It makes me sad that people actually do this to themselves, and affect other people with it. Kristina Snow went on a nice visit to her father only because the court demanded she did it. He got her addicted to meth, nicotine and other drugs. This book is based loosley on a true story. It proves that there really are those types of people in the world.

           After I read glass I began to wonder why all of Ellen Hopkins' books are in verse. All of them are describe Kristina's situation through poems. Each of the chapters are different poems. They are also written differently. Not always the typical column. Sometimes
                                                                                                             they
                                                                                                                      are written like this. Or a column with missing words that are on the other side of the page. Now I finally realize why she wrote all/most of her books in verse. It is easier to describe something like drugs with poems because drugs are confusing and irrational, just like poems. I think it was actually a good choice to write it in verse because it really shows the character's inner thoughts, and feelings, and how much she doesn't care.

          All in all, this is why I think Ellen Hopkins wrote Burned, Crank, and Glass in verse because it describes it better, and shows the exact world around them in fewer words, but just as exact as a novel. That is not easy. That is why I chose to read Crank and Glass, the books about a seriously screwed up girl.

This I believe blog post

This I Believe                                 Lucie Pascarosa               705

I believe in care for animals. I believe that all animals deserve care, even if that care is leaving them in their natural habitat. I am not just talking about “no abuse” or “stop tying your dog to that pole in the basement.” I am talking about caring for your pets the right way, and remembering what they need. Food at least every day, fresh clean water, a friendly environment and most of all love from you. I am not talking about fish, who just need water and food. I mean animals like dogs, cats, horses if you have one. I personally love my animals. I have two cats and fish. My cats love me and my parents because we give them warmth, food, and a nice place to live. I wish I could adopt all of the cats and dogs on all of the “Sally needs a home” posters and on those television shows about animals being abused and need homes. I think that if you don’t care for your animal, you shouldn’t have one in the first place.

I believe in care for animals because there are so many out there that don’t have anyone to care for them. I mean abandoned kittens and cold puppies, starting to feel weepy yet? There are many rescue centers that take in lost and abused animals, but then put them down if they are not adopted quick enough. There are different dog breeds that take the most abuse. A couple common ones are pit bulls (fighting), and grey hounds (racing). Other commonly abused animals are horses (too much riding, racing  and using too much force), and livestock (pigs, cows, horses). If you ever see a dog on the street for a long period of time with a thick, short, heavy, metal chain  keeping it tied to a lamppost, and it is a pit bull, chances are, it isn’t cared for as much as it should be. I personally don’t think dogs ever have to be tied up, they don’t like it. These animals are the most commonly abused animals that you will hear of. Remember, these stories don’t always have a happy ending. The ASPCA doesn’t always find them in time, that is why they need your help.

  

Even though there is a lot of animal abuse in this world, there are ways that you can help. Many cats and dogs need homes and people who will take care of them, unlike their previous owners. They deserve people who will treat them right, and respect them. As corny as this sounds, I believe that these animals deserve a second chance. There are many places you can go to help out. Find out where your nearest animal shelter is, and ask if you can volunteer. You can adopt pets from the ASPCA near you. In New York City, we have an ASPCA, and they often have many different cats and kittens, puppies and dogs. I believe that getting your pet from a shelter is better than getting your dog or cat from a breeder, as they are not helping animals and can sometimes have birth defects. I think that even though there is abuse in this world, there are little things you can do like adopting and volunteering. Keep that in mind if you ever get a cat or dog

All in all, this is why I believe in care for animals, no abuse, and adopting instead of breeders. There are thousands of abused animals in the world and I know we can’t treat them all right now. But hopefully over time, there will be more care for animals, so that we won’t have to have to have a law telling us so. I believe in unconditional love and care for animals.

Blog about the author of Crank...

Lucie Pascarosa                       705

              I have been reading the book Crank. It is about a girl who goes off to live with her dad, who she hasn't seen in years. She goes off and well, makes about the worst mistakes of her life. She gets drunk, addicted to cigarettes, addicted to crank(is that the same thing as cocaine?), and well, ruins her life as a goody-goody. After, she comes home to her mom and sister with a tattoo, and a boyfriend(long distance). I wonder, where did the author get these ideas? Read on to find out.

            In the story they call crank "the monster." In the brief paragraph before the book starts, it says the author based this book around a true story. Not completely, but based on one; her daughters. Apparently, her daughter battled with drugs, just like Bree/Kristina in Crank. See, the character split herself into two, good girl Kristina and bad girl Bree. I wonder where the author got that idea. What happened to her daughter? Did she end up getting raped like Kristina did? Or was she able to find help sooner?  I have not finished Crank, but I am halfway through, and she is not getting any better. I think she made a huge mistake throwing her whole life away for drugs. It might get you high, but the long term affect is horrific. Look at her dad, he got divorced from his wife because he was a drunk and a drug addict, and Bree's mother got full costody because he was such an unfit father.  Doing crank and smoking with his daughter and her boyfriend isn't doing anybody any good. In fact, it is hinted in the book that Adam's (Bree's boyfriend) brother died from an overdose of drugs. Let's just say this neighborhood is not a clean, happy, friendly place. It's not Oz.

            All in all, this is what I thought about the authors choice in storyline in the book in verse, Crank. Lesson is kids, don't do drugs!   

The Help and what the heck? Part 2

Lucie Pascarosa                                               705
                                   The Help and What the Heck? Part two: I finished it!

                 I just finished the amazing book, The Help. It was an amazing book that I could never put down, even when I was doing a project, or homework. I loved it so much, that I read it between classes. Not joking. When math ended, I would pull out my book and read it until I got to science or whatever class I was going to. Not many books are that worthy. Now, you might have noticed that I am not saying what the heck and complaining about the problems in this book. Well you are impatient, and need to learn how to wait a paragraph. There were a couple things I understood, but can't believe happened. Now this post is a complete SPOILER of the end, and if you have not read the help, DO NOT READ IT OR YOU WILL BE SAD! This is what was wrong and right with The Help.

            First, I will start about the bad things about The Help. There is one character named Miss Hilly, who will do anything to get the maids, or any person of color in trouble. She sent her maid to jail for stealing a ring that she hated in the first place. She did not treat her maid very nicely in the end. When the book came about maids experiences in Mississippi, she was telling every one is Jackson that it was about that town. Until she got to the last chapter which was about her. That chapter was about when Minny, a maid worked for Miss Hilly's mother. Minny was more infuriated than ever at Minny and she made a pie for Hilly with her feces in it. Yep, Her poop. And she ate it. After she finished the book she yelled at everybody who said it was about Jackson, and got Minny fired. hilly was also friends with Aibeleen's boss. Miss. Lefolt, who read it and fired Aibeleen. That isn't even the most depressing part. Minny has five children and is pregnant again. The only reason she wants to be pregnant is because her husband won't abuse her. When he found out she had a part in writing the book, he threatened and almost licked her in the bathroom and burned the house down. So she took the kids and left. And as the book says, she and Aibeleen were free. That was the biggest "what happens next" moment for me. You don't know. But that is the best part of the book because you don't know what happens next, and it leaves you with questions. But sometimes life is like that, and you just have to deal with it. I thought it was better not knowing what happened. They were free, and anything else would have been too much.

                   All and all, that is what I think about the Help, the good and the bad. Don't think I did not enjoy every part of this book, I did. But I want to show how wrong and extreme these characters actions and words were. I want to show how big of a deal it was, to write a book about how much black people hated or loved white people or the other way around. That is why I think the Help is such a good book.

Published Revolt of the Evil faries

Revolt of the Evil Fairies           Lucie Pascarosa            705


   In Ted Poston’s Revolt of the Evil Fairies, the protagonist shows determination in the face of racism and discrimination, even when the odds are against him. He is a black boy living in the 1940’s or 50’s. He is aware that he lives in a prejudiced world because of the racism in his own colored school. He shows his awareness by fighting (literally) to get the part he wants, and to accept the sad fact that he couldn’t be Prince Charming in the school play that year, the year before, the year before that, and all the years that he would (or wouldn’t) be in the play.

   First of all, the protagonist tries out for the part of Prince Charming with all his heart even though he knows that he won’t get it because of his dark skin tone. The protagonist has been rejected each season for the school play because he is not as light skinned as some of his school mates. he has always been chosen to play the head Evil Fairy, who was always vanquished by Prince Charming in the end. In the text it says ”The good fairies wore white costumes and the evil fairies black.” also, “The good fairies usually turned out to be light in complexion” and “On a rare occasion, a dark skinned girl might be lucky enough to be a good fairy, but not one with a speaking part.” But even when the protagonist knows he can’t get the part, he still tries, and when he doesn’t, he plays the part of the evil fairy thoroughly, and well. This shows that the protagonist is really eager for the part of Prince Charming, and is willing to go crazy to get that part.
Second of all, he has a huge crush on a girl named Sarah Williams, who, no surprise, was a yaller. One year, Sarah was chosen to be Sleeping Beauty, and the protagonist tried ever so hard to get the part of Prince Charming. As you might have guessed, he did not get the part. A boy named Leonardius Wright got the part, he was also a yaller, and liked Sarah Williams. In the text, the protagonist said, ”They gave the part to Leonardius right. Leonardius, of course, was a yaller” he also said in the text that he “threw his soul into the part” and did indeed play the head evil fairy well. That proves that even though he knew he was “doomed from the start,” he still tried to do well in the play. It also proves that he knew he could be just as good if not better in the play than Leonardius even if he isn’t playing Prince Charming.

   Lastly, in “Revolt of the Evil Fairies,” the protagonist shows determination in the face of racism and discrimination in the third act of the play, when Leonardius Wright was chosen for Prince Charming, and when Sarah Williams was chosen for Sleeping Beauty. In the second act, Leonardius brained the protagonist with his sword when he ‘’slunk off into the shadows” for the second to last time. He took this as an insult, or as Leonardius saying that he was better than him, because he was lighter skinned. He was determined to show Leonardius up, and punched him in the jaw. All of a sudden, there was a huge fight happening on stage between the protagonist and leonardius, and . In the text it says ”For the minute I saw that evil gleam in his eye-or was it my own?— I cut loose with a right to the chin,” I think he fought Leonardius because he wanted to prove that he could still do something, even though society said he couldn’t be a star in the play or, have a better life in the community. He proved that he could do something to show that discrimination isn’t right.

   All in all, this is why the protagonist in Ted Poston’s “Revolt of the Evil Fairies” shows determination in the face of discrimination, even when the odds are against him. Because he, unlike others, still tried to be prince charming again, and again, and again, and finally found some closure, even if he still thought his racist community and country was unfair ( it was very), and knew that he could never be Prince Charming.

The help and what the heck?

Lucie Pascarosa            705              2012

             I do not understand the book the help. I understand it, but I can't comprehend a time when people were so darn racist! I mean, if i was Abeline, I would of smacked that woman every time Mrs. Leefolt smacked her daughter. It is child abuse, or as I like to put it, ILLEGAL to smack your child that hard when they are that young, or any time period. It is not right! This post is going to be about all the wrong things about the help, that were unfortunately, realistic.

           Around the hundredth page of the book, Mrs. Leefolt and Ms. Hilly are the two main women in a group of ladies who get together often and discussed the matters of the colored maids using the bathroom for the white and "clean" ladies. They were going to make the maids use a different bathroom, built for them outside that was most likely dirtier, and definitely not as nice as the ones inside.

         In "The Help," there is a character who always bad-mouths the white women if they say or do something racist, and she is constantly getting fired. But she finds a woman who lives in a grand house in the country with her husband. she gets hired from 9-4, and the husband leaves for work at 8, and comes home at 5. See anything weird here? Yes. Yes you do if you have average intelligence. The wife doesn't want the husband to know until the end of the year which is months away. If that is not racist I don't know what is. I mean, the woman doesn't want her to know she hired a maid because the maid is black!

       All in all, these are only some of the racist things that pose a problem in the help are. Even when you think you aren't purposely being racist, and you slip up a bit, it could really offend someone. So think before you speak! Or don't say it at all.

School of Fear: Class is not Dismissed blog

Lucie Pascarosa                             705                             SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!

             After reading the "School of Fear," I decided that is was worthy enough to buy the second one on my Kindle. Needless to say I finished it in three days. The second book is about the foursome coming back to school of fear, saying they have conquered their fears. For example, Garrison is a surfer, Madison likes spiders, Lulu goes on elevators, and Theo has stopped checking to see if his family is dead every five minutes. There is just one problem: They are lying. Exactly what you expected from them isn't it? As much as they claim they are cured, you will see why they desperately need another year at school of fear.

             At the beginning of the book you see all of the students happy and cured. But when you see them go back to the school, you see they are all FAKE! Maddie still wears her veil to sleep and fumigates her room, Lulu waits for hours for someone to go on the elevator with her, and Theo stalks his family. Yes you heard me, stalks them. He follows them so he can keep track of where they are so that he can ensure that they are alive. Don't worry, I didn't forget about macho Garrison. You can't rally feign being a surfer, can you? Well, apparently you can. Garrison would go to the beach with his board and wetsuit, and goes into the bathroom and gets his hair wet, so people think he was at the beach.  How do we know this? Mrs. Wellington the teacher, stalks them a bit like Theo and takes videos of their "progress.'' Personally, I thought it was a good idea to look at what they were doing because otherwise, the honor system is out the door. Unfortunately, this is not the only obstacle. There is a new student named Hyacinth, and she is the most obnoxious ten year old you could ever imagine. She blames all of her problems on her ferret, and her phobia is being alone, so she is annoyingly clingy. I would HATE a person like that. Take this for example " OMG! We are going to be besties! We are going to have sleep overs and OMG, I forgot to bring a camera to document our memories! Don't you just love making memories!" That wasn't directly out of the book, but it could have been.

            In the middle of the book, we find out the real problem.  The first thing is that Abernathy is living in the forest near the school ( Abernathy is the stepson of Mrs. Wellington, an the only student she failed to teach, as his phobia was stepmothers). The biggest problem is that someone had been stealing Mrs. Wellington’s valuables, which we find out later to be their neighbors who are dog crazy, and are mad because Mrs. Wellington doesn't have a seat belt or  doggy braces for Mac, her bulldog. When reading this section of the book I nearly screamed and or punched my Kindle. Who would do such a horrible thing? But it gets worse! Schmitty, Mrs. Wellington, and the five kids go to this pageant to look for the thieves. When they find it's their neighbors, they go home as fast as they can. But they are stopped by the sheriff and are informed that the student with a ferret leaked the secret about the school of fear to a reporter, which is always kept secret from the public. For those of you idiots who haven't figured out who spilled the beans it was Hyacinth, who blamed it on her rodent. I think she deserved to cry in her room alone. She didn't care about other people and needs time to get her act together. Hyacinth does do something that change everything at the end of the book, but I have already spoiled this book for you so I'm just going to make you read the whole thing so you can get to the end. Sorry.

          This is why I thought "School of Fear: Class is not Dismissed!" was a very interesting book, and I think it teaches us you should treat people the way you want to be treated, and you can't always get what you want.   

        

School of Fear blog post

          I am reading the interesting book, School of Fear. The book is about four neurotic children, about twelve or younger that have insane and unreasonable fears about the most common objects. For example, one girl goes around with a veil over her head and bug repellent, a boy faints if he sees a pond, another boy calls his parents, sister, and three brothers at school every hour to see of they are alive or not. The fourth girl has a reasonable fear, as she is claustrophobic. They all are a problem for their parents and friends so they are sent to a school to get over their fears. I have not finished the book yet and I am only about 100 pages in. However, I think that by the end of the book, they will get over their fears. But right now, they are pretty much scared out of their minds.

          In School of Fear, each of the kids have big problems. In one story, a girl named Madeline is deathly afraid of spiders, and other bugs. Basically anything that moves. She wears a veil on her head at all times, and carries bug repellent. even though besides her phobia she is pretty much sane, with good manners and a normal life in England, she can't get over the fear of bugs. Her night gown has a built in veil, so that when she sleeps at night no bugs will bother her (even though she has a mesh canopy bed). I think she is insane. anyone who is that afraid of bugs and spiders, needs to do some research. If there were no bugs, how would break down the dirt for wildlife? Who would eat those mosquitoes that you hate? I think that she had a bad experience with bugs once and has a hard time forgetting it. A boy named Theo is scared of death, ever since his grandmother died. He would call his family members often to make sure they were alive, or dead. His brothers thought he was neurotic, his sister thought he was annoying, and his parents thought he was just had issues. He was always reading death reports in the news paper, and would never take the train in fear the tracks would light on fire, or he would get pushed into the tracks. Worse, he could barely take the car in fear they would get into an accident. I think when his grandmother died, he became obsessed with death because he didn't want to lose any of his family members, like he lost his grandmother.

         There are two other children going to the school. One is Garrison, the most popular and attractive boy in his middle school, with blond hair and blue eyes. He seems normal, he plays sports, gets love notes from girls, and goes to school. But he is hydrophobic. For those of you who haven't guessed what that is yet, it is the fear of water. Not drinking water or showers, but deep water like oceans, ponds, lakes, rivers, and so on. Until the bus ride there, he seems pretty normal to Madeline, until they go over a bridge. He notices, and hopes for dry land. Instead he finds what could be a lake or ocean and freaks out, and faints. I can understand the fear of drowning, to a certain point, but  can't understand the fear of water itself. As someone who comes from a wind-surfing dad, and and a former swim-racing mom, this one of the harder things to understand. As a surfer myself, I have had to hold my breath for a while under water while my board goes over my head. Back to the hydrophobe. I think, like Madeline, he had a bad experience with water, or trying to swim that made him scared, and I will most likely find out later in the book. As for the fourth girl, there isn't much too tell. The most insane thing she has ever done so far is hit her principal in the head because she didn't want to go on the elevator, and the stairs were just painted. I can understand the fear of small spaces, I don't like them much either, but I would have sucked it up and went in the elevator.

All in all, this is why I think that the new students of School of Fear are insane and neurotic. 

Catching fire Hunger Games blog post

Lucie Pascarosa                  705               10/14/12        HUGE SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!


        I am rereading the second book in The Hunger Games trilogy, Catching Fire. In the beginning, Katniss is recalling her first hunger games and is trying to forget it. Unfortunately, she has to be made up and go on a tour around the districts that as she put it, "secretly hate her." If you have not read the hunger games series, then you won't know that she has to go up on a podium with Peeta, and make a speech about the honor of being the winner of the 74th hunger games, while the families of the other dead children look up at her and are forced to also be put in the spotlight. I think now, after reading it a second time, and reading The Girl Who Was On Fire it is easier to sympathize with Katniss. I think that Katniss plays a very strong female role, unlike Bella in Twilight. This is why I think Katniss is a strong female character in Catching Fire.

        I think Katniss is a strong female character because she endures two hunger games. In the first book, Katniss volunteers as a tribute to save her sister, watches a twelve year old die, and outsmarts the game makers by almost eating the berries. But even if they didn't tell her to stop, she would have sacrificed herself for an audience. Then she is taken away and eventually sent home, only to be interviewed about the thing she wants most to forget. Half a year later, she goes on the Victory tour, and that is when she really sparks the rebellion. She promises to send food and money to Rue from district eleven (rue is the twelve year old that died), and puts her three fingers to her lips which is the sign of her district and what she did when rue died. this was what sparked the rebellion. It started when she was there. she had to hide while three people were shot and killed. I couldn't live through that if my life depended on it (no pun intended). After another half a year, she finds out that she has to be in the games again for the quarter quell, and almost gets killed by killer monkeys, poison fog, and other obstacles the game makers thought up. If someone from our everyday life had to do that, well, they couldn't. They wouldn't have survived the first hour of the 74the hunger games! After, her own ally cuts open her arm an pulls out her tracker. Then all of a sudden, a helicopter comes out of nowhere and picks all of them up an out of the arena. But Peeta is left behind and tortured by the capitol. No one could live through the PSTD of that.

      This is why I think that Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay is a very strong character.

   

the Hunger Games: the girl who was on fire 705

Lucie Pascarosa          705               10/7/12      SPOILER ALERT!


          I am reading an interesting book, The Girl Who Was On Fire. The book is a collection of opinionated essays about the authors' opinion of The Hunger Games. There are multiple authors, and they all share their experiences with The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, and Mockingjay. They compare the trilogy to real life, and show how different yet similar the books are to real life. So far I think The Girl Who Was On Fire is a really good book.

          In The Girl Who Was On Fire, the most common topic with all of the authors is the rebellion. They try to decipher the meaning of the rebellion, by finding the symbols in the three books. One of the biggest topics in The Hunger Games is how the berries sparked the rebellion. Katniss holds out the berries and forces the game makers to let her and Peeta win, or as one author put it, the engineers gave in to the watched. In Catching Fire, she gets rescued from her second games and is brought her to district thirteen, or as I like to call it, the rebel district. This really gets the rebellion going and finally, in Mockingjay, Katniss kills Coin, her little sister is shelled, and Snow goes down. The authors show symbols that only authors can find, and show you the true meaning of The Hunger Games.

        In The Girl Who Was On Fire, I noticed that one author categorized people into sections. There were the watchers, or the people from the districts, they watch the games. there was the watched, or the tributes, who fight to the death. Then there were the engineers, as I said before, they were the game makers. The author explains that it is a cycle, or a food chain. The engineers make the games for the watchers, and the engineers have to keep the watchers entertained or they will go against the engineers, and the watched. The engineers help the watched to entertain the watchers. And the watched try to entertain the the watchers to get sponsors to save their life. See what I mean? It's a cycle.

      That is why I think The Girl Who Was On Fire is an excellent book so far, and I am glad that even though the authors write about the same things, it is interesting every time because each author has her own way of writing.

       

Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie blog post 705

-->

Lucie Pascarosa                        705                         SEMI-SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!

         In class we are reading the interesting book, Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie, I think that Steven is very inconsiderate. I think he is inconsiderate for two reasons. I also think, that later in the book, he will probably change to become a more considerate person. These are the reasons why I think Steven is an inconsiderate person, and why I think he will change to be more considerate.

         The first reason I think Steven is inconsiderate is because he doesn't respect his brother. he just thinks of him as a pain in the neck, and even though Jeffy loves Steven, Steven could care less about him. for example, in the beginning of the second chapter, Jeffy falls off his stool, and hits his nose on the counter, and has to go to the hospital because his nose was bleeding so much. when Steven gets to school, he's not trying not to worry, he's trying not to even THINK about him, which I think is inconsiderate. Adding on to that thought, all CAN think about is Renee Albert, and how he didn't brush his teeth that morning. Another example is when Steven set Jeffy on that stool, even when his mom told Steven not to and he did anyway. The result: Jeffy fell off the stool and wound up going to the hospital.

        The second reason I think Steven is inconsiderate is he is rude to his friend Annette who is always friendly toward Steven, and may or may not have a crush on him. Unfortunately, Steven doesn't feel the same way. While he thinks of her as a friend, he will snap at her if he is in a bad mood, even if she is trying to be nice. For example, at the end of the second chapter, when she they were on the bus, she brought up the topic of Jeffy, asking if he was okay, and what happened. As I said before, Steven didn't want to think about that subject, and started snapping at her, even though she was just trying to be nice.

       Last but not least, this is the reason I think Steven will change from being inconsiderate, to more considerate about others, and being more selfless. I think Steven will become more considerate because, at the end of the second chapter, Steven comes home after the fight with Annette, and finds his mom telling him he is not in trouble, and that Jeffy is sick. Instead of feeling relieved, Steven found out that his little brother had Leukemia, or blood cancer. I think this will make Steven more considerate because he will have to be kind and caring for his little brother, and that might make him be nice to other people too.

       All in all, this is why I think Steven is inconsiderate, and that he will get more considerate.  

To Kill A Mockingbird book report. class 705

Lucie Pascarosa                     705                   9/23/12    SPOILER ALERT!!

          I recently finished the amazing book, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. The book is told from the perspective of a 9 year old girl living in Alabama in the 1940's - 50's. The book is about this girl named Scout experiencing her father, who was a lawyer, representing a black man in court, who was accused of raping a 19 year old woman. The man was innocent, of course, which made the whole story a mystery. The question was, who did? Read more to find out the true meaning of the story.

         The title of the story is To kill a Mockingbird. A few times in the story they mention "it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." I think this is a symbol for the rest of the story, which is about the case. I think it symbolizes the jury refusing to respect and honor the black man's word. In that case, I would say that it is wrong to judge people by the color of their skin, or anything that is skin deep. In the cover of the book there is a tree with different items in a knot in the trunk. In the story, they were given to Scout and her brother from Boo Radley, the mysterious person who lived across the street. After they took the three items, he sealed the hole up with cement. I thought that symbolized the hope that Scout and her brother Jem had that their father was going to win the trial, but then, the judge sealed away their hope and sent the man to jail.

          Unfortunately, not every story has a happy ending. But you do get some closure at the end of the book. I thought that the end was very sad, and I was disappointed with the author, but I understood the reason why she made that decision. What decision do you ask? The decision to send the blank man, who was wrongly accused of murder, to jail. In jail, the man knew he was fast, and knew he wasn't guilty, so he ran for the fence and tried to climb it, but the guards shot him over ten times before he got the chance. Although you may think this is about the end of the story, I was surprised to find out when I was reading it, it wasn't. at the beginning of the book it says that when Scout was nine, her brother broke his arm in two places. This is how it happened: The father of the woman who claimed to be raped actually just beat her! He made up that story because he saw his daughter trying to seduce the black man, who was just being friendly and helping out with the yard work. I thought this was horrible, as the man did nothing wrong, and was even worried before he got arrested because he was afraid he was going to get caught doing nothing. Anyway, back to the first story; Scout and her brother had just gotten back from school and it was late at night. they thought they heard someone following them, but they assumed it was just their prankster friend. All of a sudden they were jumped, and attacked. Scout blacked out and Jem got his arm broken by the woman's father. A day or two later, she finds out that he somehow stabbed him self incidentally. i think this whole paragraph was definitely the major parts of the story.

          I think the moral of that story was that you should never judge people by their color, sexuality, or gender. I also think that the author wanted to make a lasting impression on the reader, and she definitely did for me.

Book Report Lucie Pascarosa

-->

Lucie Pascarosa          705     We'll Always Have Summer

        Over the Summer I read the addictive and amazing book, We'll Always Have Summer,  the sequel to The Summer I Turned Pretty, and It's not Summer Without You. The trilogy is about a girl named Isabel, or "Belly" who has been in love with Conrad who she is extremely close to, as him and his brother Jeremiah are her mother's (deceased) best friends son. But as the story goes along, you see that things change, as Belly gets older. Read on to find out more.

        First, in We'll Always Have Summer, Belly is in a relationship with Jeremiah, who loves her, and wants to marry her, which I thought was very rash, and that they were too young to get married. So, 58 pages in the book Jeremiah gets down on one knee and proposes to Belly. She says yes even though they broke up for a week and he was seeing another girl in the meantime, which she found out at a party that his fraternity threw. But as I said, she agrees to marry him, and buy an apartment with him. In the meantime, the wedding is only two months away, and no one else approves of Jeremiah and belly's decision to marry young, including her mother who refuses to go to the wedding. I thought that Jeremiah was just trying to make up for what he did, and he didn't take it that seriously. On the other hand, Conrad also still loves Belly, and thinks he is making a big mistake if he doesn't confess to Belly. I thought Conrad and Jeremiah were both a bit selfish because neither of them took their relationships with Belly seriously enough. this is when the book starts to get really dramatic...

       Next in We'll Always Have Summer, Belly's having second thoughts about marrying Jeremiah, and she is thinking about Conrad, who I thought was secretly miserable. Belly says she just nostalgic but I think Belly has always loved Conrad, because as she said on page 239, "Conrad and I were linked, we would always be linked."  He confessed to her, and she admitted to herself that she had loved even when she was two days away from her wedding with his brother. The day before the wedding, Belly tells Jeremiah that something went on with Conrad the winter before. He gets mad and upset and in the morning of the wedding, Belly's brother comes in to tell her that Jeremiah's gone. I thought at that moment neither of them wanted to get married. Eventually Conrad finds him and brings him back, but neither of them want to get married and they don't. Belly loved Conrad, and Jeremiah knew that all along. 

        In the end, Conrad marries Belly, and Jeremiah forgives him. I thought this book was a really good ending to the trilogy because of the constant guessing of which boy Belly was going to pick. The problem was that we don't get to find out what happens to Jeremiah. Otherwise I thought this was an amazing book!