Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie blog post 705

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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

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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!