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.