Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Stranded 9/16/14

Prompt: Describe the characters.
Pages: 107-end

     Stranded is about four siblings who are stuck on a island. There are four main characters in this book. One is Carter. He is very energetic and always wants to be the leader of things. This is sometimes a problem because it causes disagreements in the group. Another main character is Buzz. He is not very fit or energetic but is very smart. He spends a lot of time watching TV and he has learned some things about survival from TV shows. This makes him very helpful in coming up with plans for the group.

     Another main character is Vanessa. She is the oldest of the group and is a leader. She makes sure everyone gets along and comes up with plans. The other siblings are always arguing and she keeps them under control. The last main character is Jane. She is the youngest but is also the smartest. She tells her siblings about things they do not know about and helps them come up with plans. She is the youngest and cannot do difficult physical tasks.

     One important supporting character is Uncle Dexter. He is the captain of the ship they are sailing on and tries to help the children escape. He is swept overboard and gets in a life raft that is floating away from the boat. He is the only one that knows about where they were when they crashed. The coast guard finds him and he helps in the search for the children. He also explained some things to the children that was important for their survival.

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Stranded: 9/11/14

Prompt: Your focus for your blog this week will be on analyzing your novel based on it's literary style. Your focal point will be analyzing the impact imagery and figurative language have on the meaning and tone of your text.
Pages: 1-107

     Imagery has a big impact in the part of my book because it shows ship, the shipwreck and the island in more detail. Rather than saying the sail was in front of him the author said, "The boat's huge white mainsail ballooned in front of him, filled with a stiff southernly wind that sent them scudding through the South Pacific faster than they'd sailed all week." That shows the sail and the conditions in more detail and enhances the story. Later in the story rather than describing the island as a circular green island the author writes, "The whole thing was a giant ring of land, encircling an enormous lagoon of the most brilliant aqua-blue water Vanessa had ever seen." That tells the island in more detail and enhances the story.

     Imagery makes the story have a more overwhelming tone. It shows how large the sails of the boat are. It tells how dangerous and powerful the storm is. This is shown in the sentence, "Carter saw a bright flash from somewhere near the top of the mast, like an explosion of light and force. The sailboat itself twisted nearly all the way around with a violent turn." This shows the power of the storm.  Finally imagery shows the vast size of the island they are trapped on.

     "The bow of the boat looked as if it had been chewed right off." This metaphor makes the story have a scary tone. This shows how badly the ship is damaged by saying the front looked like it had been chewed off. It also compares the storm and cliff they crashed into to an animal or monster with teeth by saying it chewed off the front of the boat. This results in a negative, scary tone because both of these things have negative, scary connotations.

Monday, September 8, 2014

10 Favorite Books

1: The Kid Who Climbed Everest
This book is about how Bear Grylls climbed Mount Everest. It tells about how he broke his back while he was younger and why he decided to attempt to climb Everest. It also tells about the preparations and training needed to do this. What most of the book is about is the challenges he faced while on Everest. This is my favorite book because he talks about how he dealt with the difficulties on Everest and it talks about a subject I am interested in. I read this book last week.

2: Hatchet
This book is about a boy named Brian who was in a plane that crashed in the middle of the forest. He survives by building a shelter in a cave, drinking lake water, and eating berries at first. He then begins to fish and hunt birds and eventually kills a moose. He then finds a radio transmitter in the crashed plane and accidentally left it on. Because of this a plane finds him. This is my second favorite book because I like this topic and it shows what might happen if an unexperienced person were lost in the woods. I first read this book in fifth grade.

3: Holes
This book is about a boy named Stanley Yelnats who is sent to a work camp for doing something he did not do. While at this camp he meets the boy who actually committed the crime he was sent there for. They escape the camp together and live on a mountain until law officials come and take them out of the camp. This is my third favorite book ever because of how the three different stories being told all fit together. I read this book first in fifth grade.

4 The President Has Been Shot
This book describes the the details of the assassination of President Kennedy. It tells about the life of the murderer and possible motives. It tells where the murder took place and how things were set up. It tells about how the murder happened and how it could have been prevented. It then tells about how the murder was caught and how people reacted. I liked this book because I learned something I didn't know before and it was very interesting. I read this book in seventh grade.

5 Ripper
This book is a mystery fiction book about if the murderer Jack the Ripper went to America and murdered people. The main character is an orphan and is adopted by Pinkerton Detectives. He works with them and discovers that Jack the Ripper is his father. He discovers who he is going to murder next and protects them. He fights his father and traps him but he escapes. I liked this book because of how everything connects and makes sense at the end. Also when I thought it was almost finished I looked and was only halfway through. I read this book in seventh grade.

6 The Giver
This book is about a community where everything is regulated carefully. Everyone has no knowledge of the past before their community. The community has no books other than rule books and dictionaries, no dangerous or progress slowing items or geographical formations, and no color vision. When people get old they do not die but are released. This is when doctors give them lethal injections. No one except the doctors and elders know about this. I like this book because of the morals it talks about. I read this book in seventh grade.

7 Son
This book is a sequel to The Giver. It talks about the community from a different point of view and talks about different communities there also are and what they are like. The main character left the community to look for her son who was taken. She finds other communities and eventually finds her son. I liked this book because it was inspirational and thought invoking. I read this book in seventh grade.

8 Old Yeller
This book is about a dog that a family adopts. The story is about the family's hardships and how the dog helps them out. At the end of the book the dog gets very sick. By then the whole family has become very attached to the dog. The father has to kill the dog and it is very sad. I like this story because it was inspirational and interesting. I read this book in fifth grade.

9 Of Mice and Men
This book is about two men who are migrant workers. They go to work at a farm. One of the workers is not very smart and always gets in trouble. He likes to touch soft things. He is very strong and often hurts or kills small furry animals. He was feeling someone's hair and he accidentally killed them. The other man is forced to shoot him. I liked this book because it was thought invoking and interesting. I read this book in seventh grade.


10 The Right Fight
This book is about a man who is a tank driver in WWII. He is fighting in North Africa and fights in many battles. He has many good and bad experiences and makes new friends. At the end of the book the tank he is in explodes and he is the only one of his crew to survive. I like this book because I am interested in WWII and liked learning what it might have been like as a soldier. I read this book in seventh grade.