Blog Post Rubric

This is where you will share what you're reading.  Here's what I want to know when I'm reading your blog posts:

1.  What book are you reading?
2.  Who wrote it?
3.  How far have you read?
4.  What's happened in your book (be very brief)?  If I want more information, I'll ask questions in the comments.
5.  What do you think about it?  Is it good?  WHY?
6.  Why did the author write this (other than making money)?  What makes you think this was his/her motivation?
7.  What's the theme?  What big idea did the author want us to think about when writing this?
8.  Who's the best character?  Why?  How has he grown or changed?
9.  Type out a cool quotation from your book.  Why is it important?
10. What questions do you have about your book?

Feel free to write anything else you notice about your book or author.
Please write in sentences and paragraphs, not numbered bullet points.

What questions do you have?

Into Thin Air Blog 1

Into Thin Air By Jon Krakaur

This is a book where the reader knows the ending at the beginning.  The person telling the story survived a near death climb to the peak of Mount Everest.  Four people in his group died in the story. This was in 1996.   He was writing a article for a magazine. He got to the top, but bad weather moved in quickly and the trip turned into a mess! Jon had no idea that every minute was important to their survival. As I read this story I think Jon is going to suffer. He says  that he is the only survivor. He needs to write this book so he can try to understand what happened. I like survival stories because it's interesting how people survive terrible situations. 

Jon, the author, talks about the culture of mountain climbers. For example, I didn't know how expensive it is. It costs $70,000.00 to join an expedition. He talks about the leaders of the groups and why they decided to become guides on mountain adventures. It also describes how Mount Everest captures their imagination. When Jon was on his way to Everest, he was in a plane. One line from the book read, "...it occurred to me that the top of Everest was precisely the same height as the pressurized jet bearing me through the heavens. That I proposed to climb to the cruising altitude on an Airbus 300 jetliner struck me, at that moment, as preposterous, or worse. My palms felt clammy" (32). This is foreshadowing that his adventure may be dangerous!

Maximum Ride Book 1 post # 1

Right now Max has about 4 friends, Angel is the youngest.  Then it's The Gasman, Nudge, Iggy and Fang.

Maximum is 98% human and 2% Bird because she has wings.  She was a lab rat to a bunch a white coats (the scientists).  They were able to escape the lab and they have all become friends.  They had a Mentor by the name of Jeb, who helped them escape.  But he died.  So Max has to carry everyone on her shoulders because she is the oldest, and is 14 years old.

Max had a dream, but it is becoming clear that it is very real.  The Erasers are half wolf/half man with a taste for flying humans.  Angel, she was captured while picking wild strawberries with everyone else.  Max could not catch her, because the Erasers had a helicopter and guns.  Max, Nudge & Fang are on a journey to get Angel away from the Erasers in California.

Zach Camacho

Megan Beuter Blog Post #1.

The book I read was Impossible, by Nancy Werlin. The book has a total of 364 pages, and I finished the book. The book is about a family called Scarborough. There is a curse on their family and it only includes the girls. The curse affects them between the ages of seventeen and eighteen, during which the daughters must complete the impossible three tasks. If they do not complete the three tasks they will go insane themselves at eighteen and the curse will be passed on to their daughter. The girls must complete the three impossible tasks before their baby is born or they will grow mad after the baby is born. I think this book is interesting because of how the main character Lucy first tries to figure out what is happening, what the curse is, what the tasks mean, and how the tasks could be completed. It is a mystery. You wonder how Lucy will break the curse or if she even will. The author wrote this because she found herself singing the song "Scarborough Fair." When she began to think about the lyrics as an adult, however, she became horrified of the tasks described in the song. She then scoured the lyrics more and came to the conclusion that this man who demanded one impossible task after another must actually hate this old lover. Because if she couldn't deliver the tasks completed she was no "true love" of his. She decided to write a novel around this very song, and difficult though it may have been she turned out writing a truly amazing novel. This was her motivation because I read her "author's note"in the back of the book and she described these ideas. The theme of this book is the song "Scarborough Fair" and three tasks described within the song. The big idea the author was trying to convey is that everything is not as it seems initially. It seems as though in these lyrics the man is just asking these three things of the girl to prove her love to him (because nothing is impossible for love), but after listening or reading the lyrics multiple times you can tell that the man is demanding these impossible things because he does not love his "once a true love" anymore; he hates her. Lucy is the best character. She makes the book. Her reactions to the curse and the circumstances around her tell you what kind of person she is. Lucy makes the connection from me to the book. She handles the situation like I would like to think I would handle the situation. She has changed from the naive girl at the beginning to the girl who has more experience and a husband and daughter to love in the end. "Are you going to the Scarborough fair? Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Remember me to one who live there. She was once a true love of mine. Tell her she'll sleep in a goose-feather bed. Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Tell her I swear she'll have nothing to dread. She must be a true love of mine. Tell her tomorrow her answer make known. Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. What e'er she may say I'll not leave her alone. She must be a true love of mine.  Her answer it came in a week and a day. Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. I'm sorry, good sir, I must answer thee nay.  I'll not be a true love of thine. From the sting of my curse she can never be free. Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Unless she unravels my riddlings three. She will be a true love of mine. Tell her to make me a magical shirt. Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Without any seam or needle work. Else she'll be a true love of mine. Tell her to find me an acre of land. Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. Between the salt water and sea strand. Else she'll be a true love of mine Tell her to plow it with just a goat's horn. Parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme. And sow it all over with one grain of corn. Else she'll be a true love of mine. And her daughters forever be possessions of mine." This quotation is important because it is what the whole book is revolving around. All the ideas in the book tie back to this version of Scarborough Fair called "The Elfin Knight." My only questions is when was this quote introduced, who wrote this quote originally, and what is it's relevance to the world.

Jenna Stanley Blog Post 2

The book I read was Glass by Ellen Hopkins (book number two of three.) I read the entire book (681 pages.) The summary is of a girl named Kristina who is hooked on meth again. She was clean for a little while but one bad choice kick started the bad habit again. Now her life is spinning out of control. Kristina gets thrown out of her mother's house, her mom gains custody of her child, and Kristina can't seem to fix her life. Next, she falls in love with a guy named Trey; they move in together and try to work things out between them. At the end of the book they end up in jail for trafficking and possessing drugs and forging checks. I liked this book but it wasn't as eventful as I had hoped. I think the reason she wrote this was to let people have a glimpse of what some people go through. The theme is how hard it is to quit drugs. The best character is Kristina, because you got to know her the most and see how she tried hard to change things. A quote from the book is: "I'm allowed a call. Need to call someone, let them know where I am. What's happened. But who? Mom? Don't think so..." That quote shows you how she doesn't have a good relationship with her family and how it hurts her in the end. My only question is, what happens now that they are in jail?

English Book Post One

Post 1

The book I read was Burned by Ellen Hopkins. It was 531 pages long; I read the whole thing. The summary of the story is: A Mormon girl named Pattyn, whose mother was being beaten by her father, starts questioning her religion and has a relationship with a boy from school. When her dad finds out, Pattyn ends up sent away to her Aunt Jeanette's farm. Out there she falls in love with a guy named Ethan and they begin dating. At the end of summer he goes off to college and she goes back home to school; before she leaves Aunt Jeanette gives her a paid-for cellphone and Ethan gives her a handgun. Once she gets home she is beaten for challenging her dad and once more after that. After telling Ethan about what happened and how she is pregnant they forge a plan to run away from Pattyn's family and live together. On the way to California the car slides off the road and Ethan and the baby are killed. When she wakes up in the hospital and hears the news she wishes she had died too. After that the last few pages leave it to your imagination to figure out what you think happened next. This story was an emotional journey and i loved it. It kept me interested and wanting to read even more. I think Ellen Hopkins wrote it to entertain her readers and talk about hard issues people might face. She told a story about a young teenage girl that even when everything seemed to be going wrong she kept on fighting and refused to give up.The big theme seemed to be about struggling with who you are and what you believe in. I think Pattyn (the main character) was the best. She let us know what she was feeling and how confused she was on what her faith is. She grew up a lot during the story. Pattyn shows how you can learn from your mistakes and make better choices; it also showed you need to own up to the bad things you did. The quotation from the book is "I'm trying hard to despise Dad for what he did to me. But part of me thinks I deserved it. Besides, compared to other episodes in the Stephen Von Stratten saga, this chapter was nothing." (Found on page 481.) Pattyn was talking about how her dad beat her; it was sad because thinking about how she said that the time he beat her compared to other times it seemed like nothing it. I would be extremely scared to be in her position. The only question i have is what happened in the end of the book. The ending left me hanging; wanting to know what really happened. I wasn't sure if she commit suicide or if she started planning revenge. I can't wait to find out!( I have been informed she is making a sequel called "Smoke" which is coming out in 2013)

OMG BLOGGER!!!!!!!

This Is Us.

Welcome to Our English 9 Blog!

This is your English 9 blog.  Through the course of the semester, you will post to this blog at least six times.    You must blog about two books that you read this semester, one per quarter.  You will blog about each book three times.

We will discuss specific requirements later.  For now, just start thinking about what books you would like to read.

Have fun!

~Ms. Nielsen