non fiction blog post

 the yankees have done it again, they've added,Masahiro Tankaka is 24 years old, hes been in the Japanese baseball league for the past 5 years. he went 24-0 with a 1.27 ERA, this is legendary stats, but those stats are from the Japanese league, now he needs to play the big boys in america. Masahiro Tanaka signed with the yankees for 155 million deal for 7 years, this is after every single team in the Major leagues went after him, but he yankees came out victorious. now the yankees hope that their new team with Tanaka on their squad, they hope they can win a world series.

The article "Pod Predictions: Masahiro Tanaka" by Mike Podhorzer is bout the predictions of Masahiro Tanaka for the mlb. The article starts off by talking about Tanaka's success in the Japanese baseball league. over the past couple of years Japanese pitchers have been coming to the mlb. The article then mentions  pitchers like Yu Darvish and Hiroki Kuroda, they have had a big impact on the mlb, Darvish went 18-6 last season with a 2.86 ERA, he almost had a no hitter last year!. Hiroki Kuroda went 15-7 with a 3.36 ERA. His claim is that Tanaka will do very good, and i completely agree.    

For example, Tanaka had 1.27 ERA, that means that each game he pitched, the average amount of runs he allowed a game was 1.27. That's ridiculously low, no one in the majors has a ERA that low. That's one of the reasons why the author claims he gonna do so well, and if he has around the same ERA then he'll be unstoppable, because he'll be pitching with the best offense in baseball to back him up, the yankees, they average 5 runs a game. Another reason why the author thinks Tanaka is going to do so well, is because he went 24-0, that means that when he pitched, which was 24 times, he NEVER LOST, no pitcher has ever gone undefeated, so if he's pitch like he's been pitching in Japan then he'll put up legendary stats.


Tanaka is a very good pitcher, and I'm happy he'll be with the yankees next season. Baseball is my favorite sport, and the yankees are my favorite team, so this connects to me a lot. This also connects to a lot of teens, a lot of teens watch baseball like me, some of them are yankee fans, I know having tanaka come over will impact them and their view of baseball greatly. The author thinks Tanaka is supposed to do very well, being a yankee fan I hope that's true. After reading that and writing this blog pos, I am know a big Tanaka fan.

1/28/13

The Axe commercial "Make Love Not War" is about 4 people, two of which are dictators, one is a tank operator, and the other one is a regular soldier. They all start out committing acts of war, they are about to to something terrible. Then later on while they proceeded with the acts of war they were committing, they actually were committing "love acts". They did something romantic with the they acts of war, like how one of the dictators made it seem he was about to launch missiles, when he actually shot fireworks for his wife . From this I think love is more powerful that war and many other things.

For example the middle eastern dictator, was going to launch missiles to god knows where. Everyone in the room with him knew it was an act of war, they all knew it was going to be a horrible act. Instead, since his wife was sitting next to him, he launches fireworks that made heart shapes for his wife, they then took each others hand, you could see their very powerful love. This shows that love is more powerful than war, instead of committing a horrifying war act, he committed a loving, romantic act.

Another example is when the soldier operating a tank rolled into a town in ruins. His job is to destroy the town, people are running for their lives, screaming, but one women doesn't. She drops her grocery bags and stands in front of the tank with a face of rebellion determination. The soldier gets out of the tank, the women calls his name, it turns out they know each other, they run to each other and hug. Instead of doing hep is job of Committing an act of war and killing many people, he risks his job for love. The Axe "Make Love Not War"'is a very powerful commercial, it shows that love is more powerful than war. It tells you to make love, not war.

Stolen party 1/14/13

The Stolen Party, is about a girl, Rosaura,who goes to a party thinking shes going as a guest, but actually shes going as a server. Her mother is the maid for the hosts of the party Rosaura's going to, she tries to stop her from going to the part, but Rosaura still goes. Rosaura was asked to serve food countless times during the party. At the end of the party, Rosaura didn't receive a goody bag, instead she got money for her service, she then realizes that she was invited to that party to serve. I think that Rosaura was blind and she thought that she had power but she was actually resisted the power by not realizing that she was at that party to serve food.  

For example Rosaura was asked to serve the cake, she was too blind to see that she was being a servant. If Rosaura wasn't there to serve food then you would think she has power when handing out the cake, since she decides who gets what piece. That's not the reason she's there, she's there to help serve, which means that everyone at the party can boss her around, but she doesn't know that. She thinks she has power but the more serves food, the more she's actually resisting power ( but she doesn't know that ). She was blind and manipulated by Luciana, the daughter of the family who Rosaura's mom cleans for, Luciana made Rosaura think she was a friend, but actually just another worker. 

This book showed me that everything is not as it seems, Rosaura thought it was a privilege to help serve, but it was more a job. I too like to help out a lot, nothing like Rosaura's situation but I think I have that in common with Rosaura. The message relates to many teens, because the manipulation Luciana did to Rosaura, teens around the world do the same thing for a good laugh, to get things, and other horrible embarrassing things. Teens don't manipulate people for situations like Luciana did in the story, but many do manipulating to make people think that their friends with the person doing the manipulating like in the stolen party.

favorite book 2013

   I read a lot of good books in 2013. Only one can be my favorite. If I had to choose then i would choose Diary of a Wimpy Kid Hard luck. Overall it was a good book, it was funny, it showed how a middle school kid gets through daily life, which could be useful since i'm in middle school. I think greg, the main character is a good role model, which makes it a good book for me to read.

 the book was very funny and its always fun reading funny books, it gives you a good laugh. I really like funny books so that's one of the main reasons i really like this book. I also like this book because the problems the author gives the main character, are problems that a lot of middle school kids have. This book gave me ideas for problems and i still had a good laugh, that's why I really liked this book and it was my favorite of 2013.

 Lastly, this book was my favorite of 2013 because it gave me school tactics like how to treat teachers and how to manage homework. this was very useful because i used both those tactics for everyday school life. overall it was a good book, it really helped me out this past year. this is why i chose Diary of a Wimpy kid Hard Luck as my favorite book of 2013.

11/27/13 blog post

   Drums, girls, and dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick, is about a 13 year old boy, named Steven, whose brother Jeffrey get diagnosed with cancer. I think Jeffrey having cancer motivates Steven to help his family out.

  One day Steven, who plays in his schools band, gets his friends to help organize a fundraising concert for his brother Jeffrey's cancer. They made 50,000 dollars, Steven did this because he couldn't stand to see his family struggle financially. Another example is how Steven babysat Jeffrey when his parents where overwhelmed with all of the forms and bills they had to do for Jeffreys cancer. Steven did this because this might be his last yeary with Jeffrey. My last example is when Steven went with Jeffrey to his cancer treatment hospital, he went because Jeffrey felt safe around Steven. He also wanted to see what it was like for Jeffrey being treated for cancer, he wanted to see the pain Jeffrey was going through.

  My claim connects to my personal life a lot. I've never had a sibling with cancer , but my siblings do often get sick which is not like cancer but they still need help recovering. I usually care for them just like how Steven took care of Jeffrey. I would and still babysit my siblings, and help take care of them. If it's stressful for my mom or dad, I would help out just like how Jeffrey did. My siblings being sick motivate me to help them and my parents out, since my family does more then they can handle.

Social justice and action

Social justice

Lois Lowrys book, Number the Stars shows the prospective of a 10 year old girl and her friend, who is Jewish and trying to escape the nazis from Denmark and get to Sweden. The book try's to get you to see what it was like trying to escape the nazis in world war 2. Annemarie is the main character and her friend, Ellen, who is Jewish. Ellen's family gets taken away and Annemarie's mother who was friend with Ellen's family takes Annemarie and Ellen and try's to flea to Sweden. This journey was very hard, they went through obstacles like running into nazis and having to travels on boast, trains, cars, etc.. At the end they make it to Sweden and nothing bad happens but the book shows that for a lot of people it didn't end up this way.

Lois Lowry uses some craft moves in her book. Like having the nazis acting and speaking like they were about to commit each crime, this makes the reader anxious to what they will do next. She also has other craft moves like having pauses in scary moments with little details, this makes it so the reader knows the Annemarie is scared and in a bad situation. Lastly she has 2 kids as the main characters so she makes them speak and act in a kid way, now the reader truly gets what it was like to be a kid in world war 2.

This book is an example of social justice because it shows how some people in Europe, like Germans, and others discriminates Jews. This society is harmful to Jews, similar to African Americans in the 1960s. These Jews were killed, put through labor, and had to make sure people knew they were Jewish. This book also had social act, like how some people hid Jews and how America and it's allies went to fight the Germans and once agains have the Jews be free.

Sherman's Alexie's article, " why the best books are written in blood"

  Sherman Alexie's article, " why the best books are written in blood", published in the Wall Street journal, shows that kids need these books to face their monsters and give them ideas that will help them, and while these books being banned, their still the best. Sherman Alexie goes on to give examples of kids who have troubled lives, and says they need a good book to relate to. Sherman Alexie went on to say that Meghan Cox Gurdon needs to look at the bigger picture and see that these kids need these books to help themselves. He states that these books, like his own book, can't possibly traumatize or shock YA LIT readers. He starts to close with saying that's kids don't just want to read these books they want to use the books to help themselves. Sherman Alexie closes his articles with a sentence, " I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed". He's saying that I write these ( according to Meghan cox Gurdon ) bad influenced books, that are based on troubled teens, because I know what it feels like to be that troubles teen.

  Sherman Alexie uses a lot of craft moves to help people see what he is truly saying. One craft move I liked was that he started of the article by having a small momen t of when he was speaking to hundreds of teens, who've lost their homes and who truly have troubled lives. This helps because it shows people who banned his book and other books like it, that kids support and like his book ( absolute true diary of a part time Indian). Another craft move that Sherman Alexie used were loaded words, he used them to describe the examples of kids that have troubled lives, that want or need his book. He used words like rape, abused, murdered poverty, and other words like those to describe the lives of those kids.

  I agree with Sherman Alexie's article because I don't like the idea of these good books being banned. These books help the lives of troubled people, they don't make them worse, and overall it's a good book and sometimes good books need are the type of book that Meghan cox Gurdon thinks should be banned. The great thing is that people can use this book (absolute true story of a part time Indian) to overcome bullying or get rid of monsters in their life. The line that says hundreds of  YA LIT readers  went to see him speak, stood out to me because this shows that people support and need his book to overcome their troubles in life. These books should not be bannes.

-Artie Vidal

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