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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Book: absolute true story of a part time Indian

10/7/13

Bullies will hurt you and get in your head.  You can ignore them but eventually you need to stand up and make a change.  In the Absolute True Story of a Part Time Indian, Junior (the main character) taught me that if you disregard your bullies you’ll be able to achieve your goals. The book is about Junior who was born with various medical conditions, like how he has too much water (brain gew) in his skull, and that he is Indian and lives on a reservation. All the people on the reservation go to the same school, grocery store etc.but Junior does a brave thing and starts going to an all white school. 

I found Junior teaching me about the idea of ignoring bullies and then you’ll be able to achieve your goals. When he first started going to the white school, the first thing people started to do was call him names like ‘Chief’ ‘Redskin’ ‘Indian’ ‘Brown Skin’. Junior didn’t stand there and cry like a baby, he ignored them and went on to do his school work.  That taught me a lesson to not stand around hopelessly.  He taught me to ignore bullies and to not listen to them, and he also got good grades because he ignored the bullies.

Another example of this is when Junior was being bullied by this white redneck farmer boy.  This time Junior stood up for himself and punched the bully in the face.  This taught me to not only put aside your bullies but also to stand up for yourself, face to face with your bullies.  The bully didn’t fight back because even though Junior was a punching bag for the bullies to begin with, now he (the bully) and others, realize that Junior is not going to tolerate the bullying anymore.  After Junior punched the bully in his face, people stopped bullying him.  It actually paid off.  This is a very important life lesson because people who get bullied can use this as an example.

Junior was nerd with many things that made him different and set him outside of the crowd.  In the beginning Junior was bullied and made fun of because of his ethnicity.  But now, after he stood up to his bullies, they treat him like a normal person.  I think this is good because no one should be singled out negatively for being different whether it’s a way they are or something like their skin color.  I learned from this to set aside your bullies and then you can achieve your goals, but still, eventually you have to put a stop to the bullying by standing up to your bullies face to face.  People everywhere can use this as an example for how to deal with bullying and achieve their goals.

                                                                        ----Artie Vidal

Book: game of thrones

9/14/13

Artie Vidal 803

  In game of thrones there are 7 kingdoms, one of which controls the entire world, the others are trying to takeover the thrown and rule the world. All of the kingdoms have their king and queen, the 7 kingdoms are in different parts of the world. In the book I've noticed that these kingdoms will do anything to rule the world.

   An example of this is when the king of wintefield had decided to purchase a army in exchange to Mary someones daughter, he had to marry someone he didn't even like. This shows that he would basically give up his life just he could have a army for a war that he might not win. Another example of the kingdoms doing anything to rule the world is when another king decided to turn or black magic and sacrifice his son to try to cast a spell on the other kingdoms. This king would rather be king of the world then have his own son alive, and this spell may not work so he's taking a chance but he can never bring his son back to life.

I've also notice that the kingdoms are to busy fighting for the thrown that they don't notice that mythical creatures called white-walkers ( zombies) are forming a army to destroy and takeover the world. These creatures haven't been seen or heard of for thousands of years but since the kingdoms are too busy fighting each other for the thrown that they don't notice that the white- walkers have come back to rule the world.

In game of thrones the kingdoms will do anything to rule the world, sometimes because of that it's too dangerous like them not noticing the white-walkers are back. The game of thrones is a good dramatic, action packed book.