Blog post on Jose Salvador Alvarenga

Have you ever felt lost?  Or have you been away from home by your self?  Imagine felling alone and being away from those you love for a whole year.  Eating uncooked food.  Drinking your own urine!  That would be disgusting and hard to live through, but that's what Jose Salvador Alvarenga went threw.   

     I read an article on a castaway that survived 13 months on sea with nothing but a friend and a fishing rod.  jose went from Mexico to the Marshall Islands (halfway between Hawaii and Australia).  He survived on raw fish and turtles.  Jose's friend refused to eat the fish and turtles so he threw himself out of the boat and drowned. Jose's friend's name was Ezequiel Cordova.  Jose just got out of the hospital yesterday and is planing to go to back to El Salvador.

     I really liked how Suzanne Chuarto, Jack Niedenthal and Jethro Mullen used sub-headings to categorize what the were saying.  The article had 5 sub headings telling about the families and stuff like that.  They also put in a lot of facts in the article.  The writers made sure that they put in meaningful quotes into the article.  The authors ended with a very meaningful quote that left you thinking.

     This article made me feel a little sad for the family who's son died.  But with Jose, I am impressed with.  He survived on his fishing skills and rain water.  For 13 months and 6,600 he survived.  I also feel bad for Jose .  He saw one of his friends go crazy and drown himself.  Also Jose has bad kidney pains and he may have health issues that may never go away.

Close reading on Graff

     I am writing my blog post to discuss Ender's game.  I am writing about one of the "unseen" characters in the book, Graff.  Many people see Graff as a person who takes tons of orders.  Some people don't even know who Graff is.  You learn a lot about Graff from the bold writing in the book at the beginning of each chapter.  You see inside his head and what he feels about Ender.  I understood him as a complex character and a multi sided character.  I know people that skipped the bold part and they really missed out.  Graff has one persona at the beginning of the book and a completely different persona at the end.

     At the beginning of the book Graff takes orders from his commanders and thinks nothing of them. Graff is doing what his commander thinks is best for the army.  It seems like he doesn't even have a mind of his own he just does what his master tells him, like a slave.  As we near the end of the book he  start to understand what is happening and how they are treating Ender unfairly.  He thinks on his own and doesn't take orders any more, sort of like a slave rebellion.  Graff has changed from a person that  commands to a man who decides stuff for himself.

     You learn about Graff in a side story, and it was pretty interesting, almost as interesting as the real story.  There is a tiny conflict that is not about ender at all.  you also see that Orson Scott Card put in a reference to slavery.  By studying characters you don't know much about you may learn some surprising things.  You may get obscure references that the author put in the book to reward people that closely read books.  The next time you read a book try to think about characters you wouldn't normally notice.

Fox

The book that I am doing my blog post on is "fox". It is a story about a bird and a dog that are friends. The bird says " I will be your missing eye, and you will be my burnt wing". They are perfect for each other.  Then one day a fox comes around and persuades the bird that the dog running is nothing like flying. The bird leaves the dog and goes with the fox because the fox says he is faster then dog.  But fox betrays the bird and leaves her in the forest.

This book was about greed. The bird is happy with dog until fox comes around and messes things up. The bird is perfectly happy with dog but when she hears someone is faster then dog she gives dog up. The bird wants to be with the fastest creature, not the one that is not a good friend. The bird is a very greedy character.

This book connects to the world in a lot of ways. A lot of people are greedy. One person that was greedy was Bernie Madoff.  He stole money from investors that believed in what he was doing. He was sort of like the bird. He didn't stop at good enough, he kept on going and going and going for a long time and that made him a greedy person. "Fox" was a book that was about greed. The book had a lot of connections to real life.

        My reading inquiry was about how good role models are represented in books.  I read different books and one thing that I kept on seeing in the books was that good role models are not afraid to get their hands dirty.  there are also a lot of other things people can do to become good role modles.
       In the book Private Games the main character Knight is a police department agent in England.  There is a big scheme to kill all of the people that are running the Olympic games.  When some one is trying to kill a person that was right next to him, Knight jumped into the way of the car to save the other man.  Knight almost killed himself to save a person he doesn't even know.  In the book World War Z when the zombies are invading the city a few solders decided to help the citizens by fighting instead of fleeing.  Those are two completely different books.  One is a mystery book and one is a dystopian book but they both display the same theme.
       Many books have good role models over a variety of genres.  There are a lot of different ways can be good role models.  In Never Back Down the main character saves food and gives the food to other people while he is in the concentration camps.  He sacrificed his own food and gave it to other people.  He was being a very good person in his heart.  Also in the Mark of Athena Percy doesn't let go of Annebeth when she is falling into Tatarus, which will lead to almost certain death.  He is being a good person and decides that he will never let go of her.
        It doesnt matter what genre it is, it could be a dystopian, children, young adult, or a mystery book,  they all show that good role modles.  There are many ways to be a good role modles which are discribed in books.  All the books I read where differnt but they all had the same messages.

one thing that I noticed in the world was gun control.  on the news there is always things about some big shootings.  A movie theater shooting or a shot fired at a child.  many people are affected by shootings.  crazy people are allowed to have guns because somehow they pass the background check.

I saw on the news about a person in Brooklyn that said "me and my family count the days that we don't here a gun shot."  gun shots are so common in that area that when there isn't a gun shot people are surprised  to many gunshots are happening in one of the most important cities in the united states.  I also saw on the news about a crazy gun who was shooting at a navy base in DC.  In the city where the president is crazy people are running rampage with guns.

As you can see gun control is an issue in our nation and the world.  to many people have guns that are not mentally fit to wield them.  the United States should change the laws about gun control.  we should have more thorough background checks.

District 41 takes perks of being a wallflower out of school

      This article was about when district 41 took "perks of being a wallflower" out of schools.  this article was in the Chicago tribune.  A person in the article was Erica Nelson.  She thought that books like "Perks of Being a Wallflower" might be appropriate to some kids and not others.  She did not think it was right to ban the book because for only some of the people that have read the book, it might have been to inappropriate then when other people read it, it did not seem inappropriate.  The school is keeping books away from all children when only some the book is not appropriate for.  at the end of the article it said that because the students and parents did not want it banned the district is reevaluating the book and if it should be banned.

        One craft move that the author, Quan Trough made was that she used alot of quotes in her stories.  She usesd meanigful quotes that related to the problem at hand.  She used quote from members that banned the books and people that were agaist banned books.  The quotes helped the article by giving both sides of the argument.  The quotes also gave me a real idea of what the people were like with this ban.  There were thirteen quotes in the article and they were all meaningful.  

Kick by Walter Dean Myers

        One of the main themes in Kick by Walter Dean Myers and Ross Workman is that you shouldn't always fight back.  Kevin, the main character is on a soccer team.  His soccer team is very good and is trying to become the best team in the state.  Kevin is an amazing soccer player with a hot head.  Kevin learns this theme first hand.  If someone does something mean to you or your friend(s), you should not always retaliate against them, because you might end up hurting yourself or your friends.
       
        When Kevin is playing a soccer match against a team in the state cup he gets really mad.  A kid on the opposing team is playing really dirty.  The player is tripping, punching and kicking Kevin's teammates and the referee is not calling any fouls.  Later in the game, Kevin gets fouled and is pushed to the muddy ground which puts him over the edge.  He is so furious that he acts out with rage and punches the other kid right in front of the referee.  Kevin gets ejected from the soccer game and suspended for the game after that.  His team gets very afraid because without Kevin they might lose the tournament.
       
      When Kevin fought back, all he did was hurt himself (got suspended) and his friends (might lose game without him).  The intent of his actions were on the right track but the result did not help.  He was sticking up for his teammates but he took it to far.  On the other hand, if you are getting beat up and no one is coming to your assistance, you should fight back in self-defense.  But if there is a teacher or referee, you should not retaliate against someone because you will get in trouble when they were the one that started it.

         In conclusion, when fighting back against someone that attacks you, you might just hurt yourself or your friends. The way to deal with this problem is to beat them on the field and not with your fists.