Entry four August 14th: Looking For Alaska

The book I read for my summer assignment was Looking for Alaska by John Green. I chose to read this book because John Green is one of my favorite authors. This is the second book I have read by him. The first book I read by him, which is also my favorite book, was The Fault in Our Stars so I thought maybe his other books are as good as this one and Looking for Alaska defiantly was. What drew my attention to this book was the author because I know John Green has written many amazing, prize winning novels. The cover of this book is also what drew my attention to it. The cover makes the book look very mysterious and interesting. A personal connection I made between me and the book is that at the beginning of the book, Miles decides to move schools. This connects to me because I recently switched schools from a private school to a public school. Miles seemed to have an easy way of making friends and that is another personal connection I made with the story because luckily, I made many friends on my first few days at Mason High School.

Specifically, I would recommend this book to my sister Melissa. I would recommend this book to her because she loves reading any type of book. I would imagine that if I, someone who doesn’t read much, enjoyed this book, she must enjoy it too. I would also recommend it to her because she also read The Fault in Our Stars and loved it so maybe she would like to read another book by John Green.

Entry Three August 14th: Looking For Alaska

“When I opened the bathroom door after my shower, a towel wrapped around my waist, I saw a short, muscular guy with a shock of brown hair. He was hauling a gigantic army-green duffel bag through the door of my room. He stood five feet and nothing, but was well-built, like a scale model of Adonis, and with him arrived the stink of stale cigarette smoke. Great, I thought. I’m meeting my roommate naked. He heaved the duffel into the room, closed the door, and walked over to me."

“I’m Chip Martin,” he announced in a deep voice, the voice of a radio deejay. Before I could respond, he added, “I’d shake your hand, but I think you should hold on d**n tight to that towel till you can get some clothes on.”

This section of the book, on page 9, is what could help hook potential readers. This part of the book got me hooked and caught my attention because it is funny. It is about a new boy at school meeting his new roommate almost naked and this makes me laugh and it tells me and other readers that these characters are going to be interesting. This section of the story is also an eye grabber because it is more towards the beginning of the book and personally, it helped me get more focused on the story because if the beginning of the story was boring, I probably would have thought about changing books. So luckily, within the first 9 pages of the story, I was able to pay attention to who the characters were and how the story will go.

Entry two July 7th: Looking For Alaska

As I mentioned in my previous entry, there are three main characters in the story Looking for Alaska. Each character, Miles, the Colonel, and Alaska, have a purpose of being in the story and they all have a reason for being known as a main character. Just like probably every other teen in the world, they all desire to be something and want to have something they might have to work for. For the main character Miles he desires to find himself and works to find the importance of who he really is. He does this by having a fresh, new start at a boarding school in Alabama, away from his few friends and little family back at home in Florida. Another main character, the Colonel, also has a desire for things. The Colonel desires to be the best at everything he can. He wants to be known by everyone as the risky teenage boy who doesn’t care what others think and what trouble he gets into. A third and final character is Alaska. Alaska, as I said before, is mysterious and confusing to others. She desires to be strong. Alaska deep down has a lot of pain in her life but she knows how to hide it. She wants everyone to see her as the tough girl that can get through anything, no matter how hurtful it is. These three characters all have something in common and that is the desire to want or to be someone or something.

A big theme I have noticed that is beginning to develop in this story is finding who you are through experiencing new things. The character Miles is looking to find himself and this is something that teenagers struggle with every day, finding who you really are. Every character by the end of the story finds something about themselves that they didn’t already know. They find themselves through the experiences they have encountered throughout the whole story. Another theme that I have noticed developing in this story is the meaning of life. Throughout the whole story there are a lot of ups and downs for each character. Each character somehow finds a way to get through their downs, although it might get difficult. In order to get through life, you have to have an idea of what life means and that death is inevitable. This theme is important because it can help the reader know the importance of life and how it can get you through it.

Almost every story is written differently. The way that the book Looking for Alaska is structured is that the author decided not to use chapters and instead he split the book into before and after. The before part of the story begins with "One Hundred and Thirty-six Days Before" and the after part ends with "One Hundred and Thirty-six Days After." This is important because it helps the reader be able to see what events led to the main event of the story, kind of like a timeline. This story has many big events and using the before and after method helps the reader be able to point out those events. In my opinion, I think the author structured this book in the most unique way he possibly could.

Entry one July 7th: Looking For Alaska

The book I am doing for summer reading is called Looking for Alaska written by John Green. There are three main characters in this story and their names are Miles, also known as Pudge, Chip, also known as the Colonel, and Alaska. Miles is a quiet and smart student at his new school which is also a boarding school. He wants two things at his new school. One is to get away from everyone at his old school so he can discover himself and the other is to get the girl he really likes, Alaska, to like him back. One other main character is Chip, but he prefers to be called the Colonel. The Colonel is roommates with the new student Miles. The Colonel is a very chilled, laid-back, and social guy. He is friends with everyone and doesn’t really worry about getting into trouble. A third main character is Alaska. Alaska is also very social and has many friends just like the Colonel. Alaska’s friends would describe her as being mysterious and a “tom-boy.” Though she currently has a boyfriend during the beginning of the story, she’s friends with all the guys and understands them more than the average teenage girl. These three different characters do a great job of making the story Looking for Alaska come together.

The setting of this story is at a boarding school in Alabama called Culver Creek where high schooler’s go to school and also live on their own on the school campus.

The conflict for the audience of the story is person vs self. One of the main characters, Miles, is trying to find himself throughout the whole story. Before he came to Culver Creek, he was just a lonely boy in his home town at his old school. He is trying to discover who he is and the importance of himself. If Miles were to explain it he would say he is searching for his “Great Perhaps.” In the story he quotes a poet, Francois Rabelais. Francois Rabelais’ last words were, “I go to seek a Great Perhaps.” Miles then says, “That’s why I’m going. So I don’t have to wait until I die to start seeking a Great Perhaps.”

So far, I am only about half way through the story. As I stated above, Miles is in search to find himself and who he really is. Based on that, I predict that eventually and towards the end of the story Miles figures out who he truly is and the importance of himself. I also predict that Miles will get the girl he wants, Alaska. Based off the title of the story, I predict that something crazy happens to Alaska. The title is Looking for Alaska so I predict that Alaska somehow goes missing. Did someone take her? Or did she do something to herself like run away or possibly suicide? I guess I will just have to keep reading!

A connection that I made to this story was that the main character Miles is trying to find himself. Since Miles is a young teenage boy, this can relate to many teenagers in this world who are lost in who they are. In my opinion, teenagers have a lot of pressure going on in their life. It’s the stage right before becoming an adult and figuring out who you might want to become and what you might want to do with your life. So the fact that Miles is searching for himself can help relate to many teenagers in the world today.

 

 

Heaven is for real #6

Every book has a theme. The theme of Heaven is for Real is what life is after death. Some people believe that there is a place we go to after we die called Heaven. Others believe in stuff like reincarnation or that we just disappear after we die and become a star or something like that. The theme in this story strengthens the story because it pretty much is the story. Like I have said, this book is about a boy visiting afterlife. He describes what Heaven is like. In my opinion, I think he really did visit Heaven. I believe this because he said things that the average 3-4 year old wouldn't know. He described things like hearing the angels singing. He even described what his parents were doing when he visited Heaven and looked down at his family. Maybe this story is a scam but I think and hope it isn't.

Another theme of this story could be looking through the eyes of a child. Children have big imaginations and see things and believe things that teenagers and older people grow out of seeing and believing. If more people used their imagination like kids, we would be able to see or believe things that would be hard to believe as an older person.

Heaven is for real #5

My last post I talked about how Colton is getting sick and how this is affecting his family. The Burpo parents, Todd and Sonja, took Colton to the doctor, and as I said before the doctor gave them the wrong information that Colton had the stomach flu. So, the doctor told the parents that he needs to be kept in doctors hospital until he gets better. Mr. Burpo carries Colton to the hosptial room and lets the doctor hook him up to a bunch of machines that will help him get better. After a few days, the parents realized he wasn't getting better. They thought to themselves, "This can't be just the stomach flu. It has to be something bigger." And that's when they realized that the doctor was wrong. He has appendicitis. They unattached Colton and took him to a different hospital where they could get the correct answers. They took him to a hospital called Great Plains Regional Medical Center in North Platte. They rushed Colton in and began doing X-Rays right away. The parents were looking at the terrible pictures, Coltons appendix had exploded. This sickness had run through the family so the parents have seen this before. They knew all the bad stuff that was about to happen.

I predict that Colton's condition is just going to get worse. This will change the lives of his whole family, church, and just his whole life. I predict that Colton will have to go through some type of surgery that will hopefully save his life.

This story uses a lot of syntax. Some syntax it uses is that it uses various sentence lengths. The use of a variety of sentence lengths adds emphasis to the story. If all the sentences were short, the story would be boring. If all the sentences were long, the reader would get confused with an overload of information. This story also uses a lot of good vocab that fits the story. The vocab it uses is vocab that adds emphasis to the story but at the same time it is understandable.

Blog Assessment Heaven is for real #2

            Specific words/phrases that I used while writing this blog post that demonstrate my voice as a writer are adjectives I used such as, excellent, fantastic, and amazing. These words showcase my personality as a writer because it shows that when I am writing, I am writing with enthusiasm and excitement. This can show the readers the author’s type of personality.

            Some diction I used while writing this blog post was elevated/formal diction. Formal diction is using proper writing skills and using a wide variety of proper vocabulary that makes the author sound wise. An example of my use of formal diction in this post is, “The best part about his writing is that he always includes important details that other authors might not think about including.” Some syntax that was used I used while writing this blog post was sentence length. The sentence length I used in this post varies from medium to long. An example of the use of various sentence lengths is, “This book is a true story about his son who got really sick when he was little. This story is very interesting.” The use of both diction and syntax helps make each post more detailed and more intriguing.