Perks of Being a Wallflower-Charlie is a dynamic character

I just finished reading the book Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky.  Charlie is considered a dynamic character because he changes a lot throughout the story.   The book is mainly about a high school freshman, Charlie, who is considered an outcast by his peers and didn't have friends in the beginning.  On page 18 he wrote about when he went to the school football game, "I went alone because Michael is gone, and Susan hangs around different boys now..." (Chbosky,18).

Evenutally Charlie became friends with 2 seniors and they introduced him to other people.  Charlie became much more social and even went to lots of parties and hung out with friends.  On page 197 Charlie wrote, "Every night, we would all get together after Sam had just said goodbye to some uncle or had another lunch with her mom or done more shopping for school things."  Charlie became really good friends with Sam and her brother Patrick.

I also noticed that Charlie seemed very depressed in the beginning of the book because he was really sad that his best friend Michael committed suicide.  But once he found new friends and became more social, he was talking less of sad things and more of happy things.

Perks of Being a Wallflower setting

Right now I'm reading the book Perks of Being a Wallflower.  The main character, Charlie, is a freshman in highschool and he is considered a misfit among the other students.  So far this book mainly takes place during 1991 at school and some school football games.  Charlie used to go to the school football games with his only friend, Michael.  But Michael committed suicide so Charlie is left with no friends.  Charlie continued to go to the football games but he went alone, until he met two seniors, Sam and Patrick.  Sam and Patrick, were very friendly and befriend him and let him join their group of friends. The football game is a very important setting in this book because it began Charlie's friendship with Sam and Patrick.  Sam and Patrick take Charlie to many parties where there are lots of drugs and alcohol.  Most of Sam and Patrick's friends are very nice to Charlie but they are a bad influence on Charlie, they offer him drugs and alcohol and sometimes Charlie agrees to try some.  When Charliewent to his first party with Patrick and Sam he described it as, "The party was in the basement of this house.  The room was quite smokey, and the kids were much older.  There were two girls showing each other their tattoos and belly button rings.  Seniors, I think." (page 34, paragraph 1).

The Thief Lord text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections

Right now I'm reading the book The Thief Lord.  This book is about A boy named Prosper who runs away with his little brother, Bo, to Venice to get away from their aunt and uncle.  Prosper and Bo's parents died so their aunt and uncle adopted them.  But Their Aunt Esther plans on giving Prosper up for adoption and keeping Bo.  The boys don't want to be separated from eachother so the run away to Venice.  When they run away, Prosper has to take the role as a father and take care of Bo.  I can relate a lot to prosper because I have two little sisters and a lot of times I have to take care of them.  

The Thief Lord reminds me a lot of another book I read called The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.  This book is from the point of view of the second oldest child, Jeannette Walls.  This true story is about a poor family where the father is an alchoholic and the mother doesn't want the responsibility of taking care of a family and wants to paint all day.  The four children basicly have to raise themselves, much like the way Prosper and Bo have to live on their own without their parents.

Prosper and Bo eventually find three other run away kids, Riccio, Mosca and Hornet.  They take Prosper and Bo in and they all decide to live together in an abandoned movie theater.  Towards the end all the run away kids get adopted.  This relates to the world because there are lots of kids in orphanages and on the streets.  There should be much more people that decide to adopt so they can help the children that need a family and a place to call home.

Prosper in The Thief Lord

In this book Prosper has to take care of his younger brother, Bo.  Prosper has to take the role of a parent after they run away to Venice, Italy.  Prosper changes a lot throughout the story because he has to learn to live on his own and take care of his brother.  In the beginning Prosper is laid back and happy that he and his brother have ascaped from their aunt and uncle, but when they find out that their aunt hired a detective to find them, Prosper becomes more cautious and protective of Bo.  When they find Victor the detective following them around the city, Prosper becomes very afraid that his aunt will find Bo and Prosper will never be able to be with his brother again.  When Bo decides that he wants to become a thief like their leader, Scipio, Prosper becomes very worried because he doesn't want Bo to steal. Towards the end of the book, Prosper goes with Scipio and sneaks onto someones property.  They get caught but the owners of the house let them ride on a magical merry go round which turns Scipio  into a grownup.

Jeannette in The Glass Castle

Jeannette is one of four children in the Walls family.  The Walls family was very poor and moved from place to place.  The Glass Castle was a true story all about the family's life from the point of view of Jeannette, the second oldest child.  Jeannette is her fathers favorite child and tends to hang out with her younger brother, Brian, the most.  She doesn't connect well with her older sister, Lori, because Jeannette liked to explore and play while Lori would rather read, paint, or draw.

In the beginning of the book Jeannette if carefree, has lots of friends and explores the desert.  But as she grows older she has to take on the role of earning money for the family.  She also finds that when she begins high school that she has no friends.  But she soon becomes busy at her job at a jewelry store and staying after school writing for the newspaper.

As Jeannette grows more aware of how bad her family's financial situation there is more conflict between her and her mom, her mother does not want the responsibility of taking care of a family. Jeannette has to drag her mother out of bed and make her go to work as a teacher.

Theif Lord by Cornelia Funke, Reading skills

Right now I’m reading the Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke.  This book is about a group of orphans who live together in an abandoned movie theater that they call The Star Palace.  Their leader, Scipio, didn’t live with them but he helped them by sneaking into houses and stealing valuable things.  The children would then go to a pawn shop and sell the things they stole to the shop owner, Barbarosa.  But one day they got an offer, Scipio would break into a house to steal a wooden wing for a old man known as the Conte.  In reward they would get a large reward, five million lire. I wonder why the Conte would pay so much for a wooden wing.  They found out that the wing belonged to an old magical merry go round.  The merry go round made children into adults and adults into children. 

I predict that Scipio and the kids will go try to find the merry go round, I also predict that Scipio will want to ride it and become an adult because he always tries to act grown up.

Scipio in The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

This book is about a group of kids who live in an abandoned movie theater in Venice, Italy.  Their leader is Scipio, who calls himself the Thief Lord.  He breaks into fancy houses and steals valuable things and then sells them to Barbarosa, the owner of a pawn shop. All the money he earns go to food, clothing and other things for the kids who live in the movie theater, Prosper, Bo, Mosca, Riccio, and Hornet.

The five children don't know where Scipio lives, how he breaks into houses, or anything about his past.  They are just grateful that he takes care of them.  Scipio is very secretive and sneaky.  Bo, the youngest one, sees Scipio as a hero, someone who he aspires to be. But towards the end, the children find out that everything Scipio has told them is a lie.  They find out that Scipio was not a runaway from the orphanage, he lived in a large mansion.  Everything he stole was just things he had taken from his own house.

When the other children find out that Scipio was lying the whole time, a lot of conflict is created.  Riccio even decides that he won't talk to Scipio.

In the beginning Scipio is considered a generous hero who is taking care of 5 run away kids.  But later, he is considered a liar.  Scipio's characterization changed a lot throughout the story.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

Over the summer I read The Glass Castle as my summer reading book.  I liked this book far more than I thought I would.  I don't usually like to read but I found myself reading this book in my free time.  This story is about a poor family's journey through life from the point of view from the second oldest child, Jeannette.  The childrens father was very caring but only when he was sober, which wasn't very often, and their mother didn't want to have the responsibility for taking care of a family.  This book never got boring and always had something interesting going on whether there was a fight or they were going on an adventure. The four children in the Walls family were always the poorest kids in the neighborhood.  Jeannette would play with the kids her age but when she became older and went to high school, she found that she had no friends.  Instead of doing nothing in her free time she joined the school newspaper and became a writer.  This prepared her for what her job will be when she grows up.
I definitely recommend The Glass Castle to anybody who wants a book that they won't want to put down.

What Constitutes Success, If

I found a peom called What Constitutes Success, written by Bessie Stanly in 1904.  This poem is all about what qualities make a person successful.   The point the author is trying to make is someone who is a good person, is considered successful.  In this poem the authors says that someone successful left the world better than he found it.  This means that the person helped the world become a better place and helped others.  A person is only considerd successful if they enjoy what they are doing, someone isn't considered successful if they earn a lot of money, but hate their job.  It doesn't matter if a person has a lot of money, a person is successful if they are truly happy.  A successful person always did their best and they worked hard to achive their goal.  Someone successful always looked for something good in everybody, they made a lot of friends. 

Theme: A person is nhot successful if they are not happy with what they do, a person is successful if they enjoy what they do.

What Constitutes Success:http://themotivationalpoem.wordpress.com/

Another poem I found was called If, written by Rudyard Kipling.  This poem is all about how you should remember all the good things that happened, and forget all the bad things that happened. Why let the bad things bring you down when the good things can make you happy?  Another part of this poem explains how you should not care too much about the mean things people say to you, you should just ignore the bad things that happen.  The author incluudes that if you fail, then you should try again.  If you completely give up, then theres no chance that the task will get done.  But if you keep trying, then there is more of a chance that the task will get done.  In the last stanza of this poem, the author focuses on making the point that you should stay true to who you are and not not change because of who you are surrounded by.

Theme: Forget the bad things that happen and remembber the good things that happened.

If:http://www.familyfriendpoems.com/famous/poem/if-by-rudyard-kipling

Teen invents new way to detect Pancreatic Cancer

A couple days ago I came across an article about a 15 year old science prodigy.  Jack Andraka was a typical high school freshman, except from the fact that he won first place at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair and won $75,000.  Jack won because he created a new way to detect pancreatic cancer; the most lethal form of cancer.  Pancreatic cancer is very difficult to detect in a patient, so his discovery is definitely a step forward in increasing the amount of survivors.  He got inspired when his uncle died of pancreatic cancer.

Its amazing to think that someone this young could make such a big difference in science.  So many people die because they are diagnosed too late, but with this new way to detect pancreatic cancer, there will be so many more survivors.  I never thought that a kid in my grade could make such a big discovery.  But Jack definitely proved me wrong.  This article helped me realize that anybody can make a difference.

I could relate to this article because my grandma had pancreatic cancer, but luckily the doctors diagnosed her when the cancer was in a very early stage.  She is now done with chemo and much healthier now. :)


Article:http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/Jack-Andraka-the-Teen-Prodigy-of-Pancreatic-Cancer-179996151.html?c=y&page=3

Video of Jack at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair:

Theme of The Swimming Contest

Just because your among the also people standing, doesn't mean your the winner.

"Don't Quit"

http://www.onlythebible.com/Poems/Dont-Quit.html

I really like this peom called Don't Quit by an unknown author.  This peom is all about how when we are having a difficult time that we shouldn't give up.  The last line says, "It's when things seem the worst that you mustn't quit."  I think this peom is really motivational and helps you realize that at times things won't be easy and you have to keep pushing through.  It also mentions that you will sometimes fail.  "And many a failure turns about."  This line reminds us that nobody is perfect and you will mess up sometimes.  I also like this poem because it rhymes, I think a poem if fun when it rhymes.

A commonality structure shared between these texts is the use of description to portray a problem and suggest a solution.  This benefits the message of Craig Wilson's article because he shows the reader how crucial it is to solve the problem.

Summer Reading Novel

On a scale of 1-10 I rate The Glass Castle a 9. 

The Glass Castle is a true sory about the life of Jeannette Walls' from when she was growing up.  The Walls family was always poor and had a difficult time trying to support themselves.  Jeannette lived with her mother, father, 2 sisters and brother.  Her father was an alcoholic and her mother didnt want the responsibility of having to support a family.  The theme of this book is forgiveness.  Jeannette and her siblings have to forgive their parents for giving them such a tough life, but they have to forgive them because they know their parents love them.