What dee do awesome readers?! Came back for more I see! Well read onnnnnnn!
If you read my last blog on this book, you'll know that I had left off on talking about how she wishes people would speak with her on a more serious level about her mothers death. So to continue on, you guys should already know that even though she wishes people would have a serious conversation about her mother, she still feels very very fragile and sensitive about the subject. In school she realizes that throughout her day, it's basically about the subject of mothers in general. Corinna says on page 28, "Our gym teacher warned us yesterday that we should call our mothers if we didn't behave. At the lunch table next to ours, some girls were complaining about their moms making lunches they don't like. In English, we're reading a book about mothers called They Cage the Animals at Night. It's a totally sad story in which the mother is sick and the kids go to an orphanage. Oh, and on that school form Norma the Storma wants, it asks for emergency contact information, for my father and my mother." After that she had said, "Each time the subject of mothers comes up, a red flag goes up, telling my ears to shut down. Then my brain gets a little fuzzy and I can't concentrate." This shows that Corinna isn't really fond of talking about the mother subject. She'll only take it when she needs to, other wise, she'll just keep doing the same thing for each time she feels it isn't necessary for her to listen. For more on this book, check out my next blog. Or even better, READ THE BOOK! It's NEVER too late!
The main conflict that I noticed in the book is person vs. self. Corinna has many thoughts and emotions that she feels that she has to keep to herself. Going a little bit back from the book, on page 16, Corinna says, "It feels like I'm on a separate planet from everyone else. The kids at school are on Planet Normal, the planet I used to belong to. Their lives are going on as if nothing had happened. And then there's me. I'm on Planet Doom an Gloom. I don't know if I'll ever get back to Planet Normal. I was right to have been worried about school. I am obviously the unofficial and unmistakable class freakazoid. You'd think no one had ever encountered death in all of history." Long quote, yeah I know, but this just shows how isolated and alone Corinna feels in school, even sometimes at home. But Corinna says she "somehow makes it through the day". It must take A LOT of strength for her to even wake up in the morning. I mean, just knowing that you no longer have a mother to look forward to seeing in the morning or throughout the weekends. I just hope that at some point during the book, Corinna is able to find peace and finally feel happy again.
My class and I have just finished reading a Scope Article called "Would We Be Killed". It talks about how "Thousands of Native American children were taken from their families and taken to boarding schools to "Learn the ways of a white man". The Native American children were marginalized in many ways. Specifically the Sioux children. The children weren't really free to do anything that they wanted to do, they were assigned jobs and they had to do only that. They were forced to do so many things as well. In the article "Would We Be Killed" it had said, "At boarding schools, boys learned traded like shoemaking or gardening. Girls were taught domestic duties like housekeeping. All children were forced to speak only English." This quote from the article proves that the kids didn't really have many options on what they wanted to do. Their opinions didn't really matter, and they were forced upon many things that maybe inside, they didn't really want to do.
A 17 year-old girl named Shanice Britton had written essay talking about her and her "Life on the Rez". The purpose for Shanice's essay was to inform the readers that Native Americans aren't that different from ourselves. In the beginning of her essay she says, "When people find out that I am Native American, they have all these ideas about what that means- that I live in a teepee and wear moccasins and a headdress. But those are misconceptions." This quote shows that we are so quick to judge and assume things that we don't even know. Shanice wants us to know that just because she's Native American, doesn't mean that she's andy different from ourselves. Yes, she is a regular teenager. She lives in a house that has a grocery store, a gas station, and restaurants around her neighborhood. She takes showers, she watches TV, and she wears jeans! She's just like us! She is no different! Yeah she may have traditions that go on in her tribe, but if you really think about it, we do too. She wants us to know that we are all the same and different in many ways, and there shouldn't be so many stereotypes about other people just because their different. We have to have tolerance towards others.
Hello Fellow Readers! It's been awhile since I've posted a blog, but I'm back at it with some supa supa awesome blogging skills! Stick around and enjoy!
As you see in the title, I've started reading a new book, and it's called "If Only" by Carole Geithner. This book is about a girl named Corinna, she's starting off school as an official eighth grader. But, Corinna isn't exactly excited and joyous about going back to school because of one thing and one thing only, her mother's death over the summer. Corinna and her dad share the same feelings about her mother's death, so her feelings at home are no different than from when she's in school. Except in school, she feels very alone and isolated no matter how many friends she talks to. In one part of the book, Corinna even had to write a five paragraph essay talking about the highlights of her summer. That didn't turn out too well. On page 27 of the book, Corinna Says, "I think almost everyone knows now that my mom died, but it's like a forbidden subject. On rare occasions, someone says, "I'm so sorry about your mom," or "I don't know what to say except I'm sorry ." Those are both good things to say, but no one ever says anything like, "It must be hard when we're talking about our mothers." This shows that inside, Corinna wishes that people would be more open and there to be able to talk about her mother's death on a serious level, instead of someone just saying "I'm sorry about your mom's death" and all that jazz. If ya diggin what's been said, check out the book yourself! "If Only", buy it at KMART, HALF PRICE BOOKS, AND MANY OTHER STORES. LOLOLOLOL!!! But seriously, read this book yo!
The genre of the book would be like a sad, young adult fiction type of book. This book so far has seemed like a very low and depressing book. Yeah, there are some uplifting and cheerful parts in the book, but it's mostly just depressing and low. Once you start reading the book (first chapter) you notice that Corinna doesn't feel too well about starting off the eighth grade. In the third paragraph of the first chapter, Corinna says, " That's when I freeze. How can I continue to put one foot in the front of the other when I can barely breathe? How can I smile and talk to everyone like I'm the old me, like nothing has changed?" Just by reading these couple of sentences, you can kind of sense the kind of mood that's going to be going on throughout the book.
Hello ladies and gents! Glad you came back! Unfortunately, this is going to be my last blog on this book. I have finally finished the book! 'SUCCESS!'It feels so good, yet so sad. I mean, I'm glad I finished the book and all, but then I'm sad I finished it so quickly! ): Well to get back on track, I'll be telling you a little bit more about the book, starting from where I left off in my last blog. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then check out my last couple of blogs! You'll dig em!
So, I believe I left off on where Sky had told Caymen that Xander was looking for Caymen at Henry's show. Now, since I finished the book, I'm just going to go a little a bit further into the book. But, I'm not going to tell you all the way towards the end because nobody likes a spoiler! But moving forward, at one point of the book, Caymen gets upset at Xander and debates with herself if she is going to talk to him or not. So she ends up deciding she'll avoid him until they have to see one another again. The reason why she kind of gets upset is because she saw in "The LA Magazine" that he was with another girl named Sadie Newel. She was rich just like Xander, she was an actress. By now I'm pretty sure you can tell that Caymen is in love with Xander, whether she wants to admit it or not. So you can tell that her reaction wasn't so surprising. When she was reading further into the magazine, it had said, "Xander Spence, the son of high-end hotel owner Blaine Spence, was spotted in Los Angeles last weekend outside the nightclub Oxygen with his longtime girlfriend, actress Sadie Newel, who had been filming in Paris for the last six months..." That was what it said in the article. But Caymen was telling herself, "Longtime girlfriend? I can't read anymore because my vision blurs. But there is no way I'm going to cry over this. I had already let Xander go." It's most definitely clear that she likes him more than a friend, whether she wants to admit it or not. But maybe eventually she'll finally admit to what she feels, and he'll feel the same way about her. Well, this is my last blog on this book, so check it out if you want to read more conflict that goes on in the book, READ IT! YOU WON'T REGRET IT!
I realized in my book that I have many connections with Caymen in the book. Caymen and I are both sarcastic, and we don't really have a great life. But we still manage to make it the best one we have. I'm going to go far back into the beginning of my book because it kind of gives you a clue that she's what she considers herself as "dry". On page 19 of the book, she has a conversation with her favorite customer, she says, "That's cool. I'm sure she'll love it. How old will the lucky little girl be?"
"Sixteen" Mrs. Dalton says.
"Oh. The lucky... big girl." I didn't know what to else to say without sounding rude. Mrs.Dalton laughs.
"Don't worry, Caymen, I have other presents for her. This gift is more to humor her grandma. I've gotten her a doll every year since she turned one. It's hard for me to break a tradition no matter how old they get."
"My mother thanks you for that." Mrs. Dalton laughs. She gets my jokes. Maybe because she's a little dry herself." So after reading that mini conversation, you can kinda tell that she's "dry". By "dry", I guess she means sarcastic. If you know me very well, I'm the type a person to be VERY SARCASTIC! Caymen and I have many things in common, and if she were a real person, we'd be heck of great friends lemmeh tell ya!
I will be respectful towards people's beliefs and opinions. To me, tolerance means to not judge what other people think. Just recently, some of my friends didn't like what I had said. I felt really offended because it made me feel like my opinion didn't matter, and if I didn't have the same opinion that they had, then they wouldn't talk to me. Then they started to say stuff that made me feel even worse, but I stood up for myself and for my opinion. Ever since that had happened to me, I have learned in life that I shouldn't judge what other people's beliefs and opinions are, because if I didn't like it happening to me, then I shouldn't let it happen to other people as well. I feel like in the future I will be well respected, since I've learned to accept people for the way that they are and what they believe in.
I've felt invisible many times in my life. But the main one that is most effective is when I'm with my family. They always choose to not tell me things, and they don't really care for my opinion. I feel invisible at times because I feel that they don't really think my opinion is valid when we are together. I mean, yeah sometimes they decide to hear me out. For example, with food. Haha. But when it comes to serious stuff, and I speak my opinion, which is the truth, they either don't listen, or they do, but don't do anything. But of course, it has changed, just not so much. What I did to fix it, was just stop giving my opinion on the topics we speak of. It's easier for me, and probably easier for my family. But, I think doing that just made me feel more isolated and alone. Maybe one day, I'll be able to speak my opinion, and be trusted by my family, but for now, I'd prefer to let things stay where they are.
Heyyoooooo My Beautiful Readers! Glad you came back for more!
Don't know what I'm talkin about? Check out my last couple a blogs to see catch up on a little bit I've been talking about in my book "The Distance Between Us". Well moving forward, after the day that "Alex"(Xander) came into the shop to pick up Mrs. Dalton's doll, Caymen's best friend named Sky's boyfriend Pete, invited Caymen to one of Pete's band concerts. Just a little pause here.. XANDER IS MRS.DALTON'S GRANDCHILD. May not have been a big deal for you but it was for me. But anywaayysss.... Xander overheard Pete talking to Caymen about the concert, but Caymen never went. But like a couple days after the concert, Sky and Pete came back to the doll store and Sky was telling Caymen how she and her boyfriend saw Xander at the concert. HE WAS LOOKING FOR HER. SO DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? HE WENT FOR CAYMEN!!! I can even prove it to you! On page 37 of the book, it says, "She drags me to the floor in front of Henry. While he sings she looks over at me. "Oh someone asked about you last night."
"Where?"
"At Scream Shout."
"Who?"
" I don't know, some kid who looked like he could've owned the place. Dressed like a fancy-pants. Super white teeth." Now I'll just paraphrase the rest of it, because it sure is a heck of a long conversation they had. Going on from that, Caymen just knows that it was Xander just by the way Sky was describing him, and so she started to ask more questions. Sky ended up saying how she knew for sure that he was looking for Caymen. If you want to find out the exact words, then I suggest you read the book! For more details on what happens next, make sure to stay tuned for my next blog this week!
The point of view in this book is First Person. i know this because in the book, I find that most of the sentences include the words I, me, or mine. Another way I know is because I can read the thoughts that Caymen is thinking. For example, on Chapter 20, second paragraph 2, Caymen says, " No wonder why he was confused I didn't know what his family's business was when we first met. He probably thought I was pretending to not know who he was. I blame it on our lack of cable. I may not have known exactly who he was, but I always knew he was a somebody." This shows how Caymen feels about what is going on between Xander and herself. Caymen replays the events that had happened when they were communicating. Will Caymen be better off without him, or will be apart only make her feel worse?
