Blog of 2/16/15

Ashes By Ilsa J. Bick

Prompt:  Describe the main characters

Pages Read: 150-200

  They're are 3 main characters is the book Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick so far. The first main character is a girl named Alexandra (Alex). She is around the age of 15 and she has red hair. She also has a brain tumor. She left her home recently because she wanted to take a hike. She used to live with her Aunt Hannah. Alex left her home and drove all the way to Michigan. Alex just wanted to get stuff off her mind. She wanted to get away from all the medicine and hospitals that were always around her. Her Aunt Hannah called her once Alex reached Michigan. After that they never spoke to each other again.

          The second main character in the book is Ellie. Ellie is a little girl around the age of 8 and with blond hair. Ellie was walking around the woods with her grandpa Jack and accidentally met Alex. Ellie is sort of ungraceful child. She lives with her grandpa because her Dad died and her mother left her when she was young. Throughout the book so far Ellie has changed a little. She is becoming nicer than she was before but she is still that little annoying child.

The third main character in the book is Tom. Tom is teenager around the 20. Him and two other friends were in the forest. He saved Alex and Ellie lives from one of his friends who had turned crazy. That's how he met Alex and Ellie. Tom works for the army, he is the person who deactivates bombs. He has a lot of skills and they come really in handy because they are in the forest. These are the 3 main characters in the book Ashes.

I commented on Lillian, Mia, and Saul's blog

Poetry Response

           
          The poem I chose to talk about is "My Best Friend" by Brianne Green. This poem is about a long friendship. The author is describing her best friend and how she's always been there for here. She's describing how long and how much she likes her friendship. I think the author wrote this because she might have experienced with this kind of a long friendship. She is saying about how much she loves her best friend because she has always been there for her. The author is also describing the memories she has had with her best friend so far.

I picked this picture because it relates really well to my poem. This picture says that "GREAT FRIENDS are hard to find, difficult to leave & impossible to forget." This relates to poem because both talk about how important a friendship is. They both are basically saying to value the friendship you have with someone cause great friends are hard to find in the world these days.

This poem makes a text to self connection. I have a friend who has always been there for me. That friend is Irma Gualpa. Me and Irma have been friends since 1st grade. We have always been there for each other, through thick and thin. When we are at our worst we know we can count on each other. I trust her a lot. We can keep each others secrets. I know I can trust her with anything and she knows that about me too. We have never turned our back at each other and we don't plan on doing that. We can always be ourselves around each other cause we have known each other for a long time. Her friendship is really important to me and I hope we keep being friends for a long time.

My Best Friend

By: Brianne Green

I have a lot to say

About my best friend

She has always been there for me

When in need

I don't know what I would have done

Without her in my life

She is kind

Loving

Caring

Here by my side

For the good and bad

We shared a lot of

Laughter

Along the way

We hold each others secrets

Deep in are hearts

Never shall they be said

Never shall we turn against each other

Always will be here for her

And she will always be here for me

Blog of 2/9/15

Ashes By Ilsa J. Bick

Prompt:  Draw 4 objects that represent your reading. Write a sentence for each, telling

what each item says about what you’ve been reading.

Pages Read: 52-150

          The 4 objects I picked to represent my reading are brain cancer, a forest, a pack of dogs, and survival kit. I chose a brain cancer because the main character is Ashes has brain cancer. The main character in the book is Alexandra (Alex) and she has brain cancer. She wanted to get away from all the medications and hospitals so she decided to go on a hike. Even though she has brain cancer she didn't really care and she wanted time for herself. The hike she took turned to be really shocking instead of calm and relaxing. In every turn she is facing life or death. 

          I picked a forest to represent my reading because the book takes place in a forest. Ashes takes place in a forest in Michigan near Superior Lake. All the events currently happening are in this forest. Most of the events are tragical and most are dreadful. In this forest Alex chose to take a 12 day hike trip. The hike takes 12 days total getting there and back. An unfortunate event happens which causes the 12 day hike trip to become even longer.

          The 3rd object I picked was a pack of wild dogs. I picked a pack of wild dogs because Alex and her companion Ellie get attacked by a pack of wild dogs. These dogs were released into the forest because their owners thought they would do better in the wild by themselves. Those dogs eventually came together and formed a pack. This pack of dogs go around the forest and attack people and Alex was one of them. 

          The 4th object I picked to represent my drawing is a survival kit. I picked a survival kit because when Alex was going to go on a hike she brought something close to a survival kit but thanks to Ellie she lost most of her supplies. Ellie has been very clumsy most of the book and she made Alex loose 3/4 of her food, water supply, gun, gear, and her pack. Alex lost all of this trying to save Ellie but Ellie doesn't care. Alex and Ellie are practically left with nothing. These are the 4 objects I picked to represent my reading. 

I commented on: Rebecca T, Justin R, and Giovanna G

Book Talk 2/3/15

Book Talk for Go Ask Alice

Written Transcript

Go Ask Alice by Anonymous

Genre: Realistic Fiction

          The book I will be doing this book talk on is “Go Ask Alice”. The author of this book is Anonymous and the genre of this book is realistic fiction because most of the things in this book could happen in real life.

          Now I’m going to give you a summary of the book. I don’t know where the book takes place because it doesn’t say in the book. The main character of the book is a 15 year old girl, but it doesn’t say her name in the book. The conflict of the book is addiction to drugs. The 15 year old girl who used to be a honor roll student was invited to a party. In that party they played a little game and they handed each person a soda including her. There were 14 people in that party. When she took a sip of the soda she began to feel weird. That’s when one of the kids told her that 10 out of the 14 sodas had LSD in them. LSD is a type of drug. When the drug effect was over she left like she needed to do it again. The day after she was feeling depressed and she couldn’t sleep at all. These were the effects of the LSD. She didn’t want to feel this way so she began to experiment with other kinds of drugs. After she did it once her whole life changed, she used drugs as a part of her everyday life. She slowly began to lose everything that used to be important in her old life. She became careless. Everything changed for her just because of one drug trip. The mood of the book is mostly shocking because of what happens to her after taking her first drug trip. The theme of the book is to never do drugs and to see the consequences of taking drugs.

Review: 

          I liked the book because it gave me the point of view of a 15 year old girl. Which is sort of close to my age. What I remember most about the book is what happened to her after she took her first taste of drugs. Yes, I would recommend this book because it actually gives you a inside look on drugs and it is pretty scary. I would recommend it to anyone. The viewer should go and get this book because it is pretty life changing. This girl used to be a honor roll student but by just taking one drug trip she ruined her whole life. She ruined it in less than one year. This book is actually based on a true story of a 15 year old girl.

I commented on Evie, Lillian, and Diana's blogs for this week.

8th Graders: Diego and Sarai

Gallery Walk 1/30/15

My Reflection of the Gallery Walk

           One thing I learned from the gallery walk is that there might be a cure for cancer. I found this out from Diana Almazon's article. Scientists have found a vaccine that kills the cancer cells. The downside to this vaccine is that it only works on some types of cancer. It doesn't work on all types of cancer, only some. For example this vaccine doesn't kill Leukemia. I found this pretty interesting because scientists have years trying to find the cure for cancer and they have finally found it. Well, they haven't found the cure for all types of cancer but they have at least found a cure for some types of cancer. 

           Another thing I learned from the gallery walk is that the boy in the box mystery is still unsolved. This mystery has been unsolved for 60 years now.  The boy is still It is about a kid who somehow got on Earth, somehow got into a box, and somehow disappeared.  No one knows who the kid is, or who his parents are. I found this interesting because no one knows anything about the boy or who he was. This was pretty shocking because after 60 years no one knows anything about kid yet. 

Blog for 1/26/15

Ashes By Ilsa J. Bick

Prompt:  Are the characters realistic (do they seem like they could be read people)? Why

or why not?

Pages Read: 0-52

Ashes by Ilsa J. Bick is about a teenager girl named Alexandria (Alex) who has a brain tumor in her head. She left her home recently because she wanted to take a hike. She lives with her Aunt Hannah. Alex left her home and drove all the way to Michigan. Alex just wanted to get stuff off her mind. She wanted to get away from all the medicine. Her Aunt Hannah thought she wanted to commit suicide. Her Aunt Hannah called her once Alex reached Michigan. After that they never spoke to each other again.

The main character in Ashes which is Alex is pretty realistic. She has a brain tumor which is a real thing in real life. She's also a regular teenager like everyone else. She has suffered a lot of things because of her brain tumor. For example, she lost most of her memories and she even lost her sense of taste and smell. She's gone through problems some people haven't thanks to her brain tumor. These things make it pretty realistic.

Another realistic character in Ashes is Ellie. Ellie is a little girl who was walking around the woods with her grandpa Jack and accidentally met Alex. Ellie is sort of ungraceful child. She lives with her grandpa because her Dad died and her mother left her when she was young. She has a dog named Mina which was her dad's dog before he died. Her grandpa gave it her so she could have a piece of her father still around but she hates that dog. These things are pretty realistic.

I commented on Omar, Rebecca, and Sam's blogs for this week.

Blog for 1/20/15

Go Ask Alice By Anonymous 

Prompt:  Would you recommend this book to friends? Why or Why not?   
Pages Read: 58-end


"Go Ask Alice" by Anonymous is diary of an actual 15 year old girl who got into drugs. She was a really good student, she had honors and her parents were really proud of her. Until one day they had to move houses. Everything changed for her.. new home, new school, and new friends. When school was finally over she went to spend the summer with her grandma and while she was there she got invited to a party. At the party she was served a coke which had LSD in it. Once she tried that drug... her whole life changed.

Yes, I would recommend this book. This book changed my point of view on the outcomes of drugs. "Go Ask Alice" is an actual diary of a girl who took drugs. The outcome of her taking drugs was surprising. She explained everything that happened to her when she took the drugs. I would recommend this book because some teenagers these days think drugs are cool and stuff like that but this book explains the outcome of taking drugs. The outcomes are horrifying. A 15 year old girl who was a straight A student came down to skipping classes, selling drugs to minors, etc. She ruined her whole life by just taking one drug. I would really recommend this book.

She slowly begins to get addicted to the drugs, day by day she takes them more and more. The more she takes them the more she ruins her own life. She tries to stop her addiction but she can't resist and she has to take drugs. In her diary she even says, "After you've had it, there isn't even a life without drugs". Two things that you will learn in this book is to never do drugs and to not trust a lot of people. She trusted different people and told them the truth about her and how she did drugs. Those people went around and told other people and eventually everyone heard about her. When she tried to erase her past about the drugs she couldn't because everyone knew what she had done. This is a really life changing book, I would recommend it to most people.
(I know I never mentioned the name of the girl in the book and it is because it never mentions it in the book)

I commented on Mia, Diana's, and Evie's blogs for this week.