Hannah's Blog

This week in book club, I am reading a book called The Tripods: The White Mountains by John Christopher.  So far, it is about a boy named Will, his cousin Henry(both 13), and a boy a few years older than them, who they call Beanpole.  When you turn 13, you have a special ceremony called the capping.  The capping is when robots called the tripods shave your head, and put a cap on you so that they can “control” you.  None of the three boys want to be capped, so they are running away to a place called The White Mountains, where there are no tripods.  They experience many adventures along the way like getting locked in a dungeon.

One Synthesis question I had in the book was:

Q: What would happen if Beanpole hadn’t rescued Will and Henry from the dungeon?

A: I think that if Beanpole hadn’t rescued Will and Henry, a few different things could have happened.  One thing that could have happened is the people on the island they were on could take them out and some how make them part of their community.  They would have to learn their language and eventually be capped.  Another thing that could have happened is the same thing, but they run away before they get capped.  Also, the people who looked them up could keep them down there, where they would eventually die.  The last thing I think that could happen is someone else finds them, and lets them go, or wants to go with them like Beanpole did.

One Evaluation question I had while reading was:

Q:  How would you have handled trying to run away from being capped?

I think I would have done pretty much the same thing as Will and Henry, but I might have planned more carefully.  For example, long before they reached the White mountains, they run out of food.  They could have managed to bring a little more food, and eat smaller portions of the food.  Also, before they got to the island where they were locked up, they could have disguised them selves so they looked like one of the people on the island.

For independent read, I am reading Schools Out Forever by James Patterson.  So far, it is about six mutant kids named: Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gasman, and Angel.  They are trying to get away from a place called the school, where they got their wings, and wolf mutant people called Erasers, who want to kill them.  They are also trying to find a building called The Institute for Higher Living, because they heard that it has more information about them.  They are also trying to find their real families, and real identities.  When Fang gets hurt while trying to protect himself against the Erasers, he get badly injured, and someone near by calls the hospital.  The doctors find out that they have wings, and people who know about the kids come and interview them.  They get invited to stay at one of the people’s house’s, but they don’t know if they can trust her, even though they go.

My background knowledge helps me understand this book better, because without it, I would be confused.  Since I already read the first book in this series, and this is the second book, I know everything in the book, without getting confused.  Also, somethings that happen to them I can relate to, like being at hospital, and not knowing if I can trust someone.

Pistol With Tiffany Grip

Over Spring Break, I went to a museum called the Eiteljorg Museum of American and Western Art.  One of the exhibits I saw was called Pistols: Dazzling Firearms!  At the exhibit, there were lots of guns and pistols from the 1800′s.  Some things that interested me were:  The Tiffany Grips on the pistols.  These were grips made from silver, with lots of little carvings in them that tell stories.  Another thing that interested me was when a woman came and told about the life of Annie Oakley.  Annie Oakley was a woman who became famous in a shooting competition.  She first started shooting animals for a shopkeeper, then was asked to soot in a shooting competition.  Later, she got married to her competition Frank Butler.  Something else I liked was how each gun had grips with pictures, initials, and people carved into them.  I liked looking at what was on the guns, who they were made for, how they were made, and what they were used for.  Each gun was so detailed and so unique.  Over all, I think the exhibit was amazing, and it was a great experience.

This week in book club, I am reading Cast Two Shadows by Ann Rinaldi.  It is about a girl in the time of the Revolutionary war.  The main character, Caroline, has an odd family and family background.  After she was born, her mom supposedly dies, and her dad was put in jail for being a rebel.  She is sent to live with her grandmother, who is African.  After two years of living with her grandmother Miz Melindy, she doesn’t want Caroline to live with her any more, she she goes to live with her step mom.  (Her dad marries her almost mother- Mama Sarah-  after Caroline’s mom dies).  Her brother is fighting for the Loyalists, but gets injured.  Caroline feels like she has to save her “almost- brother,” and do what ever it takes to get to him.

Something that I like about this book is how realistic she makes it sound.  The author makes that time period sound how I would imagine it.  Part of this is because how much description the author put into the book, and it makes me feel like I am in the book, following where ever Caroline goes, and what ever she does.

Something I do not like about this book is that pretty much every thing that happens to the characters are at least some what good.  There is no violence, not that violence is good, but a lot of bad things happened during this time, and there is nothing that bad that happens in the book.  I wish that the author would have made more bad things happen to the character.  For example, when Caroline goes to get her brother that has been injured, he is not injured that badly when she gets there, and he is fine.  Something I think the author could have done was made it so that he broke his arm or leg or something like that.  I think that the author could make it more realistic by adding more about injuries and other things like that.

I think that the author chose to call this book Cast Two Shadows because when one of the characters in the book was telling her how many shadows she casts, he said she casts two shadows because she comes from part of a  white family, and part of an African family.  I think that the Author chose to name the book Cast Two Shadows because even thought the book is about the Revolutionary war, and what happened during the time of the war, I also think this book is about Caroline finding who she truly is, who and where she came from, and who her family is.

This week in Independent Reading, I am reading Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment by James Patterson.  It is about six kids that are taken to The School, were they mix their DNA with the DNA of a bird, so they have wings and can fly.  One of the people who work there (called white-coats) wants to secretly save them from The School.  He takes them away to live in a house, but other mutants called Erasers want to kill them and somehow, they can always seem to find them.  One of the six gets stolen and they have to save her.  Along they way, they discover secrets about their past.

To me, I think that the story means many things.  The  first thing I think this book means is teamwork.  I think this is about teamwork because the six kids have to work together to save themselves and their identity.  They  do not want any “regular people” to know about them, so they work together and keep it a secret.  They also have to work together to stay hidden from The School and the Erasers.  Also, they have to work together to find each other if they are lost, or if they have to find a place that they never been to or heard of.

Second, I think  this story means perseverance.  The flock learns a lot about their past life that may be hard to deal with and someone might get all crazy and confused, but they stick with it and act calm.  Also, when they are on a mission and they don’t think they will make it, they keep going any way to save themselves.

Recently, my class watched a video.  It was a speech that 12 year- old Adora Svitak gave in front of lots of adults.  This speech was called: What adults can learn form kids.  It was about how adults should be more trusting with kids, and learn and listen to them too.   I thought that her speech was very inspiring and made me think about that in a new way.  You can see her speech on our class blog and atkinson45gt. edublogs. org

Adora Svitak- age 12

I think this speech was inspiring in a couple ways.

One way is how she changed my thinking about leaning and teaching.  I knew that adults could learn things from kids  and kids can lean things from adults, but I never imagined that adults could learn from kids as much as she spoke of.  I would never imagine kids being teachers  in a class room until I heard this speech.

I also thought that adults don’t trust kids because they might tend to do imature things.  I leaned in this speech that adults should be more trusting with kids because the kids can teach the adult just as much as the adult can teach the kid.

Watch the video and tell me what you think about her speech in a comment!

This week in writing circle, I wrote a story about the Holocaust called Taken.  It is about a girl who is captured by the Nazis and taken to a concentration camp where she works by burying people who have died.  Click here to read it.

I recently finished Amos Fortune by Elizabeth Yates.  It is about a 15 year old boy who gets taken from his tribe in Africa.  He is taken to America to be a slave.  You would think that he hates it but he refuses to be set free twice from a few slave owners.  He does not want to go because he has grown with them and loves them.  When he is about 50 or 60. He has many wives, and an adopted child.  He says that he lives to make people happy and make them free.

I would say over all this this book is great.  It is very descriptive and detailed and there are many things you can learn from it.  For example, Amos learns what he was born to do which was to make people happy and free.  I would rate this book 4/5 stars and recommend it to anyone, especially people who like to read historical fiction and books about slavery.

Warning, the beginning of this post may spoil the book for you, so if you have not read this book and are planning to, skip to second section.

1st section

For independent read, I am reading Ruined by Paula Morris.  A summary of this book is given in a few posts below.  This is what happens after:  Rebecca meats a ghost girl named Lisette in the cemetery.  Lisette becomes Rebeccas friend and tells her about being a ghost.  Rebecca is asked by Anton, the most popular boy at St. Simoen’s school, to Helena’s, the leader of Them, and the most popular girl, party and says she will go even thought her aunt says to stay away from their families.  She can not decide if she should go or not.  Then she goes with Lisette to see her house when it was destroyed. Lisette tells Rebecca about her past and how she died.  Lisette also tells her stories about ghosts they pass, and Rebecca learns more about ghosts in general.  When Lisette is finished telling Rebecca how she died, she realizes that she is not supposed to be with Lisette because she was part of the Bowman family.

2nd section
While reading the book, I noticed that the author put a lot of meaning into the characters.  Without Rebecca, no one would have met Lisette.  If no one met Lisette, she would not have a friend, and she would not have gone to see her house with any one, and Rebecca would not have seen the other ghosts.  Rebecca would also not know that much about the Bowman curse, which interests her a lot, and she would not know that much about New Orleans.  If Lisette was not one of the characters, Rebecca would have been bullied more, Rebecca would not have any friends in New Orleans, and she wouldn’t go into the cemetery as much, and she wouldn’t know all that she learned from Lisette.                                                                                                 Rebecca would not have met Anton if one of them were not in the book.  Without Anton, Rebecca might not have been rescued from the cemetery.  Rebecca would not have known Anton and would not be asked to do the activities that they did together, or get invited to Helena’s party.

As you may or may not know, pi day was on March 14.  Here are some digits in pi, Happy pi day: (On the keyboard, if you click the ALT key and hold it down while you click the 5 key eight times, you get pi: π!)

π= 3.
1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209 7494459230781640628620899862803482534211706798214808651 3282306647093844609550582231725359408128481117450284102 7019385211055596446229489549303819644288109756659334461 2847564823378678316527120190914564856692346034861045432 6648213393607260249141273724587006606315588174881520920 9628292540917153643678925903600113305305488204665213841 4695194151160943305727036575959195309218611738193261179 3105118548074462379962749567351885752724891227938183011 9491298336733624406566430860213949463952247371907021798 6094370277053921717629317675238467481846766940513200056 8127145263560827785771342757789609173637178721468440901 2249534301465495853710507922796892589235420199561121290 2196086403441815981362977477130996051870721134999999837 2978049951059731732816096318595024459455346908302642522 3082533446850352619311881710100031378387528865875332083 8142061717766914730359825349042875546873115956286388235 3787593751957781857780532171226806613001927876611195909 2164201989380952572010654858632788659361533818279682303 0195203530185296899577362259941389124972177528347913151 5574857242454150695950829533116861727855889075098381754 6374649393192550604009277016711390098488240128583616035 6370766010471018194295559619894676783744944825537977472 6847104047534646208046684259069491293313677028989152104 7521620569660240580381501935112533824300355876402474964 7326391419927260426992279678235478163600934172164121992 4586315030286182974555706749838505494588586926995690927 2107975093029553211653449872027559602364806654991198818 3479775356636980742654252786255181841757467289097777279 3800081647060016145249192173217214772350141441973568548 1613611573525521334757418494684385233239073941433345477 6241686251898356948556209921922218427255025425688767179 0494601653466804988627232791786085784383827967976681454 1009538837863609506800642251252051173929848960841284886 2694560424196528502221066118630674427862203919494504712 3713786960956364371917287467764657573962413890865832645