"Locomotion" By Jacqueline Woodson

                 I am currently reading the book, “Locomotion”, by Jacqueline Woodson. This book is about an eleven year old boy named Locomotion, but most people call him Lonnie. He writes in this book, only poetry, because it sometimes makes him feel better about certain things going on in his life. Locomotion lost his parents to a fire and his little sister, Lili, had been taken by different parents in foster care. However, I think that all of these problems are way too stressful for such a little boy.

                Lonnie has been through a lot throughout his life. One thing that he had to deal with was losing his parents, which was really hard because it caused so many other problems to come up. For example, after the fire was over, neighbors took both Locomotion and Lili in to take care of them for as long as they could. However, soon, the neighbors couldn’t take care of them anymore, thus, they were sent to foster care. When they finally got people to adopt them, they got separated because they had different foster parents. In addition, Lonnie doesn’t like his foster mom because she always tells him to be quiet. He also doesn’t like Lili’s foster mom because she won’t let Locomotion come to visit Lili, in result, they had to meet somewhere else. Another example is having to deal with his friend Eric being sick. Eric has the sickle-cell anemia, which could be deadly after a long period of having the disease. All in all, Lonnie has a lot of problems/issues to deal with at such a young age.

                In conclusion, Lonnie has a lot to deal with throughout his life, like trying to visit his sister and trying to forget seeing the fire. Moreover, he has to deal with not only family problems, but also school problems, like trying to fit in and has to deal with Eric have a deadly disease. 

"Weetzie Bat" By Francesca Lia Block

                I am currently reading the book, “weetzie bat” by Francesca Lia Block”. This book is about a teenage girl named Weetzie. She meets a boy named Dirk at a bar and soon or later become best friends with him. They go everywhere together, to rock concerts, different bars, parties, etc. When they became really close, Dirk had confessed that he is gay. Thus, he and Weetzie decided to find “Ducks” (soul mates) for each other. They would search every party they went to, every bar, every concert, they pretty much search everywhere. Both Dirk and Weetzie had found people, but just not the right ones. For example, Weetzie kept going out with the wrong kind of guys, the ones that didn’t treat her right, meanwhile, Dirk just couldn’t find the ONE. Then, one day while Weetzie and Dirk were at Fifi’s house, Dirks grandmother, Fifi had given Weetzie a gift, it was an old dusty lamp. When Weetzie went home that night, she decided to clean the dusy lamp, suddenly, a genie came out of nowhere and granted her three wishes, one, was for Dirk to find love, two was for her to find “Her Secret Agent Lover Man” (her soul mate), and three was for her and Dirk to have a beautiful house to live in. Not thinking any of these wishes would come true, Weetzie never talked about it… that was until they did. Overall, a lot of things that I thought would never expect would happen. But then again, things that I did expect to happen, did.

                While reading this book many events occurred that I absolutely had no idea would happen. One example, was the genie coming out of the lamp. I thought it was just a gift that Fifi wanted to give her for good luck or something, but it was way different. Instead, she gave her last set of wishes to Weetzie. Another example, was for Dirk to be gay. At first, I thought Dirk only went up to Weetzie at the bar so that they could hook up or something, but then they started to hang out more, which made me think that he just wants to ask her out in a romantic way, not too slow or quick. But, he just confessed that he was gay. In addition, I never thought that the wishes would come true but they did. Dirk found his true love, in fact, his name is Duck. So did Weetzie, she found her true love, and his name is actually My Secret Agent Lover Man. Overall, a lot of weird and unexpected things occurred throughout the book.

                Although unexpected things happened, some expected things also happened. For example, I knew that Weetzie was going to find her true love because Dirk did, which means her wishes are going to come true. Adding on, I knew that Fifi’s house was going to become Dirk’s and Weetie’s because it was also one of her wishes. Another example is when Weetzie said she wanted a baby (but her spouse objected to that idea) and Dirk and Duck helped her with that. I knew that Dirk was going to help her have a baby because he himself wanted his own child, thus, Dirk, Weetzie, and Duck had slept together and Weetzie became pregnant. Moreover, I knew that My Secret Lover Man was going to get mad about the pregnancy because one, he didn’t want to have a kid, and two, it means Weetzie had cheated on him. Overall, a little expected things also occurred throughout the book.

                In conclusion, both expected and unexpected events occurred while reading this book. Adding on, this book was very interesting, however, it was also very weird. Overall, this book was very entertaining.  

My Literary Essay

           In the book, “Paper Towns” by John Green, the Green talks about a senior in high school named Q, who has two best friends, Radar and Ben. Q is the average high school kid he has good grades, doesn’t get into trouble, has friends, not very popular, etc. However, one night, his crush, and most popular girl in school, Margo, came up to his window and asked him to help her on an eleven- step mission. At first, he was hesitant to go with her on a mission at night, but eventually, she convinced him to go with her. He thought it might make their relationship better, wishing that it might result in him taking Margo to prom. However, he never knew that it could’ve changed the way he acts, talks, and what he does. This made me think about if the author purposely tried to teach a lesson on why you shouldn’t change yourself so others will like you more.

            In the book, Q was a good, intelligent, and kind guy. He never would think to stay awake on a school night, or even on a weekend. He got lots of good grades, and never broke the rules. He did everything he could to stay on top of his work and keep everything going for just a few weeks until school officially ended. He was nice to his friends, helped them out when they needed it the most. For example, when Radar had girlfriend problems, he helped him out. Adding on, he barely got into fights with them, thus, they were very close. They would play games every day after they all finished their school work. Overall, Q was a very nice, intelligent person.

            However, he eventually changed after that night with Margo. He broke the rules, didn’t do his homework, went to bed late, and didn’t even study for his final government exam the next day. For example, Q took his mom’s car without her permission and left with Margo to help her with the eleven- step mission. In addition, him and Margo broke into three houses, Jason’s (Margo’s cheating boyfriend), Becca’s (Margo’s ex-best friend), and Chuck’s (the bully that bothered Q everyday) and spray painted their cars and house. Adding on, they broke into one of the most popular buildings in Orlando, Florida. Q even ran from a guy shooting a shotgun and the police. In fact, he skipped graduation (which he would’ve never done if he didn’t go with Margo that one night) just to find Margo when she never came back to school after that crazy night. Also, when he and his friends skipped graduation, he didn’t tell his parents, which is very usual because he never lies to his parents. Clearly, Q changed himself just for Margo to like him more so that he could take her to prom (which never really happened).

            After realizing this, I noticed that Green was probably trying to teach the readers a lesson on why you shouldn’t change yourself just for others to like you more. For example, at the end of the book, after all Q did for Margo, she still didn’t date him, nor did she stay friends with him, thus, all the changing with Q was a big waste. Adding on, Q could’ve gotten arrested when he went with Margo to get revenge on her boyfriend, Jason and her ex-best friend, Becca, this is something he would’ve never even thought about before, and he didn’t like getting in trouble, especially when it involves police. Another example of Q changing himself for Margo is when he spray painted her ex-boyfriend’s car, he would’ve never done that before because he knew that would have gotten him into huge trouble with Jason and his friends, but he still did it so he could look cool and “bad” in front of Margo. I think John Green purposely put these details in there to show that Q wouldn’t do these things normally, but he would just to fit in. Overall, I think that Green is trying to show us that changing yourself for others is not worth it.

            All in all, Q is a very intelligent teen that just wanted his crush to like him back, like all other teens. In result, he tried to be someone that he was not. Overall, I believe that John Green was trying to make his readers understand that changing yourself is never the answer to being cool, popular, or for your crush to like you. I think he was trying to send a message that being yourself is always the answer.

Link to my original blog post: http://amanisawesomeblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/iam-currently-reading-book-paper-towns.html

Non-fiction Critical Analysis

               This article, “Spread a Rumor, Go to Jail?” is about how a 16 year old boy named Yang Hui got arrested for spreading a rumor online. In fact, he was the first person to be arrested under this new law called “rumor mongering”. This law claims that if your post gets “more than 5,000 views and reposted more than 500 times”, you will get arrested. However, he wasn’t only arrested for posting a rumor online, they say that Hui’s offense might be the explanation of a local man’s death. Adding on, this article is about how China censored Facebook, Twitter, and blocks foreign media websites, they do this with what’s known as the Great Firewall.  I think that the author gives me hints throughout the article on what he is trying to make me think or feel.

                I think the author is trying to make me think that this is not a ridiculous law. For example, when he quoted, “The best way of putting an end to Internet rumors is for the government to stop disseminating lies,”  by a Chinese fiction author, Yu Hua, he made sure that the quote made it seem like this law could help convince us that the law was a smart idea that the government came up with. Adding on, he wants us to feel bad or sad because a local man died because of Yang’s opinion. In addition, the author probably wanted us to think about what we do online and think about what comments we post. They want us to think about rumors that we have spread ourselves or have witnessed being spread, thus, making us feel bad about it and making us think that this law could actually be helpful. Overall, he makes us think the law is helpful and feel good about it.

                All in all, I think that this article was very interesting. However, my opinion has changed a little bit because before I read this article I thought that spreading rumors wasn’t a big deal, but now after reading this article I realize that it can be a big deal in some cases. For example, it could cause deaths, like it did to a local man in China. I also would like to know what the rumor was and why was it so popular. Also I would like to know if the guy was popular, which could be the reason why the rumor was popular. Adding on, I would like to know why Yang Hui would spread the rumor in the first place. Overall, I thought this article was very interesting and changed my opinion on spreading rumors. 

Breaking Dawn, By Stephenie Meyers, SPOILER ALERT!!!!

             I was reading the book, “Breaking Dawn”, by Stephanie Meyer. This book was the last of the twilight saga series. This book was about how Bella   gets married to Edward so she can become a vampire, just like him. After the wedding, they went to Esme's private island for their honeymoon. However, during their honeymoon, but knowing that vampires can reproduce when having coitus with a human being, they had a half human and half vampire baby girl named Renesmee.  After giving birth to the rapid growing child, Bella became a vampire. However, Irina (another vampire that wants revenge on Bella) told the Volturi that they had a vampire baby, which is against the vampire rules. But, they actually didn’t, they had a half-human half-vampire, which is technically not against the rules. While reading, I noticed that a lot of things that I didn’t expect actually happened, but also things that I did expect to happen.            There was a lot of things that I didn’t expect to happen. One example is that there “werewolves” aren’t actually werewolves, they are actually shape-shifters. Another example is when Alice left because the Volturi were coming. At first, I thought that was really mean of her and Jasper to leave but in the end, it made sense because it was for a good cause. In fact, I definitely did not expect Irina to tell the Volturi because I didn’t think she would go that far, but obviously I was mistaken.  Moreover, when Irina lied to the Volturi, I thought they were going to punish her by just beating her up as a warning but instead, they actually killed her, which really surprised me because I was expecting Bella or one of the other witnesses or vampires to die, not her. Furthermore, I was the most surprised when Bella and Edward and their allies didn’t fight the Volturi. I was surprised because I thought that the Volturi was going to kill Renesmee because they thought she was only a vampire, but they actually gave Carlisle a chance to explain what was going on. Overall, I thought that a lot of surprising events occurred while reading this book.            Although a lot of unexpected things happened, things that I did expect also happened. For example, I had a feeling that someone would die because I knew the Volturi were very violent. Adding on, I also knew that Bella would improve her control over her shield because I knew that she would get angry while with the Volturi, which makes her shield stronger. Lastly, I also expected the Cullen family, werewolves, and some of other vampires were going to try to fight the Volturi because I knew they would piss them off with their comments about killing the baby. Overall, a few things that I expected actually did happen.            All in all, this book was a very interesting and entertaining book. I expected and didn’t expect some events to occur. Overall, this was a good ending to this awesome series.  

            

Blog Review, "Bossypants, by Tina Fey" By Annalise Edwards

             While reading blogs, I came across Annalise Edwards’ blog post, "Bossypants" by Tina Fey. She talks about the book and what it is about. The book is about the famous comedian named Tina Fey. She talks about how it was in high school and how she became famous. However, she talks about how she had to deal with the cyberbullying and sexism. Adding on, Annalise thought that it was not fair that when a non-famous person gets bullied like that, everyone freaks out and helps them out, meanwhile, when it’s a famous person, everyone just leaves it for them to figure out themselves. I agree with Annalise, which is one of the reasons why I chose her blog post. I think that it is unfair to celebrities and that they should be treated as a normal person would’ve been treated.

            Although I did not read this book, I can agree with most of the things Annalise mentioned in her blog post. For example, when she talked about how many celebrities get bullied but no one does anything to help them. I agree with her because I too think it’s unfair because many people think that it’s okay that a celebrity gets bullied because every celebrity has “haters”. Adding on, I agree with her when she says, “Just because a person's face is on a couple screens a couple of times a year doesn't mean that they don't have actual feelings that actually get hurt sometimes. No one ever seems to think about that, or even cares to wonder if they're getting affected by it in any way”. Overall, most of her claims or questions is similar to what I would have wrote.

            The way Annalise summarized the book made me want to read it too. When she talked about how the book tells the story of how Tina Fey became famous, or how high school was for her, that really made me want to know more specific details, thus, I wanted to read the book even more than before. Adding on, the way she described what Tina Fey mostly talked about in her book also wanted to make me read it because it seemed like a funny book. For example,  when she said, “As for the sexism Fey describes in the book, because her whole attitude towards negative actions comes across in a smartass fashion, she somewhat disses the men who had wronged her, putting in full-on detail why their way of thinking had been wrong, and she metaphorically laughs in their faces since it was because she fought her way against them that she reached her goal: even moderate success on television”, that made it seem like the book, most likely, talked about her love life and had a few funny jokes too. Also when she said, “By including these things in her book, she proves (or at least proved to me) why sexist is no way to be when it comes to the success of a show-all you need is at least a couple outstanding actors or actresses, and you'll end up with a smile on your face”, that made me think more of how Tina Fey dealt with the sexism and cyberbullying, which made me want to read it even more. Overall, after reading this blog post, I no longer think that this book is boring, in fact, I think it sounds interesting, so I will read it.

            All in all, I really liked reading Annalise Edwards’ blog post because it was easy to connect to. In addition, her attitude throughout the blog post really helped me understand what she was thinking. Overall, I think Annalise did a very good job on this blog post.

Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer, SPOILER ALERT

  I am currently reading the book "Breaking Dawn" by Stephanie Meyer. In this book, Bella   gets married to Edward so she can become a vampire, just like him. After the wedding, they went to Esme's private island for their honeymoon. However, during their honeymoon, but knowing that vampires can reproduce when having coitus with a human being, they had a half human and half vampire baby girl named Renesmee.  After giving birth to the rapid growing child, Bella became a vampire. She had changed in so many different ways, like she is stronger, faster, thirstier, etc. I think that she is no longer herself, that she is like a new Bella. 
  Bella had changed a lot since becoming immortal. She has mostly changed physically, she become stronger, faster, colder, her voice has become bell-toned, huge temper, hungrier for blood, and her eyes are no longer brown, they are red. Adding on, she no longer shows emotions, like blushing, crying, or just the things that show her emotions, like her heart racing, get face becoming paler, stomach growling when she is hungry, yawning when she is tired, etc. However, after she changed, it affected but only her, but everyone else, like Jacob, he no longer loves her, he loves Renesmee. Also Charlie now knows what's going on with all of them being "unnatural". Edward had also changed, he no longer hesitates to kiss her. He also doesn't have to go easy on her, like when they make love, hug, run, basically everything that he couldn't do when she was human is what he does now. In addition, he gets along with Jacob, and Jacob gets along with everyone else. Overall, I think she changed, which also changed her surroundings.
  In conclusion, Bella had changed physically and mentally overall. This, everyone else   changes too in different ways than before she was human.