Room 227’s Blog

I read a book called Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. This book was about a girl named Salamanca on a journey to visit her mom. Her mom went away few years ago. She travels with her grandparents and on the way she tells them about a girl named Phoebe. Salamanca has to be in Idaho (where her mom is) in time for her mom’s birthday to bring her back. But at the end of the book, her grandma (gooseberry) dies of a stork and she finds out that her mom died in a bus crash.

The social issue in the book is loss in the family. I felt bad for Salamanca and her dad because they really loved her mom and they also had really good memories of her mom. One of the good memories was ‘The Blackberry Kiss’. It was about Salamanca’s mom kissing a blueberry tree and when Salamanca kissed her mom, she tasted blackberry in her kiss.

Also when Phoebe’s mom went away I felt bad for Phoebe, Prudence (Phoebe’s sister) and her dad. Phoebe’s family was a strict, respectful kind of family. They didn’t pay any attention to Phoebe’s mom at all. They treated her like a slave and told her to do anything. And when she does something wrong they all blame her and gets really mean. And that’s why I thought Phoebe’s mom ran away. But the truth was that she went away to look for Sergeant Buckle (Phoebe’s mom’s old son that she had to give up for a adoption). Phoebe went to see Sergeant Buckle and saw her mom kissing him on the cheek. She misunderstood her and thought that her mom was cheating on her dad. But at the end it all worked out.

When Salamanca and her grandma (gooseberry) dies I felt really sad for her because now she knows that her mom is never going to come back. I can’t believe that her dad lied to her about her mom when he already knew that she had died. The social issue is also family member running away because Salamanca’s mom ran away. She ran away because she had to figure something out on her own.

This book has a lot of social issues in it. There is more than one if you understand the book. I really enjoyed this book because there was a lot of things happening and a lot of surprises at the end. At the end, suddenly her grandma and she finds out that her mom died. I think this book is good for readers who like realistic fiction and like loss or dead in the family. This book was really realistic and the author described it well so that the reader could visualize what was going on.

Snorkeling

I went snorkeling on Thursday. We went on a big boat that fitted 40 people. The snorkeling trip was from 8:30am to 5:30pm. So I stayed on the boat for about 9 hours. First, we had to ride the boat for one hour and thirty minutes to arrive to the first destination. I was bored and grumpy on the boat because there was nothing to do and the music they played on the boat was 60’s and 70’s music. All the adults in the boat were dancing and singing including my parents. It was sort of embarrassing to see my parents dance and sing in front of other people.

Finally when we arrived there, I jumped out of the boat into the sea. The water was freezing at first but I got use to the heat in a minute. But when I looked under the water for fishes, I saw nothing. I was really disappointed for coming all the way out here to see nothing. Then the guide told us that this stop was not for snorkeling. He said to just relax and enjoy the sea. He gave us about an hour before we started to go to the second destination.

Luckily the second destination was for snorkeling. I was so excited that I was the first one to get into the water. I looked under the water and saw millions and millions of tiny pretty fishes. It was a beautiful sight when all the fishes swam together in clumps and they were all different colors. Then the guide handed me some bread so I could feed the fishes. As soon as I got the bread in my hand, in a minute the fishes had formed a group around my hand. First I was scared that the fishes would bite me but a little bit after, I found out that they wouldn’t hurt me and the bite didn’t really hurt. That destination was the best but soon had to leave for another destination.

The third destination we went wasn’t for snorkeling. We went there to eat our lunch. All the food they had was Thai food so I didn’t eat much. My parents told me to eat a lot because I wouldn’t get more food on the trip. I was foolish and didn’t listen to them. I ate a lot of rice and that was pretty much it. Then we got some free time to shop and I got a lot of stuff. Few of my favorites were my bracelet and necklace, my beach dress and some cool hair ponies. The free time was about an hour so we left pretty soon.

We went to our last destination, which was for snorkeling. I was again the first one to get into the water. I got a clump of bread in my hand to feed the fishes. The fished were not as pretty as the other and not as small as the other ones I saw before. When I saw a big black fish. I got so scared that I screamed and jumped out of the water onto the boat. My guide told me that the fish wouldn’t hurt me but I ignored him and stayed out of water while my family was enjoying the swim.

We started heading back to our hotel and had to ride on the boat for two hours. On the way back, we visited the monkey island and gave then watermelons and bananas. Then we took a lot of pictures of them and started heading back to our hotel again. I was exhausted and hungry by the time we arrived. I went straight to my room, took a shower, ate some chips and went straight to bed. It was a long but a fun and boring day.

I read the book called Belle Prater’s Boy By Ruth White. This book is about a boy named Woodrow and his mom, (Belle Prater) disappears one day. After that, he moves in with his grandparents, Aunt Love and his cousin Gypsy. Gypsy is the town’s beauty and she takes that from her mom Love. Gypsy’s dad also died when she was little and her mom remarried a man named Porter. Woodrow has many charmed witty stories that he tells Gypsy and other people. Woodrow tells Gypsy, the secret about his mom’s disappearance and Woodrow is the only one that knows because he is Belle Prater’s boy.

I thought it wasn’t fair that Gypsy’s dad died and her mom remarried. If I were in Gypsy’s shoes, I would have felt the same way that Gypsy felt. Gypsy felt guilty that her mom remarried and Porter (Gypsy’s step-father) tried to take her dad’s (Amos  Leemaster) place. I can’t picture myself without a dad and that I had a step-father.  It wasn’t fair because what did Gypsy do to live without a real dad. She was only 5 when he died so she didn’t get a long life with her dad.

It wasn’t also fair that Woodrow’s mom disappeared. Woodrow misses his mom a lot and he doesn’t even know where his mom went! He was these special memories with his mom and those are all he has left of him mom. I can’t picture what I would feel like when I am in Woodrow’s shoe because, my mom never disappeared and has never met anyone that has had their mom disappear. It is unfair because what makes other people more special about him that he doesn’t have a mom while other people has.

Woodrow knows that his mom had went somewhere, where the two worlds touch because in the book, it says “The secret is hiding in the lines of this poem.” Also Woodrow’s mom has been saying that poem a lot of times before she disappeared. And the poem was

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

Don’t go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

Don’t go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill

where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

Don’t go back to sleep.

And Woodrow also said “When the poem said The breeze at dawn has something to tell you, she (Woodrow’s mom) knew something was going to happen at dawn. And when it said Don’t go back to sleep, she didn’t go back to sleep. She got up and went outside.” So Woodrow’s mom is where the two worlds touch.

I really like this book because it was a mystery to find out where his mom is. But I never found out where Woodrow’s mom is because it doesn’t tell you. I liked it because it made you keep thinking about the answer even if you were done reading the book.

The Watsons Go To Birmingham 1963

I read a book called The Watsons Go To Burmingham 1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. It was about a family (the Watsons) on a trip and adventure of the family. Kenny, who is the main character, is a little Mr. goody good good and had a lazy eye. Byron the brother of Kenny is a juvenile delinquent. And Joetta Kenny’s little sister, is a little angel and is always protective about Byron. And they are on a trip to visit Grandma Sands.

This book was really sad and it was during the time of segregation. I knew that because Joetta is black and a white man dropped a bomb on Joetta’s church. But luckily Joetta survived. This book was really good also because the name of the chapters were funny and interesting. Like one chapter was called lipless wonder. That made me think why it was called lipless wonder. I made a guess that it was going to be about someone which is probably Byron getting his lips ripped somehow.

One of the reading strategies I used was how I would feel if I were the character. One example was, when the white people bombed Joetta’s church. If I was Joetta’s parent I would have been so scared that my child might have got killed. Also for Joetta’s family it would have been a hard time if Joetta got killed. I wonder how it feels to live in a world where someone hates you and wants to kill you because of your skin color. I have never had that experience so I don’t know how my family and I would have felt.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend this book for people who like historical fiction and mostly people that like to read about segregation.

SOS TITANIC

I read a book called SOS TITANIC by Eve Bunting. It was about a boy named Barry and a girl named Pegeen. Barry was a first class passenger and Pegeen was a third class passenger. When the ship Titanic crashed nobody thought about it seriously. But when they started putting passengers into lifeboats only the first class passengers got to go on the lifeboats. So Barry went looking for Pegeen. When Barry found Pegeen, they jumped out of the boat. Happily, at the end Barry and Pegeen survived.

I thought this book was interesting and makes you want to read more and more. For example, at the end of chapter 4, it ended as “In her hands were grand pops glove.” And it made me wonder how Barry was going to get grand pops gloves if Pegeen had it. Also I wondered how Barry was going to get the gloves since he wasn’t aloud to go to the third class passenger’s room again.

At the beginning of the book, it was boring and then in the middle it was interesting, and then in the end it was really interesting but also sad/happy. Some of the strategies I used were making inferences. For example, when Watley told Barry that something bad was going to happen I thought to myself that I Titanic was going to crash and Watley already knew that. I also knew that the Titanic was going to crash because I already know from my background knowledge that the Titanic sank because it crashed in a iceberg and sank.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. But it could have been better if the beginning of the book was more interesting. Also it would have also been better if the author used more describing words in the beginning to grab the reader’s attention and make it easy for the reader to visualize what’s going on.

Valentines Day

Roses and Violets

And everything sweet

Chocolate and Candies

And many more sweets

Valentines Day

Is for sharing your love

With other people

You care and you love

Marshmallows

White as snow

Tasty as chocolate

Oh how I wish

I could have a

Marshmallow

Soft as cotton

Squishy as stuffed toys

Oh how I wish

I could have a

Marshmallow

Marshmallows that slowly

Melt in your

mouth

I read a book called “The Other Side” By Jacqueline Woodson. I used a strategy of “Good readers build the world of the story in their heads by noticing little details that make the characters daily life experiences different than our own.” When I looked at the cover, there was a black skinned girl and a white skinned girl. And I saw that there was a fence separating the two girls. Then I guessed that this probably took place when there was segregation.

And on page one, the mama of the black girl said it wasn’t safe for the girl to climb the fence. Then, I knew that the white girl must live on the other side fence. And at the time of segregation, the white and the black didn’t play together or talk to each other.

Also I know where this takes place is old because, when the black girl and the white girl went to town, they were all dressed up wearing hats, gloves and fancy dresses. Now, people just wear t-shirts and jeans when they go to town.

In page 4, when the black girl was playing with her friends, the white girl asked if she could play. But one of the black girl’s friends said “No because you are not our kind” and now, white and black play together and don’t say no just because they are not your kind.

With all those hints in the book, I noticed that this takes place in the time of segregation. And if you use the strategy of “Good readers build the world of the story in their heads by noticing little details that make the characters daily life experiences different than our own.” You will know it too. Also, if you want to stay organized, you can use post-its to record what you already did.

Moving Away

Two words I hate are

Moving Away

No but’s and’s or why

Can stop it

You can also cry, scream or beg

But the two words will take action no matter what

But

Remember

That you

Are not the

Only one that is sad