Questions

Is writing online different than in a notebook?  In what ways?
      Yes I do think writing online is very different and not for just the obvious reasons like spell check and devices like that but i think it has a whole different element. When I am typing I think of everything with more detail and i have more time to think of what I'm typing.


In what ways did you benefit from the experience?
      It has made me think about my books a lot more when i read them because i know i have a blog to do and i think about what I want to write about while I'm reading so it has em pay attention to wayyy more details and just focus a lot more on the book in general. It has also helped me learn about how to write a blog and what makes a blog good and what makes a blog not so good. Overall it has helped me a lot.


Do you think that people are more real online or do we create online personalities that project the best of ourselves? Or something else?
      Oh yes. I think a lot of people online creates a different personality because they feel safer behind a computer screen/smart phone or whatever. The worst to me is someone who bully's people online because they know you can't hurt them through Facebook or whatever social network it is.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

     Okay so right now in this book sooooooo many things are going on! I don't even understand everything that is going on! Who is the unknown writer? Who is the mystery black? Is black even a person? They're are so many questions but not enough answers. Thats one very unique part about this book its very confusing but its still an outstanding book. One thing that i think about the main character is that he loves to find out information and he really wants to know as much about his dad as he can.
     One example of the main character trying to know as much about his dad as possible is just the pure fact that he searched up every person and address who's name is black. Black is a very popular last name apparently so that must be crazy hard. Then to make matters worse he doesn't go on subways so he has to walk everywhere. I mean he's walking from brooklyn to the bronx!!!
     Another example is that he now made a new friend who is trying to find out the information with him. His friends last name is Black and he found him in the search and ended up living in his very own building. Now the man is trying to help him find put information to put this mystery key behind him.
     Overall the book is very interesting and confusing so far but I'm very interested to see where all this mystery takes the reader. The author so far is doing an amazing job of keeping me interested in what is going to happen next and now i just want to find out how it ends!!!!

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

     I just started reading extremely loud and incredibly close. So far it is a very interesting and well written book. One thing i like about the book so far is how every time i get a thought or idea about what is happening some how the author changes the direction completely and leaves me where I started not knowing a thing and being very confused. Its a very interesting way to go about writing a book and a new way to what I usually read. 
     One example of how he changes direction is he is describing how the character met Thomas who seems to be a total stranger in the book and then at the end of the chapter it turns out to be the man who cant speak that is giving a point of view in parts of the book. And then that turned out to be the grandfather of the main character which seems to have nothing to do with the plot or the story line what so ever. 
     Another example is in that same scene it seems like the main character is with Thomas but then it turns out to be a girl named Ana another random character in the book. And that girl turns out to marry Thomas and be the main characters grand mother. 
     Overall in this book there are just a lot of twists and turns and I'm only up to page 120! i cant wait to see what else happens and how everything random some how comes together

Pretty Ugly

     I'm reading a book called Pretty Ugly and so far it is a pretty good book. Its about a a girl named Jamee who is under a lot of pressure by her parents and teachers to be just like her older sister Darcy. But Jamee wants to be a cheerleader and doesn't care about grades as much as her older sister. She then meets a small skinny girl trying out for cheer leading too. They became friends but the other girls trying out started bullying the little girl because they didn't like her appearance and just doesn't like her.

     My question is why does appearance matter so much in modern life today? Everyone in the world today gets judged by how they look, what they wear and all type of things. I don't understand why everyone has to judge other people. To me its stupid to judge people by how they look and what they wear. Its silly.

     Another question i have is why do girls always seem to bully each other for the stupidest reasons? Boys do this too but girls get mean, in my book for example the cheerleaders took a picture of the two girls to together and edited to make it look like they were dating and sent it to everyone in the whole school. That can really hurt someones feeling and someones reputation. Boys maybe fight but then make up and become friends again. In my opinion girls are way more cruel to each other then boys are and really try to hurt each others feeling in a horrible way.

     Overall The book was very good so far and i want to finish soon and find out what the girls do about the picture and all the bullying that is going on to them. All i know is that it is going to be very cruel and mean. i recommend this book to read overall.

The Test

     The book I just finished reading was called The test from the Bluford high series. It was about this girl who went back to her high school to tell kids about her teenage pregnancy experience how it happened And all that. It was actually a really good and interesting book. One thing I noticed in the book was there was a really big social issue of teenage kids getting pregnant and the father not wanting to be apart of it.
    One example I saw of that social issue was that the guy never talked to her or called her he just used her for unprotected sex. Then once she told him that he got pregnant he promised to call and to try and help but then after about a week he avoided her and never called or even texted her. I think that this happens a lot in the real world because when teenagers have kids they don't want it to ruin there life so they try and run from it. It's always the boy though because the girl is pregnant so she really does have to deal with it.
    Another social issue I noticed was running away from home and daddy issues. The father of the pregnant teen was never really apart of her life, so when she got pregnant her mom and her got in a huge fight and she tried to run away. The first place she tried to run to was her fathers house. He said she could spend the night but she over heard on the phone him telling her mom that he didn't want her there and that she needed her to go home. It was really mean and showed how some dads really don't wanna get involved no matter what.
    Overall I thought it was a really good book and there were a bunch of social issues. I thought it was good however that the girl was trying to tell these kids to not make the same mistake she did. This book reminded me of the show Degrassi because the same thing happens and the father refuses to help to not ruin his social life. It's a really big issue and really messed up.

     I just Finished my Book secret in the shadows about a sophmore in high school named Roylin Bailey. Throughout the book it just seemed like nothing he did ended up well in his social life, and no matter how hard he tried things did not go his way. He had a really good friend in the building who was an elderly man and who kept him company throughout his whole childhood. One day while the man was asleep Roylin decided to take his money to borrow for a birthday gift for this girl he met. The main was sent to a nursing home but the super in the building said that the man had a heart attack from the lost money so he could get Roylin to do whatever he wanted to keep his mouth shut. It was pretty ridiculous.

     One thing in the book that happened to show nothing went Roylins way was that after he went through all the trouble to borrow the money from the man to get this new girl an expensive necklace, she ended up just using him for the gift and dropped him completly. So then he had to do all that work and go through all that stress for no reason.

     There was also kind of an ethical dilemma in this story. Roylin thought he basically caused the death of a man in his building yet he decided to try and work so the super would keep it a secret and not tell anyone about it himself. The author did an amazing job of having a lot of intense moments at the end of the book. For example when Roylin finally tells his new friend about how he cause the death the friend comes up with all these ideas to see if its actually true. And the last scene of the book was when the super comes to the house to realize that they know he was lying the whole time. The author made the whole ending insane and intense.

     Overall i think the book was a really good book and the author did an amazing job of making key parts more important then others also a good job of showing how Roylin was having a tough time and in the end a new friend ended up helping him out big.

Secrets in The Shadows

     I just Finished my Book secret in the shadows about a sophmore in high school named Roylin Bailey throughout the book it just seemed like nothing he did ended up well. He had a really good friend in the building who was an elderly man and who kept him company throughout his whole childhood. One day while the man was asleep Roylin decided to take his money to borrow for a birthday gift for this girl he met. The main was sent to a nursing home but the super in the building said that the man had a heart attack from the lost money so he could get Roylin to do whatever he wanted to keep his mouth shut. It was pretty ridiculous.

     One thing in the book that happened to show nothing went Roylins way was that after he went through all the trouble to borrow the money from the man to get this new girl an expensive necklace, she ended up just using him for the gift and dropped him completly. So then he had to do all that work and go through all that stress for no reason.

     There was also kind of an ethical dilemma in this story. Roylin thought he basically caused the death of a man in his building yet he decided to try and work so the super would keep it a secret and not tell anyone about it himself. The author did an amazing job of having a lot of intense moments at the end of the book. For example when Roylin finally tells his new friend about how he cause the death the friend comes up with all these ideas to see if its actually true. And the last scene of the book was when the super comes to the house to realize that they know he was lying the whole time. The author made the whole ending insane and intense.

     Overall i think the book was a really good book and the author did an amazing job of making key parts more important then others also a good job of showing how Roylin was having a tough time and in the end a new friend ended up helping him out big.

I hunt Killers April 27th

     I just finished my book "I hunt killers". It was such an amazing book from the start. It hooked me from the start because the very first scene if the setting of a murder and the serial killers son is scopping out the crime scene trying to figure out whats going on and how the murder was done. It got my attention right away because its such an interesting way to start. The author in this book does such a good job of getting the reader really into the book and get attached to the characters very easily. He got me very attached to not only the main character but to a a lot of secondary characters as well. He made every character in the book feel like a main character when you are reading it, He also does an amazing job of showing inside thoughts of the main character about his thoughts of murder and his father who was a notorious serial killer. The author tries to show that the kid can try and do the opposite of what his father did and tried to grow his son up to do as well.     
      The author also does a great job of showing how the chief of police believes in the serial killers son even though his dad was a killer he believes the son can grow up to be different. When the 2nd string of murders was commited a lot of people thought it was the son because it was in the same pattern his father did it and they thought he was trying to follow after him. Also the son knew everything about the murder before the public found out so all fingers were pointed at him. The chief however says to the kid that he believes it wasnt him and that he was going down a different road then his father did. The chief was one of the only people in the book who believes in him and the author does a great job of showing that.     
     Overall I hunt killers was a very good book and I think if you like books that get you really attached to the characters and the overall story. You would love this book because of how well written it was and how strong all of the characters are.

The Fallen

     I just finished my book the fallen and it was a very well written and exciting book to read. It was basically about how the main character went to high school and was involved in a lot of bad doings. He got in a lot of fights and disrespected a lot of people in the building. His little brother Heuro was shot and killed the year before that is why he moved to this new high school and he hasn't fit in since. He and his boys have been trying to find out who killed Heuro and they have been wanting revenge. They finally find out and they plan to go to his house and shoot his till he dies. He does not have the guts to do it however and tries to stop his friends by telling the cops. No one gets arrested but the leader of his group finds out and he wants to kill him now because he tried to betray him.

     I think the author did a really good job showing how even a kid put in a bad situation can rise to the top and do the right thing. The main character could have gotten revenge but he did the right thing and ended up turning in the leader because the leader was trying to do the wrong thing and he was going to kill the main character. 

     Overall the book was very good and i recommend it to anyone who is interested in these kinds of books and is of the age 14+ maybe 13 if you are very mature. I am excited to read more books by this author.

Walter Dean Myers

     Walter Dean Myers is my favorite author of all time. He knows how to do everything you want in a book so well! the scenery details he includes and the character emotions and connections are out of this world. Not one of the books i have ever read by him have ever disappointed me when i finished or when i started.

    All the books i have ever read by him i am gonna put in a list so anyone reading this blog post can run over to the library and check these amazing books out!!!

Hoops

dope sick

shooter

the beast

Fallen angles

monster

harlem

scorpions

slam

And a couple more that i cant remember right at this moment but every one of those books were very interesting and hard to ever put down...

     So to wrap up this post overall Walter is an amazing author and i recommend his books to anyone 14 years or older!!!! Maybe 13 if you are very mature

:) :) :) :) :)

My Opinion on series books

     Series books, you got to love them and you got to hate them. Everyone has different opinions on them and I'm gonna get to both my sides of opinions, what i like and what i don't like about them. 

     One great things i love about series books is even when one of the books end you know that there will be another one after so you're not really removing the character from you right away. I like being attached to a character for a while so i can eventually know a lot about him. One bad part about that though if you really dislike one of the main characters then you have to deal with them through out the entire series. There is always that moment when you get to the end of a book you really like when you are sad because you don't want to have to start reading a different book. With series you can just look forward to sequel because you know the books will be very similar and you'll enjoy them both.
     One thing that i kind of hate about series books is that whenever a main character is in a life or death situation you know they are gonna live because you know what characters are going to be in the next book which is the one and only downside to series books in my opinion. Also it kind of sucks that you know who will and wont survive because it takes away from some of the big moments and stuff.Overall i really like series books and i plan to continue reading them!

Setting in Hoops by Walter Dean Myers

     In this blog post i want to talk about the setting right now in Hoops. Walter Dean Myers does an amazing job of describing every single thing that's going on not only in the main part of the scene but everything that is going on. The Book takes place in Harlem and is about a 17 year old who is in love with basketball and that is his favorite thing in life.

     In one scene that i just read Walter describes every single thing that is going on and he makes the image so clear to see in your head. When I'm reading this book i can picture it and it makes me feel like i am there in the book as it is all taking place. He is one of the best authors in my opinion at making sure the reader can feel part of the scene and really picture themselves in what is going on in the book.
     Some other authors do the same thing when im reading there books but I've read a good amount of Walter Dean Myer's book and for every single one of them after just a couple pages of reading i get sucked in. It's not JUST the setting but I feel it is a really big part of why i enjoy reading all of his books so much. I have never read one of his books and not been satisfied at the end of it. Most of the time im actually upset when the book is over because I have become so attached to the characters and the book its hard for me to put it down and move on to a different book.
     That's why i love the setting in this book so far and that's why i love Walter dean Myers as an author!!!!!!!!!

Bronxwood *Spoiler Alert*

     My book Bronxwood just ended and I'm so sad it had to come to an end. Recently i have just been reading the greatest books. So what happened at the end of this book is The dealer that Tyrell was living with got shot in his building and the cops were looking all around it and Tyrell knew he would get in trouble for living in a building with drugs and he thought he might get arrested too. So he went to his dads house to see if he could live with him and they could stop fighting. But when he got there he saw his mom in the bathroom bloody and crying because his dad beat her up really badly. So Tyrell and his dad got in a huge argument and they began to fight. After the fight his dad was bleeding from the lip and the entire apartment was trashed. All Tyrell did was go into his dads bedroom take money out of his wallet, took some clothes and went to run away with his girlfriend and try and find somewhere to live.
     This was in my opinion the best ending i have ever read in a book. The author did an amazing job of explaining how everything was happening and how it was happening. I think if all authors did it the same way he did i would be a lot more interested in all books. The way the author described everything down to the setting of the last scene in the book was incredible. She broke down every element of the room after they fight and exactly how the bathroom looks where his mom is and how she looks.
    Overall this book was absolutely amazing and i loved so many things about it its hard to name all of them. The author did an amazing job of describing setting and how everything looked and the dialouge in the book was also really amazing. I reccomend it to anyone.
    

Bronxwood

I just started this new book and so far it has been so good. Its about this kid named Tyrell and he lives in the Bronx. His dad just got out of jail, his brother lives with foster parents and he has to pay his moms bills by djing at parties. He lives in a small awful apartment with a group of drug dealers but he can not get involved.
   The biggest problem in the book right now is going on between Tyrell and the drug dealers that live in his house. One of them just got beat up really badly and has to wIt a while to recover. He also got robbed so his boss is pissed because he lost a lot of money. Now his boss wants Tyrell to help out cause that was his best friend and Tyrell says yes because he could use the extra money and cause he is getting pressured into doing it. To me this is an example of peer pressure. A huge social issue that goes on all the time. Then as he is doing some of the work for the boss HE gets robbed and a gun is put to his head and they take all of his money. He thinks that the boss set him up as a way to get revenge for his friend losing all his money. I think the fact that he would do that is really messed up cause Tyrell was trying to help but he just got back stabbed in the end anyway. That's a reason why you shouldn't give in to peer pressure because a lot of the times it ends up for the worse. Peer pressure  goes on in a lot of different ways all the time.
     Another social action i see going on in this book is child support. Since Tyrell's father was sent to jail they put his little brother Troy into child care. Now that the Father is out they are trying as hard as they can to get him back home with his entire family. Even though Tyrell doesn't even live with his parents at the moment he still wants Troy to be with his family and for him to be happy so badly.

The Perfect Shot

     The perfect shot was one of the best books i have ever read. Legitimetly it was crazy how much i loved it. It had the perfect mix of basketball, drama and even crime. The book was mostly about how the main characters girlfriend, girlfriends mom and girlfriends brother were all shot and killed and now they were doing a case to figure out who did it and the main suspect is the girlfriends father. Also a lot about basketball and how his team does in games and how they play together. There is even parts focusing on school projects and homework and stuff like that. Its a very well spread book in general.

     There was also a social action issue i realized that was similar to the one I chose for my picture book. It was basically how police discriminate people over race and stuff like that. Something in the book that was an example of discrimination was that a kid who was black was driving in an all white neighborhood and got arrested for not reason. Then they strip searched him and messed around with him a lot for no reason at all. It was absolutely ridiculous because they didnt even have a reason to do this to him they just did it because he was black and thats what they expected. The kids name was Julius and he was always kind of treated just like all of the other white guys on the basketball team and all of his friends. He was never picked on because of his race before this. That event happening made him change a lot because he felt he has to act more like a black person because thats how they were treating him and he thought he should just have to deal with it. When really it shouldn't have been happening at all. It was not only an act of discrimination but also police brutality. An amazing book and i recommend it to everyone.

The Perfect Shot

     Right now in my book that i just started the main characters girlfriend was murdered and so was her mother and little brother. No one knows who did it but now about a year later they are saying that her father did it but the main character does not think so. One thing he is also doing is he is putting the blame on himself because he thinks he could have somehow stop it.
     To me this can be a problem in real lifer because i feel like some people when someone close to them dies they try to think of ways they could have stopped it even if the couldn't have no matter what. I feel it is a weird thing your mind does to you to try and fix what's going on even though you know inside that you could not have really changed anything. But in the moment you feel like you possibly could have if only you did one thing different.
     Overall I'm only a little way into this book but it seems really good and I'm interested to see what else happens.
    

Response to Grier's post

     I was looking through different posts by my friends and i read griers and it really got my attention. His post was about how he loved series books. I agree 100% some of the things he said why he loved them was because he got so attached to the character and he knew how they felt in every different book in one series. I couldn't agree more because when i read a book i really like to get sucked into it but with a series you don't just get sucked into one but from like 2-10 or however many there are in a series.

     One other thing he said though was that he didn't like the fact that when your character is in a life or death situation you know they cant die cause you know there is a book right after it and he has to be in it.When i read a series i feel like once i read one book in the series i have to finish all the other ones or its like I'm ditching my character i don't know if Grier feels the same way but he probably does considering that's what it basically sounded like in his post. Overall i thought Grier's Blog post was awesome and every one should check it out!

http://bigrobotdog.blogspot.com/2011/12/why-i-love-series-books.html