What do you Think?

Author's Note~ This is a prediction essay as I hope to show proficiency in prediction.

Inside a sunken ship with little oxygen, extreme dangers with hazardous air particles in the air.  That’s Nailer’s job, in the book Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi.  Nailer loves to explore and when a friend and himself went around the island they found a sunken ship with a wealthy girl, Nita.  Running from killer people and half men Nita and Nailer split up and are in desperate search.  A battle on the water leaves Nita’s ship sinking.  I believe that Nailer will find Nita in the ship and rescue her and end up together for the rest of their life.

Every love story always comes down to a happy ending.  During the stories Cinderella and Snow White there is always a happy ending.  Most reader could’ve assumed that Nita and Nailer would end up with each other at the end of the story.  Most Teen books need something exiting and a love story or a happy ending to keep young readers into the book and that’s why I think this will happen.

Secondly a lot of stories revolve around war; that one hero that always has the ladies love.  During this book you could tell that there were going to be two sides and Nita and Nailer were on the same side.  When I read I try to point out the obvious signals for predicting stories.  I noticed that Nailer was always fighting for Nita and that’s another reason the prediction is accurate.

Relating this book to another book would be easy.  The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins show how there is the war by everyone fighting as well as the love story during the big fight.  When you fight there will always be that one person who amazed you, which he is normally recognized at the all star.   In both stories you could tell who the hero’s were and they always ended up with their lover.

Love, such a powerful thing and it occurs in almost every piece of literature you can find, as well as every day in your life.  Whether you can see it or not you can almost assume in almost every story there will be love and you know that love will always be strongest at the end.  Being with someone for your entire life is a commitment, but I found that Nailer and Nita could never split up and will be with each other for their lives. 

We Are One

Author's Note~ This is an analysis essay about the story The City of Ember by Jeanne DePrau.  My goal for this is to show a proficient level in my body paragraphs.

400 united people, coming from the underground city of Ember unsure of what comes next,  join together and save their lives.  The book The City of Ember, By Jeanne DePrau symbolizes the coming of a powerful group.  DePrau showed courageous attitude from all the characters in this book while telling a great motivating story.

Motivation moves people and great motivators show leadership in everything they do.  Ray Lewis, the middle linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens shows great motivation to all the players on the team and other college or high school groups.  As well Ray leads the team as a captain cheering on players and improves the morale of the team, just like Lina and Doon did in the book.  In the book DePrau shows how Lina and Doon were both great motivators and leaders.

Motivation moves people like Thomas did in the book The Maze Runner by James Dashner.  He moved all the Gladers out of the Glade and showed what Lina and Doon showed by taking all the Ember citizens and freeing them from a dying city.  When DePrau wrote she made readers believe that anyone can do anything.

Believing that you can do anything is something I have always lived by.  Personally I have always wanted to go skydiving and zip lining and I have always wanted to attend Marquette University for college.  Although all of these may not happen I will always believe that this could happen in my life.  When readers read the book I believe that DePrau showed that anything was possible and leading 400 people out of a dying underground city was one of them. 

Whether you’re Ray Lewis or you believe in anything, DePrau showed in the book The City of Ember that motivation and believing that you can do anything is apparent in the book.  Also you can learn from what characters do and you can see how they motivated you and you can use that on others.  While writing a great story DePrau showed courageous attitude from all the characters.

A letter to you

 Author's Note~ This is a letter to the main character from The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe, showing my understanding of character development.

Dear Kaelyn,

I am Johnny Mills, a 16 year old high school sports star.  I recently read the book The way we Fall by Megan Crewe and you stood out of all the characters in the book as most influencing.  You started out as a selfish girl and I was a selfish guy to.   I would say the way you inspired me, you could inspire anybody.

Inspiration can alter people’s lives, as it is a very powerful thing.  You inspired such as Lina, the main character in the book The City of Ember by Jeanne DePrau.  Lina saved her city and I think you helped save your city as well.  Change is powerful and you definitely saved me Kaelyn,

In the book I read and read until my eyes couldn’t handle reading any more.  You said “Doesn’t this feel great?”.    I could feel myself change as well such as picking up a freshman’s books  when they fell o the floor.  Or I would help out other kids that didn’t understand .  And how I felt when I left school that day, This is great.

Thanks is all I could say, inspiration is a gift and I received it from reading the book The Way we Fall.

Thanks,

Johnny Mills

Next

My prediction to the story 3:15 is that Troy will become possessed by the science teacher’s jar spirit.  Troy will start to act weird and be really quiet and become an outcast.  This is like in all the horror movies where people are possessed and start to act really weird.   This is a good prediction because there are many stories that can relate to this.  Also the plot seems the same as in the scary horror movies.

Tomato, Tomato

Author's Note~ This is a cause and effect piece on the book, The People of Sparks, where i will reflect on one of the books main events.

That cool summer morning Doon Harrow couldn’t imagine what would end up happening to himself and the refuges of Ember.  They have spent about 3 months in Sparks; and the natives are getting mad at the people of Sparks over food.  One of the Climax’s in this book is when Tooren, citizen of Sparks decides to throw tomatoes at the shed near the farm which leaves the city low on the tomato crop.  This event was caused by Caspar (Toorens’ older brother, and a roamer) doesn’t let Torren go roaming with him and Torren gets extremely mad at his older brother. 

The effect of this event is that Doon gets blamed for throwing the tomatoes at the shed.  The citizens of Sparks get in a dispute with the people of Ember.  This creates a tricky situation for the leaders of Sparks.  This is like the book The Way We Fall, by Megan Crewe the main character gets blamed for giving a sickness to the whole town while she didn't.  This relates in the same way as Doon because she was blamed for getting people sick, just like how Doon got blamed for something he didn't do.

Different outcomes come from this event; perhaps Doon wasn't blamed and a person of Sparks was blamed?  The citizens of Ember would still be respected in Sparks.  Or if Doon wasn’t blamed and someone else was maybe he wouldn’t have been so disappointed.  Doon has been blamed for something he hasn’t done and will be disrespected by the people of Sparks.

What Would You Say?

Author's Note~  This is an essay from a prompt saying, " If you could talk to the founding fathers what would you say?".

All you can hear is the rattling echoes of gun shots and men screaming in pain as the Revolutionary War goes on.  You’ve only been here for a short 2 days and can already tell that we are going to lose the war.  Now it’s 3 years later, our country has regained power again as well as safety.  I've got the chance to speak with some respected men in this time period; the founding fathers of my country.  What do I say?   The state of our country is at a point where I believe there is one thing to tell them, watch how we spend our money.

Back then you would have thought it was your lucky day to find a penny.  There were jobs for all the men and the women stayed home.  Each village had a church where they could worship freely.  As well our country’s citizens spent money wisely; on only necessary items.  Many think this was the good days of America and I would agree.  People growing up in the 21^st century know that this is the exact opposite to what America is like now.  Citizens will think a penny is a penny and that it has no worth.  There are not enough jobs to keep all Americans employed.   You can compare the state of our country now and you can compare it to anything else such as Uganda; one of the poorest countries in the  world and if they found a penny the whole village would celebrate.  One of the biggest elections is approaching us and I would also want to take them into our world now and see how would they vote for.  George Washington stated having political parties could separate this country, he was right.

From the 1700s to now I believe the founding fathers laid out a great plan for our country and I believe America has been a powerhouse throughout its existence as a united country.  Weather our founding fathers were fighting in the war our creating the Declaration of Independence stress must have been dreadfully squeezed around them with their decision making. Money, a currency that our country revolves around and we need to watch our money; that's all I could say.

The Escape

Author's Note~ This is a cause and effect piece on the main event in the novel The City of Ember, by Jeanne DePrau.

Doon and Lina got themselves into one tricky situation by deciding to take the roll of getting the 400 people of Ember out.   Ember, a city underground is running out of life and civilians are getting worried about the state of the city.  There a frequent blackouts and shortages on food and water, so people fell threatened that the city is heading downhill.  The climax is when they find a safe and secure way to exit Ember..  One issue, there are still 300 plus people that need to get out of Ember; fast.

While citizens of Ember worry if they will have a chance to get out or will they die in Ember, Doon and Lina look down at their town from the real world all they can do is send  message down.  Will the citizens receive it?  Or will they never come up and all die down in Ember.   If you look at it a different way what would happen if the whole town went down with Lina and Doon?   There could’ve had been a riot and many would die.  Lastly what would happen if Doon and Lina had never found a way out? 

My First Golf Bag

Author's Note~ This is a personal narrative about my favorite birthday present.  


There has been a history in my family of wrapping presents awkwardly such as molding a gift card in cement or freezing scramble pieces to tell the person receiving the gift where it is.  During the party for my 10th birthday, I knew I  was in for one strange gift.  Now most people who would wrap a golf bag would just keep it in the box, wouldn’t they?  Not in my case my mom decided to wrap it in 10 layers of duct tape!  Having no idea what the present was I figured I was in for a humongous surprise.

First off my mom said I could only use a cuticle scissors to cut any tape off; that didn’t work.  Realizing that would take me forever I decided to just pull it all off.  After ten minutes I had no idea what the present was yet!  I was getting frustrated and really mad.  All I could think of is why would someone put me in such torture to open up a birthday present?  

Eventually my gift ended up being a golf bag.  I was really excited, so was my mom and aunt the only other people still in the room.  After I unwrapped the present there was a feeling in me that this present was going to be one of my favorites; will always be.

How to get out

Author's Note~ This is a conflict resolution piece on the book The Maze Runner written by James Dashner.  I will state the main conflict and how they resolve it.

Thomas, a teenage boy gets sent up to the glade, a big rectangular shaped building with walls and a big maze on the outsides.  At night all the walls in the maze close up and trap them all in.  The next day a girl come up through the lift which has never happened before and has a message.  They know they need to get out of the maze because supplies are going low.  The biggest conflict is that they can't get out and it is really a conflict between person and person because the game makers were in control of the walls and killer robots in the maze.

The resolution to the conflict is lots of teamwork.  They had to overcome a humongous challenge together.  Thomas knew that there was a way out, so as group they studied all the maps for hours and hours.  A group of gladers got out of the glade after hard work and great determination by Thomas. 

The Maze Runner Review

Author's Note~ This is my retelling of one of my favorite books The Maze Runner.

     A teenage boy gets stuck in the glade, a large area caved in by walls with 100 other people.  He figures that he can help everyone get out.  The only thing is that they need to get out fast.  Figuring that there is a lot on the line he is able to get out with the others and get transported by the maze makers to the start of book two, The Scorch Trials.

Symbolism

Authors Note~ As a group project myself, Jake, and Nathan did a piece on symbolism from the short story To build a fire.

Symbolism Found in To Build A Fire

More PowerPoint presentations from Ryan

The Challange

Author's Note~ In this Literature Analysis piece look for the A B transitions and sentence fluency as i analyze the book The Underdogs.

Realism and the ups and downs of life are lessons to learn in the book The Underdogs, a novel by Mike Lupica.  While Lupica writes, it seems that the words fit right into the action that he is trying to tell you in this novel.  Lupica has been able to explain truthfully to the reader the challenges of life and complete the novel, while staying to and on the topic: the challenge of life.

The challenge of my life compared to others is nothing.  Just thinking about being blind or deaf would have to be terrifying.  What others with disabilities face is just something we could not even live with.  A young 5 year old starts to lose their sight, just thinking about that I have trouble imagining a young child unable to see the world: or even the person standing right next to them.  Their friends not to be seen, family not to be seen, that car crossing the street before you not to be seen.

In the world of sports there is a golfer by the name Steve Stricker.  He joined the PGA Tour in 1994 and played decent until his victory at the WGC Accenture match play event in 2001.  Later he fell into a slump and was not able to maintain his tour card and was forced off.  With financial troubles he thought that his golfing career was over.  But his father- in- law Dennis Tiziani, former head golf coach at the University of Wisconsin, had faith and worked with him to recapture his game and as a result, in 2007 Steve won at the Barclays.  11 victories from 2007 have lead him back to be one of the top players in the country.  During the book Will, the main character, started his football career with a full winning team.  As time passed soccer and financial issues forced troubles to create a full 11 man team.  A letter to New Balance and financial help the underdogs of that league won the championship.

Although this has never happened to me I’m sure it’s happened to many.  As that car pulls away the tears are flying down your cheeks.  When you lose a friend it may be like losing a mom or dad.  Will lost one of his friends in the book.  Some say he wasn’t a friend just a player on the team.  Will said he was an underdog like all of the 12 on the team.  Lupica showed an advanced level of writing in the perspective of young children and their feelings.

In The Underdogs Lupica was able to show the reader his perspective and the characters perspectives.  As Lupica explains truthfully, he stayed on the topic: the challenge of life.

The new Field house rules

Author's note~ I wrote this on a rule at the new gym that I think should be changed.

Rule: You can only bring popcorn and water into the gym.  Clearly this is a rule that personally needs to be changed.  Although this is considered a new gym and they are probably worried of soda or gatorade spilling.
  Clearly there is a thing called janitors and that is their job.  Clearly if they let popcorn in they that should mean that they are cleaning the gym so might as well let us take soda and gatorade in because they would be cleaning anyway.

The woods

Once the weather starts getting colder and the leaves start falling all I think about is being in those woods.  All I can dream about is that big 14 point buck walking right through my lane and stopping.  I try my best to stay steady and then it runs away.  This is called buck fever, when you miss that buck from close range..  I then think about all hard of work I put into scouting and finding good land to hunt. Days and days  of driving, hours and hours of walking in what looks like the same trees and same leaves on the ground and we get nothing from it.  Wisconsin is one the prettiest states in the fall and I think that no one recognizes it.  I think that when I enter the woods next year for my first real hunt all I will think about is how to enjoy the game.