Reader's Journal #4

August 9, 2011
7th Grade
Dear Reader's,
          Unfortunately this is my final reader's journal of the summer. Although it is my last I wanted it to go out with a bang. That is why I have chosen a book written by Katheryn Stocket. It is called "The Help". Although this book is also in the process of becoming a book, I have chosen too read the book yet again. This book spoke out to me because it was like none other. A lot of books are mostly in the eyes of the people living in the house. This book is different because it is in the eyes of the help, literally. I also thought this book would be good because in other books people are always doing scandalous things, but who is the one who hears it all, the help. Whether it is the butler, maid, chef, or just plainly the babysitter they are the eyes and ears of the house. I wanted to get a chance to read this book because I could tell this was not going to become a fad. What I mean is it was sort of a one time opportunity to have a book like this because there wouldn't be more of it. The first thing you need to know about this book is that Ms. Leeflot was not the prettiest flower in the garden. On pages one-two,  paragraphs 4-1, she was described like this. "twenty-three years old and as lanky as a fourteen-year-old boy. Even her hair is thin, brown, see through. She try to tease it up, but it just make it look thinner." I just wanted to quote this passage, so you get a feel of what she looks like. Back to the story, so basically what Eugenia Phelan, nicknamed skeeter did was take care of white babies. She also cooked and cleaned. She was what you could call a miracle woman. On page 1, paragraphs 1-3 the miracle in her comes out.- I know how to get them babies to sleep, stop crying, and go to the toilet bowl before there mamas even get out of bed in the morning.
But I ain't never seen a baby yell like Mae Mobely Leeflot. First day I walk in the door, there she be, red-hot hollering with the colic, fighting that bottle like it's a rotten turnip. Miss Leeflot, she looked terrified at her own child. "What am I doing wrong? Why can't I stop it?"
It? That was my first hint: Something is wrong with this situation. So I took that pink, screaming baby in my arms. Bounced her on my hip to get the gas moving it didn't take a two minutes fore Baby Girl stopped her crying, got to smiling up at me like she do. But Miss Leeflot, she don't pick up her own baby for the rest a the day. I seen many women get the baby blues after birthing. I reckon that's what it was.- I felt like in this passage everyone can see that "Skeeter" has this motherly intuition that really helps her in these types of situations. I really enjoyed reading this book. It is a real page turner. I would reccomend this book to people that enjoy comedy and sticky situations in books. I would rate this book a 4 out of 5. Mostly because the type of language that was used was a bit hard for me to understand. What I mean by that of course, I guess southern people have a different way of saying things. For instance instead of "of" they say "a", and "reckon" instead of "guess". Although I will not be blogging anymore I will be writing reader's journals. I hope that everyone that reads my blogs will enjoy them.
Sinverely,
Gabriella Goldstein 

Reader's Journal #3

July 29, 2011

7th grade

    Dear Reader's,

             I have recently finished reading a new book. There is actually a movie based on it that is very popular. Even though there is a movie on it I did not see it, so I thought that this would be a perfect choice of book. It is called the "Accidental Billionaire's", or more formally known as The Social Network. It is by Ben Mezrich. I have never read one of his books before, so I thought that this should be something new. At first I didn't know what the book was about at all. Then I read the back and it I was really interested. The genre of this book is definitely Non-Fiction. This book is basically all about how the biggest website was created. I'm sure everyone knows which website I am talking about, but for those of you who don't it is Facebook. A lot of people don't know this, but the journey to creating Facebook was not as glamorous as people think. It was a series of getting built up to getting torn down by people around them. Every time Mt. Mark Zuckerberg would make Facebook even more fun and futuristic, somebody else would sue him. Let me just start off from the beginning. At first young Mark Zuckerberg was just a college boy in Harvard that could do with a bit more of a social unit. Anyways he was just like any other guy blogging about things happening in his tiny cramped up dorm room. Long story short by the end of his story he was living as large as it can get. I would Rate this book a 3 out of 5 because I thought that it was unfair at times. Just because the people sueing him helped him to get to the top, does not mean they should destroy him. I mean why would those people want to destroy something they heped build. Thats just my perspective. "Why do you read the rag? It is such a waste of time." Tyler asked grinning at his friend, on page 29 paragraphs 2 and 3. The second I read this I thought that this was the beginning to the thought of making Facebook. I thought that because even from that little passage I could tell that he wanted to maybe create something that was not a waste of time and was actually fun and a way to connect. Hense the creation of Facebook. 

Sincerely,

Gabriela Goldstein

Reader's Journal #2

July 15, 2011

7^th grade

 Dear Readers,

        I read a book that I really did enjoy.  The book is called “The Good, the Bad, and the Goofy”. This book is written by a new author to me and his name is Louis Sacher.  The main genre of this book is fiction and the sub genre is historical so that makes it Historical Fiction. I know it is historical fiction because it brings me to the past when there were real cowboys and magic is what brought them there. There are three main characters in this book. The most important of all of them is Joe who has a book that has magic spells in it that he loves to use and goes to travel with his two other best friends named Sam and Fred. Sam was the brains of the group and Fred was the bravest of all of them and toughest. The foil characters are cowboys and cavalry.  The tone of the book was serious but still funny. The mood is funny to the reader they laugh a lot. The moral of the story is be careful what you wish for because Fred said before the adventure when they were watching a cowboy movie on television “I wish we could go there”.  I love the part where they as in the boys were eating cow boy food. They all thought that the food the cowboys ate tasted like an old shoes. The ending of the book was that they got back to the house.  Although there is another issue that they have in the house it was the mess. There were clothes everywhere and not only was the house a mess the boys were from their wild adventure at the old west.  They all notice and panic when they hear the car door and the key to unlock the house door and the three boys all know who that was, mom. They were scared to see the look on her face when she saw the house so they thought fast.  Joe then thought of a great idea to do on the mother a time freezing spell and it worked and they had enough time to clean the whole house not just that they also cleaned themselves in time for the time freezing spell to wear off the mother so she never got to see the messy boys in the house and also the messy house because she froze. That was the end of this great and adventurous book. I would rate this book a full 5 out of 5 easily. It was so great of a book it made me laugh and also made me worry for the boys in some parts. I would for sure recommend this great book to everyone even adults and children because I think it will make a great family book for boys and girls also parents.    

Sincerely,

Gabriella J

Reader's Journal #1

July 11, 2011
7th Grade
Dear Readers,

 The book I will be blogging about this week is a great book. It is called Stargirl. The author is new to me, his name is Jerry Spinelli. The book takes place in a made up place in Arizona called Mica. I was interested in reading this book because it involves diversity and romance. Those are two key things I look for in a book. Stargirl- the main character- goes to Mica High School. She is first hated for some reason, but then when you think things couldn’t get worse, they did. She was soon shunned for being different. There is one passage that stuck out to me and that a want to quote. On page 5 paragraphs 3. “And now the girl was standing, slinging her bag over one shoulder and marching among the tables, strumming and singing and strutting and twirling. Heads swung, eyes followed her, mouths hung open. Disbelief. When she came by our table, I got my first good look at her face. She wasn’t gorgeous, wasn’t ugly. A sprinkle of freckles crossed the bridge of her nose. Mostly, she looked like a hundred other girls in the school, except for 2 things. She wore no makeup, and her eyes were the biggest I had ever seen, like deer’s eyes caught in headlights. She twirled as she went past, her flaring skirt brushing my pant leg, and then she marched out of the lunchroom.” I think that even though they didn’t say anything, it’s just the way they talk about her. It’s like just because she does weird things, they are automatically better than her. I also say that because it says mid book that everybody starts hating her for just being herself. I think its cruel how people can act when you are not like the rest of them. All those people have no right telling her how to act. Just because she doesn’t try being like the rest of them. I would recommend this book to anyone that has problems fitting in, so they could try to cope with their problems. I would rate this book a 4 out of 5 because it showed diversity and that you shouldn’t give in to peer pressure. My feelings toward some of the characters were not very good. I thought that Hillari was very snobby and had a bit too much of a big mouth on her. When I was reading something that I thought was really interesting. Stargirl actually becomes a cheerleader. People still hated her. The reason was she would cheer for her team, but also cheered for the other team when they made a basket. I felt that it wasn’t fair for people to just despise a person for being nice and just trying to fit in. This book taught me that appearances don’t matter. Whether it’s on the inside or out you should just be yourself. I hope that everyone that reads this blog will want to read this book. I also want people to feel the same way I felt  while reading this book.

Sincerely,

Gabriella Goldstein :)