Holes

Started Holes, got about half way through so far. It is a very fun novel to read because of the language Louis Sachar uses. I also enjoy it because I saw the movie a few times and it was always very amusing to me.  What I really like is how Sachar really embodies his characters. It is very funny that Stanley's name is just his last named spelled backwards. I can't imagine that or else my name might be...Retieb. Stanley works for him though. I love the song that the Grandfather teaches Stanley, it goes as follows:
"If only, If only," the woodpecker sighs,
The bark on the tree was just a little bit softer."
While the Wolf waits below, hungry and lonely,
He cries to the moo-oo-oon,
"If only, if only."
This, I noticed is different from the one they state in the film. In the film version (which I have memorized) the second line is changed, in which it is says: "The bark on the tree was  as soft as the skies," so it actually rhymes with the first line. I kind of like the film version better, just because it flows a little better.  What I also find hysterical about this novel is all of the juvenile's nicknames.  If I had to go to Camp Green Lake, I wonder what my nickname might be...

Too busy, but I finished.

I've been too busy to blog and keep up, so my next few posts will be in depth about a few novels. This entry however, is about Stargirl. I finally finished Love, Stargirl. Well a few weeks ago but here I am.  The ending was surprising, but enjoyable.  It was very nice to see Archie back in the picture, as well as having a final response to Leo. It was weird to me seeing so much doubt within Stargirl's character in this novel because in the first one Spinelli made her shine and she never stopped. In this novel we see the more human side of her, we see that even an uppity girl who has a happy wagon can be dragged down by love, and other emotions. Spinelli is fantastic, creating an ending that leaves us open to the question of will Leo and Stargirl end up together? We find out that one day again they will meet and that, my friend, sounds like good news. I was also very happy that Mary Lou finally came out of her house, as well as Stargirl's decision to send her letter to Leo. Made me smile a little bit.

Found Poetry

Passage: "Me, cleaning my mother's blood off the wall, represented the 'tornado' breaking and destroying her face (I liked to call my mother's boyfriend the 'tornado'.) After he would hit, everything would look like it had been caught in a whirlwind--our apartment, our sanity, and my mother's face. I was cleaning up after the tornado hit my house and diminished everything. Washing my mom's blood, which was shed from time to time; a sacrifice to make him happy. He lived for blood-her blood, enjoying every fist that hit her flesh and every scream that took place. While he broke televisions, stereos, VCRs and the dining room table, it didn't compare to the breaking of her mind. My mom was never the same, and neither was I..."

Words: Mother'sX, bloodX, tornadoX, breakingX, destroyingX, hitX, sanityX, cleaningX, diminishedX, everythingX, shedX, sacrificeX, himX, happyX, livedX, bloodX, enjoyingX, fist, hit, fleshX, screamX, brokeX, breakingX, mindX, neverX, theX, sameX, IX.


Poem:
Tornado breaking everything.
Mother's sanity diminished.
Blood shed.
Sacrifice.
Destroying flesh,
enjoying scream,
hit broke, breaking mind.
Him cleaning blood.
I lived happy, never the same.

Stargirl, Endings.

I'm still not done, but this is what I want for characters in the novel.
There is a character in the novel, Betty-Lou. She doesn't ever leave her house. I hope she leaves.
Alvina is a very bitter, jaded young adult who hates and has an anger problem. I hope she finds her happiness.
I'd like for Stargirl to have a lot more pebbles in her happy wagon.
Perry- a confused boy who steals and is very outspoken. I want him to stop stealing and be happy with what he has.

Blogging about my blogging

First of all, I really enjoy the blogging. It helps me realize more details about the book that I might not pull away form the text right away. It is helpful to have response too! I enjoy that Dr. Cole finds the time to carefully read and react to each blog post and challenges us to read more into the story, and author, and challenges us on how we feel about whatever we may be reading.
The one thing I do not know if I am doing right is the length of each blog post. They are not too lengthy, and I feel almost self-conscious over. I am not sure if we do have a length/word limit that we have to reach but after every blog post I am sure that I've said pretty much all I had to say and achieved what I wanted to say.  Hopefully I will get some feedback on that, and I won't feel as worried. 
The fun of blogging is getting our feelings out to the world, without having to directly show everyone, "Hey, this is how I feel about this book and these characters and this author." I'm not directly showing anyone, but everyone can find it if they tried hard enough.

Okay, I was wrong/Language

Spinelli, you helped me turn my depressing blue-monday into a powder blue-sun day. Yes, sun day.  Let me show you what Spinelli does to cheer me up just like that through the use of Stargirl.  Stargirl takes Dootsie her newest yet youngest bestfriend to her enchanted place to watch the sun come up. He uses word play within the characters to say little things that make my heart grow a few sizes bigger. Let me show you, I will set up the scene.  They are in the barren land, watching the sun come up on the Summer Solstice at 4:30 in the morning.  Dootsie says: "Stargirl?"
"Yes?"
"That was better than TV."
"It was."
"Stargirl?"
"Yes?"
"Does the sun do that every day?
"Yes."
"Stargirl?"
"Yes?"
"Every day is sun day."

Spinelli, you've got me.  This simple language yet fun word play remembers why I fell in love with the Stargirl novels in the first place.  Okay, so it might not be a 10/10 like the original was, but so far Love, Stargirl is shaping up to be a 9 or a 9.5/10 and for a sequel I'd say that was pretty good. I'm still hoping for a happy ending though.

Love, Stargirl

Don't get me wrong I love it, and I hate being cliche here, but....its not as good as the original. Are the sequels ever as good? The Toy Story sequel--not as good. The Peter Pan, Jungle Book, Transformers, the list of sequels in every genre of entertainment just are not as good. Okay I'll admit I'm being harsh here and on occasion a sequel can still be good, but does not live up to the original.  Maybe its because I'm not spending enough time with Love, Stargirl as I did with Stargirl. Maybe I just can't come to terms with Leo and Stargirl not being together. In all honesty, its breaking my heart. I neeeeeeed (can't stresh the e's enough) this to have a happy ending and I'm hoping that Stargirl will tell us in her "world's longest letter," that they find each other and get back together. So far, seems very unlikely.  Its a monday, and happy endings just don't seem all that probable. I look outside and see rain, even though the sun is shining.  Maybe because today is just a rotten day that I feel this way about the book, maybe my expectations were just too high. Don't get me wrong, the more Stargirl the better, but I just need some happy, a glass full of sunshine in an enchanted place.  Not a breakup story where lovers do not reunite. Help me out here, Spinelli.

STARGIRL IS BACK!

Started Love, Stargirl. And its phenomenal, just as I expected. What I love about it so far is how Spinelli embodies Stargirl.  In Stargirl he embodied Leo and made such a character out of him.  But what I love in the sequel is that he completely changes roles as the author and steps into the shoes of a completely different character all while maintaining the crucial attributes that make Stargirl, Stargirl.So far its great. This entry of the blog is short because I want to read it. I'm picking it up as we speak.

Heading Back...

Mostly the reason I think the text in Guardians of Ga'Hoole was starting to drag was anticipation for our upcoming novels to read. Not necessarily for this class, but for adolescent lit.  In this class though, I had received Love, Stargirl in the mail and was/am very excited to read it.  In our adolescent lit class though, we started Walk Two Moons a novel in which I started in 8th grade and fell in love with, but never had the chance to finish. After searching over the summer to find out what that novel was called (couldn't remember after 6 years), when the novel was put in front of me and I saw the title, I knew that was the book. So, when it came time to finish Guardians, it is not that I did not like it as stated in previous posts, but it was more of the fact that it dragged on simply because I was anticipating other books, as well as reading other novels I was excited about. It is hard for me to do the fantasy genre, I mean, I do love it but it is hard for me.  Last year I read through the first Harry Potter and I LOVE, repeat LOVE Harry Potter and even at times I found that a little dry. Now that could be because its been so long since I read it, or maybe even the fact that I've read it before, but grasping onto some fantasy concepts, learning about a new culture, and even learning a whole new vocabulary for a book can be tough for me. This is why I think that Guardians kind of dragged on.  I feel like I did not do the book justice, but eventually I'll go back and reread it and I'll be a lot happier with it.

Done like dinner.

Well, Guardians, its over. I'm honestly not sure if I'll be coming back to any more of the books within this series. Maybe when summer rolls around, and I need some leisure reads, but for now I'm moving on. Why, you might ask? Maybe it is because I'm too anxious to read Love, Stargirl. Maybe its because the movie is on its way and I'm just not caring for the literature. But at least I'm honest (haha) and what I say is that even though it sounds like I am delighted for the novel to be over with (which I am), even though it sounds like it was a hassle to read, that I still even enjoyed it. It was nice to read a fantasy, to jump into a world a smart mind like Kathryn Lasky created filled with things I never thought possible before.  But it is time to move on, I'm still excited about the movie, as well as the remaining novels in the series in which I do think I will end up reading, but its time to move onto Love, Stargirl. Spinelli, here I come.

Stepping Back...

I haven't been able to find time to reach much of Guardians, but hopefully I will finish it this week. Lasky's language is simple, which also makes it beautiful and very easy for the demographic it is geared toward to understand it all the while enjoying it. I enjoy it more and more every time I pick it up, but reading 4 books at a time can be a daunting task. I'm excited to finish and see the movie though, which premieres this Friday. I'm going to try to wait until I read the first three books; the movie is based on those solely, and I don't want to spoil anything. Guardians, I'm sorry it is taking so long for me to break in your bindings.

More Owls

What strikes me so as so fascinating is how the author, Kathryn Lasky, presents the story. She makes the book very easy to understand--very good young adult literature, making it a breeze to complete in a short amount of time all while using fantastic imagery that captivates the senses along with a story that keeps our heart warm and our butts on the edge of our seat. I'm excited to find out what happens at the end of the story as well as in the rest of the book series.  The one thing that most interests me, or got me involved in this novel is the movie--which isn't released yet. I have been anticipating it for a while because I am still in love with movies geared toward kids, and teens. As soon as I saw the book, I bought it and it's getting me even more ready for the movie. PICK IT UP NOW!

OWLS

Guardians of Ga'Hoole: The Capture (book 1 of 15)
Kind of like the Harry Potter sort, only more magical. In this novel, sure they can deliver packages and do anything else Hedwig can, but they also do so much more. Enter a world of owls, they talk, they have rituals (or traditions), basically like the world we live in...except not.  Soren is a young Owl born not too many moons ago and he finds himself is a world of trouble after he is out of his nest at the bottom of the forest, vulnerable to attackers, and can't remember how he got there....

The place to come..

...when you want to know exactly what I think on everything that is me, on the things I experience, my viewpoints and just anything you want to know that is going on in my head. WELCOME!