Runaway by Wendelin Van Draaen

Runaway, by Wendelin Van Draaen. The genre of this book is fiction.

Runaway is about a girl named Holly, around the age of 12. Holly currently lives with foster parents ‘The Benders’. Holly’s foster parents do not treat Holly well, she lives in the laundry room, with the floor as her bed and the entire laundry room as her literal room. Her English teacher Ms.Leone one day gives each student of her a class a journal to write in. Throughout the journal Holly talks about her day to day life, and many more things. One day she gets fed up with her living conditions and her life conditions so she makes a wise decision to well Runaway. Personally I would have to say my favorite part of this book is whenever Holly writes a poem, mostly because it helps me understand more about how she feels about a situation in the book.

The main character (aka Holly) is lonely. I know this because on the very first page the text reads Holly saying, “Words can’t fix my life. Words can’t give me family.” This shows that even though Holly has foster parents (that treat her poorly). She still feels as if she doesn’t have a family. Holly wants to feel as if she is wanted. She wants a family that loves her and a family that will treat her great.

I like this book because, it helps you see what many foster children go through in their life. Holly’s a very great part of this book as well because, she is portrayed as a very strong girl in this book. The book is read out of the perspective of Holly’s journal as well, which I find unique because not many authors do this. Overall I found the book very addicting, emotional, funny, and a great book that I would recommend to others.

Maybe-by Brent Runyon

          11/17/17

          The book that I have read is a book called Maybe. Maybe is written by the author Brent Runyon, the genre of this book is teen-fiction.

          

          Maybe, is about a boy named Brian who has just moved with his mother and father to a new neighborhood. He goes through the struggles of having to go to a new school, trying to make new friends, and trying to lose his virginity. The relationship with him and his parents is something he is not proud of, and he says it all went bad due to his brothers abscense. In fact he does make friends, although they may not be friends that are loyal to him. Personally my favorite part of this book is when Brian has a talk with his brother in his car, because it allows Brian to get everything out. Also because he finally realizes how much he loves his brother and misses him dearly. 

          The main character, Brian is lonely. This is shown on page 171 of the book where it says “I’m all alone. I don’t have anyone and I don’t care about anyone and no one cares about me.” This shows that Brian feels as if no one cares for and that he is not important. Throughout the book you can see how he truly feels when it comes to his importance.

          Personally, I truly liked this book because it can relate to many teenagers out there in the world. It goes from relating to the hardships of being a teenager in school to feelings that you go through in life. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. Mostly because it’s a book that many people can relate to, and also a book that people very much will enjoy. The theme of this book would have to be is that ‘it may feel as if you are the only one alone, but there are people out there who feel exactly the same.’
         

         

We real cool poem connected to The Outsiders Novel

“ We real cool” , is a poem that describes the life of seven main friends that are probably in a street gang, that get into quite frequent trouble. Or maybe I'm entirely wrong, whatever, I think it is connected to the novel ‘The Outsiders’, because both stories revolve around 7 young boys that both go through many obstacles along the way.“Seven at the golden shovel”. Meaning maybe there are seven of them maybe as like the main people who are being talked about in this poem. This connects to the outsiders by the characters, there are seven people (main) because the seven people in the outsiders were only really, Ponyboy, Sodapop, Johnny, Darry, Dally, Steve, and Two-bit. “We die soon”. Probably meaning someone somewhere in the poem, something happens to them and they die. This also connects to the outsiders as well because someone dies in the poem who was most likely a beloved character and in the outsiders Johnny died who was a very beloved character. In conclusion both of these show that The Outsiders can compare to other things. In both a poem all the way to real life. These poems connected with each other in a way of teenage life or young adult life. As how it can be hard and confusing for some people. In the outsiders there was very much of this, which shows that the poem and the outsiders can be connected and compared.

The outsiders- Book to movie comparison and differences

There were many differences and similarities in the movie and the book ‘The outsiders’.

A difference between the two was how, in the book after Ponyboy accidentally falls asleep in the lot Darry gets mad and slaps him. Although in the movie Darry only harshly pushes Ponyboy to the ground. Also when Johnny and Ponyboy try to find the church to hid in, in the book Ponyboy asks for directions, but in the movie he does not and Johnny just walk straight to the church. As well in the movie and the book Dally offers to take Johnny and Ponyboy out to eat after they were in the church for five days. When they are eating in the book no one seems to disturb them or talk to them, although in the movie a little girl and boy go up to Dally and ask him if he has any change. One thing that did quite stand out is that in the book Ponyboy says how Sodapop has this rusty blonde colored long hair, but in the movie Sodapop had blackish brown dark hair. Another thing is when Ponyboy is talking to Randy and Randy says how his friends will think he's soft if he were to talk to nicely of Bob. Although while in the movie he says they will think he is off his rocker if he would even say something like that to him. Lastly when Two-bit and Ponyboy see Johnny pass out the nurse rushes them out the door and tells them they have to leave. Although in the movie they decide that they should leave and the nurse doesn't say anything about them having to leave immediately.

Within the book and movie there are five particular similarities I have found. The first one was, how in both the book and movie Darry tells Ponyboy he looks like he is really sick and shouldn't fight in the rumble that night. Second is when both Johnny and Ponyboy are at the church in hiding all they have to eat is bologna sandwiches. Also when there is a fire set to the church Ponyboy and Johnny save the kids from the church. Also after Johnny kills Bobby Cherry becomes a spy for the greasers. Sadly the last similarity is how when both Dally and Johnny die in the book and movie they both mention to say Ponyboy or speak to Ponyboy.

Throughout the movie I do not believe that the actors or directors deliver the messages that were taught in the book. The actors did not do so good at showing their emotions well enough for someone to receive it fully. Also during the important and sad moment of some of the scenes in the movie they were not showed fully by showing the true emotion of the actor/character.
Overall this is how I felt about the movie and how it was portrayed, and what differences and similarities were shown in both the book and movie.

The two most important days in your life

The two most important days in your life,

Are the days you are born,

And the day you ind out 

Why.

-Mark Twain 

I like this poem very much, because it’s telling you that you were born to make something of yourself. That choice of what you make of yourself is yours and no one else’s. 

Also, we are all born so that we can do something in this world. What you want to do in this world is endless so you and only you can choose what that will be. Many people struggle with finding out what they want to do for themselves. As in, a job, being a parent, what college they want to go to, anything.We all struggle from this at least once in our life and ask ourselves ok do I do this or this or this. This poem relates to that.

End of first quarter reflection

• This quarter so far in eitghth grade has been very stressful but very fun. I did miss an entire two weeks of school by going on a family vacation. Overall though I made up all my work and caught up very quickly.
  • My classes are pretty decent they are good classes within the people (my classmates). Also my classes have teachers that help me a lot and have helped me make up any work that I have missing. My grades are pretty good so far as well. I was worried they wouldn’t be because of my vacation but I have caught up pretty well.
  • Next quarter hopefully I can have a better homework system within how I remind myself of what I must do. Also maybe I can ask more questions, I do now but in some of my classes I do not. For my grades I will change the way that I study. While I study I mostly like to go for the things that I already know first. When I should try doing the stuff I don’t know fully yet.
  • I have not joined anything so far although I do plan on joining the volleyball team this year with friends. Either team I am fine with, inter mural or all star. I don’t necessarily mind.

Where I see myself 10 years from now.

        In 10 years from now I want to have accomplished everything, from college to finally traveling        the world with my friends.

   
   First I would love to go to college a year after high school. My choices would have to be Malcolm X, or DePaul university because those are great schools for art and for photography. Hopefully I will graduate with honors as well. After that I will work at a foot locker and save up enough money to buy a loft or a condo. After that has been accomplished I will take Art school and start to work on photography and art. I will focus my photography on taking photos of the city, and photos of buildings, and art around town. Once I start to get older and more responsible I will want to adopt two baby pit bulls. Once hopefully I have accomplished all of this I will want to travel the world with my friends. This is what I hope for and wish for in ten years. 

                                            What and where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Trump winning the Presidental Election

      My mom and I were sitting on the couch watching the presidential election voting scores on the news, watching as the scores for both Hilary and Trump go higher and lower. Hilary was gaining more numbers for popularity while Trump was higher in electoral votes. The numbers would not stay still for very long, almost every two second the number two could jump up to ten and nine to twenty. I crossed my fingers as hoping that Hilary's numbers would go up more faster in Electoral because that is where the numbers mostly matter. Her numbers slowly went up, although her score could still not come anywhere close to Trumps electoral vote percentage. I slowly started to lose hope looking at the countdown and seeing there was only 1 to 2 minutes left on the countdown. 

      As I saw the countdown going down I watched and wished that Hilary's percentage would just out of nowhere go extremely high at the last second. In the end that sadly did not happen as I heard the newscaster say "The new president of the United States is Donald Trump." My mom did not want to watch the rest of the broadcast so she shut off the tv and told me. "You should get ready for better tomorrow you have school and have fun in social studies." She told me heading towards her room. I started to feel worried knowing that Trump is and has changed a lot of things, and some of them are changes that are scary to a lot of people. Even though I do not want him as president what can I do? 

                                                            

                                                         What are your thoughts on Donald Trump winning?