Beautiful Creatures 5.14.14

Pages Read: 200-250

Prompt: • If the author were here, what would you say and ask him/her?

            The authors of "Beautiful Creatures" are Kami Garcia and Margret Stohl. If the authors were here I would ask them how they got the idea to start t write this book. I have always tried to write my own stories but I never can think of a really good topic. If they came and met me, I would make sure that I ask of tips. I would make sure to ask them a bunch of more questions like was this their original idea or if they had any other ones before "Beautiful Creatures". I where they wrote the book and when they first came up with the idea and writing the pages. How did they write it down? These are a few of the questions that I would ask them. I am always curious when it comes to writing because there are many different strategies and different topics. The world of writing is just amazing! 

           When I am reading a book, I always wonder how the author or author's come up with the ideas. It is really interesting to me because sometimes the ideas are crazy and exciting as well as sad and romantic, all wrapped into one! This just always makes me curious. One day I want to write a short book with a really cool idea. I want to have tips from authors themselves because they have experience. I love to write but I can never think of a good topic to write about and after a while I start to loose interest in the topic I first chose.

 More questions I would ask to the authors:

How did you come up with the tittle of your book?

Why did you choose the topic you did?

Did you ever plan on writing a book together or did you just suddenly think of the idea?

Did you both agree on the topic the first time?

Are the characters really important to the story?

Do you think that the mvie does a good job on portraying the story?

Reflection on 40 Book Bhallenge

                Well, I didn't know about the 40 book challenge until third quarter. I have read at least 10-12 books including some that were more than 350 pages. I have tried to read whenever I get the chance to and it works well. I am proud of myself and what I have accomplished while reading for the 40 book challenge. I know that a lot of people have either finished 40 books or are about to, since I started recently I am not that far. But I think I did a good job this year reading more books. All of the previous years I never read a lot. Now I am reading a lot more than I thought I would. This year I tried to read as much as I could every night. Last year I only read when I just felt like it or when I had to for class. I think that the strategy that I used for this year was much more useful than last years.

           Next year, in 8th grade, I want to try to do the 40 book challenge. I want to try to be able to read every single night and on the weekends as well. I want to be able to feel the success on completing 40 books in one school year! I think that the 40 book challenge is really cool and the idea is cool as well. I think it is a nice way to get kids motivated to read more so that way they could feel the success of completing a really cool challenge. I think that every middle schooler and high schooler should try to do the 40 book challenge.

Does the 40 book challenge count for the books you read over the sumer?

Beautiful Creatures Week of 5.07.14

Pages Read: 150-200
Prompt: • Is the setting described well enough that can put a picture of it in your mind?

Why or why not?

                 This week I read about how Lena is starting to become more and more "strange". When she broke the window in class, by accident, she ran from school to her house. When she got there she was sitting deep into the woods. While she was there, Ethan was at school and he get like he could hear her saying "leave me alone" and "don't come". But Ethan knew that he had to go, so he borrowed his friends car and then drove to go get Lena and talk to her. He found out that she was really talking to him through thinking. 

                 Ethan got to Lena and they were talking. She was trying to explain what she knew about what was going on. That was not a lot. She started to cry and he stopped her. Ethan was holding on to her wrist as he put his hand on a rock and there was something on the rock. It was a locket on a chain. He looked at it as the chain layer rapped in his hand. Suddenly the scene was different, there was smoke and a bunch of destruction, including fire. They saw the past and it was very realistic. When they let go of each other the scene stopped. The weird thing was that they could still feel the smoke in their eyes.

               Ethan showed the locket to his grandmother and she got scared. She made him put it into a bag and wrap up the bag. Then he was told to go bury it where he found it. But Ethan didn't listen and he kept it in a shoebox. The next day Ethan was sent to his Aunt's house. He had three aunts and they were old and creepy. The locket had his initials on it and Lena's birthday. So Ethan took the locket to his three aunts and tried to find out what the other initials were for and what it was or what it even meant.

           The setting was defiantly described well in this case because the author described everything so well and with so much detail. When I was reading, I could picture everything that was happening. It was actually cool because I was creating an image in my head and then I felt like I was there. I also felt like I could see and hear the things that Lena and Ethan did. The scenery in the whole book is just like this.

Beautiful Creatures Week of 5.01.14

Pages Read: 75-150
Prompt: After reading, what questions do you have?

                         This week I read about how Lena really was the girl that Ethan has been dreaming about. He started to have his dreams during class and he could here this song all day long that he heard when he woke up. It was something about moons. Then he could spell the Lemon and rosemary that he smelt every morning. It was all because of Lena. She was the one who smelt like rosemary and lemons. She was the one who played the song on the viola, and she was the one with marks on her wrist like in his dream.

                    The next day, I read about how Lena is considered a creepy girl. Lena always had numbers written on the back of her hand. She is always wearing old, torn up clothes and acts "weird".  One day, Ethan was driving in his friends car and didn't even know where he was going, he just was going anywhere but school. It was pouring out and he was driving in the direction of the storm. When he was driving everything was gray and he could not see anything. Then out of no where his cares spins around and he almost hit a person. He sees huge, creature like, eyes that were bright green. The person was Lena. She told him that he should be more careful and that he was stupid and shouldn't be driving. Then he gave her a ride to her house which she was walking to.

                      The next day she was in class and there was a little argument going on. Lena had a journal and she wrote in it. Then one of the popular girls came by and took it away from her and told Lena she was going to borrow it and read it. Lena tried to keep her cool but then she stood up and asked for it back in a rude tone, while the teacher told them to calm down and sit in their seats. Lena was starting to get anxious and went to go sharpen her pencil. Ethan knew that she was just doing it to et out of doing work. Then out of no where the window, which Lena was standing at, shattered sending glass flying everywhere. She got a few cuts and ran out of the classroom.

                 After reading, I wonder if Ethan is staring to become even more suspicious about what was going on with Lena. I wonder if they will start hanging out together more often. I am also wondering if Anyone knows about how she is different. The last thing that I wonder is if she lives with anyone else besides her uncle and, who is her uncle. (Why does everyone think he is creepy?)