Entry four

The reason I chose Maggot Moon out of all of the books onthe list is because I like a book with mystery and I thought this one sounded like the kind of book I would enjoy because of the mystery.  It sounded like the most gripping book. I can relate the the novel because if that was me in Standish's position I would handle it the same way and I would go through what he does to find my best friend and I wouldn't care about the consequences or the what ifs or buts about what I would have to do to find them. And once I had my mind made up and my plans set there would be no changing my mind about it.

 I would recommend this book to people who like a good mystery and like to be kept constantly hanging by the story. People who just want to keep reading until the the story has been resolved and like a book that will keep you thinking even after the big finish. It is also kind of a strange setting and you never know what might go wrong. I personally really enjoyed reading this book it had a lot of "ups" and "downs" it was a book I couldn't put down and I would read it again.

Entry three

Today I am going to try and get you (the reader) interested in reading this book so in order to get you "hooked" I am going to supply a section of my book (maggot moon) without spoiling the end for you. In this section Standish has escaped his section but his life will not just miraculously turn into sunshine and rainbows! He still has some unfinished work to do and some new information. The information I am talking about is that maybe these people who suddenly "disappear" from the section, maybe, they don't just simply disappear, maybe, they are taken away to the motherland, to work and help make propaganda films! They don't have a fantastic life, they are all kept hostage and abused. Standish is hoping to go and free his best friend he had ever had Hector. Let's hope he hasn't been killed before he gets there.
So he has just got to the place where they are kept hostage!

"You're lucky" says the guard. "The last boy died".  He walks me down a metal spiral staircase which seems to go round and round and on forever. At the bottom there is an endless white corridor, the lights running along the middle in small shades that throw triangles of blinding brightness. On each side are rows of metal doors with thick submarine glass at the top. Still we keep walking. Im not sure where the lucky comes into this. The guard's steel-capped boots echo the sound of a marching army. Apart from our footsteps there is an eerie silence down here it seems to be deserted. I feel as if I'm being buried alive. The place smells of metal and earth.
   And still we keep walking."

Entry two

My three main characters Standish Treadwell, Gramps and Hector who all want different things which are very similar. I think what Standish really wants is to see his mother, father and Hector again. I would say that gramps also wants this but not for his own sake, for Standish's. I think what Hector really wanted was to please everyone and to stop all of the inequality between the different zones and that was why he was beginning to rebel against the higher groups rules, for example, when he crossed the wall out of his own zone to get a ball instead of obeying the rules of his own zone.

Throughout this novel there seems to be a lot of themes growing as you read. Out of the many themes friendship seems to be one of if not the strongest theme touched upon during this novel.one of the smaller but very crucial to the development of the story is danger, another of equal value to the story is rebellion, as I said these may be smaller than friendship but they are huge in the long run because without them the story wouldn't be as attention grabbing and exciting for the reader. So far this book has been a lot about breaching the rules and standing up for what you believe in.

The story is told in first person, I feel like there is always something else hidden beneath the surface of what is actually written on the page, so it really makes you stop and think "well what was meant by that" and think about what you are reading about and helps develop a better understanding.

Entry one

The book that I have chosen to read is "maggot moon". This book is about a boy called hector he Is introduced as a shy boy who has had a rough life, his parents are made to seem like they had died but as I read further into the story it sounds like they have escaped, he is made fun of in school and he isn't that smart, his name is Standish Treadwell. In fact one of the first things to describe him in the book is "you see, I can't spell my own name. Standish Treadwell. Can't read can't write Standish Treadwell isn't bright. So from the very begging you feel sorry for him. He has been living with his grandad "gramps" (as he is called in the book) he is like any loving caring grandad and standish knows he will always be there for him, I know this because in the book there is this line "gramps was the only person who still pulled at the gravity in me". he was pretty much Standish'is only friend until he met Hector  who became his best  friend, hector would always stand up for Standish against everyone else.
 until one day they were playing with a ball down at the railway tunnel and it went over a bwall but not just any wall the border wall. And the people in this "zone" we're not aloud to cross so standish and Hector left but it was Standish's favorite ball so the next day hector went down and then he came back with the ball, standish was not really pleased, he was worried because everyone knew what happened if you went out of your zone. Then that night hectors family were staying at Standish's house but, they didn't stay the whole night, in the morning the whole family had disappeared and this happened a lot in their zone people would just disappear into these "holes in the ground" (metaphorical) and hector says that that was what his parents fell into and disappeared.
I think that this plot is quite a lot like the hunger games because of the zones and they have the capital and they have something a lot like that in this book and they have these people that will destroy things and so does this book so they have a lot of the same things, it is about these two friends.
I think that hector will escape one day and he will go free and find Hector at some point on his journey

Last post for Theodore Boone

So this book has gripped me all the way through and I don't usually enjoy reading so it is good to have read this book and enjoyed it so much. I think this book is a great book for people who like mystery but with some comedic elements thrown in every now and again. I would give this book 5 stars just simply because it is exactly the kind of story I enjoy. And especially the way it is written the voice in it I could hear all the way through reading it and the whole mood and tone of the reading could change with one simple word and I like that constant change because you can almost never see what is coming so that is what makes it so gripping to me. So I hope anyone who wants to will have. Look at this book and consider reading it.

Close to the end of my book

In these last few chapters of the book it becomes even more gripping than it has been which I didn't think could happen because this story has been extremely gripping all the way through but as we near the end it was hard to put it down and stop reading. I liked this last chapters because a lot happens and you feel like it is going by quickly because the last few chapters only go on for a few pages each but in those few pages they are packed with new information and nearing a conclusion. So don't want to spoil the ending so I won't.

Chapter 17

So for this chapter we are back to the Duffy case which has been an ongoing case throughout the story about the murder of mrs Duffy. So we are now getting back to that and we are getting farther into the reasons that mr Duffy May have killed his wife. We learn about all of his last minute grabs for cash. " my paperwork shows that the warehouse was on the market for over a year, that the asking price was six hundred thousand dollars, the mortgage at state bank was five hundred fifty, and that you and your partners finally sold it for just over four hundred thousand." I found this really interesting to get some details of his desperation for that money and how he was loosing money on everything and he was struggling to make that up and it really makes you feel more convinced that he may have actually killed his own wife for this money!

Favorite character

My favorite character would have to be Theo because his character can bring the intense ness to the story but also brings the laughter. He can be very sarcastic at times throughout the story which makes the reader ( me) laugh even in the intense parts of the book and changes the entire tone of the writing. I like that because I like it when things turn from one thing to another to complete opposites from one  thing a character says. One example of this from the book is "harmless? What about a heart attack. It's not right judge you gotta protect us." I really liked this line because it is in a court case which tend to be pretty serious things so when he is talking to the judge and he uses words like gotta and makes sarcastic jokes that completely changes that serious court case feel to a funny feeling.

Favorite line from chapter 12

My favorite line from this chapter is

"Though animal court got little respect amoung the lawyers of strattenbourg, it was seldom dull. The case involved a boa constrictor named Herman, and evidently Herman had a knack for escaping" I liked this line because it made me laugh because I began picturing this boa constrictor escaping. During this court case. I liked it because I like lines like that put into quite a serious setting because it lightens the mood and makes the reading more enjoyable.

The best thing about my book is..

The best thing about my book so far is the way it is written it is very descriptive and I like that because it really gives you a real spence of the peoples attitude and what everything looked like. One example is "he walked through them with a polite "excuse me" and a metallic smile, he really had no fear because the men wouldn't bother a kid." I really like this one because you can really see this kid walking through this big gang of "rough-looking men" and just politely saying "excuse me".

Another line I liked was "the foul smell of stale booze hung in the air" I like this one because you can almost smell the stale alchahol on the people in the ally way.

There are many many more and I am sure I will be finding so many more throughout reading this book so be prepared because you may see this prompt repeated later as I get farther into the book

Krista Ramsey Introduction Activity

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/02/15/krista-locking-into-the-magic-of-legos/5521245/
This column is about how Legos affect children's lives and parents lives and why might parents spend so much on Legos for their children.
I'm going to look at a quote from the column that I think is the best written.
"Then feet will pad up the basement stairs to show parents what's been created. And they'll pad right back down to tear it apart and move on to freestyle. This is where a lot of good brain work happens. Although this should never be shared with children, fiddling with bricks improves spatial reasoning and 3D visualization. It also builds a child's confidence in his own creativity – the notion that if you try something a couple dozen ways, sooner or later something cool will result."
The impact of this really made me think that Legos aren't just a kids toy they actually help develop the kids learning and lots of other things and that it is more than what the kid might think, and that may be the reason why parents buy kids so many Legos. The diction mostly used in this quote is informal because it is like the author is actually speaking to you. And the syntax used there are a lot of short sentences, that have a great impact on how you read the column.
I think Ramsey’s writing style is quite ornate because she gets you to see what is going on with the certain details she puts into the text one example is "Some sit cross-legged on the floor, doing homework. Some talk quietly to a friend or have a snack. Others check their mothers' watches somewhat compulsively. Many have been waiting with their parents for as long as two hours."
This gets you to see all these kids doing all the different things. 
If  I was given the opportunity some questions I would ask her would be 
1: how do you come up with the different ideas?
2: why do you write the way you do?
3: how did you begin your career in writing?

Future predictions

So in the pages I have been reading this past week. Theo has been asked by his friend Julio for advice on the Duffy case because he may hold valuable information for the case. Well as I mentioned in my last post so far there have been no witnesses to the murder of mrs Duffy, well Julio has told Theo that he may know of one but the problem with the witness is that. He is from El Salvador and he has come into America illegally so that he can support his family in El Salvador from America and he has been working at the golf course where the Duffy house is. "You see he was working in the day of the murder. He was eating lunch. His lunch break starts at eleven thirty and goes till twelve.he saw a Man jump into a golf cart and go right down to the Duffy house go inside the back door and then come back out a few minuets later, and go quickly back up to the course" so the interesting part about this is that this man was in the house around the time mrs Duffy was expected to be murdered. But then it goes on to say the man from El Salvador saw the Duffy case on the tv and saw Mr Duffy and said that is the man he saw. So usually you would go in and testify as an eye witness but the man from El Salvador is too afraid of being deported if he goes to the authorites.

So I predict that because of what kind of a position Theo is in  he will take the man to the judge because he knows the judge and both his parents are lawyers so he will take him to act as an eye witness for the case.

Most important line from chapter 5

I have decided to use the most important line prompt again because I think it really works for the part of the book that I have just read.

I have chosen a line from chapter 5 that I think really makes an impact on the story and the murder case that I explained in my last post, so I am going to quote the line and explain what is happening and why it is such an important line and who is speaking.

So it is the prosecution lawyer speaking again and he is now trying to make his case realistic and convincing. Before the defense lawyer makes his case so that he will hopefully keep the jury's minds on his case, because he is talking first so that they don't get to convinced by what the defense lawyer is saying and he can maybe keep their minds on what he has said And what is good about he has said and away from the fact that he has no real proof and that he has no witnesses to the crime.

"He planned it very well," mr hogan said, over and over."

I thought that this was a really interesting and important line from the chapter because of the fact that a good lawyer kept repeating what he was saying it is almost as if he wasn't just trying to talk the jury and the court into believing his case it was almost as if he was trying to talk himself into believing it.
And I also thought that by repeating what he was saying it did make the case more convincing and it also made the words stick in everyone's mind because he said it over and over. If you say anything enough it will stick in your mind.

Most important line from chapter 4

The book that I am blogging about is Theodore Boone Kid lawyer
This week I am going to be quoting a line from chapter 4 that I think is the most important line from this chapter and why I would say that it is the most important and what it's impact on the story.

So in this extract it is the first day of the court for the Duffy murder that happened a few days before where the man being accused of murdering mrs Duffy is her husband mr Duffy who is a big biussness owner and millionaire but lately his biussness hasn't been doing as well, so the person speaking is the prosecution lawyer and he is making his case.

"Money. A million dollars. Me Duffy bought a million-dollar life insurance policy on his wife two years ago. In the event of her death, he gets a million dollars. His biussness was not doing well. He needed some cash, so the theory is that he literally took matters into his own hands."

I think that this is the most important line of this chapter because it is the part of the chapter that really convinces you that he could have mabye actually killed his own wife because he had so many reasons for him to want to such as his biussness not doing well and him having the million dollars that he would get if she died and he has a certain lifestyle he would probably like to upkeep. So it really makes you think that he mabye killed his own wife, and that million dollars could have really helped him do that.

English final blog reflection

 

Blog link: http://cameronhreadingblog.blogspot.com/2014/02/most-important-line-from-chapter-and-why.html

In this blog post I am examining the best line in my opinion from chapter 9 of my book. I think this blog best shows my ability to write to the standard required to be able to analyze well what I am trying to explain in the blog post. This is shown in the way the post is written because I think I have gave a good idea of what the quote means without just making it a boring summary this is shown in the language that I have used in the post, I was trying to make it more like I was talking to the reader rather than just making an overview by using personal pronouns and giving my opinions on the quote and what I think is going to happen next in the story. I also gave a good idea of what has been happening in the chapter up to this point, such as what Theo’s friend Julio is trying to tell Theo about (the witness to the murder) which could have a huge impact on the case but the problem with taking the witness to see the court or talk to a lawyer is that he is an illegal immigrant working to get money for his family back in his home country.

Through this experience one thing I struggled with at the beginning in my first few posts was how to word the posts I was finding it difficult to find words that would make my posts more interesting to read and trying not to make them boring. One way I overcame this problem was by trying to write what  I thought would be less boring and just writing it rather than trying to make things difficult and thinking all the time is that good enough while still trying to make sure they made sense but making them be more personal I the way they were written.one strength I had was length I think I managed to make all of my posts a good length. And for next trimester I would like to be able to carry on writing more personal pieces of writing and trying to read more than I do. I would like to improve on wording of my writing.

Best line from chapter 15

I think this is a very important line from this chapter because it is a very tense thing that is about to happen and it is what has been waiting to be decided in the last few chapters I had read. Theos uncle Ike has just came to pick theo up early from school theo doesn't really know why but he goes along with it and once they get in the car to go wherever they are going and theo asks where they are going
And Ike answers "you've come to me for help. My advice Is that we go to the offices of Boone and Boone (theos parents law firm), to get your parents in a room and tell them everything."

So they are going to tell theos parents all about the witness to the murder of mrs Duffy which could be an important lead in the case.
This was a very intense point in the story because I didn't know what theos parents might say or do because they are lawyers so their first instinct would be to tell the other lawyers involved in the case and that could mean the witness could be taken to jail or deported and that could be terrible for him and his family.

Most important line from the chapter and why

The most important line from this chapter chapter 9 is when Julio is about to tell they something that could change the whole case this in my opinion was the most engaging part of the book so far.
So Julio knows someone who might be a witness to the prosticutioners side of the case and there have been no witnesses to the crime so far from that side of the case yet so this was a very important part of the book
"Well my cousin was sitting under some trees eating lunch kind of hiding because his lunch break is the only time he gets to be alone and he saw a man in a golf cart going really fast down the path along the fairway the man had a set of golf clubs on the bak of his golf cart but he was not hitting balls he was in a hurry suddenly he veered to his left and parked the cart near the patio of the house where the lady was murdered and went inside and then not long after the man came back out and went speeding off back to play golf."
Then it goes on to tell you that the cousin saw mr Duffey the suspect of the case on the news and said that was the man he saw. So the only thing stopping them going to the police with the witness is that the witness is an illegal immigrant and he has a family to support and he can't afford to be deported.

The best thing about my book

I think the best thing about my book is that just when you think you know what is going to happen next the story will get flipped or something else that you wouldn't expect to happen will happen so you can never know what to expect and it can have really intense parts that make me want to keep reading it to find out what is going to happen but you could keep reading and you might not get to a part when something is resolved until about 2 or 3 chapters later

Why I chose this book and my predictions

I chose this book because I like mystery books about crime and mystery.
I think that it is a little strange because the accusation has no witnesses to the murder but I think that there is a witness somewhere because it was in a large housing estate and all the houses back onto the same golf course, where the suspect/husband of the woman who was murdered, he was at the golf course apparently when she was murdered but the accusation side say that it was all just a cover up for when he went back to the house and murdered her and went back to the golf course

About the author-John Grisham

John Grisham is the author of 21 other novels, he has written one book of non fiction, and one collection of stories the series about Theodore Boone. His work is translated into 38 languages.
He is also an American politician, lawyer and author.
He began writing his first book "A time to kill in 1984 and it was published in June 1989.
As of 2012 his books had sold over 275 million copies worldwide, he is a galaxy British book awards winner, Grisham is one of only 3 authors to sell 2 million copies on a first printing.
His first best seller was called the firm released 1991, it sold over 7 million copies it was later adapted into a film with the same name starring tom cruise  in 1993.
Eight of his other books have also been adapted into movies.
He is the second oldest of 5 siblings
He got married on may 8th 1981 they have two kids together.

Beginning of Theodore Boone kid lawyer

I started reading this book a couple of nights ago it was a little slow to get started for the first couple of chapters but once you get into it a little it starts to get pretty good.

The story Is set in a town. And there has just been a murder in a wealthy neighborhood and there is a case on trial and thirteen year old Theodore Boone who is really fascinated by law and is always in the courtroom watching court cases whenever he can be, but he was especially interested in this story because it was one of the biggest things that has ever happened in the town.

Independent reading book

I have now finished my book somebody up there hates you.

I really enjoyed the book because you never knew what could happen next and it was always leaving you wanting to know the next part, it was a really good book and I would recommend it to people who like the kind of book about people with cancer and what kind of things they have to go through but while still having funny parts.

I think that the theme of this book is that if you never give up and if you stay positive and keep up hope anything could happen could happen.

The main character in the book was Richard Casey. At the beginning of the book he was really shy and not sure of himself but he wasn't giving up on himself, as the book went on i think he became more confident in himself.
One of the best things about the main character Is that he wasn't going to give up and he wasn't going to stop living his life just because he was in a hospice with that terrible illness
And one of the worst things about him is that he didn't always trust people.

I think the way the author finished the book was very good and it left you not knowing what might actually  happen next while still giving you a pretty good insight into what might happen as it had been all the way throughout the story.

The next book I plan to read is called Theodore Boone kid lawyer by John Grisham. Because I like detective kind of books and about people trying to solve a murder.