Color Of Water

For English class, I just started reading The Color Of Water by James McBride. The book starts off with James mother (Ruth) talking about her dark  childhood. Ruths  part of the book takes place in Sullfok Virginia, where she grew up.   Later on Ruth explains "I am dead to my family." (McBride 23) to her family as a result of her marriage to Andrew Mccbride (james father) because he is an African American. 

(This book is written from the mothers and the sons perspective) 

When the book gets to James part, he talks about when he was little and how he didn't know his mother was different. "How come you don't look like me?" (McBride 10) This quote shows that James knew his mother was different but didn't understand why. In this chapter, the bicycle that his mother rides through the neijborhood is discussed a lot. James thinks that his mothers bicycle symbolizes his embarrasment because his mother is white. 

I am really enjoying this book because the author tells his story really well and the book is written from two different perspectives. That gives the reader a chance to get an idea about what not only James, but what his mother was going through. I am not even halfway through the book yet haha but I can tell it's impactful and gives off a good lesson. 

Readers take a moment and ask yourselves: Have you ever been embarrassed and not wanting to talk about where you come from ? dun Dun dun 

Life As We Knew It

"I guess I always felt even if the world came to an end, McDonald's would still be open.” 

  I just finished reading Life As We Knew By Susan Beth. The book  explores what happens to an ordinary family in a normal  town when their world changes forever. An asteroid hits the moon, knocking it into a closer orbit. This causes all kinds of disasters that bring the world to a halt. Without shops, food, electricity, heat and water, Miranda  ( the main character) and her family face problems together and struggle to survive.

The book is about a normal teenage girl named Miranda normal sixteen-year-old girl who goes to  high school and thinks about friends and boys. The story is told in the form of her diary, allowing the reader to see her private thoughts and feelings 

Everyone at her school is excited about the asteroid that will hit the moon, but when it happens it is not the exciting as they all thought it would be. Instead, the asteroid knocks the moon closer to the earth, causing tsunamis, storms and earthquakes all over the world.

As the book goes on more tragic events keep happening. Miranda's friends are nowhere to be heard from and her family is in danger, all of the members of her family get infected with the flu except for her and food is running out. Miranda decides not to eat all the food they have left and save it for her family and hope that they will get better 

This book was amazing to read. But it was very sad and didn't have a happy ending :( one lesson that I can take away from this book is that you should be greatful for what you have and that your life can change in a matter of seconds to a completely normal person.  One of the other things that i absolutley loved when reading this was that Miranda's story is written in the form of her diary. The reader is able to see clearly through her thoughts and what she is going through, she also addresses some of the not so great sides of being a teenager which, anyone can relate too. 


Heres a book trailer if you're interested Hope you Enjoy!!! :) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vtXlkHmzGc 

Resillency

                                                                Resiliency 


In I am Malala, Malala shows a lot of resiliency by standing up for her beliefs and not letting the Taliban pose as a threat to her. Even in the most difficult times when it seemed like there was no hope for her country (Pakistan) and when she was put in a dangerous situation, Malala continues to be resilient. 

Malala still remains resilient by surrounding herself with the people she loves like her family and friends. " My family was scared, but our fear was not as strong as our courage. We must rid the valley of the Taliban, and then no one has to feel this fear,' he said" (Yousafzai 138). This quote shows that Malala and her family are very strong people and they didn't let anything stop them from fighting the Taliban. 

What helped Malala reach her goal was that she took charge of the problem, thought of things in perspective, and figured out a way to spread ways that people could help fix the problem that was heating up in Pakistan. Malala is an inspiration not just for girls, but for everyone around the world. She makes evevryone know that if you want to make a difference in the world, put your mind to it and you can and will succeed. 

I just wanted to finish this post off with one of my favorite quotes :) and just because it relates to the book 

  

"Be the change you want to see in the world." 

I Am Malala Discussion

Today in English, we discussed these 2 essential questions 

1):How do people stand up for their beliefs? 

2): What do personal stories teach us about our connections to others' cultures and humanity?)

For the first essential question, How do people stand up for their beliefs?, I said that Malala and her family don't give up on the things they love and what they believe in, for example Malala's fathers school. In the book it says "For us a turban is a public symbol of chivalry and Pashtun-ness, and for a man to lose his turban is considered a great humiliation. But then he started up again. "I never said those things to your clerk. He is lying." My father had had enough. 'You have no business here,' he shouted. 'Go away!' (Yousafzai 99). 

For the second essential question, What do personal stories teach us about our connections to others' cultures and humanity? I said that it teaches us about how things effect people differently around the world. Obvisouly, 9/11 had a different effect on the people who live in the U.S. and the people who live across the world. For Malala it caused war and chaos in her country according to her. 

This quote says that other people thought differently. "some of our religious people saw Osama bin Laden as a hero.  These people said 9/11 was revenge on the Americans for what they had been doing to other people around the world, but they ignored the fact that the people in the World Trade Center were innocent and had nothing to do with American policy and that the Holy Quran clearly says it is wrong to kill" (Yousafzai 85).  

I think what Malala stands for and what she has done is awesome. She has truly made a difference in the world. Sooo.. Im just trying to encourage all you readers out there to take charge of your beliefs and don't let anyone try to bring you down!! 

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I am Malala

For English class I am reading, "I am Malala." By Malala yousafazi. The book is about a teenage girl who lives in swat, Pakistan. Malala's home gets invaded by the Taliban and they prevent girls from going to school and getting an education. Malala speaks against what the Taliban are doing, and as a result of standing up for her beliefs she gets shot in the head by the Taliban at age of 15.

Honestly, I thought this book was going to be really boring and that it was just go on and on about importance of education. But instead I loved this book, Malala starts off the book talking about her parents and the important roles they played in her standing up for her beliefs. I think Malala started the book of talking about her parents because she didn't have much to write about. Disregarding the fact the her country was at war and she still got shot she is 17-yeas-old.

One thing that I learned from this book was how events around the world can effect you. I have never really questioned what events around the world effect me. Usually when I hear something tragic happen I do feel extremely bad for the people it effected but I tend to push it to the side and carry on with my life.  In I am Malala when 9/11 happened it changed Malala's world. "We did not realize then that 9/11 would change our world too, and would bring war to our valley" (Yousafzai 57). " That part of the book really stood out to me. I never knew that something on the other side of the world could effect someone not even close to that.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I recommend to anyone who has gone through discrimination or a hard time in their life.

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I just finsished  reading "The Color of Water" by James McBride. This novel is "thoughtful contribution to litterature on race." I am enjoy reading this book, the main reason being, the author writes the book from 2 different perspectives. This book was impactful and taught a good lesson.

What I enjoyed about this book the most was how the author portrays his mother, and how she plays a big role in all her children's lives/carrers.  Some of the things she says in the book explains what all mothers do to protect their children. I often think my mom wants to start a fight for no reason about anything. But, reading this book helped my understand what she's doing. 

Why do you think parents go to/ would go to an extreme level to protect their children? 

Reading this book made me realize how greatful you should be for the things you have. The main character in the book had 12 siblings, not a lot of money, a small house, and a rough childhood.He went from having nothing to becoming a famous author.   

We fought our way into the shelter, which wasn't much more than a box of strangers packed in like sardines. Every few minutes sirens went off. "Khattar, khattar," voices would shout. People would run up the stairs, then down howling news about fire and bombings they'd seen from the second-and third-floor windows. The sirens were warnings before or after bombardment, and they were always followed by a silent moment of nauseating anticipation of destruction of our shelter. My brothers, my mother and me all joined in the stair madness." 

The Palestinians were beyond scared, they had heard the the settelers had said they would be invading their homes and kill every living thing that they found." All of the Palestinian families including Ibtisams, fled their home so they wouldn't get killed. 

How would you feel if soilders were claiming to destroy you're home and kill all your family? 

They crossed the border of Palestine to go to Jordan hoping they would find a shelter to stay in until this incident blew over. "The shelter was a three-story stone house. Before we entered, mother was unsure if Maha was still breathing. "I don't have the courage to find out if she's alive," To out stunned surprise Maha coughed and then cried." 

"I get off the bus to go home, as I am in the neighborhood I feel like I am in prison. The ground is dirty, there holes in the walls, and blood on the floor. Flashbacks come to my mind from when I was little, everything used to be perfect well, it seemed perfect because I had no idea what was going on.

In chapter 2 the author begins to tell her story about her childhood and what the Palestinian- Israeli war is like. She describes it very well. I can picture the setting and there is great imagery in the story. I have been to Palestine in the part of the area that she is talking about, so I can picture it very clearly. She takes you through her journey about what it was like to be under the occupation.

"Post office Box 34 is the only place in the world that belongs to me. It belonged to my brother Basel first. He left Ramallah and did not want to give up the bus. So he passed it on to me. I burry the key in the dirt under under a lemon tree near our house. If I die, the key will be under the ground with me.
having this box will be like having a country, the size of a tiny square all to myself. I wish i could open the box everyday.

I have pen pals from all over the world. My favorite is Luis from Spain he is unhappy for the reasons that I don't understand. His country is not occupied, and he does not have a strict mother like mine.

At some point in everyones life they wish they could just escape and go off to a place where no one knows them. Post Office Box 34 is the authors way of escaping the occupation and "traveling around the world."

What is your escaping place?

Summer Reading: Lord of the Flies

For my summer reading I read Lord of the Flies by William golding. The book is set in 1950, in a atomic war. A war plane crashes on to a deserted island. The plane has a group of school boys from Britain. All of the boys group together and decided who is going to be their "leader." In this moment there is conflict between two boys, Jack and Ralph. They both argue over who is the most suitable to be their "leader." The boys elect Ralph. Ralph wants Jack to be in charge of the boys who hunt food for the entire group. Ralph, Jack and one other boy simon, goes on an adventure to explore the island and see if they can somehow get help. Ralph declares that they must light a signal fire to get the attention of people that might be sailing by. Ralph does this by sparking some dead wood through Piggy's glasses. Unfortunately more of the boys are focused on having fun than they are on the fire, the fire burns out and spreads around the forest. Piggy realizes that one boy is missing and they assume he was burned to death.  The boys are enjoying their lives without grown - ups and having a great time. But Ralph wants to keep order and try to get of the island as soon as possible and to build huts. ""We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything."Jack suggests that they can't keep eating fruit from the forest so he and his hunters go hunting. Jack spots a pig and is excited to kill it. ""Because of the enormity of the knife descending and cutting into living flesh; because of the unbearable blood." This is an example of the books vivid description and how Jack is unable to kill the pig. One day Ralph and Piggy realizing a ship passing by they are so happy to get out of the island, but to their attention the signal fire went out and that was Jack's and the hunters job to keep the signal fire going. The hunters are so happy because they just returned with their first kill. But, Ralph is furious at Jack and they get into a fight. Piggy is angry at what Jack did and critiques his actions, Jack slaps piggy across the face. Jack hated Piggy from the begging because of his looks but he wouldn't slap him. This is an example of foreshadowing that Jack is loosing his civilization. As soon as this happens, Ralph blows the Conch and tries to remind them that they need to be civilized and order must be restored. All of the boys gather around to have a meeting the "littleluns" aka the littlest boys complain that they are having nightmares about a beast. All of the older boys think it's nothing to worry about that they're just being "little kids." but when one littlelun proposes that the beast is in the sea, this terrifies everybody. The boys organize a hunting journey to search for the beast. Jack and Ralph clime up the mountain and they think they see a an ape. Ralph and Jack get into a fight and Jack votes that ralph should be removed. Jack wants to start a tribe where he is the leader. Unfortunately, most of the group goes with Jack. Little by little Ralph starts to loose people and he is all alone and Jack and his tribe seek out to kill him. Jack has now become a savage. 

Tasting The Sky

I am currently reading Tasting The sky By Ibtisam Barkat. The book is set in 1947 when the Palestinian-Isralei conflict was just begging to heat up, the book is written from a little Palestinan girls point of  view. The book gives a very vivid description about how things were and still are with the Palestinians and the Israelis. "

Wait a moment I will return you're fare." But no one can wait yallah yallah! a  solider goads. "Hurry!" After a second head count, at gun point, we form a line and walk to a waiting area. We stand against a wall that faces the main door. The compound feels like the caracass of a giant animal that died a long time ago." It's exterior is drab, bonelike, and hostile." (Barkat 32)

So far, the b