Tuesday, September 29, 2009

6 Sentences using 'I' and 'Me'

1. My mother and I played tennis on Sunday night.
2. My mother cooked dinner very deliciously for my sister and me.
3. Playing games made my friend and me feel happy.
4. "You and I are going to play tennis on Sunday morning", I said to my sister.
5. When my family and I found out that a restaurant is too expensive, we went to another place.
6. After my mother bought some bread, she made a delicious sandwich for my dad, my sister and me.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Olive's Ocean

I read a book called "Olive's Ocean" by Kevin Henkes. I read this book because the author won the Newbery Honor. The books which got Newbery Honor, are very meaningful so I enjoy reading them.

The main character Martha, got a letter from Olive's mother. It made her very surprised because Olive was dead. She had been hit by a car on Monroe Street while she was riding a bicycle. The letter made her feel eerie because the letter was written that Martha was the best student in Olive's class. Martha didn't do something special thing for her nor did she spoke something nice to her.
At a summer vacation, she went to her grandmother's house. Near her (grandmother's) house, there were Manning boys. Martha liked one of the Manning boys called Jimmy. Martha and Jimmy went together and traveled together. But one day, Jimmy ruined her life. He kissed her and he was recording it with his video camera. This didn't made her feel very angry but when Jimmy said he did it for a bet, she became very angry. From then on, Martha became miserable and seldomly went outside.
One day, when she was strolling around with her little sister, she filled a bottle with Pacific ocean for Olive. At the letter, it said her best place was Pacific ocean. She decided to give it to Olive's mother. What she found out next was that there was Jimmy at the opposite side with another girl. To aviod his vision, she went near the sea but unfortunately, she was sweeped by a sudden, strong wave. She almost drowned but fortunately she could live by swimming for her life. From this disaster, she learned that she was worrying too much about video that she acted as if this was a big problem like this big disaster. So, she started not to worry it. Amazingly, before she went back to her house again, one of Manning boys called Tate, stole the video record from Jimmy and gave it to her.
At her home, she decided that she had to do something with the video record and went to Olive's mother's house. But unluckily, a person said that she moved to another city. So, she wrote Olive's name on the top of the step where Olive usually sat, with a brush. She kept on writing it until there was no water left.

I think this is a very meaningful book. I wish I can write a story very well like him. To achieve my goal, I should read a lot and practice to write very descriptive like him.

P.S I will give 10 stars out of 10 stars. I really like to recommend everyone to read it.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

The Call of the Wild

This is a book called "The Call of the Wild" by Jack London. I chose this book because I heard this book is a famous story. I enjoy reading high level books such as the books that won Newbery Medals and famous stories.
This is a story about a dog called "Buck". The news of a gold rush in Alaska in the 1890s changed his life.

In 1890s, the new of a gold rush in Alaska caused a sensation. People from all over the world set forth for Alaska with a burning desire to find gold and become rich. They needed strong dogs to pull sleds over the snow and ice. So, the sudden demand for strong and large dogs with long fur changed the fate of many dogs. And Buck was one of the dogs.
He lived with Judge Miller and his family in the Southland. They treated him like a king but his happiness didn't last though. One of the judge's servant stole Buck and sold him to a stranger. Buck was again sold to new owners, Perrault and Francois. Buck had been taken suddenly from the heart of cilvilization and thrown into a wild palce in the far north.. He had to learn many new things quickly to survive. As the day passed, he became stronger and larger. In his mind, a jealous and envy about a leader dog called "Spitz" grow stronger and stronger. Finally, Buck killed Spitz and became the leader dog by himself. About few months later, Buck was sold to a new owner. The owner didn't know how to work with dogs but they knew how to beat them. When Buck was absolutely exhausted, the owner decided to kill him but a man called "John Thornton" saved his life. Buck was faithful to John and eventually, they reached the place and John collected all golds. Every night, Buck heard a call from the wild and he found his brothers were calling him. He wanted to follow them but he couldn't betray his owner so he didn't know what to do. But when John was killed by the Indians, Buck was ready to leave the world of mankind and return to his brothers.
I really enjoyed The Call of the Wild and I even think this book is one of my best books. There are some difficult words and sometimes I found the words I didn't know in a dictionary or I just skipped them because I could understand the words meaning by looking at sentences.

P.S I will give 10 stars out of 10 stars and I truly recommend everyone to read this book.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Diary of A Wimpy Kid

I read a book called "Diary of A Wimpy Kid". This book is on the list of 'Books which every student must read". This is a small reason why I chose this book. Another reason, which is a big reason, is that this book is really funny (which I heard this from my friends).

The main character, Greg Heffley, wrote special events that happened in one year. So this book has many short stories. My best story in this book occured at the last day of summer. Greg's brother, Rodrick, woke him up in the middle of the night. Rodrick told him that Greg was late. Greg worried that he might sleep too much and late for the first day at school. Greg didn't notice it was the middle of the night because Rodrick drew a curtain and set off the alarm at that time. Plus, he was dressed up in his school clothes. Greg hurridly went downstairs and made a breakfast and was eating. By then, the father came and shouted at him what the heck he is doing. A few seconds later, Greg understood what was going on and he told that Rodrick tricked him. So, father went upstairs to scold Rodrick but he covered up his tracks pretty good. He pretended he was sleeping. Anyway, because of Rodrick, he wasn't late for school and Greg thanked him.
As you can see, Rodrick played lots of tricks to Greg so Greg didn't like him very much. But Greg learned one thing from Rodrick, it's to set people's expectations real low so you end up surprising them by practically doing nothing at all.

I think Jeff Kinney is a good writer. I want to read his 3 series books. The book was funny but not as good as 'Just' series. 'Just' series are kind of wacky so I prefer them better. Maybe after I finish 3 books, I can try 'Just' series.


P.S. I will give 9 stars out of 10 stars.

The Indian in the Cupboard

This is a book called, "The Indian in the Cupboard" by Lynne Reid Banks. The genre of this book is fantasy. It is on the list of 'A book which every student must read' so that's a reason why I read it.

The main character Omri, got a plastic Indian toy from his best friend Patrick for a birthday present. From his brother, he got a cupboard. There wasn't a key eventhough there was a lockerhole. Omri wanted a key and eventually, he found one from his mother's key collection. He put the plastic Indian toy in the cupboard and locked it. To his surprise, the Indian became alive!
The next day, he figured out that if he puts plastic objects in the cupboard and locks it, they will become alive. But if he does that one more time, they will become plastic again.
At first, Indian thought Omri would kill him so he stabbed him with his small knife. It made Omri bleeding a little bit. As I read this part, I thought Indian must had been very brave.
As the day passed by, they became more friendly and had lots of adventures. One day, Patrick came to Omri's house and made a real cowboy by also putting him in the cupboard. The Indian tried to kill him but Omri didn't allow him to do that. Like Omri, they became friends as the day passed by but the only difference was that it took longer time to be friends each other.
In the end, the Indian got a bride and they wanted to have marriage at their real home so they decided to go back to their home. The story ends little bit sad.

When I finished this book, I was surprised that it only took 3 days to finish this book! I was in this book when I was reading so I didn't know that the time was passing. There are 3 series and I think they are going to be fun like this book. So I will read them if I find them.

P.S. I will give 5 stars out of 5 stars and I recommend anyone to read this book.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Characterization on The Call of the Wild

The Call of the Wild is written by Jack London. He described very detailed and nicely on backgrounds and what was happening at that time. Also, he used some difficult vocabularies which helps to describe more specifically. So I could understand very clearly on what he wants to tell to the readers.

The main character in this book is a dog called Buck.
On page 17 to 23, I could find that Buck was protagnoist. It was because his owner very loved and cared about him. But the gold made him antagnoist. When somebody found gold in Northland, everyone rushed to Northland with strong dogs who could load heavy things. Buck was a strong dog and on page 24, his owner's gardener betrayed the owner and sold Buck to a man. From then on, he slowly became an antagnoist and eventually, on page 105, he fought with a leader dog and became the leader dog by himself.

In Southland, as I described, he was protagnoist. But in Northland, the dog who is protagnoist was dumb and stupid. On page 50, Buck learned a main problem by looking what happened to his friend. Shortly, his friend was killed by a leader dog and from that, he learned the main problem. What he found out was that his life was to eat or be eaten, or to beat or be beaten. So he became cruel and followed how the most dogs act. Because that was the only way he could survive from Northland.

On page 58, I could find that Buck was a fast learner. He figured out how to sleep cozily. The only thing he had to do was digging the ground. When he finished digging, he could go inside and sleep cozily. He figured out this faster than the most other dogs because he followed other dogs.

I really enjoyed reading this book and I think the best reason I enjoyed reading this book is because the author described very clearly.

P.S I will give 5 stars out of 5 stars on this book.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Because of Winn Dixie

I am currently reading a book called 'Because of Winn Dixie'. I chose this book because the author won the Newbery Honor Book. It wasn't that good as I expected but I learned some lessons I should know.
The main character, Opal, accidently met a wandering dog in a supermarket. The dog was running all around the supermarket and messed up everything. The owner and sellers tried to catch him but they couldn't. Opal lied to the owner that the dog belonged to her. To her surprise, the dog followed her very well. And that was the first time they met each other and I think the author showed the main characters in a really fun way unlike the most authors.
Opal named her new dog 'Winn Dixie'. After they met each other, they had lots of fun at that summer. Almost everything in that summer happened because of Winn Dixie. And I think that is the reason why a title of this book is 'Because of Winn Dixie'.

I quite enjoyed this book even though this wasn't that good as my expectation. But I learned some important lessons such as 'Don't give up', 'Be brave' and else.


P.S I will give 3 stars out of 5 stars and the author of this book is Kate DiCamillo

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Earthquake in Indonesia

On September 2nd, there was an earthquake. When the earthquake occured, I was at the school so I didn't feel the earthquake. Before the earthquake occured, my friend told me that there was a snake on a table which should stay underground as usual. I wondered why it happened and I just thought it was no big deal. A few hours later, there was an earthquake. I didn't feel it but I heard some students yelling that an earthquake occured. So I thought there was a connection between snake and earthquake.

Indonesia gets lots of earthquake since Indonesia is located in the Ring of Fire. A Richter Scale on September 2nd was 7.4 which was strong enough to damage a big place in such a short time which makes the fact that this earthquake was 40km of the coast of Jasikmalaya, reasonable. There was also a tsunami warning for Indonesia is surrounded by sea and the earthquake occured from the sea.
After the earthquake, me and my friend realized that animals are much more sensible than humans so they react quicker than humans when earthquake occurs. And we thought that was a reason why the snake appeared.
From this disaster, about 40 people died. But a reporter said that they could find more victims which means there are more than 40 victims. Eventhough buildings weren't damaged, there were some cracks inside the building and on the wall.