Entry #3

Blog #3
Chapters 8-9
Perspective: Uncle Jack


Dear Journal,

Merry Christmas! I’m staying with my brother Atticus and his two kids, Jem and Scout. They picked me up at the train station yesterday and I’ll be staying with them for a week. I am so excited to be staying with them over Christmas. The two of them have grown up so fast. When they picked me up last night little Scout started cussing. Then at dinner, she said it again. I can’t believe my little niece is beginning to have quite the dirty mouth. Of course I sat her down after dinner and told her to watch herself or she’ll be in a heap of trouble.
This morning we opened presents. I picked up two air rifles for the two of them. I think they are both really happy. It was unanimous that it was one of the best gifts they got. However, I didn’t get anything really special this year, just a few pairs of socks and some doctor gear. The best gift I got was a lesson. It was a lesson from Scout. It all started when we went to Finch’s Landing. After a fabulous dinner I was strolling around when I saw Scout punch her cousin, Francis, right in the mouth. She was tormenting him. Immediately I ran over to stop the fight. Francis told us that she had called him a bad word and then attacked him. Little Scout agreed. She tried to be evasive but I grabbed her. She teetered in my arms then started yelling that she hated me. It is awful to hear your own niece yelling such hateful words at you.
That night when we got home I came in to talk to her. She said I wasn’t fair. Then she came right out with it and said I don’t understand children very well. She told me that you always need to hear both sides of the story. You can’t just go off of one person’s view. Then she told me that Francis was calling my brother bad names because Atticus is defending a black man in a case. That Atticus was going to ruin the family name because he is helping a black person and that he lets Jem and Scout run wild. I can’t believe I just thought she was being malignant.
I was so in shock of what happened. Anger grew from within me knowing what horrible things had been said. My instinct was to call Alexandria and fix that boy right. Scout wouldn’t let me because she didn’t want her father to know what made her made. As hard as it was, I gave her my word. I’m writing this entry now after everyone got to bed. I should probably get a little sleep myself.

Write more soon,
Jack Finch

Entry #2

Blog #2
Chapters 4-7
Miss Maudie Atkinson

Dear Journal,

Today was another lovely summer day. I sat on my porch and watched the slight breeze brush the grass. The sky was the lightest shade of baby blue with the sun burnt town sitting right under it. My azaleas danced with the wind as it carried the martins soaring below the mimosa tree. There was not anything new that happened today. The sun still came up and went back down again. The worst part of the day was when I found another blade of nut grass. Of course I cleaned it up with my tin can and my pesticides. God should have never ever created such a horrible thing. One blade of grass could end up covering the entire county with those little monsters. It’s a good thing I am here to prevent my yard from having weeds take over this whole town.
Today Scout Finch came over. That silly little girl. She’s been comin’ over every day this summer. I think her brother and his friend Dill have made her the third wheel keeping her aloof. They are just stuck away in Jem’s tree house, planning all sorts of crazy things, except when I make cakes. I normally make a cake for me and three mini cakes for all of them. I holler, “Jem Finch, Scout Finch, Charles Baker Harris, come here.” That usually gets them runnin’. Plus, they also like to eat my scuppernongs.
Little Scout came over and asked if Boo Radley was still alive. I figured she would one day ask about that. I mean, gossip is all over the entire county about what really happened to the old Radley family. Honest to God, I sure don’t know what happened to them. They sure were never a real polite family. Always kept to themselves. Never went outside, even on church days. They just stayed inside. Mr. Radley would walk to town once every day but that was it. I can sometimes see shadows movin’ in there but my old eyes are faulty. I told the kid that Author Radley (also known as Boo Radley) liked to stay inside and that he was a foot washing Baptist. I had to explain what that was to her. Good gracious, do they teach children anything in school nowadays? One thing I told her that she was surprised to hear was that Author Radley was kind to me when he was a child. Poor child, even after all the things people said about him he was still sweet. I bet he’s crazy now, being cooped up in his house for so many years.

Write more soon,
Miss Maudie Atkinson

Dear Journal,

I can’t believe this just happened. Mr. Raldey shot at something because he heard something in his back yard. I always knew that man was crazy. All he is is a nut case who has been inside for too long. He said he would shoot at anything in the bushes if hears another sound. I sure hope the youngin’s stay out of trouble. He is not the person to mess around with. Oh, my cakes almost done in the oven!

Write more soon,
Miss Maudie Atkinson.

Entry #1

Journal #1
Chapters 1-3
Perspective: Ms. Caroline

Dear Diary,
My first day was horrible. The day started when I read the book about cats. It was a lovely tale and made me feel fresh and ready for the day. I began teaching the class the alphabet. This one child, Jean Louise, had already learned to read from her father. She kept making up these stories about how she was born to read. Clearly lying to my face. I can’t believe how some of these children here don’t know how to talk to a proper lady. Later, I caught that same little girl writing. What child in this little patch of nowhere already reads? Her father really needs to stop teaching her.
When we got to lunch it didn’t get much better. I gave this one little boy a quarter. He rejected it. As a teacher it is my duty to ensure everyone has a lunch. Some of the children don’t have as satisfactory things however at least they have something to eat. This poor boy was barely talking to me. Then Jean stood up and started giving me this lecture about how he couldn’t pay me back. I was in complete shock. This rude little child continues interrupting my class and tells me I am shaming this little boy. I had enough of it. I was at my max with her. She really irked me. I grabbed her and brought her up to the front. I gave her a good whippin’ then sent her to the corner of the room. I will not have first graders talk to me like that and I will definitely not have my class running a loose.
Once everyone left for lunch I began to cry. Everyone seemed so mean to me. I have never been talked to like that when I was in Winston County. I am trying to educate the young people by condescending all the way out here in this little patch of nowhere. I even brought my Dewey Decimal System to try to help the students, which is an eccentric plan. I want to give up. I just don’t think I belong here. However, since I am Miss Caroline Fisher I will persevere and not give up. My grandma wouldn’t be proud of me quitting. This is for you Grandma.
After lunch was the worst part of the day. I was standing in my classroom as this little boy walked in. All of the sudden this louse started crawling out of his hair. A live louse! This boy was not what you would describe as clean. He was worse than all the other children combined. His hair was a giant tornado. He pinched of the louse with his fingers. He was covered in dirt from head to toe. If you saw him from far away you would of thought he was that color. Even his fingernails were black to the nub. I told him to go home, like all other practical people would say. Once I said that he told me he wasn’t coming back. Apparently his family only goes one day a year. He began to talk back to me. He ended up leaving yelling, “Ain’t no snot-nosed slut of a schoolteacher ever born c’n make me do nothin’! You ain’t makin’ me go nowhere, missis.” That was just too much for me. It had been a horrible day and I just couldn’t handle it. The other children began to comfort me, which did help. Soon the day was over.
It was definitely not a good day. It is so hard not knowing everyone’s family. The children all know each other and their backgrounds but I don’t. They are all so indigenous here. I have so much to learn. I guess I’m not going to be the only one learning this year.
I think the Maudie Atkinson (the family I’m staying with) is calling me for dinner.
Write more later,
Caroline Fisher

Entry #3

NAME: Aubrey DATE: 2/16/10
BOOK: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
AUTHOR: J. K. Rowling PAGE: 571- End of Book
TOTAL PAGES THIS WEEK: 188

QUESTION 1:

17. If you could change one thing in the book, what would it be? Why would you change it?

RESPONSE 1:
If I could change one thing about the book I would make less death. I found that many people died especially in the 7th book. I think that it adds more feeling and emotion however I find it really sad that almost half of the characters die. I think that Dobby shouldn't die. He was one of my favorite characters and I almost cried when he died. Another character that I wished wouldn't die would be Mad-Eye because I thought he was a strong character and could of been of help for the other characters in the book.

QUESTION 2:

12. Do you think you would read another book by this author? Why or why not?

RESPONSE 2: I would like to read another book by this author because I really like her writing for a couple of reasons. One, I really enjoy reading fantisy. It is my favorite type of genre. Another reason would be because most of the books she has written has been based around Harry Potter. That way when I read them I would have back ground information. Also, there are many magical creatures in this book that other people write about as well. However, these creatures are often given different names. That way when I read the book, all the creatures have the same names. Overall, I have heard great things about her books and would like to read them.

Entry #2

NAME: Aubrey DATE: February 5, 2010
BOOK: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
AUTHOR: J. K. Rowling PAGES: 284-571
TOTAL PAGES THIS WEEK: 287

QUESTION 1: 10. What advice would you give to a particular character? Why?

RESPONSE 1: I think that if I could give advice to anyone it would be to tell Harry Potter to be careful what he says. There are a few times when Harry got really angry and got himself in trouble. An example would be when he yelled at Ron. Just because he lost his temper and said a few wrong things, it changed the entire book. I also think that some of the things he said to Lupin could be really offensive. Not only that but I think it would really hurt the friendships between the characters. I think that would be the biggest piece of advice I would give.

QUESTION 2: 9. What is confusing in this book? Why? (Be specific)

RESPONSE 2: One of the most confusing parts of this book is that the book sometimes refers to the past six books. I think there are a few different highlights and low lights about that. Sometimes I find it annoying when a book writes pages about what had happened in previous books. However since I have not read the rest of the series recently, some parts are a bit confusing. For instance, they mentioned something about Dumbledore destroying some ring, but that's all they said about it. I found it slightly confusing because it didn't make much sense.

Entry #1

NAME: Aubrey DATE: February 2, 2010
BOOK: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
AUTHOR: J. K. Rowling PAGES: 1-285
TOTAL PAGES THIS WEEK: 285

QUESTION 1: 5. What was one of your favorite lines (or sentences) in what you read today? Copy it down and tell why you liked it. (It can be more than a sentence if you like, but not too long—you still need to write words of your own!)

RESPONSE 1: "There was a large bed with a carved wooden headboard, a tall window obscured by long velvet curtains, and a chandelier thickly coated in dust with candle stubs still resting in its sockets, solid wax hanging in frostlike drips. A fine film of dust covered the pictures on the chandelier and the top of the large wooden wardrobe..."

I thought that this paragraph was very descriptive. I felt like I could really see the room. One of my favorite parts was how they described the candles. I could see a clear image in my head of a dusty candle holder with wax dripping down the sides. Another part I liked was how the author described the dust over the room. The author wrote that there was a fine film of dust over everything instead of saying it was just dusty. Overall, I thought that this paragraph was very detailed and gave the reader a picture of what the room looked like.


QUESTION 2: 6. Explain how the author creates suspense in this book.

RESPONSE 2: “And then he saw the door of number twelve, Grimmauld Place, with its serpent door knocker, but before he could draw breath, there was a scream and a flash of purple light; Hermione's hand was suddenly vicelike upon his and everything went dark again.”

I think the main thing J. K. Rowling creates suspense is by creating cliff hangers at the end of chapters. For instance, the quote above was the end of a suspenseful chapter. Harry, Hermione, and Ron had just broken into the Ministry of Magic. There was a big scene at the end of the chapter and they had almost gotten caught. Then the author ends the chapter by having everything go dark. I felt like after reading about the battle and then I just ending there wanted me to read more. I think that having such a sudden ending really makes the readers want to see what happens in the next chapter.

Free Choice Reading Pick

For my reading book choice I would like to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows written by J K Rowling. I have read this book before and I really enjoyed it. There have also been very good things said about the book.