Entry Four

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Bryce Conner

This book earlier in the year caught my eye because I had a friend that read it and he said it was a great read, so i thought why not read it in the summer? and i really hoped and hoped it would be on the list and it did, it turned out to be a very good read, it had everything, romance, action, drama, comedy, I could recommend to most mature teens. I found several personal connections towards this book, because most of the kids didn't have the best relationships with there parents and I can relate to that because i'm a difficult teenager that doesn't realize that my parents do everything for me. I would recommend this book to any gender and age range 13-20 basically teens and up because of the sexual content and alcohol references, but overall a great novel i enjoyed it very much.

Entry Three:

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Bryce Conner

A very good hooking point in this book would have to be on pages 106-107. Personally it does a really good job of providing imagery of an action scene, and who doesn't love action?? Yeah exactly. The scene is about an eagle outside of Pudges house, he goes out in his pj's and sets off firecrackers and the eagle goes souring off, then while chasing it, the author does a really good job of providing suspense throughout Pudge chasing the bird. later in the chasing, Pudge gets bit by a swan and the author once again does a great job of describing Pudge's reaction towards getting bit. Overall this section is a great part of the book that intrigues the reader and makes them want to read more.

Entry Two:

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Bryce Conner

The complexity of Alaska is that she finds a lot of fun in doing drugs, sex, alcohol, and causing havoc. Further in the books she vividly explains her passion for reading, It seems to be the only thing that can get her out of trouble. On the other hand , Pudge , is a nerd who really enjoys history and he is so smart that he knows almost every last words  of famous people. He really likes Alaska but is too afraid to make a move due to the fact of that he is afraid of rejection. A good lesson I learned while reading this novel is that if you find a hobby you love, or have a lot of passion for, stick with it! Dont be ashamed for doing whatever it is u want to do, dont worry about what other people think, just go for it. I think this because in the novel, every character has something they love to do and they aren't afraid to show it. The way this book was structured is that there are no chapters, the way it is written is that each "chapter" is just a summary of each day or event, but they end just as a chapter would.

Entry One:

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Bryce Conner

The majors characters within "Looking for Alaska" by John Green would definitely be Pudge His roommates describe him as "Irony" But he is a skinny and also described as a thoughtful kid who remembers the last words of famous people. Another huge characters is obviously Alaska, pudge has a crush on her and thinks she is an amazing girl. The main conflict is Colonel, Pudge, Lara, and Takumi are trying to find out how and why Alaska died, they are all determined because it is a mystery.  Predictions i made early on in the book is that Alaska finds a lot of pleasure in drugs , sex , and alcohol. And the thing I noticed about Pudge is that he is nerd who really likes history. A text to self connection I made is Miles "Pudge" throughtout the story is trying to find his true identity. In the beginning, he starts off as Miles, and when he starts attending Culver Creek High School he is now Pudge. He starts drinking alcohol, smoking. After the death of Alaska, he finally finds the real him. 

Jackie & Me (Final Blog Assessment)

We are finally winding down to our last days as freshman and for the most part, this school year hasn't been as morbid as I expected, I actually liked coming to school this year. As our last days count down it has been extremely hard to pick up a book, but I somehow managed to do it. I have previously read this before and I though I might read it again. It's called Jackie & Me by Dan Gutman, I really like this author because he writes a lot about famous players from long ago or even today who play sports and are going through or already experienced tough times. I can relate to this text because Jackie, the main character plays baseball in the majors for the first time and he is really scared, he gets racially discriminated, even spat on by fans. I cannot relate to the discrimination but I can relate to being scared because that's what I felt on the first day of high school because I felt like I wasn't going to know anyone and I thought all the upperclassmen would be complete jerks. but that wasn't the case at all(At least for the most part). I soon began to open up and walk around like i belonged here, and that's what Jackie did. Once he started impressing everyone in the MLB, he began to gain a swagger in way because he would come up to the plate with confidence and that's a metaphor I like to use with a lot of things in life "Step up to the plate with confidence" It means you shouldn't be afraid to try new things, you just have to trust your gut and hit the ball out of the park.

Reading plans in the future

During this year I found out that I enjoy reading all sorts of books, but the genres I'm mostly into are Sports, crime, and realistic fiction, i enjoy these types of text because i feel that the authors who write these texts really engage each and everyone of their readers, to me I read these texts because I feel like i can engage with the main character in many ways. These are just a few genres that i will continue to read and hopefully i can imerse myself into newer genres next year

Some authors i enjoy that write sports novels are, Mike Lupica, Dan Gutman, and Walter Myers. I enjoy these authors because I feel that I can connect to the characters really well, it just seems they wrote them for me. Some of there novels are about kids parents being divorced, someone who plays the same position as me. It is just really ironic how i can connect to these books so well and i hope to explore more genres in the future.

Book I Plan On Reading

I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond, By Michael Oher, in the summary of the book on good reads it states how he wrote this and how it correlates to the hit film/book, "The Blind Side" He talks about all the hardships he had faced during his childhood and all the doubt he received from other people telling him he can’t do things, such as, make it to the NFL, which he did and he just Signed a 20 million dollar contract with the Tennessee Titans(Seems like he's doing well to me).

If you haven't read or seen "The Blind Side" you're probably living under a rock because football fans or not.... everyone has seen this movie because of its life changing effects it can do to you. For instance, in the movie he was officially adopted and he is taken up to his new room for the first time, and Michael is shocked, his new mom Leigh Ann Tuohy, or in the movie , it's Sandra Bullock, is startled and says to Michael, "What have you never had a room before?" and Michael replies, "No.. a bed" and his mom gets the saddest look in his face , and I’m not going to lie, I also teared up a little on this scene because this kid is 18 years old and it's his first time having his own bed. If you didn't get even a little sad at this part than you have no heart. But besides that this is my first choice of reading for 2nd semester because I really enjoyed the film and book and I want to hear Michael Oher's own words and how he overcame through all of his struggles and maybe it will inspire me to do something great throughout my life.