Small as an Elephant - Jack's proctectiveness of his mom

I've started reading Small as an Elephant. It's a really good book about a boy who's mother is mentally ill and sometimes abandons her son, Jack, who is the main character. She goes through times where she can't control herself and she completely forgets him and will disappear for hours, or even days.

Jack won't tell anyone when this happens. He has become so independent and able to fend for himself until his mom gets back. However, she has just left him at a campground in maine, hundreds of miles from home, to go on a cruise to the Bahamas. The book is Jack's physical and mental journey home through stealing, hiding, and lying just to protect his mom. I think it's incredible that he has so much respect for her, he knows she doesn't mean any harm and is able to forgive her so easily. He doesn't want to tell anyone that he's alone because he doesn't want to be seperated from her, because he knows if he tells someone, she won't be allowed to care for him anymore.

Jack has so much care for his mother and he wants to forgive her and stay with her, but I think it's to the point where he is being ignorant. He needs to find a point to say that's enough, and not give her any more chances.

Post #21: The Scorch Trails (for 3/2/12)

I've started reading the second book in the Maze Runner trilogy; Scorch Trails. I really like this book so far and I think it really ties well with the first book. There are plenty of new characters being introduced but you are still learning more about some of the original Gladers. This is really good writing craft, to be introducing characters that guide the plot along while uncovering more about the main characters.

I think that this book not only has really good detail and voice but is well thought through in the writing. The author clearly knows what he's doing and is using a lot of writing tools to create just the environment he wants. I also think that this is a really cool book to read while I'm learning about different writing crafts to use in my own writing. It's a book full of examples that can help me learn what to add to my own writing after seeing it in action in a book that I like.

Mixed opinions on: The Dark is Rising

I'm about halfway through this book and I have some mixed opinions. I don't like it very much just because it doesn't really intrigue me. I don't get very interested in in but that's just my own opinion. However, I do think that it is a well written book that has a lot of strong characteristics.

One thing I have noticed in The Dark is Rising it that it often has a very surreal, almost dreamlike feel to it that is very well crafted. When Will is traveling through time, it feels like he's in a dream, which would make sense because he's not in his own world. The author, Susan Cooper, does a really good job of making the reader feel this through her writing.

I have also noticed that the emotions and moods in the book come through very well in the writing. For example, there was a scene towards the beginning when Will was exploring the forest with the rider, who was a stranger, lurking around. It was a very eerie and creepy scene in the plot and the author really made the reader feel that fear and uneasiness.

The Maze Runner: Thomas' leadership skills

I just finished reading The Maze Runner and I really liked it. It's a sci-fi ish book where a group of about 40 kids are stuck in a sort of prison that is a maze. Thomas, the main character, enters the "Glade" and seems to be different than his companions. I've noticed that Thomas is a very strong leader. He can stay calm in a difficult situation, and he has a way about him that can command a room full of people and make them realize that they should be listening to him.

Thomas is a strong leader because he is able to stay calm and think in a difficult situation. For example, when Thomas was being chased by griever, he was able to think of a strategy to avoid it. Instead of giving in or just running, he thought of climbing up the walls on the vines, and he was even brave enough to carry Alby up the wall to keep him Safe when anyone else would have just left him there.

Thomas is a strong leader also because he is able to get people to listen to him and do what he says. When he was at the gathering to talk about what they were going to do, he was able to get everyone to agree that they needed to go down the griever hole, even though he had no proof ecept his word.

First thoughts about The Maze Runner

I just started reading The Maze Runner today and I already really like it. It's sort of a distopia world where the characters are trapped in an enclosed camp and they are surrounded by a dangerous maze. The characters all sort of lived with it and accepted that that was how there life would be until the main character, Thomas, came along.

Thomas was rebellious and was asking questions that had no answer. He ended up breaking the rules and leaving the "Glade" at night, which is a death sentence. Somehow he survived and has started a whole new way of life around the camp. I think that Thomas is a really good character because he is brave, has good morals, and is very curious. One thing that I think sort of takes away from the quality of the book is that he doesn't really have any major flaws. Of course I'm not far into the book and that could very easily change.

I'm excited to keep reading this book and finding out all the secrets about their prison-world. I hope that there is more in the book soon about the characters inner interactions with themselves and with others, instead of action and more action, which can get kind of repetitive.

Strong Character traits in The Help

There are a lot of strong characters in The Help. The three main characters, Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter, all are very complex and have a variety of different traits. Aibileen is so full of love for the white children she raises, she is kind and caring to everyone she knows, (Except the racist women who they work for) and she has so much hope and belief that the world will change. Minny is incredibly tough and resilient. She can stand through being beaten and disrespected by her husband and working for a crazy woman just to feed her children. She also has such rigid beliefs that her story needs to be heard. Skeeter has a determination to be a published author and she is not ashamed of pushing through to get there.

Aibileen is one of the most loving characters I have ever seen in a book. She tells people that she has seventeen children because she had one of her own and raised 16 white children in households she worked for. She loved all those kids like they were her own because she had lost her own son, who had been extremely loving himself. Aibileen also was really kind to her friends and neighbors. She put people in her prayers and made sure everyone was doing well. She also had a feeling deep inside her, that didn't really show much in the book, but I think I noticed it a few times. I think Aibileen knew that there was going to be a time soon when everyone could live together and not be segregated by the color of their skin. When she raised all those white babies she risked her job by teaching them that everyone was really the same, even though some were dark and some light.

Minny was also a really strong character. Minny worked very hard, despite an abusive husband, to feed a family of five children. She was extremely brave and not afraid to tell people her mind. Minny was important towards creating the book because she had the will to have her story heard that was so necessary because everyone working on it was afraid of the possible consequences if they got caught. Minny made them remember that there was a reason to what they were doing.

Skeeter is the final character I'm writing about. She is just a girl but she has dreams of being a writer and she, unlike pretty much the entire white population of Mississippi, knows that segregation is wrong. She is determined enough to try and tell people what it's like to be a colored maid. She is selfless enough that she is writing down things about her family and friends that completely disgrace them. (Anonymously of course) Skeeter had a vision and she made it real.

Really interesting viewpoints in "The Help"

In The Help, you get the viewpoint of two diFferent sides of the beginning of the civil rights movement. I think that Skeeter, the white woman who wants to write a book about the life of working as an African American maid, was put into the story because she goes through sort of comig of age, or loss of innocence. At first she had no idea at all how powerless the help was against their employers.she also had no idea of the danger she was putting all the maids who helped her in.

Aibileen, the first maid that Skeeter worked with, is the wiseman character in this book. She knows that she is risking her life but she wants to help Skeeter write her book because she wants her story to be heard. Aibileen has such a great knowledge of everything that she seems to be able to calm people. Her viewpoint is that the white people of Jackson are the enemy. This is true to her, excepting Skeeter. Aibileen understood that Skeeter wasn't racist and that Her intentions were good.

Another character who was a maid, Minny, helped Skeeter write her book as well. Minny had a very reluctant attitude towards helping because she didn't quite trust Skeeter. Minny had done something evil to Ms. Hilly, who is pretty evil herself, and since then Ms. Hilly Had been spreading bad romors about her. Minny's viewpoint is from the extremely prejudice against anyone who wasn't the same race as her.

In The Help, there are a lot of different viewpoints and I think that it really shows what life was like for everyone living in the south during segregation. There was extreme racism and some of it was just the way that people were raised. A lot of people just didn't think there could be any other way to go around life.