The Giver: Week of 11-25-13

Title: The Giver

Author: Lois Lowry

Pages Read: 65-114

Prompt: describe the setting – when and where what you are reading takes place.

     The setting of where this book takes place is somewhere in the future. I know it is sometime in the future because the Giver and the Receiver (Jonas) are seeing memories from the past. Jonas learns about sledding, color, weather, and things that we have now. The Giver and Jonas are the only ones that know of these things. The community is very secretive and simple.
     They are in a Utopian society. I know this because everything is controlled by the elders who is like the government. Everything there is controlled. For example they know not of what lies beyond their community. They do not know about the past or about color and competition. They are all contained. You can file for a partner. And then you file for a child. They are allowed one boy and one girl. 
     I have found this book pretty interesting. I find it weird that the people know nothing about what lies beyond or about the far past because in our time we know what lies beyond our community and we know all about our past. I would not want to be a receiver or giver because I would not want all those memories of pain no matter how many good memories I would have. So far I have found the book okay.

The Giver: Week of 11-18-13

Title: The Giver

Author: Lois Lowry

Pages Read: 0-65

Prompt: •Describe the most important event. Give at least three reasons why you think it

is the most important event.

     The part that I found most important was that he was skipped in the ceremony of the Twelves.
I thought this because it left you wanting to find out, he gets his job, and its a special job. After I read the part that he had been skipped I was surprised. I wanted to find out why and what happens. It made me keep reading the next chapter.
     This leads to the "Special Job". He goes up and is selected to be the next "Receiver of Memory" I'm still not entirely sure what that job is. I want to find out if he is separated from the community more or what. The thing that I did catch was that the Elder said he can see ahead to the future. I was wondering what they might use him for and if he will learn any secrets.
     Overall I think the book is okay so far. I think i is a really weird community they live in. I would not want to live in a community like that. I think it would be weird and not fun because there is no sports or competition and everything is selected for you. I think its dumb that everyone is with like a group of people that are all the same age because there are some kids that are months and almost a year older than some of the kids in the group. I hope I end up enjoying this book.

The Book Of Basketball: Week of 11-11-13

Title: The Book Of Basketball

Author: Bill Simmons

Pages Read: 0-39

Prompt: Analyze what motivates the main character’s behavior.

     The things that I felt motivate the main character was his Dad, NBA players, and his love for the game of basketball. First he is motivated to go to NBA games. His Dad gets his hands on Celtics season tickets. At the time the tickets were very cheap compared to prices now. His Dad takes him to the games.

     Then the NBA players. The best players would face off. One of them was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The person telling the story is white but wants to be black so he can be like the best players of the NBA. So he would write Jabbar on his papers instead of his name.

      This story is basically about a boy and how basketball influenced his life. His Dad got the tickets and he immediately fell in love with the game. He is watching his favorite teams. He eventually got to watch the players warm up and get to pass them the ball if the ball came towards him because he got to stand right by where they practiced.  

The Tell-Tale Heart: Week of 11-4-13

Title: The Tell-Tale Heart

Author: Edgar Allen Poe

Pages Read: Whole Story

Prompt: Summarize what you read

     The first thing that happens is a man telling about the story of how he killed an old man. It starts with the reason he kills the old man. He tells about his eye. How it is a demon eye. It startles hime. There was nothing else it was just the eye. It started off with hime watching him for several nights. He watched him every night for a week until on the last day...
     He was watching and he made a noise that startled the old man. He cried out "Who's there?". The old man sat on his bed awake. He tried to calm himself by saying it was just the floor boards. Then the narrator heard the old man's heart. It was thumping. It grew louder. Until the point where he got the old man, the old man shrieked, and the narrator pulled the bed over him and suffocated him with the bed.
     Next the narrator dismembered his limbs and hid them under the floor boards. Then came a knock at the door. It was the police. The officers said there were reports of a shriek from inside the house. They came in to investigate. The narrator acted rather cocky. He took them to the room where he killed the man and pulled out chairs for them to sit. The narrator sat on the floor boards that contained the limbs underneath. They talked for a while until a noise got into the narrator's head. It was a thumping noise. What was it... It was the sound of a beating heart. It grew louder by the second but the officers did not hear a sound. It drew the narrator crazy. Until he finally confessed to killing the old man and hiding the limbs under the floor boards.