The glass castle

The glass castle was a very great book. Reading through it I learned a lot of wonderful life lessons. One life lesson that is really important, and a main life lesson for anyone is to not depend on others. Reading through the book was very interesting. My group and I were talking about how every main character who did not depend on anyone else succeeded. While other people failed and destroyed their life. For example; the father was always dependent on other people, he took money from other people and didn't work for it. When the people he depended on the most left him, he became homeless. Also Maureen was always dependent on other people such as her friends families and she didn't succeed in life, she went to jail.. So I think the whole message in the book is you will be better off if you try being more independent in life .

The Glass Castle, digging deeper into childhood

I am reading a fantastic book for my coming of age unit. The glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a sad memoir. Childhood is really important to your life. It plays a big role in who you are and who you're becoming to be. Jeannette Walls had a rough childhood, from digging in the garbage, to sleeping in a cardboard box, life was pretty hard to deal with. Even though her young ages were horrible, she still found a way to deal with everything and to get past those cold winter nights.

Not only was she poor growing up, but she never settled down in a place for too long, her family was on the run 24/7. She had her brother and sisters to talk to though, which made everything all fine for a moment. Her family wasn't that bad. Except her father gambling and spending money on alcohol which could of went to funding for foods if he didn't use the money all up. Some nights, they would eat popcorn for dinner, some nights they wouldn't eat anything at all, and If they were lucky rice and beans helped them survive. Her father wasn't bad all the time, when he sobered up everything made life easier and more pleasant for everyone. Jeannette and her father had a special connection, they thought the same (when he was sober), the laughed at each others jokes, and they also called each other nicknames, for example; her dad called her mountain goat.

Being part of a bad family, you need to raise yourself. You need to understand the struggles your going through and, you need to get past it and make the best of what happens. Jeannette and her siblings tried to accomplish that.

"The Scientist," by Coldplay

I recently learned to play a song on the piano, It's called The Scientist. I really enjoy playing this song because, it's very meaningful, and sad. The Lyrics of the song basically explain how the songwriter, screwed up. The songwriter explains how sorry he feels, and he tries to glue every thing back together.

     He wants to tell it to his 'lover' with science and reasoning, but he can't because love is on a different level. Love doesn't work that way. Love isn't science, it's a feeling. He is also saying he wants a fresh start. He would really like to start over. At the end of the chorus, he says "oh take me back to the start." The songwriter is also saying to his lover, that you don't know how lovely you are. This shows how he is trying to get his loved one back. Love is very hard, but he's trying to fix things, and make everything all better.

The song is very relevant to life. Life is very complicated, even more complicated, love. Love is a very difficult thing. And instead of breaking up, burning pictures of your "loved" ones, make things better. If you know you screwed up, fix it. Life would go way smoother. Even write a song if you have to!!

"The Scientist," by Coldplay

     I recently learned to play a song on the piano, It's called The Scientist. I really enjoy playing this song because, it's very meaningful, and sad. The Lyrics of the song basically explain how the songwriter, screwed up. The songwriter explains how sorry he feels, and he tries to glue every thing back together.

     He wants to tell it to his 'lover' with science and reasoning, but he can't because love is on a different level. Love doesn't work that way. Love isn't science, it's a feeling. He is also saying he wants a fresh start. He would really like to start over. At the end of the chorus, he says "oh take me back to the start." The songwriter is also saying to his lover, that you don't know how lovely you are. This shows how he is trying to get his loved one back. Love is very hard, but he's trying to fix things, and make everything all better.

The song is very relevant to life. Life is very complicated, even more complicated, love. Love is a very difficult thing. And instead of breaking up, burning pictures of your "loved" ones, make things better. If you know you screwed up, fix it. Life would go way smoother. Even write a song if you have to!!

"If I tell" end responce SPOILER ALERT

Life is full of secrets. It can be hard to understand which secrets to reveal and which secrets to hide.  In my book "If I Tell" by Janet Gurtler, the main character, Jasmine, is debating whether to tell her mother a huge secret. The secret could drastically change her mother's life and perspective on someone else.

Jasmine is in a horrible position. Her best friend, Lacy, "made out" with her mother's boyfriend, Simon, at a party. To make it worse, Jasmine's mother is pregnant. If Jasmine tells her mother the secret, her mother's boyfriend might leave the new baby without a father, which is what happened to Jasmine.  Jasmine doesn't want a broken family but she also doesn't want a family of lies. If Jasmine doesn't tell her mother, she will always feel guilty watching her mother smile at the man who cheated on her.

I recently finished the book!! It was amazing. Jasmine is was in such a bad position. I'm so glad about the desion she made though. When her mother was in labor she talked to Simon about it. She asked him about Lacy. He said it was the stupidest desision he ever made in his life. I agree with him, he shouldn't have done it, but whats done is done. Jasmine made a very smart promise to Simon, never do it again and I will not tell.

In life you need to be careful and watch out for the desions you make for yourself.

Who to trust:

Life is full of secrets. It can be hard to understand which secrets to reveal and which secrets to hide.  In my book "If I Tell" by Janet Gurtler, the main character, Jasmine, is debating whether to tell her mother a huge secret. The secret could drastically change her mother's life and perspective on someone else. 

Jasmine is in a horrible position. Her best friend, Lacy, "made out" with her mother's boyfriend, Simon, at a party. To make it worse, Jasmine's mother is pregnant. If Jasmine tells her mother the secret, her mother's boyfriend might leave the new baby without a father, which is what happened to Jasmine.  Jasmine doesn't want a broken family but she also doesn't want a family of lies. If Jasmine doesn't tell her mother, she will always feel guilty watching her mother smile at the man who cheated on her.

Jasmine doesn't know if she should still be talking to Lacy or her mother's boyfriend after what they did. They were drunk, but being under the influence of alcohol its still not an excuse. Lacy feels guilty and sorry for Jasmine. Lacy apologized to Jasmine and tried to convince her not tell her mother about the incident. Lacy doesn't want Jasmine's mom to hate her, because she likes Jasmine's mother. Simon has no idea that Jasmine knows what happened, but he's starting to catch on.

Jasmine is caught in a mess that she didn't even create. Two close people in her life who she thought she could trust ruined everything. In life you need to be cautious of who you trust and what you do. Now Jasmine has to figure out how to avoid hurting her mother because of Lacy and Simon's actions. She's already losing everyone that she cares about because of a mistake. Now Jasmine needs to decide whether to tell the big secret, and whether to trust Lacy and Simon again.

Blog post nomination

The blog I chose was Emily's (http://onceuponatime-emily3.blogspot.com/2012/01/carmen.html) you can really tell she writes a lot of things on her blogs. She also connects with her characters a lot and I find that great to connect and write about your characters. choosing books you connect with are great because then you can really think deep about your story and yeah.

Getting better

The book "A Million Little Pieces," is really surprising. We are all scared at first but then we get better, if you're really ready to change yourself and fight for your life. James Frey is a really great person in my book. He is very truthful about himself, which I think will quickly get him to be sober without any help from the Center. One line I thought was amazing in the book was, about doing bad things because you know the world sucks and your scared to live a lie. James is a really smart person in my opinion and he knows the world in a downfall he knows they're bad people out there in the world and he also knows that he can't stop it so he has to smoke, drink and to do various things to make himself get better.

But James I think is getting over the fact that being high will change everything, because it wont. Being high is there for a while, but when your done, its over, and you just have to go to stupid reality. So now he's getting over being an addict and hes more into being someone else. But how? Hes too weak, so why isn't he breaking? I think there's someone in his life that needs him, and he needs to also look after, Lily. Lily is also at the center but shes seriously oblivious that these bad things can harm you in the long run. James destiny is to look after Lily and live a beautiful life with her? Maybe.. 

Trying to help others and learn from your mistakes

Many people care about you and don't want you to get hurt, but sometimes you feel like people are putting you through more pain even when they aren't. In my book "A Million Little Pieces", the main character James Frey is an addict. His whole family cares about him and wants him to survive and not to be afraid of the real scary world out there and not be in some kind of "high" illusion. Facing his fear is extremely hard. He's never had a real person to look up too, I think that because he does those illegal things to keep the fear away, to keep something hes never had which is his only friend, Crack Cocaine. James Frey is a very interesting character though, he seems very tough and big but inside I think hes just trying to fit in, also hes only doing what hes learned from people. In the book he talks about a girl over and over again, I think the girl was his only friend at the time before he got into drugs and alcohol. Maybe the girl died because he keeps on fore shadowing her.  Why is James not acknowledging his family, I think he needs to stand up because life is too short to make huge mistakes for someone so young. He needs someone supporting and being super cool with him because in life, you always want to have a motivation and a role model for you. I can relate this to real life because I was watching a reality T.V show and it showed me that motivation and help from others really will help you become a better person and its totally true. When other people are excited about something you're gonna be excited too, hopefully... But I really think if James gets the right real, and helpful people he needs then he will cure himself and, maybe change. But right now I think hes scared, confused and bored. He thinks he needs his drugs and alcohol but does he really? Can't he survive rehab or will he leave for good?