The Outsiders By S. E. Hinton and Benazir Bhutto-Nikita

Number of Pages Read: Done with the book!

Benazir Bhutto and The Outsiders


This week, I am reading The Outsiders and I am done with the book Benazir Bhutto. I am really sad I could not get meet Bhutto because she seems like a nice lady. The most important part was probably the beginning because that's where she begins to say more about herself and her thoughts and feelings. I would recommend this to everyone because this book is very interesting and adds on to your knowledge. I would recommend The Outsiders to teens because there are words that little kids such as 3rd to 4th graders might not know. I haven't read the second chapter yet, but I really want to know what happens next in the story!

Michael Moore
Here Comes Trouble
427pg

  This week I'm reading Michael Moore's autobiography. My favorite part was when he had his first date. His first date was in 11th grade, a girl asked him out, she was older than him, he took her to a childrens movie (Charlie and the chocolate factory). Those were the wrong things that happened, the good things are: she is a cheerleader, she really liked him and he had a car to take her to the movies with.  I recommend this book to everyone that likes comedy.

Maus blog post 2/5

Art Spegelman

Maus

296 Pages

There are both internal and external conflicts in the graphic novel Maus. 

The internal conflict is that Artie can’t make any sense out of his relationship with his father.  He was closer to his mother but he always felt at odds with his father.  Everything he did his father thought he could do it better (page 99).   In fact, Artie became an artist because his dad wasn't interested in art and so Artie felt he wouldn't have to compete with him.    This conflict was never resolved because Vladek dies before they ever really understand each other.  However, even though they had this conflict Vladek and Artie loved each other dearly.  Vladek saved all his money for Artie to inherit when he died and when Vladek lied and said he was having a heart attack Artie ran to his side to be with him.

The external conflict in the book is the situation with the Nazis before and during World War II.  This conflict was introduced in the beginning of the book when the Polish people went to war against Germany. In the prisoner of war camps the Jews got more work to do than the other P.O.W.s.  When the P.O.W.s.  went home the Jewish people had to register and wear stars.  They were given curfews, their factories were taken over by Germans and their belongings were seized.  Eventually the the Jews have to relocate to a ghetto which the Nazis empty of Jews to send to the gas chambers and furnaces.  Because they are killing the Jews and the Jews must hide to be safe from extermination.  

maus blog post 1/5

Art Spiegelman

Maus

296 pages

Note:  The book I am reading is a graphic novel about a Polish Jew’s perspective of the Holocaust of World War II.  In this book all the characters are depicted as animals:  the Jews are mice, the Germans are cats, the Poles are pigs, the Americans are dogs etc. It is therefore sometimes difficult to ascertain the physical features of the main characters. 

Vladek Spiegelman

Vladek Spiegleman is the main character of this book.  He was a handsome Jewish businessman who looked like Rudolph Valentino when he was young.  Vladek was a very handy man; he made hidden bunkers that he used to hide up to twenty Jews when the Nazis were eliminating the Jews from the ghettos. (page 112, 114) He was good at fixing things and was a quick study.  For example, in Auschwitz he learned to mend shoes and work with tin like a craftsman even though he’d had no experience whatsoever (page 220).  He was very resourceful and took advantage of opportunities no one else saw.  When a Polish kapo in Auschwitz asked if anyone knew German and English Vladek said yes and got a job as a tutor.  Consequently, he got a feast each time he gave a lesson and also got better fitting clothes for himself and his friend (page 192).   Vladek was very close to his wife; and even managed to take care of her in Auschwitz- sending her food and arranging better living quarters for her.  He was a neat and tidy man who put everything in its spot.  (page 95) He didn’t like people to touch or move his things: “It’s so claustrophobic being around Vladek,” his daughter-in-law said.  “He straightens everything you touch.  He’s so anxious”.  Vladek was a thrifty man before the war but after the war he became a miser, a hoarder who wouldn’t waste anything:  he kept old restaurant menus and picked up pieces of telephone wire from the street (page 118).  Vladek is also manipulative because when he wanted to see his son he lied to him and said that he had had a heart attack when he hadn’t – he just wanted to see his son (page 173).  Although he was a kind, loving husband to Anja, his first wife, he was critical and disrespectful to Mala, his second wife (page 132). 

Art (Artie) Spiegelman

Art is the author of this graphic novel.  He is the son of Vladek and Anja, two Holocaust survivors. He wants to write a book about his dad’s story and “tell it the way it really happened.”  As a young man he spent time at a psychiatric hospital (page 102)  As an adult he suffers from depression because his mother committed suicide and because he feels guilty he did not live through the Holocaust (page 176, page 202).  He is a good person who feels things deeply. 

Anja Zylberberg:

Anja was a friend of Vladek’s cousin and she became Vladek’s wife.  She was born to a rich family.  She was a slim, shy and sensitive woman (page 32).  Even though Anja wasn’t that pretty she was kind, smart, and had a certain charm to her.  When Vladek first met Anja she was taking pills for nerves. (page 21) She suffered from postpartum depression (page 33) when their first child was born and later in life she committed suicide (page 102).

The outsiders

S.E. Hilton
The Outsiders
# of pages: 180

Right now, I am reading about the lives of three outsiders that enter the world of war, hateness, crulty and adventure. Pony boy the main outsider runs away from his home and of to his new adventure. The most interesting part to me was when the home living tenagers were drowning Pony boy but his friend Johnny saved him by stabbing one in the back and the rest ran away. I would recommend this book to people that like adventure because this book has many settings on where Pony boy gets to.

:)

Hello Everyone,

Title: Breaking Dawn
Author: Stephanie Meyer.
 Number of pages: 498


The book that I decided to read this week aside from the outsiders is Twillight, Breaking Dawn. This as you may know, is the last book of Twilight and the reason I am reading it is because the movie just came out, and I want to read the book (because they say its better) and then watch the movie. Anyway, in the first two chapters of the book, it is basically a continuum of the previous chapter in the previous book. The event happening on the beggining is how the Cullen's get to see Bella alive again, but this time a vampire. On the beggning the story tells us of how Bella was struggling in her new life as a vampire, but she caught on soon enough. The main problem that occurs in the story is when Irina (Edwards cousin) desides to report Bella's and Edward's child, as an immortal. This of course, leads to a fight, but when Alice returns, and shows the Voulty what they're future looks like If you fight, they agree to let the child live in peace, and go back home. Some of the really interesting things about this book, is that you never guess what can happen.First, Bella's a human, and she's still in high school, but then you flip the page, she's married.

I really enjoyed the part, when I discovered by Edward (who is able to read anyones thoughts) wasnt able to read Bella's, even at the begginign when they first met. Turns out, Bella has the power of the shield, and not only is she the strongest in the family, and of practically all the vampires, she is able to protect herself, and someone else. Wheather its Edaward, Renesseme, or someone from the family. Renessme, the child, which has been accused to be an immortal child, becomes in a whole lot of danger indeed. No one belives that she has blood in her veins, because she was born while Bella was still a human. Therefore, they all travel around the world to look for witnesses to stop the Voltury from killing them, and their whole family.

This book has been the best one I have read the whole year. It was very descriptive, it had powerful words, and best of all, I finally got to meet Bella's and Edwards child, and I have been waiting to get to visualize to what she looked like from the beginning of when I started reading these books. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves a good and fascinating novel, but also to people who like a book with a lot of action to it. I would rate this story a 10/10, and as I said in the previous sentence, I would recommended to everyone

Nonfiction Blog Post ~Petra

Petra 7A
The Code Book
Simon Singh


This week I am reading a book on cryptography. Currently, I am learning about how computers can make unbreakable codes, codes that anyone, and that means anyone, can use. For instance, if you wanted to encrypt a very special email to a very special someone, all you would have to do is download this software called PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) and it would do it all for you. For me, the most interesting part would have to be- Are you ready for this? It's really exciting- quantum theory. The concept that something can divide into a million somethings and then merge back into itself, or that an object can dive into a million universes and do a different thing in each one, fascinates me. I wouldn't recommend this book to people who's heads hurt in math and science class, but to people who want to learn way above their own level, and are capable of doing so. There were a lot of points in the book where I had to read over again a couple of times, and sometimes I didn't even understand it then. Despite that, it's a really interesting book, and I learned so much reading it.