An Island Like You

     I just started reading a book called An Island Like You by Judith Ortiz Cofer. She's asked to either go to puerto rico with her grandparents or to a catholic all girl summer camp. She chose to go to Puerto Rico. She leaves New Jersey and lands in San Juan, Puerto Rico where her grandparents and many vecinos waiting for her. She goes with her grandfather and grandmother home. A 15 minute ride. She starts to breathe heavily because it starts to slow your blood flow or she read in a magazine on the plane. After arriving home they thought she had asthma. After getting used to the house even though it was extremely hot and had no A/C. She went to her room even though it was still extremely hot with the window open. After a bit of laying on the bed she noticed a rooster at the window creek. I paraphrased most of chapter one right know.
     I personally like this book because its about hispanics and it because it has a good storyline. One of the main conflicts in the book are that Rita told her parents one day that she was gonna sleep over at her friend Melis house and Meli said that she was sleeping over at Rita's house, but they were actually at Johnny's house. Melis mom called Rita's mom saying that her husband had a heart attack scare. But because she wasn't at her friends house she panicked and called the cops for her missing. After Melis sister told them where they were it caused them to ask if she wanted to go to a catholic summer camp or to go spend her summer with her grandparents. I think that this one of the huge conflicts in the beginning of the book because they explain why she had to go to Puerto Rico.

Little Green by: Chun Yu

Little Green is a book about a girl named Xiao Qing. She grew up during the Great Cultural Revolution in China. Her mother was a teacher and her dad was a worker in the city. When she was 2 she had moved multiple times just to be with her father. She then stayed in the countryside with her mother because she had to teach. Her grandma and Grandpa lived close to them. She had different names for them like 'Yeye' and 'Nainai'. During the years she was growing up in a small school. Before they left to go back with her father her grandfather passed they then had a ceremony and blessed his grandfather. After a while she moved to the city to be with her dad and mom. The dad was ill and the mom was the only one working. He would sacrifice every little thing for both of his children. The mom used to make the dad soup so he would feel better. But he fed it to Xiao and Gege.   This is most of what I can remember about my book because I read it about a week ago or a couple of days. I finished it on the first two days as it was an interesting book to me.
     During the book she mentions how she can remember something about when she was a baby. Now this part fascinates me. She remembers about how when she was barley a baby that her mother was holding her. She was singing a song to her. It was full with rhythm and was thoughtful. This was a Memory moments part of the book because she talks about it a lot and she says its one of her favorite memories. I personally like this book because of the format of how its written. Its also detailed and its in first person. I would recommend this to my friends because they'll also like it.

What do I think "tolerance" means?

Tolerance : The ability or willingness to allow the existence occurrence, or practice of something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with.

"How can you be more tolerant of others?" 

I think that I could be more tolerant by changing my attitude to other people or to change everything and not think bad, like the other people do. 

The Alchemyst

     I have recently started to read The Alchemyst {The Secrets of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel}. Its a really interesting book. Its a science-fiction kind of book mixed with action. The book starts out as a book with twins at their own separate jobs. The sister who's at the coffee shop sees that a strange man walks into the room and with two large men with grayish type of skin. She then notices that it smells like sulfur and rotten eggs. After the men go into the store she notices that nothing has been going on. She decides to call her brother and he doesn't pick up after 2 calls. While on the inside of the store they're having a huge fight. While in the store the small man known as Dee has his golems fight for a book that holds many things from the past. This was only the first two chapters and its already a very interesting book.
     The book starts out with an interesting concept. Of course I had to paraphrase the first two chapters but its a book that makes me want to read the book in a whole night. While I have only started to read the book the concept and texture of the book makes it feel like a book from the 1800's. The books concept is fascinating to me. And it doesn't fail for me to stop reading. If someone was looking for a science-fiction/ action book I would recommend The Alchemyst. 

Chew On This, Blog 2

     Ronald McDonald was an actor for a show named Bozo's Circus but as mostly every show they canceled the show. After that Willard Scott was hired to play as the role of Ronald McDonald. The outfit Ronald McDonald wore was definitely different from the one he has today. The original one was Willard Scott wearing a tray on top of his head holding a hamburger, a milkshake, and french fries. He also had an exact one like the one on his head but on his belt. And he also wore a McDonald's paper cup around his nose. After a while McDonald's wanted a new Ronald McDonald because Scott was "too fat". After they hired a new Ronald it was a thin man who would be flying on a hamburger. Most times he would be fighting a man named Mr. Muscle but that was sometimes. After a while Ronald McDonald had been changed many times and had stayed as the same costume design and Person. I think that Ronald McDonald has a huge part of McDonald's because if it weren't for him, many children wouldn't want to eat McDonald's

Chew On This, Blog 1

Ray Kroc

    I recently started reading Chew On This Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food, the book starts out stating about how the fast food industry started long long ago. Many years passed and McDonald's was born, but it wasn't actually McDonald's it was a fine restaurant with kitchen utensils. After a while the McDonald's brother decided to close their restaurant, but that wasn't it. They then made another restaurant. It was famous for how great the quality was. Then a man from Illinois known as Ray Kroc met up with the McDonald brothers and said that he would build other McDonald's around the United States. Ray Kroc did what he said and McDonald's Became very famous from the decade after the 50's. McDonald's was like a new light. McDonald's was a part that made the USA the USA.
   
    After reading how fast it took to industrialize the United States I realized that how something so small can become so huge in some years. It started from a man in Wisconsin putting meatballs on a bread and putting one over. To restaurants serving them. And after that becoming America's favorite food. And the fact is that McDonald's had a huge part with the industrialization of America. Ray Kroc wanted all of the food to taste the same in each McDonald's in the Unites States. The fries came from the same place and the meat did too. He made companies bigger he bought out many things. He used the same assembly line that Henry Ford used. He made on person grab the bread and put on the patty. From the patty the cheese, lettuce and so on. I think the way Ray Kroc handles the business of McDonald's for the first decade is pretty astonishing.

My Goals of 2015

     In a new fresh start to the School year I have a goal for the rest of my school year. In the last half of school I was failing to listen, to do and of my homework and to turn many assignments on time. I disappointed myself and many other people with my behavior. So this year I am making a goal to do every assignment that is assigned. At the same time I will make myself stay after school every Tuesday and Thursday or when I need any help with any homework or if I'm confused. If I notice my grade going down I will stay after with any one of the teachers to get my grade up.

     Also for the new year I have a goal for myself in soccer. My favorite past time is to practice and play soccer with my friends. Yet not being as good as my friends I still play. It doesn't disappoint me or upset me that I'm not good as them but it makes me feel like a rookie compared to them. My personal goal's for 2015 are to practice more soccer and to pay attention in school (paragraph is above). I feel that if I push myself to practice that it would make me try harder and succeed to my personal goal. I also think soccer wont make it a huge distraction from school.

The Boy Who Dared Blog!

Three weeks ago I started reading this book called The Boy Who Dared. The book is about a boy named Helmuth who listens to a BBC radio broadcast in his room. Many events start to happen with the Gestapo (German Secret Police at the time). After a while Helmuth starts to have this really crazy plan that seems believable for a bit. The plan is working straight. Until one day the Gestapo keep seeing the Anti-Propaganda round and it even includes the German Government Swastika. It's believable but for a second. A lot of things happen from then and out but... You will have to read to know more

Imaginary Girls Blog Post

I started to read a book Imaginary Girl's by Nova Ren Suma. I only read up to 20 pages about what the book was about until I started to find it uninteresting! Even though it was a thorough book with many details it was too much too take in at the time. I decided to abandon the book cause it wasn't a just right book to me. If I were to pick it up again close to the end of the year it would comply and add on to my list but at the moment its too advanced for me.

The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane

The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane  by Polly Horvath was a book about two girls, Melanie and Jocelyn. Tragic events happen to their parents thus ending up them both living with their uncle, Marten Knockers on a fairly large island off the coast of Canada. After a short time of going with the same ordinary things going around they get a house maid. Now she is fairly nice but is German with a thick German accent that they sometimes don't understand. Things start to change when she starts working for Mr. Knockers. They get new meals, and new supplies etc. After a while she gets annoyed of always having to go pick up everything the Helicopter drops off usually broken and asks Mr. Knockers for a Butler. He complied and he just did regular stuff butler's do. For a while the same goes on until Something happens with Jocelyn. Her emotions are set free and she starts to go outside and just sit there. That goes on for a while until Melanie decides to follow her outside one day and they start to get a bond by building... Planes. They are then accompanied by a dog that they pleaded for from Mr. Knockers. But if you want to know more you have to read the book.

Upstander Summary

     I have just learned about how in the holocaust there were people who thought that just standing by wasn't going to end what was happening in that time period.  People knew what was happening. They didn't agree with what the Nazi's were doing. They were the up-standers of WWII!
    
     One man that stood out to me was Schindler. After working with the Nazi's just trying to get profit acting like he agrees with them, all up to one day where he saw what kind of terrible things they did. He saw how the Nazi's had dogs, they would let them loose to look for the people who were hiding in their homes. Then everything changed for him. He then went out of his way too build a factory in Brinnlitz, Czechoslovakia. Doing that alone saved 1,200 Jews.

     But some people can't do what other people have done. They stand wondering if they should do anything or just ignore whats happening. I honestly think Germans were bystanders because they knew that if they were caught helping they would have been arrested or gone into what they didn't know of Concentration Camps

      If I was in the time during the Holocaust even if I could do anything I would be a by-stander cause it's a really huge risk to take to get caught by the Nazi's. You never know someone you know may rat you out. But yes even if I would like too I wouldn't. It's a scary thought to hear that people are going to concentration camps but some people would do the outstanding and save them. I couldn't do that if I was.

Workers Right Reflection

        I was able to read an article on what FIFA does every time a World Cup comes around. When Brazil was the host for 2014 FIFA's World Cup the workers were rushed to build the stadiums in Brazil. Fifa also evacuated people from their homes in Brazil. While Brazil knew all about but didn't decide to do anything about the right being violated. FIFA has violated rights number 14 and 3 which are that you have a right to seek for a safe place to live (14) and the right to a free and safe life (3). 

         I then read a poem about how the narrator was saying that it was a machine that while it was working it was a machine. That it was on repeat it was like non-stop over and over on repeat for many hours. But then it feels alive like it's not a machine like that time that they're set free for a while. But then it repeats again and again. But its seems like both of these the article and the poem are a like both about the workers. But the poems different they go through this work like slaves and in the FIFA article they aren't treated correctly. People should make better choices, Think about the consequences before you start horrible things. 

Soldiers and their dogs

There are many types of soldiers, but there's one that is special than the others. Those are the soldiers who have specially trained dogs that look for bombs, the dogs usually look for the bombs that are underneath where the soldiers walk or for ones in buildings. The reason they need these kind of soldiers is because random civilians or other soldiers might walk over them and the little bomb underneath will get triggered and will blow up and injure or maybe kill the soldier or the civilian. I think that if the soldiers get injured in combat they should get the dog because after the soldier and the dog make a bond its hard to move on for both of them.

My Lemon Brown Reflection

The story "The Treasure of Lemon Brown" is an amazing short story for Eight Grade. It starts out with a young boy having troubles with his dad. Long story short the boy decides to leave the house because of his dad. It then starts raining and sees an old building so decides to go into the building, yet to be startled that a man (Lemon Brown) was in there. After he got to meet him things went bad and they almost got killed. If you want to know the full story go to your library or just simply look it up.

-HP

The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die

If you like tense and adventurous books than you should read "The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die". This book is confusing in the beginning but soon enough you'll understand it! Once you start reading it you literally can't stop! The book is about a girl who get's kidnapped for questioning about her parents. She also can't remember anything, but soon enough everything comes to her. She knows why this happened to her. But if you want to know more than read "The Girl Who Was Supposed to Die"I hope you guys like this book!