Looking for Alaska

I decided that I wanted to read the book, Looking for Alaska because I had heard about the book before and that it was pretty good. I thought that that the book was very good and I am glad I chose it. I wouldn't say that I made that many connections to it because his life is very different than mine. But he is a kid in high school and in that way there is some connections like the different cliques and how his relationship between his friends strengthen as they go through tough times. I think that this book would be good for a large variety of people. It is focused towards high school students though because they can probably relate to it the most. But I think that even if you were older you could enjoy it because everybody goes through tough times in their life and they have to overcome it and keep going with their life. It is a fun book to read because the author is really good wording and making it feel as if you are talking directly to the person. And he has them use different slang based on where the come from.

Looking for Alaska

The book that I am reading is split up into two parts. Because of this the author has to make the sure that the first part of the book has to really hook the reader so that they keep reading past the first part. My quote that I decide to use is from the very end of the first part and it really leads you into the next part and foreshadows what may happen later. In the book, Looking for Alaska it says,

 “We did not say: Don't drive. You're drunk.

   We did not say: We aren't letting you in that car when you are upset.
  
   We did not say: we insist on going with you.

   We did not say: this can wait until tomorrow. Anything - everything - can wait. "

 I don’t want to give anything away but here is a short explanation of what is going on at this time. Right before this point in the text Alaska, Pudge, and the Colonel were up until late drinking and then Alaska wakes up to the phone ringing and a minute later starts freaking out and wakes up the others and tells them they have to help her get out. So they distract the Eagle and she is able to get out but then they run into trouble.

 

Looking for Alaska

For my summer reading assignment I decided to read the book, Looking for Alaska. Right now I am about half way through the book and so far I am really enjoying it. The main characters in the book are Pudge, the Colonel, Alaska, and finally Takumi. This book takes place at a boarding school called Culver Creek. Each character faces there own smaller problem but he main problem that these for characters face is that the are currently in a rivalry against some people called Weekday Warriors; who are kids that are rich and only stay on the campus over the week. They are mad at each other because someone ratted out a couple at the campus for being in each others room after ours. Each party thinks that other one did it. I predict that by the end of the book they are going to figure out who ratted the couple out and it is going to cause some huge conflicts. The whole book doesn't remind me of any other work that I have read but I know that there are boarding schools and it kind of sounds like a college. I also I seen the play a west side story and it sort of resembles it but only because of the two sides that don't get along.   

Looking for Alaska

In the book I am reading the main characters are Pudge, the Colonel, Alaska, and Takumi. Pudge is the character that the whole book is centered around. His main goal in the book is to hook up with the girl named Alaska. The only problem is she is dating a guy back in her home town. Alaska is a girl that is smart but has gotten herself into some trouble. She seems to be very outgoing and not afraid of anything. She seems to hold a grudge and is very persistent. Chip, also known as the Colonel, is friends with Alaska and recently befriended Pudge. I feel the he is a lot like Alaska and holds a grudge and always wants revenge. The author doesn't focus on Takumi to often. He is always hanging around Alaska and Chip and seem to know a lot of their problems. A theme that stands out right now is to not jump to conclusions before you absolutely know the entire story. And also not to hold a grudge for to long. My book is stricter kind of like a diary. They have it count down the days to a big event then it counts the amount of days after the event but they don't say what the event is so it makes it suspenseful. 

Woman in the Mist

 

 

  I would recommend this book if you enjoy animals. Obviously if you do not enjoy animals or reading about them then you would not really like this book. I think that it was cool to be able to see what she went through when she was in Africa and how she made a difference. Over the years of her being in Africa I believe she learned a lot and became very adept in her studies. She learned a lot of new stuff about the animals she loved and was able to teach a lot of stuff to other people. I was astounded with some of the things she came in counter with and thought it was crazy how calmly she fixed them.

      I think that this book definitely went in depth and explained her journey well without making it too hard to follow. Throughout the book there were definitely some points that were very sad and hard to read through. Over these parts I just pushed through and soon they started to talk about something different. For this book I would rate it 3.5 stars out of 5. I think that it was a very good book but they needed to explain places better and there were a few parts that were sad. I would recommend this to someone that wants to work with animals or already is working with animals. I think that it is cool that she was able to make a difference in our world and really impact the animals that she loved.

Women in the Mist

Vocab

In my book the vocab isn't that hard. The words they use aren't too difficult I can figure them out by context clues and if I can't then I just look them up. Throughout the novel they do like to use a lot of locations and cities and a lot of the cities in the United States I know about where they are because they are major cities, but they also like to use cities in Africa and i have no clue where they are or even remotely where they are locates. It would help if they could put something at the bottom of the page or a caption next to the cities so you can follow where she is traveling better. This is a minor setback though because it is not the most important part of the book to know where they are as long as you know if they are in Africa or America.

This is a general map of the place that she went to (Rwanda) but it doesn't have the actual route that she traveled.

 

In the book she talks about how pretty it is especial at night and how all of the clouds clear and you can see the stars and off to the side there is the volcano. She explains that the animals will travel up and down the valley, so I am assuming that Rwanda is pretty hilly. Using the map I gave above it is still hard to tell where about she might have been because it talks about how she can see the volcano but she also says that there are a lot of trees and undergrowth. So it also seems that she might be around the Forest down in the south of Rwanda.

blog reflection

During this trimester I have been Blogging on a book called Woman in the Mist, in these blogs I have use my voice in it and really showed my personality. In one blog post in particular I talked about how I thought it was cool that she was really interested in these animals and wanted to help them. This is using my voice because I really like animals and I think this would be really cool to get the chance to do.  I also relate a lot of what she is doing to what is happening in life right now. I can showcase my personality in my blogs because the book that I am reading relates a lot to what is happening in the world and what I think is really cool. In my blogs I put in my personal opinions about the world and how we treat our environment. In this post I say “Hopefully in the future people will be able to keep raising awareness about the animals they love and keep helping those animals.” I show my opinion in this sentence because I talk about how I hope that there will be other brave people that follow in their footsteps and try to help the animals they love.

In my blog post I use all different types of diction. For example in this post I say, “This is happening all over the world and humans are often poaching animals and are destroying their habitat just like what we have seen in the book.” This quote is using formal diction because I am addressing a real problem in the world that needs to be changed. I talk about how the people are poaching the animals and how they are destroying their habitat. The word choice I use in the sentence helps get across the seriousness of this topic. In this sentence I have used a lot of medium to long sentences because I am explaining thing that are happening in the book and relating them to what is happening in the world, if I used a lot of sort sentences they wouldn’t get the point across and it would make it really confusing.