Mia's Reading Log

Thursday, March 10, 2016

3rd Quarter Reading Reflection

Book List:

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Left to Tell by Immaculée Ilibagiza
Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige
The Bright Forever by Lee Martin
Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Matched by Ally Condie
Crossed by Ally Condie
Reached by Ally Condie
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Looking back on the goals I set in my 2nd quarter independent reading post, I met all of my goals for this quarter. My goal was to read 10 teen fiction books and 5 classic books, which I met (exactly :) ). 3rd quarter is usually the busiest time of year for me. I didn't find much time to read, but I still pulled through (YAY!!!). I really enjoyed reading all of these books (though I am a bit tired of love triangles), and look forward to continuing my reading experiences.

Measurable goals:

I want to read...

-7 classics

-12 books total

...in order to gain exposure to all kinds of texts and writing styles.

"Crafty" Book Review

A family struggles to stay alive, a ravaged land is torn to shreds by genocide, a single girl is left to tell.

Set in Rawanda during the year 1994, Immaculée Ilibagiza tells her harrowing story of survival during the Rawandan Genocide in her nonfiction autobiography Left to Tell. In her own version of the diary of Anne Frank, she details her experiences, some of which are as terrifying as the flames of Hell; being locked in a tiny bathroom while listening to stories the heinous crimes taking place all around their safe haven. She pleads with us to find ways to accept each other despite our differences, reminding us that we are all God's creations, one and the same. As we follow her in her struggle for survival, we too must struggle to survive our own demons and conquer the darkest corners of the human soul.

Through the murder and abuse and terrible conditions in Rawanda, the narrator manages to keep hope alive, hope that she wishes to share with all of us, hope that there will be change, hope that will never fade.

Sunday, February 28, 2016

Point of View -- Meghan Daum

Meghan Daum can be best described as having a critical point of view. In her column “Geez Frisco,” Daum criticizes San Francisco's excessive ban on buying pets from pet stores. In another one of her columns, “Curvy or no,” she criticizes Mattel for coming out with Curvy Barbie, saying that Barbie is still a mean girl no matter what. In her writing she severely chastises both parties for their “blunders” by using informal diction to make fun of them.

One writing craft technique that Daum uses in her writing in order to establish a caustic and critical tone is low and informal diction. She uses this technique in order to put emphasis on her sarcasm and make it seem more mocking. For example, she uses words like “geez,” “kooky” and “jerks” to make fun of San Franciscans. Her informal diction makes San Francisco look and sound stupid in comparison to other cities. When she describes San Francisco as kooky, she uses this slang term for weird to debase the city's government and inhabitants. When she calls its inhabitants jerks, she directly makes fun of the people who live in San Francisco. She ultimately calls the San Franciscans strange and unreasonable using these casual and informal words. She treats Mattel the same way, using words like “basic” and “sucks” to call Barbie stupid. She describes Barbie as a “ high – maintenance, trend – obsessed yet eternally bland young woman”, the equivalent of how she calls San Franciscans jerks. In both of these columns, Meghan Daum uses informal diction in order to berate San Francisco and Barbie.

Links: Curvy or no, Barbie is still a mean girl
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-daum-curvy-barbie-20160204-20-column.html
Geez Frisco, lighten up
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/30/opinion/la-oe-daum-pets-20110630

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Things I Learned Last Year

When people walk, they tend to stay on the right.

Walk on the left, and you will learn that the hard way.

Clay, regardless of color, picks up every speck of dust in can possibly find.

The result is a disgusting, hairy grey lump.

Every year, we save up every penny,

then spend it on playthings and miscellaneous items of no real value.

Afterwards, we love to brag and boast about how much we saved,

and show the things we bought, glossing over how much we spent.

Hacking into the fabled Silverlake Wi-Fi doesn't mean

that what you get is of any use.

Being 12 isn't a whole lot different than being 13,

except that you're one year closer to dying.

When I die, I would like it to be in the morning,

just after sunrise.

Then, I could enjoy one last dawn

and let the sun carry me up to the clouds.

People all around the world occupy themselves by putting

their billion dollar autographs

on a piece of paper that marks the coming and going of the human race.

Poem Time!!!

The tone of my poem is meant to start out funny and lighthearted, but as it progresses, it begins to turn into a more reflective piece (which reminds me of visualization during swim practice). The first three two-line stanzas are just quirky and funny little comments, while the longer stanzas and the remaining two-line stanza are more serious, and even a bit dark (for my tastes). My poem is very similar in structure and even tone in comparison with Stafford's poem. The 7 stanzas follow the patterns that he uses in his poem. The tone also becomes gradually more serious the further you get. Many of the lines themselves are based directly off of the original. I know I'm so original, right (get it?)?

Reflection:

2015 was a much anticipated year for many (or maybe it's just me), but did it live up to its expectations? Well, no. I didn't meet even half of my New Year's Resolutions (not bad, considering that I met none of them the year before), so the bar this year is set pretty low, and what little remains of the ambitious 12 year old has carried over into the next year, and probably will continue to do so until, well, I don't know. (INSERT POSITIVITY... Oh, wait, there is none... I'll try to think harder. There has got to be something). Things have changed. Impulsiveness, extremes, motivation, energy and so many things that once defined me have faded into the grey. The wiring up in headquarters has changed. If you've ever watched Inside Out, it's like when Goofball Island collapses. Pre-teen me has not completely disappeared yet, but 2015 has taken a decent bite out of who I was and replaced it with factors that are still mostly unknown. I guess we'll just have to find out.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

2nd Quarter Reading Reflection

Books I've read:

1 Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

2 Winterdance by Gary Paulson

3 Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

4 The Color of Water by James McBride

5 A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

6 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

7 A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck

8 Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth Jr.

9 Life as We Knew it by Susan Pfeffer

10 Crewel by Gennifer Albin

11 The Dead and the Gone by Susan Pfeffer

12 Scarlet Plague by Jack London

13 Grimm's Fairytales by Wilhelm Grimm

14 Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder*
15 Little House on the Prarie by Laura Ingalls Wilder*
16 On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder*
17 By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder*
18 The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder*
19 Little Town on the Prarie by Laura Ingalls Wilder*
20 These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder*
21 The First Four Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder*
22 This World We Live In by Susan Pfeffer
23 The Shade of the Moon by Susan Pfeffer (Such a bittersweet book!)

*I had a brief phase of childhood nostalgia and decided to reread the whole Little House Series (just because I could).

Long story short, I was working the books this quarter. 23 whole books. I brought back a lot of childhood favorites (Little House Series), which tend to be simpler books, but definitely provide lots of pleasure reading, and read a few of hundreds of books my friends recommend on a daily basis. I wasn't particularly concerned with challenging reading, because I had to read two books for class, and was really looking for a few minutes of pure pleasure reading. As of right now, I'm leaning a little more towards the dystopian fiction category, especially after watching the Mockingjay Part 2 trailers. My favorite book this whole semester was Winterdance by Gary Paulson. Winterdance is the quest of one man and his dog team to truly "dance with the winter" in Alaska by running the Iditarod. The author writes about his experiences up north and why, despite the hardships, he fell in love with the Alaskan wilderness. This was one of my all time favorites because running the Iditarod is on my bucket list, and I love the beautiful scenery in Alaska (I totally don't look up pictures of Alaska in my free time... xD). Hearing about how stunning yet terrifying the Iditarod is has fueled my dream to run it one day with my own team of dogs, and truly find myself up there.

Though some of the books on my list really did challenge me (mostly emotionally), I felt that this quarter was more about reading for fun as opposed to the boring version. I definitely increased the quantity of books read, though the quality got a bit worse (I'm sorry :(. Childhood nostalgia gets the best of us sometimes). I have to say, I'm suprised how vague my first reading goal was (I spent 30 minutes trying to find it), and it is so open to my interpretation, that I really don't know if I met it or not. Yes, I read more. No, I did not read the stack of classics I was going for. The measurable goal setting skills really need to improve.

MEASURABLE Goal: Read at least 5 classics and 10 recommended (good) teen fiction books by the end of next quarter

2nd Quarter Poetry Journal Response

Wanderer

For years I have held your hands in mine,

Waddled forward in single file,

Smushed together like two slices on a loaf of bread.

We proceeded over the rolling hills,

Castles,

Princesses,

Happy endings.

As we frolicked through the green meadows and bright prairies,

I taught you many valuable things,

Knowing that one day,

I would have to let you go.

One day,

You will step across the threshold of the Double Doors of Destiny

And my hand will slip out of yours.

You will stumble,

And reach for my hand,

But I will not offer it.

You will have to continue from this point on,

Alone,

Staggering through the dark Labyrinth we call Life,

And follow the fading path that I traveled so many years ago.

When the days are pitch black,

And there seems to be no way out,

Remember what I told you when the sun shined on the smiling timber land,

And take it wherever you wander.

One day,

You will come back again to the waterfall we visited,

And I will be waiting for you there.

We will hold hands once more,

Finish the last stretch side by side,

Take the path to the golden palace

And ascend into the light together,

like it was meant to be.

I wrote this poem (a paragraph at the time) in response the one thingy about the first swim lesson and how you need to look up to survive, or something like that (Am I rambling in four year old speak? Probably). I did add a LOT to the original, because I felt really rushed that day (I think that I was returning a book...) and didn't get to write as much as I wanted to. I also played a little with line breaks (fancier way to say that I turned it into a poem), just because I feel like condensing it into paragraph form would take away from its sentimental value (discussed in next paragraph).

This piece of poetry is a tribute to my mother, whom I am very close with, to say the least, despite her weirdness. Ever since I was little, she has held my hand and walked with me through both the dark and the light aspects of my life. She taught me a lot of valuable lessons along the way, and has showed me how to deal with pain, joy, anger, fear, insecurity, and the ups and downs of everyday life. But after all the time we have spent together, we both know that I will have to leave her someday, and roam the world on my own. As I walk on my own path, I will always remember the things that she told me way back when, and carry them with me wherever I wander.