letter about lit.

Michael Crouse
 

Dear Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman,

            I was reading your book, “From Baghda With Love” for my English III class. As a project, or assignment, through out the year each quarter everyone from the class picks a book off the read for a lifetime list and yours book was on there. After reading the review of your book it seemed like it would be an excited emotional story.  So I picked it signed it out of the school library and began my quest to read your book. The gut jarring visuals of war along with the heart pulling torment of and young puppy created a story that took me on an emotional roller coaster into the world of war. This book gave me a great perspective of love, friendship, and pain.  I would have to say this book was far better then the last book that I chose, “Half Brother” which was about a family who try to adapt a monkey into modern society and train it to be like a human. It seems sort of ridiculous but it was not bad plus it would be fun to live with a primate. I think your book was a better paced more emotional book though. I found it very interesting that the dog was de-wormed with chewing tobacco and de-fleed with kerosene. I never thought that would have worked but its sort of ironic because about a week and a half before reading that part of your book a friend of mine told me that chewing tobacco can de-worm creatures and I did not believe him but he must have been telling the truth, he dint even read that from your book, so I thought that was pretty cool. I also found it strange that there were several dogs in the desert as you explains in the beginning of chapter 12. I would not have thought there are any dogs in the desert at all so I think that’s kind of cool that there were dozens and you fed them MREs to make some friends. Overall I think you had a good book and I would recommend it to anyone interested I enjoyed your story and I may see if you have any other books available. 

New Classroom

 in todays classrooms teachers have integrated the use of the internet in order to learn. teachers use websites like facebook, blogger, twitter, and skype in order to show students a new way of learning and possibly spark their interests. after using these methods my self i can say it is more fun but it is also harder because for years its been read a book type a paper with a format to follow and with blog spot its been once a week new assignment get lost behind and it just gets more confusing and the work can pile up. so i enjoy having that format of a proper paper to follow not to mention there is always a way to rewrite and get a better grade which is really nice. but overall using the computers and not having to stare at black and white pages for an hour every single day is very nice and i love that about teachers that start to integrate technology into learning.

bad Sparky!

 sparknotes is not a website that i would recommended if i were trying to get the full view and full experience of reading a book its self. its more for a summary to either help the reader understand in a quick version or its for the people who are to lazy to do their class work and actually read the book. when using spark notes all that you get is an over all view of the book and can miss out on many detail that would be necessary to fully understand the book. due to this summarizing and lack of detail i do not think sparknotes is a viable source when doing research or trying to experience the mind of an author and their work.

comments

stevie i think this blog really tells the story of your book. it gives me a great idea of what your book is about. i feel like i could have a book talk for the most part over your book now if it ever came up. these links seem to outline your book in a great manner and your descriptions of the links are perfect keep it up stevie great work!

hannah you seem to have some sort of super hatred for sparknotes and i can see where you are comming from in a big sence considering the fact its just summaries, it can take alot away from the original writing done by the author. it takes away from the true vision that could be built, when reading spark notes its hard to feel like your really in the book or there and that just unfortunate so i understand your anger. keep up the good work hannah!

haha nice vlog abbie i like your descriptions and like you said nice awkwardness haha this was a good vlog it made me laugh. besides this being funny i think you had a good summary of the book i just wish you would have said how it ends haha i love spoilers. keep it up abbie this was reallll nicce

blog 1, 2nd quarter

   shortly after the start of the year our new English teacher Mrs.Hayze introduced us to what would basically be our next school year, blogging. The blogging involves reading a book once a quarter picked off a list for a program known as "read for a lifetime" and then making one blog post every week about it, following a prompt of coarse. When we started this it sounded easy besides reading a book per quarter along with all our other work, but when the time came to start blogging the "easy" feel started fade and it became less fun. now it is time to start blog #2 for second quarter and im not looking forward to it. hopefully some of the prompts  aren't as hard.
  after the first blog was finished and graded i noticed i had an A on it soon after i found out that it was someone elses grade on my grade list and that was upsetting. i dont belive that should have happened so maybe it wont again. i think i desereved the grade i really got except for one part where i dint print my first blog by accident, its ok though i think its getting changed. Besides that i think my blog was graded fairly well.
   comming into our second quarter blogs its time to pick a new book, from afgan with love is the book i chose. it is about an american army that finds a poor conditioned puppy suffering in an abandoned house. they take it in and nurse it back to health and on their journey through the was the dog becomes the squads best friend. i dont know much more about the book but it should be pretty good so well see.

animoto

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Vlog!

blog comments

Dear Abbie,
This post really explains you, i had to do a self contained giggle when you mentioned the you love awkward moments(palm tree and head grab). all last year was funny when the arguments in math broke out. I also noticed you said you enjoy sarcasm and am a bit confused if you were using it when you were talking about the read for a lifetime assignment. I also think its funny that you love the girl books so much, just like your best friend Stevie cough cough. Good blog post way to truly describe yourself!

hey Hannah im here to comment on your post here. i remember when you and Zach came over and showed me this song. its a crazy song and it sound like it really fits your book, i haven't read your book but you make it sound like it was meant to be! I agree with you in this aspect too, that most of this classical music is like omg no, but after listening to a few of these songs its actually like epic dance party music, good choice of songs Hannah see ya later.

Hey Stevie its good to know that you don't struggle with reading and everything, and i agree writing is not one of my strong suites either but i guess its something we all have to do. I don't know anything about your book, but i'm sure its really cool because you said its interesting. I also think you did a fine job for your first blog way to go champ!! have a nice day ill see ya later!

Music Entry

http://www.classicalconnect.com/music/3046

   I feel as though this song represents my book, "Half Brother", very well because it has enthusiasm and sadness. This song composed by Evohe Adone, is titled Sonata per clarinetto e pianoforte. In the song there are high and low point always showing happiness and sadness, new and old, adventure and boredom. This relates to "Half Brother" in ways such as the boys attitude to the move to Canada and the new baby (monkey) Zan. At first the boy hates the move and is all down but then he is picked up when its his birthday, then he gets all down again when his father is always gone and he dose not have any friends to  hang out with, and along with this his mother brings home the new project, a monkey that is going to be adapted into human life for the first time in history, real family, real friends, and real human characteristics. The boy is very skeptical about this project at first and very defensive feeling replaced as his mothers attention shifts all the way to the monkey. This would be a low point in the music. Then as the story goes on the boy meets a friend who lives down the street and they start riding bikes together and hanging out all the time, here is where the music picks back up with enthusiasm, and on and on this continues through out the book with all the high and low points exciting and dull.

Half Brother picture connection

This resembles the explination of mamma haning onto Zan.


This represent the morning light that wakes up the boy on his birthday.

they moved to Canada.

the parents are scientists.

the boy had to use a sleeping bag cuz they just moved.

they had a Volvo.

In the car ride to Canada the boy read comics.

On the trip the family stayed in a motel.

The boy got a Marz Bar to eat.

The boy watched headlights roll by the motel.

They rode a ferry to Victoria.

The boys mom arrived in a taxi.

Family had dinner on a orange shag rug.

The boys mom wears a Native medallion.

The monkeys name Zan came from Tar"zan".

The boy is turning 13.

The monkey sleeps in this.

The boy rides his bike a lot.

The dad works on a University.

The boy rides his bike at sunset a lot.