Reader's Journal #17 Detectives in Togas by Henry Winterfeld

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

                I have been reading Detectives in Togas by Henry Winterfeld.  It is a really good suspense book, and very funny at points.  Here is a quote from the book on pages 28 and 29 that I enjoyed:

                “Xantippus was tightly wedged into the wardrobe, but by pulling together they managed to pry him loose.  He fell roughly to the floor, growling furiously.  Mucius unwound the gag, bent over their teacher and asked with concern:  “How do you feel?”

                Instead of replying, Zantippus closed his eyes and heaved a sigh.

                “He’s dying,” Antonius said.

                At that, Xantippus opened his eyes again and growled ferociously:  “By Jupiter and the heavenly gods!  Why did you wait so long?  I almost suffocated.  Quick, untie me!  My arms and legs are dead.  You’d better get a knife from the kitchen.”

                Antonius and Publius managed to untie the ropes around Xantippus’ legs.  With the big bread knife that Flavius brought from the kitchen, Mucius freed their teacher’s hands.  Xantippus moved his arms cautiously and began clenching and unclenching his fists, groaning softly.  “Help me!”  he ordered the boys.  “I can’t stand up.”

                I chose this passage because it has suspense in it and funny in it at the same time.  This passage is significant to the book because without it the suspense wouldn’t even begin.

                My two before reading strategies are to skim and scan the book and to read the synopsis.  My two during reading strategies are to read the title and try to understand what each chapter is about and find context clues for vocabulary words I don’t understand.  My two after reading strategies are to understand what I have read and to prepare for Reader’s Journal.

                The genre of this book is humor and the characteristics are events that are exaggerated or written for laughs.  The characters in the book are Caius, Rufus, Antonius, Mucius, Flavius, Julius, Publius, and their teacher Xantippus.  Most of these characters are flat because they always have the same idea.  The protagonists are all of the main characters.  The antagonist is a mystery and has not been revealed yet in the story.  The protagonists are their own foil because they discuss their ideas among themselves. 

The setting of the story is Ancient Rome and so far the conditions have been sunny.  The exposition is when Rufus makes fun of Caius by writing “Caius is a dumbbell” and Rufus is threatened with being expelled from the best school in Ancient Rome.  The rising action is when one day they find that Xantippus has been abducted and thrown in his wardrobe.  The boys find him and take him out and then try and find who did this crime.  Then they find “Caius is a dumbbell” written in red all over the new church in the same handwriting.  The climax, falling action and resolution I haven’t gotten to yet.

The conflict right now is external and is man vs. man because they need to find the person who wrote on the church and abducted Xantippus.  The tone and mood is silly because no one can stop being silly.  There is always some joke being told.  The theme and moral I cannot say because I haven’t finished the book.

The point of view is third person.  The pattern of organization is chronological order because most of the time it uses dates.  The author’s purpose of the book was probably to entertain.  The author’s perspective is probably subjective because technically this could have happened in real life. 

I would rate this book definitely a ten out of ten because it is outstanding and ha suspense in every corner of the book.  I would recommend this book everybody in middle school.

Sincerely,

Michael Heskiel

Reader's Journal #16 Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,
I have been reading the book Lord of the Flies by William Golding. It is a book in the fantasy genre set on a deserted island. There were no quotes from the book that I thought were interesting.
My two before reading strategies were first, to remember what I had read in the past and second, to compare what I have read to what I am about to read. My two during reading strategies were to find vocabulary words I didn’t understand and to review parts as I went along. My two after reading strategies were to review everything I read and prepare for my second Reader’s Journal on this book.
The characteristics of the fantasy genre are stories about things that can’t happen. The characters of the story are the same, Piggy, Ralph, and Jack. The characters themselves have changed. They feel more courageous because they have a feeling they’ll make it and get off the island. Their characters are static. All three characters are the protagonists. The antagonist is technically nature. They have no foil because nature doesn’t have a foil. The weather is most likely sunny because they lit a fire that didn’t burn out. The exposition of the book is like I said when they all find each other on the island. The rising action is when they start getting more confident about how to do stuff on the island. I have not gotten up to the climax, falling action, and resolution. The conflict for everyone is definitely man vs. nature and is definitely external.
The tone and the mood of the story are serious because it has a serious voice. The theme of the story is surviving on an island, because that is what they are doing. I haven’t found what the moral of the story. So far, I think the moral of the story is believe in yourself and you can do anything because at this point in the story the boys believe they are going to get off the island and it looks like they are going to. The point of view is third person, because it says in the story “he” and “she”.
The pattern of organization is cause and effect, because everything they do has some kind of side effect. The author’s purpose is probably to share with the reader a story just to entertain and not to inform. The author’s perspective is definitely subjective because of the tone he writes in you can tell.
The rating I would give this book would be a two out of ten because it can be very boring and it never gets interesting. I would not recommend this person from one to a hundred because it’s lame and it should be getting better.
Sincerely,
Michael Heskiel

Current Event article #3

Date:  Dec. 12, 2011
Name:  Michael Heskiel
Current Events Journal
Title: Animal shelter's behavior experts face life and death decisions for animals
Author:JOHN OWENS
Source: 
The topic of the article is about animal shelters
The main idea of the article is: about animal shelters and how the animal has a test for behavior and if the animal passes he goes to get adopted but f it fails they get put to death stated (implied/stated)
The author’s purpose for writing this article is to inform readers how they run things at animal shelter
The author’s perspective in this article is that he probably doesn't agree with this idea objective/subjective objective (biased) because because it is very cruel
The pattern of organization of the article is cause and effect
The reason the author chose this pattern for the article is because the cause is pass the test the affect  is dieing or not
The text features included in the article are: tittle helps by understanding what the article is about
helps by
, and helps by
This article is about  an animal shelter in Chicago that had a six year old American bull terrier that was put to death because it was wasn't behaving.  It talks about the men and women who decide which dogs and cats get adopted and which one get  put to death and how they decide.
The significance (importance) of this article is to show what they are doing to the animals in the animal shelter.
What I learned from this article is that they killed a lot of the animals they get.  I thought all animals that go to the animal shelter go for adoption.
What I liked about this article is it informs the reader about something I don't think most people don't know about.
What I did not like about it is it should have given an author's perspective.
Who should read this article and why.  People who like pets should read this article to understand what is going on to some of the animals that go to the shelter.
This article reminds me of (text-to-self) of how I'm not allowed to have a pet and how I dearly want one.
(text-to-text) It reminds of the memoir I read titled The House of a Million Pets  by Ann Hodgman and how she always adopted pets.
(text-to-world) That all the people out there who are cruel and evil to pets.
New vocabulary I learned
Word Context Clues Meaning
1. Euthanized:  "Joining the 7,400 dogs and 11,000 cats put to death at Chicago shelters annually."  It means put to death to save from suffering.
2. Perpetually:  "...which is why Brown's arms are perpetually covered with scratches and bite marks."  It means always.
3. Incompatible:  "Because there's nothing more heartbreaking than taking a dog home and then finding out that there's something incompatible between you and your dog, and then you have to return the pet to the shelter."  It means does not agree or does not get along with.

Reader's Journal # 15, Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

                I am currently reading Lord of the Flies by William Golding.  It’s an OK book so far, but I found a really great quote in the book on page eight.

                “You can’t half swim.”

                “Piggy.”

                Piggy took off his shoes and socks , ranged them carefully on the ledge, and tested the water with one toe.

                “It’s hot!”

                “What did you expect?”

                “I didn’t expect nothing.  My auntie – “

                “Sucks to your auntie!”

                Ralph did a surface dive and swam under water with his eyes open; the sandy edge of the pool loomed up like a hillside.  He turned over, holding his nose, and a golden light danced and shattered just over his face.  Piggy was looking determined and began to take off his shorts.  Presently, he was palely and fatly naked.  He tiptoed down the sandy side of the pool, and sat there up to his neck in water smiling proudly at Ralph.

                “Aren’t you going to swim?”

                Piggy shook his head.

                “I can’t swim.  I wasn’t allowed.  My asthma – “

                Sucks to your ass-mar!”

                Piggy bore this with a sort of humble patience.

                “You can’t half swim well.”

                Ralph paddled backwards down the slope, immersed his mouth and blew a jet of water into the air.”

                I picked this passage because I thought it was the funniest thing so far in the book.  The significance of this passage to the book is that it brings out the character of Piggy more.

                My two before reading strategies were one, to skim and scan the book and two, read the synopsis.  My two during reading strategies were to read the book and understand what it was talking about and to try to connect the chapter to the title of the chapter.  My two after reading strategies was to one, summarize in my head what I read was about and two, to remember what I read for Reader’s Journal. 

                The genre of this book is fantasy.  The characters of the book so far are Ralph, Piggy, and Jack.  Most of the characters flat and round because they never change anything.  They always have the same ideas in their heads.  The protagonists are Piggy, Ralph, and Jack.  The antagonist has not appeared yet.  The foils have not yet appeared yet, either.  The setting is on an island.  I’m guessing the weather conditions were hot because they barely wore clothes to keep them warm. 

                The exposition is when you figure out that they are stranded on an island then Ralph meets Piggy and Piggy and Ralph meet Jack.  The rising action, climax, falling action, and the resolution I don’t know yet.  There is a conflict with Piggy is that all the kids know his name which he didn’t want.  He’s very fat and him specifically keeps thinking about ideas to get off the island.  This is internal and character vs. self.  The tone and mood are serious.  The theme I can’t say yet, but I’m guessing the theme is how to get off the island.  The moral of the story I don’t know yet.  The point of view is third person.  The pattern of organization is cause-and-effect, because everything they do, something else happens. For instance, when they blow the conch shell, the effect is that everyone hears and comes towards it.  The author’s purpose is most probably to show what can happen to you if you’re stranded on an island and not near civilization.  The author’s perspective is most probably agreeing with this story and is biased.

                I would definitely rate this book three out of ten because so far it’s dull, boring, and l don’t understand most of it.  I would not recommend this book to anybody because I don’t thinks anybody else would understand it, either.

                Sincerely,

                Michael Heskiel