Along for the Ride

I just started reading Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen. Just from my first impression, it seems like a good book but I feel like it is going a little predictable. So far, it's about a girl named Auden who lives with her mom. Her dad just got married to a women who's about 20 years younger than him and had a new baby. Auden wants to visit her dad this summer because she will be going to college in the fall and she feels like it's her last chance to get to know her dad. When she arrives, she finds a small beach town filled with mostly tourists. The whole situation is so different than what she's used to. There is always a crying baby, her dad only cared about his work, and her new step mom is alway emotional and whinny. All of this causes Auden to explore the town. She eventually gets a job at her step mom's boutique as an accoutant. This is the only thing that makes her feel comfortable because the answers are always black and white. Back at home, she has devoted her whole life to academics so isn't used to people or friends or emotions.


I think it's really weird that Auden has never really done any of the things that we do as kids and just think its part of your childhood. For example, Auden has never riden a bike or had a boyfriend and she's 18. I'm assuming that the title Along for the Ride comes from Auden nevering riding a bike. Especially since she just meet a boy who used to race dirt bikes. Well...I guess I will just keep reading the book to find out.

Romeo and Juliet

     In English we are reading Romeo and Juliet (as you may already known) and we learned that it is almost an exact copy of a poem written by Arthur Brooks in the 1500's. I thought that since Romeo and Juliet was written after the poem version, it would be better. For example, I thought the play would have a more believable plot line and more description of characters but I was wrong. I think that the poem was written in a way that made it seem much more real.  The characters actually knew each other for long than a minute before falling in love in the poem.

    I think it's kind of weird that though the poem and the play are almost exactly the same, and Arthur Brooks was the one who actually came up with the idea, that Shakespeare gets credit. I mean, he is told to be one of the greatest playwrights and he can't even come up wiith the idea for one of his best plays! Hopefully he actually thought of the ideas behind all his other plays.

Romeo and Juliet

We read Act 1 Scene 5 in class last week and we watched two movie versions of it. I think that with each interpretation of this scene the director uses a little bit of a different tone. For example, in the older version of the movie, it seems more serious because Romeo and Juliet are at a party with adults and there is more conversation rather than flirting. In the newer movie version, there is a lot of dancing and flirting amongst the characters. The tone seems lighter because of this. I understood both of the movie versions and the actual play pretty well because the plot was relatively simple and the language wasn't too challenging.

Basically all that happened was Juliet's family had a large mask party and Romeo went to see the girl he love (Rosaline). When he got there, he immediately saw Juliet and fell in love with her beauty. They talk for like a minute and then just start kissing, which is really weird. This is all happening while Paris, the man who is supposed marry Juliet, is "wooing" her. Weird. Romeo claims he is in love with Juliet but I don't understand how they can be in love after meeting each other for just a brief moment. I think they are in love with the way the other one appears rather than the actually person and their character. I think that within the next few scene Romeo and Juliet will actually fall in LOVE not in lust, though.

A lot of the language was very cheesy although I could understand it. For example, the entire time that Paris was trying to "woo" Juliet he was making really weird references. Also when Romeo was talking to Juliet he was really cheesy and was comparing them to pilgrims and such which was odd. I guess this was just how it was back then.

 

 

 

Newer Movie Version

Recommendations?

I've been posting about Breaking Night a lot but I finally finished it last night. It had a really good ending but was a little vague. I won't spoil the book for you because it was really good. I think you guys should read it but just to warn you the book is sort of long. Anyways, now I don't have a book to read so any recommendations?

Breaking Night

The chapter's in Breaking Night are really long so a lot can happen within them. In this chapter, Lizzy was actually taken away from her father to go be rehabilitated in a place called St. Anne's. It was really sad but predictable. You could tell that their lives were falling apart. She struggles to fit in at St. Anne's. The girls blame everything on her since she was new but lucky she made a friend.

After she made it out, she went to live with her mother and her mother boyfriend, Brick. Lizzy had to go to school everyday and not get into any trouble. She didn't feel like she fit in here either until she meet a girl name Sam who brought her into her group of friends. Within this circle of friends, Lizzy meets a guy named Carlos who she falls in love with. When Brick kicks Lizzy out, Carlos watches out for Lizzy and they become so close that they get married. They are homeless so Carlos just starts phasing in and out of Lizzy's life. At one point, he is gone so long that Lizzy doesn't think he's coming back. I think he will come back because they used to be really close. Hopefully they will be able to rebuild their relationship so that they can be a team again!!!

The Chronicle

I don't know if you guys read the part on freshman opinions on homecoming in the chronicle, but I briefly did and thought it was interest to see all the rumors we had heard. I knew of pretty much all the things the freshman said they thought homecoming was going to be like so I was wondering if they were true. If you went to homecoming this weekend, you would probably agree with most of the rumors. One that I definitely agreed with was that homecoming was really fun but got really sweaty. This was completely true!!! With everyone dancing it made it a lot of fun but everyone was sweating so it was gross. I think it cool that The Chronicle interview all those freshman because it related to so many kids at MHS. I really glad that we have such a well put together school paper.

The Help

I read a book recently called The Help. It was about a woman named Aibileen who lived in the South at a time where African-Americans weren't treated equally. The book is basically about her job. She was the "help" or the maid for a rich white family. The book just describes all the struggles she had to deal with. Whether it was money, racism, or trying to find a way to work, Aibileen never had it easy. For a complete summary click here.

Although Aibileen had a really tough life, she was never angry or pitied herself. I think this is very admirable because if we even had the slightest problem like too much homework or not having the newest name brand thing, we complain. I really liked the perspective that Aibileen had on life. I think we could all learn a lot from it. The only thing I didn't like about this book was that it was really long so it took awhile to read but it was worth it.

I would give this book 4/5 stars for these reasons. I recommend it to any teenager or young adult because you can learn a lot from it but some of the topics were too mature for younger kids. I hope you like this book!!!