The Book vs. The Movie

Author’s Note: I wrote this piece because I noticed that a lot of books have a movie based on the book a few years after. You are probably dreading the fact that I am going to do a compare and contrast piece between “The Hunger Games” books and movies, but I can assure you that I am not going to relate anything in this piece (besides this author’s note) to “The Hunger Games.” This is more of a piece about the differences and similarities that I and other people seem to notice between different books and the movies that go along with them.

When a book becomes really popular, movie producers make a movie based off of the book. Sometimes, the movie is made soon after the book is published, but other times, the movie is made years after. There are, of course, a lot of books out there that have been published and do not have a movie based off of it, but there are a lot of books that have been. More and more books are being written, and more and more movies have been made recently.

A lot of movies are based on a book. But not all of the movies include all of the details that are mentioned in the book are in the movie. Most of the time, the character has a lot of thoughts going on in their head. Normally, these “thoughts” are just things that are going on in the story, but the character is processing everything and thinking about what’s happening. But in the movie, you have to watch and see what happens, instead of “hearing” the characters thoughts.

Most of those thoughts are either what’s going on then or in the past. Sometimes, in a book, the chapters switch back and forth between then and now, otherwise known as the past and the present. In the movie for that book, it’s the same. The character appears to have a flashback of some sort, and it is normally obvious when that’s happening because the edges of the screen are blurry, or in slow motion. Sometimes, the voices of the people in the memory are really quiet, loud, or echoey. That’s a similarity that can occur between the same book and movie.

That’s a thing that’s similar with the book and the movie, but a lot of the time, most people imagine a book differently than the movie that comes out. Let’s say in the book, someone imagines a house that’s painted yellow, but in the movie, it’s painted blue. Seeing the movie and reading the book can give you different images of the story. Not all movies match the book exactly, and some details are different in the movie. Sometimes, characters have blonde hair in the book, but in the movie, they’re a brunette. That can mess up the image of the story that you had in the first place. There are plenty of older books that came out years ago that now have a movie.

Sometimes, people don’t even read the book (that normally comes out before the movie), and then they just go to see the movie. Other times, they might only read the book and not go see the movie. For example, the book “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel was published in 2001, and the movie just came out recently. Once the movie came out and everyone went to see it, they read the book because it was really popular. As you can see, there are a lot of differences and similarities between a book and the movie.

The Railway Train

Author’s Note: I decided to use the poem “The Railway Train” by Emily Dickinson because it used a lot of descriptive language. I liked how the author incorporated figurative language in the poem.

The poem “The Railway Train” by Emily Dickinson is great poem to look at if you’re looking for figurative language. The author used figurative language correctly. She described how the train moved as well as where it went, also adding some figurative language to describe the scene.

Emily Dickinson used a lot of personification to describe the train. When the author is talking about how the train “lap up the miles and lick the valleys up,” She is describing how fast the train is really going. It can put an image in the reader’s mind of the train speeding through the mountains and valleys. The tone of the poem would probably be a sort of childlike wonder and enthusiasm; imagining this train in the scenes that the author describes puts a good image of it in the reader’s head.

The author also uses similes. It describes how the train was docile and omnipotent when it advanced to its final stop. It describes how the train is all-powerful and obedient or submissive. The use of words like those affect the tone in a way that makes it sound almost magical.

The overall impact of the figurative language has on the meaning of the piece and of the train is that it sets the mood. It makes you wonder more about this train like where it’s going or what it looks like. The tone is almost mysterious, almost as if the author wants you to wonder those questions. As a reader, I thought of those questions when I was reading the piece.

Overall, I think that Emily Dickinson did a great job of using figurative language to describe what she wanted to put in the reader’s heads. If you show this to another person and ask what they thought of the piece, they would probably be thinking the same questions that other readers thought of while reading this poem. 

Homework: Good or Bad?

Author's Note: When I ask people, "Do you think that homework is beneficial to your learning?" their automatic reply is "No!" But have you ever actually thought it through? The cons about homework are widely unknown, while the pros, well, nobody ever thinks about the pros. That's why I'm writing this essay. I'm not with homework, or against it, and I'm not here to list the pros and cons about it. But ask yourself this question, and think it through thoroughly: Is homework really necessary?

There is a huge difference between working at home, and homework. Homework is a piece of paper with questions on it, assigned to the student by the teacher. This may help students, but it is really motivating them? Working at home is work that students do without being reminded by parents and other adults. If students realize how different their learning experience was without homework, they would actually do extra work without constantly being reminded by a teacher. Outside of class, students, especially as they get older, want to have a social life. They are not motivated enough to do their homework, so they resort to watching TV or being with friends or playing video games. If doing extra work outside of class was more interesting, I'm sure that more students would be more motivated. Not every student in each school has the right motivation at home. Some students may have family problems at home, they have to deal with that and a high amount of homework while the teachers have no idea what's happening. Some students are bullied. It's hard for kids to keep up with homework and any other huge problems they may have. 

Students are so against homework, that they don't even think about their answer when someone asks them if homework is helpful. Most people just laugh and say no. But if it was more fun, would their answer be more thought out? In some schools, the teachers can't assign their own homework. They have to assign the homework that goes with the curriculum. But if teachers could make their own assignments, maybe only for the kids that need the extra help, would students feel differently about homework? A lot of students have after school activities that they go to. Some have clubs, or sport events, or things for church, or things like Student Council going on. Students can't finish their homework if they have drama club, an orthodontist appointment, then two volleyball practices, then dinner. Even the thought of having homework during these activities makes life stressful for everyone. Some students get home most of the days of the week at 8:00-9:30. They will be tired, and they will be stressed because they have an essay due the next day.

I did a survey about this topic. I asked a bunch of my peers what they thought about it. All of them have different opinions, and it's interesting to see what they said. One said that they kind of liked homework because it helped review the things that they learned during school, but they never had time to do it because of all of the after-school events they had going on. Being a student, I know that as you get older, the work in school is harder. I understand that it's hard to finish things that you don't have the time to do. One person said that they have seen students who only have so long to finish an assignment, but don't have time to do it so they get in trouble for it. Is it necessary to punish students who just don't have the time? So why do teachers set the expectations so high? So you can actually learn. If you didn't have an essay to write, or a math worksheet to finish, or a presentation on the Revolutionary War to do outside of class, you wouldn't learn much. So if students wanted to learn, but they didn't have time to do homework on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays because of an after school activity, why should they be pressured to do so? One of my peers told me that they feel like they are rushed after school, and they don't like to be rushed about everything after school every day.

Kids also have trouble keeping a good attitude in school because of homework. The more pointless, long, time-consuming assignments they get, the less excited they are to learn. Most kids used to love going to school when all they had to do was color in sheets of paper and cut little pieces of paper out and glue them to something. Students would like school much better if assignments were less boring. It is hard, once you get older, to make the assignments less boring because it's so much more complicated than before. But the reason that you have to do it is because you have to do good in your future, and that's a thing that a lot of students overlook.

When people say that they don't like homework, it's because they feel pressured to do things, and more and more homework keeps piling up on them, and it isn't good for people when they're so stressed out. Their learning won't be as good because they don't have a good attitude because of the homework assignments. A lot of my peers, more than I expected, didn't really mind doing the homework, but they just didn't have enough time to do it. It wasn't hard, it was just time-consuming. So is homework really beneficial to a student's learning? Maybe not homework. If a student doesn't understand something, or is struggling to keep up with the pace of learning, they should be able to do work by themselves, not being pressured to finish an assignment at a certain date: That's the difference between homework and working at home.

Change in the View

Author’s Note: I am doing my point of view piece about if the whole book was from a different character’s point of view.


13 year-old Nathaniel is a boy who is an indentured servant working on a tobacco plantation in Virginia, living in the year 1775. He has a friend on that plantation named Moses. However, soon after, he is sold to a kind, elderly schoolmaster named Basil. Nathaniel is separated from Moses, and finds out that the people where Moses is don’t like the idea of liberty in a country that depends on slaves and indentured servants. Moses’s only chance of liberty is to run away and join the British Royal Ethiopian, a regiment of escaped Virginian slaves. I am going to describe how the book would be different if it was told from Moses’s point of view.

Moses was separated from Nathaniel, and the things that Moses saw weren’t mentioned often because they were two different stories taking place at the same time. If it was Moses’s point of view, there wouldn’t be much information about the war going on. The reader would be much more confused, just as Moses would’ve been. This is because Moses’s top thing on his priority list was to escape to gain his liberty. The reader would be curious about Nathaniel, because it was Nathaniel’s job to help Moses without being caught by Basil because he was known to be trustworthy.

Not only does the book mention how Nathaniel is friends with Moses, but the part where they are separated would be much different from Moses’s point of view. He would’ve had the same emotions, but he would have to form his plan to escape, and Nathaniel didn’t know exactly what his plan was. He just had to help Moses because they were friends, and they didn’t want to not be friends anymore just because they were separated. The reader would’ve felt much different about the war taking place if it was from Moses’s point of view, because Moses would’ve played a different role if he was free in the first place.

As you can see, if the point of view in a book like this changed, the reader would’ve felt much differently about the situation going on. They would’ve also felt different because the thoughts that go through the characters’ heads would convince the reader to think different things about the situations in the book. The point of view in a book or story or any type of literature is very important.

Viewing the Story

Author’s Note: I chose to do this book because I thought that it would be interesting to see what it would be like from another person’s point of view.


I am doing my point of view piece on the book Give Me Liberty by Laura Elliott. This piece will be about the point of view in the book, and what would be different if the narrator changed.

The person who is telling the story in this book is the narrator telling Nathaniel’s story. Nathaniel  is a 13 year-old boy who doesn’t know much of what is going on during the American Revolution, but finds out more information about it as the book goes on. The whole book is an unknown narrator telling what does; describing Nathaniel’s life. If the main character walked to the door trying to figure out what the people in the other room were saying, it would be described like this in the book: “Nathaniel inched toward the door attempting to listen to find out what they were talking about.” The book never specifically mentions who the narrator really is.

If the story was told by someone other than the narrator, it would be much different. For instance, if it was told from Nathaniel’s point of view, then the book wouldn’t describe so much information that Nathaniel didn’t know at the time. There aren’t very many scenes where the main character isn’t there, because it seems like the narrator is only telling what is going on with Nathaniel. There is a lot of extra information of the American Revolution in the book, but if the book was in Nathaniel’s point of view, there wouldn’t be so many facts and information about the things that were going on away from where the main character was.

In conclusion, a book or story can be changed a lot when the point of view is changed. Sometimes, even in song lyrics, poetry, and many other types of literature,  there are different points of view. In this case, the point of view would definitely change the whole story if it was changed.

Alike Yet Different

Author’s Note: This is my compare and contrast essay. I used the characters for my compare and contrast piece, but an essay would have more information about how these  characters are alike: Reynie from the book The Mysterious Benedict Society and Violet from Paperquake.

Sometimes it’s easy to find a character from one book that’s like or not alike from a character in a different book.  Characters should be classified as alike if they act the same way. So if one character is brave and confident and another character is timid and shy, they wouldn’t be alike. Sometimes characters grow during books in the same way. They start out as mean, and end up becoming nice, then they also would be alike. I found that Reynie from The Mysterious Benedict Society and Violet from Paperquake were similar yet opposite in many different ways.

Reynie Muldoon started out as an orphan, often picked on by the people he saw every day: the other kids at the orphanage. Violet Jackstone started out being in a family of with sisters who always picked on her because she was born with a heart defect. She was also bullied by people at school. Reynie saw an ad in the paper for “special” and “talented” children to take a test. At the time, Reynie didn’t know what was coming. Violet started finding these notes addressed to her nickname, and she didn’t expect that the clues would lead to something so big. What happened to both of them was something that they didn’t know would happen.

As I mentioned before, they didn’t know that they would end up in a huge adventure to solve a mystery, so this is why they didn’t feel like they were brave. Both characters didn’t feel like they were brave when their adventures started. They didn’t have confidence that they could do something for themselves, and they didn’t think that anyone liked them because they didn’t get the support that made them more confident. Violet’s family and peers didn’t think that she was capable of doing anything for herself. Peers, sisters, and even parents thought that she was just a weak little girl. Reynie was bullied into thinking that nobody wanted to be his friend, or his family. As their stories went on, they figured out that with the help of the right people, they were actually brave, but it just took time to figure it out for themselves.

One of the few things that are different between Reynie and Violet is that Violet had a whole family: Parents and siblings. She wasn’t adopted like Reynie. He lived in an orphanage because he didn’t have a family. There was a woman who worked at the orphanage: Her name was Ms. Perumal and she was the closest thing to a mom that Reynie had. Ms. Perumal was the only one who saw potential in Reynie, because she had taught him everything that he needed to know and more. Violet had a family, but they didn’t support her. Reynie didn’t have a family at all, but someone that he was close to taught him to believe that he was smart enough to do whatever he wanted to when he got older.

As you can see, characters in books can be alike yet different in many ways. They were alike in ways that also could also make them different from each other. Both of them weren’t sure about who they really were, but as their stories continued, they figured out that they were brave after all.

Sacrifices that People Make

Author's Note: I thought it would be interesting to do the same book as I did for the prediction essay.

A lot of parents don’t want any of their kid suffering from unhappiness. They want their children to have a great childhood without any huge problems. Everyone knows that people always face problems, but not everyone has to deal with things like Leukemia. Leukemia takes many lives of children. Having a disease like Leukemia as a child doesn’t give you a chance to stop and enjoy childhood. If you were the person responsible for a child with Leukemia, what would you do to help them?

The main theme in the book My Sister’s Keeper is sacrifice. Sacrificing one child for the safety of another. Imagine having a kid, and, at the age of two, she is diagnosed with leukemia. Would you have made the same decision as the parents in the book? It’s a huge sacrifice to have another kid to help cure the other, like the parents did. One kid is a huge deal. Children require a lot of care: They need to be sheltered, clothed, fed, and cared for by a loving parent. Put yourself in the place of the parents in the book. What would you do about it? Do anything for a cure, or do nothing and feel bad for yourself? 

Doing something about your child’s cancer is one thing. Coping with how long it would take is another. In My Sister’s Keeper, the parents have a kid that was genetically altered to be Kate’s exact donor match. Waiting for the next child to be born to have surgery on her right when she turns one month old was horrible for the parents. They were watching their little girl slowly die, waiting for the cure to come. Sacrificing the safety of this new child was something that the parents had to do. They had to transplant bone marrow from the new girl, Anna, to Kate. It was helping Kate with her illness to have transplants right away. However, the whole surgery took place when Anna was only one month old. They had to have surgery performed on a very small baby so their other child could live. That is what we would call a sacrifice.

Some people, like Anna, would think that this was wrong. Having a kid only to have her be a harvest crop for another girl. As the girls get older, Anna becomes more and more agitated with being in the hospital almost as much as Kate. Now put yourself in Anna’s position: Wanting to play hockey, wanting to have friends, wanting to live freely only to be put in a hospital as much as the girl with leukemia. What would you feel? Pride? Would you feel like a hero for helping your little sister live? Or would you only wish that you could live a normal life and have someone else be a donor?

Not being a donor to your dying sister is a hard choice to make. Either way, there would be someone hurting. The choices that Anna had to make were hard for a girl her age, because most younger teenagers don’t have to make decisions between life and death. 

Reynie and Violet Character Comparison

Author's Note: I am comparing Reynie from The Mysterious Benedict Society to Violet in Paperquake.

Reynie- 

• He does things for himself, because he has a special talent.
• He doesn't have much of a family.
• He doesn't have a role model.
• He makes friends while solving mysteries.

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Violet- 

• She depends on other people to do some things.
• She has a big family, and is one out of three triplets.
• She has someone that she tries to shape herself into.
• She already has friends at the beginning.

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Their similarities- 

• They weren't sure if they were brave or not towards the beginning of their stories.
• Towards the end, they both found out that they can be brave in times of need.
• They were both pulled into something that they didn't think would be so big.
• They both like to solve mysteries.
• They are both really good thinkers, which helps them solve mysteries.
• They don't have a past of solving mysteries.
• They are both picked on for different reasons.

What Do You Think Will Happen?

Author’s Note: This is my prediction piece. I am predicting what will happen at the end of the book “My Sister’s Keeper” by Jodi Picoult. This is not an essay, it is a few paragraphs about what I think will happen and why.

My Sister’s Keeper is a girl named Kate who finds out that she has leukemia at the age of two, and her sister who is her exact bone marrow match (which means  that Anna, Kate’s sister, will have to donate her bone marrow and blood many times in order to keep Kate alive). When I first heard about the book (from friends and family members), the only idea I had about it was that it was about two sisters. I’m not finished with the book, but I still have at least 50 pages left. My friend, who started reading the book at the same time as I did, finished it and said that it was a surprise ending. Of course, I didn’t want her to ruin the end for me, because I have heard that it was really good, so she didn’t give me any clue about what will happen at the very end. 

My prediction is that one of the sisters will die. I’m not sure which one yet because Kate, it says in the book, had tried to commit suicide because she didn’t want to be a burden to her family. Anna doesn’t want to put up with constantly donating her bone marrow and blood to her sister, because it never seems to work. Anna gets so fed up with it, that she sues her parents because she thinks that it is not right to use her as a harvest crop for her sister. I also think that Anna’s attorney has a service dog because he has a type of medical problem. This is evidence from the book, and I know it’s true because every chapter is from someone else’s point of view: Anna, her brother Jesse, their mom or dad, Anna’s attorney, and Anna’s guardian ad litem. Each of those people have a different way of describing what is going on.

The reason that I think my prediction is correct because if Anna doesn’t donate a kidney to Kate, Kate will die because her kidneys were failing her. But if Anna does donate a kidney, she might die during the transplant or of the effects after the surgery. I also think that Campbell (the attorney) has that service dog because of a medical issue because he keeps lying to everyone who asks, and each time, the story is different: and metal lung, to keep him away from drugs, deaf in one ear, and many other things. Some people, in other books/movies have service dogs to predict when the person is going to have a heart attack, stroke, or seizure. That is my evidence for those predictions.

Even though I haven’t finished the book yet, I am sure that my predictions for some of the characters are correct because there are clues in the book that most likely hint to the ending. When I finish the book, I will look back at my prediction piece, and see if my predictions were correct, or somewhat accurate. Based on the clues that are throughout the book, I am positive that one of the sisters is going to die.

Character Development Piece

Author’s Note: This is how a character in a book that I read, called Airborn, changes. How he thinks and acts towards other people, and how he manages to do it.

Matt Cruse was a boy who was born in the air; his mother had him while on an airship. Ever since he was born, he had felt like he belonged in the air, and he wanted to be in the air all the time. He got a job as a cabin boy on an airship that his father worked on called the Aurora, and after a few years of that, he wanted to move up to be an assistant sailmaker. The man who owned the ship’s son, named Bruce Lunardi, got the job instead, and Matt has to learn how to cope with the fact that that Bruce got the job that he wanted for so long. Matt also meets a girl on the airship (Kate de Vries), and she is very interested in how the ship works and what Matt does to help. One of the reasons Matt liked Kate was because she was in the upper-class family and Matt was a cabin boy, and she didn’t care that Matt wasn’t rich like her, and they overcome their differences in each other’s lives. The three go on crazy adventures, in and out of the air.

Matt’s story depends on how he reacts towards others in multiple situations, and Matt discovers how jealousy can get the best of you if you let it out of control. He thinks that Bruce is a rich, snobby brat, so he always acts mean towards him. What Matt didn’t realize was that you can’t change someone, no matter who they are, no matter how hard you try. So you just have to learn to like things about someone, and not try to change who they are. Matt couldn’t change the fact that Bruce was the ship’s owner’s son, so he had to cooperate with him towards the end of the book. Pirates, mean-spirited people who board airships and take people’s things take over the Aurora. Matt, Kate, and Bruce are the ones who know how to get the passengers on the ship safe, while keeping the pirates from taking anyone’s life. The three have to trust each other and do their part to clear the pirates off of the ship, in the air, and get the Aurora to their destination.

The Aurora crash-lands on an island due to damage on the ship from the pirates. The island, Matt and Kate discover, is more than an isolated island off of the charts. Kate’s grandfather had once attempted to go around the world in a hot air balloon, but died in the balloon due to weather and disease. Matt works in the crow’s nest, which is where a person looks out of the window for obstacles in the ship’s way. He sees the balloon where he was, but didn’t know that it was Kate’s grandfather, for the Aurora discovered it a year before he met Kate. This is another connection with Matt and Kate. The man died, but when the two, a year after the discovery of the man and his balloon, read his journal, they find out that he had seen mysterious creatures on the very island that they are on. Matt and Kate go on an adventure trying to find things that Kate’s grandfather had seen, only to be found by pirates living on the island. They had to make a quick escape from the island to get back home.

Only a few pirates enter the ship after it takes flight, and in the fight for their lives, Bruce performs a heroic act that saves the ship and every one of the passengers. One of the pirates, who was there while Bruce was steering the ship back onto it’s correct route, shot him. Bruce died while overcoming his fear of situations like the one he was in. The head of the pirate attack, Vikram Szpirglas, was attempting to kill Matt because he was steering the ship to safety, and Szpirglas would’ve been caught if they reached their destination. Matt was almost killed in the fight for his own life, but Szpirglas tripped and fell off of the ship and into the water hundreds of feet below. Matt realizes then that he has to act quickly during those times, and not stall because something bad might happen. That was another way that Matt developed during the book. Kate plays an important role in helping Matt and Bruce fight off the pirates. All three of them figure out that they all have to be brave and trusting when times like that come. When Matt discovered that Bruce had died, he felt horrible for hating him at all. He realized that Bruce couldn’t change who he was. He could only become friends with Matt by overcoming their differences and trusting him with his life. 

People can learn lessons like these in many ways, not just fighting off pirates and surviving on an island with mysterious creatures and secrets. Not only do Kate and Matt become friends, but they discover that there is more to life than being rich and having a great job. They realize that you can be friends with anyone as long as you cooperate and work together during tough times.

Cause and Effect Piece

This is my cause and effect piece. The reason I chose this topic is because I wanted to write something about me.


Sometimes my memory is linked to smells. A few years ago, my parents would always take my brother and I to an indian restaurant. I never liked the smell of curry, so when I went into any indian restaurant, I felt like I was going to throw up. The cause was the curry cooking in the kitchen.

At Thanksgiving, my mom made a soup that had curry in it. Once she started making it, I could smell it all over the house. After a few minutes, I felt like I was going to pass out because the smell seemed so strong to me. So the cause was the smell of the curry, and the effect was my reaction to it: A nauseous feeling. My memory has linked that smell to a negative thought. If curry didn’t smell differently to me, I wouldn’t have that feeling every time I smelled it.

Patriot's Pen Essay

Author’s Note: Most people don’t think about the people that founded their country. In this country, there were people from the past that created America. They started everything in America. If you could really meet these people, what would you tell them?

                How would you talk to someone that important? What would you talk about? I would talk to them with honor and pride because of their duty to America. I would tell them what a great honor it would be to talk to a person who helped shape our country in the very beginning. I would tell them that they would’ve gone through many hardships to start a country, but they didn’t overlook those problems. They took them on and thought, “I will make sure that our future generations have a great country to live in!” If you think about it, many people wouldn’t be able to do what our founding fathers did: Begin a fantastic country that we will be proud of now, and in the future.

                Early America had to have been hard because they didn’t have the technology that we have today. Communication is a huge thing; they couldn’t just email another person. Just imagine having no computers, no cell phones, no advanced technology. Now imagine founding a whole country without it! People rely on technology a lot, because it has helped us make great discoveries about the world around us and how to make it better. Our founding fathers did a lot more than just sign papers. They declared independence for our country; which was acting for themselves along with other people. I would want to let them know that they did many important things for America, and some people don’t realize it.

                Why would I tell America’s founding fathers that? Because some people don’t realize the importance of our founding fathers. If you really did think about it, this country would be completely different if they weren’t our founding fathers. Our independence might not have been won in the same way, or we wouldn’t have the Constitution that we have now, showing our rights and freedoms. 

                I, out of all of the people in America, have had the opportunity to actually think about what I would tell America’s founding fathers. I encourage others to consider what they would tell America’s founding fathers, and why, because if we really could have a conversation with them, what would you really tell them?

Six-Flags-O-Phobia

Author’s Note: Kids can either totally love roller coasters or absolutely despise them.  Theme parks can be the best place ever, or your worst nightmare. It all depends on your childhood.

I remember my first trip to Six Flags, also known as Great America mainly because of the water slide and the swings. Memories like this are memorable because of something significant that happened earlier in your childhood. If you have a good memory, you will be able to remember it. Some people TRY to block out those memories, only because they were too scary. Even though my memory of Six Flags was very terrifying, I will still remember it for a long time.

Going on the swings was the best thing that I did at Six Flags that day. It was rainy, so not many people were there, so there wasn’t a very long line for the swings. When I got on for the first time, it felt like I was flying. My parents had told me that I could go on the swings as many times as I wanted. I remember the small raindrops hitting my face as I swung around, passing a tree with rustling leaves. Every time I passed that tree, I reached out with my arm and tried to catch one of the leaves flapping as I swung by. Because I was so small and young, the whole ride felt colossal and high up in the air, so that is partially why I remember that trip.

The last time I went to Six Flags was last year, and I remember seeing the rides that I was terrified to go on when I was little. I did go on roller coasters, but only because I was the only one that would’ve stayed behind. As we were waiting in line, I remembered when I had gone there last time, so I was afraid because I didn’t go on one when I was little. Your experience at amusement parks can differ depending on what you did in your childhood.

When I went to Great America last year, Batman was the first roller coaster that I went on. because it was the only one that I had ridden that went upside down. People had told me that roller coasters were really fun, but I hadn’t known until then because of my fear of roller coasters as a kid. This was a good chance to actually try out a roller coaster. Once I got on, I literally started bawling. I remember all of the twists and turns and then finally the end of the ride. I wanted to go again, and I wished I had actually gone on one of those rides as a little girl. About 5 years after going to Six Flags for the first time, I told my mom, “I want to go to Great America again because I want to go on one of the huge roller coasters!” My mom told me that I could go with my dad because he loves those rides

I got over my fear of roller coasters. Everyone could if they went on a roller coaster, because I wanted to love them. I always had the fear that I would get stuck upside down, and I’m pretty sure that other people have that same exact phobia. I can assure that you will get over at least SOME of your fear of an amusement park ride. I also went on a water log ride, and that was scary experience, and I didn’t think I would ever have to go on another roller coaster. I did, and now I am completely over my fear of roller coasters. If you ever go to Six Flags, go on a ride even if you are terribly afraid of them, because if you get over your fear, it could actually be fun!

Cause and Effect in Delirium

Author's Note: This is about the cause and effect in a book I read called Delirium. I chose this book to do my cause and effect assignment because it had a clear example on the topic.

The cause in Delirium is how the people that run the society don't want people to feel the emotion of love. The people that live in that area have to follow the rules, or you will die because of the sickness or be cured immediately. This is the cause of the story because people will try to break the rules of the society that they live in.

The effect in the book is that two people fall in love and hide whenever they want to meet because they will be caught and cured. They don't want to be cured because when you're cured, you never feel the strong emotion of love or anything, for that matter. Not over excitement, not depression, not love. So they need to hide from the society and make sure they never find out.

Conflict/Resolution Milkweed

The main conflict in Milkweed is that the main character, Misha, has to survive living in the ghetto, but he also has to support his family and friends. He learns fast, even though he is just a kid. But for someone who doesn't know their own name, he learned quite a lot and used that in his early years. The problem is that he feels like he is stuck somewhere where he can't get out. Just another day, smuggling food and sleeping. It wasn't a normal child's life. This is a person vs. society conflict because he is trying to survive under the strict rules of the society.

The solution to the conflict was that Misha escaped, and he worked more and more to go somewhere where he was free. As he got older, he still had to deal with his past. He tried to find ways do cope with the memories, and the way he did that was that he spent time comforting his granddaughter. It wasn't a direct solution, but Misha still did figure out that he just had to let go of everything in his past and focus on what was going on in the present.

Family Vacation... Yay?

Author’s note: This is not true, except for the annoying brother and me wanting to be a photographer part of it. I will admit, the car rides that we take as a family are not the best things ever, except when there is really pretty scenery or everyone is asleep except the driver, which is either my mom or my dad.

A family vacation. How cheesy. That’s how I’m going to spend a whole two weeks of my summer. How fun (I say with sarcasm)! There is nothing better than sitting in the middle of a forest, living in a tent with only 5 outfits and a swimsuit, and NO WIFI! My parents allowed me to bring my phone and iPod, but there isn’t any wifi to connect to the internet. I do not think that I will survive. It’s practically impossible. I think I should just have no expectations for this trip, because with my family, anything could happen. Even if I did have wifi, there’s always my brother to annoy me. He has his own iPod, which might shut him up for a while, but he won’t last long. My dad is all about the hikes and taking pictures of everything, which I don’t argue about, even though I want to be a photographer when I grow up. But he likes to take pictures of me, which I don’t like at all. My mom just wants time to herself, which I like too, but it’s hard to get when you’re in my family. Camping is the word for this nonsense. I would much rather keep the outdoors limited to my backyard or the park 4 houses down. Especially in the summer. I don’t want to waste summer on camping! Sitting on the couch, watching tv, and eating chips is better. By far. Then there’s the car ride to struggle through. Sitting in a car with my dog, brother, mom, and dad is not fun. If it was just my SILENT parents in the front, SILENT brother next to me, and my dog as her normal self, I would be fine. So much for no expectations. Even so, I am just looking forward to huddle up in the tent with my iPod and dog. Away from the bugs, and the sun, the heat, my brother’s complaining, my dad’s camera, and basically, the outdoors. I like being by myself in nature, not being forced to take pictures everywhere I go. However, I have to go to this things anyways... I am officially bored. The fourth hour in the car. I don’t even know where we’re going. My iPod is almost dead, because I sucked up all the battery playing the same game for two hours straight. Then I finished my book. Then I attempted to sleep. That is practically impossible, except when my brother is asleep. When I tried to look out the window, I just started feeling dizzy and got a sick feeling. Just 3 more hours to go. I entertained myself the rest of that three hours by thinking. Thinking about what I was going to do during these two weeks. I might actually try to have fun. Just as I finished this thought, I saw the sign that welcomed us to the park.