Character Change

*spoilers.* This blog post is about some notes I took on my book, "Watership Down." I like it, but it's REALLY slow moving. There are lots of unnecessary descriptions, and lots of scenes with no conflict. The characters all have clear wants. I can state automatically that they want to live in a happy warren. But with no conflict, its hard to keep your attention. This might just be me, sense I'm more of a, "Hunger Games," kind of girl. It's hard for me to withstand books that are irritatingly descriptive. But I can handle, "Of Mice and Men."I actually loved that one. But in my opinion, this book tends to be EXTREMELY slow moving. But I do like the book. It's about a warren of bunnies that are happy until one bunny named Fiver senses a bad thing that's to happen. His sister trusts him and a couple friends go on an adventure to find a warren. First they find a warren, but there are lots of bunnies there. Life seems ok, how evert hey soon discover it's all a snare! So they set off to find a new one. They finally find one, and they also find Caption Holly of their old warren half dead. She explains that men with poisonous gas invaded their old warren, and that the gas made everyone crazy. They began killing each other, but Holly escaped. They want to make a new warren, but they didn't bring any doe's. So now they are off to find does.  

Chloe Ivey                                       Memoir

707                                                           ELA

            It was the third day of 3^rd grade, and the boys had once again said, “You can’t play kickball, you’re a girl.” I was sick and tired of the boys being so sexist. So right there, I walked away. It was a nice day. It felt like summer. A lady walked past the playground with a cup of coffee. Ah, I love the smell of coffee. I walked toward her because I had nothing better to do. I closed my eyes taking in the incredible smell, when I bumped into a tall girl. “Oh!” she said in surprise. “Hey, sorry!” I said. “That’s ok. I’m Mattie.” She replies. “Walk with me.” And so I did. “So, where is your gang?” I cocked my head at Mattie. “What?” I questioned. “You know, the gang of girls you hang out with at recess?” I looked at Mattie blankly. Then in realization I responded, “Oh they are the guys. I mean used to be the guys. They started getting all odd and told me I can’t play with them.” “Oh goodie!” Mattie cried in excitement. “What?” I said. “You’re my new project. I’m going to teach you how to be a girl!” she exclaimed. “Ok” I shrugged.

                                                           

       …

 

            I was walking to my desk. The room was empty, and Mattie was waiting to give me another lesson on how to be a girl. It was fun. So far I learned about webkinz, nail polish, hairstyles, babies, American Girl Dolls, and Disney Channel. Then I saw a girl observing me from a distance.

            She had skin as dark chocolate, with creamy brown eyes. She had locks as beautiful as a night sky. She had long slim legs, and had her head cocked watching me. She was like an eagle. Then she walked away. “What a pretty girl.” I said to myself, and then continued to gather my things.

                                                                …

            “Come on, Chloe.” Kelly said, using a nasally tone on my name, “I don’t want to be late for recess.” Once we got downstairs, we met up with Mattie. “Hey Kelly.” Now that Kelly was around, we stopped the lessons. Kelly was “the new girl.” I glared longingly at the boys, recalling the days before they decided a girl wasn’t a suitable playmate. Or that Kelly never showed up. “Ok, Chloe, lets play hide and seek.” This time when she said my name is sounded forced and disgusting. Like she despised each syllable. “You and Mattie hide and I will find you.” she blinked at Mattie. I shrugged. “Starting in 1, 2 now!” Mattie and me laughed and ran. I hid behind the chairs, and I waited. And waited. And waited, and waited. After what felt like forever I stood up and a gentle breeze helped me move my bangs out of the way. I saw them laughing and I felt a tear run down my rosy cheek. By the end of lunch my warm sweater sleeve was soaked with tears. I ran inside.

I was sitting across the room doing a stare off at Ms. Alex. “Ms. Ivey is there an issue!?! Dark blue veins were popping out of her neck. Sweat was dripping down my face onto my red sweater. It was so hot in there. Kelly was next to me; wearing a short pastel colored skirt I envied so much. But how was she not cold? “Ms. Alex I can assure you me and Chloe are good friends. We don’t fight at all. If anything, we are sisters!” Ms. Alex glared at me, then looked at Kelly. “Kelly you may leave now. Ms. Ivey, on the other hand, will spend the remaining lunch time with me.” Kelly got up and left. “Ivey, I don’t want to hear about your problems unless or bleeding. Now go eat at your desk alone and think about what you have done.

                                                            …

            I gathered my things. I was walking to lunch, wearing jeans and a green tank top. My old friend, David, stopped me. “Hey,” he said. “Hi,” I responded. “Sorry we excluded you last year. Can you forgive us?” “Sure” I simply said. “So I hear you entered girl world. What was it like?” “Miserable. There were all these rules, and stupid thinks you can and can’t do. Plus this dumb girl, Kelly, bullied me. She took my ex-best friend away from me. I’m glad to be one of the boys again.” David and I went back and forth talking all day. And now I don’t care what people think of me and I can identify bullying when I see it. I know who to stay away from now. And if anything, I'm thankful she bullied me. Because she molded me into who I am today. 

On Watership Down

I am currently reading, “ On Watership Down.” It’s an excellent book about rabbits. But the author had some struggle publishing it. I found this incredible. It is really interesting. I also love the character Fiver. He seems so incident, but he is exposed to so much dangers. I also always thought of rabbits of innocent creatures. But while reading this book I realized there are horrors in the rabbit world too.

            The book actually began as a simple car trip story with the author’s daughters. They said, “That’s too good of a story to go to waste.” And several times when reading a real story he would say, “I could write a better book then this!” and one day, he actually did. But he had difficulty getting it published. Every publisher he took it too said that his book was too babyish for adults because of the bunnies, and too mature for young children. Finally, he found a publisher and bam! His book is such a big hit now.

            I love Fiver foe multiple reasons. I like how he can see the future and help those that believe him. He avoided his friends from getting killed in their old warren. Men came in and put poison gas and made the rabbits go crazy. They began to kill each other because of the poison gas making them go crazy.  

            Some of the crazy things that happened in the book are the men that poisoned the rabbits. What’s worse is that because of the gas they became crazy and killed each other. And Fiver barely avoided the situation because of his ability to see the future.