Book Report on UpFront Magazine

After reading the article, "Hide the Nachos,"I found it interesting that a lot of people gain weight due to football. It is the least likely thing to gain weight from, you may think. But when you are going to watch the big game with a couple of friends, I bet the first thing you do is order KFC or Pizza Hut and go snacking while your booing, or cheering your team on. This article made me think about weight gain and ways to prevent it. According to the article, a researcher stated, "When people feel their identity is threatened, they compensate by eating indulgent food." He says. "No one ate broccoli after a defeat." I plan to do more research on this topic of habits of eating. Simple things, from movie snacking to skipping out on a meal and overeating after. My mom is a health coach, so I am slightly educated.

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. 

Upfront Chloe ELA

Upfront

          

  I recently read an article called, “Crossing the Racial Divide.” It was a wonderful article about a white couple that lived in the country with a nice house. They decided to move into a poor town with black people for a month. In the shack where they lived they stayed, they had no electricity or running water. They even brought other family members. They brought the very minimum. Such as a couple of mattresses.

            I found this very inspiring for many reasons. For starters, I found it incredible that this happy couple took time out of their normal lives just to see how these blacks lived. It was very brave. Lots of people agree with me, while others didn’t greet the idea as warmly as I did. Some people posted hatred on twitter.

            What I didn't understand about the article is why people were not so supportive of the idea that this white couple were doing this. They weren't being mean their black neighbors. But now I realize that maybe they just aren't ready for change like I am. They think of it as something that isn't supposed to happen. 

                                                                                                                                                                   The couple thought of this as a changing experience. Witch makes me think about doing it someday. It will open up ideas for me. But it takes a level of confidence and braveness to conquer the quest of “Crossing the Racial Divide.”  

Chloe Of mice and men

*spoiler* I just finished reading an excellent book known as, "Of Mice and Men." It was an amazing book. It had me so interested. It was only 109 pages but the context was so thick and it was so beautifully written it felt like 1000. It was a dark book but I was hooked. I often find older books less interesting but this book is a #1 read.

To begin, one of the reasons this book so amazing is the imagery world the author puts into the readers head. I looked out of my window and I pictured the ranch with the men.  I imagined poor Lenny in the barn, horses worked up and feet stomping, lying next to a fragile puppy, dead. I could see the men in the bunkhouse crystal clear. I, for one love imagery. It makes me search for ideas and helps me set the mood.

The second reason I was mesmerized by this book is the twist of events at the end. I never expected George to kill Lenny! I gasped out loud. I thought about how deep this is. Now that George killed Lenny with his own two hands he will never be the same. I mean, they were like brothers! But he had to do it.  If he didn't do it the rest of the boys that lived there would.

What truly enchanted me was how Candy actually went through the same thing. His dog was killed and there was nothing he could do about it. It was a sad ending, but without this ending it wouldn't leave me thinking.

In my book, "The Outsiders,"a church was burning with little children in it.  The two main characters, Ponyboy and Johnny started the fire on accident with their cigarate so they felt like it was their fault.  they saved all the children but in the event they got burnt up pretty badly. Ponyboy managed to survive but Johnny wasnt so lucky. He died leaving the rest of the characters depressed. I cant even picture how much pain Ponyboy must be going through due to the loss of his dear friend. Not only did Johnny's death hurt him but it hurt all of the characters. It was such a strong book that it make me smile, frown, and get so upset about what happened. The thing is, in this book you feel like you become a greaser and are invited into their society and feel their difficult way of life. I was soon a greaser too so I could to relate to them and understand everything. I absolutely loved it. Once i finished the book I wanted to cry! I loved to book too much!
My personal opinion about what the author was trying to tell me (the reader) is that love is the most powerful thing in the world. Which is the last thing that someone would expect from a book about though hoods and gangsters that jump each other. But all the hard things these characters went though brought them together, and made them love each other. (They never said it because they are gangsters)