Entry two

In my book, the main character is Virginia Shreves. Her number one goal is to lose weight.  She struggles as she has nobody to open up to without getting judged and eating is just a way of distraction.  I think that she would just enjoy a break in her life especially from friends and family. Besides Virginia there are no other main characters.  Her family's desire is for her to lose weight,  her best friend's is to come home to New York, and her boyfriend's desire is to get up her shirt. As I get further into the story the characters' complexity will grow and desires will be answered. As I am not at the end of the story it is harder to find the main theme of the story. So far  themes could be "Happiness should be the main priority" or "If you aren't happy, you have the choice to change until you are". I made these thematic statements because the main conflict is of Virginia not enjoying her life. The structure of this book is made so that it's easy to predict what is going to happen next in the book. I believe because of this structure the theme will continue throughout the book and she will achieve happiness.

Entry one

The book The Earth,  My butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler is a fun, entertaining, and girl loving book. Virginia Shreves is a teenage girl that you could call unlucky.  Her best friend Shannon moved to Walla Walla Washington and absolutely hates the snobby, popular girls at her private school in New York. As so far she hangs out and grades papers for her English teacher instead of sitting at the disgusting lunch tables alone. Her so called "boyfriend" Froggy Welsh ignores her at school but finds a way to get up her shirt at home.  Virginia also lives as an outcast in her thin, beautiful, and blonde family.  Her mom, a fitness freak that would love to help her daughter out but never has the time, her dad that likes to look at thin women,  and Anais and Byron, the older well known siblings. If I would predict as any other book, I think things will get better for her.Questions I have for my future reading are,"Is anything going to happen in which her life gets better? "
"What will happen in her relationship with her boyfriend or friend?"
"Will she ever make friends at school? "

Final Blogging Assesment

1.  Some words I use in my blog are "sort of", "tad bit", "hip", and "dumb". Some phrases I use are " Like seriously?" and "I know the author is trying to be hip and wanting to connect to a younger audience but this is just dumb. I used these informal words and phrases show that I as the author I am laid back or casual, using these words to connect to the audience to help them understand my point of view better.

2. A diction choice I used was low and informal diction throughout my blog. "I am sort of close to finishing the book but I honestly don't want to because it's awful"(Rousseau). This sentence using the words sort of and awful show my non formal approach. A syntax technique I used was sentence and punctuation choice. "Like seriously?"(Rousseau). Using a short sentence draws the reader to it and gets them straight to the point on what I am trying to say. Using a question mark for a rhetorical question makes the reader see how frustrated I was at that point of the text.

Character

My character's name is Anna, a teenager that is sent to a mental hospital because her parents believe that she has issues. Of course she doesn't believe it, i'm sure all patients are indenial. In the beginning she is extremely shy and is more observant towards other characters. The beginning doesn't have much dialogue because it's mostly her thinking. As she gets involved in group discussions and is befriended by other patients her age, she become more confident. She is more comfortable with her body mentally and physically (physically because her parents believed that she was overweight). By the end I believe she has gained a little too much confidence. She finally goes home and stands up for herself by yelling and throwing an alarm clock at her parents. Because of this my opinion went negative towards her.  

Analyzing Conflicts

In my book there seem to be small problems inside of the mental hospital rather than her focusing on how she can get out of the hospital. In the beginning the conflict consisted of her getting out of the mental hospital in which she was in for 21 days. She slowly forgot about this conflict as she got to be involved in group projects. Towards the middle and the end her conflict was trying to get this boy to like her which was cute and nice at first but grew dry and all she could talk about. It almost made me sick. Both conflicts are resolved by the end of the book. These conflicts were both internal because these conflicts had to do within her; her problems that got her into the hospital and love. I hoped to have more conflict throughout the book but I didnt get it. With more and interesting conflicts I think that would have definitely benefitted the plot of the book.

Review

I am sort of close to finishing the book but I honestly don't want to because it's awful. I was waiting for something exciting to happen the whole time but it's basically just her talking about her countless encounters with this boy (which is creepy because they are both in a mental hospital). Her thoughts are kind of idiotic really. " On the elevator down to school, Justin finally stood next to me. We both stood really still, staring straight ahead. Nothing happened for the first few seconds (Minutes? Hours? It seemed like forever), but soon I felt a little tickle in the back of my right hand. At first I was going to jerk it up and scratch it, but as it became less tickly and more warm and smooth I realized it was Justin's hand." (Halpern 80). Like seriously? I mean I wouldn't blame her; being in a mental hospital you wouldn't have anything better to do I guess. I also think it's a tad bit inappropriate. The main character swears too much at times that can be said perfectly without dropping the F bomb every 2 seconds. She also talks about other girls and judges them which isn't a good message. I know the author is trying to be "hip" and wanting to connect to a younger audience but this is just dumb. Maybe this is for an even more relaxed teenager because this book is not for me.

Why I chose this book

At first, I hadn't even known anything about this book, truthfully it was a completely random pick. But as a did some research about this book, I started to get more interested. I love books that aren't formal, I like how it's from the character's perspective to really get into the story. I feel as though young adult books are successful at it because the author is trying to capture the typical teenage life. The cover only had a frowning face that said Get Well Soon. The title made me think that maybe somebody was sick and it would include a lot of drama. The description said that it was about a teenage girl that was sent to a mental hospital. I hadn't really known about mental hospitals but they've always intrigued me. What makes a person think and act differently that they are sent to a facility to rot as people think they are getting better? I think it's even more interesting that it's a teenage girl as oppose to a grown adult as many people believe that its the common age.

The Best/ Worst things about my book

In my book, the main character, Anna, gets "promoted" to getting privileges as the mental hospital treats its patients with levels from how they act to make them a better person. My main character speaks to a therapists and gets to be around other patients and things such as going to school at the hospital, eating lunch in the cafeteria, and going to group meetings. At group meetings she meets many new people but mostly boys. They all are supposed to say positive things in order to get points to move up levels and hopefully get enough to have a better chance of leaving the hospital. Anna falls in love with a tall and shy boy named Justin. She is starting to like the hospital than she did before, with her only motivation being him. What I really enjoy about this book is that it isn't formal. This is her perspective and makes it casual so the reader can really connect to the main character. What I don't like is that there isn't really a plot to the story. She just describes her stay at the hospital to her friend.

About the Author

My book, Get Well Soon was written by Julie Halpern. She is an american author that writes popular young adult books. Her books are about the challenges that teens face who are outsiders. Some of her books include, Get Well Soon, a teenage girl in a mental institution that suffers from panic attacks, Into the Wild Nerd Yonder which is about a girl who challenges "fitting" into high school when she meets a group of friends who plays Dungeons and Dragons, and many more. Get Well Soon got Best Adult Book of 2007 by Kirkus Reviews.She is married to author and illustrator Matthew Cordell. Together the both created the children's picture book, Toby and the Snowflakes. Young adults would definitely love her work.

Predictions for My book

My book Get Well Soon by Julie Halpern is about a girl who is currently living in a mental hospital. I currently dont know her name because its from her point of view. So far, she is writing to her friends, Tracy and Teresa about her experience so far. She is frustrated because she is at a level 2 of self harm, which means she could commit suicide. Because of this, doctors are unable to give her any objects, as she might hurt herself but she believes she is fine. A question I have is , why was she sent to this mental institution?  Some predictions I have for the future is that she will have the trust to be given objects. Maybe she will meet someone there to help her with her problems.

Fahrenheit 451

In Fahrenheit 451, the main character Guy Montag is a fireman that burns books for a living. When he meets Clarisse McClellan, who tells him about the past which was completely different. He then  started to think more about his life and society. When he is faced with a problem about reading a book he offers his wife, Mildred to start at the beginning. A prediction I have is that he will rebel and find out about society. Mildred can either turn him in or "rebel" with him even though their relationship is not perfect. Captain Beatty will not be happy and could possibly burn him with the books. Maybe he will become a leader?

Reflection

My character blog post best exemplifies my ability to analyze complex characters.  The characters can set the tone for the entire story, resulting in a successful story and theme. Having the character be complex helps the reader figure out who the character truly is and helps create a story by having the character develop throughout it. Theme is the underlying meaning to the story that is almost universal, which can help with real life situations. Each can be helpful or almost meaningless but there is always one. To analyze a theme I find patterns throughout the story between characters and what’s happening in the story.  Having characters develop and change throughout the story makes it easier and helpful to the theme, creating an interesting story.  Depending on how complex  the story and characters are developed, the theme can be found closer to the middle or the end of the story.  

               

 

      The goals I have for the next trimester is finding a more complex book with harder ways to figure out the character development and theme. I need more complex vocabulary and overall general ways of improving to a higher level of comprehension.  I also have to work on time management and remembering to do blog post and to readJ.  I would like to work on a better understanding to for analysis. In writing I would like to improve my ways to structure a paragraph and increase my vocabulary usage.

               

 

After being rescued by Kate's dad, I predict that they will continue to look for the rare plant and find it ,foiling Mr. Curtain's plans. Do you think this will happen? Will another ten men capture them for good? Do you think Dr. Curtain wants to cure his narcolepsy or think of a plan of putting a city of people to sleep to do something bad?

In the Netherlands they are lead to a castle where they research to find the rare plant that Mr. Curtain wants is a duskwort, a plant that might be extinct because its so rare. This plant can put a large amount of people to sleep and cure narcolepsy which Mr. Benedict and Mr. Curtain both have. After the library they go to a hotel for the night but were found by Mr. Curtain's workers called ten men because they have ten different ways of punishing you. All four attacked him but were defeated. When they thought that it was all over, Milligan, Kate's father saved them.

I'm not at the end to find the exact theme of the book but an overall can be " Having a friend can help overcome challenges" I used this because they're children that are traveling to different places alone to find the head of the agency. Because they are traveling off of the clues Mr. Benedict gave them many clues that  could go wrong which is very dangerous. They all work together to figure out the clues and help each other stay safe.

Likes and Dislikes
What I like about this book are the clues that they find and how they figure it out using each talent they have. An example was a clue that had several pages with sequences of words. "It's some type of word puzzle, I take it." said Sticky
"There are three words that keep being repeated.... They're always in the corner of a wide page never in a corner of a narrow. Doesn't it seem significant?" Said Constance.
This was how Constance used her talent of finding patterns to figure out these sequences leading to the ship they take.
    I dislike that the time interval between after a riddle is solved and before a new one is found is dragged out  which makes it boring.

Characters
Deep into the story, I noticed that each character is starting to change which i know they will continue to change. Reynie is a better leader, he answered most of the small riddles leading to each clue, and keeps his friends focused. Before they left for the ship, they were accompanied by Constance, Mr. Benedict's adopted  3 year old daughter that detects patterns and use it to predict the future. She also helps with her bravery and stubbornness. Sticky and Kate don't exactly change but Sticky remembers everything word by word and is starting to become less nervous and more comfortable with himself and friends. Kate uses her unique strength, speed, agility, and endurance to help the group. They sort of remind me of the Fantastic Four because they each have their own talents and help save the day.

The four kids find that Mr. Benedict planned a treasure hunt but he is not there because he was captured by his evil twin, Mr. Curtain in which he threatens all of them if they don't find a rare plant that he needs.They figure out a clue leading them to sneak out to a ship called the MV SHORTCUT which the fastest ship in the world. This takes them to a castle in Belguim finding the next clue in a barrel. The riddle unscrambled to going to a train station leading them to a library in Thernbaakagen.

Now in my story, Reynie, Sticky, and Kate have made it to Stone town to meet Mr. Benedict to get their new "mission" but was just missed by an important telegram urgently saying that its too dangerous to go. I predict that maybe the person who sent the telegram is the bad guy or he/she could be warning them for actual trouble ahead.

Getting deeper into the book and loving it, I would definitely recommend it if you like figuring out certain "clues " or a mystery of the story. If you liked this book, I would recommend the other benedict societies, The Mysterious Benedict Society, The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Prisoner's Dilemma. Even though I have not read them, I definitely will after this book!