Book talk "Perks of Being a Wallflower"

This is a book about a high school boy named Charlie. Charlie is emotionally different then most of the other kids. He really feels things, and this causes him to get into fights, and spend a lot of time feeling depressed. He reads to take his mind off things. One of Charlie's only friend kills himself at the start of the story, and Charlie doesn't know what to do or who to start spending time with. He meets these new friends though that are seniors and they start letting him tag along and hangout with them. They go to parties together and Charlie starts to have a ton of fun. He meets a girl friend, but he isn't in love with her because he loves one of his best friends. Her boy friend cheats on her and then at the end you'll have to see if Charlie gets this girl or not.
There's a ton of wisdom in this book that you learn from Charlie's dad, and Charlie's teacher. Charlie's teacher believes that Charlie is really gifted and he lets Charlie smoke in his office, and have dinner with him and his wife one night.

Book Talk "Watermelon Sugar"

This is very beautifully written. It has very short one page chapters that read like free verse poetry. The author paints pictures of an alternate universe where most structures are made from watermelon sugar. Tigers used to rule over people, but then the people broke free. The author of the story doesn't have name that we can understand and he lives longer than other people. It is the first book that has been written in years in the place where he's from. ideath.
It is a story about his writing of the story. During the process he falls in love with a new girl, immediately after a breakup with his old girl friend. It is biographical of what he is going through, and what the town is going through.

Book Talk "Stiches"

This is a dark a twisted novel. The protagonist is born with some nasal sickness, and his father is a radiographer. The father thinks x-rays will fix the nasal problem. This was a common belief when x-rays were first being used. "Just x-ray the problem that'll fix it". Anyways, the protagonist then gets cancer in the neck from the x-rays. During the operation something goes wrong and he loses his ability to speak. This graphic novel is about someone who overcomes.
He has to deal with growing up in a troubled family. His parents get divorced, and he spends a lot of time on the streets meeting homeless people and living with them. In the end, he becomes an art teacher, and draws this sweeet graphic novel.
The pictures he uses are really symbolic and awesome. The plot is awesome too, so that makes this a pretty awesome graphic novel.

Reading Profile.

Assessment.

This semester I started six different books. I finished 4 of them, and will continue on the Jimi Hendrix biography. I wish I had more time to read YAL but I was reading other things for other classes at the same time, as well as doing pleasure reading. I probably read more than a lot of the people in the class.
I really have trouble doing things I don't want to do, so I wasn't posting on D2L often at all.

The group work was very strange for our group. Megan G played tennis so she had very little time. Tamika dropped the class. Megan K did most of the work because of this. I helped her come up with the concepts of the things we were doing during class time. I was so impartial, and it seemed like they had everything covered. I didn't know everyone was going to make elaborate powerpoints. Is what my group did wrong? Just printouts and stuff. I still made a blog and did that.

I really enjoyed being able to go back and read the books that I never got to read of YAL  that I wanted to when I was in high school. It was fun and I learned how full of wisdom YAL is. I wish I would have gotten a better grasp of different cultures of YAL. I stuck to mainly suburban stories. Buried was about a girl who lived in a trailer but it wasn't the city based living that the students in MPS will be able to best relate to. Luckily I'm not planning on being a teacher anymore. And if I do decide to change back to becomming a teacher I wont be in Milwaukee.
I'm going to use the list our class made for the next years while I search for more YAL titles. 

Pauline

I do not miss Margaret.
I am happy she doesn't come over and step on the board she always steps on.
I am happy I don't have to hear that anymore.
Tonight I went to Pauline's for dinner.
Everything was perfect.
We made love afterwords.
She gave me a large portion of stew.
I hope we spend time together again.

Watermelon Sugar

my name
"I guess you are curious as to who I am, but I am one of those who do not have a regular name. My name depends on you. Just call me whatever is in your mind.
If you are thinking about something that happened a long time ago: Somebody asked you a question and you did not know the answer.
That is my name.
Or you walked somewhere and there were flowers all around.
That is my name.

The Ducks

Have you ever wondered about where the ducks go when it gets cold. Lately, I've been wondering.
Maybe because things in my life are closing in. I've been in and out of three schools now. I know I'm not going back to Pency. My parents are going to be so mad at me. I don't know what I'm going to do. It's like im a duck when the snows closing in.


 Well last night I met a cab driver, and I asked him about the ducks and he didn't know about the ducks, but he told me about fish. These fish in the pond, they don't leave. They open their pores and the absorb particles from the ice. They freeze right in, and mother nature takes care of them. If mother nature takes care of those fish, I think she'll take care of me too.

I ran today.

I wasn't planning on leave until next Monday but I got in a fight with Stradlater. First I'll tell you what happened with that.
I wrote this stupid composition for Stradlater while he went out on a date with old Jane. I'll tell you, he came back and got all fresh with me. So I hit him. and he went off. He wrestled me down and wouldn't stop choking me. I was just mad that he talked about my brother. So I left tonight.
I don't even know where I'm going to go. I just guess I'm going to go back home and waste time around town until Monday when I told my parents I was coming back. I'll probably pay a visit to Jane.

Holden

Holden Caulfield. He is the main character of Catcher in the Rye.

I saw my sister get hit.

I was passing my sisters room because I heard yelling then I opened the door and looked in and saw my sister's boyfriend smack her in the face. I was so mad. I just wanted to kill him. Then my sister saw me and started yelling at me to leave. I don't know what to do, or who to talk to.

My sister talked to me today and told me not to tell mom or dad. She made me promise. I regret not hurting him when he hit her, and I think I will forever.

What Patrick Taught me about Girls

So today Patrick taught me a thing or two about women
There are rules that everyone has to follow, even though they don't want to when it comes to girls.
Girls copy everything from the media about how to act around guys.
It's not like they only like assholes, they just want somebody that is going to give them a purpose.
They need someone to align themselves towards. Something they can challenge themselves with.
Girls think that they can change guys, but if they do, they just get bored because the challenge is gone.
I think this means I need to be my own fire. I need to be my own person, and never change. The girls will come to me.

I got in a Fight today.

A kid named Sean was saying he was going to give me a swirlie. So i told him he seemed very unhappy. Then he got angry and hit me in the face. My brother taught me how to fight so I beat Sean's face. Strangely I felt very sad afterwords. I don't know why he wanted to hurt me so bad. I'm really glad I didn't get suspended because it was self-defense. I couldn't stop crying. And everyone knows I'm the kid who cried after I beat up Sean.

Charlie

Charlie is the main character of Perks.