Risky Test

Nobody still looks at these and reads these, right? So If I was just like... I'm gay, no one would say anything? Hmm..

Do you know?

Do you know what your words do to people?
Do you know how one little look
                            or remark can change someones day?
Do you know how to be the change?

It's simple:
Stand up,
Speak out,
Be the change.

Final Choice Book!! -Burn

For my 4th choice book I read Burn by Suzanne Phillips. The main character in this book is named Cameron. He is in high school and things aren't going too well. Cameron grew out his hair over the summer and then walked into sports sign up with his mom. The man talking to all the other boys tried to direct them to the other gym, where the girls were. And from that day on he was known as Cameron Diaz.


With all the teasing Cameron became very shy. I think he has good reason to be. Everyone started thinking that he was gay so he lost all of his friends. He didn't talk to anyone. The only person he would talk to was his younger brother, but your little brother can't be your best friend. The only people that would confront him were the ones that wanted to beat him up. Cameron planned his day out so he didn't have to see and talk to more people than he had to. He even planned when to go to the pop machine so he wouldn't have to talk to anyone or be seen by the bully and the bullies "monkeys".

Cameron is a runner. Running is the only thing that gets his mind off of life. He can run a half mile in two minuets and ten seconds. If he skips school he goes to the park and runs the path. When he runs he can take his mind off of everything. If his grades were better he would be on the track team.

I think Cameron also has dangerous side. For one, he likes to play with matches. He keeps matches with him everywhere he goes, even at school. He likes to watch the flame slowly eat at the match, his finger nail, and then his own skin. Cameron keeps a pocketknife in his dresser drawer and an ice pick, scalpel, and razor blade under his bed. When the bullies cross a line in the locker room, Cameron brings his knife and other things to school. He doesn't use them, but he had a plan to. He isn't as bad as another kid in his Social Studies class that stabs himself with paper clips.

Cameron is also defiant, sarcastic and he has a bad attitude sometimes. When he gets an attorney he doesn't want to answer the questions event thought the attorney is suppose to help him. When the police ask him if he had seen Pinon he said "I didn't look for him,". Cameron doesn't want his moms help with any of his homework so he shuts her out but finally gives in. He also locks him self in the bathroom because he doesn't want to talk to anyone.

Cameron isn't all bad. He can actually really smart and creative. He thinks in whys other people don't. In his social studies class he gets a boy to stop stabbing himself with paper clips when the teacher couldn't. He could do that because he understood the boy better than the teacher. He thought of the boy differently, more like himself. Cameron is really good in his Tech class and it is the one class he enjoys. The one class he isn't failing. He likes he partner and they work well together. He thinks of things that his partner doesn't. Cameron can be good but the odds are against him.

Cameron has his good days, and he has his bad days. Most of his days are bad. He realizes that he has done something wrong and all he is worried about is that he is going to die in jail. If you know why Cameron is shy and quiet you would feel bad for him. If you knew why his dad wasn't around you would understand him more. Cameron can be good. It is just a little harder for him.

Part 2-Recommendation For Burn by Suzanne Phillips

This is one of the best books I have read this year. It was very well written and was interesting to read. The author wrote this book in a way that made me want to keep reading. I would defiantly recommend this book, Burn by Suzanne Phillips. This book isn't for everyone, though. If you like stories that about kids our own age then this would be a good, not great, book to read. This book is about a boy in high school that is bullied and assaulted. He eventually hurts someone else. So if you like books where the main character is happy most of the time then you should not read this book. If you read Beautiful Malice By Rebecca James, and liked it, then I think this would be a good book to read. When I first started reading Burn by Suzanne Phillips I wasn't sure if I was going to finish it because it didn't seem like my kind of book. As I read more of it I started liking it more. So, if you start reading this book and you aren't liking it, keep reading because it gets better. There were also times when I wanted to throw the book at the wall because the characters were being so mean and stupid. At the same time I wanted to keep reading to see what was going to happen to the characters for being so mean and stupid. I think everyone should give this book a try. It teaches a great lesson and the author does a really good job of making you want to see what is going to happen to Cameron. I know I wanted to finish just so I knew if Cameron was really going to die in jail.

Choice Book Report 3 -Beautiful Malice

Part 1

For my third quarter book report I read Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James. The main character in this book is Katherine, not Kat, not Katie; Katherine. The story is told in the present and future. Katherine also tells us about her sister, Rachel, who was murdered.

In the beginning of the book Katherine is very quiet. After her sister died Katherine changed her name and now she doesn't talk to anyone. She used to be fun, carefree Katie Boydell. After her sister died she didn't want people to know that she was a Boydell sister so she changed her name to Katherine Patterson and went to live with her aunt. She became very focus on school. When Katherine started high school she kept to herself. Katherine says that she is living her life as a shadow. She never goes to parties. She doesn't talk to people and she would rather people not know she was there.

Katherine is very loving. In Beautiful Malice you also get to read about Katherine's life when she has a child. Katherine only want the best for her daughter, Sarah. She trys to set the best example possible for Sarah and try to pretend that nothing is wrong in her life. When they go on vacation, Katherine makes sure that Sarah has the most fun possible. When Katherine meets her old guy friend ,Sarah ask if he is going to be her daddy. By the end of the book Katherine calls him. Katherine is very loving and wants her daughter have the "perfect" life because she didn't. Katherine also feels that her sisters death was her fault. She loved her sister and she realizes that she made a mistake. All she wants to do is be able to go back and change the some of the things she did that night. She loves her sister so much that sometimes she wishes she was the one that had died that night.

Before Katherine's sister died she was very carefree. She was the party child and her sister was the scholar. The night Katherine's sister died they were at a party that they had snuck out to. Katherine left her phone, turned off, at her friends house. On the way to the party they shared a bottle of lemonade and alcohol. They meet boys at the party. Katherine didn't stay with her sister and she found her later with a group of guy in their car. She was holding a a beer bottle and was very drunk. Instead of getting help she accepted a ride from the strangers to get her sister home. Only one of the sisters made it home that night.


Part 2

Point of view:

Beautiful Malice is told from Katherine's point of view. It is important for the story to be told from her point of view because it is about her life and we need to know what she is thinking. If the book wasn't from Katherines point of veiw we would be missing a lot of information and Alice would seem nice.

When Katherine was telling us about how her sister was murdered it is important that it was told from her point of view because we find out what happened. We also get to learn how she felt and why she made the choice she did. (I don't want to give anything away...)

If Beautiful Malice was told from Alice's point of view , the book would be very different. We wouldn't know much about Rachel. We would only the story that Katherine told to Alice about the night Rachel was killed. We would probably also think that Alice was nice because we would only know her side of the story. Alice says and does a lot of mean things because she feels she is getting revenge. If the book was told from her point of view we would know why she wanted revenge but not what Katherine thought of Alice.

Choice Book Report 2

For my book report I read Pretty Face my Mary Hogan. Then main character in this book is Hayley.

The main character Hayley is sarcastic. When her mom buys her a new scale so she can stop lying about her weight her moms says tells her that if she gets any bigger there will be two of her. Hayley is angry and tells her mom that she has always wanted a sister. When Hayley's pants make her butt look big she wonders why they can put a lunar rover on Mars but can't make pants that don't make her butt look like Jupiter. Along with her sarcasm she swears, a lot.

Hayley isn't the most confident and she isn't part of the popular crowd. Because Hayley isn't confident (because of her weight) she doesn't talk to the guy of her dreams (Drew) and if she does she finds herself saying something stupid. Like, how's the weather. Hayley lives in always sunny California. Hayley is also worried that the guy she likes only thinks of her as the funny girl in his English class. When they go on a "date" to the boardwalk with Hayley's friend Jackie they get to be alone in the ocean. But what Drew says isn't what Hayley wants to hear. All he wants is for Hayley to set him up with Jackie. Hayley takes a huge blow to her self confidence and makes up her decision that she needs to get away from California. She gains a lot of confidence in Italy. She even sneeks a boy into her room.

Hayley may not be confident in California but when she goes to Italy she becomes very determined that she is going home a thinner girl. She makes herself get up early every morning and bike up the hill by the house she us staying at in Assisi. She avoids buying gelato no matter how much she wants some. She pushes herself to go farther everyday with the goal of seeing the beauty at the top.

Part 2 :Theme

~Accept Yourself For Who Are~

I think that one of the theme for Pretty Face is that you should accept yourself for who you are. Hayley learns that she can be beautiful just the way she is. When she goes to Italy she find an Italian boy that loves her just the way she is. When this guy likes her as the funny girl that isn't a size two she learns that she should love herself. So, by the time she goes home she is more accepting of the way she looks and doesn't mind that the guy she liked in Santa Monica is dating her best friends.

~A Little Can Go a Long Way~

Another theme is a little can go a long way. Hayley learns that a little determination can go a long way. The first day in Italy she makes a pact to herself that she is going to make it to the top of the hill by the time she has to leave Italy. She was very determined that she was going home a skinnier girl and that she was going to make it to the top of the hill. Everyday she gets higher and higher on the hill with her bike and ignores temptations like gelato. Hayley doesn't give up and before she knows it she can feel her clothes getting looser and her legs getting stronger. When she gets to the top of the hill she realizes how worth it it really was. The boy that she saw while biking up the hill works at the store on the top of hill. So that just proves that a little (determination) goes a long way.

~Let People Get to Know the Real You~

And the thirs theme that i found in Pretty Face was let people get to know the real you. In Santa Monica Hayley pretend to be someone she is not. She tries not to be the funny girl but sometimes she can't help it. Hayley realized, while in Italy, that she should just be herself. When she meets a guy that loves her for who she really is. He likes her as the funny girl and Hayley knows it. Hayley starts to change the way she looks at things and she really opens up to Enzo, the new Italian guy. When it is time to leave she wishes she could stay. They can only IM and Hayley think long distance relationships suck. But she is pretty happy with how her summer turned out even if she is still the girl with the pretty face.

"It's me-the girl with the pretty face."

"My body is curvy, not fat"

"Bella faccia"

Can you find Mona Lisa?

Memoir 2; Houseboat

For our June vacation we rented a houseboat from a place in Babitt, MN. The part of the vacation I want to write about it the night before we brought the houseboat back.

My dad was driving the 30' boat closer to where it had to be returned the next day so we wouldn't be in the middle of the lake the next morning. We were all ready to go home so we wanted to be as close as possible. We were having a hard time finding a spot to dock that someone hadn't already claimed for the night. We finally found a spot that was beautiful and had a metal fire ring for s'mores later.

We didn't get the fire going as big as we wanted it because it started to rain. We rushed the chairs back on the boat and then it really started to pour. The rain quickly put out the small flickering flames we had made and soaked the fire wood that we didn't have time to save. There goes our perfect last night on the house boat.

The wind picked up and we just kept thinking what happenes if a tornado touches down? Luckily it didn't. The boat started to rock and there were rocks right under us so everytime we leaned to one side there was a loud THUD!. So we turned on the radio and listened to the weather with the little signal we could get. We played card games to the rythmic CLUNK-THUD of the boat. We watched movies on my moms laptop with the volume turned up to drowned out the CER-PLUNK of the rain drops on the roof. We eventully gave up on waiting for the rain to end and went to bed.

The next morning there were only few signs of the thunder storm. We were all ready for home-sweet-home!