The Genius Files Q4 Blog Post #8 - Summary & Character Analysis

The book I chose is titled "The Genius Files". Its regarding a boy and girl named Coke, and Pepsi McDonald. Yes, these are their actual names. They go on an adventure to help Coke jump off a cliff so  he cross it off his bucket list. But obviously, it's not that simple. Coke, and Pepsi get tangled in a mess of missions they must complete. While still trying to live a normal pre-teen life and hide it from there parents. You see the McDonalds twins are actually kid undercover agents trying to stop the bad guys from taking over the city, and their actually pretty good; most of the time. Honestly, I feel that this book is going to be a exciting read, and I can't wait to share more with you guys.

In my opinion I feel that the character Pepsi McDonald is kind of a bratty, sister that is very intelligent. She can always get out of a sticky situation. Like when she broke her dads treadmill and but put Cheeto dust around the handels to make it seem like Coke was eating Cheetos on the treadmill. Or that one time when she changed the files to make coke go first in the school talent show. Even though that sound extremely funny she still can be a brat around Coke. This is why I feel these traits go with the character Pepsi McDonald.

Kid vs.Squid Q4 Blog Post #7 - Summary and Thoughts

This book I'm reading is about a boy named Thatcher Hill. He is sick and tired of seeing fake mythical creatures and wanted to see a real live one. You see, Thatcher works at his uncles museum with a lot mythical creatures around him. He gets pretty border around the museum he notices a lot of things, and I mean a lot of things. He now finds people stealing some of the artifacts, so all of sudden Thatcher is on an adventure to find the criminal who stole the artifact. Can Thatcher find the criminal who stole the artifact?

I really feel that this book is going to be an interesting read. I say this because not only is the title of the book very "eye-catching" but the note that Thatcher's Uncle left was really sillily. But I am worried that the story it self well get boring and well be repetitive to most stories I've already read. But luckily from what I've read so far I haven't noticed this yet. These are just a few thoughts of what I will eventually will have of my book "Kid vs. Squid".    

Ungifted Q4 Blog Post #6 - Summary & Connections

I've just finished my book "Ungifted" and I just have to say that this book is my favorite, and that's saying a lot from the books I've read. Donovan ended up getting a close finish, and was nervous because he wanted to be the one to drive Tin Man; but he believed that his friend could do it, and win for the gifted. Once the competition had ended, Donovan had given a very distinctive quote that kind of stuck with me and made me wonder. He said that, "It was that one part the ancestory.com couldn't explain. I was working to controlling it, but sooner or later it would show up again and get me into twice as much trouble. You don't have to be gifted to know that." The reason this quote stuck with me is because I didn't understand what he meant by "controlling it." So it took me awhile to really think about what the author had wrote, until it hit me. Donovan must was talking about controlling his habit to misbehave in school; and I thought this way because of only reason he was at that school. It was because he "ungifted" (hint the title). But this what I believe to be the explanation of the author quote.

In my story of Ungifted, a character named Noah reminds me about the book that our class had once read called holes. It was one of the main characters friends named Zero; Zero was calm quiet and would always get in trouble just like Noah.  However although similar, they are also are some differences. Noah was smart and kind, Zero was liar and thief.  But even a liar and a thief can be intelligent. Making bad choices does'nt limit ones ability to be intelligent.  Though  Noah and the character Zero from holes have some different traits, they share some similar characteristics. 

This was a book that I would  definetly reccomend to my peers and friends. It kept my interest from the beginning to the end. This is a book that just about any kid could relate to. A trouble teen who thinks he's slick however someone sees through this kid and realizes that he's not as bad as people or even he thinks he is.

Ungifted Q4 Blog Post #5 - Summary and Character Analysis

Right now in my book "Ungifted" Donovan is currently facing the challenge of moving to a new school. The teachers are rough, the students there hardly know he exist, until he finds the robotics team. Donovan found the robotics team to be interesting due to the posters down the hall. Donovan builds his own robot and names it "Tin Man", and finally when he's done he's amazed at what he created.  The author even claimed, "I was pretty good at video games, but never had I felt more comfortable with a joystick in my hand than when I was driving with Tin Man." From this quote that shows to me that not only is Donovan astonished by what he has created, but that he is actually enjoying his new school.

To me I feel that Donovan is a unique character; he is brave, and very intelligent, yet he still acts incompetent and acts up in school.  I'm not completely sure why he does this, but I believe that he does it to get attention. You see Donovan isn't so good with making friends, so I'm guessing he wants attention so someone can notice him. For example when he pulled a prank that landed him in this school, I felt he did that to seek some attention from the people at school so he could possibly make some new friends. But the main reason I feel that Donovan is brave, and very intelligent is because of his ability to make new things from scratch, and have the courage to actually show his invention off. So to me this is why believe that Donovan is a very unique character to the story of "Ungifted".  

Ungifted Q4 Blogpost #4 - Summary & Theme

    Ungifted by Gordan Korman: Fiction August 21, 2012

 In my book "Ungifted", Donovan Curtis who is the main character is in the 7th grade going through the many stages of middle school. However unlike most kids his age who are terrified of getting in trouble, Donovan is known to be a "class clown," as well as a huge prankster, and so are friends. They pull pranks across the school, mostly on teachers but Donovan manly takes the blame. His parents believe that one day he will get expelled from school and have to send him to a school were troublemakers like Donovan have to move to. But instead the school makes a very bizarre decision and decides to put Donovan in the gifted program, were goodie...goodie goods unlike Donovan have to move to. Donovan immediately declines the offer and is not up for the challenge. But his parents might say other wise in the next chapter.  

  With the just the few chapters that I've read I can already tell that the theme of my book would be about discipline. Also how sometimes when your doing something really bad you could be missing out on a lot if you were acting better. I say this because Donovan isn't really such a good student when it comes to school, but if he got the chance to see what he was missing, he might start to act better not just at school but he might start acting better when he is at home with his parents and personal life. I feel this way because if Donovan wasn't given opportunity he might end up turning to the wrong crowds. Donovan could be headed down a dark path like many other students who don't get the help they need.  

Native American Analysis Blog Post

Native Americans have been marginalized for many years now, and have even been made like they don't exist. I know this because the article claims that, "By 1879 settlers and the U.S. Army had forced most tribes off their hands, and "white man" diseases had devastated the native population. America's 250,000 remaining Native Americans were living on reservations, barely surviving on food and cast-off clothes provided by the U.S. government." This proves how Native Americans have been marginalized for many years and have also been made like they don't even exist in the world.

I believe the purpose of Shanice Britton's essay is to explain to reader how Native Americans and their culture are very similar to the average American. The author also explains how when she tells to someone that she is Native American they have a lot of assumptions of what a stereotypical Native American might do. For example, she says, "that I live in a teepee and wear moccasins and a headdress. But those are misconceptions." This is what manily I believe that author means when she says that her culture is no different then American ones.

A Life of Harry S. Truman Q4 Blog Post #3 - Summary and Character Analysis

I've just completed my book "A Life of Harry S. Truman", and the I have to say that the author did a astonishing job towards the end of the book. At the end of the book the author mentions the time Truman left office, and talks about his biggest accomplishments throughout history.  I thought this was a very nice touch to the end of novel and was very heartwarming.  I noticed this because the author wrote the quote, "Only Truman ended wars and oversaw the peace in the world, with the United Nations to maintain the peace in the future." This proved to me how Truman really did make a difference in the world, and how his achievements really did alter history.

To me,  Harry S. Truman was a really positive and motivational person; he would always stand up for others, and always had the never give up of attitude. I believe this because the Biography stated that at first Truman couldn't afford to buy back his mother's farm, but he still wanted to help out as much as he possibly could so he could never forget to buy it back later. Eventually Truman bought back the Truman farm for Eight-thousand dollars and gave the property to his mother. This piece of evidence proves how Truman wasn't just a positive and motivational person, this again proved how Truman practice and maintain his never give up attitude.

I enjoyed reading this book and would recommend it to my peers. I was also inspired by "A Life of Harry S. Truman." He held many characteristics; strength, determination, generous, up-standing and powerful individual. I appreciate his courage the most and it taught me that it doesn't matter what odds are against you, as long as you have a goal and passion for something you can accomplish anything even if that means you don't succeed the first couple of times. Keep trying and you can do anything that you put your mind and heart to.

Tolerance Blog Post

Tolerance: The ability or willingness to allow the existence occurrence, or practice of something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with.

I remember around the 5th grade when I had just moved, I wasn't as tolerance as I was now, but wasn't completely intolerance. I had came to church one day and saw my friend walking, and I had asked him if he was going up to church. He said No i'm not christian; So then I asked what religion he was. He said No again, but also said "I don't believe in any god." When that went through mind I was thinking "What! how could this guy not believe in anything?" He just shrugged his shoulders and walked away. So that got me thinking, what if I persuaded my friend to believe in god, Like jesus. So the next day when I saw him at school. Tried to get him to read the bible, after the few failed attempts of trying to get this guy to believe in god. I finally got what was going wrong; this guy just really didn't think their was a god, and after the few years of me remembering that story, I just had to wonder how annoying I had to been to him. But I think this event will really help me in the future to be less intolerance, and not just that, I think this event will help my become a better person overall 

A Life of Harry S. Truman Q4 Blog Post #2 - Summary and Thoughts

A LIFE OF HARRY S. TRUMAN - By: AIDA D. DONALD

       Right now in my book "A Life of Harry S. Truman" the author has manly been talking about the experience of Truman's political career. She provides a thorough explanation of how Truman became serious about politics, and how he also became the president of the U.S.  It begins on Chapter 3 when Harry Truman first became a judge in the 30's, and eventually progresses on In chapter 4, when Truman became the senate and made very harsh decisions while on duty. This was very surprising to the public because, barely after just the few short months he became President of the United States and was leading soldiers into WWII.

Honestly, the biography of Harry S. Truman is very unique read; I have never read a biography particularly like this. The reason I say this is because, the author arranged the chapters to be set of what order actually happened. But in most biographies I've read, have their chapters arranged of what specific event that changed their lives, then they would put that into order from Childhood, to Middle Life, and then Adult hood and end of life. But either way the author puts its chapters, the biography was still appealing to me, and hopefully to others.

Upton Sinclair Q4 Blog #1 - Summary & Character Analysis

             I have just finished my book "Upton Sinclair"; the book had a very unique ending and so I would like to tell you a little bit about it.  Upton Sinclair died in 1968, just six years before his auto biography came out. But before he died he created a very well known book called The Jungle, and when it was published, people saw that the book was mainly towards meat-packing plants and caused the Drug Act in 1906. Upton Sinclair was seen a up-stander and is now a well known person. But Sincliar didn't stop there, he started wrote other miniature novels for his friends and family manly and juding by their reactions, I say his books were very outstanding.

          Upton Sinclair was a very creative person. He loved music, reading, and discovering new things as a child. But because, of all his hard work writing and putting together his own books is what really showed it. Even his teacher in high school thought that Sinclair's poetry was a creative piece of writing. But when he continued to write after his school days he wanted to go above and beyond and make pieces for the public, and thats what he did. Thats why I believe that Upton Sinclair is a very creative person.

Upton Sinclair Blog #8 - Summary & Thoughts

           Upton Sinclair was a vey famous man, just at the age of 25 he had already written his first book called "The Jungle". In the September 20, 1878 Sinclair had just been born; his father, Upton Beall  Sinclair had already been thinking about sending him to the military. He wanted him to be in the Navy just like his Grandfathers. But what him and his father didn't know, was that boy is about to make history. His father knew he couldn't provide for his family, so he wanted Upton to be kind and responsible. So that maybe one day he could a very successful job. Then when Upton Sinclair grew up he thought of his father as very inspiring man.  

         When I started to read the biography about Upton Sinclair I thought it was going to be a very difficult and challenging read. But as you continue to read on, it explains a very powerful explanation to Upton Sinclair's childhood into his first years of education. I typically enjoyed this because the author didn't just put have his childhood in the first chapter, and then then talk about his adulthood in the next. They made a smooth clean transition into the next chapter of his life. So far this very engaging book, and i'm really enjoying it!

Life at the Speed of Light #7-3 - Summary and Thoughts

Jdyn Ross
Blog #7  "Life at the Speed of Light by, Craig Venter 2013                  

           I have just fished my book "Life at the speed of light", what the author last discussed was explaining the key parts to the DNA molecule . He was saying how these chromosomes are important and are key factors in the DNA molecule. ATCG to be precise, he explained that ATCG are the letters, that  help create DNA. So he thought how could this make a difference if we engineer that DNA and give it special abilities.  This made the author stop and think and ask the question, "Is it really possible to move at the speed of light?"  

        This book provides a glimpse of the future where he sees every home possible having a biological converter, similar to a 3-D printer. This book was just as informative as it was interesting. You could tell that the author had a passion for this subject by the word choices he used and how well he expxplained it.  It was fascinating to me however maybe questionable to others on "why would anyone want to transmit the code for a genome at the speed of light." What I noticed from reading this book was that the author did not just want to bore the reader with statistics, past history and a load of facts on DNA. Instead he wanted to explain to audience about his theory of moving at the speed of light.  So it's a very big surprise at end because he doesn't speak this way. Overall this book was very Interesting and I learned some new things I had know idea about. I really do suggest the book if you have a love for science and want to learn new things!  I would give it 4 stars if I could. 

Life at the Speed of Light - Summary and Reflections #6-2

So far in my book, "Life at the speed of light" the big thing the author likes to talk about is the formation of DNA.  It's one of the smallest molecules in the human body, not even able to see with the human eye. But yet we know almost every detail about it. In page 73 the author talks about how the formation of cells control not just the human body but it controls the life of our infants. This is very well written book, and I would suggest it if you have a love for science.

The way I would reflect on my book would be to say, its a very high level choice of reading. The book involves a lot scientifically theories, and reviews a lot thing you might have already known.  The book also mentions things such as human behavior and how that can effect them. So overall the book is very outstanding and creative book, written by scientist.

Life at the Speed of Light #5-1 Summary and Theme

            Life at the Speed of Light, from the Double Helix, and to the Dawn of Life. A interesting book written by Craig Venter which explains some of the most amazing facts and questions; that man has been wondering for almost all of time. The Book informs you about the ways of modern molecular biology, and new things that we can do with it today.  I this suggest this book if you enjoy new miracles that can soon exist in modern day time.

            Although I am on into the early stages of this non fiction book it seems to share the dramatic effect of how Craig Venter leads a group of researchers in a effort of synthetic genomics - and how the work will have a large impact on our existence in the years to come. This allows the reader to explore and ponder the question' "what is life." The book also seem to inform the reader about the wonderful facts about earth, and later on tell you about the specifics of traveling at the speed of light. I say this because the author explains what he had to go through to gather this theory, to inform us about the speed of light. There appears to not have many characters in this book most of the story is told from the scientist Craig Venter. So far I am enjoying the book and is a great read, look forward to reading and learning more about Life At The Speed of Light.

Knightley & Son #4 Conflict and Memory Moment

             I have gotten near the end of my book, and I have just found a new conflict with Darkus and some Criminals. Darkus tries to tackle this case, no matter what his father thinks. He is fully determine to stop the Criminals. Darkus chases these criminals because, they have not only taken the money they stole, but they took his father respect from him. Knowing that this would be dangerous he  wanted to prove to his father that he could solve cases, just like him. however instead of succeeding he failed. You would think that this would discourage him from proceeding and possibly give up, but now he's even more determined to catch the criminals. For the sake of the people that robbed them, and for sake of his father.

             In my book "Knightley and Son" I found a Memory moment. Darkus was daydreaming as usual, and he was day dreaming about him and his father having a wonderful time. They talked and laughed, and cried. But they were not tears of sadness, they were tears of joy and happiness. I think this part of the story was important because, it showed how Darkus really liked spending time with his father; or it means Darkus wants to actually do these kind of things with his father, because they never have. After reading this part of the story I felt like it really progressed, and got me thinking about other possibilities for the characters in this story.

Knightley and Son #3 "Theme and Connections"

Knightley and Son by, Rohan Gavin  

Characters: Darkus Knightely (son)
                   Alan Knightely (father)

              Darkus Knightely a perfectly ordinary thirteen year old boy became found of his fathers top secret files hidden in there house upstairs. These cases kept Darkus busy for years until one-day he received the news about his father being ill. Although sad and hurt Darkus knew that he had to be strong for both his parents, especially his dad. Mr. Knightley would soon see how brave and smart his son really is when they find themselves in a nightmare of their on.

             What I took from this section of my my book would be the loving relationship between father and son. I know this because,  In my book Knightley and Darkus are always caring for each other. If they ever split up on missions they always wanting to know if they're safe.  Also Darkus wants to follow in his fathers footsteps, and become a detective. He does this for his father because he loves and respect  him.

              Darkus has learned alot about being a detective, but more importantly, about being responsible, sharp, precise, cautious and brave. These characteristics allowed Darkus to stay calm in the conspiracy that they found themselves in. Darkus knows that his father is still feeling the effects of the coma and realized that he must be the one to take over the wheel. He hoped the last four years he spent studying and analyzing his fathers cases prepared him for what they where about to face.

Knightley & Son #2 "Summary and Character Analysis"

Summary:
              The book entitled Knightly and Son by Rohan Gavin looks at a young boy name (Darkus) who takes it upon himself to read all of his dads old cases as he is learning alot about being a detective. It seems as though by reading the cases of his dad has prepared them for a conspiracy that involves several crooked people who tend to keep appearing and vanishing. It does take you on a roller coaster with some high-speed chases. His dad (Alan), however tends to fall asleep at the worse possible times due to the effects from the coma. Knightly is off onto a mission with a few detectives. It's kind of uncertain to me what their mission is at times, hopefully in the story they will reveal it. Darkus teams up with another agent name Bill, as they venture off into solving this case, they run into a woman name Mrs. Wadsworth. They had alot of questions for her ,one being if she had seen anything unusual or strange? She claims to not have not seen anything strange, but this doesn't mean that she is completely innocent. Darkus, and Bill still look for clues and are questioning the two suspects they already have. 

Character Analysis:

             My analysis is going to be about "Alan Knightly", some traits I would say he carries are; bravery, intelligent, and optomistic.  What lead me to feel this way is because he is always wanting to do missions by himself, for example he asked for another case after almost dying on his last one. I would say he is intelligent because he manages to get out of any situation no matter how tricky it is. Finally, I think Alan is optomistic because, the detectives say that he is a very significant detective to their department and most cases are solved by him. He's willing to take a chance no matter how hard or difficult a case maybe. Alan has a good attitude in this story, I'm sure his dad will be proud.

Knightley & Son #1 "Summary with Theme "

SUMMARY:
In dark quiet room, a man named Alan Knightley dreams. He has been In a comma for almost four years now and has just woken up. He tends to day dream a lot but thats normal for a 48 year old man. Later on his son Darkus decided to take upon his fathers old top secret cases, and wants to solve them. Knightley decided's to go help him solve his father case. But they find themselves caught up in a crazy adventure with these other masterminds.

THEME:
I believe the theme or message of this book would be the author trying to entertain us with action packed story of these two brave detectives, how want to solve their father's cases. because it doesn't just inform you or teach you, It's tells you and wonder tale. The book gives you action timed moments of whats happening, It makes you feel emotion different kinds of emotions. Finally, the book is amazing so far and I suggest you read it if you enjoy any of these things.