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.