In a Heart Beat

in think that In A Heart Beat, the statement about life that  Loretta Ellsworth is trying to get to the reader is that you never know when your life might end so you have to live your life the way that you want to and not let people control everything you do. 

in the book Eagan loves figure skating but her mom pushes her to the limit. she has no time for making friends or doing homework, her mom has made sure that her whole life is dedicated to figure skating. when shes in a competition she hits her head on a board and dies right there. that shows what the author is trying to tell us she never told her mom how she felt and she always talked about the future and how things would change when she grew up. she never knew that she would die at such a young age.

then there is Amelia who is waiting for someone to die and donate their heat to her. she has a bad heart and cant even walk up a flight of stairs on her own. she feels really bad, but now she gets to really live her life! 

Loretta Ellsworth wants us to be grateful for what we have: a life. she wants us to know that any second it could end. and she wants use to think about our own luife and what we are going through.

Exposed

i recently finished the book Exposed and it was really good. it was about two best friends named Kate and Liz. Kate is an amazing dancer who dates every girls jock dream (Trevor), Liz is a promising photographer who dates the sweetest guy ever (Brian). Kate and Liz have been best friends since they were 6 and tell each other everything. they have a sleep over at Liz's house 1 Saturday a month, one day when they are having a sleep over they start talking about college (since they are seniors. Liz wants to go to a photo and Kate says how she doesn't want to major in dance and is thinking about quitting. Liz gets so mad because Kate is amazing and she just starts yelling at her and saying she doesn't take risks. it ends with Liz going to her room upstairs and Liz staying downstairs, and she is gone in the morning. Liz says shes sorry but Kate just avoids and ignores her. 

Liz can't take it anymore and she hears from Amanda (a friend of theirs) that the reason Kate isn't talking to hr is because her and Mike (Liz's older brother) had a wild time when Liz was upstairs. Trevor finds out and says he'll forgive her, but she breaks up with them. when Liz  confronts Kate about making it a big deal, she says she got rapped by Mike. but when she goes to Mike he says that he didn't rape her they just had sex. she is stuck between the 2 people she loves the most, and doesn't know who to believe. at first she thinks Kate is making it up to hide her shame, but then she believes that her brother did it. this makes me think about the world and rape in general.


when is it considered violation? what makes you believe a person? what  drives a person towards rape? what drives a person to lie about being raped? does shame play a part in it? 

Mocking Jay *spoiler alert*

So i am currently still reading Mocking Jay, and a lot has happened. some things shocked me, and some didn't. like i knew was going to end up coming back, and that something would happen between Gale and Katniss. but what really caught me off guard was when Peeta tries to choke Katniss and the way he reacted towards her. so that's basically what i'm going to talk about in this blog post.

so a group of people from district 13 went to the capitol to free Peeta, Annie, and a couple others. they were worried about the task, and were prepared for people to not come back hoe; because they were killed. but what they were faced with everyone coming home safe, and not really a fight at all. i think that when President Snow would put Peeta on T.V., he would do it on purpose because he knew Katniss was watching, and how she would react towards it. he changed Peeta from being in love with Katniss, to hating her and wanting to kill her; but Katniss didn't know this.

so i think President Snow did it on purpose because he knew that sooner or later Katniss would not be able to bear anymore, and they would try to get Peeta free; so they can be together. so then when Peeta would see her, he would try to kill her, this is just plain mean and evil, but you have to give him credit, he is much smarter than people think he is. everyone thinks he is the over-controlling president who needs to be overthrown, but he has some tricks up his sleeve, and is using all of them to try and stop the rebellion.

i am really excited and nervous to see what President Snow's next moves will be, and what Katniss and Panem will do in return.

Mocking Jay

I am currently reading Mocking jay by Suaznne Collins, and once again Katniss is facing a lot of problems. what has happened so far is:

• District 12 has been bombed, and the few that survived are living in the harsh conditions of district 13

• Peeta has been captured by the capitol

• Katniss has been forced to become the "Mocking jay" of the rebellion 

• Katniss has to live under the extremely harsh rule of district 13

the only good thing that has happened so far is that Gale and Katniss's relationship has been restored to how it used to be, and there is even a little romance going on. i think that Katniss is under a lot of stress, everyone is asking for something form her. i mean she isn't super woman she is a 16 year old girl. everyone is expecting her to lead the rebellion and find a way to overthrow the capitol- which is nearly impossible. people are expecting  her to get Peeta free from the capitol- which is also impossible. and even though she is trying hard, she is constantly hearing people say how they knew they should have saved Peeta from the arena first, because he would have been a much better leader. i can't wait to see what happens next, and what choices Katniss will make. 

 

Underage Drinking

Topic: Underage Drinking 


1^st:  Underage drinking usually increses between the sixth to eigth grade. Three quarters of students have consumed alcohol be the end of high school, and  more than a third have done so by high school. 50% of high school students drink on a regular baises, and 70% report the last time they drank was at a friends house. My topic underage drinking because solutiuons that they government have made aren’t affective, due to the fact that teens still drink. 


2^nd: the approach I would take is to get more people invlolved and to make people and the government see the affect it is having on teens. This is the common good approach because, the government would be doing what is better for the whole country. 


3^rd: some actions the society has taken to stop underage drinking is obviously making the drinking age 21 or aolder. This action has been right, but still hasn’t stopped underage drinking. Government has also made people show identification when buying alcohol and going into bars, this is also right. But teens and the underage have just made fake id’s to get them alcohola dn get them into bars.

Catching Fire

So far Catching Fire (the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy) by Suzanne Collins is really good. ever since Katniss and Peeta were about to kill themselves in the arena with the wild berries, there has been many problems in Panem. Everyone in all 12 districts all ways hated living under the rule and control of the capitol, but never really knew how to stand up for themselves. but when Katniss pulled the move in the arena they saw it as defying the capitol, and took it as their chance to fight back. there has been many uprisings and the president Snow personally visits Katniss; he tells her that she better sell her love to Peeta. i feel bad for Katniss having to choose between Peeta and Gale, if i were her i would be really confused on what to do.
Gale had been Katniss's best friend and hunting buddy ever since her father died in the mining accident, and she had to take on all the responsibilities in the house (at age 12). it was never really like put out there that Katniss and Gale were best friends, but they just clicked. they were the best hunters and would always bring back the best things to trade at the hob or to the mayor; even though it was illegal to hunt outside of the confines of district 12, no one ever told on them. Gale obviously loves Katniss, but she just doesn't see it. she never really saw Gale in that way; but before the games started, she started to think of him more and more.
when Katniss's dad passed away she would always go out in the streets and look through the garbage cans to see if there was food. Peeta's dad is the baker, so he worked in  the bakery. one day when she was on the brink of starvation, Peeta through her a loaf of bread; he saved her life. she never talked to him after that day, she always wanted to thank him for the bread; but she didn't know how to bring herself to say it. when he is chosen as a tribute for the games, he admits his love for Katniss and he has loved her ever since he saw her when they were 5; and he wants to be with her forever.

Gale and Peeta both love Katniss and want her to be with him, she obviously can't be with both; so she has to choose one. this is a really hard decision, i would feel so stressed if i was in her place; because, i feel like of she chooses Peeta she'll lose Gale, and if she chooses Gale she'll lose Peeta. if i was Katniss i think i would choose Gale because, even though Peeta threw her that loaf and saved her life at that moment; if it wasn't for Gale, her and her whole family would have starved. Gale taught her how to hunt and set traps, he also helped her family, and more than anything; he was her best friend and always had her back. Peeta gave her that loaf of bread and was absent from her life until the games, for all she knows he could have hate her guts. i'm just saying that Gale has done a lot more for Katniss then Peeta has.
but you never know, she could choose Peeta. im just stating my opinion. 

Its not Summer Without You *SPOILER ALERT*

i recently finished reading the book It's Not Summer Without you by Jenny Han. this book is about two best friends Laurel and Susannah, they grow up to have their own children. Laurel has a daughter and son: Belly and Steven. Susannah had two boys: Conrad and Jeremiah. they are all best friends, but Belly is closer to the boys than her brother Steven. they live like 1 hour away from each other but each summer they go to their beach house at cousin's beach and stay there the whole summer. one year everything changed, Belly had matured into a young adult and both Jeremiah and Conrad were in love with her. however she was in  love with Conrad, and when she turned 16 they started going out.Susannah got cancer and died the following year. after that things changed Conrad kept to himself and didn't want to see anyone. so Belly was left heart broken and her mom Laurel just stopped caring about life. 

Conrad and Jeremiah's dad tries to put the beach house up for sale, Jeremiah asks Belly for her help because; Conrad is going out of control. but Conrad doesn't listen and he sends her mixed emotions. in the end Laurel saves the beach house and Belly falls for Jeremiah. even though Conrad still loves her he doesn't want anything to do with her and she is tired of getting thrown around and used by him. 

there are obvious hard things happening in the text like dealing with Susannah's death but deep down i think that there are more hard things happening:

Conrad hates his father because most of his childhood he wasn't there. his mother loved him and he left her when she needed him most, when she was dying. he came back a month before she dies but now he wants to sell the house that has her all over it; and start over and move on like nothing happened. he is also madly in love with Belly but just doesn't know how to show it. he gets mad very easily and he knows how his brother is also in love with her. 

Belly has always loved Susannah,  even more than her own mother; as a child she would always wish that Susannah could be her mother. when Conrad suddenly ends things with her and Susannah dies, its like her world comes crashing down. her heart was broken by Conrad and it got shattered by the death. her best friends doesn't understand what she is going through and tells her to just get over it. she loves cousin's beach and wishes she could live there, she has been looking forward to going there; especially since its the last summer before college. but now she can't even go there either.

this book was really good!! i recommend it to people who like social issues, realistic fiction, and emotional books. :)