coming of age blogpost #1

   I am reading The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. This book is set in South Carolina in 1964 and it's about a girl named Lily Owens who runs away from home and her father with her "stand in mother" Rosaleen. This book is very interesting and shows a real coming of age journey that Lily embarks on. Lily's father T.Ray was the one who made Lily want to leave her home in the first place. Rosaleen is the one who goes on this journey with Lily  so she has a big impact on Lily as well. They go and stay with three sisters who own a beekeeping farm who also have a big impact on Lily and Rosaleen.

    I think this setting has a big impact on the story. The time period and events that are going on in the world outside Lily's journey affect the story as well. For example racism is still a big thing especially in the south. The fact that Lily is white and Rosaleen is black makes some extra obstacles more difficult along the journey. The fact that their journey takes place in South Carolina and not New York City also helps because there are less ways of them getting caught from running away.

   Lily Owens is a strong girl and she is also determined. Even though some things in her life are difficult and confusing like the fact that she accidentally killed her mother when she was four; she still moves on and deals with life everyday. Her fearlessness shows a big step in her life because she is growing up and learning to be her own person. This is a whole part in coming of age. Some conflicts that also come with coming of age are knowing your past and figuring out how that can help your future. Lily has trouble there because she's not sure on the day she killed her mother if her mother was leaving with Lily to get away from her father or if her mother was leaving them both. Lily is not sure of her past so this is a dilemma for her coming of age.

    I think Lily will figure out her mothers past in the rest of this story. She'll learn it from the three sisters she and Rosaleen are staying with or maybe from people in the town but either way she will. she will conquer that problem and that will allow her to grow up completely. Lily is ready to be an adult but she has somethings to work out before she can be one. i think in the rest of this book there will definatly be more conflicts but Lily will face them and she will come of age.

POETRY POST : test prep blogging

April Rain Song

Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain.

Langston Hughes

The poem April Rain Song by Langston  Hues is a very moving poem because of its simplicity but its meaning also has a big impact. This poem is about the description of rain and the things it does. I like this poem a lot  because i love the rain also and the descriptions in the poem  are so real and relatable to. I can't help but to think of the rain in my life when i read this poem. In the poem April rain song by Langston Hues the author shows an overall calm mood. this mood is noticeable in different ways.

One way that Langston Hues shows and overall calm mood in the poem is through repetition. For example in the beginning  of the first three lines he repeats "Let the rain..". Saying let the rain instead of something more harsh and straightforward like 'the rain is..'  shows a more peaceful relaxed feeling in this poem. Another way Langston Hues shows a calm mood in this poem is through his descriptions. For example the line "Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops," is a very descriptive line. When he goes on with long descriptions like raindrops are like silver liquid drops shows that there is a lot of meaning in what he is saying about the rain. That meaning is important but not overpowering so it gives off a more peaceful relaxed sense.

i think reading something like this poem is important because people always read so much strong straightforward literature that sometimes they begin to not like reading. If a person is used to reading the news paper and all the stories about crime and death and horrible weather disasters in other places they dont really know how other kinds of reading might affect them. If someone read  poetry all the time and poems like this one with a relaxing calm mood they might enjoy reading. Most people read to be informed. Some people read for pleasure. I think poems like this are something a pleasure reader might read.

test prep blog nonfiction

I read the article "Smarter than you think" from the scholastic news magazine. This article is about the studies in showing that animals are very intelligent creatures just like humans. Even though humans are the smartest creatures a few animals come close. For example chimpanzees and their use of tools to help them in everyday tasks  and dolphins with their unique communication system are signs of very intelligent behaviors. Other smart animals include octopuses and elephants. octopuses are considered smart for their ways to get whats they want using different tactics. Elephants are smart for their seeming ways to feel emotions and that they can recognize them selves in a mirror.

The main idea that the author is trying to convey is that animals are smarter than most people think. You wouldn't expect an octopus to be considered as intelligent right? The article states that "They're generally considered the smartest invertebrates,". This shows that things might not always be what you expect. People expect monkeys to be intelligent because they are most like humans. They don't stop to think maybe other animals completely different from humans, can be smart too. Another unexpectedly smart animal is the elephant. "These behaviors are telltale signs of high intelligence." stated the article. the elephants way of feeling emotions and the fact they notice themselves in a mirror shows they have skills most other animals don't. most other animals would think their reflection in a mirror was another animal of their species.

I think this is a very interesting article because i can relate to it. This makes me wonder what other animals are smarter than we think or may know. I think if we tested more animals then we can uncover new talents they might have. It also makes me wonder why we expect animals to be less smart than us like why do we assume that all animals are less intelligent. If we tried i bet we can train animals to do amazing things. Even things we humans might not be capable of. Maybe one day we may find some crazy amazing talent that some exotic animals can do and we can't.

romeo and juliet : the use of light

I think the way  Baz Luhrman uses light in Romeo & Juliet is very interesting. i think he has a purpose behind the different aspects of the viewing and light in different scenes. Every scene has something different about the lighting. in some scenes its darker to show more seriousness and in others its lighter to show peacefulness.  

In the scene where Tybalt kills Mercutio on the beach the lighting changes. At first they are on the beach and its very light and sunny then the fight starts. while they're fighting the wind picks up and music gets louder. when Mercutio is stabbed and says "a plague on both your houses" the clouds roll in and it gets dark. thunder starts and the waves get bigger then it starts to rain. i think Baz Luhrman did all this as if to show destruction. piece by piece things get worse the weather gets dark, Mercutio starts to die and the devastation grows. when he does this it has an impact on the audience like how the rain always makes things seem bad and clouds can represent fear. well when he puts this in with Mercutios death it makes the audience feel bad about whats going on.

i think this relates to the real world because when other things affect our emotions we dont really notice. at first i didnt realize how the bad weather impacted our lives. more and more i notice that on rainy days im more sad and sleepy and so are others. also on sunny days i more happy.

The Girl Who Chased the Moon

The Girl Who Chased the Moon is about a girl named Emily who goes back to an old town that her mother grew up in. When she arrives she is treated differently and has to unravel her mothers past to figure out why.  I think the only way for Emily to figure things out is by talking to people about what happened and that's a lot of work because not many people want to talk to her. An antagonist force that seems to be working against her is her grandfather (Vance) who doesn't seem to want to talk about her mothers (his daughters) past.


When Emily first realizes people are judging her based on what happened when her mother was there she wants to talk to Vance about it but since Vance is such an unusual character she can't seem to be casual with him at all.This frustrated her and she tried talking to any one about her mothers past. i think this would be a confusing thing for most people and the fact that Emily's mother is dead doesn't make it any better.

I think this relates to the world because everyone has been judged at some time or another. If your judged for how you look or how you act or even some of the things your parents did it's difficult to deal with. what some people don't understand is that people are not the same person as their parents. people have a whole life to make mistakes of their own and should never have to have the burden of their parents mistakes on their shoulders also.

the starry night

I chose The Starry Night  by Vincent Van Gogh for a visual art blog post. First because i love this painting and second because I'm trying to figure out some meaning behind it.

i noticed the dark figure on the left bottom side and i always thought it was some sort of mountain or rock. now that i look closer i think its fire. the darkness of the fire might represent smoke. and i think the fire  over the town doesn't represent destruction but it's as if the fire is giving light over the town.

another thing i love about the painting is in it's name the "starry" sky. i love how it's the nighttime yet the sky still has light colors in it. the light in the sky is like the light the stars and the moon shine over the town.

this gives some sort peaceful sense. also that the stars and the moon and the sky are like a blanket over the town. its sort of connecting to how the people in this town are in their beds sleeping under blankets.

my nomination

FOR AN ALL STAR NOMINATION I NOMINATE........................mark !
 http://hungry-for-books.blogspot.com/
 i love his blog posts because of the way he goes in depth about  the characters and then gets the bigger picture into the world. when he does that it's almost a if he is dumb-ing it down for me and explaining in detail his reasons for everything. when I can understand better i can respond better to things.
i also love how he takes different peoples situations into the equation when talking about how his theories affect the world. when he takes other variables- not just the book and how it affects him- into how he explains things; it makes it easier to relate to what he's saying. his ideas about things are very interesting and make me curious about the topics he touches on.
Excellent job mark!