Book Report on The Running Dream

 

   This week I read the book The Running Dream by Wendlin Van Draanen. The book was about a girl named Jessica who lost her foot in a car accident. Before she lost her foot she was a runner and was heartbroken and knew she couldn't run again. After a quick recovery she learns she could get a prosthetic running leg like Oscar Pistorious. She starts to believe she could run again and her track team starts doing bake sales and car washes to raise enough money to get the leg. In the end they raise enough money and Jessica runs again. I think the main idea is that you should always believe.

      Evidence of this from this book is when Jessica saw a video with Oscar Pistorious and believed she could run again. In the beginning of the book she didn't think she could walk again but now she was believing she could run. Jessica's track team never stopped believing even when they found out that the running leg cost $20,000. If the team gave up then Jessica would never run again. this is why i think that the main idea is that you should always believe.

     Some other evidence from the book is when at the end, Jessica wanted to pull her friend who couldn't walk 10 miles so she could feel what it was like to cross the finish line. Jessica had to pull 100 pounds (her friend) when she was only 130 pounds. Without the determination and belief Jessica would never have made it. This is evidence that the main idea is that you should always believe.

     In conclusion, The Running Dream showed me that you should always believe because without Jessica and her team's belief and determination the running dream would never have happened. If they didn't believe Jessica would never have run and her friend would never have crossed the finish line in a race. Without belief nothing would have happened.

Poem Report on The Road Not Taken

     This week my class read The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost. The poem is about a person who comes to a fork in the road and has to make a decision about which way to go, even though he cannot tell which might be the better choice. He looks down both roads as far as he can but still can't see what is a better choice. In life you have to make choices that you don't know what is the better choice and you can't return to make the other choice.
    In the poem it said "two roads diverged in a yellow wood" which is a metaphor that means that in your life you will have to make a decision and take it. Sometimes the choices won't be easy and you will want to "look down as far as I could" which means you will try to look into each choice to see if one is the better choice until you can't look any farther. This is why I think in life you have to make decisions.
     An example of not coming back in the poem is when it said "I doubted if I should ever come back" shows that after making your decisions you won't be able to make the same decision again even if the decision you made was bad, you just have to live with your choice. It also says that "yet knowing way leads on to way" which also shows that you have to live with your decisions. This is why I think that you can't return to make the other choice.
    All in all, The Road Not Taken was a great poem that was about a man who is at a fork in the road, but the metaphor is that in life there will be hard decisions you will have to make which is like the fork in the road. You want to look down each road or in life try finding out which choice is better. Then in life once you make your decision you can't go back and choose the other choice. This is why I think the main idea of the poem is that you have to make hard choices in life and you can't go back to change your choice.

Book Report on Tangerine

     

     This week I read a great book called Tangerine. The book was about a boy who has thick glasses and is not respected as much as his brother who is a star football kicker. The reason why the boy, named Paul has big glasses is unknown until the end. As Erik the football star meets new friends strange things have happened including the death of Paul's friend's cousin. I think that the main idea of the book is that you shouldn't keep all of your secrets to yourself.

    An example of this is when Erik and Arthur stole a lot of jewelery from people and they kept it to themselves. Later when they were caught, the townspeople didn't like that they stole and that they didn't turn themselves in. This shows that you shouldn't keep everything to yourself because if they hadn't kept it to themselves then they wouldn't be in such big trouble.

     Another example of a lie in the book was when Paul's parents told Paul that he has glasses because he had stared at the sun too long. What really happened was that Erik had sprayed spray paint into his eyes but the parents didn't want Paul to know and hate his brother. This is another reason why you shouldn't keep all secrets to yourself because now Paul hates Erik even more then he would have if his parents told him earlier.

     In conclusion, Tangerine was a great book that showed me that you shouldn't keep all of your secrets. Some examples of this are when Erik and Arthur stole and kept it to themselves and got in big trouble and when Paul's parents lied to Paul and kept the reason for Paul's bad eyesight to themselves so he wouldn't hate his brother. The book makes me wonder, if everyone had been more open in the past would Erik and Arthur not have gotten in trouble? Or if Paul's parents had told Paul, would Paul not hate his brother now?

Book Report on Dunk

    This week I read the book Dunk. It was about a boy named Chad who lived near the New Jersey boardwalk. One day early in the summer, he and his best friend Jason walked past the dunk tank on the boardwalk. The bozo was insulting everyone and got them to try and knock him off the board. After that Chad wanted to be the bozo. Later in the book Jason gets sick and almost dies, the bozo named Malcolm is his neighbor and a girl Chad likes almost gets arrested. I think the main idea of the book is that anything can happen.

     I think this because in the book Jason (who is really fit) just randomly gets sick and is acting weird and passes out. Then the cops see Jason and think he's on drugs so Jason and Chad get arrested right in front of the girl Chad likes. This shows that anything could happen because Jason was playing volleyball at one moment and then the next he is going crazy and getting arrested and eventually goes to the hospital.

     Another reason why I think that the main idea is anything can happen is because when Chad was about to ask out Gwen, the girl he likes, he finds out that Anthony is dating her. Anthony is a thief and does drugs and now he just met Gwen and Chad doesn't want Gwen to become a drug addict. Then after that Gwen tells Chad that she is going to a party at Anthony's brother's house. Chad knows that Anthony's brother is a drug dealer and that they were going to get caught and everyone was going to get arrested so he told Gwen not to go. After that Gwen didn't go and everyone at the party was caught. This is another example of the main idea that anything could happen.

     All in all, Dunk was a good book and showed me that anything can happen. It showed me this when Jason got really sick and almost died while Chad was falsely accused of using drugs. It also showed me this when Gwen started dating Anthony and would have got arrested if it wasn't for Chad. Because of these incidents, I think that Dunk was about that anything can happen.