Choice Book Report 4

I read the book "Watching Me" by Lauren Barnholdt. This book was about a girl named Ally. Ally is about to go into her freshman year at Syracuse College in New York. Life seemed perfect. Her best friend Grant was going to be going to school with her. Plus she had a basketball star boyfriend. The only problem was that her boyfriend Corey was going to college all the way in Miami, Florida. She really needs a distraction from Corey. Lucky for her, this year is a special year for freshman at Syracuse College. The reason is that they all have a chance to be on the reality show "In the House." The show is about when they get a group of about six freshman at a college and put them in a house together. Ally really wants to get on the show, so she goes to the try outs for it. The night after she auditioned, the producers called back saying that Ally got in. It took some convincing of her parents, but she ended up doing it.
When Ally gets to the house she meets all of her roommates. There is James, the “white gangster.” Simone, the “shy one.” Jasmine, the “exotic one.” And then there’s Drew, the “preppy guy.” She almost immediately gets along with all of the people in the house, except James. She doesn’t like his player ways. She especially gets along with Drew. She tries to keep her distance though because of her boyfriend Corey.
Ally is feeling really lonely. She feels like no one will talk to her because of the camera that has to follow her everywhere to film the show. Everyone is watching her all the time and she doesn’t like it. Her only escape from the cameras is when she goes to class because they aren’t allowed to film in there. One of the classes she takes is photography. On her first day in that class they have to practice putting film in the dark room so the pictures can develop. Ally is terrified of the dark. So when it was her turn to feed the film in the canister she drops it. When she hasn’t come out for a while the teacher checks in on her and humiliates her in front of the whole class! But because of this a girl named Katie comforts Ally and they become friends. Ally doesn’t know if Katie is really her friend or is using her to be on the show. Either way she doesn’t care. She feels so lonely right now that she would be okay if Katie was just using her to get some publicity.
The rest of the book is just about complications with her boyfriend, friends, school, and just life in general. Read the book to find out what happens!

The main character in Watch Me is a girl named Ally. Three words I would use to describe Ally is dependent, vulnerable, and confident.
The reason why I would describe Ally as dependent is because she can’t do anything alone. It’s like she had to have someone by her at all times. Like when she had to do a photography project for school she wouldn’t do it unless her friend Grant went with her to do it. She even said it herself in the book that she didn’t even like going to the bathroom at school alone and always had to have a girl go with her. Even if she didn’t like the girl! Also she couldn’t feed the film in the reel in the dark room without Drew helping her step by step. It is proven in the book that Ally is not very independent and is always seeking help and attention from others, so that’s why I think she is dependent versus independent.
I would also describe Ally as vulnerable because with her boyfriend Corey gone, she is starting to develop feeling for Drew. Every time she is near him she talks about how badly she wants to kiss him. I think that would all be different if Corey were at her college. She is vulnerable because she cant last two months being away from Corey with out trying to kiss another guy. I think that that proves that Ally is vulnerable and wants somebody to love her.
The last word I would describe Ally as is confident. She says in the book when she “knows” she is looking cute. And for every project that she does she is confident that she will be getting a good grade because she spent a lot of time on it. I think Ally is confident also because when she was trying out for “In the House” she said that confidence is key to the producers. And at the auditions when one girl was bugging her, she went and told her what she was doing that was bugging Ally. Ally thought that she wasn’t going to get on the show because of it, but she did it anyway with her esteem high. I think that proves that Ally is confident because she doesn’t care what other people think.

choice book report

I read the book Waiting for Normal by Lauren Conner Waiting for Normal takes place in upper state New York. The main character’s name is Addie. She’s in 6th grade. She had just recently moved to a new town with her mother. Her father died when she was very young, and her mother just divorced her step father Dwight. Addie’s mom doesn’t have a job, so Addie’s old step father pays for there new “home.” There new home is a trailer home, right in front of a railroad track. He wanted a better home for them but he couldn’t afford it. Addie’s mother still wasn’t grateful. She could’ve been out on the streets. She would always talk about Dwight in a negative way, and Addie always yelled at her for it. Addie and her step father are very close. He is practically like her real father. He comes and visits as much as he can with her half sisters. You could say everything was starting to get….normal. Then Addie’s mother got a job. She would have business meetings every night, then for days, then for weeks. Addie was being neglected by her mother, and her friends knew it. Her friends were right across the street! They weren’t kids though. There names were Elliot and Soula. Across the street from Addie’s house was a gas station, and that’s where they worked. They became Addie’s real family.
One day when Dwight called, he knew Addie was flustered. He asked her if he could talk to her mom, but she hung up. She knew if she told Dwight that mom wasn’t home, he’d ask how long? If she told him how long, she would be taken away from her, again, for child abandonment. Addie started avoiding Dwight. She didn’t know it was hurting him, but she sure knew it was hurting her. All she ever wanted was normal and she knew she could only have that with Dwight. Will Addie ever find normal?

My recommendation: I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read a story with a lot of drama. Including family issues mostly, but there are other twists too. I loved this book, at first I thought I wouldn’t like it but as I got into I was reading 2 hours of it a night! I thought it was a touching story. I felt as if I were in the story, walking beside the main character Addie as she went through the challenges that were thrown at her. I’ll even admit that I had some soft moments during this book, meaning I did cry. This book is sad yet weirdly high spirited. It was sad because Addie had to pretty much raise herself, making her own food, making sure she had a way to get to school, doing the dishes. I could never even dream of how much work that would be! This book made me realize that some kids do live like this. I don’t think anyone deserves that. I would have no clue to do with all of the time I would have! The author did a good job of making you have that feeling of pity for the girl. I also thought it was high spirited because even though Addie knew she was under privileged, abandoned, and neglected she still made the best of things. Such as on Valentines day she was all alone, so she made paper hearts and hung them around so when her mother came home she would maybe feel happy. I would describe Addie as strong, independent, and friendly. I would think someone in her position would be more of a loner, and stands to the side. Not Addie though, she was talking to her mother about her new friends within a week! She is strong because I don’t recall reading one moment where Addie cried. Maybe that isn’t such a good thing, to keep her feeling inside like that, but that meant she was strong. I think she didn’t want to waste her time crying because she wanted to look like her life was normal, and she thought that normal meant not wanted to cry yourself to sleep every night. I think Addie is independent because she took care of herself weeks at a time. Cooking for herself and making sure she did her homework, I’m two years older and I couldn’t even do that without my mom reminding me to! Lastly, I think Addie is just plain old friendly. She doesn’t judge people. It says multiple times in the book that her friend Helena didn’t have many friends because she was so big. Even though Helena was big, Addie was still her friend. She hung out with Elliot and Soula, no matter what people thought. She would do anything for her mom even though she acts like she didn’t care if she was alive or dead. I think I enjoyed this book so much because addie was very persistent on being happy, and it makes me think that I should be happy my life isn’t like that. I would recommend this book to everyone. Waiting for Normal was the best book I read in a long time.

Choice Book Report 2

I read the book It’s Not Summer Without You, by: Jenny Han. This book is about a girl named Belly. Belly’s mothers friend named Susannah owns a summer house on a beach. Susannah also is like a second mother to Belly. Sadly, Susannah has been suffering from cancer for years, and dies from it. Susannah left behind two sons, Jeremiah and Conrad. Jeremiah mourned like any teenager would. Crying, spending hours in his room at a time. But Conrad went missing. Conrad’s school called his father saying he hasn’t been at any of his classes in days. Jeremiah wanted to go find Conrad, but he didn’t know where to start. Then he knew what to do. Since Conrad and belly use to date he would go pick her up and have her help find Conrad. There was only one problem, the last time Jeremiah saw Belly she broke his heart by choosing Conrad over himself. And last time Belly and Conrad talked to each other she told him that she hated him, at his mother’s funeral. Jeremiah decided to ignore the awkward situation and call Belly up. He was going to pick her up in a day.
On Belly’s side of the story, she was still in love with Conrad. She was really excited when Jeremiah called, because her life took a turn for the worse when Susannah died. Her mother lost her best friend s, so she spent most of her time in her office. She was trying to keep busy so she didn’t think about Susannah. When Jeremiah came to pick her up they both knew where they were heading. To the beach house. When they arrived, they saw Conrad’s car there, just as planned. What they didn’t know was that Conrad wasn’t there because he was upset about the death of his mother, he was there to save the beach house. In Susannah’s will she left the house to her husband and he wanted to sell it. But as long as Conrad was in the house they couldn’t tear the building down. Belly called her mother to come down to Cousin’s so her mother could convince their father not to, and she did. With all that drama out of the way, Conrad has three exams on one day at his college. He hasn’t been to class in weeks so he had to study for a whole day, with Jeremiah and Belly’s support. But when Conrad was taking his final exam, Belly and Jeremiah shared there feelings for each other. But what they didn’t know was that Conrad was watching. Feeling betrayed, Conrad ran away…again. It didn’t take Belly and Jeremiah long to find Conrad again. Belly didn’t want to break anybody’s heart, so she swore off both of them until she got her feelings sorted out.
In the epilog, it says Belly got married. To who? Is doesn’t say.

I would defiantly recommend this book! I knew I would like this book because this was the second book. The first book was my favorite book for a very long time. I would recommend reading the first book before you read this one. With out reading the first book ( The Summer I Turned Pretty) the second book wouldn’t make much sense. The first book is has the whole entire backbone of the second book. It has all the characters stories, but the second book only adds on to the character’s stories. The second book sucked me right in. I read it in one day. I didn’t even eat or anything, I just read this book. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves romance books. Or if you like little mysteries. Even though this book is mostly romance, this book has a little bit of mystery. It has romance in it because Belly is caught in a love triangle. Both Conrad and Jeremiah love her. Belly loves Conrad but doesn’t love Jeremiah in the way that he loves her. It has mystery because you have to keep reading to figure out where Conrad runs off to. You also have to read the book to find out who Belly ends up choosing to be with. This book also has suspense and some intense parts because there is a lot of tension between the boys and their father. Since he is trying to sell the only thing the boys have left of their mother. There is also drama between Belly and her mother because Belly’s mother was very sad over Susannah’s death. She stopped eating regularly. Belly feels neglected and wants to tell her mother about it, but doesn’t. So when Jeremiah comes to pick Belly up to come find Jeremiah, Belly didn’t tell her mother she was going. So that’s why I think this book is full of romance, mystery, suspense, drama, and some intense parts.

Choice Book Report #1

The book I read for my choice book report is One Night That Changes Everything. By: Laura Barnholdt. The main character in this book’s name is Eliza. She is a junior in high school. I always pictured Eliza as a taller girl with straight, light brown hair. As for her personality, I would say in the beginning of the book Eliza is heart broken and vulnerable, but at the end of the book she is confident and proud. The reason I think that she was vulnerable at the beginning is that she had recently broken up with her boyfriend because she found out that he was just using her to get in a club at their high school. How he was using her is that he had to make a list of girls that go to their high school to “fake date” so he could join the club. Then, what makes her vulnerability worse is that the club that her ex boyfriend was in took her purple notebook because she wrote something about her ex boyfriend on a website that made him not get into a college he wanted to go to. That purple notebook contained all the things she wished she could do but she didn’t have the nerve to. The reason I think she becomes confident in the end of the book is because in order to get her notebook back she has to do some of the things in the notebook. For example she has to sing karaoke at a coffee shop, ask a guy at a club to dance, and tell her ex boyfriend that she still cares for him. She says at the end that she was kind of glad that the night happened, because she overcame many of her fears. I also think that Eliza is a little too self conscious and has a low self esteem. She is too self conscious because she talked about how gorgeous her friends were, and always compared herself to them in a unhealthy way. She also compared her self to her sister a lot in the same manner. Even though Eliza’s friends and family tell her that she is pretty she is always looking for that reassurance. She even said in the book how she feels like she is the only one of her friends who doesn’t have a perfect body. I think that Eliza needs to stop worrying about those things and see how lucky she is to have such good friends and family.
I think the theme in this book is to not be afraid to do something and let loose once in awhile. Obviously by that I don’t mean sky diving or anything, I mean simple things like telling your mom that you broke that vase three years ago instead of your sister. In this book Eliza had to do some of the hardest things for her. After she does them, she admits that it wasn’t that bad. For some of them she thinks they were fun! I connect with this theme in everyday basis. Simple thing like raising my hand during school and not wanting to do it because I’m afraid the answer might be wrong. Then I think “It’s not like something bad will happen if I get the answer wrong. It may be a little embarrassing, but at least I will be participating.” Plus by getting something wrong you usually learn something!
Another thing I think everyone can compare with being afraid is when you try something new. Like if you are moving to a new school and you don’t know anyone. You may me a little hesitant to be how you were at your old school because you want to fit in. If you over analyze your fears, it just makes everything more difficult, because then you think too much on what could happen on what is realistically going to happen. Or you don’t know if you should do something, like try out for a play just because you don’t anybody who is doing it. By doing the play you will be meeting new people, learn new things, and all of school activities are good for you. They beet being at home bored all afternoon. This example could count for anything like a sport, or student council.
Another theme I take from the story is that things aren’t always as they seem. Like when Eliza finds the list of girls that her boyfriend was fake dating, she just assumes that the list is true and that he was just using her. Yet through out the whole entire book he is saying how sorry he is and how much he cared about her. He wasn’t even talking to any of the other girls on the list! I think he definitely proves to her that he definitely cares about her and that he couldn’t be any more sorry. He sticks with her through out the entire night, making she doesn’t get hurt while she doing the what seemed to be impossible tasks.

In the City

Bright lights with multi-colors flashing every corner, the haunting aroma of hotdogs drift in the breeze. Sounds ofpeople shouting and having a glorious time. Well who couldn't have a glorious time? I'm talking about New York City, New York!
I went to New York during the spring of last year. My family takes a vacation every year to a place we want to go. We alternate turns on picking where we want to go. It was my turn and i picked New York City. I know i picked the right place, because I know I could've stayed there for weeks more than i stayed.
My favorite thing to do was go to Time's Square. Since my hotel was 2 blocks away, it wasn't very hard. I just loved viewing all of the different people and their ethnicities. I also loved seeing the extrordinary and crazy outfits that some of the people there had. For example we saw a lady riding around on a bike completely covered in flowers! I love New York for many reasons, these are just a few!

Memories: Good or Bad?

The irony of it all is that my sister, mother, and I were laughing just a few seconds before my mother opened the envelope that would change my brother’s life forever.
It’s not like my brother didn’t have it bad enough already. He has very low functioning autism. What that means is that he has “special needs.” He can’t talk very well and everything is probably five times harder for him to learn something. He has the attention span of a two year old and will probably have to have someone taking care of him for the rest of his life. For these reasons I will hate that one letter from my dad.
My mother and father are divorced so my dad was the first to find out. And in that letter he informed us that Ben’s life is now harder then it already is. Ben is now having seizures on a weekly basis. When I found out, I could I hardly breath. I didn’t cry, I didn’t even feel sad really. It just felt like someone just turned me inside out, and there I stayed. In the car where my mother read the letter to my sister and I it was like we were all silenced by force. We were all so scared for him.
Ben has been having seizures since I was in about sixth or seventh grade. I never saw him have a seizure until this summer. I was at my dad’s house and Ben my sister and I was watching a movie. All we heard is him grasp for air because he cannot breath when he has a seizure. I started screaming my stepmother’s name. I was crying and breathing rapidly. My father and stepmother gave him the medicine needed for his seizure to stop.
My brother is still having seizures, but he is fine. He just goes on with life. This is why my brother, who I love, is my hero.

Indroduction to Me!!!

Hey my name is Rachel. I have lived in St. Cloud for most of my life. I lived in St. Paul for like two months but i don't really count that. My birthday is November fourth 1996. I have a dog named Kimmy, she is 10 months old. My favorite things to do are playing my clarinet, playing soccer, playing volleyball, and going places with friends and family. I also love to travel. I have been to New York, Chicago, Florida, South and North Dakota, and Washington DC. i love to travel because I learn so much about the state and it's history. Those are some facts about me and my life. If you have any questions write them in the comments below(: