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Thursday, March 5, 2020

Author's Craft Literary Essays - 2nd Hour

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Author's Craft Essay

Post your essay here.  Then take some time to read at least two other essays.  Comment on something positive that you see the author using from the lessons we had in class.

19 comments:

  1. To create a sense of grief & sadness in ‘I Am Still Alive’ Kate A. Marshall uses 2 craft moves one being inner thinking and the other being flashbacks/flash forwards. At the beginning of this story, Jess and her mother get involved in a car crash in which killing her mother and leaving her with an impaired leg & glass shards all over her body. Later Jess is forced into the middle of nowhere to live with her father. After a while being with her father and his dog Bo in the middle of a Canadian forest somewhere, her father is shot in the head by a dangerous person named Raph. This is relevant because using these craft moves the author shows us a hidden message. That message is ‘life is short & surprising. You should never plan too far ahead because you may not be around long enough to fulfill it.’ she added one more message being ‘take chances in life.’


    Inner thinking is the first craft move one may notice as a reader of Kate’s book. Kate uses inner thinking to express herself through the character. Two examples of that would be on page 155 where Jess tells us about her sadness and grief, “My life has become a list of things that almost killed me. Ways I almost died. If the truck that hit us had been going just a little bit faster, I would have died. If I hadn’t gotten up that morning on the shore, I would have died. If I hadn’t gotten the fire started the day of the storm, I would have died. If I had screamed when the back of my father’s head burst open in a spray of blood and bone and brain, I would have died” The other example being when Jess tells us about her fears, “I tried to scream. The sound stuck in my throat, and I made a strangled, wounded noise. Raph’s head jerked up. He looked toward where I was crouching. I held still, held my breath. “I hate the woods” he muttered and turned away.” Both these examples show us the hidden message of ‘Life is short & surprising. You should never plan too far ahead because you may not be around long enough to fulfill it’ Her father convinced her to stay until the beginning of summer 2 days before he died. These examples also leave the readers feeling sadness and grief.


    When the author uses flashbacks/flash-forwards, she flashes back and forth between to beginnings until they meet as one. The rest of the story continues in the characters’ present time. The author makes the reader feel grief and sadness throughout most of the book by flashing back & forth between the two beginnings. One of those beginnings starts where the characters’ mother dies & the other starts where the main character gets stuck in the middle of nowhere leading up to her father getting killed.


    So to create a sense of grief & sadness in ‘I Am Still Alive’ Kate A. marshall uses these two craft moves inner thinking & flashbacks/flash-forwards. If you happen to get stuck in the middle of nowhere keep ones planning to a minimum only planing for a day possibly a week in the future but no farther because one may never know if one will survive.

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  2. When most people are faced with an issue or problem they end up giving up and are left hopeless. In Between Shades of Gray their problem is being captured and taken into slavery. They are living in rural conditions. They are surviving on low rations, cold winters, hot summers, and being forced to work for the NKVD. But when the children are hopeless they rely on each other for reassurance and hope. When the kids are working in the fields they all hope one day to return home and live their normal life again. Ruta Sepetys uses a rock as a symbol of hope throughout the story. Although I thought the theme was showing white privilege was an issue, when I found the symbolism of the rock and its reason I later realized the theme is hope.

    One of the most obvious techniques the author uses is character motivations. The main character Lina (who tells the story) is motivated to get back to Lithuania. She is also very eager to find her dad. Not only is Lina motivated to find her dad and to get back home, so are all the others who were forced out of their homes by the NKVD. They are so determined to get out of the captivity they write letters,they work for them, they do anything they are told to become free. When they are hopeless they rely on each other to give them hope and reassurance that they are gonna make it out alive.

    Another skill the author used was symbolism. Symbolism is a huge skill many authors use in books and it is also a very important key. Symbolism is a very hard thing to find in books but Ruta Sepetys used a rock as her symbol. The rock is a symbol of hope. The rock appears many times in the book and has a significant effect and importance on the book. I think the symbol connects to the theme because the rock is a symbol of hope and the theme is hope and perseverance.

    Ruta lastly used to build a mood to help support the theme. She makes the setting really harsh and has them in bad living conditions. She also shows how people of color were treated differently because of their skin color. She goes through the character actions especially of the NKVD and how poorly they treat the slaves. The author shows how bad times were if you were an african in the 1900’s when segregation and discrimination was popular. Discrimination isnt as popular today as it was then but it will always be an important piece in our history.

    In Between shades of gray, the main effect it had on me was hope. All the characters hope for freedom, the hope to be free, they hope to return home, and they hope to return to their family and friends. The rock shows the theme of hope. At the end of the story the readers are left with a happy but not-so happy ending,wondering what happened to the others and if Lina and Andrius are still a happily wedded couple. We are also left to wonder, how can I have hope when times get hard and I'm left feeling hopeless?

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  3. Everyone in life always tries to find the best way to live their life. However, most people don’t realize that it was just outside their front door. In the book, “The Hobbit” by J.R.R Tolkien, Bilbo Baggins’ was a very comfortable hobbit. He never, ever went on adventures. Up until he was pulled into an uncomfortable adventure by Gandalf and 13 dwarves. Although he despised the thought of going, he still did. Throughout his adventure he changed. Bilbo became the bravest character of them all. In “The Hobbit” the author was creating an effect in the reader’s mind; a meaningful life requires one to be brave enough to step away from the familiar and into the unknown.

    First, the author uses very descriptive words to illustrate the effect he is creating in the reader’s mind. In the beginning of the story, Bilbo Baggins’ hobbit house is described with words that create a nice and cozy feeling. J.R.R used words like: most luxurious, solid, comfortable, and beautiful to describe Bilbo's home. The contrast between the comfortable lifestyle to Bilbo’s adventure at hand is like jumping out of a warm bed into a ice bath. The author’s choice of language helps reveal Bilbo’s hidden bravery. You have to be very brave to go on a dangerous adventure, leaving all that is familiar behind.

    Next, the author uses symbolism in the book to effect the reader. A very important symbol is Bilbo’s sword. Bilbo used his sword in killing a giant spider attacking him. “He felt a different person, and much fiercer and bolder in spite of an empty stomach, as he wiped his sword on the grass and put it back into its sheath. ‘I will give you a name,’ he said to it, ‘and I shall call you Sting.” This text reveals Bilbo’s transition into becoming a brave and courageous character. The sword symbolised a heroic character which Bilbo started to pick up as he used the sword.

    Finally, Bilbo had done many actions to reveal his character. Although the book is filled with examples, I believe the most prominent evidence is when Bilbo handed the Arkenstone over to Bard and the Elvenking. Throughout the book, the author portrays Bilbo as a very loyal character, which he is. However, he took Thorin’s most valued treasure in hopes of stopping a war with the dwarves. Even if The Battle of the Five Armies still happened, Bilbo was shown in the bravest light during the book. He valued pursuing peace, which took courage, over being a bystander in order to appease his friends.

    One may interpret Bilbo’s actions as cowardly. He gave the Arkenstone away to try to end the conflict, instead of sticking with his friends. Throughout the story, Bilbo also used the ring to hide from danger. However, Bilbo was brave because he committed these actions with a mindset of keeping both sides at peace. No one else was brave enough to try to come between the two sides. He used the ring to save his friends countless times instead of running away.

    In The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins’ slowly becomes the bravest of all the characters and changes his mind on the value of having adventures.
    I believe the author was effective in building up the idea of how to lead a meaningful life that is fulfilled through bravery and courage. Although taking a step in the unknown may be frightening, like Bilbo, it will bring you treasures in life.

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  4. Nathan H - pt. 13/06/2020 09:11:00 AM

    Violence and tough living are important and it is something that everyone should be aware of. Especially if it is talking about young boys. In “When I Was The Greatest” by Jason Reynolds, there are three boys that live in a rough neighborhood with poverty, gang violence, and drugs. They all want to get to this huge party, but they’re underaged. With a dad that shows up here and there, Ali struggles. His two friends, Needles and Noodles, especially Needles, who has Tourette’s syndrome, also have struggles with family and other neighborhood problems. In “When I Was The Greatest,” Jason Reynolds uses the tone, the dialogue, and symbolism to create a feeling of sadness or anxiousness.

    One of the most obvious author’s craft techniques used in the book was the tone. Jason Reynolds uses a slow rhythm in the book by drawing out the events that happen in the story. They take time to develop and happen, and that creates that feeling of anxiousness. For example, when Needles, Noodles, and Ali are at the MoMo party, the text explains the setting and the character’s thoughts. Ali says, “A MoMo party. I was at a freakin’ MoMo party. At fifteen. What more could anyone ask for?” Then the book goes into detail about what is happening at the party when he gets there, but it’s some mature content. Ali then later says, “The women-wow-they were all gorgeous, though. It’s like MoMo had some sort of requirement as to what kind of ladies he let into his parties.” Then, the story progresses a little more. Ali meets this girl and starts to hang out with her. Later, when the two really start to get to know each other, somebody screams, “They fightin’! They fightin’!” There was a buildup to the main part of the chapter or even the story, and it sort of creates a feeling of anxiousness. The tone also creates kind of a dark environment when reading this book. The events that happen help support this because of what the characters do. Ali boxes, Needles has Tourette’s syndrome and Noodles likes to talk the talk, but can’t back it up. This is a struggle for each of them because Needles gets made fun of, Noodles gets in violence quite often, and Ali, well, Ali fights.

    Another craft technique that Jason Reynolds used was dialogue. This technique was a little easier to find in the text because it sticks out a lot more than the others. It is one of the most significant uses to create a feeling of sadness or anxiousness. Ali goes to a guy named Malloy. Malloy helps Ali train for boxing. One of the times Ali goes, it gets pretty intense and Malloy starts to get pretty amped up. He yells, “C’mon Ali! Hit him!” A few moments later he yells again, “Hit him, Ali!” Again, a different part of the story now, after the whole fight at the MoMo party, Ali is in some deep trouble after his mom finds out. On page 177, Ali’s mom leaves a not on the counter. It reads, “PUNISHMENT! You are NOT allowed to leave the house, except to go get your hand looked at by Malloy. I know you’re supposed to work for him today, but I HAVE ALREADY SPOKEN TO HIM. YOU CAN ONLY STAY THERE FOR 30 MINUTES, FOR HIM TO FINISH YOUR HAND, THEN COME STRAIGHT BACK HOME! I AM NOT PLAYING WITH YOU ALI. In the house, I need you to give the bathroom some love, as well as the kitchen, living room, and your bedroom. DUST, SWEEP, MOP, AND CLEAN EVERYTHING! AGAIN, I AM NOT PLAYING WITH YOU. DO NOT TEST ME, ALI.” So, over a note, it doesn’t seem like a lot, but if you could imagine her yelling at Ali in person, that creates anxiousness. Now, one might interpret this as worriedness, but it clearly means anxiousness because after Ali reads it, he says, “I couldn’t even be upset about it because I knew it was coming. And it actually wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be.” This means that he was not all that worried, but just anxious to get to Malloy, then get back and clean.

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  5. Nathan H - pt. 23/06/2020 09:12:00 AM

    Now, the last craft move that Jason Reynolds used was symbolism. This craft was much harder to find than the rest. When Ali first meets Noodles and Needles he is eleven years old. The other people, the Brysons, just left the neighborhood, and then Ali walks out of his home one day and sees them sitting on his doorstep. Ali explains, “Then, one day Needles and Noodles showed up. Well, really just Noodles. It was a Sunday morning, and I was running to the bodega to get some bread, and when I came out of the house, Noodles was sitting on my stoop. I had never seen him before.” Ali just decides to ignore him but then, Ali explains some more, “When I got back from the store he was still sitting there.” Noodles showing up that one day surprised Ali, and as one might say, Noodles just showing up symbolizes that anything can happen in neighborhoods and cities like the one they live in. Nobody is really certain that they’ll live their daily lives in peace. Ali was surprised that Noodles was sitting there, and he would have been surprised if anything related to drugs or gangs happened to him, especially since he said, “I don’t really like to mess with all that. That’s not really my thing.” Because the author chose Needles and Noodles randomly showing up as a symbol, most readers believe that there are many surprises in a type of environment like the one they live in.

    Reynolds used the tone, the dialogue, and symbolism to contribute to making you feel a certain way when reading the story. It shows that anything can happen if you live your daily life in those types of environments and it can create a feeling of sadness or anxiousness. Living in poverty or having to worry about drugs or violence can be very serious. Be aware of the people that live in those types of situations. One should always try to put themselves in their shoes. Show empathy. Their lives are just as important as anyone else’s!

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  6. Part 1

    Everyone in life has free access to knowledge imagine if that was to be taken away from us? In “ Words on Fire” by Jennifer Nielsen, the characters are risking their lives by smuggling books. The officers are trying to stop them, and will do any extent of punishment they want. Each day's a fight to get free knowledge. In “ Words on Fire '' Jennifer uses Dialogue and 1st person Narrative to show the free access of knowledge.


    One of the author’s craft techniques in the book was dialogue. The author of “ Words on Fire '' used dialogue to show how the good characters are risking their lives for their books and the bad character trying to get them to stop by threatening them with the consequences. One character that showed this was Rusakou. He is not a good man in this book and wants to stop all smuggling. He found Audra and this is what he said “ In hopes of reminding you of how much you have lost, if you truly miss them then I will send you to Siberia to join them. Yes it's true that you may not survive the trip, just as your parents may not have survived it. I’d hate for you to go all that way and find yourself alone there, with nothing but ice and chains and convicted criminals for company. You will be assigned the same work as the adults. If you think carrying a sack full of books is heavy, wait until you are given a railroad tie to drag by yourself for a kilometer though knee deep snow”. This is showing how Rusakou is threatening Audra to scare her to stop smuggling books and him telling her the consequence she would get if she doesn't stop. Another example is when Rusakou found her again and said “ You are a smuggler child, so surely you know how expensive the crime is. A few of you carry the illegal books over the borders, others hide them, others teach from them. One crime is the same as the other, you probably think that this has been a bad night, but that once morning comes things will look brighter and then your smuggling can continue as before. If so, then you are wrong Miss Zikaris. Before we leave this town, we will have destroyed every illegal word and action here, and then we

    will move to the next town and the next. Everywhere you smugglers go, I will follow and I will bring fire and punishment with me”. This shows that books are illegal and Rusakou will do anything to punish the book smugglers. He will destroy their village as a punishment for having books.


    The second character that showed this was Ben. When the soldiers were gonna break into the church and burn it down Ben said “ You’ve gotten out everything that you can, now please for the last time listen to me and get as far from this place as possible. They will win no matter how many of you are here it won't matter, they will win. What orders do you think those soldiers have to arrive and then one side or the other will start a fight that will only end one way and that is with dead Lithuanians in the street and a church burned to its foundation. Your work is to deliver books”. This is showing that the soldiers would kill these innocent people just because they want to learn from their books, as a consequence,they would go to the extent of burning down buildings just to prove a point just over books.

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  7. Part 2

    The second character that showed this was Ben. When the soldiers were gonna break into the church and burn it down Ben said “ You’ve gotten out everything that you can, now please for the last time listen to me and get as far from this place as possible. They will win no matter how many of you are here it won't matter, they will win. What orders do you think those soldiers have to arrive and then one side or the other will start a fight that will only end one way and that is with dead Lithuanians in the street and a church burned to its foundation. Your work is to deliver books”. This is showing that the soldiers would kill these innocent people just because they want to learn from their books, as a consequence,they would go to the extent of burning down buildings just to prove a point just over books.


    The last character to show this is Audra. She said “Our work is to do everything we can do to free lithuania words are never enough of a weapon. We must help these people fight”. This shows that Audrea wants to free Lithuania. She will fight with everything she has. She wants to help the people free their books.


    Another author’s craft techniques in the book was 1st person narrative. The author of “ Words on Fire '' used a 1st person narrative to show us what Audra saw and felt, while she was smuggling books and fighting for their book. Also to show us the consequences they had just for wanting their own books. One example is when Lukas got caught smuggling and Audra saw “ Holes had been sliced into his shirt from the stick and through them I saw lines of blood. He was still bent over and tears streaked down his cheeks”. This is telling us that Lukas got beat for smuggling books and this was his consequence for it. Also these kids are only 12-13 years old and they are getting beaten for having their own books. Another example is “Each lick of a flame took knowledge from us...what little freedom we thought we had claimed for ourselves with our smuggling. They were burning our books and with them I felt like holes were being burned into my heart. How could they do this? This is showing how they are not allowed to have their books at all and the soldiers will go to any extent to get rid of them and take away their knowledge.


    The last example is when Audra met Milda for the first time. Audra’s perfective was “ She had tangled white hair beneath her headscarf and wrinkles skin that appeared crusty. She was heavily bent over and she seemed to have exhausted herself simply by coming to the door… I’d turned back to Milda, she had leaned the cane against the door fully straighten up and was removing a white haired wig, leaving gray flecked hair in a bun beneath it”. This is showing that Milda is pretending to be someone she is not. Mainly so she doesn't get caught because she is also a book smuggler/trader. This may not seem like it fits the theme but without this piece of evidence it wouldn't show the readers that these people will go to any extent to get their books out, let other people in their town to learn from these books.


    After reading the book readers understand how lucky they are to have books, that they don't have to fight for them, pretend to be someone else just to let other people learn. It also makes readers think that they are thankful they have free access to this knowledge. Without books who knows what life would be like. Could the readers imagine life without books? How would society run? Would they have the stuff they have now?


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  8. Everyone in life needs to feel sympathy. If they never did, the world would just be cold and bitter. In “This is Where it Ends”, by Marieke Nijkamp, she uses inner thoughts to create sympathy for the reader. The book is about 4 characters who show their perspective in a high school shooting, who each have a personal connection with the shooter; Tyler Browne. The 4 characters being Autumn; Tyler's sister, Syl; Autumn's girlfriend, Thomas; Sylvs brother, And then Claire; Tyler's ex girlfriend.

    Now starting off with everything, let me explain quickly who Tyler and Autumn's father is. He's an alcoholic who is very hostile towards Autumn; because she reminds him of his deceased wife that died picking up Autumn from dance. Now anyways, Autumn talks about how Tyler dug up her ballet shoes and then showed their dad. Then Tyler stood back and watched their dad beat her until she thought he was going to end up killing her. That one sentence made me feel sympathy for Autumn because Tyler was her best friend, her protector, and her home as she once said. Even after all of the stuff that happened, she didn't want to lose him.

    Another part where I felt sympathy for Autumn, was when Tyler shot her in the knee. “Tyler made good on his promise. I didn't need to die for him to kill me.” Tyler shot Autumn in the knee which made it so she wouldn't be able to dance anymore. He didn't physically kill her, he just ruined her life, which in the quote from the story I just said it was implying that it killed her on the inside. Dance was Autumns life, Tyler basically took her life away simply by lowering the gun and shooting her in the knee.

    Lastly I felt sympathetic when Tyler turned the gun on himself, where he then shot himself in the head. Now I know you may be wondering why I'd feel sympathetic for Tyler after all of the horrific and awful things he did. However I truly thought he’d be able to change, yes he’d be in jail for a very long time, maybe even for life. Still I thought he’d be able to change for the good. Maybe even be bailed out of jail, and try to live a normal and happy life. My belief is that almost everyone can be forgiven, they just have to work very hard for forgiveness.

    In “This is Where it Ends”, by Marieke Nijakamp, she creates sympathy for the reader using inner thoughts. She writes powerful words that cause the reader to feel major sympathy for the people in the book. This one particular book strengthened my sympathy, and made me realise how important it is, maybe this book can open your eyes about life, if they’ve been closed for too long.

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  9. “This is Where it ends” is about a school shooting. Marieke Nijkamp used special craft moves to make the story better and hard to put down. Marieke Nijkamp uses a whole lot of craft moves. The three main ones most used are Flashbacks, Build Suspense, and Multiple Points of View. The author made me feel like I need more hope in my life and that everyone needs hope.

    First craft move is Flashbacks. Nijkamp used these to better understand the story and the characters. It makes the reader have more knowledge than the characters and makes them more involved in the book. Nijkamp flashbacked so I knew more about the shooter’s life and how the main characters connected to him. It makes the readers feel more involved in the story and makes them feel better. So now the readers have more of an understanding.

    The second craft move is building suspense. Nijkamp used a lot of suspense. One page you get all hopeful and tense and then the next is panic and surprise. For example One of the main characters and his friend got the doors open where the students were locked in. One of the other main characters was distracting the shooter. They were getting people out. The suspense was when or if the shooter was gonna turn around. It made the reader wanna keep reading and made them feel scared for the students and teachers.

    The last one is Multiple points of view. Nijkamp used four multiple points of view. From Autumn, Tómas, Slyv, and Clarie. All of them one way or another have had big encounters with the shooter before the shooting. This craft move made me feel more involved and helped me know more about the story.

    The point of this story is to choose hope over everything. A signed copy of “This is Where it Ends” says ‘always choose hope’. You should view these words and think that everyone should hear those three words. Those three words could power someone through tough times. Or whatever they are going through with a little help.

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  10. Everyone when they read a book they want to feel like the main character/s. So when reading “The Leaving” the reader felt like how the characters felt, the reader felt confused and so did the characters. In “The Leaving” by Tara Altebrando, the characters are confused. Wondering what happened to them. Why don't they remember? In “The Leaving” Tara Altebrando uses symbolism, multiple points of view, and flashbacks, to create confusion for the characters and the reader.

    One obvious craft move in my book is multiple points of view. The author of “The Leaving” used multiple perspectives to show what was the characters' side of what they remembered from being kidnapped, and trying to figure out why they don’t remember most of what happened to them. Each of the characters' side of the story makes the story more interesting and is putting the picture together as each person tells what they can remember and their theories of why they can’t remember. Lucas showed the reader the things that he remembered from being kidnapped such as his flashbacks. Scarlett showed the reader hers by having these dashes ////.

    Another craft move that the author used is symbolism. This one is another obvious one because of the dashes that Scarlett uses to tell us that she is trying to think of what happened to her or her mind going completely blank when she tries to think of what happened. The reader thinks it means her mind is trying to work while she is thinking and each dash means a second. So what the reader thinks is that it’s how many seconds her brain is trying to think of one thing she can’t remember. This quote from “The Leaving”, “Her mind clicked its blankness at her… /// …three times.” This evidence can prove what the reader is thinking.

    The final craft move is flash backs. This one is also obvious but not as obvious as symbolism or multiple points of view. For instance, In the book The Leaving when Lucas is the one telling what his side of the story these black boxes pop up and it’s random words, if you put it together it makes a sentence or an object or something that happened before they were kidnapped and what happened to him when he was kidnapped. It was just like little chunks of his memories being put together for what he could remember. He could only remember parts of the memories so his mind tried putting the pieces together for him to try and figure out what he was trying to think of or what that memory was. An example from the text is “Van. Blindfold. Taillight.”

    Altebrando used these craft moves that the reader was thinking about to show that most people when they read a book they like to feel like they are the main character/s. The author made the story with multiple points of view to make you feel like you are the main characters in their spot and in their position. In “The Leaving” Tara Altebrando uses symbolism, multiple points of view, and flashbacks to show that the characters are confused and them being confused makes you confused because you feel like you are the main characters/s.

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  11. Everyone in their life has decisions and that gets shown in Grenade because they both have to make their life decisions. In “Grenade,” by Alan Gratz, Hideki and Ray both have a tough life. Both fighting for their side or the war, and what they had to deal with.


    One of the multiple points of view Ray shows all his feelings and what has happened in his life while, on The Owakain island fighting the japanese. When he first starts telling the first part of his side of the story he was talking about the fight he had with his dad, also when the Nazisz came to canada where he lived trying to recruit and take over towns and villages. He ran and then joined the american army to fight against the Nazis and japanese


    Another point of view is Heidki. He's a japanese soldier and when he got into 5th grade he was forced to become part of the army. Called the IJA (Imperial Japanese army), his school trained him to fight in the war and that they gave his whole 5th grade class 2 grenades to fight emphasizing the name of the book. Anyhow Hideki has to find his sister and he has motivation to because he said that before he died of a gunshot wound.


    In some of the chapters when they switch from one character to another. It's kinda funny because they do a lot of things. This happens every few chapters but when they do it's like their actions mire each other. Like when Ray is running from the trench with bill, and a grenade gets thrown there ray runs in a zigzag line to run away. Then when hideki ran away from the cave he ran zig zag. Then they ran into each other.


    In “grenade”, all the different points of view are held strongly to show that you're gonna have to make hard decisions in your life, You're also gonna have to make your own decisions. The multiple points of view are the same because they both had to make hard decisions and they succeeded .

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  12. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

    In the absolutely true diary of a part time indian Sherman Alexie uses inner thoughts, actions and description of setting to tell what it feels like to live in a indian reservation. She describes them in not so cupcake and rainbow ways.


    Sherman Alexie used inner thoughts in my book by making the character have flashbacks and is narrating them himself. She does this because it makes it way more deep rather than just some old boring narrator. It is almost as if she can read minds and knows that oh this will make it super deep. This makes it so more dramatic it’s almost over the top but let me tell you this book is a must read. I thought it was just another book Ms. Devries recommended because she didn’t wanna pick out a book for me, but let me tell you this book is superior to all the others.

    Sherman Alexie also used actions in this book by making him get beat up a lot because he has too much cerebral spinal fluid inside his skull. He gets beat up at least 3-4 times a week. The sad thing is he gets beat up by 30 year old men that live on the reservation. One night they went to their annual hoe-down and he got beat up by the 30 year olds again. His best friend and him waited that night and waited till they were drunk when they came back then WHAMMMM they both struck the 30 year olds in the face and taught them a lesson but since they were drunk they didn’t remember it.

    Last but not least, Sherman Alexie used a description of setting by telling what an awful place the reservation is by describing how old the reservation is, everything at the reservation is at least 40 years old. At the school they have text books from when his parents went to that school. The teacher there Mr. P sometimes forgets to show up to school one day the class went to his house and found him in his pajamas watching the price is right. The classrooms are all musty and beetle infested.

    All in all Sherman Alexie uses craft words to help her in her books. It helps her transform a book into a masterpiece.

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  13. Part 1
    Everyone needs a friend in life to keep their social and mental health up. Not just a friend though, a true friendship. In “You’re Welcome, Universe,” by Whitney Gardner, the main character is named Julia. Julia gets kicked out of her old school for painting over somebody else’s thing. Her best Jordan, told on her, after being the reason Julia painted over the wall because the other person wrote something mean. She turns her back on her friendship,and has to go to a new school with no friends. However, she’s deaf, which makes the whole friendship thing harder. She slowly starts making a friend, while she does street art. She makes a friend, but her new friend who she calls Yoga pants or YP for short, keeps secrets from her. As the story goes on, they have a fight and lose each other. Soon after, they realize they need each other and rebond in their friendship. In “You’re Welcome, Universe,” by Whitney Gardner, she uses symbolism, character actions, and background to show that friendships are important for health.

    To show that friendship is important in life, she shows the growing bond between Julia and her friend YP using symbolism. The author uses the graffiti as a symbol. They didn’t know but they were painting street murals together. At first they didn’t know that they were the artist. Julia did the first one and YP did the skeletons over them. It was more like a war in Julia’s world, but eventually she told YP that she did the art and somebody was bombing them. Which also means adding to the original art, whether it’s good or bad. As they talked and became better friends throughout the book, the art also becomes more perplexing on both ends. During the argument about YP’s secret, they both stop doing the big street murals. They don’t do their own, they don’t do any together, nothing. Although this could show that art brings people together, it’s also what tore them apart. They had a fight about doing art together. That’s not bringing them together. They were already becoming friends before they knew about doing the art together.

    Along with symbolism, Whitney Gardner also uses actions throughout the book to show that friends are important to life. She uses Jordan to show that some people will stab you in the back, but she brings the friendships alive again with YP. Jordan told on Julia for painting over the mural that called Jordan a “sl*t.” Mrs. Gardner has Julia thinking that she doesn't need friends, that she can do stuff on her own. However, as the story goes on, Julia finds herself hanging out with her more and more. She starts to realize that you do need friends. Yp helped her in gym class after she was hit with a ball. She learns more things YP did for her. YP gave up her spot in art class for Julia, and she didn’t have a clue. This shows that friends are important and friendships can grow from a little push into their life. Although you could argue that this doesn’t point to friendships are important, Julia goes back to being friends with YP. Not only did Julia realize she needed a friend, she also realized that YP needed a friend to turn to.

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  14. In the story Black and White it is written by Paul Volponi. The two main characters Eddie and Marcus are best friends and they live in Long Island, New York. Marcus is Black; Eddie is white. They are both stars of their school basketball team. They are inseparable, watching each other’s backs off and on the court. One mistake will change everything.

    In Black and White, the overall effect or the (big idea) is racism. The main theme in this story is racism. Eddie and Marcus are both different races but are best friends. Racism doesn’t come into play in the book until after both are accused of armed robbery and the shooting of one of the victims. Marcus, who is black, is unable to afford a lawyer due to the fact that he does not have a dad and his mom cannot pay for it. Eddie is able to afford a lawyer though after his dad starts working overtime. Many of the black players on the basketball team are upset with Eddie when they learn that Marcus is going to go to jail even though Eddie shot the man. Other signs of racism in the book are toward Marcus. Some characters in the book think that Marcus became a criminal due to the fact that he lived in a poor neighborhood with a single mother.

    Also in the story, one may argue that the theme of the book is friendship. Readers might recognize the story as being friends because they are both best friends and the whole story would not even be a thing because if they were not friends there would be no “Black and White.” Also if they were not friends they would have never started doing stickups and they never would have shot the man and Marcus would have never gone to jail, and Eddie would have never had to go to court because the lady they robbed once would not have recognized him. Also, I feel like one or the other influenced one of them to start doing the stickups and if they weren’t friends they would have not thought of the idea to do it together and one or the other would have actually earned the money instead of just taking it and not having to do anything for it.

    At the end of the story, Marcus ends up going to jail. Eddie does not have any punishment because there was no proof that he was the one who robbed her. At the end of this novel, the readers are left wondering what will happen to Marcus when he is in jail if he will survive or not. They are also left wondering what will happen to Eddie because he does not have a best friend to hang out with and he will not have someone to be an all-star with on the basketball team.

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  15. Part 2
    Throughout the novel, Whitney used YP’s background to show the reader that friends and friendships are important. They are important for your social health, but also your mental health. YP didn’t have many real friends before Julia. She had her boyfriend until they broke up, but the rest weren’t actual friends. She thought she needed to look a certain way to be important. She was skinny, but to be skinny she didn’t eat. It got to the point she passed out at her boyfriend's house. She went to get help, and he broke up with her because he couldn’t handle taking care of himself and her. In the story, after the fight, YP kinda rebounded a little. She wouldn't eat at lunch, but we aren’t sure about at home. She kept getting better as Julia became a friend. She continued getting better as they were friends. Julia encouraged her to be herself, to not change so she could fit in with the preppy cheerleaders who were mean about her size. YP said “Nothing big is beautiful,” but Julia helped her think otherwise. Whitney used mental illness to show that friendships are important in life. Not just any friendships though, true friendships. The kind that won’t leave because of something small, and will work through something big.

    In “You’re Welcome, Universe,” the audience is shown how important it is to have a friendship in their life. Whitney shows the readers how important it is to have a friend, but to also be someone’s friend. When readers were younger, they were always told to go talk and hang out with the kid sitting alone. There are still people who sit alone. Give them a friend, hang out with them. Show them they mean something to someone, before they think they need to change themselves to be liked. Before they lose the health they have, before you lose the health you have. Go change someone’s life. There’s no better way to change someone’s life, than to be in their life.

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  16. In Long Way Down, the main character and narrator, Will, had a brother, Shawn, who was shot dead. Will thinks he knows who killed Shawn, so WIll is on his way to kill Shawn’s killer. The book is in the time span of 60 seconds, and Will is in the elevator for almost the whole book. In the book, Jason Reynolds uses suspense, background information, and character motivation to make the reader feel sad for Will. This is relevant because a lot of people go through a loss like how Will did, but in the book, Will tries to do the wrong thing; get revenge and kill Shawn’s killer.

    Jason Reynolds uses suspense by having the book be in the time frame of 60 seconds. By doing that, the author is showing how much can go through somebody’s head in that short amount of time. Will seeing his dad is another part that Jason included to create suspense. Will hadn’t seen his dad since he was three. The author creates more suspense when he has Will in the elevator for almost the whole book.

    Background information is another craft move that Jason Reynolds uses in long way down. At the beginning of the book, Will describe Sean and how he acted before he died. Will also describes what Shawn was doing when he got shot that day, Sean was walking home from the corner store after buying his mom the special soap for her eczema. Later on in the book, Will describes who Buck is in his friendship with Sean, Buck is the only big brother Shawn had, Shawn and Will had known him longer then they knew their dad. When Shawn was Will’s age, Buck taught him how to use the gun that Will plans to use, buck also taught him the rules. He also describes who Dani is and her friendship with Will, Dani was a childhood friend of Will’s, she died when she was eight, she was shot. Will and Dani were playing on the playground and all of a sudden they heard gunshots and Shawn yelling to get down and jumping on top of them trying to shield them. Will stared at Dani the whole time and her eyes were wide then there was blood, Shawn had failed to shield her and later that day, they found out she had died and WIll was devastated.

    Another craft move the author uses is character motivation. The author shows Will's motivation to avenge his brother and kill Shawn's killer. Will tries to follow the rules, “No.1: Crying: don't. No matter what. Don't. No.2: Snitching, don't. No matter what. Don't. No.3: Revenge: if someone you love gets killed, find the person who killed them and kill them.” Shawn told Will of these rules, and now that Shawn is dead Will is trying to follow rule number three.

    By the end of the book, all of the “ghosts” in the elevator with Will are sitting waiting to stop at the next floor so the last one can come in the elevator, but Will is unaware of the next one coming. The elevator comes to a stop and Will tries to close it as fast as he can but the last “ghost” makes it in, it’s Shawn. Shawn doesn’t say a word until they get to the last floor and Shawn finally speaks, “You Coming?” The author leaves us with a cliffhanger, he doesn’t let us know if Will figures out who Shawn’s killer is for sure, or if Will killed anybody at all. Throughout the book, the author uses suspense, background information, and character motivation to make the reader feel sad for Will.

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  17. In projekt 1065, Alien grats makes his readers feel grateful that they don’t live in wartime using flashbacks, inner thinking, and character actions.

    One of three craft moves is flashbacks. The shots rang loudly in the street, drowning out my cry of “No!” The jewish man arched wildly as one of the bullets hit him, and he stumbled forward into one of the shattered store fronts falling-face first at the feet of mannequins splashed red with paint. It makes me feel grateful because we don’t have this going on in our everyday life, that someone gets shot.

    He flung the two boys away so hard I thought he was going to rip their ears off.
    There was a flash of light behind me. I turned around and looked out the window, which was a mistake. I looked down at the cat in the courtyard and straight shot down. I tried to close my eyes but it was too late, my head swam, knees buckled and I had to grab something. I rattled the window lock the man in the room stood up “who’s there” the butler said. This makes me feel grateful that our teachers aren’t allowed to throw us across the room to our seat and get away with it.

    Alien uses character actions to show us to be grateful. Fritz opened himself up again, and I punched him in the nose, hard blood spurted all over his clean, pressed hitler youth uniform, and he dropped to his knees, one hand on the ground. This makes me feel grateful that we don't have to beat up our best friend, just to get close to him so I can get blueprints to stop Hitler from taking over the world.

    Alien used flashbacks to show us to be grateful that we don’t have people get shot up everyday just because of their religion. He also makes us feel great using inner thinking,that our teachers don’t grab us by the ears and throw us back to our seats.
    Then he uses character actions by not having us box each other until we can’t stand up. I am very grateful that I don’t have to live in wartime.

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  18. If you think your life is hard it is nothing compared to Starr’s. In The Hate You Give, Angie Thomas uses flashbacks, inner thoughts, and tone to make the readers feel empathy. This book is relevant because this kind of stuff happens a lot more than you think now. Angie Thomas was trying to make us understand how certain people feel when incidents like these happen.
    Flashbacks are a big part in helping the readers understand the theme. For example, the book took the memory of Natasha’s death out of Starrs perspective. Thomas wanted to make the readers feel the pain Starr was going through all over again with Khalil this time. At random times throughout the book, Starr could be doing something as simple as brushing her teeth and she gets a flashback of the night of Khalil’s death. After Khalil’s death when Starr’s family went to visit Ms.Rosalie, she was walking up the sidewalk and just out of nowhere started to recall when they use to hang out as kids. Even playing basketball with Seven her brother at the park brings back memories of Khalil.
    Throughout The Hate You Give inner thought show how Starr really felt without saying a single word. For instance, the day before Khalil’s funeral the only thing that Starr could think about was, “this time tomorrow I’ll be staring at him in a coffin.” This makes the reader start to think about what if they lost their best friend. Starr is about to be looking at her best friend in a coffin, put your self in her shoes imagine how she is feeling. The author purposely doesn’t directly say how Starr is feeling but she uses a lot of describing adjectives and those show you how Starr really feels. Another example was when Starr was being interviewed at the police station. Every time the police asked her a question she answered it in her head how she wanted too, but what came out of her mouth was different from what she was thinking. For example, Officer Gomez asked Starr, “Do you know why he was at the party?” Why does anyone go to a party? To party. “I assume it was for recreational purposes,” Starr answered. In that example, it shows what Starr wanted to say but instead, she just swapped some of the words out to say the same thing.
    In the Hate You Give tone is used to set a mood for the readers. The main way Angie Thomas uses tone is to show that anytime anyone brings up Khalil Starr is overcome with a blinding rage. That rage eventually into sadness and the sadness reminds Starr that there will always be an emptiness where Khalil was. Another way tone is used in the novel is when Chris Starr’s boyfriend finds out that she is the witness. Starr was surprised that Chris knew that it was her because they never showed her face but he knew Starr’s voice by heart. Then while she was telling him everything about Natasha and Khalil she got sadder and sadder the more she said. She explained that she didn’t tell him because she didn’t want him to think of her as, “Starr the charity case that lives in the ghetto.” Starr made the decision not to tell anyone from Williamson about Kahlil. When Starr is at home she is herself vs when she is at Williamson she acts as the opposite of what people expect her to be.
    If you were in Starr’s situation how do you think you would handle it? Would you tell all your friends about Khalil? Would you speak up for him, or would to stay in the quiet? Flashbacks, inner thoughts, and tone were used to make readers feel empathy throughout the novel The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas.

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  19. In the books The Secret Of The Old Clock and The Voice kindness will make a change and a difference.
    They never give up even when someone is targeting them. In the first book The Secret Of The Old Clock this girl almost got hit by this truck that stole from the house that is coming from. The Voice in this book there is this one group that is spray painting/graffiting a bunch of stuff.
    They get targeted, and with kindness everything will change. Like with them being targeted. All the kindness will make a difference and change life.
    In the first book The Secret Of The Old Clock stuff gets stolen, but it was in the house not outside. People busted into the house. In the other story The Voice they get stuff graffitied on, and with kindness it will change along with the first story. Everything will change.
    You should always be nice and kind to people so other people will be nice and happy to others.
    In the books The Secret Of The Old Clock and The Voice kindness will make a change and a difference.

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