elise's Blog

All you great kids out there in 5th and 4th grade: I miss you and love you guys sooooooooooooo much! I MIGHT CRY!!!! LOVE YOU BESTIES!!!!!!!!!! This year was amazing! I made a ton of great friends! We are a great big family! This year we have so many great times and hilarious jokes! We have grown together, I love you guys! THANKS FOR A GREAT YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have 2 questions for you if you were reading the book “Shakespeare’s Secret”:

If you had access to all recourses, how would you deal with the Murphy Diamond Case?

I think I would first of all, check the case file because that would give me all the information. On page 97 the character Danny tells Hero that his dad has the case file with all the info the police know inside it. I think this would give Hero a better chance of finding the diamond. Then, I would call Mr.Murphy and talk to him about the case. I would ask him if he was the one who took the diamond and ask if he knows its whereabouts. If he does not know I would go ask Mrs.Roth, Mr.Murphy’s x wife and really get her to confess, if she knows. If none of this works I would use any recourses I can to fine this diamond like people to search the house more thoroughly than before. I would definitely make sure there is not ANYONE who knows about the diamond and if there were, I would contact them and see if they have any knowledge about this.

Defend you position on if there Oxford was the secret Shakespeare…

I do not think there was a secret Shakespeare because who says a regular man can’t be an amazing writer. On page 247 there is a timeline of events and Shakespeare was born after Oxford became a known man! This makes me think that Oxford was famous and everyone knew he was a good writer. If Oxford was the secret Shakespeare, wouldn’t everyone recognize the writing style as Oxford’s? Then they would know Oxford wrote it. Plus why would a good man lie about all his so called “Work”? Wouldn’t Oxford tell someone that Shakespeare is taking his writing? This is why I’m not to sure Oxford wrote Shakespeare’s stories. I don’t think Oxford would let someone take credit for his work.

This is the cover of the book I am reading

I am reading a book called “Shakespeare’s Secret”. It is about a hidden necklace and a secret writer. The info the writer has told me in the book so far benefits my inferences about where the necklace is hidden and the answer to the mystery. I can now make many inferences about the necklace and what is happening. Hero, (main character) has got info from her next door neighbor in her new house. It is to be said that the necklace of the family that once lived in Hero’s house had had a “robbery” and they gem of the necklace and some money was stolen and that is it. The family was said to have stolen their own belongings to get money to pay for the wife to get well since she was very sick. This info helped me understand that the family was desperate and did not want to sell the piece of jewelry. So, instead planned the whole “robbery”.  This reminds me of some detective shows I watch. It always seems to be not what you think it is and that background knowledge to help me solve this case of the diamond and the necklace. It all will make sense once I figure out the twisted inside truth that mysteries always have. So far I think this is a good book and a GREAT mystery! Check back soon for more!

I am reading the book “Cast Two Shadows”. One of the characters is Johnny, main character, Caroline’s  older brother.  He is an honest fair guy who I like in this book. He is good, but takes alot of risk. I’m not sure what to think of him. He is very brave though. He is sometimes mysterious then, he is very social and smart. He reminds me of this guy in the picture above a little. That is Sam a character from the movie “Benny and Joon”. They are both kind of doing everything to get what they want most. Not in a selfish way though. They are both determined and funny. They to me seem confident and watch out for people. I can tell that Johnny wants to be in charge and will fight for what is right. This story takes place in the revolutionary war, so Johnny is very opinionated and wants what he thinks is right. The two characters I am talking about are rebels. Johnny is fully a rebel and well, Sam just does funny and courageous, yet sometimes dangerous things. I wonder if Johnny is actually going to kill Rawdon, the soldier who controls there own house? He claims he will. He for sure does not want to live with soldiers everywhere, bossing him around and not caring about his feelings too. That is the way Caroline and her mom are treated. What Johnny doesn’t know is that his sister and the soldier are in a relationship. I wonder how he will react when he finds out!? Also, I can connect Johnny to another character named Benny in “Benny and Joon”. Since Johnny doesn’t know that Georgia Ann and Rawdon are together, this reminds me of Benny because his younger sister is in a relationship with Sam. Benny and Johnny both don’t know that their sisters are in a relationship. Benny reacted badly when he found out about his sister and I can infer that Johnny will handle this drastically, if he finds out.

This book is a lot like what we are learning about in Social Studies. The Quartering Act forces families to provide to the British soldiers anything they wanted and this is why Johnny is mad because of the act. It is making his family live in one room and be servants in their own home! It is all going to lead up to a big event and I wonder what will happen…. war obviously, but I think that a character will die. It strikes me as the kind of book that will have a character die in and I hope that it will not end up as Johnny or Carline’s dad.

Adora Svitak, you hear the name and think “Unusual last name!” If you only knew who she was, you would think, “What a smart kid!” Adora is a 12 year old speaker. She is very smart and does amazing work. She started reading and writing at very young age. When she was six years old her mother bought her a computer microsoft word documents on it and she wrote and wrote and wrote! She had atleast three hundred stories on there. From there, she wanted to publish a book and her parents supported her. She tried to get it published, obiously it didn’t happen in a day, but finally a publisher trusted her to know what she was doing. She is now a speaker at age 12.

I have watched her speech on what adults can learn from children (online) and she makes a point. She talked about how adults call us childish for being human. We do things that are human. They do and did these things too. She Talked a lot about things us kids do that can be taught all our parents and teachers. I think she is very smart. She makes good decisions and I think she and her speech were amazing. She talked about how grownups would decide to do something then not do it because they think it won’t work, but kids don’t do that as much. She is saying all about what grownups learn from kids and I think she made good points in this speech. She is sooooo smart!

I’ve noticed that in my book “Stolen Children” (a book about a young babysitter and little girl kidnapped) that Amy (the babysitter) is very motherly and good with the little girl, Kendra. I can tell that after the day her dad died in a car crash that Amy will always try to be responsible (Dad’s last words to her were about how she made a mistake with the neighbor’s dog and make him starve for a while. Saying she needed to be more responsible and that he was dissappointed in her.) I know she feels really bad about what happened when she was a kid so I thinked she has changed and is always trying to do her best after what happen, espcially now. I know that she feels guilty about what happen and I know she is doing everything she can do to get the little girl safe and I think she will escape safley, right now in the book she is going to hide the men’s gun so she and Kendra can’t get hurt. I think she is being responsible like her dad wanted. It think it is good she is putting the little girl fist before her because she is sacrificing herself to help her try to get home safe.

Our grade is all going to a place called Biztown. It is a field trip to a place where you work in a real working economy for a day! I am sooo excited for it. I am a reporter for the JA Journal! It’s the town’s newspaper. I got my first job choice. We had interviews job applications and EVERYTHING! IT will be so cool!

I Recently finished another story, this time it is a historical fiction story about the Holocaust. I have worked very hard on character and setting descriptions and I hope you can really picture the story in your mind.

What happens when two Nazi soldiers arrive in your house /deli, break things, steal things and kidnap you? This all happens to Leah, a girl in the throws of the Holocaust! Enjoy a good story with a twist. Click below  to read!

http://docs.google.com/View?id=ddsc3d5v_52c3kpknd8

I finished Black Beauty and I have to admit, this was a good book. It did get boring sometimes, but overall, it was ok. It was very intriguing on some fronts, then the next chapter everything went from exciting to normal. It is descriptive, but sometimes is all too descriptive and goes into things that the author doesn’t need to. I do really like when Anna Sewell (the author) wraps upread it and that it’s the best the book. It leaves you kind of satisfied. In a tranquil mood. If you like something normal and horses this is a good book for you. I don’t know if it is the best book for someone who loves big, adventurous books. Though if you want a break from excitement and adventures this a good reliever. It is a hearwarming book with fun twists. So I wouldn’t tell people to go and read this, tell them it’s the best, but I’d tell them it’s ok and give them a description of it because it  is a book that some people would love and some hate.

I am reading the book Black Beauty for book club. It is very easy, but an ok book.  I’ve been thinking alot about the story’s message, if you haven’t read my last blog post. In Black Beauty I think there is an assorment of different themes that make it hard to find the message. I have tried to think about it and it’s hard to know, but My best guess is to help people learn what it is to be an animal and why you need to treat them better.

For Example, It is all about horses and they talk a lot about thethings humans do. Like when a horse owner does something bad to the horse. That has happenen many times like when York raised Beauty’s and Ginger’s heads to high or when the cab drivers just wear out Ginger,(Beauty’s best friend) by whipping and abusing her because shew isn’t a needed horse anymore. There are lots of occurances of horses and people getting hurt because of what the horse rider does. It is a chain reaction in this story.

I think this what the author is trying to say: Don’t do things to the horse that you wouldn’t do to yourself (no excuses)! It can hurt the animal and you too, so think before you do any thing to the animal.

A lot of themes lead up to this conclusion and some of them are courage, trgedy, uncomfort, etc. Also as I said, many events led up to my thinking and I like the theme. To me, it makes a lot of sense and helped me actually understand the feelings of an animal more than I ever had! I now will probably think about how the animal will feel before I do anything. Will you? If you want to read about animals and what they might feel about what’s happening in their lives you should read Black Beauty because it will teach you like it is teaching me all about what you should do with an animal and how to treat it! It is like an  inside look at a horses feelings! How cool is that? Even though you may get a little bored in the course of the book, it is a good lesson (I never realized this even myself until now!)

If you have any response to this please share it with me! Also if you have read Black Beauty, please tell me if you thought this was the book’s theme or not, why? If not, What? You can see I am really wondering about messages in the book and you thoughts so, HELP WANTED!!!

Thanks so much for reading my thoughts about messages in my book, Black Beauty and I hope you contribute your thoughts!