Book Review: The Outsiders

      The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, is about a kid named Pony Boy, who is a greaser. A greasers are people who are kind of like gangs, but not. They are more about family than anything, most of them do rob stores, get into fights, and have greasy hair, but not all. In this story Pony Boy is faced with a difficult situation. Him and his friend Johnny are jumped by a bunch of socs. When they were jumped Pony Boy was being drowned in the pond, Johnny freaked out and stabbed the soc that was drowning Pony. After he stabbed him, all the rest of the kids ran, and the two their friend Dallas's house for help. At this house, Dallas gave them warm clothes, money, and a gun. He told them to hop on a train and jump off when they came too an abandoned church. They stayed at this church until the news about the murder had settled down a bit. A week had gone by, and they were still at the church, but that day Dallas had drove up and got them. He took them to breakfast, and when they were returning to the church to grab their stuff, it was on fire, and their was little kids that had wandered off from a  picnic in there. These kids had to be saved so Johnny and Pony Boy ran into the church to try and save these kids. They succeeded in getting the kids out but when they were leaving the church a piece of huge wood landed on Johnny, he was seriously injured.When they returned to the town they were proclaimed as heroes, but there was a problem, Johnny wasn't doing to well. After just a couple of days he died. The greasers were going to have one last rumble against the socs. Before the rumble Pony wasn't feeling to well, but still wanted to fight and did. This probably wasn't a good idea because, although they won the fight, Pony was put into a coma. After he came out of the coma he didn't remember to much about it. Another thing Pony Boy was facing was being separated from his brothers. Too not be separated he had to win his court battle against the socs. He went to the court and the socs dropped all charges and Pony got to stay with his brothers.
     One of the main themes in the book is brotherhood. The whole book is about brotherhood, but an example of it is shown when, even though he didn't like them, Dallas provided Pony Boy and Johnny with stuff to survive. Another example is when Pony Boy's brothers stayed in the hospital with him for a week when he was in his coma. Those are some examples that I think shows brotherhood.
    I would recommend this book to other 7th grade readers because, it is a great book that gives you a different point of view on someone else's life. It is full of adventure and blood. Those are the reasons I would recommend this book to other readers.


I got this photo from http://studentwriter.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/the-outsiders.jpg

FAME!

Do You Want Fame?

By Tevin   Bayne -

People say being famous is a bad thing, but I think being famous is one of the best the thing that can happen to you. Why do I think this, you ask? When you're famous you have lots of money that you can spend on cool cars, nice houses, pools and jacuzzis.You are invited to sick parties such as parties at huge clubs or in enormous mansions. Going to big events, like concerts, sporting events, Celebrity birthdays, and movies before they come out. That's why I think being famous is advantageous.

        Like I said earlier, a part of being famous is having a lot of money. When you have a lot of money you can buy sweet cars. You can also get super nice houses, and there just not nice houses they're huge beach-front houses. These kind of houses cost millions of dollars, and if you weren't famous you could only dream of owning a house like this. Another thing that you can have are pools as big as football fields, and jacuzzis that are 10 Feet Deep. I'm just naming some of the few things that come with being rich and famous.

        Do you like going to parties? Well if so, being rich and famous is for you. You get to go to parties at big name celebrity house's such as Jay-Z, Dwayne Wade, or maybe even Sandra Bullock. The parties at these houses are the biggest and best parties you will ever attend. There is great music, flashing lights, servants, and even great non alcoholic beverages.

So if you like going to parties such as the ones I explained earlier, pursuing a career of riches and fame is a great idea for you.

        Super Bowls, NBA Championships, and Big movie premieres! These are things that you will attend yearly, where as to a normal person could only attend maybe 1 in a lifetime. If that doesn't sound like fun to you, you have even more big events you could attend. Some of these other events include being on TV Shows such as Oprah, Jay Leno, and Ellen Degeneres.

I just named a small amount of the many  events you will participate in.

        If, after that you still don't want to be famous, you know what you want in life. Having lots of money, going to sick parties, and attending big events are just things that I think would make an awesome lifestyle. Those are just some of my thoughts on why being famous is advantageous.

You're Fired

Dear Human Body Corporation:

                How dare you! I’ve kept you standing tall for all these years and this is how you repay me.

You don’t want to be feeling like a noodle with out any feeling. If you fire me you won’t have your nerves or your brain. You also won’t have your spinal cord, and I’m pretty sure you need your spinal cord to do most things. So if you fire me you will be the lonely kid that can’t move without nerves and a brain. If you fire the nervous system you will die.

                You will have no nerves and you won’t have feelings. You’d be the emotionless kid that sits in the back of the class alone. If there was a poisonous platypus that attacked you wouldn’t feel it on you. You would get rabies or some nasty dissease like that, and just think about all the other bad stuff that could happen like putting your hand a hot stove. With all that said you’d be like a walking injury.

                Your brain is another thing you would those if I was to be fired. You wouldn’t be able to talk to your friends. You wouldn’t be smart, you’d be the kid that always failed tests and fell asleep in class. Most importantly you wouldn’t be able to communicate with others. It would be immpossible to live a normal life.

                The last thing you would lose is your spinal cord. If you lost your spinal cord you would be floppy like a noodle. If you were floppy like a noodle you wouldn’t be able to particiapate in most physical activities. You would also die. The last thing is you couldn’t move. You would be at home all day in bed, not being able to move. So you would end up just sitting a chair the rest of your life.

                You don’t want to die do you? You need the nervous system to be a normal human being. If you didn’t have your brain you would not be able to do anything. Lastly, if you didn’t have you spinal cord you would get out of shape and not participate in any thing physical. You can not fire me!
               Sincerely, 

                               The Nervous System
                                                                   I got this picture from http://www.faqs.org/health/images/uchr_02_img0126.jpg                                                                                                                                                                                         

Book Review:A Boy at War

A Boy at War, by Harry Mazer, is about a boy named Adam, who's Dad is part of the navy. Because of the navy his family is forced to move to Hawaii. Adam lives a very strict and Navy like life, his Dad is gone a lot of the time. Adam tries to make friends in his new place. At school he meets a Japanese kid named Davi and they become friends. One afternoon Adam went for a bike ride to the beach, and finds a bunch of kids playing football. One of the kids is Davi, who asks him to play. After the game, Adam realizes that he must be home soon, and so Davi and Adam ride home together.On the ride home, Davi invites Adam to go fishing. The next morning Adam gets up early to go fishing. When he gets to the pier, he sees Davi and Martin, who is one of Davi's friends. To get to the beach you have to climb under a fence, and thats when Adam realized, that this was Pearl Harbor. They arrived at the beach to look for bait, instead they find a rowboat. They got in the row boat and started fishing. While they were fishing Pearl Harbor was attacked by Japanese planes. Bombs  dropped from the sky, and Adam watched his father's battleship break in half and sink. As he watched, Adam was grazed by a bullet, the boat was whipped around in the water, tearing it to pieces. The boys were thrown out of the boat. AS Adam was swimming back to the beach he couldn't see Davi or Martin anywhere. When the two boys finally popped to the surface, there was something wrong. Martin couldn't swim and he didn't look too well. On shore they were asking around for a car to take Martin to the hospital. People were frantic, one noticed Davi was Japanese and knocked him out. Adam got separated from his friends and grouped with a bunch of Navy men. The Navy needed men, Adam was given a gun and uniform. Now, a soldier, Adam needed to get away. He was trying to get back home to see his Mom and Sister . When he got home he and his Mom waited for news of his Dad. Finally after two weeks of waiting they got a letter saying he was lost in battle. So from there they sailed home on a troop ship.
   One of the main themes in the book is courage. An example of how this theme is shown is when Adam becomes a soldier and is in the battlefield in the middle of the war. He is forced to  put on a uniform and get into battle another example of courage is when he protects the bus with civilians on it. That's why I think courage is one of the main themes of this book.
  I would recommend this book to other 7th grade readers, because it is filled with action and adventure. I think a person who is into war and action would really enjoy this book. There is no sequel, but Im interested in reading another one of this authors books. This was one of the best books I've read and thats why I would recommend this book to other readers.

I got this photo fromhttp://www.ba.k12.ok.us/schools/cms/tmelgaard/Best%20Books/Boy%20War.jpg