Gift

           A gift that I wish I could buy but I have no money for is jewelry for my mom and sister. Every year, my dad got my mom and sister some type of expensive jewelry like a necklace, bracelet, rings, or earrings but now that he's not here, I want to keep it going.

Quote

My favorite quote is "Quiet people have the loudest minds." I like this quote because it's me. I'm a quiet person but I do think a lot.

Reading Blog #5 Can't Look Away By Donna Cooner

         Can't Look Away is about a girl named Torrey Grey who is internet famous because of her beauty vlogs. In the beginning of the book, her sister is involved in a car accident that caused her to die. People begin to call Torrey various names because the death looked as if it was her fault in some people's eyes. The conflict in Can't Look Away is Torrey trying to find herself. She faces a lot of conflicts of finding who her real friends are, over coming the fact that she watched her sisters death, getting over the death, and trying to prove to people that she was never a bad sister. Everyone was saying nasty comments under her videos about her death just because they were fighting a few minutes before everything had happened. Her struggle in the story was being under the spotlight. Everyone knew about the death. It was a public thing that she couldn't escape. But she end up meeting a boy named Luis who tought her a lot of things but the main thing that stuck to her was el Dia de Los Muertos. That was her way to speak to her sister and how she realized that you can never get over a death.

Reading Blog #4 Runaway by Wendelin Van Draanen

          In Runaway, the main character is 12 year old Holly. Runaway is about Holly never finding somewhere to stay. She was always on the run trying to find a family that would not call her in or report her to the police. She didn't have her parents anymore so all she really had was herself and her thoughts.  Her internal conflict in Runaway is finding herself. She has no one to teach her right from wrong and has to learn all on her own. Although she is very smart, she does face many problems because she has no one to guide her. Her external conflict is finding somewhere to be. She's been on the run for a while and has to go though every day struggles of finding food, money, and a place to sleep but she's trying to not see herself as homeless. She doesn't want to except the fact that she is. She considers herself as a gypsie. The only thing she really has is her journal to write all of the problems she really faces.

Reading Blog Goals

I want to read more books this year. I want to try reading about 30 pages a day instead of the 20-25 to pick up the pace of reading to get through more books. I don't want to challenge myself too much but I want to try little by little. Also, instead of just reading teen fiction, I want to try to read an autobiography to get the vibe of it and see if I like it. I think it would be a difficult change but I just need to try.

Reading Blog #3 Backlash by Sarah Darer Littman

          The whole idea of Backlash is online bullying and what comes along with it. The backlash of what happens when you bully people. One of the main characters in the book, Bree, did actions before she thought which had a negative outcome and causes her to feel very guilty at the end. Bree had acted out of anger and that's were everything went wrong. The book Backlash is telling you to think before you post because you never know what could come out of it. Bree did not expect what happened to happen.

Reading Blog #2 Backlash by Sarah Darer Littman

          Backlash is a story about a girl named Lara who comes across a problem of cyber bullying.  In Backlash, the book has more than one point of view. It shows the point of view of the main character which is Lara. The point of view from Lara's sister, Sydney. The point of view from Lara's former friend, Bree, and Bree's younger brother, Liam. This shapes the story because you are able to see different sides of the story and how they all feel instead of just one character. It goes from what he/she actually said to what was thought to be said. You get a perspective on how everybody sees the situation in the story and if they're dealing with the situation in a positive or negative way. Like Bree saw something as "Lara is taking to Ashley Trapasso, a junior on the team, and she is all giggly and happy. As if she senses my gaze, Lara looks in my direction and laughs." but Lara saw it as "Hey, are you busy on Saturday?" Ashley asks. "A few of us are going to the mall." "Yes! "I exclaimed. And then I realize that came out wrong "I mean, no, I'm not busy, and yes, I'd love to come." We both laugh, and as we do, I glance over and see Bree give me a death glare." You can see that they saw one situation in two different ways. This lead to many conflicts in the book.

Reading Blog #1 Aftershock

After shock

The main character in my book is Adam. He is seventeen years old and he goes through a rough time. His parents were involved in a car crash killing both of them. He began walking and he felt as if his "legs could barley move. My feet were swollen and blistered in my high tops. I could feel blood flowing down the back of my heel."... He has to deal with this problem all alone flashing back to the past and present. Remembering things of his mom and dad such as the "who do you love more" conversations to the "wanting to have a big family with a bunch of kids eating granola and writing on the walls." He also had to deal with the horrific memories. Remember his father with " a bunch of his teeth, his awesome buck teeth, we're stuck in the steering wheel. It looked like a bad makeup job in a horror flick. I looked at my dads face and I pissed my pants. My kind flashed to the locker room. And I knew I was alive." And his last words being "Dad". The last words he would being saying for two months.

Parrandas in Puerto Rico

               In my Puerto Rican family,  a tradition we have is parrandas. Every year during Christmas in Puerto Rico we go around singing going house from house. We go in small groups and the group gets bigger and bigger as we go around. It's just like Christmas carols except in Spanish. We do it around 3 in the morning so people are awoken with a surprise. During the parrandas, we play intruments such as pandereta (the tambourine), the guiro, palitos, the Puerto Rican quatro, trumpets, and maracas.