Q2 Breaking Dawn

This week I read 360 pages of Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer. Bella is pregnant with a monster that is killing her, Jacob broke off from his pack, and Edward is not so charming anymore. In all the other books that whole vampire thing was not as prominent. You knew they drank blood but it was not gross to think about for some reason. In this book Bella, still human, is drinking blood and that is so gross. The baby is killing her and constantly breaking her bones. It had to be ripped out of her stomach. There is just too much blood compared to the other books. Also, at the start of the book Bella decides to stay human and go the Dartmouth, but when the thing starts growing she had no choice but to become a vampire. What I do like about this book is how Rosalie starts to become friends and protect Bella, even if it is just to save the baby. I have liked Rosalie from that start so I’m glad they get along now. I also like that although Jacob doesn’t end up with Bella, he imprints on her baby. This means they will fall in love. I’m glad that at least if he can’t have Bella he can love her child. I hope this book gets better because I may not even finish it if the story line doesn’t improve. The last three books were very captivating so I’m disappointed that the fourth one that was supposed to be the best is so gory and boring.

Q1 Free Response 7

This week I finished the last 368 pages of New Moon by Stephanie Meyer. I also read the first 385 pages of Eclipse also by Stephanie Meyer. In the Twilight books I find Bella and Jacob’s relationship to be quite confusing. In Twilight, the first book, Jacob helps Bella realize that Edward is a vampire. In the next book he is there to comfort her when Edwards runs out of her life. He is her best friend during this time. When Edward returns Jacob is angry and tells Charlie, Bella’s dad, about how Bella has been riding a motorcycle against his wishes. She is very hurt that he betrayed her after he promised to keep that secret. Edward and Jacob are enemies, so Edward bans Bella from seeing Jacob. Finally, Edward changes his mind and decides to trust Bella since she is miserable with out her best friend. She is at last allowed to see Jacob again. One day when she is at Jacob’s home, Jacob kisses her despite Bella’s objection. She punches him and breaks her knuckles. She is furious at him and never wants to see him again. Edward happily agrees, but soon both Edward and Jacob find themselves having to put their differences aside to protect Bella from an army of young vampires who have set out to kill her. I have yet to find out how the story ends, but I hope Bella ends up with Edward and forgets Jacob entirely. I know this won’t happen, but what Edward can do is change Bella into a vampire soon so that Jacob can not be around her anymore.

q1 Free Response 6

This week I read 414 more pages of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. At this point in the story a tracker vampire named James is after Bella. When the Cullens are playing baseball during a thunder storm some other cannibal vampires are passing through and stop to play. One of them caught the sent of Bella and now will not stop chasing her until he can kill her. The Cullen family plans to join forces to protect Bella from the tracker. Alice and Jasper take Bella to Phoenix trying to out smart James. Emmett, Edward, and Carlisle act as a decoy taking Bella’s truck and driving north. They plan to kill him if they get the chance. Rosaline and Esme also act as decoys distracting James’ vampire friend, Victoria. Bella is very upset that she has caused so much trouble. She especially fears for the safety of Charlie and Renee, her parents. She hopes that James or Victoria will not go after them. Alice, who can the future, notices that James will come to Phoenix and seek Bella. He will try to attack her at an old ballet studio with a VCR in it. He sends Bella a message tricking her into thinking he had her mother to kill, so she goes to meet him. He nearly kills her but Edward saves her, removing the venom from where James bite her. I also read 195 pages of New Moon, the second book in the series Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer. So far it is not quite as good as the first book but hopefully it will get better as I get further into the story.

Q1 Free Response 5

This week I read 128 pages of Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I have finally given in to all my friends who insist this is a great book despite the fact that it is about a stupid vampire who is attracted to Bella’s blood. After reading the first six chapters I still am not convinced Twilight is as amazing as everyone says.
Dear Bella,
I know how you felt the day in biology class when you were supposed to prick your finger to find your blood type but fainted during the demonstration instead. One day in eighth grade science class we were supposed to use a toothpick a pull some skin off of the inside of our cheek and I fainted. It was really embarrassing and though I have outgrown my week stomach, I still remember that day well.
I also understand how you hate living in Forks because of all the rain. I hate it when it rains because of how sticky and humid it gets. My hair gets the thick wet greasy feeling and gets really frizzy and curly. I could never stand to spend even one day in Forks. Edward Cullen confuses me and I think you should just forget about him. Jacobs right about him being a vampire and he wants to drink your blood which is the most absurd thing. If I were you avoid Edward like he advises you too, all your troubles could be avoided. He clearly is superhuman, being able to lift a car and make dents in it without being injured. Why did you not realize this from the start?
Sincerely,
Aimee

Q4 Free Response 4

This week I read thirty more pages of Vienna Prelude by Bodie Thoene. In this section of the book Theo gets help from Murphy to escape Berlin. He goes to Murphy’s hotel room and gives him a letter to mail to Elisa and Anna. The Gestapo had followed him to the hotel and now are waiting outside to arrest Theo for leaving his home. Murphy comes up with the plan and sends decoys out dressed like Theo to fool the Gestapo. Eventually it’s safe to leave the building and Murphy drives Theo, also an air force hero, to an airport and sends him off safely in an old jet.
One quote that really stood out to me was, “‘Now help me push, or leave me to my own fate!’” (14, 122). I thought if was interesting because the Odyssey and Iliad, two books we just read, also deal a lot with fate. This quote is spoken my Theo when he is about to fly out of Germany in an old plane. He knows that this is his only chance to escape death. If he stays in the country he will be put to death and all his money taken from him. He can avoid his fate by flying out of Berlin while the Gestapo are chasing after his decoys.
Another thing that I thought was interesting was that pre-world war two, no one in any other country was concerned in preventing the holocaust. Few people thought it was a threat to Europe so powerful countries like Brittan or the United States did not step to stop Hitler. Millions of Jews lost their lives in concentration camps. Most of these deaths could have been prevented had we stopped the war before it started. When Brittan did finally send help, they sent a Jew hater, Nevile Henderson, to help. Neither country made wise decisions at the beginning of Hitler’s reign which sadly led to the demise of many Jews’ and other “impure” people.

Q1 Free Response 3

This week I read 24 more pages of “Vienna Prelude” by Bodie Thoene. Elisa has just arrived in the Austrian Alps except without her father, Theo. The Gestapo forced him off the train and made him return home. The Gestapo think that if Theo remains in Germany, the family will be forced to return. They want their money which at the moment is stored in various banks in other parts of Europe.
Meanwhile in the mountains, Anna, Elisa’s mother, and the family are worried sick about Theo. They also worry that their secret will be discovered. They have told Franz and his family that they are from Vienna, not Germany. One night Franz discovers Elisa in the barn. She tells him a little of her story and how she is worried for her father. Franz in turn tells her that his brother, Otto, is not completely loyal to Austria. He favors Hitler and his communist ideas. This information is vital for Elisa’s family’s survival.
The next day Anna and Elisa go into a big vacationing city in Austria. They make reservations at a hotel, visit a doctor, go shopping, eat lunch, and most importantly renew their visa to stay in Austria. They also make sure some German Gestapo see them and write some letters to Theo. By going to this city they hope to fool the Gestapo into thinking they are here. This will hopefully buy them the much needed time to figure out what they are going to do. They know that returning to Germany is the worst thing they could do.
Theo on the other hand is worried that his family will return to dangerous Germany. He also knows that his family’s return would be the end of them and wants to protect them. The ironic part in all of this is that when Anna sends him a letter letting him know that they will be staying in Austria longer, he is too busy writing them a letter pretending he has died. He hopes this will keep them from coming. The letter he did not read would have let him know that they were staying in longer and relieve all his fears. This book is very captivating and I look forward to reading more.

Q1 Free Response 2

This week I read seventeen pages from the book “I Ain’t Comin’ Back” by Dolphus Weary. The book is a memoir of Mr. Weary’s life growing up in Mendenhall, Mississippi. He grew up in the 1950s and 60s, a time of great racial segregation. Being black and poor, his future did not look very bright, yet his mother wanted each of her seven kids to grow up to get a good education.
Over MEA his year, I have to opportunity to go on a missions trip to Mendenhall. It is one of the areas most devastated by poverty in all of the United States. Because Mr. Weary did choose to go back to his home town after college, there is now a school, church, and a few other buildings started by his organization. When you enter this town you see that on one side of the railroad tracks live the rich white people. These are the homes with lawns, flowers, white picket fences, and there live people with steady jobs. On the other side of the tracks live the poor, African-American people with houses that are falling apart, and money only to buy necessities.
One quote that stood out to me in my reading this week was, “When you grow up like that, you don’t dread not having things- you dream about having them” (2,14). He went on to talk about how for us, everyday we get the choice of what we want to eat for breakfast. Eggs, toast, waffles, honey nut, fruit loops, bacon, banana. Growing up, the thought of even getting to choose between cheerios and honey nut was a dream. He never had a real bath tub with running water, and never used a shower until college. He never had ice cream until he was ten. They did not have the money to own a freezer in their house.
This really made me think of how blessed I am. Not only could I eat ice cream every night if I wanted to, but I also could have the choice of what kind of ice cream I wanted to eat. Looking in my freezer today we have chocolate and vanilla ice cream and frozen yogurt. If my shirt rips, it is okay because I have fifty some others in my closet and dresser. In Edina, most of us are very well off. But there must to be some among us who do live in some sort of poverty, even if they are not as extreme as those of Mr. Weary. What can we do to help these people within our own town and country?

Q1 Free Respose 1

This week I read eighty-two pages of Vienna Prelude, by Bodie Thoene. The story takes place in Eastern Europe in 1936, just as Hitler is taking power in Germany and Austria. The story follows the lives of many different people living in and around Berlin as they cross with the life of wealthy Aristocrat Elisa Lindheim. While she is by heritage half Jewish, she is a practicing Lutheran and did not inherit her father’s Jewish looks. She plays in a professional orchestra in Vienna, Austria, where she goes by the last name Linder as to be able to perform on all stages, since Jews were banned from performing. Throughout the novel, as people pass in and out of her life, we know things about them before even Elisa knows they exist. This makes it easy for us to tell how these people will play a significant role in her life.
There’s Franz, the mountaineer in the Austrian Alps, whose family will be opening their home for a few weeks to a family from Berlin. We as the reader quickly realize that it will be Elisa’s family staying with Franz while they find a safe place to escape the Gestapo.
John Murphy, an American reporter, is stationed in Berlin to report on the Nazi’s rise. He feels as though the rest of the world is not paying enough attention to the wrongs happening in Germany, and takes it upon himself to attempt to help at least one Jew. That Jew we soon realize will be Elisa.
There are many more characters that enter and leave Elisa’s life throughout the novel. Thinking of this, I began to wonder what our lives would be like if they were a book. We would know who we were about to meet before we saw their face. We would know what we would do in the future before we went to college. There would never be any need to worry because you could just skip a few pages ahead and see what happens next. But would life then really be worth living? Is it not the twists and turns, surprises and suspense of life that keep us getting out of bed each morning to face a new day?
Elisa faces constant fear and much uncertainty. These are the things that make her strong. If she were to know her family would escape successfully, she would not have fought so hard to help them. It is our uncertainty of the future that makes us brave and forces us to want to improve ourselves.

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