Summer Reading Assignment Entry Four-Eleanor and Park

     After looking at the list of books on the website given, I shamefully was judging the books by their covers. I picked the covers that were the most appealing to me, or had familiar authors and read and compared the descriptions after that.  I was stuck between a book by John Green, 'Looking for Alaska', and and 'Eleanor and Park' For some reason I was pulled towards 'Eleanor and Park' Fortunately I was pulled towards this book because I absolutely loved it!  There weren't many connection between myself and the novel after reading it, considering I have never been in love.  I also have never read a teen love story before, other than 'The Last Song' The book itself just really popped out at me. I would most likely recommend this to girls, although guys could absolutely still like the book. The term "chick flick" is similar to what comes to mind when Eleanor and Park is mentioned.  It's a love story that almost reminds me of 'The Notebook' A teenage girl would most likely love this book.  In the end, anyone knowing this is a love story, could read and very much enjoy this book.  I loved it, and there most likely will be a second read in the future!

Summer Reading Assignment Entry Three-Eleanor and Park

     For me, the most interesting part of the book, which had me hooked, was actually the beginning in the prologue.   The prologue says, " He'd stopped trying to bring her back. She only came back when she felt like it, in dreams and lies and broken-down deja vu.  Like, he'd be driving to work, and he'd see a girl with red hair standing on the corner-and he'd swear, for half a choking moment, that it was her.  Then he'd see that the girl's hair was more blonde than red.  And that she was holding a cigarette...And wearing a Sex Pistols T-shirt.  Eleanor hated the Sex Pistols. Eleanor...Standing behind him until he turned his head.  Lying next to him just before he woke up. Making everyone else seem drabber and flatter and never good enough.  Eleanor ruining everything.  Eleanor, gone.  He'd stopped trying to bring her back." This intrigued me when I first read it because I wondered what it was about. I figured it was Park talking due to the title 'Eleanor and Park' and Eleanor's name being mentioned in the prologue numerous times.  By the way Park talked, it sounded like he knew Eleanor super well and it sounded like he loved her. Figuring that he loved her, it made me want to know more.  How did they meet?  What's their story? Am I wrong, are they actually not in love?  I had so many questions that need to be answered after reading the prologue which made me want to read the book immediately. After finishing the book, it made me so excited to see the huge correlation between the prologue and the ending of the book.

Summer Reading Assignment Entry Two-Eleanor and Park

There is a lot that Eleanor and Park want/desire, mainly being each other.  As of now, Eleanor is just trying to be herself. Park's mom is trying to make her fix her hair and wear makeup which she feels is not her. Park is taking Eleanor's sense of being different and started wearing eyeliner. Oddly enough, most people liked it or didn't care at all.  This gave him the boost he needed regardless of his dad's disapproval.  But, like I said before, both Eleanor and Park's main desire is each other.  They want to be with each other without conflict or set backs.  Some themes that are beginning to appear, are being yourself or someone not like everybody else, is totally okay and can be such an amazing thing.    Another theme that is appearing is that secrets can break things apart.  This is used in context of mostly Eleanor. The more secrets she keeps from her family about Park, the faster their relationship could come crumbling down.    The structure of my book is by two perspectives and different sized events.  Each chapter is filled with Eleanor's side of the story and her thoughts, then to Park's, then to Eleanor's, then to Park's, etc until usually, an event occurs and a new chapter begins.  In the book so far, Eleanor's secrets are piling up, as you can see from one of the themes I mentioned. Sooner or later, I predict her mom and step dad will figure our about her boy friend, Park, considering that her siblings have already found out.

Summer Reading Assignment Entry One-Eleanor and Park

     There are a lot of characters in "Eleanor and Park" There are two protagonists in the book, and you guessed it, the protagonists are Eleanor and Park. Other minor characters include each of Eleanor's and Park's family. In Eleanor's family there is her stepfather(who is an enemy to Elanor), her mother and her 4 other siblings. In Park's family there is his mother, father, and his brother, Josh. Also, Park's grandparents are mentioned throughout the book. One last set of characters is Tina and Steve who are both bullies to Eleanor and somewhat of friends to Park. The setting is in Omaha, Nebraska and pretty much stays in only that area. The book and love story starts in August 1986. The whole conflict is basically about Eleanor and Park's love. Eleanor's family doesn't allow her to be with boys or be out of the house for that matter.  Park's mother doesn't really approve of Eleanor right now. They're love is incredibly strong though and their parents seems to be the only things holding them back from truly felling like they are meant for each other, which they are.  I predict that in the end,  Eleanor and Park will be together but I don't know how.  Eleanor's family seems to be the biggest constraint. As I'm trying to make a connection to this book, I can't seem to find one specific connection. The main thing I think of is some teens conditions of living now.  Eleanor's back ground mostly with her step father and many sibling make her feel distant and sad and she often wonders why Park actually likes her.  I absolutely love this book, it makes me want to keep on reading to find out how Eleanor and Park will work through their struggles yet still keep their special bond!

Twisted-Character Symbols

I have read further on in Twisted, but through the symbols I will choose for Hannah, Spencer, Aria, and Emily, I will explain what is happening at this point in the book.


1) Hannah-for Hannah I would most definitely choose a Vogue magazine, no questions asked. I would choose A Vogue magazine because for starters, she absolutely loves fashion and makeup and already reads Vogue herself. Second off, she just did a photo shoot for Vogue through a photographer she met! This seems a bit fishy but Ill we'll find out if the pictures were really for Vogue or not!

2)Spencer-for Spencer, I would most likely pick a college text book. I would choose a textbook because as of now, Spencer is planning to go to Princeton and is, as usual, very competitive with this sort of thing. Her mom is dating someone new now, and her mom's boyfriends family is now competitive with her family which is the reason her college choice is being brought up very often.


3)Aria-for Aria I would choose her famous feather earrings she wore in Iceland. Her boyfriend has a new foreign exchange student living with him that's girl who Aria was worried about at first but now the two are becoming great friends! They realized they have a lot in common especially with where they have visited and lived, so the feather earrings are perfect since they represent Aria's love for Iceland.












4)Emily-for Emily I would choose a swim cap. I would choose a swim cap because she is now swimming again! She is being considered for a scholarship from her new neighbor who works at the college. Emily is doing good as far as swimming as of now and it really showing off her skills to the recruiters!

Revised Final Blogging Assessment in English 1B

Wanted Finished-Twisted Starting

     I finally finished Wanted, and let me tell you, I was not expecting what happened! It was revealed that the girl that had been friends with Aria, Emily, Hanna, and Spencer wasn't Ali at all, but it was Courtney! There is a long story going behind this including a letter given to the girls from "A" aka Ali but that would spoil too much! Basically, the real Ali tried to kill all the girls and Spencer's sister, Melissa. Ali also killed everyone else mentioned throughout the book including Ian and Jenna.  And in the end, Ali supposedly died in a fire that was meant to kill all the girls, but in my opinion this sounds a little too good to be true. For someone who has brilliantly put all this mayhem together and perfectly constructed and completed all of her evil tasks, it seems a little too easy for her to just die in a fire she started. 
       I started the next book in the series, Twisted. In the prologue, the girls were closer than ever. They all went on a vacation together and had a lot of fun! But something unusual happened again.Emily said she saw Ali while everyone was eating dinner. The prologue briefly ended and she wasn't mentioned again. This whole section is all shown in the quote on page 10 in Twisted's prologue, "'That girl.' Emily turned to them, her face pale, her lips bloodless. 'It's...Ali.'" This is where Emily sees Ali and where the prologue ended! It was somewhat frustrating because I wanted more of an explanation! When this girl was described in the book she was said to have very bad scars which is shown in the quote on page 10 in Twisted, "Even from where they were sitting they could make out more scars on her body: puckered skin on her arms, lacerations on her neck, withered flesh on her bare legs." I researched online and read about 4th degree burns...what Ali would have experienced. Fourth degree burns go through the skin, fat and go into the muscles and bones. What Ali would have experienced would be these fourth degree burns but according to the University of Maryland, Ali could have survived these burns if treated. This is shown in the quote from the University of Maryland, "All burns -- even minor ones -- may cause complications if not properly treated" This means that if Ali immediately got treated, she could have survived! This is what I believe has happened. You can read more on these quotes in this link--https://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/condition/burns-- I started the first chapter in the book which was set ten months later and now the girls have drifted apart again which is really unfortunate in my opinion because they always were really good friends and now they aren't.
     The prompt I have chose is a character prompt, which asks how the character has changed and what they've done to change my opinion of them. Well, again there are 4 main characters and they have grown quite a bit. In the first book, they all seemed very childish and young but now it seems like they have grown a lot from what they first were. This is because they have gone through so much! Hanna saw her best friend die. Emily has gotten her heart broken one too many times. Spencer is going through very unimaginable difficult times with her family, with her dad cheating on her mom with Ali's mom meaning Ali, Courtney, and Jason are all Spencer's half siblings. And Aria with her mom's horrible boyfriend and living with her father and father's fiance who her dad cheated with while married to her mom. All these girls have gone through a lot of things adults haven't even gone through and they're only in high school.  My opinions have changed about them. I feel sympathy for them with everything they are going through and sometimes I honestly get annoyed with them. They are so gullible and don't really learn from their mistakes. Even though they know how dangerous and how much A lies, they still believe every word A says. They also take all these risks that you know are always going to end badly.
     Over all, this is definitely my favorite book series, and I would definitely recommend it for anyone looking to find a good book to dig in and commit to!

Twisted(Sara Shepard)-Author's Point

     A is back! The girl's once again got fooled by A and recieved a note from A hinting towards Ali being alive, and if Ali is A anyway(like she revealed in Wanted) then don't they already know thatAli is alive? This makes me quesiton whether Ali really is A or not. Any way, the girls were so close in the beginning of the book but now they have drifted apart again; almost like they hate each other. What I don't understand is why. They all had so much fun together and now they just ignore each other and there really hasn't been much of an explanation for this. Now with A back, I predict the girls will become close again, since they are being targeted by A...once again.
     I believe the author(Sara Shepard) is trying to give out a very strong point in all of her series; this is that A is in total control. A knows everything and can control everyone. I believe that this is the main point she is trying to get across considering that on every book, she puts something about A being in control   For example, on the current book, it says, "It's not over until A says it is."  This is just a straight foward statement proving her point once more!
I'll end with these questions, do you think Ali is alive? Do you think this new A is a phony, or real? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!