Helpful Connections!

I spent a lot of time reading through my peers blogs and trying to find three posts that best relate to my lit circle book “Little Brother”. While reading through all these blogs I found a lot of similarities and differences between my literature circle novel and other people’s literature circle novels, but it seemed that there was some kind of connection in each complete blog post that helped me understand my novel better in some way.

 The first blog post I commented on was a post by a student named Tarra. Immediately when Tara mentioned government corruption in her post, it reminded me of my lit circle novel "Little Brother". In her post she wrote about “The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas” and how the protagonist, Bruno, is unaware of what’s going on in his world around him during the holocaust. Bruno reminds me of most of the people living in San Francisco in the novel "Little brother". Both Bruno and the people of San Francisco are unaware of the horrible things going on around them. They were told they were being protected from terrorists, when their neighbors were being tortured by the DHS. Similar to how Tarra said Bruno was fed miss information to lead him to believe that all is well around him. Then I read Megan’s blog post on her book, “The Fault in Our Stars”. In her post she talked about the theme of her novel being, never give up. The theme of Little Brother is to never give up as well. The protagonist of Little Brother, Marcus, faces a lot of challenges in his attempt to take down the DHS, but he doesn't give up. Marcus finds a girl who wants the same things he wants and they work together to get what they want. Similar to how Hazel and Augustus meet over something they both want and work together to reach their goals. The last blog I commented on was a student from GCI’s. The novel they wrote about was “The Book Theif”. The connection I made was between the experiences of both protagonists. When the protagonist of "The Book Theif", Liesl, went through the loss of her little brother she must have felt like how Marcus felt after his best friend was stabbed then never released from the DHS custody. Until the end of Little Brother, Marcus was almost certain his best friend Darryl was dead, and he couldn’t help feeling slightly responsible for it. The student mentioned how Liesl felt like he failed to protect his brother; Marcus also felt like he didn't do a good enough job protecting his friend after he got stabbed. Now they both have to live with the loss of someone very close to them while feeling somewhat responsible for that person’s death.

The connections I made helped me to understand my novel better by putting the emotions characters felt in my novel into different situations. For example, I didn’t really realize how devastating it must have been for Marcus when he lost his best friend until I read the last blog I commented on, where it gave me a new perception on the feeling of losing a loved one. I can’t relate to now it feels to have a best friend die, but I can imagine what it would feel like to lose my brother since I’ve been close to losing him. It was a lot easier for me to be able to relate and understand how Marcus felt, and why it was so important to defend his friends honor, after reading that blog post and putting it into consideration. Also, it’s easier for me to understand my novel when I can connect it to things I already have knowledge about, so I can have a more thorough understanding on the topic. For example, I have a pretty good understanding on the holocaust, but my novel didn’t really explain how the people of San Francisco felt about the issue going on with the DHS, but then I read Tarra’s blog and was able to make a lot of connections between the people of San Francisco in “Little Brother” and people during the time of the holocaust. They both were very unaware of what was really going on in their world. The final way reading these blogs helped my understanding of my novel is by applying the theme of my novel too different stories and situations. By looking at different ways the theme was demonstrated it gave me a better understanding of the theme. For example, Megan’s blog post gave me the impression that they had the same theme of never giving up. But when further comparing the themes I realized in both stories the protagonist was able to make it through what they wanted by not giving up, and with the power of a special girl they met who had the same goal as them.

The 3 Blogs I commented on:

1: http://brennanbonesfan.blogspot.ca/2013/11/80-people-killed-while-people-     were.html

2: http://makpb.blogspot.ca/2013/11/the-fault-in-our-stars.html

3: http://kristydigitallearning.weebly.com/3/post/2013/11/november-27th-2013.html?

Image Citations

-http://sanmarcoshighschoollibrary.blogspot.ca/2010/05/review-boy-in-striped-pajamas-boyne.html

-http://www.patheos.com/blogs/happycatholicbookshelf/2013/03/recent-fiction-book-club-picks/

-http://booksellers.penguin.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780525478812,00.html

My Big Sister

No one else in my life has influenced me more than my sister Jackie. My sister is the craziest, most unbelievable sweetheart in k-Town. She’s so hilarious and crazy, but whenever I’m not up to her craziness she's always a supportive, sweet, helpful person. She has a great perspective on life and had taught me so much on the way to be. She’s so smart...but also kind of stupid sometimes, never the less; she'll always be the person I love most!

I think every girl needs a sister; someone to teach you how to put on makeup, curl their hair, talk about boys with, and so many things no one else can do for you. But my sister is way more than just that. My sister gets me like no one else, she’s the one person whose known me forever, knows my family as well as me, has been there through it all, seen my ups and downs, knows who I really am. She can relate to the way I think, my family, my experiences, my traits. My sister partially raised me, she’s shaped me so much to be like her, and that’s why no one understands me like my sister, because I’m just a shorter more motivated version of her.

It honestly scares me how much me and my sister are alike! I don’t know if it’s because of genetics, or because she shaped me to be like her, or because we don’t leave each other’s sides, but my sister is like my 3 year old premature twin. We can finish each other’s sentences and I could probably read her mind if I wanted to. We think so much alike and have such similar views.

I don’t leave my sisters side. Next semester she’s switching to my school, we work together, and I always go with her to her friends. On those rare occasions when my sister goes to her friends alone because I’m busy or something, she still has to text me till she gets home. I have never met any sisters closer than us!

I love my sister so much! She’s my sister and best friend. I have no idea who I’d be, or what I would do without her. I’m lost when she leaves for the day, I don’t know what I’d do if I lost her forever. Until recently I had no idea how much my sister meant to me. When she almost moved to Alberta I finally realized how much I need her. Now, I’m so grateful to have such an incredible person in my life, and I need her more than anything else!

Little Brother / Orange is The New Black

In the novel, Little Brother, Marcus Yallow goes through five days of being detained by the department of home land security. After being researched and losing all his privacy he is finally released being told he would be watched. After being released, the department continues to go through all his media, watch him on cameras, and listen to his conversations. I couldn’t imagine what it would feel like to not know how or when, but to know your being monitored for a crime you didn’t commit. Even though Marcus is innocent imagine if some random government person listened to all your conversations carefully, went through all your computer activity, watched you when you didn’t know! While reading Little Brother I thought Marcus could probably relate to the main character of Orange is the new Black.

 My sister and I have this new obsession with the show, Orange is the New Black. Orange is the new black is a show about an all-girls jail. The main character, Piper, is sent to the prison for a crime she committed 10 years ago. She used to be in love with a drug smuggler and at a time when her girlfriend needed help, piper helped her to smuggle drug money over the border. Now she has to serve for a crime she did long ago under the pressure of someone she loved. At this point Piper has a fiancé, a business, and a whole new life.

I thought that Marcus and Piper can relate because they both feel punished unfairly for no good reason. Now, both Marcus and Piper can barely communicate with the world their apart of because their conversations are all listened to, they can’t use the internet, they have no privacy, everything they have is constantly evaded.

Even though Marcus was released, he probably feels like he’s in jail. Even though he can go anywhere, the department of home land security can take him back at any time. Marcus must feel like Piper, in a prison.

Orange is the new Black, Episode 1 and description:

http://www.astreamingtv.com/watch-orange-is-the-new-black-season-1-episode-1-online

Pictures:

-http://www.tv.com/shows/orange-is-the-new-black/community/post/orange-is-the-new-black-moscow-mulefcksgiving-review-the-shu-doesnt-fit-137546438918/

-http://bitchstolemyremote.com/2013/07/26/orange-is-the-new-black-review-1x04-1x05-imaginary-enemies-the-chickening/

Take your kid to work day

Last Wedsnday I went to work with my mom for KCI's take your kid to work day. My mom is a history professor at the University of Waterloo. She teaches several different history courses such as history of business, history of sexuality, history of family and divorce, history of Canada, and so on. On Wedsnday my mom had her history of business class so that’s the one I got to sit in.
When I first got up on Wedsnday, I wasn’t planning on going to work with my mom. It wasn’t till I got to school and saw how empty the school was when I remembered it was take your kid to work day. I tried to call my mom but she was already at work, so I texted her. She replied that she had two classes that day and she would pick me up after her first class and I could watch her second class.
In first period most of my class was gone, and most of my second class, and same with my third. After my lunch my mom picked me up and took me to the university. When we got there, my mom had to take care of the first order of business, Tim Horton. Then, we went to her office. My mom had office hours from 1 to 2 and then her class was at 2:30. When we got to her office there were students waiting to talk to her and to pick up assignments. I just decided to read my lit circle book while she discussed with them.
When all the students left, my mom told me she just had to quickly look over her notes before her class started so to be quiet for a minute. As my mom was reading her noted she started to pull a buffet out of her bag, chewy bars, Reeses cups, cookies, so on. This was a side of my mom I'd never seen before, my mom has a sweet tooth the size of a fruit fly. It was probably the most out of character thing I’ve ever seen my mom do, but why would I complain, she pulled me out of school to eat candy.
Before her next class, we had a few last things to do, check her mail (which had the newest book in her collection of free books she gets as a perk of being a professor), photo copy a page (it’s a good experience watching your mom try to get the same photo copy machine she’s had at work for some time to work), and go to the bathroom. On the way back from the photo copier I got to meet the secretary of the department, but not too long, she was kind of busy finding a place to hide the tree, she couldn’t manage to keep alive, from the old secretary.

When it was time for her class, we took the underground tunnels to the room she was in and I sat in a seat at the front, near my mom. She started by talking about an assignment so I didn’t really know what she was talking about, but it got a lot more interesting when she started the power point. I had no idea my mom was such a good teacher. Even being in grade 9 she was able to make a lot of the lecture clear to me. I rarely let my mom go on one of her endless rants on history so I never really knew how much of a history genius she was. History is not the most popular subject, too most, it’s not hard to fall asleep during history class, but I found my mom’s passion for history brings her lectures more to life. She’s really good at her job and I’m happy she can have a job that involves her passion and makes her happy. This job demonstrates all her great people skills, her knowledge, and her helpfulness. I was so proud of her, watching her teach!
After take your kid to work day, I would love to be a professor just like my mom. But either way, she constantly inspires me to be the best I can!