I'll Find Him

Author's Note: Winning is something that pleases us. Games, races, lotteries, everything. Have you ever had a reason to win though? Not just for pleasure but something greater, friends, family, saving a life?

People die every day. You see it all over the news as if it’s just another thing, just another day, just another person. But what if this was your friend or family member. You wish you could have done something to have prevented it. This is how Duncan felt in the book Acceleration. In his minimum wage, waste of time job Duncan discovers the diary of a serial killer and learns of his foul plots and feels determined to stop them. A major theme in this book is determination.

The diary that Duncan finds is one of the greatest things that gives the book the theme of determination. The things that this psychopath has done and plans to do is driving him crazy. He can’t turn this in to the police, since there is no name they might think it’s him or not take it seriously. However, he can’t let it go either. Determined to possibly save lives Duncan uses the diary to his advantage, occasionally finding hints to who this person is. However, determination being the theme is not just because of the diary

Being known for a slacker and law breaker Duncan is determined to fix his reputation. Now that he is old enough for his juvenile crimes to be erased from his records he wants to prove to the world that he can be a good person. He is determined to get over the discrimination, and bullying that he puts up with on a daily basis. Believing that he can be a hero and be respected by everyone Duncan pushes through to find this mad man.

A leading theme in Acceleration is determination. No matter what happened or how hopeless finding this man got Duncan never gave up. He gave his life to do what felt right.

To War

Author's Note: War is much different than what most of us think. 

Jonathan stood there watching as enemy soldiers approached. The Corporal shouted orders and the other men hustled about, struggling to load rifles and to set up a line of defense. Enemies inched closer and closer. Jonathan looked around at his fellow soldiers, their faces cloaked in fear. His stomach felt uneven and his mind was racing and he kept thinking of his mother and father. Opposing soldiers were so close now Jonathan could hear their marching. Everyone halted awaiting for the Corporal to give the command to fire.

“Ready!”, shouted the Corporal.

Jonathan’s heart raced, he was panicked.  He wanted to be a soldier but as he looked at both sides and considered what he was about to do.

“Aim!”

He didn’t want this. No more fighting, no more marching, no more being a soldier.

“Fi—!”

Jonathan turned around and was paralyzed. The Corporal had been shot.

“ZZZZZZPP!”

Something and hit Jonathan’s back. His eyes got heavy, his mind went blank, and the world went dark. He awoke at the sound of a cry he shot up and was rewarded with a spiking pain in his back that echoed throughout his body. Maids and doctors rushed towards him. He realized he was in an infirmary. Doctors asked him what he remembered but he couldn’t remember a thing. All he knew was his back was in pain and he needed to go back to his father. He wished he had never gone to war.

Thug to Hero

Author's Note: The journey from a thug to a hero is not something to think easy of. It takes much work determination and the assistance of friends. 

You push open the wooden door leading into the brightly lit cafeteria. As soon as you step into the room two hundred  pairs of eyeballs shoot toward you. A shockwave of applause thunders throughout the room as people clap and cheer for you. You are a savior, a leader, a hero. As you stand there,  basking in glory, you realize how you were not always a hero. How you could barely find scraps of food while living on the streets. How you committed terrible deeds and how one person changed your life forever. This is the story of James Adams. Without the help of two people he would never be recognized as a hero.

Amy was the character that changed James from a thug to a hero. James was living on the streets and relying on shoplifting to supply him with living supplies. Going mad with power he gets careless and gets arrested. James gets sentenced to a military school called CHERUB. His swimming instructor, Amy, inspires him to achieve greater things and get through his life by being a hero. “You are weak, you can’t do it” is a phrase that she often uses to push him to his limit. He gets the support he needed to pass training and uncovers a Russian spy in CHERUB. However, Amy wasn’t the only person that changed James’ life.

Kerry gave James his competitiveness. As his training partner and rival she often seemed to make him want to be the best, not just get through something. She often mocked him and tried to crush him at anything that was the slightest bit competitive. James not only learned how to beat her but gave him an even greater passion to pursue greatness. Thinking about James always seems to bring another character to thought.

Melinda from the book Speak reminds me of James and his change. Melinda starts out as an outcast, a freak, a nobody. But she goes on with life and gets inspired to be a better person and do good things. Getting encouragement from Mr. Freeman to make the most out of life. She earns a triumphant victory over Andy Evans and is known as a hero throughout the whole school.

Considering all the support that came to James certain people helped him to succeed more than others. Without their help he would never be recognized as a hero and the organization CHERUB itself may have even been destroyed.

The Killing

Author's Note: This is a retelling of the book The Killing by Robert Muchamore.  I would recommend this book to people who like action and suspense.

In the book The Killing by Robert Muchamore a boy named James who is an undercover agent for MI5. He is sent to befriend the children of suspects and learn as much as they can. However, James finds more than he expects and corrupt cops come after him.Eventually he finds enough evidence to press charges against the killer and the children can go free.

Changing America

Author's Note: The founding fathers gave america the head start they needed to becoming a great country. Some decisions were better than others.

Several men stand around a table bearing a piece of parchment.  The room is filled with candle light. Thoughtful conversations sound throughout the room ,not an argument, but a heavy discussion. The men in the room speak firmly, honestly speaking about what is wrong with the world. These are the discussions that changed the world, that changed time, that changed the course of destiny. These are our founding fathers. They formed the foundations of America in their visions, however some of their decisions may not have been the best.

One thing that the founding fathers didn’t make perfect was the government. Look at it today, no one can agree on anything and the economy is falling apart. Nothing changes to stop this either. The same media, the same arguments, the same politicians. Since nothing changes there is always a bunch of kindergarten drama. The presidential elections don’t help either. If the president is running for another term the whole last year of his current term is wasted on making campaign ads and speeches. The founding fathers could have set the government to have so much power or maybe make elections not last as long. Problems with the government are not the only things the founding fathers made “mistakes” with.

Something that they should have definitely  thought about was racial profiling. Back then it was bad because there were slaves. Our country had a war with each other over it. Even though that is over today there are still many people who think badly of another skin color. Without that our country could achieve so much. I’m not saying they should have come out yelling treat everyone equal it’s now the law but if they could have stressed something like that a little better I think that would not be as big of a problem today.

The founding fathers gave America the boost and head start it needed to becoming a great country. Almost everything about would lead to great things later in life. Though not all was as it could have been, they created an extraordinary work of art with the weapons of  determination, truth, and hard work.  

Cause and Effect

Author's Note: This is my Cause and effect piece on what the causes and effects are in The Dealer, by Robert Muchamore.

The Dealer, by Robert Muchamore, is about a boy named James who is an undercover agent. He is sent on a mission to take down a powerful drug dealer. Cause and effect in this book is what shapes the story. For example, James is a rule-breaker, he loves action, being the big hero,  and getting adrenaline rushes. This causes him to make some rather unnecessary decisions that can sometimes lead to big trouble or a helpful hint. One example is the Climax. The cause is he decides to go to a party when he was suppose to meet with his mission instructors and the effect is he gets arrested by corrupt cops that are bribed to attempt to kill him. 

Conflict and Resolution

Author's Note: Find out the main conflict in The Killer, by Robert Muchamore.

 A book I have recently read is The Killer, by Robert Muchamore. The book is about a boy named James who is trained to befriend the child of a mass murderer to draw out information to press charges in court. This is no easy task. James must prove his worth by shoplifting, burning cop cars, and robbing other homes to impress his target.

The main conflict in this story is person vs. self. James must make difficult choices throughout the story. He makes many choices that can cause arrest or even death. The resolution is that James makes these risky choices to befriend his target.

Fate or Luck?

Author's Note: Have you ever regretted doing something because you got injured? Find out what can happen in my story.

Fate or Luck?

 The road is bumpy on the trail as you hobble up the hill on your brand new bike. You finally reach the top you pause for a moment to catch your breath. Soon after, you start whipping down the hill. The peaceful ride now ends, your tire goes flat, skidding and bumping instead of riding now. With no control you swerve right and topple over the steep hill. As you fall, you hit your head on a rock and lose consciousness. Hours later you wake up to find yourself stuck to a branch just before you would have fallen to great pain or even death. I remember this like yesterday. This is a phenomenal  learning  experience that will stay with me forever.

How astonishing, a new bike, a thrill ride of joy. Nothing brings a child more happiness than a brand new bike on their birthday. For me this was no simple happiness, no simple gift, no simple experience. This was my winning lottery ticket. I never have or will experience something as dazzling like this for the rest of my life. They say money can’t buy happiness, but that law was just broken.  As I was riding my bike around or driveway, grinning ear to ear, my dad calls out,

“Want to go take a test drive on the ol’ Rocky Trail?”

“Really!” , I burst out, “When can we go?”

When we arrived at the Rocky Trail we pulled our bikes out of the trunk and started pacing on the trail. The trail was actually pretty dangerous. Large rocks and brushwood cluttered the path and there were huge cliffs to your right. These things hadn’t bothered us for years and we didn’t think they would harm us. We biked along until we got to a fork in the path. Both sides come back together but me and my dad have races to see who gets there first. We set up at our “starting line” and BOOM! The imaginary blank is shot and off we went.

I started gaining tons of speed, this bike was much faster than my old one. An adrenaline rush spiked through my body as I went faster and faster, getting dangerously careless for this trail. Suddenly I saw the colossal hill. I kicked it into high gear and started storming up the hill. When I finally reached the top my mind wanted to continue but my body forbid it. I stopped for a moment attempting to catch my  breath but my bike was calling to me and soon I was flashing down the hill. But not far down my tire goes flat and I lose control of the bike. Skidding down the hill out of control the bike swerved right and I flew right off the path.

The experience of this event will stay with me for the rest of my life. I don’t know if it was fate or just chance that saved me there but I am grateful. I hope to never have to go through something luck this again. Next time it might turn out different. 

Book Retelling

Author's Note: Find out about the book The Dealer, by Robert Muchamore.

If you like action and crime fighting then you will love the book "The Dealer", by Robert Muchamore. It's about an organization called CHERUB. Here the train children with no parents or families as government agents. James Adams a recently new recruit member of CHERUB is sent off on a dangerous mission to find evidence against one of the worlds top drug dealers.

Not Broken

Author's Note: Look for what is compared to breaking a bone in my story.

Have you ever broken a bone in your life? lucky for me, I have never broken a bone in my life, however, I have had some other weird things happen to me in my life. For example, when I was little I played youth baseball. We had just won our championship and were tailgating afterwards. Tasty burgers and hotdogs were being grilled on small portable grills while we were playing Tag I tripped over one of them and my leg landed right on the grill. As you can imagine, it wasn’t a very fun experience. Later I found out I had third degree burns and something to remember my whole life.

Happy and Evil

Author's Note: For everything that is good in life there is something that is bad. Look for that transition in my diamond poem.

Ponies
joyful, silly,
sparkling, glittering, galloping ,
shimmering, leaping; hunting, spying,
howling, running, sniffing
predator, fierce,
wolves

Why Bother?

Author's Note: Look for my simile in this piece and my view on lotteries.

Lotteries are overrated! You have a one in a million chance at trying to win it. It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack. If you ever do win one it will just make up for the money you spent on the seven million lottery tickets to win! I would just like to stop or lower the price of the prize and make the chances fairer. That would make lotteries worth it.

Tasty

Author's Note: This is my writing circles piece from May 9th. Be sure to look for symbolism and semantic devices.

Since L.A. is the class I have before lunch starts it is the hardest class for me to focus in. Especially since all my friends constantly talk about steak. They treat steak like gold. It’s not that big of a deal but they make it sound so important. I keep telling them if you’re so hungry why talk about it? Their response is always the same: Because it’s that amazing! I don’t know if I can take it much longer but I’m sure they will stop soon, they are my friends.

Semantic Devices

http://www.slideshare.net/zfrei/synthetic-devices

Animals and Humans

 Author's Note: Humans can treat animals wrong, but animals are people too.

Have you ever thought about what your hamburger is made of while eating it? How the cow has been in a confined area almost its entire life just waiting to be slaughtered for humans to enjoy? In the story Man vs. Beast, by Robert Muchamore a struggling group of Animal Liberationists are fighting to save these animals and stop animal abuse through violence. Muchamore uses realism and society to make this book give readers a mixture of feelings.

There are many groups that would stop this way that animals are treated. Some examples are PETA and the ALF. They mostly keep their actions at a passive state but sometimes things get out hand. In Man vs. Beast, This group tries to express itself by using violent protest and attacks on workers who work at animal testing labs. Throughout the book these protests and visits to animal holding compounds really visualize how poorly these animals are treated

The realism here in this book is the icing on the cake. A mixture of sadness and disgust overtakes you when you read about how they travel to a holding for experimental dogs. How they’re locked up in a cage with nothing to do and smelling terrible. Imagine seeing this for yourself. I would feel terrible just seeing them in there and feel like I have to do something. These are some recruitment methods used by other organisms like this; showing people what’s really going on and make them take a stand. Using society also helps the mixture of emotions in this book.

Society is key to this book. Using all these people who don’t know about this and showing them what is actually going on behind the red curtain is effective. This just sets off a chain reaction those people will tell more and this chain will continue until pretty much the whole world knows about it. it will go rather slow , telling all these people and proving what really goes on is hard work. In the end it is worth saving the lives of these tortured animals. 

Using society and realism gives the meaning to this story and it sends a message to the world. It can provide great emotional mixture and persuade many to do something and support these groups.

Good or Bad?

 Author's Note: A book with no clear good or bad side can propose many questions for a reader


Have you ever read a book that made you think which side is good and which side is bad? Has a book ever had 2 sides that are both good and bad? Well, the book Divine Madness, by Robert Muchamore, it can be hard to designate a good and bad side. Muchamore uses realism and a common problem shared by many to make both sides seem good and bad.

In Divine Madness the Australian version of the F.B.I, A.S.I.S, and the “terrorist group”, Help Earth are the two sides presented to you in the book. Throughout the book there are minor conflicts between revolving around pollution; mainly around gasoline and finding a cleaning fuel. For many adult and young adult readers this book will probably remind them of the news at night because it discusses pollution and oil prices. By using these commonly shared problems; Muchamore makes it difficult to point out good and bad sides.

With the commonly shared problems; Muchamore just isn’t making the book a simple read. In the first encounter between the two sides, Help Earth aims for an empty group of oil tankers to destroy the trade route of one of the most unhealthy fuels. This immediately suggests Help Earth is the “bad side”. But later in the book A.S.I.S. bombs a small town thinking that they will disable  one Help Earth’s recruiting facilities; but instead just end up killing many innocent people. This new info can have the effect on readers that perhaps A.S.I.S. just isn’t thinking clearly and may designate them as the “bad side. Realism also backs up a commonly shared problem making the choice even more difficult.

Realism is the bee that pollinates the flower of a commonly shared problem. The realism when oil tankers are targeted by a so called “terrorist group” make adult readers make text to world connections and younger readers think about why this has to happen and how it possibly can be put to an end. However this can also be a downside to the book; making adult readers stressed thinking about all the world is going through and perhaps making the younger readers find it boring instead of satisfying. At that point making a decision on who is good or bad may not even matter to them and they might just want to put the book down or rush through reading it.

Thinking about which side is good or bad in a book can be an interesting read for many readers. Muchamore obviously makes it clear that he doesn’t want people just skimming through his books without caring but reading them with deep thought and make a reader’s mind conjure many questions.

The Creation of Suspense

 Author's Note:Some great ideas for creating suspense in writing pieces.

Imagine a book that was so suspenseful you couldn’t stop reading it. Something you couldn’t put down even if your life depended on it. In the book The Killing, by Robert Muchamore, the author creates much suspense you will never want to put the book down. Muchamore creates suspense in his novels using realism,  imagery, and cooperation.

Realism is the fabric used in the blanket of suspense. Bringing realism into his novels, Muchamore creates a colossal amount of suspense in every page. Real life conversations between FBI agents and demonstrating inside jobs makes you feel as if you were an undercover agent yourself. With the realism of the government floating around in the air, it would seem as if you were watching the six o’ clock news report. Imagery also plays an important part in the way Muchamore creates suspense.

Imagery is the thread in the woven blanket of suspense. The way Muchamore pictures the sturdy, grumpy FBI agents and the victims who are paralyzed with fear makes the book all the more suspenseful. How the crime and hit-and-run scenes are captured are astonishing and will make you regret ever putting this book down. Every little detail in this book is captured to perfection for readers who are interested to see the suspense included in every day lives. Cooperation created throughout the book by the characters adds even more suspense to the novel.

Cooperation is the needle used to put the blanket together. When characters rely on each other in tough situations it creates even more suspense in the book. When there’s a double agent who has been trusted with important documents or an argument about whether the evidence is right or not brings much suspense into the book. Relying on others thinking there your friends but really are evil makes you turn page after page in this book.

Cooperation, imagery, and realism are tools that Robert Muchamore uses to conjure suspense in his novels. In The Killing the suspense is of such colossal amount that it can be hard to put the book down. With the use of these tools, Muchamore has created a woven blanket of suspense.

Author's Note: I've just had it being cold and all, I can't get summer off my mind

Summer

warm, humid,

sweating, swimming, relaxing,

playing, jumping; chilling, plowing,

shivering, freezing, shoveling,

cold, snowy,

Winter

Why Make Writing Difficult?

Author's Note: I'm a terrible writer, most of the time I'm just throwing whatever thoughts I have down and say it's a paper. I get not as good of a grade because all these little details. Why do we need this?

Writing for me has always been a pain. I either can’t think of anything to write about or I just don’t want to write in general. I do try to my best and do what I can for a good grade in school but I can’t stand thinking about every little detail that needs to be fixed. Spelling, punctuation, and whatever else I didn’t say that’s related to those things. It may look like only a little bit, but that is just the beginning. Spelling and punctuation are just annoying most of the time, what really gets me irritated is putting comas in the right place. I think that if we know how to write and spell then we should be done. In the real world are you gonna write a story every day? Or write even a big paper every day? No, you will write only what you need to. You’re not going to use big fancy words your going to use basic words that you and everyone you work with knows. I just think people should let writing slide because if we can communicate then we are perfectly fine, that’s the whole point of writing and it gets done without everything we learn.

Go Away Winter

Author's Note: I'm sick of winter's cold snow and all, thoughts of summer are making it worse.

This picture makes me think of summer and how much I hate winter. I enjoy summer because it’s warm, there’s no school, and it’s when my birthday is. Winter is the complete opposite. It’s cold, dark, and damp. You have school but when you wake up, it’s still really dark out so you just wanna go back to sleep. The only days in winter I do look forward to Christmas Brake, and if there are any days where you don’t have to go to school because of snow.

How I got an Owner

Author's Note: How a pair of headphones made it as a gift for Christmas.

The shaking had finally ended and I was taken out of a plastic bag of some sort and set on a colossal bed. Before I knew it i was being wrapped up in some sort of red coating which made a loud crinkling sound. Then there I was, unable to move and stranded for so long. Then one day I was awoken by the sound of laughing children. Soon i was picked up and the red coating was torn of me and then I saw the face of a child. He was smiling at me. Soon the other box around me was removed and I was stuck inside a black box. As time past I had realized it was Christmas that day and I was given as a gift.