8/24 Reading Log and Reading Response: That's What's Up!

I wasn't really a fan of  the book  That's What's Up!, because some of the characters were just crazy and and did stupid things. That's What's Up! is a realistic fiction book that is about this cheer competition that everyone in the whole entire school is going to during spring break. Mina is a cheerleader that agrees a truce with her arch-rival Jessica to satisfy Jessica's twin sister, Sara, one of Mina's friends. Jessica invites Mina to this a-list hangout and takes a picture of Craig, Mina's ex-boyfriend, kissing Mina. Mina shouldn't of trusted Jessica because Jessica later sends the photo out to everyone including Mina's boyfriend, Bryan.

Mina is part of a so called "Clique", and the girls in her clique do some crazy things. Cinny gets hit by her ex-boyfriend that she has been hooking up with and gives him a second chance. Kelly reunites with Angel when she finds out that he gave up selling drugs to be with her, later they get stopped by the police and Angel forces Kelly to hold the drugs for him. Also Lizzie, Cinny, and Kelly all sneak off with the boys to go to the cheer competition, which gives them "Upper" credit. The girls in That's What's Up!, don't follow their first instincts or logic and find themselves in sticky situations. Other characters in the book might think they are brave and daring but they are really just not thinking of the consequences waiting to happen. The girls think that their spring break is ruined because they couldn't go to the competition; when their lives would have turned out better if they stayed home. Well there is always room for second changes...

That's What's Up!, Paula Chase
8/20-25 min., 8/21- 30 min., 8/22- 60 min., 8/23- 45 min.
Total- 160 min., pp.1-230

Baton Rouge Cotillion

Last Saturday was my first high school cotillion dance. For starters things were not looking good, one of my mom's friends decide that she wasn't available to chaperone the dance so she called my mom to see if she could; well of course my mom had to say yes. That was the beginning of the nightmare, my mom was totally going to embarrass me! We had to leave a whole hour and a half earlier to pick up Annie and be there early to setup. I had to take my curlers out in the car because I didn't have enough time to get ready. Once we got downtown, we parked and started walking to the dance. While we were walking we heard the sound of a car backfiring; Annie and I completely freaked, we thought it was the sound of someone shooting a gun! When we figured out it was just a car we relaxed a little and kept walking.

After walking for awhile we arrived at the dance. The dance was Great Gatspy theme so we had on boas and the feathers were falling out everywhere. Arriving at the dance was extremely awkward, because we had no idea what to do to we just stood there and talked, till people started to show up. My mom ended up at drink stand so at least she wasn't one of the parents walking through the crowd seeing if anyone was inappropriately dancing, drinking, or taking drugs, that would of been extremely humiliating. Once we found our friends and other familiar faces we started to dance and have fun.

Commitment and Improvement

  Being one hundred percent committed to something is complicated; it involves working hard and striving to be the best you can be. Practice is the key to any thing that you want to become successful in. Without practice you are learning things that get pushed to the back of your mind. When you practice you are developing those skills to speed up the process to learning or mastering something new. If you want to improve you have to be committed and actually try in the beginning you might improve slightly but after awhile if you don't practice there gets to be a point when your skills freeze or go downhill. If you don't enjoy something I wouldn't spend the time trying to commit to it, because it wouldn't be any fun.

  One thing that I am above all committed to is tumbling. Tumbling is super exciting and energy packed it gives you thrill when you land something correctly. Even if you make mistakes you have to be able to take constructive criticism otherwise you will never improve. Certain people won't attend a class because they think that the instructor is strict or mean, but usually you learn the best from the strict instructors because they a pressuring you out of your comfort zone. The easiest way to improve is to fully commit and practice, if you can't accomplish that it will take a lot longer to reach your goals.

Reading Response: Insurgent

Over the summer, I read the book Insurgent. I really enjoyed the book because it was fast paced and thrilling. Insurgent is set in a dystopian society, but has a unique feel to where it doesn't seem like you've read anything like it before. The book explores the concept of adventure, because Tris, the main character has to go on a journey to find out a secret that their world has been hiding. Tris always has her mine set on doing dangerous things to save others,that potentially put her in danger.

One thing that really surprised me was that Tris's enemy, Peter, actually saves her life. Peter's theory is that he has to be even with a person, Tris pushed him out of the way of a bullet and he saved her by freeing her. Also during the book, Tris does some crazy things that make her fall into traps. She knows in her mind not to do something but she thinks that by risking her life she can save so many more lives. Other characters will tell Tris not to do something because it is dangerous, but she do it anyway for the thrill of it. Tris is a unique character that most people can relate to in some certain way. If anyone is looking for a intriguing, thrilling book to read I recommend Insurgent.

Weekly Reading Log

8/11 Mini-Zine- 35 min
8/15 Notes on Book Chat- 45 min
8/17-8/19 Book Chat Preparation for Presentation- 45 min