She's Come Undone

She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb

Dolores Price's ordinary world consists of eating a lot. When she's upset, she eats. When she's happy, she eats. Everything she does comes down to eating. She has reasons though. When she was younger her father left her mother, then her mother went insane forcing her to move in with her grandma. When Dolores was 13, and her mother was living with her and her grandma, she was raped by the man she trusted with everything. That's when she started eating. This is her ordinary world because this is the only thing in her life so far that has been completely comfortable and normal to her.

"...Ma had bought me a new product to try: Swiss cheese in a squirt can. ...Now I decorated crackers and chips with ribbons of the stuff. I found some stale Lorna Doones and concocted little Swiss cheese and Lorna Doone sandwiches. I squirted dabs on each fingertip, like nail polish, and licked them off one by one, repeating the process until the can hissed air." pg.126 par.10

Angry Trainer Fitness angrytrainerfitness.com. March 2012

Vanishing Acts

Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult

“You make yourself strong because it's expected of you. You become confident because someone beside you is unsure. You turn into the person others need you to be.” 

I believe that the character Andrew Hopkins in this story is a a shape shifter. This line perfectly describes him because when his daughter Delia was 4 years old, he kidnapped her. Andrew was divorced to his wife Elise but Elise had full custody of Delia. Elise was an alcoholic however and Andrew couldn't think of any other way to get his daughter out of that environment than to just take her an leave. So he left Arizona and drove to New Hampshire where he completely changed both of their identities and lived a full life with this secret. Until 28 years later when the police find him, he is sent back to Arizona to face trial and both Delia and Andrew have to come back to who they're true identities were. Not only did Andrew change his personal information, he also had to change his personality, for both his, and his daughter's safety in their new lives.

Gotcha!

In my opinion a "classic" novel is one about a likable, normal character who starts going downhill throughout the story. By the end however, they have redeemed themselves and are back to how they were at the beginning of the story, except with more experience from their mistakes.

I just finished reading the book Gotcha! by Shelley Hrditschka and I believe that this book does have many qualities that make it a classic. The main character in this book is Katie, and she is in her senior year, so that means they get to play the tradition of "Gotcha". Katie is an average girl, on the grad council, straight A's, and lots of friends. When Katie gets caught up in the game Gotcha, everything starts to go downhill from there. But by the end, she has redeemed herself to her classmates, mom, friends, and herself. 

I think future generations of students should read this book because in my opinion of what a 'classic' is, this is a perfect example. 

Forty Words for Sorrow

Giles Blunt, Forty Words for Sorrow pg.9 "She and the others had all seen traffic fatalities, the occasional suicide and numerous drownings- none of which had prepared them for this."
I chose this video to represent bravery, courage, and sometimes not being able to stay strong through everything The protagonist, Detective John Cardinal, has to deal with a murder case of a young girl and doesn't quite know how to hold himself together.

Saving Zoë by Alyson Nöel



http://www.google.ca/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1366&bih=635&tbm=isch&tbnid=hOrlc3hfIoQ6QM:&imgrefurl=http://alysat2016.edublogs.org/2011/04/20/saving-zoe/&docid=OavymRAJeHKiSM&imgurl=http://dentonlibrary.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/saving-zoe.jpg&w=400&h=600&ei=DOBgUPOLG8yB0AGI-4DIDg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=118&vpy=115&dur=111&hovh=275&hovw=183&tx=94&ty=116&sig=104652782783262571729&page=1&tbnh=147&tbnw=98&start=0&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:71Saving Zoë by Alyson Nöel is about a young grade 9 girl named Echo trying to get through high school. Usually it wouldn't be so difficult for Echo, but recently her older sister Zoë was murdered. Now Echo has to face the stares of random strangers she doesn't know, deal with her friends, and her sister's ex-boyfriend. When Marc, Zoë's ex-boyfriend shows up to Echo with Zoë's diary, she is indulged to read it. But while reading her sister's diary, she learns about her sister's struggle and about herself.

This book I found hard to get into, because it was really slow and nothing really happened. But as I got further along in the book, I found myself more interested and I wanted to read more. I really wanted to know what had happened to Zoë, and so when I got to the part when Echo read her diary, it got really interesting.

“Fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.”

Fairy Tales always tell us a lesson, whether it be to stand out and be yourself or to be nice to others in such a way you would want to be treated. But most fairy tales tell us to face our fears. Stand up for ourselves and others. In this big world we may face strange, big, small, scary, mean people. We will meet such people. But it is our jobs to face these people in our lifetimes and overcome this. Not only overcome people, but our fears. Our fear is what makes us human. But what also makes us human is the fact that most of us can overcome these fears. If we try and try again, most of us can. Just like how people in fairy tales can defeat the dragon.
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/fairy-tales-are-more-than-true-not-because-they/347104.html