My French Poem

Author's Note: This is a poem that I wrote in French because I was bored.

J'adore les chiens
parce qu'ils sont tellement adorables
mais parfois ils etes si fort
que j'ai voudrais qu'ils etre calme

Mais je les aime encore
Ils est mon animal prefere
bien que
Je suis allergique a ces

Mais peu importe, je les aime encore.

English:

I love dogs
because they are so cute
but sometimes they are so loud
I want them to be quiet

But I still love them
They are my favorite animal
although
I'm allergic to them


But whatever, I still love them.

 

What Happened to Winter?

in December of 2011
I was hoping for another
wonderful winter
but no, there was
not much snow at all

I was hoping to play
and frolic in the snow
and build as many snowmen
as I possibly could.

sure, there was a foot or 2
but it all just melted away
so that it was almost as if
winter never even came

Speak Essay

In the book Speak, Melinda is a lazy, weird high-schooler who gets bad grades in everything except for art. Her art teacher, Mr. Freeman, told everyone to pick a piece of paper out of a hat. Melinda's piece of paper said "tree"on it. She had no idea what this meant, but Mr. Freeman kept pushing her to draw and sculpt trees.

I think that at the end of the book, Melinda will finally start to be able to take control of her actions. This is because when she starts to draw trees, they look messed up and have no leaves. But as she spends more time with others, her trees start to look better, and they start to "grow" leaves. It is kind of changing her, in a good way, because while her trees are getting better, so is she.

Using what I read so far, I think Speak will be a comedy. This is because of Melinda's trees, which are getting better each time. In a comedy, the problem gets solved at the end. A similar book called Radiance, by Alyson Noel, is about a 12 year old ghost girl, Riley, who has a mission: Catch the wandering souls of dead people on the earth plane. She thinks she knows everything, so she doesn't listen to her guide, Bodhi, who is supposed to help her at school.


But at Riley's school, where all the kids in heaven go, some pretty weird things happen, nothing like Melinda's school. There is an assembly every day where a few bright-green glowing kids come up to the stage and do things that Riley doesn't understand. Then she gets this dorky, nerdy kid assigned to her as her guide to apparently help her. Melinda has Heather not really as a guide, but as a friend.


Riley has the same personality as Melinda; at the beginning of the book she doesn't take control of her actions, and she can be rude/bossy. But then she learns to listen, and eventually she becomes more successful. Melinda might turn out the same way, if she will listen to others instead of trying to take matters into her own hands.

Both Melinda and Riley are lost in school, and they need to control their actions. But maybe after some time, they can fix their actions and listen to others who want to help them.

An Invisible Figure

How would you feel if you were left out? Or abandoned? Or ignored? This is how Stargirl from the book Stargirl feels. Because she is different, no one wants to talk to her. No one wants to know her. No one wants to give her a chance.

 Stargirl was a new girl at Mica high. Since she was different, everyone thought she was a not-someone-I-would-want-to-know kind of person. The theme here is that people can be judgmental of others without really getting to know them. When Leo gets to know Stargirl, he actually becomes Stargirl’s boyfriend. Now no one wanted to talk to him, either, because he was, quote, “Mr. Stargirl” or “Starboy.” 

When Leo finally works up the nerve to tell Stargirl that nobody liked her, she wanted to become “normal” like everyone else. In life, people want to be exactly like everyone else, with almost no individuality. Stargirl starts to call herself Susan, which is her real name. She starts to wear makeup like other girls. She acts like them all. But it doesn’t last for long.

  

There was something called the Ocotillo Ball. Many high schoolers went to it, but Leo did not. He did not ask Stargirl, so she went by herself. At the end, Stargirl disappeared and no one ever saw her again. Leo was heartbroken, and he tried to find out why Stargirl moved away, but no one would talk to him. He had to learn that you shouldn’t care what other people think.

  

There are some things in the book Stargirl that can happen in real life. Like if you were new at your school, people might not pay attention to you. Or maybe to try to get them to like you, you would completely change yourself. But no one can be like Stargirl...because she is her own individual.

           

Mrs. Reagles

My language arts
teacher's name
is Mrs. Reagles
and the reason
I am writing this
is because
I know
that she loves
poems written
like this one
this poem
came out
of nowhere
I just remembered
that I had
to finish
a conference
today and that
Mrs. Reagles
e-mailed me
about a poet
that writes
poems like
these which
I think
is totally awesome.

Groundhog Day

There is
a holiday
called Groundhog Day
Which is not
even technically
a holiday
because no one
even celebrates anything
they just watch
a stupid rodent
come out
of its hole
to tell you
when spring
is coming
if you
ask me
it shouldn't
even be
a real holiday

Hollis and Stargirl

 Imagine being left alone or ignored. People think you're invisible, that you don't exist.  Or maybe you were once popular, but something happened that changed your life. No one cares about you, except for a few people. Hollis from Pictures of Hollis Woods and Stargirl from Stargirl have very similar lives, miserable for the most part.

Stargirl and Hollis are very similar characters. For example, they both feel very left out at times. Hollis, who was abandoned when she was very young, is now an orphan. She as been given many foster parents but never feels like she could really fit in. Stargirl, who was a new girl at her school, was ignored by just about everyone because she was different and "not normal," and they both had almost no friends.

Sometimes neither of them think clearly about what they do. Stargirl changes her whole personality just because of something one person says, and Hollis has run away from all the many foster families she has stayed with, but she didn't realize that she couldn't survive on her own.

Speaking of running away, Stargirl does exactly that at the end of the book, while Hollis lives happily with someone she actually feels comfortable with. No one except Stargirl knows why Stargirl ran away. Maybe it was because others were teasing her, or maybe it was her own free will. Hollis finally makes up her mind to stay with a foster family, so she is comfortable at the end of her book.

Hollis is also different in another way: She is a more static character, while Stargirl is a very dynamic character. Hollis has the same personality throughout the book, while Stargirl is constantly changing her personality by re-doing herself. But even though they both have different lives, they are very similar characters.