One reason Fox is manipulative and toxic is because he lies.  When the character Fox met Dog, he said “I saw you running this morning. You looked extraordinary.” You can tell that he is lying because later in the story he decides to betray magpie which is dog’s best friend, so you can tell Fox is only friends with Dog to get closer to Magpie.  If you think someone is extraordinary, you don’t betray them.

Fox was also taking advantage of dog's kindness. Dog was kind enough to let Fox have shelter since no one one really lives around Dog and Magpie’s area. Instead of thanking Dog, Fox kidnapped Magpie and took her to the desert then left her all alone.

Lastly, Fox was impersonating kindness. Fox was pretending to be kind to Magpie by saying he can run faster than Dog and can make her actually feel like she’s experiencing flight. Instead he made Magpie feel frightened and lonely. 

So in conclusion, these are my 3 reasons why I believe Fox was manipulative and toxic.

Would you read the story Marble Champ? In the story Marble Champ written by Gary Soto, the character Lupe is good at playing marbles. Lupe is good at school and she always gets Straight A's. Lupe never misses a day of school. She is also bad at sports except the sport marbles. She would practice and practice playing marbles so much her thumb would throb. In my opinion, Lupe is a champ in marbles.

One reason Lupe is good at playing marbles is because in the middle of the story Lupe beat her first opponent. For example In the text it states, “that Lupe beat her first opponent easily. This shows she is good at playing marble ’because she beat her first opponent ever in a sport called Marbles.

Another reason Lupe is good at playing marble is because Lupe beat her brother and Alfonso, a neighbor who was supposed to be a champ. In the text it states “Lupe got better and beat her brother and Alfonso, a neighbor kid who was supposed to be a champ. “Man, she’s bad!” Alfonso said. “She can beat the other girls for sure.”  This is why Lupe is good at playing Marbles.

My last reason Lupe is good at playing marbles is because Lupe never gave up. She tried again and again. Her aim became accurate, at first the power from her thumb made the marble move only an inch or two. But, she got better and better. Trust me she does. This shows that she is good at playing marbles.

Finally this is why Lupe is good at playing marbles. She even beats others who are really good at playing marbles. The lesson I learned is that  you don't have to be good at everything you just have to be good at one thing that you love to do. She never gave up on her dream.

One reason Rachel does not feel eleven is because she doesn’t speak out when the teacher believes that the sweater is hers. For example, She begins to pout and push the sweater around her desk but she mumbles the words not mine over and over again under her breath.  In the text it states that, “she says that not mine, not mine,not mine,mumbling to herself.” Rachel could not speak up.

              Another Reason that Rachel doesn’t feel eleven is she cried in front of everybody. She said she’s 11 but she was acting three and there is also a part that she acts five. She cried because her teacher made her wear a sweater. The red sweater that was in the closet for days. For example, Sylvia Saldivar said it was Rachels. The teacher believed her. So, the teacher put the ugly red sweater that did not belong to Rachel on her desk. This proves the sweater was not Rachel’s and Sylvia was lying and that ugly red sweater was Phyllis Lopez’s sweater. This is why Rachel was crying.

               The last Reason why Rachel doesn't feel eleven is because she said, “I’m eleven today. I’m ten,I’m nine,I’m eight,I’m seven,I’m six,I’m five,I’m four, I’m three,I’m two,I’m one but I wish I was one hundred and two.”“I wish I was anything but eleven.” This is important because she’s not only eleven she is one,two,three,four,five,six,seven,eight,nine,ten and eleven. she was feeling another age. 

         All in all Rachel doesn’t feel eleven because she doesn't speak out and she cries in front of the whole class. She also feels like another age. Sometimes some of us feel like Rachel and it’s ok.

Are you a hard worker?  The story Marble Champ by Gary Soto is about a girl named Lupe who was training to be a marble champ and she wasn't good at sport.  This book Marble Champ shows how  Lupe is a hard worker. 

One reason, Lupe is a hard worker is because she did very good in school.In the story it states that  Lupe was “the school’s spelling bee champion, winner of the reading contest at the public library three summers in a row, blue ribbon award in the science fair, the top student at her piano recital, and the playground grand champion in chess. She was a straight-A student”. This shows that Lupe works hard in school. 

Second reason,Lupe is a hard worker is because she did many things to be good at marbles.To strengthen her wrists, she decided to do twenty push-ups on her fingertips, five at a time. She squeezed a rubber eraser one hundred times, hoping it would strengthen her thumb. It got sore but she didn’t stop. She practiced a lot.

Last reason,Lupe is a hard worker is because she won the marble championship.The text says “She dropped to one knee, steadied her hand, and shot so hard she cracked two marbles from the circle. She was the winner! “ She won the championship because she was working hard.   

In conclusion,Lupe works very hard. Lupe worked hard in school, she practiced to be good at marble and she won the championship. People need to work hard and they can have what they wish.

One reason, That Rachel doesn't feel eleven is in the story it said she talks in a baby voice with her mother and she cuddles on her mother. In the story in paragraph 2 Rachel wanted to lay on her mother's lap.  She wasn't ready to be eleven. She wanted to go back in the past and be 5. This shows that Rachel doesn’t want to be eleven 

Another reason, That Rachel doesn’t feel eleven is she sometimes cries in her class.  In the story,In paragraph 18 Rachel suddenly cries and she wishes to be invisible but she can’t stop.The text says Rachel wants to be invisible so she won't  embarrass herself.The teacher force Rachel to put on the red sweater.Then Rachel starts crying because she doesn’t want to put on the red sweater.This paragraph is important it reminded her when she was young and how she acted around the teacher when she was still little. This is important because Rachel is crying like she's a baby.   

One last reason, Rachel does not want to be eleven. She wants to be hundreds of years old.She wants to be older because she could say anything to the teacher. Rachel says “She doesn't want to be eleven” and she says she wants to be any age but eleven. This proves that Rachel doesn’t feel eleven, She wants to be any other age.

In conclusion, Rachel is emotional because Rachel cries a lot. If Rachel really acted eleven she wouldn't act much like a baby. Also, she would talk more bravely to the teacher. These reasons prove why Rachel is not acting like a big girl.

One reason that Fox is jealous is because he is envious of the Dog and Magpie relationship . Dog and Magpie care for each other. Dog tries to get Magpie some help but Fox is trying to split them up by asking Magpie, quietly and sneakily, “Do you remember how it feels to fly?” This shows Fox is jealous because he is trying to take Magpie away from the dog by making her think of what it is like to fly .

Another reason Fox is jealous is because Fox tries to prove he is faster than Dog. Fox  wants to leave Dog and take Magpie with him.  For example, he takes Magpie and brings her to a red hot desert .In the text it states, “Fox whispers to Magpie, I can run faster than Dog. Faster than the wind. Leave Dog and come with me.”

My final reason that Fox is jealous is he wants both of them to be completely alone.  Fox says, “Now you and Dog will know what it is like to be truly alone. Then he is gone.” Magpie never thought that she would end up in the red desert.  Fox got what he wanted . 

In Conclusion  Fox wants Dog and Magpie to be alone ,by themselves, because Fox is jealous of Dog and Magpie’s relationship. Fox never Intended to be friends with Dog and Magpie; he only wanted to break up their relationship.

Have you ever read the book Marble Champ?  The story marble champ is a book about a girl who is really smart and really has a strong brain. Lupe was not good in sports. Then she learned all about marbles and now she is an expert in marbles. I claim that lupe is proud of herself.

The first reason Lupe is proud of herself is because  she won a trophy from the mayor because she never missed a day from school. “except when she had been stung by a wasp—never missed one day of elementary school. She had received a small trophy for this honor and had been congratulated by the mayor.” As you can see, Lupe should be proud of herself.

 My next reason Lupe is proud of herself is because Lupe had a razor-sharp mind. In the text it states that “She was a straight-A student”. This reason shows that Lupe was proud of herself.

My third reason that  Lupe is proud of herself because she won a marble competition. In the story it states, “Back home, in the privacy of her bedroom, she placed the trophies on her shelf and was happy. She had always earned honors because of her brains, but winning in sports was a new experience. She thanked her tired thumb. “You did it, thumb. You made me champion.” As its reward, Lupe went to the bathroom, filled the bathroom sink with warm water, and let her thumb swim and splash as it pleased. Then she climbed into bed and drifted into a hard-won sleep.” This final reason shows how Lupe was proud of herself.

Conclusion All these reasons show that Lupe is proud of herself is because  she won a trophy. Lupe had a razor-sharp mind. She won a marble competition. And this is why Lupe is proud of herself.

One reason Fox is manipulative and toxic is because he lies.  When the character Fox met Dog, he said “I saw you running this morning. You looked extraordinary.” You can tell that he is lying because later in the story he decides to betray magpie which is dog’s best friend, so you can tell Fox is only friends with Dog to get closer to Magpie.  If you think someone is extraordinary, you don’t betray them.

Fox was also taking advantage of dog's kindness. Dog was kind enough to let Fox have shelter since no one one really lives around Dog and Magpie’s area. Instead of thanking Dog, Fox kidnapped Magpie and took her to the desert then left her all alone.

Lastly, Fox was impersonating kindness. Fox was pretending to be kind to Magpie by saying he can run faster than Dog and can make her actually feel like she’s experiencing flight. Instead he made Magpie feel frightened and lonely. 

So in conclusion, these are my 3 reasons why I believe Fox was manipulative and toxic.

Have you ever known anyone that was not very good at sports? In the story Marble Champ, Lupe wasn’t good at sports, because she focused on academics. She decided to take up marbles as a sport. She worked hard and practiced really hard to become a marble champion.  In my opinion, Lupe is not good at sports.  

One reason Lupe is not good at sports is because she can’t catch a ball.She can’t catch a ball because Lupe spent her time reading in the public library. In the text it says that “Lupe can't catch a pop-up.” This shows that Lupe isn’t very good at sports.

Another reason Lupe isn’t good at sports is because Lupe doesn’t know how to play soccer because when she kicked the ball she earned a score for the other team. In the text it shows, “One time she kicked the ball at her own goal and scored a point for the other team.” This example shows that Lupe really isn’t that great at sports.

Lupe doesn’t know how to play baseball and basketball because she was a straight A student. In the text it says,”She was no good at baseball or basketball either” Lupe worked so hard at being smart at school that she didn’t have time to really learn how to play baseball and basketball. For this reason Lupe isn’t good at sports. 

 

As you can see all these reasons show that Lupe isn’t very good at sports.Lupe couldn’t catch a ball, she couldn’t play soccer cause she would score for the other team and she couldn’t play baseball or basketball because she concentrated on school.