Natalie's blog by Natalie Jones

Natalie's blog by Natalie Jones https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb en-us 2017-10-10 02:33:46 UTC 2018-05-08 03:50:14 UTC hello@padlet.com At first, I picked this book because of the cover. I know they say not to judge a book by its cover, but I can never help it. The cover appealed to me because of its simplicity. I saw this book for the first time in your room and I thought it looked very interesting. I then picked it up and read the back description of the book. Imminently after I read the back I knew I wanted to read this book. The next day is when we began reading our books for the ten minutes in class. When I started reading the book I could not put it down, and that is very unlike me. Usually I only read books when I am forced to but this book I have enjoyed reading in your classroom and at home. The first few chapters are about letting the reader get to know the character. Now I am at chapter fifteen and I have got to know the characters pretty well. This story is about this girl named Willowdean. She is the daughter of a local pageant queen, but she is anything but a pageant girl. She meets a boy named Bo at work and falls for him, and is surprised when he falls for her too. To prove herself she enters the beauty pageant. This story is about her journey, and I’m ready to read all about it. natalieliz https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/195428457 2017-10-10 02:37:22 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/195428457 As I kept reading this book I really started to like it. The reason I like this story so much is that it is very relatable. I say this because the problems in this story are something that can actually happen. The last blog post entry I was about 50 pages in but now I’m about 167 pages in. Before I said that I liked the book, but now it is my favorite book. Whenever we have the 10 minutes in the beginning of class to read I get really excited to read this book. I also take this book home and read it then. Since I read the book at home as well as in class, I get a lot of pages done quicker. What I can tell you is that the character development has changed quite a lot. In the last blog post I said that I barely knew the characters because it was still the early stages of the book, but now I know the characters more. I can describe the main character, Willowdean, as confident and insecure at the same time. She has always been comfortable in her own skin but when she met Bo, her crush, she felt like she was too fat for him. So her confidence wavered throughout what I have read of the book. What I can also say about her is that she is a genuine person. Whenever she faces a problem isn’t his book she handles it with dignity and respect for others feelings, but she can be very jealous when it comes to her best friend Ellen. natalieliz https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/195434277 2017-10-10 03:22:26 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/195434277 My book Dumplin’ is keeping me on my toes. With every new chapter I read I fell more surprised than the last. I also feel that I can relate more to Willowdean. Willow and her best friend Ellen are having a huge fight in the book right now and I can relate to that. The past few years I was friends with this girl and she was a terrible friend, but I cared about her so much that I couldn’t see it. Then one day I saw how terrible she was and understood what people had been telling me all along. We got into a disagreement and she cut me off, and that is what made me realize I am so much happier without her in my life. Unlike my ex friend and I, I can tell that Willow and Ellen will make it through this fight. Now in the story Willow has decided to enter the beauty pageant she has always hated. The reason she decided to enter this pageant she has always hated is because of her late aunt Lucy. I can relate to that because when my grandma died I wanted to do anything that she would do. I would do this because it would make me feel close to her. I still do that now. For example when I turn 18 I plan on getting a tattoo for her. We all do things after we lost someone we love that make us feel close to them. natalieliz https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/195785710 2017-10-10 19:13:15 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/195785710 In this part of the book she tells the readers why she doesn’t like Halloween. When I read this I found myself shocked. When I was little Halloween and Christmas were my favorite holidays. I remember on Halloween specifically. It was my younger sisters, Maya, first Halloween. For Halloween in my old city in Ohio, we would always hold a contest for best costume. That year my sister Maya was an astronaut, my older sister was a nerd, and I was a dead bride. The way the contest worked was, they would do groups of people in the same age range then have an overall winner. I could feel that was my year. So we went to the contest and all of us placed in our categories, but sadly none of us won. However I will never forget that day. We also differed on the amount of effort we put into our costumes. Since willow doesn’t like Halloween she didn’t put any effort into her costume. She just wore a headband with a single pink feather. My costume on the other hand was the basic dead bride costume from the 2000’s, but my makeup was over the top. I even wore black lipstick, and for an 8 year old that is a big deal. This section was also about willow sorting out her feelings between Bo and Mitch. I can’t personally relate to this but my best friend has been going through this and I have been supporting him. In the end he, lik willow, finally sorted out their feelings, and I can’t wait to see what she does now that she knows who she has developed feelings for. natalieliz https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/196997591 2017-10-14 04:49:35 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/196997591 Since my last blog post I finished my book. I just finished it about an hour ago and I feel like I want more. I also feel a little sad that the book is over. Usually I am not much of a reader, but this book I actually wanted to read. Before this book I only finished one other free choice book from cover to cover. The book ended off with many unanswered questions. One of the questions I have is will Willowdean and Bo ever be together. The book ended with Bo confessing his feelings for Will and she said she was too insecure to be with him, but I need to know if anything changed for her to make her say yes to Bo. Also like I predicted Ellen and Will are friends again. One of my other questions was will Willow’s new friends stay her friends. She became close to Amanda, Millie, and Hannah when she stopped being friends with Elle, so I want to know if they will be like a little group. So the book had a good and bad ending. I feel as if the book hasn’t ended and I still have a few chapters left, so I am holding on to the hope that the author, Julie Murphy, will make a second book. While reading this book I looked it up and found out that they are making a movie. I have been wondering if the movie will be like the book, and I hope it will. natalieliz https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/202673208 2017-11-01 18:56:22 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/202673208 Ever since I finished the book Dumplin’, I have been looking for a new book. At first it was really hard because I am extremely picky with books. I don’t know if that is a good or bad thing yet. I looked through both of your book shelves and couldn’t find anything that peaked my interest, then I went to the library. When I went to the library I looked by myself at first, then I decided to ask for help. They told me what books I should try and I didn’t like any of them, until they asked me what the last book I read was. I told them and the recommended a book by the same author, Side effects may vary. This book is about a girl, Alice, and she is diagnosed with leukemia. She then decides to get revenge on everyone who wronged her in the past, with the help of her best friend Harvey. She was ready to die after she completed the list, but then she went into remission. Now she has to deal with everything she has done and her feelings for Harvey. I liked this book because I hope it has a happy ending. Books with cancer most likely will end with the main character dying, so knowing that she goes into remission gives me hope for a happy ending. I am only a few pages into the book and so far I like what I have read. I am really excited to read this book. natalieliz https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/202683734 2017-11-01 19:20:13 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/202683734 At this point in the book Alice just found out that she is in remission. When her doctor tells her about this she doesn't know how to feel. Her parents are really excited but she feels stuck. She feels she was ready to die. In the book she says that she knows how to die but not how to live. I can’t relate to this for two reasons, the first being I have never been close to death before and the second being I am terrified of death, the thought of anyone I love or myself dying really scares me. The thought of dying is scary to me because it can happen at any time. It doesn’t matter how you look, how old you are, or your class it can happen to you, it is inevitable. Alice and I are similar in some ways though. She is petty. And by this I mean if someone wrongs her she will not hesitate to get even in the best/ most creative way possible. For example that list of people to get even with before she died. She will get her revenge later in the book and it is something I would do too. I remember one time in elementary school my best friend, Cameron, wanted to be cool, so he started to make fun of me in front of his “cool” friends. I soon got tired of him being rude to me at school then us playing after school. In class the next day he did it again and I took a dictionary from the shelf and threw it at his head. Well he stopped after that. Alice and I are really similar and I feel she would do the same. natalieliz https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/205937366

]]> 2017-11-12 02:58:11 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/205937366 What is currently happening in the book is Alice is distancing herself from Harvey. Since she was told she was in remission she has been feeling like her life is now planned for her, as if she doesn’t have a say. Harvey told Alice that he loved her and I am almost 100% sure that she feels the same, but I think she is scared. I think this because she doesn’t have an excuse anymore. She always would use her cancer and her dyeing to not be a part of things, but since she is in remission she has to face the truth and her feelings. I can relate with Alice because I am scared to. I am scared to trust people. Like Alice, I use excuses to try not to tell people so many personal things. I am scared because I have a lot of people in my past that I simply cannot trust. Also what is happening in the book is that Alice is starting to rebel more. She is being rude and dry with her mom to see if she can get a reaction out of her, but she still treats her like a cancer patient. Another thing is Alice has been keeping this secrete that her mother is having an affair. Now every time she sees her mother she is full of hate, but never says anything. I’m starting to believe that her keeping this in is part of the reason she is having a hard time adjusting to, as she would say, living. natalieliz https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/208429085 2017-11-19 04:06:05 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/208429085 Over Thanksgiving break I finished my book Side Effects May Vary. I thought it was an okay book. In the beginning I liked the book but as time went on it started to make me upset. I say this because Alice’s character changed a lot in the book. In the beginning she was nice with a bit of an attitude, but overall a good person, but when she went into remission she started to rebel. The thing is I completely understand that, but she stayed that way throughout. I also didn’t like that she walked all over Harvey, one of the only people there for her when she was sick. He was in love with her so he just let her do it. I will say that I did like the ending. So after that book I looked online for another book. The kind of books I like to read are about teen love. I am just a romantic and I like to read about how two different characters fell in love with one another. When I was looking online I remembered the book Eleanor and Park. When I was in middle school I wanted to read it, but I completely forgot about it, so when I went back to school I was on a mission. I went to the library, but I couldn’t check it out because I had a fine, and to my luck I found it in your room the next day. I have just started the book and so far I love it. I like it because at first Eleanor and Park don’t really like each other, but I know they will. natalieliz https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/212557900 2017-12-03 02:43:45 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/212557900 Since my last blog post I have finished Eleanor and Park. I loved the book. I have always wanted to read it and I’m glad I did. I thought that the book would end so differently. That being said I don’t know how I feel about the ending. Like Dumplin’, I still have unanswered questions. For example I know that they break up at the end of the book, but what happens after Park receives Eleanor’s letter. With that being said I also don’t know if I think there should be a second book. I feel like a second book would ruin the first. I would just like to know if the three words on Eleanor’s postcard read, I love you. I have also started a new book called, Tell Me Three Things. So far I really like it. It is very different that anything I have ever read. Usually the books I go for are those cliché teen romance books. I not vary far in the book, but I do think I know who SN is. I think it is Batman, aka Ethan. I think that it is Ethan because in all of SN’s emails so far he has suggested that he knows everybody, but doesn’t fit in. so by this it makes me think that he was a former popular boy that changed, and now feels like he is different from his old “people”. Knowing that about SN when you take a look at Ethan you get that sense. He looks like a loner that doesn’t fit in, and he is sitting by himself, but the supper pretty girls are trying their hardest to get his attention. This make me think that he used to be in their world but now isn’t, like SN. natalieliz https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/216725983 2017-12-17 03:57:09 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/216725983 What is currently happening in Eleanor and Park is that Richie just found out about Park. Richie is Eleanor’s step dad. She is not allowed to date because of her emotionally abusive step dad, but she did anyways. I feel like the characters have changed a lot since the beginning of the book. For example Park was kind of rude and stuck up in the beginning of the book, and now he is a big softie, but he is still sarcastic. For Eleanor in the beginning she was shy and timid, but toward the end she is more herself, especially with park. Also Tina is starting to help Eleanor. In the beginning of the book through the middle she teased and made fun of Eleanor, but when Richie started looking for her Tina helped her hide. She also brought her to go see Park. I have a bad feeling about the rest of the book. I say this because I think they will not be together in the end. I really hope I’m wrong but I don’t think I am. I know Eleanor runs away, but do they do long distance? And if they do will it work? These are all good questions that I really hope they will answer by the end of the book. If these are not answered I will be really upset. If Eleanor stops talking to Park, like I think she will do, I will most likely cry. I am very emotional when it comes to romances like this. natalieliz https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/217094890 2017-12-18 20:25:37 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/217094890 Since my last blog post I have finished my book, and I LOVED IT. As I predicted from the beginning Ethan was SN. The book ended with them becoming a couple. I have to say that I am so happy it ended the way it did. You know that all the books I have read so far have had bad or very emotional endings, but Tell Me Three Things, did not. If I am being completely honest it is now my favorite book. I love the concept of the book and I love the style it was written in. I want to read more of Julie Buxbaum, the author. She has another book called, What to Say Next, although I don’t know what it is about, I still want to read it. My plan is to see if they have it in the library Tuesday and if they don’t get books similar to this one. If you have not read this you NEED to. I know I kind of spoiled the ending by telling you who SN is, but it is still worth the read. Another thing I loved about the book is the relationship between Jessie and Theo, her new step-brother. At first they didn’t like each other but by the end of the book Theo was looking out for Jessie and trying to protect her. What I need to do now is save up some money to buy this book. And I want to tell you I am so glad that you make us do our personal choice books because, before I never read and I hated it, but now I love it natalieliz https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/221222524 2018-01-14 02:46:40 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/221222524 So this week I read a really quick book while I was trying to find a novel to read. The quick book is called, Milk and Vine. It is a book full of vines from a while ago. If you don’t know vine is an old social platform that was 6 second videos that were comedy. The novel I found is named, Pure. I haven’t started reading it yet, and it is a little different that anything I have ever read. It is about a group of friends that all got purity rings together and one of the friends wants to take if off because of her boyfriend. I was interested in this book because it is a romance and I am a sucker for a romance book, but this book also has a hint of drama. The author of this book also has another book that seemed interesting to me, so I figured to give one of them a chance. I also don’t think I will like this book at the same time. I think this because the girl, Tab, is only 15, and I think that is too young to be dealing with this problem. I just think the author should have made the group of girls older, it would have made more sense and been a little bit more realistic. Another reason I might not like it is because I can’t relate to it. I like reading YA books because I can relate and understand to what is going on in the story, but I can’t with this, mainly because I am not very religious, but I will give the book a try and next week I will tell you if I have switched or not. natalieliz https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/223063941 2018-01-21 05:34:53 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/223063941 So this week I tried reading my new book and as I predicted I didn’t like it. Like you know it is different than any other book I have read, so when I gave it a shot I was very hesitant. I didn’t like a lot of things about the book, one of those things being that every single thing I read was about God. Don’t get me wrong I love God, but I don’t want to read a book that is super religious. Another thing I didn’t like was how melodramatic it was. I know I said I want drama that isn’t relationship wise, but I was only a few chapters in and I could tell by the style of writing how “teen drama” it would become. Speaking of the style of writing I didn’t like that either. I like the type of writing of YA books and I feel like this was a book made for an older crowd. I stopped reading the book on Tuesday and the next day I read one of the books in your room. I don’t remember what it is called, but what I read I liked. I couldn’t check it out because you had a sub that day, so I just have to hope it is there on Monday. This book was about a popular girl that had a disorder and didn’t want her friends to know, but later in the book she meets someone she can confide in about the disorder. If you remember or know what that book is called I would really like to know. natalieliz https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/225340902 2018-01-28 04:00:45 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/225340902 Since my last blog post I started a new book. The book I was asking you about, also in my last blog post, wasn’t in your book case so I got a different one. The book I picked is called, My Heart and Other Black Holes. In only 76 pages in and I really like it. What is happening in the book right now is Aysel just met her suicide partner, and he is kind of strange. The thing about FrozenRobet, Roman, is he acts really normal and seems popular, so I am starting to wonder why he wants to commit suicide. I know whatever it is it happened on April 7th. I say this because on his ad for a partner he said that they had to do it on April 7th, so that makes me think that the reason the wants to die happened on that day. I am going to make a guess and say that is the day someone close to him died. I’m starting to think it could be Brian. The reason Aysel wants to die is because her dad killed Brian, and Roman use to be friends with him, and that is where it becomes complicated. I really want to know if Aysel will tell Roman who she is or if he will find out some other way. I would also like to see his reaction to the news. I am very excited to keep reading this book and see if I’m right about April 7th. natalieliz https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/228373557 2018-02-05 21:53:26 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/228373557 Since my last blog post I have finished My heart and Other Black Holes. I really liked this book. What I predicted in my last blog post was somewhat true. Aysel did tell Roman about her dad, but he understood her. I kind of thought he would get mad at her, then he would come to his senses and they would make up, but he understood her. Roman is the only person that does. The ending of this book mad me extremely happy. For once I didn’t cry at the end of a book. I would have to say this is my new second favorite book, the first still being Tell Me Three Things. I want to know if you have any more books like these. The kind of books that I find on your YA bookshelf are the ones I usually end up loving. I already know what book I want to read next. I want to read Aristotle and Donte Discover the Secretes of the Universe. I did check out the book Delirium from you, but when I did some research on it I realized that I don’t want to read it. I liked the idea that she found love in a loveless world, but when I realized it was a series I didn’t really want to read it. I don’t like to read series because I like having all thigs work out in one book. Also I don’t like that she falls in love with one guy in the first book and a whole other person in the second book. Why would the author do that? I hate books or movies where girls have two guys to choose from. I say this idea because I don’t believe that you can be in love with two or more people. I say this because no matter how you feel for one person if you truly loved someone there would not be a doubt in your mind, or for that matter another person that you have feelings for. So the fact that the book series has two love interests doesn’t make me want to read it. https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/232747708 2018-02-18 20:23:01 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/232747708 A book that I read in this year that I feel is similar to my current book, What to Say Next, is My Heart and Other Black Holes. I think these two books are similar because they both involve an upsetting past with the main characters father. In my current book her father just died and that is how she became close to David, who she usually never talked to. In My Heart and Other Black Holes the main characters father killed a high school student and that is what made her want to kill herself, which again brought her close to Roman who she never knew. What I think this says about me as a reader is that I like reading about the “broken” people that find love. What I mean by this is in my previous book she found love at her most venerable place, after she decided she wanted to commit suicide, same for her love interest roman. In my current book Kit is dealing with her dad’s death and she doesn’t feel like the same person, and as of now, David is there for her in his weird way. I do think I like to stay in my comfort zone when I pick books, though I have been slowly trying to escape my comfort zone. For instance I want to read, The Princess Saves Herself in This One, and this is a poetry book. The only books I ever read are YA contemporary so I’m excited to try that book out, of cores after I finish my current book. https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/239000857 2018-03-07 05:11:57 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/239000857 My book is told in 1st person point of view, but what is different about it is told from both main characters perspective. Having the book be told in 1st person affects the book by making it more personal. By this I mean we can relate more f we think that the main character is telling us his/her feelings, rather than hearing it from a narrator. Having a 1st person point of view helps me understand the book more because it is just someone expressing what happened and how they felt about it. With a 3rd person point of view you don’t get the same effect. In 3rd person you don’t get the same amount of impact as opposed to 1st. My book would be very different if it was written in 3rd person. I think it would be different by https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/239376671 2018-03-07 19:55:38 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/239376671 Since my last blog post I started a new book named, Simon VS the Homo Sapiens Agenda. The reason I decided to read this book is because of the movie coming out based on the book. I am about 160 paged in and I really like it. This book is kind of like the other books I have read in this past school year. By that I mean it is a romance story, but it is also a coming out story. The main character Simon is gay and outed to the whole school, and we read what happens next. I really like this story. The thing I like the most is the way the chapters are set up. In one chapter it is Simon telling us what happened in his week or day, and the next chapter is his messages with his “boyfriend” Blue. I put quotes around boyfriend because both Blue and Simon are emailing each other anonymously. Another thing like about this book is that I can’t relate. I think if you can relate to everything you read it won’t challenge yourself. It also can get boring, but since I don’t relate I can see a problem I won’t face, from another person’s perspective. By doing this I can understand more than before. This book is a little similar to the book, Tell Me Three Things, which is my favorite book. I say they are similar because they both follow the storyline of, who am I messaging? Just in different ways. https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/249396392 2018-04-07 05:28:38 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/249396392 In this past year blog posts have made a major impact in my life. Before we had to do our blog posts and read books, I never read. In fact I hated reading. I thought that reading was boring and I should just be watching T.V. By being in your class I gained a live for reading. My favorite book I have read this year, hands down, is Tell Me Three Things. I love this book because I was heavy but had humor at the same time. I would say that the blogs have changed my identity as a reader. I say this because by doing the blogs and writing down how I feel about my book really helped me understand, and have a deeper appreciation for reading. The blog posts this year has definitely challenged me. To be honest it was in a negative was. I thought the idea of blog posts were good, but I could never remember to do it. I think it was just because they were due on Saturday and not Sunday. To improve the blogs for you future students I think the posts should be due on Sunday at 12. I say this because the majority of your class is in geometry and that is when our online quizzes are due. If both are due at the same time then it will make it easier for your students to remember about the blog posts. To encourage the growth of reading more I think you could do a day where your future students have a day to research books that interest them, or authors. By doing this they could find books or thematic ideas that they like. Another way you could achieve this is dedicating a day for the future students to look in the library at books. My last idea would be to assign book genres for the month. For example one month they have to pick a non-fiction book and the next they have to read a fantasy. By doing this each student could narrow out the genres they like and don’t like. https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/258777466 2018-05-08 03:50:14 UTC https://padlet.com/natalieliz/jj1rq16qf5fb/wish/258777466