Blog Reflection

Blog Reflection

Throughout this trimester, I have grown as both a reader and writer. My first blog post was titled The Fault in Our Stars by JohnGreen. This blog post was very short and straight to the point. One example from my first post is “When times get tough they stick together and their love for each other only gets stronger.” As you can tell, this sentence is very bland, does not have much description, and doesn’t sound like overall high school writing. In my most recent posts, I have really worked to improve that area of technique in my writing. An example is from my recent post-named Thirteen Reasons Why- Suspense Factor; “This first seen creates an immense amount of suspense. You, as the reader, want to know what these tapes are about and how this story links back to this first scene.” I believe that this quote supports that I have grown as a writer because the quote contains much more structure as well as an overall sophisticated sound.

This trimester I have finished about two books (almost done with the 2^nd). I read Thirteen Reasons Why and An Abundance of Katherine’s I do not believe that I meant the goal that I was striving to achieve. Although with the given time that I have had track and loads of homework, I am pleased to have been getting all my blog posts in as well as finishing two books. For the incoming future trimester, I plan on reading 3 books.,

The only struggle that I had while blogging/ reading were getting able to leave time to read and finish each blog. It was hard for me to complete blogs in class on the computer because I didn’t feel like I was giving my best work and I could concentrate a lot better at my house. Because of this reason, in class on blogging days I improved other blogs as well as the design of my blog. In able to achieve reading goal on a daily basis, I made a note in my planner reminding myself to leave time for reading around my busy schedule.

While trying to find a new book, I often turned to friends for suggestions on what to read next.  My best friend Haley Redwine said that she really enjoyed the book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and recommended that I read it. She lent me her copy and I ended up loving the book and recommending it to others. I also used Goodreads to see what other classmates read and rated high. This is how I ended up reading An Abundance of Katherine’s by John Green.

John Green

Author: John Green

      Out of all the books I’ve read from all the different authors I have to say that John Green along with Max Lucado are my absolute favorites. The way that John Green writes really impacts the way I “see” the scene in my head. Green was born in Indianapolis to his dad Mike and mom Sydney Green. Three weeks after he was born, his family moved to Orlando, Florida. In 2000 he graduated from Kenyon College with a double major in English and Religious Studies. After college he spent five months working as a student chaplain in a children’s hospital. He intended to become an Episcopal priest, but after working in the hospital with children suffering from life-threatening illnesses inspired him to become an author, and this later inspired the book The Fault in Our Stars.

           Green lived in Chicago where he worked for the book review journal Booklist as a publishing assistant and production editor while writing Looking for Alaska. He critiqued hundreds of books including books for The New York Times Book Review. Green later lived in New York where his wife Sarah attended graduate school. Sarah and John have two children; Henry and Alice as well as a puppy. Green has stated that he is a Christian.

            As of today, John Green has written a total of 4 books; Looking for Alaska, The Fault in Our Stars, An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns. He has also accompanied David Levithan in writing Will Grayson, Will Grayson. All of his books have gotten a rating in-between 4 and 5 stars which is outstanding. Many of his books have also received multiple awards. An example would be The Fault in Our Stars, it gained the #1 spot on various bestsellers lists. As of January 2013, there are nearly 1 million copies of the novel sold.

An Abundance of Katherines

                         

          I recently finished the book Thirteen Reasons Why and decided to pick up a new book. I looked through many, many books and came to An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. I chose this book because I’ve heard many good things about it from friends and I also love the author John Green and the previous books I have read by him. I seem to understand his writing better than other authors and books that I have read. Some of the books I’ve read by John Green include The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns.

            I am very excited to start reading this book. So far what I know about An Abundance of Katherines is that the main character Colin is interested in girls named Katherine because they are ‘his type’. Colin has been dumped 19 times by 19 different Katherines. He is on a mission to prove that someday another girl named Katherine will fall in love with him eternally. When I first read this I thought that it was another typical ‘search for love’ book but when I started reading I realized that it is not cliché storyline.

Claire Elise Murray

Honors English

Ashley Bowman

1/28/14                                                    

                                                                  Calamity Day

            I have just finished Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher and am now searching for a new book to read. The book ended with Hannah’s outreach to her counselor, he didn’t give her much advice and rather avoided the serious topic or suicide. It was at that moment that Hannah made up her mind on what she was going to do when she got home later that day. The tapes end with Hannah’s final words “thank you.” Then the book goes on to briefly describe how Clay feels going into school the next day and the suspicion of who has all heard the tapes Hannah left behind.

            So far in Romeo and Juliet I am enjoying the romantic factor that was recently discovered between Romeo and Juliet. I am also enjoying the risk that is being taken between the two because they know the consequences of their love.  Although, I am currently concerned about the harsh rivalry between the Capulets and Montagues and what will happen when they find out that Romeo and Juliet are in love. 

Claire Elise Murray

Ashley Bowman

Honors English

1/14/14                                 Thirteen Reasons Why- Suspense Factor

                 “Everything...affects everything” - Thirteen Reasons Why

              Throughout this book, I felt that the way Jay Asher built up the suspense was superb. The begging of the story starts with Clay Jenson, the main character, sending the box of tapes he received from Hannah Baker the girl who recently committed suicide to the next name on the list that she created. At this point as a reader, you are very confused. You have no prior knowledge about the tapes, what they said or even why there was a list of names. This first seen creates an immense amount of suspense. You want to know what these tapes are about and how this story links back to this first scene.

            Once Clay ships the tapes, that story starts with when Clay first received the tapes. The story also explains about how Clay received the tapes and what he knew about what previously happened to Hannah. After we know a little about what happened, Clay secretly steals a Walkman from his friend so he could listen to the tapes. The first cassette plays and Hannah introduces herself along with all of Clay’s thoughts and actions while listening. Then she gets into names of thirteen people that influenced her decision to end her life, and since Clay received them, he was on the list as well.

         

   Clay is known by friends and schoolmates to be a very nice, intelligent person. The level of suspense builds every different cassette that Clay changes because for most people including me, I am assuming want to know where Clay fits into this story. I feel like that was the main area of suspense throughout Thirteen Reasons Why. Another large area of suspension comes when Hannah is describing the stories of experiences that she had with other people. For me while reading these situations would be very hard to put the book down because it really pulled me in and made me want to keep reading. 

13ReasonsWhy-MovieComparison

Bell 2

12/16/13

Ashley Bowman

Claire Elise Murray         Thirteen Reasons Why- Movie Comparison

            The main character in Thirteen Reasons Why is a teenage girl named Hannah Baker. She recently moved into Crestmont with her parents. While attending school, many rumors and negative events happened to Hannah. One of these events included losing her closest friends. All of these things being said about her overwhelmed her and eventually led Hannah to the decision to end her life. She left behind tapes sent to thirteen people that affected her or influenced her decision to kill herself by overdosing in pills. Thirteen Reasons Why is closely comparable to the movie Cyberbully featuring Emily Osmet.

            In Cyberbully, a teenage girl named Taylor Hillridge (around the same age as Hannah) receives a laptop for her seventeenth birthday. With the support of her friends, Taylor quickly signs up for a social networking cite used by the majority of her classmates; Cliquespace. After having Cliquespace for a couple days, rumors about her start being posted. Also, a fake account (later we find out was created by her friend) gets to know her then uses what she said against her, humiliating Taylor online. The foul comments only get worse, soon the comments continue at school. Thinking nothing could get worse, Taylor takes an attempt at killing herself by overdosing on pills. Thankfully, she was unsuccessful and was found by her friends before anything else got worse.

            Thirteen Reasons Why and Cyberbully are closely related. First, for the obvious similarities; they both try to take their lives by overdosing on pills, both have friends that turn on them, and people at school were starting rumors about them and also calling them foul names. Those similarities are easily seen throughout both summaries. Another clear similarity is that they both go to public school and are about the same age, Taylor being 17 and Hannah 16. Both had about the same mindset about what was going on in their lives, because they go through almost the same exact thing.

            Some difference between Thirteen Reasons Why and Cyberbully include where most of the bullying takes place and the response to this bullying. In Thirteen Reasons Why, most of the bullying happens at school and Hannah’s reaction isn’t revenge it is simply trying to ignore it or at least seem like she is. In Cyberbully, as the same says ‘cyber’ most of the bullying takes place online. Although, the bullying also makes its way to school eventually. Taylor also deals with the bullying in a different way; she strikes back at the bullies with rude comments similar to what they were saying to her. So at the same time as being the victim, she was also being the offender.

Book Connections

Bell 2
12/16/13
Ashley Bowman
Claire Elise Murray                                  Book Connections

 

 “I hope your ready, because I’m about to tell you the story of my life.

More specifically why my life ended. And if you’re listening to these tapes,

you’re one of the reasons why.” (Asher7)

Throughout Thirteen Reasons Why I have been able to make many different connections. One of those connections is text-to-world. In this book there are two major topics presented; suicide and social acceptance. The reason for these topics and thoughts by Hannah Baker are her classmates and so called ‘friends’. In society people don’t understand that their little comments or actions can have a negative effect on others. In this case in the book, Hannah traces her thirteen reasons on why she chose to take her life. Most of these reasons were small and the person doing the actions didn’t realize they were greatly affecting her.

Another connection I made is text-to-text, or in this case text-to-movie. The movie Cyberbully featured on ‘abc’ has many similarities to my book. Cyberbully is about a teenage girl, about the same age as Hannah, that attempts to kill herself because of her ‘friends’ turning against her and rumors that were being spread about her. Almost the same exact thing happens in Thirteen Reasons Why. Hannah kills herself due to friends turning on her, rumors being spread about her and just life experiences. For example in Cyberbully, two of Taylor’s friends turn on her and the same thing happened in Thirteen Reasons Why. Two of Hannah’s friends; Alex and Courtney turn on her.

The last Connection that I made was text-to-self. This book relates to me from past experiences. It’s not that I have tried to kill myself or anything, although there have been tough times; I am mostly relating this to me from the look of cause and effect. For example- Hannah based her decision and life on what others said and did; the effect was her ending her life over those factors. In my life, I tend to care too much what others think about me, that’s how I base decisions a lot. So I feel like Hannah and I have many similarities.