Columnist Unit: Krista Ramsey

I chose to read the article Raising Kids to Embrace the World, Then They do By Krista Ramsey.       A summary of this article is you are always teaching your kids to go out and embrace the world, and when they do, you will be proud, and also be upset, because you're loosing your child. 

“It's the most humbling lesson of parenting: We may be in charge of the prologue, but only they get to write the story of their lives.” I think that this line is best written.  This lines impact on the reader is it makes the reader think that they can start out someone’s book, but only the actual person can finish the book. This also makes the reader think that they are also in charge of their own story.  While this article was supposed to be about how a parent feels once their child leaves home, but it also encourages others to get up and  finish their story however they want to do it. 

               Ramsey's writing style is very realistic.  Examples of this are:

              1. "This is the site of final hugs and whispered "love you's" as we watch our just-                           grown children depart for New York or Chicago, Austin or Madison, Atlanta or L.A."

              Here Ramsey is describing what it is like to have a child leaving you at an airport,                         and she is describing it almost as if she had experienced it herself, because it                             seems very realistic. 

              2. "They think of it as heading home. We think of it as leaving home."

              Ramsey describes what is going through a young adult and parents mind as the                          child leaves the parent at the airport. 

              3. "Then we return to our car, fold ourselves across the steering wheel and sob."

              Ramsey states here what every parent has been through, or will go through if their                         child leaves to go out of state for a long time.  The parent has millions of things                             going through their mind, and they are worried for their child, and they cannot do                            anything except cry for a moment.  

Three questions that I would ask the writer if given the opportunity are:

1.    Have you ever experienced the reality of watching a child go off in an airport?

2.    You were once a young adult as well, did your mother and father go through this experience with you?

3.    If yes for number two, what was this situation like for you?

The Best Thing about my Book

So far, the best thing about the book that I am reading, City of Ashes, is the drama and suspense the writer uses to keep the reader wanting to turn the page.  Cassandra Clare, the author of City of Ashes and many other books (see About the Author post), leaves you with a cliffhanger at almost every end of the chapter, as well as utilizes drama in the middle of the chapter so the reader won’t get bored in the middle of reading.  All of them are good, and they make me want to keep reading on and find out what happens next.  A good example of how the author uses drama and suspense to enhance her writing is on page 26, “There was a hitch in the other girl’s voice, as if she’d been crying.  “Is Jace there?”  Clary actually held out the phone so she could stare at it before bringing the receiver back to her ear.  “Jace?  No.  Why would he be here?”  Isabelle’s answering breath echoed down the phone line like a gasp.  “The thing is… he’s gone.” (Clare, 26).  In this example, Clare leaves the reader wanting to know where Jace is, and why he went missing, and because she’s given no clues, the reader has to read on to find out what has happened to Jace.

WARNING: THIS EXAMPLE CONTAINS A SMALL SPOILER TO THOSE WHO ARE READING OR WISHING TO READ THE FIRST BOOK OF THIS SERIES, CITY OF BONES.  DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE READING OR ARE GOING TO READ CITY OF BONES!

Another example of why the best thing about City of Ashes is how the author uses drama and suspense is on page 96 and 97, “Jace looked past him, but he could see nothing but blackness beyond the faint illumination of the witchlight.  He thought of the roiling dark form he had seen before, crushing gout all light before it.  “What’s coming? What is it?” He demanded, scrabbling forward to his knees.  “I must go,” said Valentine.  “But were not done, you and I.”  Jace put his hand to the bars.  “Unchain me.  Whatever it is I want to be able to fight it.”  “Unchaining you would hardly be a kindness now.”  Valentine closed his hand around the witchlight stone completely.  It winked out, plunging the room into darkness.  Jace flung himself against the bars of the cell, his broken hand screaming its protest and pain.  “No!” he shouted.  “Father, please.”  “When you want to find me,” Valentine said, “you will find me.”  And then there was only the sound of his footsteps rapidly receding and Jace’s own ragged breathing as he slumped against the bars.” (96-97, Clare). In this example, the author uses the suspense and drama of the feeling of darkness that the reader gets while reading this passage.  The reader wonders what did Jace see in the dark, and what is his father protecting him from in the darkness, and what is the unfinished business that Jace and his father have to take care of? 

City of Ashes: Setting

For my next blog post, I will be talking about the setting of City of Ashes.  The author, Cassandra Clare, describes each new scene so the reader can imagine what is happening easily in their head.  An example of this is “The first time Clary had ever seen the Institute, it had looked like a dilapidated church, its roof broken in, stained yellow police tape holding the door closed.  Now she didn't have to concentrate to dispel the illusion.  Even from across the street she could see it exactly as it was, a towering Gothic cathedral whose spires seemed to pierce the dark blue sky like knives.” (Clare, 52).  Here Clare is describing one of the main settings, the Institute, and what it would look like to normal humans, or mundanes, as the characters in the book call them.  She relates what the Institute looks like to things that almost everyone has seen before, so that they can picture it in their minds.  

Author Information: City Of Ashes

City of Ashes is the second book in The Mortal Instruments series. For my first blog post this trimester, I have decided to do some research on the author, Cassandra Clare. 

For starters, Cassandra Clare is just a pen name.  Her real name is Judith Rumelt.  She was born in Teheran, Iran to American parents.  She spent a lot of her youth traveling with her parents.  By the time she was 10 years old, she had lived in France, England, and Switzerland.  Because of her traveling so much, she found comfort in books.  They were the only thing familiar in all of the different places she lived in.  During her high school years, she lived in Los Angles, where she would write books for her classmate’s entertainment.  Judith got her pen name of Cassandra Clare from one of the books she had written, and also read, called The Beautiful Cassandra, by Jane Austen.  After she graduated from college, Cassandra worked at various magazine publishing offices in Los Angles, and New York.  In 2004, she started working on her first novel, City of Bones, the first book in The Mortal Instruments series. In 2006, she started writing fantasy fiction full time.  Cassandra’s first professional writing sale was called A Girls Guide to Defeating the Dark Lord. Cassandra enjoys working in public coffee shops and restaurants, and enjoys working in the company of her friends, who help keep her on track for her deadlines.  Cassandra’s first novel was City of Bones.

 Cassandra now has six books in The Mortal Instruments series; City of Bones, City of Ashes, City of Glass, City of Fallen Angels, City of Lost Souls, and City of Heavenly Fire.  She also has The Infernal Devices series, containing the books Clockwork Angel, Clockwork Prince, and Clockwork Princess.   Coming out September 9^th, 2014, will be the first book in the Magisterium series, The Iron Trial. Cassandra also is publishing a companion eulogy for The Mortal Instruments, called The Dark Artifices. There will be three books total, Lady Midnight, The Prince of Shadows, and The Queen of Air and Darkness.  She has also written The Bane Chronicles, which is about a character in The Mortal Instruments.  Vampires; Scones and Edmund Herondale; The Rise and Fall of Hotel Dumort; Saving Raphael Santiago and What to Buy The Shadowhunter Who Has Everything (And Who You’re Not Officially Dating Anyway) are all short stories in The Bane Chronicles. The Shadowhunters Codex is another short story written by Cassandra Clare.  The Shadowhunters Codex is a book that is in The Mortal Instruments, and is the Shadowhunters training manual. One last series written by Cassandra Clare is The Last Hours, containing the books Chain of Thorns; Chain of Gold and Chain of Iron. Release dates have not been published yet. 
I got this information from the website http://www.cassandraclare.com/

Cassandra Clare being interviewed about The Mortal Instruments being turned into a movie

Blog Reflection

For my old blog post, I will be using the first blog I ever did, which is The Fault in Our Stars book review! 

For the better blog post which I think I did best on, I am using Insurgent Reading Skills! 

In my very first blog post, I believe that the only introduction paragraph that I had was barely existent, and was very week as well.  All it said was that I read the book over the summer (Highlighted).  In one of the last blog posts the introduction paragraph is still very brief, but I feel that it gives the reader quick information they need to know.  Instead of just saying that I have read the book or am reading the book, I say that I am reading the book, as well as what the book is, the series that it is in, as well as what genre the book would fall under in my opinion. (Highlighted)  My way of telling the readers about the book also has changed, which improved my blog posts.  In my first blog, I would say something small about the event, and put a quote here or there, and then move on. (Highlighted)  But, in the other blog post, I would put a detailed description of the event so the reader would understand more about the book, and then use a quote where I felt necessary, and then explain the quote to help the reader understand.  (Highlighted)

            One thing that I struggled with on this assignment was keeping up with the amount of blogs that we had to do.  As I improved, the more detail I wanted to put into my blogs, which meant that I had to spend more time on them.  Because of this, I would not be able to finish the blog post that I wanted to do in the amount of class time that we had to work on the blog.  I tried to overcome this by trying to spend as much free time that I had to work on my blogs.  A strength that I have in my blogs would be the amount of detail that I have in them about the book and the author.  I set a reading goal of 20 books, which was way too high for me, because I only read 5.  This is because I had lots of different activities going on, as well as other homework to do, so I didn’t get to spend as much time as I would like to read.  I used goodreads.com to keep track of my reading goal, as well as to see what my friends where saying about a book that I wanted to read, and to try and update them on the books that I was reading or have already read.  I improved as a reader over this trimester by being able to understand different types of literature and being able to make real world connections. 

Older blog post: The Fault In Our Stars Book Review 

Over the summer, I read the book The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.  Hazel, one of the main characters, starts out as a shy girl who may have depression.  Early on in the book Hazel claims that depression is not a side effect of cancer, but of dying; "But, in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying." (Green, 1).  She rarely leaves the house, only to go to the cancer support group that she attends, where one week, she meets Augustus Waters.  Acting shy around others was how Hazel acted, but when she was invited to go to Augustus's house that same day, she couldn't say no.  Hazel starts coming out of her shy and depressed shell and becomes more and more outgoing throughout the book.  This is because of her interactions with Augustus.  Later on in the book, when Hazel and Augustus get the chance to go to Amsterdam, Hazel claims that she would have never done this before, but she ended up going with her mom and Augustus. She becomes more outgoing when interacting with other characters, as well.  When she goes to the mall and a little girl asks her what is in her nose, Hazel even asks the girl if she wanted to try them on.  "'Would they help me breath, too?'  'I dunno.  Let's try.'  I took it off and let Jackie stick the cannula in her nose and breathe.  'Tickles,' she said." (Green, 51) Becoming even more outgoing through interactions with other characters is how Hazel becomes a more complex character as the story continues on.  One of the main themes in The Fault in Our Stars is love, and Hazel contributes to that theme because she ends up falling in love with Augustus.  "I fell in love the way you sleep, slowly, then all at once." (Green, 122).  
The Fault in Our Stars article 
This article does give away spoilers, so I suggest that if you want to know just what the book is about, you should read the first 2 paragraphs.  This article explains everything that happens in the book, without all of the details that John Green includes in his book.

Better blog post: Insurgent Reading Skills

Insurgent, the sequel to the book Divergent is one of the 2 books that I am reading right now. I haven't finished the book yet, but I can already tell you that it’s a very well written book, with lots of action.
In the book so far, Tris, Tobias, Caleb, and Susan where staying at the Amity safe house. They were staying with others, such as Peter and Marcus, but later on in the book the Erudite come and try to search the Amity safe house, looking for the 6 of them, and they all run away. The Erudite chase them, and when they split up to try to lose them, gun shots are fired. I assume that Marcus is dead, because he isn't with the group any more, and the other 4 assume that Peter is dead as well, but I predict that the Erudite capture him and get him to join their side. This scene of chaos unfolded when Tris saw the Erudite cars and ran to warn others. They went to hide themselves by blending in, but that plan didn't work when one of the Erudite women saw how Tobias' hair was cut. "The Dauntless woman walking towards him looks at him right away. Her eyes narrow as she walks closer, and then stops directly behind him. I wish the collar of his shirt were higher. I wish he didn’t have so many tattoos. I wish... 'Your hair is pretty short for Amity,' she says. ... He did not cut his hair like the Abnegation. 'It’s hot,' he says. The excuse might work if he knew how to deliver it, but he says it with a snap. She stretches out her hand and, with her index finger, pulls back the collar of his shirt to see his tattoo. And Tobias moves. He grabs the woman's wrist, yanking her forward so she loses her balance. She hits her head against the edge of the tale and falls. Across the room, a gun goes off, someone screams, and everyone dives under the tables or crouches next to the benches." (Roth, 80-81). This is a quote to show that the Erudite where working with the Dauntless, and how the scene was set up. Although in real life, this maybe would've taken about 1 minute to set up, it seems as if this would take forever to get through because of the detail that Veronica Roth, the author, put into it.

I predict that towards the end of the book, there will be another large war, and the good people will win. Then everyone who was not on the bad side that is alive will try to change things to make them better, or to change things to try to keep a war like what they just went through not happen ever again. Some of the questions that I have so far are: what happened to Marcus and Peter? What is going to happen to Caleb, Tris, Tobias, and Susan? Will the war end? Who will win the war if it does end? How will the war end if it does end?

I cannot make any text to world or text to self-connections, because as far as I know, there have not been any world wars, or any wars, where people were injected with a drug that took over their minds where they were controlled to kill other people and get something that they didn't know existed. I can make a text to text connection from this book to the book that comes before it, Divergent. These books are similar because they both have the same issue, how to stop the war, and are connected basically. I could make a basic text to world connection, because some people and other countries could not value their military, just like how some people don't value the Dauntless, who are their military.

Insurgent Reading Skills

Insurgent, the sequel to the book Divergent is one of the 2 books that I am reading right now. I haven't finished the book yet, but I can already tell you that it’s a very well written book, with lots of action.

In the book so far, Tris, Tobias, Caleb, and Susan where staying at the Amity safe house. They were staying with others, such as Peter and Marcus, but later on in the book the Erudite come and try to search the Amity safe house, looking for the 6 of them, and they all run away. The Erudite chase them, and when they split up to try to lose them, gun shots are fired. I assume that Marcus is dead, because he isn't with the group any more, and the other 4 assume that Peter is dead as well, but I predict that the Erudite capture him and get him to join their side. This scene of chaos unfolded when Tris saw the Erudite cars and ran to warn others. They went to hide themselves by blending in, but that plan didn't work when one of the Erudite women saw how Tobias' hair was cut. "The Dauntless woman walking towards him looks at him right away. Her eyes narrow as she walks closer, and then stops directly behind him. I wish the collar of his shirt were higher. I wish he didn’t have so many tattoos. I wish... 'Your hair is pretty short for Amity,' she says. ... He did not cut his hair like the Abnegation. 'It’s hot,' he says. The excuse might work if he knew how to deliver it, but he says it with a snap. She stretches out her hand and, with her index finger, pulls back the collar of his shirt to see his tattoo. And Tobias moves. He grabs the woman's wrist, yanking her forward so she loses her balance. She hits her head against the edge of the tale and falls. Across the room, a gun goes off, someone screams, and everyone dives under the tables or crouches next to the benches." (Roth, 80-81). This is a quote to show that the Erudite where working with the Dauntless, and how the scene was set up. Although in real life, this maybe would've taken about 1 minute to set up, it seems as if this would take forever to get through because of the detail that Veronica Roth, the author, put into it.

I predict that towards the end of the book, there will be another large war, and the good people will win. Then everyone who was not on the bad side that is alive will try to change things to make them better, or to change things to try to keep a war like what they just went through not happen ever again. Some of the questions that I have so far are: what happened to Marcus and Peter? What is going to happen to Caleb, Tris, Tobias, and Susan? Will the war end? Who will win the war if it does end? How will the war end if it does end?

I cannot make any text to world or text to self-connections, because as far as I know, there has not been any world wars, or any wars, where people where injected with a drug that took over their minds where they were controlled to kill other people and get something that they didn't know existed. I can make a text to text connection from this book to the book that comes before it, Divergent. These books are similar because they both have the same issue, how to stop the war, and are connected basically. I could make a basic text to world connection, because some people and other countries could not value their military, just like how some people don't value the Dauntless, who are their military.

Insurgent Book review

WARNING- SPOILERS!!!

So I finally finished the book Insurgent. The ending was something of what I predicted, except for the fact that Peter and Marcus are both not dead. I predicted that Peter would work for the Erudite, which he somewhat did, except for he ends up saving Tris' life and helps Tris and Tobias escape the Erudite compound.
 

What happened from where I last blogged about up to the end of the book is the Erudite and traitor Dauntless break into the place where lots of the Divergent (people with an aptitude for 2 or more factions) are staying, along with lots of other survivors from the war who are not traitors, are staying. They shoot simulation-transmitters into a bunch of people staying, but only the non-Divergent people are affected by it. Tris and Uriah, a non-traitor Dauntless, start to look for Divergent people before the Erudite find them. They end up getting caught, and taken to where they are keeping the other Divergent people. Eric, a Dauntless-traitor, who used to be a Dauntless leader, tells the guards to keep a gun on Tris at all times. He then comes back to where the Divergent are, and tells them what is happening. He says that they can only take 2 Divergent to Erudite headquarters for studying, and the rest will be executed. A little boy sitting next to Tris gets shot in the head by Eric, and Tris, grabbing the knife she had in her pocket, attacks Eric, and stabs him in the stomach. The Dauntless who are not traitors then surround the area where the Divergent are being held because of help they got from one of the Erudite, and they save the Divergent. Tris helps remove the needles that transmitted the simulation serum, and then everything settles down. But, in a good action book, things never stay that way. Tris wakes up to Christina, one of her old friends that was a Dauntless initiate with her, and gets dragged but to the roof to see 3 people, Marlene, Hector, and a young girl standing on the edge of the building. They are under the simulation that they were shot with. Marlene announces that this will happen every 2 days until a Divergent is given to Erudite. Tris and Christina save the little girl and Hector, but Marlene jumps off of the building to her death.
 

During the funeral service for Marlene, Tris is overcome by grief and guilt, and leaves the service, where Christina finds her and tells her that she forgives her for shooting Will, who was Christina's boyfriend. Tris had to shoot Will because he was under the simulation in the first book, Divergent, and if she didn't shoot him, he would shoot her. Tris then finds her way to Tobias' room, where he makes her promise not to go to the Erudite headquarters. She says she won't, but after he falls asleep, she leaves and goes anyway. Upon arrival Dauntless traitor guards take her to a cell. Among the guards is Peter. He escorts her everywhere that she goes. Jeannie, the leader of the Erudite who is responsible for all of the simulation attacks and deaths, tells her that as soon as she gets what she wants from Tris, which is a divergent-proof simulation, that Tris will be executed. Jeannie preforms a series of tests on Tris. Peter is escorting her to one of the tests where they run into an injured Tobias, who got captured by the guards. Tris thinks that he came to save her. After one of her tests, Tobias is forced to give Jeannie information on the locations of some of the factionless safe houses. After another one of her tests where Tris actually attacks Jeannie, she calls Caleb out, who is Tris' brother. Tris becomes extremely hurt and views him as a traitor because of this. He was giving Jeannie all the information she needed to know about Tris. After Tris attacked Jeannie, Tris' execution was planned for the next day. They perform the execution, where she is injected. Tris hears the heart monitor go dead, but she knows that she is still breathing. Peter closes her eyes and wheels her out of the room. He starts to run and then gets to Tobias' cell. He explains that Tris is paralyzed for one minute and they run. They end up escaping, where Peter explains that the only reason he saved Tris was because she saved him. They go to the Abnegation section of the city, which is another faction, and meet with the factionless and the Dauntless. One day while Tris is walking around the city, she runs into Marcus, who convinces Tris that her parents died to try to keep whatever Jeannie wants a secret. Tris, believing him, goes to the Amity headquarters with Christina and Marcus to update Johanna. The Amity then holds a meeting and vote to stay out of the war. Johanna and several others then leave the faction because they want to help. Christina and Tris then talk to the Erudite people who were staying in the Amity headquarters, and convince them to help Christina, Tris, and Marcus on getting the information stolen and to give it to all of the factions. Tris leads a group into Erudite headquarters, where she and Marcus then go up to Jeannie's private laboratory after realizing that the information won’t be on a public computer after an encounter with Caleb. On the way up to the laboratory Christina, Marcus, and Tris run into Edward. They fight, and it leaves Christina and Edward injured. Tris and Marcus continue on, and come to a dead end where there are two different doors. They split up, and Tris walks into one of the rooms. There, the room recognizes her, and gives her a set of directions. If she gets through the door on the other side of the room in 5 minutes, then she is allowed to pass. Tris starts to walk towards the door when she gets blocked by herself. They must fight like they did in the initiate training for Dauntless. Tris realizes half way through the fight that whatever she would do in the fight; her image will do as well, so she begins to think of what she would do ahead of time, instead of just reacting. She passes the simulation, and goes through the door, where she finds Tori threatening Jeannie. Tris tries to talk her out of killing Jeannie, because Jeannie is the only one who can access the computer that Tris needs. Tris and Tori fight, and Tori bites Tris. Tris had knocked Tori's weapon out of her hand, but Tori pulls out a knife and stabs Jeannie. Tori then continues to call Tris a traitor, and has her taken away to be tried. Uriah then takes Tris downstairs where all of the traitors where being held for trial. Evelyn, a Factionless leader, then announces a new form of government where there are no Factions. The Dauntless become very upset about this, but find they are powerless because the Factionless had all of their weapons. Tobias then walks into the room, and kisses Tris. Tris begins to hope that all of the secrets that they had between them are gone. Then, a video plays, featuring someone named Amanda Ritter. She says that the factions where created in Chicago and they were sealed off from the rest of the world. But, once the video was played, the Amity would open the gates and they should all enter the world. She says that they should all forget their past, and that she would be entering the new world under the name of Edith Prior. The video ends, and the room erupts in voices.

In the blog that I posted before, I had asked some questions which I know have the answer too.  The questions that I asked where: what happened to Marcus and Peter? The answer to this question is they both live, and Peter does act like he has sided with the Erudite, which I predicted, but he eventually saves Tris, which is going against the Erudite, which is something I did not predict.  What is going to happen to Caleb, Tris, Tobias, and Susan? They all live, but Caleb sides with the Erudite, and Tobias, Tris, and Susan all stay on the other side of the war, the "good side".  Will the war end? It seems that the war has ended, but I can predict that there might be another war because there is a third book, and I don't think that book is just going to be about their new life without factions.  Who will win the war if it does end? The "good side" (Tris, Tobias, factionless and the good Dauntless)seem to have won the war, but only the factionless got what they wanted, and the Dauntless are kind of upset about not having factions anymore. How will the war end if it does end?   The war ended by Jeannie dying and the good Dauntless and the factionless capturing the "rebels", and everyone seeing the video about there no longer being any factions.