"Mr.Tucket", Stanley Suter

 *Prompt - How did the reading make you feel? Why?

        This week I've read "Mr.Tucket" by Gary Paulson and I really like the book. It all starts on a wagon ride to Utah, on Francis Tucket's birthday. He gets a rifle from his father and strays far behind the group practicing when a group of hostil indians take hit to their tribe to make hit a slave. When another man, Mr.Grimes, saves him. They set off to try to find both his family and make beaver pelts, when the Pawnee leader comes after them and they are forced to a duel. Mr.Grimes wins and skins the leaders face.

        I hated Mr.Grimes when he skinned the Leaders face because I felt he was just going too far and it mortified Francis. Destroying a dead man's face isn't cool, especially if you knew him. Then, as Francis rides away as fast as he can, he doesn't even follow him to make sure he got back to his family. He just watched the last time he would probably ever see the boy. Thats what angered me. How can you not follow the kid you practically fathered for a year?

        I liked the part of the book where Mr.Grimes didn't make snappy remarks or was as on edge as the rest of the book. When they where trapping beavers, and their only worry was to cover the tracks so other people didn't follow. It made me happy when Mr.Grimes's friends came and Francis held a gun on them for a solid hour, making them think he was a full grown man, when he was only 14. The Mr.Grimes came and explained the situation to them, showing them how a 14 year lod boy stopped them in their tracks, and kept them there for an hour. I think that that was the high of the book.

"The Plod", Stanley Suter

Creative Reflection On Blogging

       

        When I started blogging I focused more on the base of the story instead of the prompt I had. I would summarize randomly throughout the story. I would say something such as "Dognut liked Brittany, and Katherine liked Dognut." and then follow with something like "They met on a bus, with the only living person over 16 and his son. His son was nice but the father was cruel." I also seemed to have much less evidence put into my blogs to support the Prompt.

       

         In my later posts I use much more evidence toward the prompt and the sides I choose with the blog. I also go much further into the characters in the first/summary paragraph and make sure that the later two are focused on the prompt. I add visuals and my writhing is much better with more feeling and better vocabulary. I try to use longer paragraphs and figurative language. Thats the changes I can see throughout my blog posts.

"Small Steps", Stanley S. Pages 0-256

 *Prompt* - • Describe the most important event. Give at least three reasons why you think it

is the most important event.

        "Small Steps" is the sequel to "Holes" and I really like how the story has changed. It isn't in the view of Stanley Yelnats any more, but instead between Armpit and X-ray. They had just gotten out of their jail camp and Armpit is trying it out the right way by working hard and trying to get to college. On the other hand X-ray is into scalping illegally for a concert and, they being friends, offers to have Armpit into the deal, and when Armpit wants to go to the concert with his friend, X-ray gives them fake tickets without telling them, and when at the concert the guards come to see the tickets they notice. When Armpit reacts, he starts yelling and his friend has a seizure. Thats when they meet Tatiana.

        I think that the most important event in the book is when they meet Tatiana. It sets up the whole plot and the book would not be even close to how it is now without her. She is the woman singing in the concert, and talks to Armpit's friend after she has the seizure. She becomes intimately involved with Armpit, and they "hook-up". Armpit meets the man married to her mother and he asks Armpit to hold a bat, only to get his finger prints on to later frame him.

        Eventually after Armpit and Tatiana break up, the father finally uses the finger prints. He knows that Tatiana and Armpit are angry at each other and Tatiana has a giant life insurance check. So one night, he goes in with the bat and hits Tatiana over the head several times. Only one problem. The loose end that he didn't tie up was Armpit. Armpit had come back to apologize, when no one answered the knock and he heard a wimper, he had to let himself in. Yadda, Yadda, he takes the lamp, smashes it over the fathers head, they all live happily ever after, except Armpit never gets back together with Tatiana.

"The Secret" By: Stanley S. (Found Poem)

In this poem I bring forward what seems like a major argument in the book. From what  can see on the page a boy named Dallas is the boyfriend of a girl named Retta. Retta recieves a letter in the mail, probably from one of her admirers and Dallas finds out. So they talk it over by the end of my page. I have highlighted the best and most inportant parts, giving you a pretty good idea of my twisted argument between them.

"The Toothbrush Mystery" By: Stanley Suter

         In my poem, the main question is "who put the hair in my toothbrush. Then I branched off of that idea with "The coach nobody liked". Then from there I choose to put a well known name, making my poem more specific, "Ghandi". I picked him specifically for humor, he sacrificing for his causes he wouldn't be as mischievous as he is in my poem. It ends with him in jail, but I used the book "Deathwatch" for lack of better words.

The Eleventh Plague, Stanley Suter (The Poem Version)

Prompt: Two Voice Poem.

Stephen Jenny

“You don’t have to leave.”

“I do, I can’t stay here and live 

                                                                  my dream at the same time.”

“We can find a way!”

“I’ll come back, this is my home 

                                                                 and always will be.”

“What if something happens?

What am I supposed to do then?”

“Even if something happened,

                                                                 you could live without me, you did before.”

“Those weren’t happy times.”

“I can’t, you know I don’t fit in,

                                                                 you want to make me stay here? 
                                                                 Were I’m not happy?”

“It would be better.”

“Stop.”

“Who do I have? Dad’s in a coma, 

you’re leaving too?”

“I will be back, I cannot continue living like this.”

"What will you do if something
happens to me?"

                                                                   "We both know that's not happening, you have people here."

"And you don't, what then?

                                                                    "I can handle myself."

"Is that what you call setting the
barn on fire? Handling?

                                                                    "I need to do this."





"Please"                                                  "Please"

"Where I'm From" by:Stanley Suter

"Scat", Pages 0-21 Stanley Suter

Prompt - Describe the setting's time and place. Then create a new setting that better fits the story.

        For the past couple of days I have been reading "Scat" and its really good so far. It starts with two kids in a class room (private school) with the least liked teacher in the school. Their both scared their going to be called on, but she fakes it and calls on the bully of the grade. He stalls for about five minutes until the teacher forces him to write a 500 word essay. She points the pencil threateningly at him and he eats half of it. She flips out and he leaves. Right now the headmaster is trying to talk to his father, a perfect replica of his son, just bigger.

        A better place for the story would be in either a public school or a school for criminals. I think that the bully is so out of place at a private school, likely costing thousands and thousands of dollars. He lives in a poor neighborhood, he dad went to jail, and he has problems with many of the other kids and teachers. If he was in a public school he would not be as out of place, trouble maker, not super rich. He would fit in even better if it was a school for criminals because he was kicked out of elementary school for biting his gym teachers pinkie off.

        The better time place for this story would be in the 40's or 50's because they had much more tolerence for physical behavior like that. Also, they wouldn't worry about taking it up with the parents, they would just spank the child with a paddle. Eating a pencil wasn't as serious even if they had actual lead in them, so the headmaster wouldn't even have to notify the parents of the child about his or her mistakes and wrong choices.  The time period would also allow different problems with the teacher and their studies. Much more room for comedy and more could be done with the situation while still keeping it real, unlike the real time setting.

PLEASE VOTE ON THE POLL