Blog for (4-14-10)

I am still reading *Deadline* by Chris Crutcher. I was hoping to be finished with this book, but I have hardly had anytime to read at all last week. I really hope I can finish it by this Wednesday. So far in this book, the main character, Ben Wolf has been diagnosed with a form of cancer and has not told anybody still. He is playing football for his high school and his brother is on the team also. His brother has played all for years of high school, but Ben only stated playing this year (which is his senior year). His brother and him are in the same grade. There were getting ready to play there homecoming game and one of the important players got hurt. Weeks before the game, Ben and his brother watched plays of the other team so they new how they played. When that player got hurt and could not play, Ben's brother told his coach to let Ben play. The coach did not want Ben to play because he had never really had the chance to play before. Ben and his brother have played football together (for fun) since they were little. When Ben went in to play, they were losing by one touchdown. The clock was winding down and Ben's brother threw Ben the ball and it was a crazy throw. Ben caught the ball when it was in the end zone. So Ben had won the game for them. I am wondering what the ending of this book is going to bring. I hope it is a good ending.

Deadline!!

I am reading Deadline by Chris Crutcher. So far, I really like this book. It is a book that I do not want to put down. This is actually a book that I could just keep reading and finish it. So far, the main character, Ben Wolf, is an interesting person. Through out high school, he has been on the cross country team and since the doctor told him he only had a year to live, he wanted to “go out with a bang”. So, he decided to quite cross country and go out for the football team. The author describes him as a scrawny little thing. He is a fast runner though, so he is good at football. His younger brother also plays football, but they are actually in the same grade because his mom held him back a year. His younger brother likes having Ben on the football team because they were so use to playing football together through out there entire life. His brother wants to play college football, but only thinks he could play if Ben was on the team also. They live in a small town which I can relate to because grew up in a small town. I can not wait to finish this book.

Deadline

Now that we have to read a second book, I chose to read Deadline by Chris Crutcher. This book is about a student who is just starting his senior in high school and he went into the doctors to get a physical for sports. The doctor had some news for him and wanted him and his parents to come in so he could give them the news. He went to see his doctor without his parents (his parents did not even know that the doctor wanted to see them) and the news that was so important for them to see him was that he had rare form of cancer and is only expected to live for one more year. I chose to read this book because when I was just starting my freshman year in high school, my family got the news that my grandma had cancer and only had a year to live. Then we got the news that she only had five to eight months to live. She made it to eight months. She passed away on May 26, 2005, a couple days before my sister graduated from high school. I think that I will somewhat be able to relate to this character because I know what his family is going through. I am very excited to read this book.

modern audience

In Thirteen Reasons Why, I think that this book is written for modern day teenagers to read this. I can not really see an older person reading this book and liking it. I also can not see this book being read back in 1900’s either. I think it was written for today’s society. There are so many suicides that occur with people not even knowing about them. Suicide ranges from celebrities to maybe a best friend or even a family member. I know there are signs for suicide, but people do not really think about the signs until it is too late. Like they said in the book, changing you appearance is one of the first signs for suicide, well, I know a lot of people who have gotten there hair chopped off. I do not think about the suicide side of them doing that because I have known several people who have chopped there hair off. I think suicide is something you do not really think about because you notice a lot of changes in people, so you do not think of it as something bad. When I was a sophomore in High School, I chopped my hair of to where it was spiky in the back and longer in the front, I did not do that because I was having suicide thoughts, I just did if for something different. People could have an appearance change because of the time of the year (summer, winter).

What caused a major change??

I think that Hannah Baker had a major change in her life to end up killing herself. I know it all started with her first kiss from Justin. Everything after that was like a snow ball affect. One thing happened which led to another thing and so on. When I think about all the ‘thirteen reasons why’ (well, the ones I have read so far) I would never expect them to be a snow ball affect. I feel like Hannah put herself into some of these. For instance with Courtney. If I were Hannah and knew what was going to happen before she decided to go to the party, I would not have even thought about going. Hannah said she knew that when they got to the party, Courtney was going to leave her. And what happened, she took of with other people and left Hannah alone. My thoughts about this are that if you know something is going to happen, then WHY do it. Sometimes people just do not make any sense to me. Why would you what to do anything that you know is going to hurt you. I know I would not do that. Also, I would not do anything like this because I have been hurt in the past and I do have trust issues, so if I know that someone is going to back stab me, I try to avoid the situation. Also, there had to be some other reason to add to all of this to trigger her to kill herself.

How I Can Relate To Hannah Baker

In Thirteen Reasons Why, I can kind of relate to Hannah Baker because she had to change schools. I have moved a total of ten times so far. I have been to four different schools. I went to Pre-School in Mt. Morris, IL. I went from kindergarten to fourth grade in Polo, IL. I went from fifth grade to freshman in Monmouth, IL. Finally, I went from sophomore till I graduated in Granville, IL and McNabb, IL. When really don’t remember much about when I moved after preschool, but when I found out that we were moving from Polo, I all kinds of emotions going through me. I was angry because I did not want to leave my friends because we grew up together. When we moved, it was hard for me to make new friends because I could not find anybody that was like my friends from my other school. Also, I did not want to make friends because I did not want to get close to any body incase we moved again. It was hard going into a new school because every body has there ‘clicks’ already because most people in a school have been together since first grade. When we moved the last time, I told my mom that I did not want to move any more because I wanted to keep my friends. We ended up moving again, but it was in the same school district. Nothing happened to me like it did Hannah with that note. Nobody wrote a note about me, but people did talk about me. I could just sense it. Also, I had people coming up to me about what they heard. So I can kind of relate to Hannah. I haven’t finished the book yet, but so far, I don’t think that I would ever go to the extreme of killing myself over it though.

Before I started to read Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, I wondered what the title would represent in the book and why he chose this title for it. While reading the first part of this book, I know why he chose this title for this book. I think he chose the title because the entire book is about the ‘thirteen reasons why’ the main character, Hannah Baker, killed herself. She recorded the ‘thirteen reasons why’ on different cassette tapes.

When we chose this book as a class, I did not want to read this book because it is a book that I did not think that I would like. After reading the first part of this book, I have grown to it. I like this book so far. It is a different type of book than what I normally read. I almost can not put the book down because I want to know the reason why Clay has a part in Hannah’s suicide. This book is also an easy read. I don’t know if it a little easier because on the audio version I have, when Hannah talks, it is a girl and when Clay talks, it is a guy. I am sure if I read it, I would get confused because of it jumping back and forth between what Hannah says and what Clay thinks. I can’t wait to finish this book!!

When I Read...

I do not read that much on my own free time. When I do read, it is normally a book that I can relate to, or it could happen in real life, or it is a biography or autobiography. My sister reads a lot, so if I ever want to read a book, she can suggest a book that I might like. The only time I do read on my own free time is if I am traveling. I like to read in the car because it makes the time go by faster. This past summer, I read three books while going to North Carolina and New York and then back home. If I read at my house, I have to read in the quiet. If it is noisy, I can not concentrate on what I am trying to read. I also understand what I read a lot better when it is read to me. I normally get books on tape or CD so I can understand the book better. For the book Thirteen Reasons Why, I purchased the audio version of the book from iTunes. I can then listen to it either on my computer or on my phone. When I do read, I like to read while I am in my bed. I also like to read before I go to bed because if I am not tired, reading for awhile will make me tired.