Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Reading Wishlist

1. Remember Me -Romily Bernard
2. 52 Reasons to Hate My Father -Jessica Brody
3. 3:59- Gretchen McNeil
4. How My Summer Went Up in Flames - Jennifer Salvato Doktorski
5. Don't You Wish? -Roxanne St. Claire
6. The Wrap-Up List - Steven Arnston
7. The Blood of Olympus -Rick Riordan
8. Shrinking Violet- Danielle Joseph
9. Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List- Rachel Cohn & David Leviathan
10. #Scandal -Sarah Ockler

The book that I'm going to read for my book 5 is 52 Reasons to Hate My Father. I'm choosing this book because I've already started it and I want to finish it.
 




Book 4 Reflection: Confessions The Paris Mystery

Why Tandy Angel is the strongest and the weakest of the Angel children?

1- She's the strongest of the Angel children.

This is because she never panics when faced with a tough situation. Such as when her ten year old brother, Hugo goes missing she doesn't panic. She comes up with a plan on how to find him and in the end her plan works and she ends up finding him. "I was one second from a weepy public meltdown; then I saw a kid in a red All Saints lacrosse shirt rounding the confections counter. I jumped up, grabbed Hugo roughly by the arm, and angrily demanded, "Hugo! Are you all right? What's wrong with you? Where the hell were you?"

 

2- She's the weakest of the Angel children.
This is because her sister's "death" effected her the most out of all the Angel children. This probably because her and her sister are the only two girls. "Katherine had come back from the dead. We'd touched, cried, laughed, hugged, renewed all the loving feelings we'd had for each other. Now she was gone. I stood there on the street, completely devastated. It was not just like losing Katherine all over again, it was almost worse than if she'd never appeared."



3- She's the strongest of the Angel children.
After she finds out that her "boyfriend" is cheating on her. She doesn't cry in front of him when she finds out. The worst thing about it was that he was cheating on her with her best friend Claudia Portman, C.P. for short. "When I looked at her face, I almost had a heart attack. I swear, my heart locked up and my brain froze. With enormous, superhuman effort, I managed to say, "C.P.?" She said, "Tandy?" We both said, "What are you doing here?"  But my voice was louder, more shocked, more outraged. My best friend was in scanties in James's room. There was only one way to interpret that. "I'm back," I said. "I came to see James." "You should probably leave before this gets awkward," said Claudia Portman, my former best friend. "You shouldn't just drop in on people, you know." "Screw you," I spat at her. "What the hell are you doing with James?" "Geez Tandy. I've got to spell this out for you? I was writing to him, as a friend, and well we fell in love. Sorry." She didn't look sorry. She looked triumphant." "I turned away from them and walked down the stairs with some of my dignity intact. No tears. No tears at all. At least those two didn't see me cry."



4-She's the weakest of the Angel children.
This is because she is mentally unstable. She was sent to a mental hospital called Fern Haven when her parents found out that she ran off with the son of their rival. There she was treated and all her memories of him were wiped from her mind. And now that she remembers what happened she is emotionally insecure and she has flash backs about what happened. It doesn't help that her parents and sister are dead. "A dark thought occurred, darker than a black sucking hole in the universe. Have I ever left Fern Haven? Had I fantasized an entire year of school and my parent's deaths and Matthew's trial and all the crimes that had closed in around us in New York, cases that I had solved?
Did I make up going to Paris? Had I been tripping at Fern Haven for... the entire time? I heard a sound system, Dr. Someone being paged. I grabbed for the bed rails, ready to fight to the death. Any minute now, some stiffly smiling doctor or fakey-nice nurse was going to ask me if I was ready for my next treatment. I would yell "No no no!" and I would lash out with my fists. Straps would be tightened. A gag would go into my mouth. An IV line with knockout drugs would drip into me, and then-oh, God, the electric shock. I couldn't let them do that to me. Not again."


 
 
5-She's the strongest of the Angel children.
After her grandmother's house burns down she is put into interrogations. She doesn't let the cops get to her. She puts up with them and their questioning and their rude remarks. She also puts up with their false accusations. "Two days after the fire, only an hour after my release from the hospital, I was in the police interrogation room, where cops were accusing me of torching my grandmother's house. They had no evidence, of course, but they'd cooked up a variety of bogus motives for me, which, where I come from, is called a fishing expedition. They had one suspect, me. And they wanted to hook me, reel me in, and toss me into an ice locker-today."




So, is Tandy Angel the weakest or strongest of the Angel children? She has her strengths and weaknesses but her strengths overrule her weaknesses. Therefore although with her weaknesses, Tandy Angel is still the strongest of the Angel children.

Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Book 3 Listicle: Ashes to Ashes

After being bullied by Reeve in Middle school Mary takes her life. After taking her own life Mary's spirit is trapped on Jar Island until she frees her spirit. Flash forward to the future now in high school, Reeve is the star player on the football team, he's popular, and he's homecoming king.  Now Marry is a ghost and she has come back to haunt him. Mary believes the only way for her to be freed from Jar Island is if Reeve takes his own life. Instead of taking his life she ends up saving his life. The question that remains is: Is Mary a villain or a hero?

1-She's totally a villain.
She tries to kill Reeve multiple times in the book. She starts by trying to kill him in his dreams by penetrating his mind at night when he sleeps. "I visit Reeve night after night. I meet him in his dreams." Then she tries to drown him when he's in a pool alone.
When that doesn't work she gets him to try to kill himself because of what he did to her many years ago.

2-She's a hero.
She saves Reeve, Lillia, and Kat when the house bursts into flames. Without her they would've all died. Even though she was the one that caused the house to burst into flame to begin with. "They will die if I don't do something. They will die just like I did. For no good reason at all."

3- She's a villain.
She gets mad at Lillia for betraying her by dating Reeve. As revenge Mary tries to hurt Lillia and Reeve. She also tears apart Lillia's room when she's not home. In addition she also RSVP's Lillia to a gala she wasn't going to go to. "I flip on the light switch, and then I let out a scream. My room is completely trashed. Clothes are everywhere. My down pillows have been slashed open and feathers float through the air. The belly of my stuffed rabbit has been slashed too, and his beany insides spill out onto the carpet. My perfume bottle is shattered on the vanity table; glass is everywhere. My dollhouse is smashed. And there is Mary, sitting cross-legged on my floor in the middle of it all."


4- She's a hero.
She tries to drown Reeve in the pool but during his last few seconds between life and death she decides to let him go and live. Even though she did try to drown him and he was just seconds away from death she let him go and he was able to live because she decided to let him go free. "I couldn't do it. After all this time, after all he's done to me, I couldn't do it."

 
 
5- She's a villain
She goes and burns Kat's letter of recommendation before her source sends it to her. She does this because Kat works at the place that is trying to "preserve" the house where Mary lived before she took her own life. "To Whom It May Concern: I am writing to highly recommend acceptance of Katherine DeBrassio to Oberlin College. I have worked with Katherine for the last several months on a preservation project here on the island and am so impressed with the character... It goes on and on, full of praise, glowing praise, detailing what a hard and motivated  worker Katherine DeBrassio is. How she'd be as asset to any college. Ah. Yes. I get it. It makes me extra mad, knowing that she's helped the place that basically stole our family house. I pick the letter up between two fingers, blink, and the thing goes up in flames." 


In conclusion the obvious answer to the question of whether Mary is a hero or villain is she's a villain. Mary is a villain throughout the whole book. The only time she's truly a hero is when she saves Reeve, Lillia, and Kat from the fire. Throughout the whole book Mary is constantly trying to hurt everyone. So therefore she's a villain.