Final Blog Assessment

While reading my book, House of Night: Betrayed by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast, there were a few quotes from the book that demonstrated a few of the writing techniques that I had learned in class.

"Then I rumaged (quietly--if I woke up Stevie Rae or Nala no way would I get out of there alone) through my dresser drawers until I found my old Borg Invasion 4D hoodie and put it on, along with my comfy black Pumas, and with my OSU trucker's hat securely on my head and my cool Maui Jim sunglasses I was ready." (111, Cast) In this quote, Zoey demonstrates her look for escaping from the school for a little while so that she can go out shopping by herself without giving it away to anyone that she is a fledgling. In the society that she lives in, fledglings and vampyres are well known in her community but they are not respected or treated well at all. In this quote, the authors are showing how much Zoey has to put on to cover up the fact that she is not a human.

Another quote from the same book that I like was a short sentence and I liked that the authors put this in here because it showed me that you dont have to have a long and thought out sentence to help desribe whatever you want.

"The campus looked totally deserted." 

This quote gave me enough information but it also made me wonder why the campus looked so desolate and made me ponder if there were any school events or sports that were going on at the moment that could have captured everybody's attention.

http://www.uc.edu/registrar/calendars/academic_calendar_1314.html
When I looked up how a normal university's calender looked, I was surprised that it was actually very busy and many people had/have to be very punctual when it comes to certain things. I also learned that classes take up a lot of time so I also pondered if there were fledglings at the school that were already in classes or if they were just sleeping.

Characterization

    Zoey Redbird is the main character in the House of Night novels and she reacts differently around certain characters. When she is around her friends, her attitude towards them is quite positive. When she is around Aphrodite, the leader of the Dark Daughters, she reacts in a sarcastic and negative way. But there are a few moments throughout the series where it shows that Zoey can be nice to Aphrodite.
"I sat beside her on the bench and let her grab my hand, not caring that she was squeezing so hard it felt like she was going to break something---not caring that she was my enemy and someone I'd never trust---not caring about anything except for the fact that Grandma might be in trouble." (Cast, 82) In this scene, Zoey is sitting outside with Aphrodite on a bench and Aphrodite has one of her famous visions that she is known for and she randomly gets throughout the day. In the vision, the Arkansas River Bridge has collapsed while Grandma Redbird was driving on it with her Saturn and during this process, Grandma Redbird cant get out of her car. Zoey immediately rushes to get a telephone and calls her grandmother in a state of panic then told her what Aphrodite saw when she picked up the phone. Grandma Redbird then reveals that she was going to visit Zoey for her birthday but now that Zoey had told her what happened and had warned her to stay off the bridge, she decided that she was going to stay home. During this scene, the reader can realize that the girls had overcame their differences for a short moment and acted friendly around each other so that they could save Grandma Redbird. Zoey utilizes this power that Aphrodite has not only to save her Grandma but also creates a plan so that the city would shut that bridge down for the entire day. This shows that the girls can get along even when they have their differences.

Best Thing About My Book

    The best thing about my book, the seventh Harry Potter book, is the ending where Harry and his wife Ginny sent their child Albus Severus Potter off to go to Hogwarts, also known as the wizardry school that they had attended when they were younger. While Harry, Ginny, and their children were at Platform 9 3/4 to board the train that takes them to Hogwarts, they meet up with Harry's best friend Ron ,who is also the brother of Ginny, and his children with Ron's wife Hermione. While they watch their children board the Hogwarts Express, you can tell how proud they are to have wonderful life and that their children are going to a very prestigious school. The ending makes the readers more curious about what happens next to Harry's son and how the students at Hogwarts, as well as the teacher, react to having the son of the famous Harry Potter attend their school.
    The amazing part about this ending is that every parent can connect to this somehow because they have or will have a son/daughter going off to college. I think the author of this series put this in the book because she too can connect to it since she had a daughter that was born in 1993 and is about twenty years old right now. All parents get that feeling when they send their kid(s) off to college.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/06/whos-often-dreading-colle_n_706523.html

The Next Book

    The book that I have decided to read next is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy because it has been said to be a really good book and is often suggested to me by my friends who have read it. I have also been interested in the fantasy and scientific fiction genres of books for a significant amount of time. The perpetual thought process of Douglass Adams throughout this book, from what I have heard, is astounding and I am willing to give the book a try.
    When I checked Goodreads, before I decided to read this book, I wanted to see what other people were thinking about the structure of the book and how the plot unravels in the novel and I wanted to check what the rating on the book was. The overall rating of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was 4.38 which I consider to be a very excellent rating for a book. The majority of comments said they were glad they decided to pick this book up and that they couldn't wait to get onto the next book in the series. Although a few of the comments said that a few of the chapters were "laborious to get through" they had also stated that other chapters made the book well worth reading and that they couldn't put the book down.

Recommendation

I think people should read the House of Night series because it has action for boys but it also has romance for girls.

The war between Nafaret (the headmaster of the House of Night) and sort is well worth reading about because it has action since Nafaret has an army that she made from fledglings that did not survive the change. There is also romance between Zoey and her friend Erik that every girl would love. Since Zoey begins to date the ex boyfriend of Aphrodite, leader of the Dark DAughters, this begins a fued between them. Zoey begins to be annoyed by everything that Aphrodite does and doesnt want anything to do with her. But when she joins the Dark Daughters, everything changes. She is forced to spend a emense amount of time with Aphrodite, much to her dismay. When Zoey and Aphrodite are around each other they cant help but be awful to one another and although it doesnt state it directly in the book, we can tell that Zoey and Aphrodite talk to each other in a sarcastic way. Since Zoey joined the Dark Daughters, Aphrodite wants her to sit at the "popular table" but Zoey refuses and sits with her friends still. I enjoyed how she didnt let the "popular" group and status destroy who she was. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys romance and action together.


(This is Aphrodite)

Predictions

In the first House of Night novel, I predict that one of the characters is going to betray the school because there are suspicious things going on in the school and the only people that have access to the school are the fledglings and vampyres.

In a club called the Dark Daughters, they have been using fledglings as their "refrigerators" during their meetings which means that the Dark Daughters suck the blood out of the fledglings and they put it into a chalice and mix it with wine. This wasn't the first time that this has occurred but Zoey does find it to be very weird. When her best friend, Stevie Rae is used as one of these people, Zoey can't handle it anymore. She confronts the leader, and it just so happens that the leader doesnt like her which was one of the main reseasons her friend was used, and she tells her that what she is doing is not okay and she should do something else. Which gave the leader, Aphrodite the idea to force Zoey to join the Dark Daughters. Zoey is unsure about this but she decides to join anyways. I have stopped here in my reading but I'm intrigued to know what will happen next.

Column- Krista Ramsey

    In this column by Krista Ramsey she explains what it feels like from a parent's perspective on what it is like to send a child away to college and their life after that.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/03/06/krista-ramsey-young-adults/6144909/

    "But we smile and wave until they turn the very last corner and head to their gate. Then we return to our car, fold ourselves across the steering wheel and sob."
    I chose these two sentences because I believe that this shows how strong someone can be to get through a situation like this. It represents the ability to overcome hard obstacles in our life. This also helps the reader prepare for when their own child goes off to college or moves away from their own household, and Ramsey helps the reader understand that they aren't alone with this feeling because there are others around them that might be suffering from the same thing. I noticed that throughout this little excerpt, Ramsey decided to use words that aren't elevated because she was saying that even something as simple as this can be very hard for some people.

    I can tell that Ramsey likes to be straight to the point but also adds in details to help support her viewpoint. In the "Super Bowl QBs score points for great style", Ramsey crafts the story so that anyone can relate to what she is saying. Like in the seventh paragraph where she says "If you're the parents of the bride who put thousands of dollars into an elegant wedding, you might well feel a pang when people arrive in jeans with sunglasses atop their heads. The sight of sports jerseys and sweat pants at a carefully planned memorial service can be hurtful." She also gives the reader a view from the person that is being effected. In "For better vision, kids need time outdoors", Ramsey gives her viewpoint as a parent trying to protect her children from having terrible eyes. Ramsey explains that it's not the device itself that is effecting the child, it's the amount of time spent on the device. "But before parents claw back the iPhones, experts say the problem may not lie in the technology itself, but the amount of time spent on it, the environment in which it's used and the activities it's replacing." Ramsey thinks that there are a few activities that she wants her children to be doing in reality rather than the activity itself being replaced by technology. In "We're raising out kids to go out and explore the world. But what happens when they do?", Ramsey gives the viewpoint of a parent again but this time the concern is not with technology, but with a child going away for college."And they're gone. And they'd just gotten here." Ramsey shows that being a parent is very tough, but getting through all of those had times, such as having a child go away to college, can be worth it in the end and the rewards for the reader's child are endless.

    Why did Krista Ramsey chose to write about children going off to college? Are her's going away this year?

    How does she structure her sentences so that it leaves the reader to think? Is it through the way she words her sentences or is it the length of the sentences?

    When Ramsey was talking about how the parent gets to their car and cries after the child leaves, did she begin to talk about her own experiences or were those other people's experiences with the same situation?