Unwind; Friends

            In the book Unwind, there is a law that says children through the ages 13-18 can be unwound. This means they're taken apart and their parts are donated to those who need it. There are 3 kids, Connor, Risa, and Lev, who are Unwinds. Unwinds meaning to be unwound. Connor goes on the run and then causes a giant traffic jam on the interstate. This allows Risa and Lev who are as well on the interstate to run. Connor saves Lev, and all three run into the woods. They walk around the woods until they reach civilization. Once reaching civilization they find out they're not in the newspaper when a police car walks by. They need to act natural so they start walking towards the bus stop. The bus arrives at the bus stop before the police car leaves, forcing them to go on the bus. But before they do that, Connor runs out to a storked baby due to feeling bad. Storked means to leave it on someone's doorsteps. They make it to school and hide in the bathroom until they can sneak out. Lev sneaks out first though to rat Connor and Risa out. Lev then calls his house to tell his parents, but instead Pastor Dan picks up. Pastor Dan who has spent his years convincing Lev's unwinding for a good cause, tells him now to run. He says to run away and says he can be whatever he wants now. Lev becomes confused, but realizes he's done something wrong. He pulls the fire alarm to try and buy Connor and Risa time. A teacher finds Connor and Risa in a classroom, and leads them to safety. Connor and Risa pretend to be clappers whose supposedly has explosive blood, to escape. Disguised as clappers, students cause a commotion and Connor and Risa escape with ease. However, they leave Lev behind as he is trampled. Connor and Risa escape to Sonia, where the teacher told them to go. There they meet Mai, Roland, and Hayden, other unwinds hidden by Sonia. One night, the ice cream truck man comes to take them away. However, the baby cannot go with them so the teacher takes the baby and then they are on their way.
              There are many characters throughout the story. The one person that would best fit into my group of friends is Mai. I think Mai best fits into my group of friends because she has sarcastic and joking remarks. In the text it states, "'...Do they treat you kindly, or coldly?' 'Well,' Mai sneers, 'maybe if you're lucky, you'll get to find out firsthand.'" This is the kind of response my friends and I would come up with. We are fairly sarcastic people and make remarks like Mai's. Clearly, Mai would fit well into my group of friends.

Unwind; Character Traits

          In the book, Unwind by Neal Shusterman, there are 3 unwound on the run where I am reading right now. One of the unwound is named Risa. She chose to become a piano player and she plays at a recital to prove her skill. From that recital, I realized that Risa is a perfectionist. In the text, on page 20, the book states, "A mistake. It happens so quickly, it could go unnoticed - but not by Risa. She hold the wrong note in her mind, and even as she continues playing, that note reverberates within her, growing to a crescendo, stealing her focus until she slips again, into a second wrong note, and then, two minutes later, blows an entire chord. Tears begin to fill her eyes, and she can't see clearly." As you can see, if it isn't perfect, it bothers Risa. A perfectionist is someone who must make everything perfect or else it will bother them greatly. This happens to Risa. Her teacher tells her to relax, as shown in this excerpt: "Relax," Mr. Durkin would tell her. "No one is judging you." This shows that Risa cares about what people think of her and partly makes her a perfectionist because by caring about what people think about you, you feel to make everything perfect, as this would lead to a good judgement. Therefore, Risa is a perfectionist.

Kill Me If You Can; Character Traits

        In the book, Kill Me If You Can by James Patterson, $16,000,000 in diamonds are stolen by a man named Zelvas. An assassin named Ghost is hired to kill him, and after a brutal fight, manages to assassinate Zelvas. Ghost was also supposed to retrieve the diamonds, but he was caught and had to make a quick escape, leaving the diamonds behind. Ghost was hired by a man named Chukov and his boss, Nathaniel, is short-tempered. I believe he's short-tempered through his actions and what people think of him. When Chukov calls Nathaniel to update him of the diamonds, Nathaniel answers with "This better be good news." Later on that call, it is clear he's very mad at Chukov, he threatens to kill him as well. The way he answered the call tells me that he is short-tempered as he only wants to hear good news, and he became mad once he heard that diamonds were still being searched for. Chukov must know that Nathaniel is short-tempered, as he didn't dare to call Nathaniel until he drank 3 shots of Vodka. Chukov is very scared of Nathaniel, most likely due to him being short-tempered. Also, Chukov warned his 2 policemen that if you messed with Nathaniel's girlfriend, they would be dead in a few hours. Nathaniel, clearly has no patience and is a grumpy man making him short-tempered.

The Theme in Nothing But The Truth

        In the book Nothing But The Truth themes are shown. One of the themes I saw was determination. I saw this demonstrated in the book because when Philip was suspended for singing the national anthem his dad told him to not give in to the weird rules which is to be determined. Also when his story got published Philip got a bunch of telegrams telling him to keep doing what hes doing and that they'll be right behind him. They told him to stay determined because what he was doing was right. It was shown in the book because Miss Narwin also wasn't going to give in to the media and she didn't take a day off. She stood her ground even with all the telegrams hating on her. That's one of the major themes in Nothing But The Truth by Avi.

A guide with the summary of the book is here

Nothing But The Truth 1/2way point

http://vocaroo.com/?media=vZOiAarSnkfrEQEp3

David's action Vs. My action in Loser

 

     In the book Loser, by Jerry Spinelli, the main character David Zinkoff runs off while there's a snowstorm to look for the little girl he was friends with and visited a lot when he had free time, Claudia. That is something David would do but if it we're me I would've acted completely different. I would've maybe looked for a little bit. Maybe 20 minutes tops because past that I would feel like I would freeze to death. But David, he searched all night long, all the way until about 2:00 in the morning. I think David didn't trust that the police would find her in time and went out looking just in case that he could find her before she froze. Luckily, David didn't freeze during his search which  must've been at least 5 hours. That's what makes David Zinkoff and me completely different people; David is really determined when it comes to someone he loves while I still care about me when it comes to my determination.

Blurb of Loser &Reviews: http://books.google.com/books/about/Loser.html?id=Q8aMvZ7w_FoC