Bill Peet: An autobiography

Dear Mrs.Zrihen, 


I finished the book called Bill Peet: An Autobiography. To start this off I would like to say that this is a nonfiction, meaning that it's real, it is an autobiography so the person who wrote this was Bill Peet himself. The topic of this story is Bill Peet, a good artist that worked with Walt Disney in the 1900s, in which he also helped in the making of Dumbo, Pinocchio, and Snow White.


This paragraph that can be found on page 110 made me realize something that I never knew:
"Artists need an atmosphere of poverty, a degree of shabbiness to get into a creative mood."


This quote really made think during my 30 minutes, while I was thinking that I used the during reading strategy of visualizing the text, in which I think that what he meant is that in poverty you can imagine a better life, hence the drawing. This could be important to the reader because it lets the reader know what the author thinks of drawing, to which in my opinion he feels excited, as in a enjoyable mood.
The main idea is that Bill Peet grew up at a decent childhood, however during high school his classes were failed until he went to art school and went for the opportunity for Disney art. This is implied. I think I would this story the title of " The Life of a Disney Artist: Bill Peet."


An example of a chain of events happening for one cause are because a friend of Bill Peet from grade school that made him realize his true purpose... to an ARTIST, the effect of that moment is that he went to art school in which later one went to Disney to draw for famous movies. I would compare Bill Peet to Albert Einstein because they much potential that was able to go by people who made them realize. I would contrast Bill with Dave Gill because Bill likes to sleep early to wake up early, while Dave parties all night.


Some strategies I used before reading this book  was to skim and scan for text features which I mostly found illustrations made by Bill Peet, and quotations from a dialogue, also the title page, publication page, and the opinions from companies.
This story is organized by chronological order because it was obvious because it gave the dates of the times in his life.
Another strategy I used before reading was to make a prediction.


During reading I have already told you one, but the other one is to confirm my predictions. After reading I asked myself what had happened in the story, and do a reader's journal. The author wrote this book to share the story of Bill Peet to the reader in a first person point of view. The essential message is that if you have a talent or you love to do something don't give up on it, but to enlarge that talent for the better being. Some resources I used to check that this story was true was to go online to Disney website to find out for employees. Another was the library and read more books about him. The last was to check credits at the end of movies he drew in.


Some new vocab I learned was shabbiness which means like used or old. I would relate this to my life because I had to research about Walt Disney and found some info on Bill Peet. This is related to another book called Alexander the founder of penicillin because he traveled to get to his destination where he would work. I would compare this to the world because people are misusing their talents and don't take advantage of it.
Some supporting details in this book were that his dad was a mean person who always went home just to take money from his mother, this is both factual because it happened and that he could be a mean person. Another was that when he went to his grandparents house he would always play with his cousins and their dog that needed happiness, this is factual. Another is that he worked with Disney Annex to work on drawing Donald duck, which is factual. The author only gave his point of view of the story and not other people that helped like Dave and his wife Margaret. I really liked how he resisted his teachers that really annoyed him and yelled at him for drawing things that shouldn't be drawn, for example monsters and such.


I would rate this book 9/10 because when I stopped reading I was excited to read more.
                                                          Sincerely,
                                                                 Juan Diaz 702

1001 Things You didn't know You Wanted To Know Rj#20

Dear, Mrs.Zrihen,






I just finished reading the book called 1001 Things You didn't know You Wanted To Know by Anna Mantzaris. Strategy I used to pick this was to figure out why I wasnted to read it, so I read the title and figured out that since it was things most normal wouldn't, but maybe want to know then maybe it is about learn new information internationally. Another strategy I use was the 5 finger rule which means to go to a random page and then look for 3-4 words that I didn't know to figure out if it was right for me and I was able to count 3 words that I didn't understand and I was right that this book was right for me. The mood that I felt with this book is curious because every time I wanted to learn more about a certain topic and the tone of this story was kind of like to teach something to the reader to get in with what is happening in the modern world.

The point of view of this story is third person because of the clue words you might normally find in a third person book. The perspective of the book is unbias because it is not supporting a  certain topic, but talking the same ammount of information to each side of what they are writing. The topic in this story is informative because you get to know what has happened in history, and the theme is informative books help you "updatea' to what's happening.

The strategy I used while reading this book was to look for text features like organizational aids, illustrations, subeheadings ETC. What  I found in the book was a lot of illustrations and some of them with subheadings that explain what is happening. Another strategy is to use context clues for the words that I found while using the 5 finger rule.
Some after reading strategies that I used were to identify the author's purpose into writing the book which I can figure out by using the acronym PIE + T, and the one that I think is it's to inform. Another strategy I used was to make connections of different books that you think re related to this book; I would connect this book to an encyclopedia because it informs you, but the encyclopedia is more specific. The supporting details in the story were factual details. If I would have to rate this book I would rate it 4 out of 5 because of its info. 
  
                                                                      Sincerely,
                                                                          Juan Diaz

Current event # 5

Date: 1/14/12

Name: Juan Diaz

Current Events Journal

Title:  To Preserve History on the Moon, Visitors Are Asked to Tread Lightly

Author:  Kenneth Chang

Source:  New York Times

The topic of the article is space territories

The main idea of the article is: that Dr. O’ Leary and other people are trying to tell the world that if they keep sending rovers or humans up into space they could ruin the footsteps or hardware of the first people who went up into space. (Stated)

The author’s purpose for writing this article is to inform the reader of that U.S and other countries are sending rovers up to the moon and destroying important sites of the Apollo missions.

The author’s perspective in this article is biased because it is giving the positives of not telling the reader the moon and not how it might affect in a bad way.

The pattern of organization of the article is argument and support  

The reason the author chose this pattern for the article is to give the argument

The text features included in the article are:  dashes and quotes to give meanings and the opinions of the people included in the argument.

This article is about (a summary in your own words) how there are countries in the world that are sending people and machines over to the moon and they are stepping through where the first people who went up into space stepped, Neil A. Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, so Dr. O’ Leary is trying to make people not step there.

The significance (importance) of this article is it tells the reader of the countries that could have been stepping on important ground.

What I learned from this article is there where actually more than one Apollo site in the moon. Also that California has artifacts of boots, bags, and an American flag.

What I liked about this article is not only is there important territories here on Earth, but up in space too. 

What I did not like about it was that the author only gave what was good about it; however there could be worse things.

Who should read this article and why any person who thought that the first people that went into space left nothing should read because there are still footprints of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin?

This article reminds me of (text-to-self) my cousin who wants to be in NASA when he is older so he might learn about what is going on.

 (Text-to-text) This reminds me of a book about the stars in outer space and about the forms of it.

 (Text-to-world) the people in this story have regions on the moon that shouldn’t be touch and that’s a national park here on Earth.

New vocabulary I learned

Word Context Clues Meaning

1. Prospect            “Suddenly, the prospect of a new little rover rolling over …”          idea

2. Tranquility         “Lunar X team that declared that it was going to tranquility base” a place on the moon

3. Ruse                  “ … to the Apollo sites as a ruse by the U.S …”        a trick    

The lambkins Rj #20

Dear Mrs.Zrihen,


Now I have finished the book called The Lambkins by Eve Bunting. I have never seen a book so interesting that I wish everybody would read. This is a science fiction book in the fiction genre. I really liked the passage on page 180, the same as last time, it is just that I skipped to the ending:
""I felt in my pocket for John's stone and thought of the angel, flying away from us, flying upward from Earth to heaven.’Thank you,' I whispered.

'You can go home now.'

'We all can go home.'"
This really interested me because it told the reader that the book was over and that the characters were finally safe. 
Some strategies I used before, during and after were to predict based on the first pages, cover and synopsis and to skim and scan for text features. During reading I confirmed my prediction and reread passages that I didn't understand. IN the end I recommended it to someone and asked myself questions.


The problem was that Mrs.Shepherd had captured the kids from the normal world and they have to try to escape. This is character Vs. character. The characters are Kyle,Tanya, Mac, Lulu, and Pippy who are the protagonists. The antagonist is Mrs.Shepherd.
The way the author organized this text was chronological order. The author wrote this to entertain and was biased because it gave the thoughts of only the Lambkins.
The book was kind of suspense in whether the kids will get out. I felt interested all the time.


I would rate this book 10/10 because it was a cliffhanger every second.


 Sincerely, Juan 702

Current event # 4

Date: 1/7/12

Name: Juan Diaz 702

Current Events Journal

Title: Booking a flight to space.

Author: Kenneth Chang

Source: Miami Herald

The topic of the article is traveling to space 

The main idea of the article is: that in this year 2012, the company Virgin Galactic, and other companies is giving the opportunity for people to actually fly up into space. (Stated)

The author’s purpose for writing this article is to inform the reader of the opportunity that is to travel to space like if it was a regular flight.

The author’s perspective in this article is biased because it would only give the pros of going into space not the cons like how the high prices and other problems.

The pattern of organization of the article is argument and support because the author gave the topic of going to outer space and supported it with details.

The reason the author chose this pattern for the article is to give the reader a topic and then start giving information about.

The text features included in the article are: dashes which help give maybe side comments or meanings. Quotes that help state opinions of the people.

This article is about (a summary in your own words) this article is about Virgin galactic and other companies giving the opportunity of going to space.

The significance (importance) of this article is that it lets people know about how new tourism in space.

What I learned from this article is that finally the chance of going up into space is now for normal people.

What I liked about this article is that it explained that people in companies are letting tourists get the chance to go up into space.

What I did not like about it is that it made people pay a lot of money from 10 years before and they can’t go yet.

Who should read this article and why. Maybe people who want to go into space should read this article, so they could be informed. Also people with resistance because there will be sudden changes in gravity.

This article reminds me of (text-to-self) my mom who wanted to be an astronaut, so she can go up into space.

 (Text-to-text) This could be related to the book called “The Great Scientists” by John Fardon because scientists discovered space and so there was research to go there.

 (Text-to-world)I would compare this to the world because normal everyday people payed to go up into space.

New vocabulary I learned

Word Context Clues Meaning

1. Prominent       ‘… Virgin Galactic, the most prominent of the new space tourism…” most known

2. Hefty        “… or go to a travel agent and put down a hefty deposit.”   Expensive, a lot.

3. Allianz     “Allianz, a big insurer, will introduce a new insurance product in 2012”an insurance company

The lambkins Rj #19

Dear Mrs.Zrihen,

I am reading the book called The Lambkins by Eve Bunting. First of all I can tell you that it was really a cliffhanger. I was so consumed with it that I finished it in about 5 hours; I couldn't stop reading. This why I would recommend this book to everyone I know. The passage that I really liked was on page 180: 

"I felt in my pocket for John's stone and thought of the angel, flying away from us, flying upward from Earth to heaven.’Thank you,' I whispered.

'You can go home now.'

'We all can go home.'"

I think that this passage is important to the reader because it tells of how Kyle, the protagonist, believed that the person before him, John, was protecting him and the others( Tanya,Lulu,Mac, and Pippy, a dog) which were all protagonists. Also I picked this passage because it made the ending sound that there was supposed to be more to it, however no.

Some strategies I used before reading were to skim and scan for text features and to predict what was going to happen in the story. During reading I confirmed my predictions and reread. When I finished I recommended it to someone and asked myself questions about the book. 

The genre is science because it has stuff that is science related that will never happen. The characters are mentioned above and the antagonist is Mrs. Shepherd, the foils are really Kyle's teacher and nobody else. The setting was at Mrs. Shepherd’s house day and night with sunny conditions. The conflict is that Mrs. Shepherd injected the people into tiny people and they have to get out before she keeps them there. This is a Man vs. Man conflict and it's external.

The tone the author had was like being trapped because of the characters being captured. I felt pretty excited during reading this book. The moral is not to trust everybody at the exact moment. Theme is companionship because the tiny people stayed together. This book was first person because I read the words I, me, myself, mine. This story was organized by chronological/ time order.

Eve Bunting wrote this book to entertain the reader and she was only one-sided.

I would rate this book 10/10 because it was very exciting.

Sincerely, Juan 702  

Ridiculous knock knocks RJ# 18

Dear Mrs.Zrihen,

I just finished reading the book called Ridiculous Knock Knocks by Chris Tait. It is a pretty short, humor book that I think should be recommended to little kids because of the silly, yet classic, knock knock jokes. To start off the book was actually organized as a listing book, hence the different knock jokes with different topics. A joke/passage that I want to share with you is on page 69.

“Knock-Knock. Who's there? Plane! Plane who? Plane dumb won't help you now!"

This passage interested me because I just wanted to show you a joke from the book. This could be important to the reader because it shows that the jokes won't be funny, however it makes you get the feeling of how silly it is.

Some strategies I used before reading this book were to look for text features, for example the chapters led alphabetically from A-Z. Another was to predict what would happen in the book and my prediction was in general, that I would be about random topics each joke and I was right. During reading the book I actually reread some parts because I needed to understand the joke. Another one was to confirm my prediction which was correct.

There is no main character because it is just jokes, also no setting, conflict, and plot structure. The author's purpose is to entertain the reader. The author didn't take sides, so there is no perspective. The theme is funny, and the tone is hilarious. I felt funny in the book.

After reading the book I recommended it to someone and asked the jokes in the book to my friends.

I would rate this book 6/10 because it wasn't all that funny just silly.

                               Sincerely, Juan 702