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

Real Classy: silly school jokes RJ#17

Dear Mrs.Zrihen,




I am now reading the book called Real Classy: Silly School Jokes by Rick and Ann Walton. This a humor book because it really tells jokes about things in school and other subjects. The author organized this book with question and answer  because it asked a question then answered it with a twist.


I couldn't find a passage because there is only questions and answers for this. Before reading this book I first looked at the front cover to see if this book was actually humor, and it was. Also I looked for text features in the book, for example there are illustrations for some jokes. During reading I actually reread the jokes that I liked the most. Also I asked myself the joke question before reading the answer. After I was done with the book I thought about what were some things that happened in the book AND to recommend it to everyone. I would recommend this book because it is really funny so people can enjoy.


This book is in the angle of second person because the author is talking to the reader. There are no main settings and characters just question and answer. I felt outstanding while reading this book because it made me happy. I think the author felt funny when writing the jokes.
Since this book is question and answer than there is no conflict involved, the author wrote this book to entertain people with the jokes he made. The author's perspective is unknown for it is only question and answer.


I would rate this book 8/10 because some of the jokes weren't that funny.


sincerely, Juan 702 

Kingdom keepers: Disney after dark RJ 16

Dear Mrs.Zrihen,

Today I finished the book called Kingdom Keepers: Disney after dark by Ridley Pearson. Just so you know this reader's journal might be sort of short because most of the information that needs to be included is in the last one.

Just like before, OUTSTANDING book, it made me go from action/adventure to suspense and mystery. It really made me feel in the case of mystery and a problem coming on. This is a fantasy book because it really is not real in any way except for the certain parts of the real world, for example, light made humans when they got to sleep?! I mean this author really had an expansive imagination. I already told you my before reading strategies, however I decided to use some other ones, for instance to define new vocabulary, which at this moment I haven't remembered any yet. In addition to that is that I revised each chapter with caution just in case I missed anything. In the end I actually told my dad to test me about the book and to give him a summary about it, also to recommend it to the perfect person.

Last time I did a passage on the first page and now the last page, 325. "As they spun in celebration, Wayne returned to the coffee table. There he picked up the black remote. And he pressed the button."

That was it, just that sentence, when I finished, I was asking myself, " why is this happening? It can't finish like this? Did they end like this?" It's like those stories that you want that happy ending that wraps everything up, nevertheless this gave the mystery to want to keep reading the books.

I remember telling you the characters on the last RJ, the conflict again is that the Overtakers are conquering Disney and the DHIs, Disney host interactive and Daylight hologram imaging, have to stop them before it's too late. This story is Man, vs supernatural because the DHIs are kind of ghosts and you see maleficent, the witch from "Sleeping Beauty." This a story that's is used in chronological order, since it has the specific days and chronological words, like next, after, Etc.

Th real main setting in the story is at Disney's Magic kingdom, with the time being mostly night, barely in the day because the kids turn into DHIs  when they go to sleep. The moral of the story is to tell your parents about what might be happening that you might think it's strange,hence tell your parents to solve it. 

This author did an incredibly, amazing job writing this amusing book to entertain the reader. Based on the book I can infer that the author wrote the book in a one-sided way, biased, because he didn't inflict the Overtakers opinion to this conflict.

In the end just in case you know some of the information you might need is in the last reader's journal. I would give this book a ten out of ten because it was a cliffhanger all the way.

                     sincerely, Juan 702

Current event #3 12/10/11

Date:12/10/11
Name:Juan Diaz 702
Current Events Journal

Title: Animal shelter's behavior experts face life and death decisions
Author: John Owens
Source: Miami herald
The topic of the article is animal shelters
The main idea of the article is: (stated)that at the anti-cruelty society shelter in Chicago, where Karen Okura does the Asses-A-Pet method to figure out the dog's behavior.
The author’s purpose for writing this article is to teach the reader how the Asses-A-Pet method works and why some people don't think it's the best idea.
The author’s perspective in this article is unbiased because it gives the cons and pros of the asses-a-pet method.
The pattern of organization of the article is argument and support
The reason the author chose this pattern for the article is to give an argument about the Asses-A-Pet method and support it.
The text features included in the article are:Capitalization helps by  letting the author know if that's a specific name, quotation helps by letting the author know a sarcastic way of the action, and the URL helps by givng the website where the info was found.
This article is about (a summary in your own words) Karen Okura, boss of the Anti-Cruelty society in Chicago, explains what the Asses-A-Pet is and how it helps, however some scientists think it is more subjective.
The significance (importance) of this article is to let people know how people at shelters know the kind of dog they receive and to match it with someone else.
What I learned from this article is that the Asses-A-Pet method is a dog being checked by a behavioral scientist.
What I liked about this article is that it gave both the perspective of the cons and pros.
What I did not like about it is nothing.
Who should read this article and why? People who want to know how lost dogs get checked and all of that before the adoption, or even be adoption.
This article reminds me of (text-to-self) a dog that my family lost for leaving the door open and it become a stray, so maybe a shelter found it.
(text-to-text) This reminds me of a book called Pet trouble: runaway retriever by T.T Sutherland.
(text-to-world) In Moscow there are a lot of stray dogs everywhere that they have been cooperating with people on the street.
New vocabulary I learned
Word                Context Clues                                                                             Meaning
1. euthanize         " those who pass move on, but those who fail get euthanize"         To put to death.
2.condemns       "is now a weapons that condemns the average dog"                      to put in punishment
3.welfare             "Okura was paying attention to the advances in animal welfare"      health

Kingdom keepers: Disney after dark RJ 15

Dear Mrs.Zrihen,


 I am reading the book called Kingdom Keepers: Disney after dark by Ridley Pearson. I have read this book over the summer and since I plan to read "kingdom keepers II" I first have to know the plot from the first one to understand the second... well that's what I think I should do.

I picked this book to read because of the cover and how it was all gloomy yet colors that make stand out, also Eitan recommended it because he had already read this one, the second, and the third, so I asked him if he liked, and he did, he told me some of the parts in the second book and it sounded so interesting. The genre of the book was Fiction and the subgenre was fantasy because in the cover page there’s a castle and I inferred that since it is about Disney, then it is fantasy. The topic of the book is Mystery, and the theme of the story is friendship. A before reading strategy that I used was to preview the text – or skim and scan- for text features such as the title, illustrations, headings, how the writing is made, graphic aids, or anything that can help me understand the story I am reading, in this case I saw the table of contents, and I confirmed that I was going to read a book about things happening in the Disney park after it closes. Another strategy I used before starting to read the book was to identify text features such as print features; organization aids, ETC. what I found were some italic writing, and dialogue between the characters.

The conflict in the story was that the DHI have to protect the Disney Park from the overtakers led by Maleficent. The story is Man vs. supernatural because the DHI have to take on pirates, witches, ETC. when they are in Disney. The main characters in this story are: Finn, Charlene, Maybeck, Philby, and Willa are the protagonists, while the antagonist is Maleficent. The foils in the story are the other over takers, the mom and the dad of Finn, and the people at Disney. The point of view of this story is third person because of the clue words like he, she, they, it, ETC. The pattern of organization is chronological order because you see the clue words of next, later, after. The author’s purpose in writing this book is to entertain because of the genre( which is fiction) and how everything is not real and I enjoyed it. If I was in the character’s shoes I would have to tell my mom and dad about the secret of becoming a hologram every time I go to sleep, so they could help with my problem and solve it out. The author was very descriptive in scenes where the characters are all alone for example Finn Whitman alone near a lamppost near the castle in central Disney, also there were certain scenes where I felt the book come alive.

A strategy I use while I was reading the story was to predict and confirm which is used to make an inference and see if you were correct, I predicted that Maleficent wasn’t going to be defeated because the DHI were new at this I also predicted that Jez was going to be a fake friends and betray the DHIs in the end,. Another strategy I used was to reread  for confusing parts in the story.

A strategy I used when I was done with the book was to confirm my predictions while I was reading  like the first one; I was correct and the second I was wrong. The next strategy I used was to interpret a text feature that I found at the beginning of each chapter: a brush, which could the author writing the story, maybe.

A passage that really standed out was the first page, I am in chapter 20 page 172, but this one interested me the most:

"He found himself standing next to town square, in the heart of magic kingdom. In his pajamas. How'd he gotten here, he had no idea. His last memory was climbing into bed-- it felt like only minutes earlier."

This passage is important to the reader because it gives the setting and some description of the main character, Finn. I was interested because this was where all the mystery began, when I first read it it hooked me instantly.

I would recommend this book to everyone because of its hook and entertainment. I would rate this book 10/10.

                                                                                                              Sincerely,                                                                                                        Juan Diaz

A dark brown dog RJ 14

Dear Mrs.Zrihen,


I just finished the story called A dark brown dog by Stephen Crane. This was actually a pretty good story to read and I would actually recommend this book to everyone, and that includes anyone who reads this journal. I found a good paragraph on the last page: "So the dog prospered. He developed a large bark, which came wondrously from such a small rug of a dog. He ceased to howl persistently at night. Sometimes, indeed, in his sleep, he would utter little yells, as from pain, but that occurred, no doubt, when in his dreams he encountered huge flaming dogs who threatened him dire fully."
Before I read this book the cover page took my attention from the start and it was many people crowding around one kid (which was actually holding a dog, as it said in the story,) therefore I inferred that this book would include a kid who must have done a great deed to the town, I was DEAD wrong. I also thought about the title" a dark brown dog" it interested me because it could have been about anything, so it gave the mystery. While I was reading I SO had to reread many parts in the books to actually understand it. I also learned new vocabulary like the word erect which means to stand upright.
After I finished I asked myself questions on what happened in the story AND who to recommend this book to.
I was pretty tired last week, nevertheless I picked a short story, fiction. It's a short story because it only has like two characters and not that many information. There were two main characters the child, which didn't have that much info about him, and the dog, a tiny brown dog. They are the protagonists and the antagonist is the dad who starts kicking the dog. The dog changed throughout the story by changing from a tiny dog to a full grown dog. The king had to live with the dog. This story is Man vs. society because the conflict is about the kid trying to protect the dog from getting stepped on or kicked. The setting is in both time and day, however the place is usually the house. I felt kind of sad to hear that a defenseless dog is getting beat up. The author also felt sad. The moral of the story is to protect the ones you love until they can get back on their feet.
This story is third person for its angle to the characters not the author herself. The story was organized into time order, because of the different time changes of the book. The author wrote the book to entertain because she is talking about a nonliving person, made-up. The author was biased because it didn't give the perspective of both the kid and the dog.


I would rate this book 9/10 for its interesting words.


sincerely, Juan 702