Reading Response # 22

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn
Betty Smith
Page 131- Page 286

In the past two days I've read my book club book from school A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. Everyone said that this book was a great book. I didn't believe because I'm into the mysterious-weird types of books that have amazing twists but this book bend my book types. I enjoy reading this book so much. It shows me that if we think that life is hard now it was way harder in 1902-1919. We go through better things then the people lived then did.

What they considered expensive back then we consider it cheap now. But we must remember it was expensive to those who had to work as hard as they could possibly imagine and we get money given to us.

This book takes place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The protagonist is Francie Nolan(really Mary Francie Nolan). And there is only one Antagonist that comes into the book when Francie is 14 years old that tries to rape her.

Before Francie was born her grandmother and mother had a personal mom to mom-to-be talk. Katie is Francie's mom and Mary is Katie's mom. Mary tells Katie that everyday before her children went to sleep she must read them a page from one of Shakespeare's plays and a page from the Protestant Bible even if she didn't understand all of the words. KAtie did that exactly when she had Francie and Neely (Francie's Little Brother).

A lot happens in this book but it's a grat book. I wait to see what happens next!

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn

Living life in Brooklyn
Isn't what you think
A tree grows in Brooklyn
People fall down
It ain't what we want or what we talk about

Living life is hard
No one knows how it is
A tree grows in Brooklyn
If you were me and I were you
You'd know what I mean

Living life in Brooklyn
Isn't what you think
A tree grows in Brooklyn
People fall down
It ain't what we want or what we talk about

You this is just fun and games
1902-1919 it ain't fun at all
Poverty
Living on the street
It ain't what you think it is

Living life in Brooklyn
Isn't what you think
A tree grows in Brooklyn
People fall down
It ain't what we want or what we talk about

Live life
Work hard
Play nice
Get along
A tree grows in Brooklyn

Living life in Brooklyn
Isn't what you think
People get shot
People fall down
It ain't what we want or what we talk about

A tree grows in Brooklyn
It taught us a lot
It went from a seed
To the tallest thing
That that grew in Brooklyn taught us everything

Live life
Work hard
Play nice
Get along
A tree grows in Brooklyn

Living life in Brooklyn
Isn't what you think
People get shot
People fall down
It ain't what we want or what we talk about

A tree grows in Brooklyn
It taught us a lot
It went from a seed
To the tallest thing
That that grew in Brooklyn taught us everything

Live life
Work hard
Play nice
Get along
A tree grows in Brooklyn

Live life
Work hard
Play nice
Get along
A tree grows in Brooklyn


A Tree Grows In Brooklyn is the name of this song
Word

Kids Choice Award

Saturday, March 28th, 2009 Dwayne Johnson hosted the 2009 Kids Choice Award. The KCA had live preformances by the Jonas Brothers, and the Pussy Cat Dolls. The show all started with Dwayne Johnson flying in. After that they pretty much got into the awards. Jack Black was nominated Favorite Animated Movie Voice. The Tiwlight Series won Favorite Book. Jesse McCartney was voted Favorite Male Singer. Miley Cyrus was nominated Favorite Female Singer. This years KCA could have been better. When Justin timberlake was the host in I believe 2006 it was the best KCA ever!

Hyperbole of My Dog

Little Girl is my dog.
She sleeps like a log.
She has a huge mouth,
And eats like a hog
In her excitement
Her tail is a whip times ten.
When she sees food
Her eyes start to spin.

Some examples of hyperboles are she sleeps like log, and eats like a hog, her tail is a whip times ten, her eyes start to spin.

I think that the poet Autumn Jones used these hyperboles because she wanted to give us an image about how her dog reacts to food when she is being feed.

Red Cross

Red Cross

by Jessica Rawls

There she is
Ms. Fisher on the steps of the Red Cross
She sleeps there, you know
"The dog who jumps in the sea loses his bone!" she
shouts
We laugh, my friends and I, and swiftly walk by
I notice a tear form in the crack of her eye
I went to her one day at the steps of the Red Cross
She sleeps there, you know
The day after she smelled of shoes
The skin of her face looked as if it were peeled, dried or
fried around her cheeks
Probably from crying
Crying, she pulled me down and whispered in my ear
"When a butterfly is pinned down a stream of time
stops"
I closed my eyes and shuddered because her breath
smelled like moldy
Porkchops
I smiled
Gave her a dollar
And left.
I went home and asked my mother about the woman
always on the steps of the
Red Cross
She sleeps there, you know
She said her name was Vanessa
I thought to myself that Vanessa means butterfly
I heard she was crazy, my mom said
I ran upstairs and called the police,
"There's a woman on the steps of the Red Cross
She sleeps there, you know"
The police went
They looked
She was asleep to the point where she couldn't open her
eyes
It surprised me
Vanessa Fisher
"When a butterfly is pinned down..."
Her stream of time stopped.

The mood of the poem to me is confusion, misunderstood, and depressing because in the poem it says she slept there you know and that is kind of depressing because that means that she is homeless I guess. I think that the poet wrote this poem with these moods because she wanted us to see that the lady that slept on the Red Cross was misunderstood and that confused a lot of the people that saw her.

Poetry Response: Bronx Masquerade

The poem Bruised Love makes me feel like this girl Chankara Troupe has seen and gone through a lot of problems happen in relationships and she is sick and tired of seeing girls get hurt. This poem makes you take the time and think the types of girls that get hurt are the type of girls that let themselves get hurt. I think that the message of this poem is that girls should really take care of themselves and not let their boyfriends hit them because that shows who they really are. If you see that your boyfriend gives you a lot of souvenirs you know that they hit you for little things and if you see that he barely hits you that is how you know that he doesn't mean to hit you but you just really got him mad at you. No I can not relate to this poem at all because I
don't let people hit me because that shows them that they can hit us all of the time and they will continue to hit you if you don't show them that they can't hit you and you give them the satisfactory of hitting you all of the time.

Poetry Response: Bronx Masquerade

Open Mike
Attendance
By: Tyrone Bittings

I like this poem because he talks about everyday life. Tyrone makes this poem sound like he is saying this poem out of frustration or rage because he says that his dad got shot and died. He also talks about how we should celebrate living our lives the right way today. I feel like he also says that we should celebrate our futures because once we find ours we can't change it. Tyrone talks about where he lives. This reminds me of a song called "California Love" by Tupac and another song called "Chicago" by Carl Sandburg that talk about where they live and what they feel about their home towns (or in Tyrone's place his block).

Stopping by the Woods

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
And miles to go before I sleep.

The mood that this poem creates is the mood of depression and the feeling that he is tired. The other types of poetic devices that Robert Frost are rhythm, rhyme, repetition, and alliteration. I think that Robert Frost repeated the last line twice to get his point across and i think that his point is that he is tired but there are way more important things to do before he goes to sleep. I think that the speaker is feeling tired because and depressed because he says that he has miles to go before he goes to sleep and he just wants to travel those miles before he goes to sleep.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

A free bird leaps on the back of the wind
and floats downstream till the current ends
and dips his wing in the orange suns rays and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks down his narrow cage
can seldom see through his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings with a fearful trill
of things unknown but longed for still
and his tune is heard on the distant hill
for the caged bird sings of freedom.

The inferences that I can make about this poem are that the poet Maya Angelou is comparing this bird to life. I can infer that because she says that the world is waiting for this "bird" to spread his wings and fly. She wants him to fly for everything he wants and everything he believes in.
The best word to describe this poem would have to be excitement because Maya Angelou is telling this "bird" all of the possibilities he has waiting for him and if he tries to spread his wings and fly. She is telling him that if he wants to he could achieve anything that he wants to by trying his all and never giving up what he wants.
The meaning of this poem to me is that when you want something really bad don't let it go too fast because when you lose your meaning in life you lose everything you stand for.

Why...

I don't understand...

I don't understand...

why there is terrorism
why the sky is blue
why the highest number is infinity
why there is Valentine's Day

But most of all...

why there is war
why you must be over 35 to be president
why some people don't believe in aliens
why the Twin Towers had to fall

I do understand...

why plants help us
why people look the way they do
why we go to school
why there is music