Three Little Birds

<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wkEeNpWMvgk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


     This link is to a music video for the song "Put Your Records On" by Corinne Bailey Ray. I choose this song to relate to my book for many reasons. Looking deeper into the song, you understand that it is about people getting to know eachother, which is exactly what the three girls are doing in the novel. The best lyrics that show alot for the book are "you're gonna find yourself some way, some how". The reason I feel those words especially are relatable because this is a story of three girls lives that have just completely changed. Everything is new to them after this discovery that they arent sure how to be or act.

Another small but great detail in the song that really helps is the line "three little birds sat on my window". After understanding that the book is about three girls finding out they are sisters this line just gives you an awesome image that really helps you think more deep into that main point. I believe the rhythm and the beat of this song really related well to three black swans. What do you think about the connection?

Do you know your ABC's?

Adoption

Black Swans

Claire

Delicate

Elegant

Family

Genevieve

Hoax

Identical

J

Kindness

Lies

Missy

Names

Opportunities

Promises

Questions

Research

Seperated at birth

Triplets

Unpredictable

Vanishing

W
X

Youtube

     Each letter is used to decscibe main points, details, and characteristics from the story. They are helpful to

show and highlight the key words that play a big role in three black swans. Each word is a way to express and important detail in the book.                                                            

Wrapping It Up

 

   We have offically made it! The school year is finally coming to an end and so are our blogs. Through out this entire school year, for each of the four quarters, I have read a new book and completed the Read For A Lifetime program. During my junior year in English class, I have really seen my reading skills incease and I have watched each blog grade increase.I have really enjoyed blogging over different books. The many things I enjoyed about blogging was the freedom of no prompt as time went on and we came up with more blog post. Another great thing I really enjoyed was the whole idea from keeping in contact with another school that is heavily active in the blog world. Keeping in contact with you by skyping was great and getting to comment on eachothers blog gives us many ideas for our own and helps us connect to them.

     The four books Ive read this semester are Please Ignore Vera Dietz, Willow, What Happened to Goodbye, and Three Black Swans. All of them were great books but if I had to choose a favorite I would choose Please Ignore Vera Dietz. If anyone is in question of whether or not the prrogam has great books to choose from, it definitley does. Participate in the Read for a Lifetime program benifitted me by exposing the many different types of books there are. Blogging also beniftted me by helping me break down the reading material for better understanding for myself, and for others. I want to thank Mrs. Hayes for exposing me to the blogging world and letting us use this as a way to complete a great program!

pics of main points

Three Black Swans by Caroline B. Cooney

The story is based on indentical triplets seperated at birth.

 

Missy, one of the main characters, is from Connecticut.

Claire and Genevieve are both from New York.

 

 

 

Missy and Claire were "cousins" and best friends.

Long Island, New York is where the 3girls birth parents live.

The Three Black Swan theory descirbes what happens in  the book.

Missy uses a science experiment to help find her twin.

The girls hold an interview to tell everyone about the discovery.

The interview is released to YouTube, where the triplets become discovered.

llliiinnnkkk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoax
I am giving the definition of the word "hoax". In this book its the main topic of the story line. A hoax is what causes the triplets to dicover eachother in the first place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory
This is an explantion of what the black swan theory. It gives you a better understanding of why the book is given its title.

http://www.teenreads.com/reviews/three-black-swans
This link directs you to a shory summary of Three Black Swans. If you need a better understanding of details in the book it will definitely sum of any confusion you had.

http://www.carolinebcooneybooks.com/
If you believe you'll enjoy reading this book, here is a link to the authors website. It offers you a chance to read a little about her and to check out the other books she has available for you to read.

http://www.americanadoptions.com/pregnant/index?gclid=CPS_xLLt0q8CFeUEQAodjUWrHg
This link will bring you to a page about adoption. In the book the girls go through a difficult time understanding the process so this page will give you more information on the adoption process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73m4Gs6Ap1Y
This is a video from youtube about triplets. This shows the process in the family goes through and the shocking discovery of rare triplets.

http://monkeywah.typepad.com/paranormalia/2008/06/triplet-telepathy.html
This is information about the triplet telepathy. In the book, the girls experience a certain closeness but they arent quite sure how to describe the feeling other than telepathy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adoption
This is the definition of the word adoption. In this book, triplets were seperated at birth and all adopted into different families. This will help you understand the process the three girls went thru.

http://www.adoption.org/adopt/illegal-adoption.php
In the book, you find out that one of the girls adoption, was illegal. This link tells about the signs of an illegal adoption and the consequences that can occur.


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Did these links help you better understand the book?

FINALLY fourth quarter.

     It has finally arrived, our last quarter of  the school year. Therefore I am starting my fourth and final book. For the next 6 weeks I will be blogging about a book called three black swans. I have only read the beginning of the book but I can tell its going to be a very suspensful book. At some points I get so into it I cant put it down! I also already know alot about the book because a few of my classmates have read it and I read their blogs. Reading others blogs about a book in which I know nothing about has really drawn me to want to read many books and have interested me in reading more and more all together!

     Over the course of the year I have greatly improved my blogging skills, and my grades prove that. At the beginning when I recieved my first blog grade I was not fond of blogging at all, but over time it has grown on me and I happen to be very fond of it. I am very appreciative for the opportunity we have been given to blog instead of write a boring paper. All the things Mrs. Hayes has incoorperated into blogging have also made this a very fun experience. I hope everyonce else has enjoyed blogging as much as I have!

     three black swans by Caroline B. Cooney is about 2 girls, Claire and Missy, who are cousins but feel like sisters are heart. They are inseperable and share a certain connection that no one else understand. When Missy has a biology project to create a hoax, she storms up an idea to trick everyone into thinking her and her cousin are identical twins seperated at birth. When everyone see's how alike they really are, they start to wonder, is this a hoax after all?

VlOG

This Vlog is about 'What happened to goosbye'. I give a short summary and introduction of the book to let you know what isit about. I also tell the reason why I liked the book. By watching this vlog I hope to potentially interest you in reading this book. I hope I gave you useful information as well.

What did you think?

Blogging..?

So this year for English we have been doing something new. As a requirement, everyone is participating in the read for a lifetime program. We were given an all together alternative assignment of blogging weekly instead of writing a paper. If you ask me, it’s pretty great. My very first blog entry I wrote this year let you know how I felt about reading and you learned that I’m not very fond of it. But now I have grown to actually like it, Mrs. Hayes is probably very proud right now. I also told you my feelings on blogging, which I was unsure about. But now that we are ¾ of the way done now I must say my opinion of liking it is very strong.

Now I am going to tell you a few of my favorite things I enjoy about blogging. Obviously everyone knows how obsessed our generation is with social networking, and how big of a part of our lives it is which is sad yes I know, but still. Well I think it’s great that Mrs. Hayes has let us incorporate things like Facebook and twitter into the blogging process. It’s a great way to get our stuff out there to share with others and let people know about blogging. I also love knowing that once a week I get to take a break from whatever we are doing in class and work on my blog. It’s nice to have break every once in a while, and I especially love the fact that I get to blog and be more creative than type a formal essay. The freedom we have for our blog prompts is really great and is something I also love. Now for my favorite thing about blogging, our Fremd Ning friends! I think it’s awesome that there are students out there doing the same thing we are and the fact that we get to share this with them is amazing. I think it’s awesome that we get to interact with them through skype and we get to comment and read their blogs. It’s really great that we have two schoosl coming together to do this assignment. Blogging has really been a learning experience that I have enjoyed. Thank you Mrs. Hayes!

click it to get it!

http://sarahdessen.com/book/what-happened-to-goodbye/

This is a really good link that has a great summary of the book 'What happened to goodbye' and it also give syou an option to explore a Sarah Dessen blog. It also gives you the option to look at many of Dessens other books she has written so if you like this book, you can check out many of her other awesome books!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxHVimNk2TY

This is a link to a book trailer of the book 'What happened to goodbye'. Sarah Dessen is the person speaking and giving you information about the book. She gives a short summary of the book and then some really great background information on what inspired her to write the book.

http://www.pluginid.com/personality-development/

In my book, the main character Mclean has a problem. She continues to change who she is and her personality every few months when she moves. This link gives you information about being your self and deciding how to control your personality. It will help give you a better understanding of how and why Mclean changed her personality.


http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2011-05/61390451.jpg


This is an image of a few of the differnet names Mclean had chose to be in the past. It gives you a visual understanding of the fact that she has decided to be herself this time..


http://www.imagechef.com/ic/final_widget.jsp


This word mosaic is used to give you an idea of the main characters differernt personality traits throughout the story. It lets you actually see the different personalities shown in the book.


http://www.blogher.com/bookclub/what-happened-goodbye-finding-oneself


This is a well written blog that gives you a small summary of the book. In more details it talks about Mcleans different personalities and it gives you great advice that the best person you can be is yourself!


http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/what-happened-to-goodbye-sarah-dessen/1100154955

I hope that all of these links have given you a better understanding of 'What happened to goodbye' or have persuaded you to read this book. So here is a link to help you purchase the book online with Barnes & Noble.

Book Trailer!!!!!

This Animoto is a very useful video for you to give you a simple introduction to the book. It' going to give you information about the main character and let you know what my book, What happened to goodbye, is really about.

My Animoto Video

Now that you watched my own book trailer I hope that you are intersted in the book! Do you plan on reading What happened to goodbye?

Mcleans life in pictures...

Her family was broken apart when her mom left her father and her for another man. McLean has so much resentment for her mother because she doesnt comprehend the reasoning for why her mother left their family.

.

McLean and her father try to leave behind their old life and run away to escape the past. Because of her fathers job, they get to move around the country while he renovates old restaurants and they are provided with a new home and fresh start very frequently. Both love the lifestyle that they are given.

McLean somehow finds it more interesting if she changes her name along with life story and personality each time she is given a fresh start. She changes from cheerleader to party animal. This time is different though, her 'real' name gets spread around faster than she has time to fix the problem. Mclean finds it very unfortunate to stick with her real name and face the fact that her past will come out sooner than she thinks. What kind of effect with this have on her life, no more fresh start? For now atleast...


On top of tryting to figure out who the real Mclean is, she eventually becomes very drawn to her neighbor and classmate, Dave. He is a very mysterious person which is one of the reason Mclean is drawn to him because she is determined to figure out him. He shows more interest in her than she shows him because she is afraid. She isnt sure how to act to him towards him because she knows getting involved with him and getting close to him means he has to be brought into her past. Mclean is scared to let herself fall for Dave and is very resistant...


Who will Mclean choose to be this time?
Will she change it up and become someone new again, or will she finally stick with who she really is?

Introoooooooooooo

     We have now come to the time to begin third quarter blogs. Last quarter I recieved a much better grade than I did first quarter and I was very happy with that. I believe I put more effort into my blog and tried harder to get a better grade. This quarter I want to do the same and recieve a good grade again. Our very first time blogging we recieved a very structured prompt with specific instruction on what to put into our blog. For our second blog we were given more freedom and other options to put into our blog. Now for this thrid quarter blog we were given very little instruction and entry specifications for our blogs. We are allowed to take our blog into a personal direction and be very creative and expressive about our book. I am very excited to begin blogging for the third time and also without a very structured prompt!
 
   The title of the book I choose for this semester is "what happened to goodbye" by Sarah Dessen. I choose this book because I have read many other of Dessens books before and I really like them. I dont read often but I would have to say I am into teen love storys which are what alot of her books are about. I havent gotten very far in the book but from what I read so far I really like it! It has a very interesting story line. In the book a girl and her father were abandoned when the mother left them for another man and they just keep continuing to move around and start new lives. They are running away from their problems and creating new identitys for themselves. Eventually you will come to learn that the teenage girl falls in love and shockingly is tired of leaving behind her problems. From what I have read so far I really am enjoying this book and I can tell it's going to be one of those books I pick up and cant put down.


This is the book cover for my third quarter book!



Dear Julia Hoban...

Letter about Literature

Dear Julia Hoban,

Your book Willow was very inspiring to me. I feel like in many ways it gave me a new perspective on life. It showed me how big of an affect things can have on one single person. It made me realize that I should never take anything for granted. Including friends, family, and the loved ones around you because in a flash they could be gone, just as Willow’s parents we gone. It made me learn that you should never put yourself in a situation that would harm yourself just to take away the pain. It made me understand that you should never assume you have no one and exclude yourself from the world around you. It taught me not to worry about the small things that don’t always turn out smoothly and to ignore the imperfections, because when you think you have it bad, someone out there always has it worse than you. It also showed me how one person has the chance to completely turn someone’s life around for the better like Guy did for Willow. Reading your book makes me want to reach out and be there for anyone who needs help because I don’t think anyone deserves to be alone. Just because someone is different to you doesn’t mean you don’t have thing in common, were all human and we all need to be loved and cared for. No matter how much someone says they don’t need or want anyone or how much they try to push you away, Willow taught me that they are lying and they need someone there for them more than anything. I believe that NO ONE can go through life alone or better yet, that no one should have to go through life alone. Everyone needs someone to be there for them in the tough times and be there to celebrate with them in the good times. I feel like I now want to be more understanding of every situation that comes at me. I want to think twice before getting mad at someone, I want to let people know I am there for them, I want to let everyone feel loved, and I want others to read this book so they can really see what affects some situations have on others. I now know that there really are people out there that don’t believe they deserve life so they try to take it away from themselves, and that is a mistake because everyone deserves the world.  Reading Willow was a real eye-opener for me to understand that no one’s life is perfect no matter how good they can hide it, or show they don’t care. Thank you for writing a wonderful book, I am very appreciative of it and I loved it!

Your fellow Reader,

            Stevie Dailey

vlog..

Book Trailer for Willow (ANIMOTO) By: Stevie Dailey

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Symbols representing Willow and her story..

Willow by Julia Hoban.

Willow killed her parents in a car accident.

Willow uses razor blades to take away her pain.

Willow cuts to hide the pain from losing her parents.

Family was everything to Willow.

Willow's get away at a park.

Guy makes Willow feel wanted and loved again.

Willow needs to feel loved more than anything.

Book that Willow, her brother, and Guy all enjoy.

LINK UP!

http://www.linussblanket.com/willow-julia-hoban-book-review/
This is a summary of the book Willow. It is created to give you details that help you better understand the book. I read and it really made me more interested in finishing my book!

http://kidshealth.org/teen/your_mind/feeling_sad/cutting.html
This is a site that has information about other teens who cut themselves. It is information to why people do it and I believe it will you understand why Willow did. You also have the opportunity to discuss with other teens about cutting and get advice if you are in need.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7zDSg3bRco
This link is the video trailor for Willow. It will give you information about the book. It will also try to get you interested in the book so you read it hopefully.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropology
This link gives you the definintion of anthropology. Willows brother, father, Guy, and herself are all interested in Anthro. It gives you a better understanding of what it is so you can understand why are they are all so interested in it.

http://www.wikihow.com/Stop-Cutting-Yourself
This link talks about the harmful affects on cutting yourself and how to stop. Just like in the book, Willow was given lectures by Guy to stop, this tells you how bad it is for you. Just imagine how hard it is for Willow to stop her harmful addiction.

http://www.experienceproject.com/groups/Lost-Both-My-Parents-As-A-Teen/11221/forum
This is a discussion board for other teens who have lost their parents. If you lost yours, this might be a great way to let some of your emotions go. If you havent, read some of the stories to get an idea of how Willow felt and what was constantly going on in her mind.

http://gettingtoknowwillow.blogspot.com/
This is a blog the author has created. It was created to give you information about why the author wrote the book Willow. It helps you get a better understanding of why what happened in the book was put in the book.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/c/julia-hoban/2127837
This link is here for you to order the book Willow which is available at Barnes and Noble. It was one ofmy favortite books I've read. I hope by reading my blogs I have also gotten you interested my book.

http://www.onread.com/book/Willow-191691/
This link is another option if your interested in reading Willow. You cna subscribe and read the book online. It also give syou a short description of the book to help you get a better idea.

http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/514824.Julia_Hoban
This links you to quotes by the author. It will help you get a closer look at why the wrote the story she did. It will also give you better understanding.

my advice to you...

Blog Comment 1: Brandon Blewett
Brandon, I think you did a really good job explainig your stengths and weaknesses you had in your first quarter blog. I can really relate to how you felt about your grade because I was also disappointed with mine. I like how you pointed out what mistakes you made that you would make sure not to make this semester.Dont lose your enthusiasm on blogging due to your bad grade. I beleive in you and that you have the ability to bring your grade up this quarter to satisfy you. This quarter really focus on paying attention to the blog prompts and understanding what is being asked of you in the particular blog post. If your asked to create an overview instead of summarize specific sybmols themes make sure you try to do so. I know your capable of getting a better grade on your blog so dont give up Brandon!

Blog Comment 2: Abbie Weil
Abbie Jean, you did a very good job voicing your opinion about spark notes. Shame on you for ever in your life using it!! Ahem.. but of course something has to be there to dumb it down for you since im not :) Just kidding!  Also, I agree with you a hundred percert about not really understanding or seeing the different emotions that are shown in the book if you use spark notes for your book as a substition for reading it! If you like the book your reading right now, then you shouldnt feel the need to use spark notes. Anyways,I read this book and I loved it. How do you like it so far? Are you getting into it? I got so into it i couldnt put it down!!I think next time you should really think of a tittle for your blog. Well ttyl!

Blog Comment 3: Macie Wheeler
Macie, thank you for complimenting on my blog! I also believed you did really well on your first quarter blog. I understood you really liked you book so I continued to read your blog and I am actually reading your book now! I love it so far! My favorite book out of Willow and the previous book I read is Please Ignore Vera Dietz. How do you like the book? Which is your favorite so far? I'm very excited to start following the other school and I do believe it will get me more interested in blogging, what do you think?

Beginning of Blog #2, Reflection!

     Now I'm going to begin blogging for the second time. First quarter my blog grade wasn't the best or what i expected to get but I had never done it before so it's all a learning experience. Recieving feedback will help me improve my blog for this quarter so I can do better than i did before and Im hoping to recieve a better grade. Aftrer recieving my blog grade I understand the mistakes I made and what my strong and weak points were. Some of my strong points were the links I used along with the descriptions I wrote and the two paragraphs I wrote for my classical music piece, they were very lengthy and described why i chose the piece I did. My weak points were my animoto and my picture blog. I made the same mistake for both of them. For the picture blog I created of more plot summaries instead of showing inportant symbols and settings. For the animoto I gave a summary instead of getting readers intrigued by my book.

     I still really enjoy blogging and I personally want to continue with this project for the rest of the year. I will not let my first quarter grade let me get discouraged for this quarter. I'm still going to try my best and learn off of my mistakes from first quarter in order to improve this blog. So far I have really enjoyed reading my second book. Its called Willow and it has a really interesting story line. Its about a girl who killed her parents in a car accident and continuously thinks of herself as a murdered. She constantly feels pressure to make herself suffer through as much pain as everyone else. Right now im not very far in the book and but I know that she will eventually use love as a way to cope with he troubles. I really like how we are given a little more freedom for this quarter blog, I believe it will help me improve my grade with the allowance to take this blog into my own direction.

ANIMOTO!!!

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