Summer Reading Entry Four

Out of all of the choices on the list I chose this book because the title grabbed my attention with it having races in the title and I like competitions and also the Scorpio part of the title sounded familiar so I looked it up and it was a zodiac symbol which represented people born October 23-November21 which is when the races in the book actually took place. Another reason I wanted to read this is I wanted to read something I had never heard of and had no knowledge of it before reading it like when someone tells you about a book they were reading and you sort of know what’s going to happen. I didn’t see any major personal connections in the book but could relate to a small trait of a bunch of different characters like to Finn who was kind of shy but smart. I liked this book a lot even though it was not what I was expecting to be when I first started and I think lots of other people would also enjoy this book. I would recommend it to teens but especially someone who loves horses because that’s the main part of the book but also someone who likes inspirational stories and the never give up attitude because it is a major theme of the book.

Summer Reading Entry Three

The book I read over this summer was The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. I really enjoyed this book and an excerpt from the book that would hook a reader is: “Tell me what it’s like. The race.” What it’s like is a battle. A mess of horses and men and blood. The fastest and strongest of what is left from two weeks of preparation on the sand. It’s the surf in your face, the deadly magic of November on your skin, the Scorpio drums in the place of your heartbeat. It’s the speed, if you’re lucky. It’s life and it’s death or it’s both and there’s nothing like it. Once upon a time, this moment this last light of evening the day before the race was the best moment of the year for me. The anticipation of the game to come. But that was when all I had to lose was my life” (Stiefvater 359). In this excerpt Kate asks Sean what the races will be like and he describes the race in a special way that in reality is exactly what happens in the races including this year’s race. I think this is a good excerpt because it shows the intensity of the races and what the races mean to a kid and everyone who races in them as well.

Summer Reading Entry Two

The two main characters in my book The Scorpio Races are Sean Kendrick and Kate Connolly. Sean Kendrick is a sort of mysterious person who is attached to the magical horses or capiall uisce on the island but especially Corr. The island is Sean’s home and the horses are like his family because he works on a horse farm for Mr. Malvern. His father was killed in the races when he was 10 years old and he will never forget it. Sean has won the race 4 times which is more than any other racer. The thing he wants most is to own his favorite horse which is Corr who is currently owned by Mr. Malvern. Kate Connolly goes by Puck and is an orphaned child along with her two brothers, one younger Finn, and one older Gabe. They are poor and barely getting by which is why Gabe has decided to leave them to go to the mainland. But in efforts to keep him around and to get some much needed money, Puck enters the Scorpio Races with her normal horse named Dove and is the first girl to ever enter the Scorpio Races which shows how brave she really is. The thing she wants most is to win the race this year to get the money for her family and to keep her older brother from leaving them. The main theme that is starting to appear is to never give up and not let people bring you down because Puck is a long shot to win and people judged her and made fun of her for entering the race because she is a girl and is using her normal horse instead of a capiall uisce. My book is structured with a prologue of when Sean saw his dad die in a race. Then it alternates every chapter between Puck and Sean giving their account of what’s happening. It is written in first person point of view.

Summer Reading Entry One

I have chosen to read the book The Scorpio Races by: Maggie Stiefvater this summer. The main characters in this book are Sean Kendrick and Kate Connolly who goes by Puck. The setting of this book is on an island that is called Thisby. Thisby is a small island with about 4,000 people and on Thisby the largest town is called Skarmouth. The conflict in this book so far is that Puck and her two brothers’ parents died and they are very poor so Puck has entered into the Scorpio Race this year as the first girl to ever do so in hope to win the money to help her and her brothers. But these races are extremely dangerous because the water horses or capiall uisce that race in it are malicious and terrifying and Puck has chosen to race with her normal horse named Dove and the capiall uisce are going to be chomping at the bit to pounce on them. The conflict for Sean is he is a very skilled racer and has won the past couple of years on his prized Corr which is a capiall uisce he has trained but is owned by Mr. Malvern who is very rich and refuses to sell it to Sean. I predict that Sean is going to help Puck win the race so she can get the money she needs and that they will fall in love with each other. A question I have is did the author make up this island or is it a real island and just added in the capiall uisce? I can make a connection to the movie Secretariat because it’s a horse movie and it’s a long shot for her to win just like it’s a long shot for Puck to win.

Final Blogging Assessment

Original Blog Post:

Tris followed Four and found out he was going to do a simulation. This is a fear simulation and Tris goes in with him and discovers Four's fears and helps him get through his four fears which is why they call him Four. In the last fear Tris learns his real name is Tobias because Marcus appears and she recognizes him and knew he had a son who transferred to Dauntless and realizes Four is Tobias. Tris and Four go on a walk and talk about his aptitude test results and she finds out that he got Abnegation which is where he's from but chose Dauntless to get away from his father and won't become a Dauntless leader so he doesn't have to see his dad who is a Abnegation leader. Then Tobias admits he likes Tris and has been watching her and taking care of her throughout her time at Dauntless and then they kiss. This is significant because they used to not like each other that much and were thought to have completely opposite personalities but now they have gotten to know each other are very alike and meant for each other.

The next day they have to take another fear simulation but this time from one of the instructor's and it's Lauren. When Tris goes she has to deal with a kidnapping and she fails it and it becomes one of her fears. When it's over Tobias comes to her and yells at her "Get yourself together! This is pathetic" (Roth 345) and then Tris snaps at him and slaps him and yells at him to shut up, and as this happens everyone sits there in stunned silence watching this fold out. Later Tris hops on a train without supervision and goes to Erudite where she hopes to find her brother Caleb. She finds him in a library and then they talk and Caleb is completely changed. He's nervous, confused, and doesn't know who or what to believe. Then two men come and take Tris away to Jeanine who was the Erudite leader spreading rules about Abnegation and they have a talk about her missing aptitude results and why she chose Dauntless because Tris thinks Jeanine is one of the people that hate Divergent and are out to get them. Then her guard sends Tris back to Dauntless where Eric is waiting for her...

1. What specific words/phrases demonstrate your writer's voice? How do these words/phrases showcase your personality as a writer?

Some specific phrases that help demonstrate my voice are when I wrote "and then they kiss" because I didn't have to mention that but I believed it was a significant point in the book because in the end they fall in love and together they stop the war that Erudite started, and also it's an awkward relationship because he is her leader in the initiation process. Another phrase could be when I'm talking about after Tris failed her fear simulation and gets in a fight with Tobias about it. This demonstrates my voice because I like to describe exactly what I see happening and not leaving out the less important details that aren't completely irrelevant. These phrases showcase my personality as a writer because I like to include as much information as I can because it makes whatever I am writing more factual. Also I believe they showcase my personality because I like the intense and action parts of books because I'm not usually someone who sits down and reads for a while but I will if it has action in it like the endings usually, which I did for this book. 

2. What purposeful diction and syntax choices did you make to enhance your writer’s voice? You must choose to discuss at least one diction and one syntax technique from the list below. Make sure to include textual evidence from your post where you included the diction and syntax choices you discuss.

Purposeful diction I use is when I say "He's nervous, confused, and doesn't know who or what to believe." This is purposeful because I am describing how Caleb is feeling and these describe exactly what I would be feeling as well in the same situation. Purposeful syntax I use is when I end the post saying "Then her guard sends Tris back to Dauntless where Eric is waiting for her..." This is purposeful because it shows that I'm leaving the reader in an anxious state because they want to know what happens next and I do that by ending with the triple dots. Also throughout my post the sentence lengths are short and straight to the point which is what you want in a blog post.

The Fear Landscape

Tris has just gotten back from Erudite and Eric meets her where she is dropped off and  interrogates her but Tobias comes in and saves her from any harm by making her look innocent which is how he has always protected her before and Eric bought it. Then Tris tells Tobias to meet her back there so she could tell him something. Then she finds Christina and she tells Tris that Will kissed her and that they like each other, which makes both of the girls happy. Later Tobias meets Tris and and they hop on a train to Erudite where he reveals that before their training started he discovered a file for Erudite war plans to attack Abnegation- the faction that controls the government. They are teaming up with Dauntless because Erudite doesn't know how to fight or have any weapons to fight and would manipulate them into fighting.

Tris has been questioning if she chose the right faction because she does so many things that are Abnegation when she isn't thinking about what she's doing. Later that day every initiate goes through the fear landscape and Tris goes last because she was the best from the previous fear simulation. Tris' fears that she faces are crows, being stuck in a glass with water filling up, being stuck on a rock in the middle of the sea, being tied down and Peter burning her to death,  being kidnapped, being with Tobias, and her family dying and her being responsible for it.This is impressive because she only had seven and the average fears is around 15. When it's over Eric injects a tracking serum in Tris and tells her that her rank will be announced at the banquet. As she is leaving people congratulate her and she goes back to Four's room. There she reveals her fear of him and Tobias sees Tris'  Abnegation tattoo and says he has the same one and shows Tris but he also has every other faction on his back and is covered in all kinds of tattoos and says he wants to have all of the characteristics of each faction. Then they talk a little and Tris is no longer afraid of being with Tobias.

Tris Helps Four with his Fears and Learns About his Past

Tris followed Four and found out he was going to do a simulation. This is a fear simulation and Tris goes in with him and discovers Four's fears and helps him get through his four fears which is why they call him Four. In the last fear Tris learns his real name is Tobias because Marcus appears and she recognizes him and knew he had a son who transferred to Dauntless and realizes Four is Tobias. Tris and Four go on a walk and talk about his aptitude test results and she finds out that he got Abnegation which is where he's from but chose Dauntless to get away from his father and won't become a Dauntless leader so he doesn't have to see his dad who is a Abnegation leader. Then Tobias admits he likes Tris and has been watching her and taking care of her throughout her time at Dauntless and then they kiss. This is significant because they used to not like each other that much and were thought to have completely opposite personalities but now they have gotten to know each other are very alike and meant for each other.

The next day they have to take another fear simulation but this time from one of the instructor's and it's Lauren. When Tris goes she has to deal with a kidnapping and she fails it and it becomes one of her fears. When it's over Tobias comes to her and yells at her "Get yourself together! This is pathetic" (Roth 345) and then Tris snaps at him and slaps him and yells at him to shut up, and as this happens everyone sits there in stunned silence watching this fold out. Later Tris hops on a train without supervision and goes to Erudite where she hopes to find her brother Caleb. She finds him in a library and then they talk and Caleb is completely changed. He's nervous, confused, and doesn't know who or what to believe. Then two men come and take Tris away to Jeanine who was the Erudite leader spreading rules about Abnegation and they have a talk about her missing aptitude results and why she chose Dauntless because Tris thinks Jeanine is on the people that hate Divergent and are out to get them. Then her guard sends Tris back to Dauntless where Eric is waiting for her...