Revised blog post: CRANK

How does this book help you think about social issues you care about or causes you are committed to?

          In the book Crank by Ellen Hopkins the social issue is drug addiction. The main character Kristina aka Bree was persuaded by her boyfriend to try crack for the first time. Then Kristina began to use crack a tad bit too much. She then began to do things that she might regret later. After Kristina's first time doing crack everything went downhill.
               Adam (Kristina's boyfriend) persuaded Kristina into trying crack for the the first time. After Kristina meet Adam she began to do drugs. She smoke cigarettes and even smoked some weed. After using crack for the first time it affected Kristina real badly. For example, "Fire! Your nose ignites, flames kerosene (and, some say, Drano) laced with ephedrine you want to cry. Powdered demons bite through cartilage and sinuses,take dead aim at your brain, jump inside want to scream." (Hopkins 90). This shows that Kristina's body is not used to the drug so, Kristina is going through all this pain. This also shows that drugs take a toll on your body after you start to use it.
             Since Kristina did crack for the first time she began to use it a lot. After Kristina, Adam, Kristina's dad, and his girlfriend finished doing crack together Kristina's dads girlfriend jumped off their balcony. "...She's hurt real bad. Who? Lince. What? Fell (or jumped) off the balcony. When? Yesterday. Where? Right outside. I didn't dare ask why. Instead, I let him cry." (Hopkins 136). This shows that drugs can affect your mental state of mind and make you do crazy things. This also shows that doing drugs can affect others not just one person.
                After doing crack for the first time Kristina's life went downhill. Kristina was very high and  she left her house, and almost got raped by a group of boys. She started doing more and more drugs like smoking weed and smoking cigarettes. Kristina even began to drink alcohol.  For example, "...Ever done a three-fer? You gonna love it, baby... Covered my mouth, rough, held my arms, strong, ripped my clothes, vicious... No! I screamed into dirty flesh. Not this way! Buttons burst, zippers opened, I closed my eyes, braced for pain." (Hopkins 114-115). This show that when you have drugs in your systems there is no telling what might happen. This also shows that you should not do drugs what so ever because they can effect your life drastically.
           

C.T.Q -Crank

My critical thinking question was How does this book help you think about social issues you care about or causes you are committed to? 

            In the book Crank by Ellen Hopkins the social issue is drug use and drug addiction. The main character Kristina AKA Bree was persuaded by her boyfriend to try crack for the first time. She began to enjoy crack a little bit too much, she began to do things that later she might regret. After Kristina’s first time doing crack everything went downhill.          

The main character Kristina AKA Bree was persuaded by her boyfriend Adam to try crack. Kristina started doing drugs after she meet Adam, She began to smoke cigarettes and smoke weed. After inhaling crack for the first time it hit Kristina really hard. For example, “Fire! Your nose ignites, flames kerosene (and, some say, Drano) laced with ephedrine you want to cry. Powdered demons bite through cartilage and sinuses, take dead aim at your brain, jump inside want to scream.” (Hopkins 90)

            After Kristina did crack she enjoyed it a bit too much. She did a round of crack with her dad, her boyfriend, and her dad’s girlfriend.  Everyone was enjoying themselves. After everyone was finished Kristina’s dad’s girlfriend jumped of their balcony. For example, “… She’s hurt real bad. Who? Lince. What? Fell (or jumped) off the balcony. When? Yesterday. Where? Right outside. I didn’t dare ask why. Instead, I let him cry.” (Hopkins 136)

              After Kristina’s first time doing crack everything went downhill. After the first time, Kristina was so high that she left her house and almost got raped by a group of boys. She smoked some weed and made out with her “boyfriend”. Then Kristina began to drink alcohol. For example,”… Ever done a three-fer? You gonna love it, baby…Covered my mouth, rough, held my arms, strong, ripped my clothes, vicious… No! I screamed into dirty flesh. Not this way! Buttons burst, zippers opened, I closed my eyes, braced for pain.” (Hopkins 114-115)    

Crank by Ellen Hopkins-Critical thinking question

My critical thinking question was what really hard things are happening in this text? Are these things happening in the world now? Where?

            In the book Crank by Ellen Hopkins hard things are happening to the main character. The one major thing that has been hard on the main character Kristina AKA Bree is Drug addiction.  This all accrued when Kristina was visiting her dad in Albuquerque. When she was visiting her dad Kristina meet a boy and she instantly fell in love with him. The boy was sort of a bad influence but Kristina still wanted to date him.

            After Kristina meets Adam she wanted to get to know him better. They started dating after a while and became very close. One day when Kristina was with Adam he persuaded her into doing drugs. She started of by smoking a cigarette, then she smoked weed, and lastly she did crack. For example, “It will be like heaven. Used the blade to chop the chunks fine, draw two crooked lines. Make you want to fly all night. He held the mirror to my face, handed me a sawed-off straw, Make you want to make love to me.” (Hopkins 87)

            As soon as Kristina inhaled the crack it hit her hard: for example, “Fire! Your nose ignites, flames kerosene (and, some say, Drano) laced with ephedrine you want to cry. Powdered demons bite through cartilage and sinuses, take dead aim at your brain, jump inside want to scream.” (Hopkins 90) This shows that Kristina was feeling peer pressure. After that moment Kristina became very addicted to Crack. She began to do more and more and more. The monster inside her came out!

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

Monday Muses

1.     What is your favorite picture book? Why? What are your specific memories of it? Why is it relevant to your life today? If you cannot think of a specific book, write about a children's movie. Or write about both.

Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! By Mo Willems

     

                               My favorite picture book is Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! By Mo Willems. One of my fondest memories of this book was in kindergarten. I t was time for the class to vote on our read aloud book and every one voted for this book. When my teacher Ms.Denizard started to read the book I really paid attention and enjoyed. This book is still relevant to me now because my mom is a Pre-Kindergarten teacher and they have this book as one of the class room favorites. I still enjoy this book now. Sometimes when I get a chance to sit down in my mom’s classroom I go straight for that book.

Argument Essay 1st Draft

          Should particular text be removed and banned from our classroom or school library? The appropriate audience for the book “Pretty Little Liars” by Sara Shepard is 7^th, 8^th and older grades because the content is more mature. In the book, “Pretty Little Liars” by Sara Shepard some things may seem objectionable because of inappropriate content and bad influences. In the article “Darkness Too Visible” by Meghan Cox Gurdon some reading material can be very graphic and inappropriate for young children. In both of my sources they show that books that have strong material should be read but only by older kids.

           . In the book, “Pretty Little Liars” by Sara Shepard some things may seem objectionable because of inappropriate content and bad influences. One example is peer-pressure on page 12, “Ali asked, ’Emily you want to do it right?’ ‘Um…Emily’s voice quivered, well…’” Another example would be having a sexual relationship with an older boy on page 186, “Spencer grabbed fistfuls of his worn T-shirt in her hand and pulled it over his head… They rolled over and now Spencer was on top of him (Her sister’s boyfriend).” In addition on page 70 underage drinking occurred, “Emily tilted her head and stared at the old iron railroad bridge above them. Trains didn’t use the bridge anymore, so now it was a place for kids to go and get drunk without their parents knowing.”

               In the article “Darkness Too Visible” by Meghan Cox Gurdon some reading material can be very graphic and inappropriate for young children. One example would be on page 2 from the book “Rage” by Jackie Morse Kessler, “’She had sliced her arm into ribbons, but the badness remained, staining her insides like cancer. She had gouged her belly until it was a mess of meat and blood, but she still couldn’t breathe.’” Another example on page 2 from the book “The Marbury Lens” by Andrew Smith, “ He finds himself facing a wall of horrors,’ covered with impaled heads and other dripping, black-rot body parts: hands, hearts, feet, ears, penises. Where the f*** was this?’” In addition on page 2 from the book “Go Ask Alice” by Robin S. Wagner, “A girl’s spiral into drug addiction, rape, prostitution and a fatal overdose.”

               In both of my sources they show that books have strong material and should be read only by older kids, but some parents believe this kind of stuff is too inappropriate. One example in the book “Pretty Little Liars” on page 65-66, “Aria’s Mouth instantly went dry. Standing in front of the class was Ezra from the bar… Standing at the blackboard and writing... Mr. Fitz, AP English. He stared at her, his face draining of color, ’Holy Shit’” Another Example In the article on page 4 from the book “Shine” by Lauren Myracle, “A 16-year-old girl and once a close friend of the victim, is herself yet to recover from s sexual assault in eighth grade; assorted locals, meanwhile, reveal themselves to be in the grip of homophobia, booze and crystal meth.”  In addition in the book “Pretty Little Liars” on page 186, “Hanna took the drink out of Sean’s hands and grabbed his sweet square jaw and started to kiss him.” 

           Should particular text be removed and banned from our classroom or school library? The appropriate audience for the book “Pretty Little Liars” by Sara Shepard is 7th, 8th and older grades because the content is more mature. In the book, “Pretty Little Liars” by Sara Shepard there are some parts that have inappropriate content and bad influences. In the article “Darkness Too Visible” by Meghan Cox Gurdon books can be very inappropriate or graphic for young children. In both of my sources they show books that have strong material that should be read only by older kids.

Childhood Memory

My New Nickname –Jossy Bossy

Warm sunny day

Kindergarten

Star student of the week!

All eyes on me
 Don’t know what to say or do

Just say hi I think

 Say a little about yourself anything something

 All I say is !HI EVERYONE, MY NAME IS JOSELYN RODRIGUEZ!

And sat down

Walk around the classroom checking everyone’s drawings of me
Everyone's thoughts

Correct someone’s major flaw 

They write down BOSSY sometimes

'Oh' how great now I’m the bossy kid!

Walk around  more

Then I correct some other  kids work

Start belting out orders on what everyone should write down and how they should draw me

Get caught being "bossy of coarse"

Then it hits me 
My new nickname is...

JOSSY BOSSY

Perfect now everyone knows who I am

Little miss Jossy Bossy!

Pretty Little Liars: Theme

           In the book “Pretty Little Liars” by Sara Shepard the main characters are Spencer, Aria, Emily, Hanna and Alison. All five girls live in Rosewood, Pennsylvania. The five girls were all very close friends and loved one another like sisters. Until one night together at Spencer’s house for a sleepover Alison went missing. The theme of this book is the mystery of Alison’s disappearing.

      The theme of the story is the mystery of Alison’s disappearance. I can tell this is the theme because this is the climax of each girl’s problems so far. I can also tell this is the theme because it affects all three girls. Spencer, Aria, Emily and Hanna are all affected by Alison’s disappearance because they were all such close friends. All of the girls and their family are all in denial that Alison is missing including Alison’s parents.