Winter Poem

Crisp Crunches

Crunch,Crunch

I really love that beautiful sound

Listen to the sounds of winter

Crunch

The frozen flakes of the sky

Crunch,Crunch

Falling from the heavens

White dots all over you

Crunch

The white shield on every lawn

Crunch

Perfectly fallen

Crunch

Fresh crystals 

Crunch, Crunch

Whitest of whites

Nature's freeze

Crunch

*Stomp stomp*

Getting the snow off your boots

Warmth

Rosy Cheeks

Creamy hot chocolate

Dazzling tree

Home for the holidays

Perfect

Brought home

by those crisp crunches.

Theme Essay

Thawed by compassion

          “Merry Christmas!” When this phrase is said, the normal response back is “Same to you!”. But if you’re a grumpy old man with a frozen heart, your response might be a cold “Buh Humbug!”. Ebenezer Scrooge is just this man, who basicly has no care for anyone.  But because of this, no one is really fond of him. But when 3 sprits haunt him, they show him that his lack of compassion affects his past, present, and future. The theme of the book A Christmas Carol  by Charles Dickens is the necessity for compassion.     

          Compassion is important because otherwise people know you as the a heart-less person that shouldn’t be messed with. An example is how the people in the town cast Scrooge aside because of his unkindness, as it says in the book "Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, "My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come see me?" No beggars implored him bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge."Because of his irritable ways, people would rather not be involved in any part of his life.

          When you have no compassion, people will see you like as a Scrooge, “…an odious, stingy, hard, unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge.” is a good example from the book of Mrs. Cratchit talking about him. Scrooge is very stubborn, and if he were to change his ways, even just a little, others wouldn’t see him as this.

          A different text that shares the similar theme of necessity for compassion is Stargirl. In this book, Leo likes a strange girl, Stargirl, but when everyone in the school turns from her, he is the only one that shows kindness towards her. Even when his friends turn on him for being with her, Leo still stays with her because without him, she has nobody.

          Woods Runner  also has this theme. When Samuel is hit in the head with a tomahawk by in Indian, a small group of men take him with them and take care of him while he is passed out. They could have just left him to die, but they that realized that if it was the other way around, they would want his help. That group had compassion by saving his life and taking him with them.

          Compassion is a strong thing. The necessity for it is what really keeps us together. When Scrooge says “Humbug” to Christmas, he is haunted  by ghosts to teach him the very importance of this and why he should change.  Maybe on Christmas day, Scrooge’s heart will unfreeze from the cold and unkindness, warm up with some compassion, and finally say “Merry Christmas to all!”

Christmas Poem

The Joyful Season

Author's Note: In honor of the upcoming Christmas season, I decided to just right a nice little poem. :D

Lights twinkle on houses,

Bells' glorious cries fill the air.

Christmas music streams out of windows,

The holiday feeling everywhere.

Children play in the snow,

Stressed parents make cards.

Packages are sent,

They all end up under a tree.

A tree with different colors shining,

of precious ornaments from over time,

Gathered on that sacred pine.

Santa hats are worn,

Gloves and mittens too.

Now everything is finally ready,

people have waited for 364 days,

It's Christmas!

The great holiday in this Joyful Season.

Essay

Human & Tiger

       How are a human and tiger the same? They don’t seem like it, especially when one it a vicious, bloodthirsty beast while the other, a somewhat gentle kind, living in their man-made world. But when tragedy strikes, won’t they both try their best to survive? In the book, Life of Pi, Richard Packer and Pi Patel act similar when stranded in the middle of the sea on a lifeboat.

       When they are first on the lifeboat, they both sort of surrey for the supplies that they have to survive. In a way, both have an advantage; Richard Parker has the bodies of the dead animals while Pi has the locker full of supplies.

       Also, these two creatures start to rely on each other. After a while, Richard Parker realizes that he needs Pi to survive and to look after him, well mostly because a few rotting bodies and rainwater won’t last him long. Pi sort of needs Richard Parker too, as something to focus his mind. Caring for the tiger is what kept Pi mentally sane (well, somewhat) and alive. Day after day, month after month, both starve and weaken together and respect each other by not killing one another. Their journey on the lifeboat creates a strong bond between till they are both faithful companions.

       Besides them relying on one another, they also really start to take advantage of what they have. When food comes their way, they really saver it because they never know when the next time they’ll eat is. Same with water. It is never wasted because of how precious it is. When they find the island, Pi eats the algae while R.P. eats the meerkats. Anyway, they both eat as much as they can to finally fill their stomach.

       Human and tiger are the same in many ways when trapped on a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean. They act similar in order to survive, or at least survive as long as possible. By the end of the book, when they reach Mexico and get off that lifeboat, human and tiger become of the same kind.

Predicting

 Author Note: I wrote this to example the piece below "Gang of Outcasts". In the book, Ten Miles past Normal, Janie is a farm girl trying to survive high school. She never eats in the cafeteria because it's full of jocks and popular girls,  so spends that time eating by her locker and the going to the Library, so her lunches are lonely. She wants to have someone to help her learns the tricks for high school. So this is how I predict the book will end...

I predict the end…..

       Janie will find other "outcasts" like her and they can work with each other to survive high school

Reasons….

• Its her dream for that to happen

        -She clearly says in the book "That's my dream, or course. That some regular, everyday people will show up and recognize me as someone who is basically normal, in spite of my Farm Girl mishaps, but whose soul is too sensitive to deal with the cafeteria alone. We will become friends and find other B lunch refugees, hiding out in the back of the school auditorium or hovering around the edge of the newspaper office, pretending to have a lead on a big story. When we have banded together enough troops, we'll take over a table in the cafeteria and never be lonely again"

• This has happened also when Cato and others joined together to survive the Hunger Games

         -Even though they didn't success, it was a good idea and helped them survive for a while

• She wants to change, she just needs someone to give her a push

          -She keeps saying to herself that she will eat in the cafeteria, but being alone was awkward and she was "feeling exposed and invisible at the same time"

Creative Predicting Piece

Gang of Outcasts

Author's Note: This is my creative version for the ending of the book Ten Miles past Normal. I also wrote this for Sentence Fluency.

Slowly, I looked around the library, desperate to find someone like me. I hated this, having to hide in the library for lunch while other people were sitting in the cafeteria, laughing with their group of friends at their own table. Yet again, I was disappointed. 

No one seems to be noticing me, I thought as a surveyed the space. I saw a few guys crowded around a computer, quietly shouted “YAH!” as one of them playing some war game. There was also was a popular girl from my science class, reading a physics book, looking very confused (she was probably try finish the science report last minute, of course. Good thing I finished mine already).

Then, I saw her. A girl in the reading corner of the library, her nose buried in one of my favorite novels, The Heart that Can’t be Broken. How was it possible, that I found the perfect person so quickly? How is it possible, that she is right there? How is it possible?; it has to be some sort of sign. Calmly, I take a deep breath, stand up, and slowly walk over to her.

Shaking, I say “He-hey I’m Janie”. Quickly, I try to think about what to say next as she looks up. Before a can say anything else, she says “Hi I’m Chloe”. Chloe gives me a weird look, almost if wondering why I’m talking to her. I panic.

“Um, well…” I say as I casually look around, looking for something to say. Why didn’t I think this through? “I was wondering…if you know where the fiction books are?” I asked, even though I could have found them blindfolded.

Chloe points toward them then returns to her book. I start to walk over there, but as I do I remind myself, The same person never comes to the Library two days in a row. You know that. It’s now or never! Just say something.

I turned and walked back her. She looked up from her book,  probably wondering why I came back. “Hey, I love that book!” I say, finding something to talk about.

“Oh yeah, it’s great isn’t it! I’m almost done too, so don’t ruin the ending.” Chloe said, smiling. This was my chance!

“I won’t, trust me. So, would you ever want to eat with me in the cafeteria?” I say a little more confidently.

Listening, Chloe soon looks confused why I would ask that and then says “Never. Well, I mean, it’s not you, it’s just that it’s a madhouse in there. I just started coming to this school a week ago and even I can see that.”

 I can’t hold it back; I have to tell her the truth. “Yeah, I know right! The cafeteria's crazy, especially when all your other friends are in A lunch and you have to sit alone. It's awful. Well, I just sort of want someone to sit with, I guess..”

At first, Chloe looks a little shocked. She replied “Well so do I. I have no friends here yet. Do you think you could sort of show me around, show me how this school works? Then maybe we could eat in there.”

“Of course” I say and sit in the chair next to her. Chatting, I realized I had finally found someone.

***

From then on, me and Chloe started going to the cafeteria.Smiling, I would enter it, finally feeling free. It felt nice not having to eat by my locker and spending the rest of lunch in the library. Eventually other “outcasts” like us started joining us. This was like the first step to not always feeling like such a farm girl. Our gang of outcasts is probably what would finally help me survive high school.

Predicting Practice

Chance: Dead or Alive
Author's Note: I wrote this to predict how the story "The Beast" would end and why I thought that

     -My prediction for the end of the story The Beast is that the dog, Chance, might be eaten by the cougar because he probably entered its the cougar's territory.The Warriors series is like this because the cats are very picky about territory. Even stepping one paw in another clans' territory can start a battle. I'm sure a cougar isn't much different. Plus, the book said that Chance wasn't that big and to a 300 pound cougar, he's probably a nice little midnight snack.
     -The end was about the complete opposite of my prediction. The cougar attacked (and might have killed) Steven, the dog's owner. I guess the cougar preferred human rather that dog, which makes  a little more sense because  Steven is more of a meal. But what did happen to Chance? It never says. Maybe it was something like this...

Chance runs back from the water's edge, happy and cheerful to have FINALLY gotten a walk. He turns his head, sniffing and searching for his owner. He traces his scent to the gate where he stops, shocked. He finds Steven unmoving body being dragged into the forest. His ears pick up a low growl and he runs. Runs through the open gate, runs home. Runs away from that awful park. Chance reaches his house, gets on his hind legs and pounds against the door. He barks with all his might, to get his older owners attention. The door opens and his older owner shouts something at him. Chance just ignores it; this was way more important then being in trouble. He points toward the park with his nose and whimpers loudly, almost if saying "He's over there! Something has killed him!…."

I think that would be the very end of the story because the book say that Steven walked Chance everyday , so they would have a strong bond. Also, Chance probably would know the path that they go and would be able to find his way back home. Since Chance cares about Steven, he would want to help him and the only person who would help is Steven's dad.