Go Ask Alice Book Evaluation

3. The author's purpose in writing the book was to express because it's a diary, so she's saying what she feels and what's going on in her life. An example of this is when she talks about the first night she took drugs and she says, "I don't know whether I should be ashamed or elated. I only know that last night I had the most incredible experience of my life." Another example is in the very beginning of the book when she says she remembered she thought she was the happiest person in the world then she states that everything in her life has become so much of nothing.

4. Based on the book, I think the author was a kind-hearted person and a good kid, but she lost her way. She was a troubled teen, but she really wanted the best for everyone. I think in some ways she was selfish because she never looked at the big picture and what she was doing affected everyone. "Goodbye dear home, goodbye good family. I really am leaving mostly because I love you so much and I don't want you to ever know what a weak and disreputable person I have been." I think this shows that what she thought she was doing was the best for her family, but at the same time she wasn't thinking about how it would affect them negatively. In the beginning of the book it shows how she was a good kid and earned good grades. When she moves and doesn't make any friends she starts becoming depressed, and somone eventually asks her to hang out when she goes home for a while and she falls into peer pressure that turned her world up-side down.

5. In my opinion, Go Ask Alice has a lot of prevailing moods. The book has despair, it's sad, and serious.
"Last night ws the night, friend! I finally smoked pot and it was even greater than I expected! Last night after work, Chris fixed me up with a college friend of hers who knew I'd been on acid, etc., but who wanted to turn on to hash." This quote shows how hooked she was on drugs and she was such a good kid, but after her first night of trying drugs she became completely hooked and it started taking over her life.
"After you've had it there isn't a life without drugs."
"I hope so, for you are my dearest friend that I shall thank you always for sharing my tears and heartaches and my struggles and strifes, and my joys and happinesses. It's all been good in it own special way, I guess. See ya." Three weeks after this last diary entry she died from a drug overdose.

6. The most important element to this book was the events that happened. Everything in the book revolved around what happened to her or how she was feeling. Throughout the book she talks about her experiences with each drug she trys and the dreadful things she encountered . The events are so important because as your read her writing you see it change a lot throughout the book due to the things that happened to her and without those events and seeing how she felt it would lose some of the meaning.

7. The first major event that happened in the book was when she first started taking drugs. School ended for her and she was visiting her grandma and grandpa back home. Her friend, Jill invited her to hang out with her and a couple of friends. When she went to Jill's she said she felt relaxed, and everyone was friendly. She expressed that she immediatly felt accepted. One of the boys at the house brought out a tray of coke and all the kids rushed to it except for her. A while after all the kids began to stare at her and she began to feel nervous then she fell into the pressure and tried the coke. She found out that LSD was in her bottle of coke after the party ended, and when she went home she thought it was fun, ecstatic, and glorious.

The second major event in the book was when she ran away from home with Chris. Her and Chris thought they would never be able to change as long as they were at home so they decided to run away to San Francisco. She thought it would be easy to stay clean in San Francisco since they wouldn't know anybody that used. She wrote a letter to her family and she said shew as leaving mostly because she loved them so much and she didn't want them to know what kind of person she had become.

Another major event in the book was when she had become clean, but someone put acid in her food and she ended up in the hospital. She finally came back home and really wanted to change, but kids were threatening her saying they were going to get her. She tried so hard to stay away from it and kids poisened her and set her back, but after she got out of the hospital she stayed clean for a long time until her overdose.

8. The last book I read, Three Little Words, was very different than Go Ask Alice. The struggle in Three Words was her finding a family that she loved and wanted to stay with while she knew her mother was still out there. In Go Ask Alice her struggle was to stay clean from using drugs and straighten her life up. In some ways they were the same because in Three Little Words her mom wanted to stay clean and get her son and daughter back, but she kept falling through the cracks. In Go Ask Alice she wanted to stop doing drugs, but no matter how hard she tried she kept taking them.

9. The theme of the book was that even good kids can loose their way in life just like anyone else. It showed that life's a struggle and people want to be accepted and understood, and if you keep everything inside its easy to loose your way.

10. The lessons that are learned throughout the book are praiseworthy because it shows how drugs can destroy a persons life. Unlike other books, Go Ask Alice gives the reader a sense of how life was for her and the struggles she experienced, so it was easy to relate to the author. The book is heartfelt and as you read the book you can see how much her writing changes.

11. Some shortcomings of the book would have to be how at some parts it would jump around, and sometimes there wasn't enough information. Other parts of the book seemed to be rushed because there was so much happening at one time, and sometimes it was difficult to take it all in because it was so real.

Life As We Knew It book evaluation

FCA's

1.  Identify a position (5)

2.  Explain your criteria, application, reasoning for your position with quoted evidence as support. Please indicate the page number of your quote in parenthesis following the quote. (10)

3.  Explain the position of the opposition and provide counterargument.  (10)

I would recommend Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer to all high school students. Life As We Knew It was exciting and it took a bad turn to worse throughout the book. It grabbed my attention because it was a different style of writing than I’m use to. The book was well written and kept the readers attention.

One of the reasons why I enjoyed Life As We Knew It was because of the way it was written in diary form. In my opinion it made the book more interesting. It interested me because it was from one character’s point of view. It was a simple book to read and I liked that it didn’t drag on with every character’s point of view on everything.Most books high school students read aren’t written in this style, so it grabbed my attention quickly because it was something different. The book leaves the reader unsure of what will happen next and who will survive, so it keeps you turning the papers.“I hate the moon. I hate tides and earthquakes and volcanoes. I hate a world where things that have absolutely nothing to do with me can destroy my life and the lives of people I love.”(Page ?) The book is more for high school students in my opinion because it’s easier to relate to since the point of view is from a sixteen year old. Most teenagers would react how Miranda did during the hard times with little food not knowing if you would survive, so it’s easy to relate too.I enjoyed it that much more since I’m a 17 year old girl so I had a better understanding of how she was feeling and thinking compared to an older audience.  For example, "I understand!" I yelled right back into her face.  "I understand that you don't trust me."(Page 102). I understand Miranda’s because I would probably react the same, but an older audience would expect Miranda to be more mature and more understanding since they can’t relate to someone her age. Most books read in high school are hard to relate to because the point of view is to old and mature for us to understand at the time and really understand the meaning. As I read about the volcano ash blocking the sun resulting in colder weather I didn’t expect things to get much worse, but they did. INSERT QUOTE. The reader didn’t expect some of the natural disasters to occur and that’s what made the book interesting and exciting.

People may argue that Life As We Knew It was boring because it was written in a diary form and it didn’t keep the readers attention since it’s only in one person’s point of view. Some people might have said it was harder to relate to because it was in the view of sixteen year old girl, but that’s why I think this books’ main audience is for high school students. If the book was written any other way it wouldn’t flow as good and it would begin to become boring because it would be every character’s point of view so it would be to long and it would be repetitive.The book was easier to read because it was only in one persons point of view. This book would catch most high school students’ attention because it is easier to relate to and see how someone our age would react in a time of crisis.   

In conclusion, Life As We Knew It is definitely a book a high school student shouldn’t pass up. It’s easy to relate to, it’s exciting, and it keeps the reader wanting more. It’s hard to tell what else could go wrong when it seems like everything bad has already happened, but it continues to get worse. Who will survive during these harsh times? Life As We Knew It was a good book and it’s not a one to pass up.

Testing my Publishing Skills

State of the Union Address

The Glass Castle

     The book I'm reading for second semester is The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. I decided to read this book because based on other students blogs the recommendations were good and it seems like something I would enjoy reading. By reading other students summary's it sounds like The Glass Castle is an inspiring story that makes the reader appreciate all the things they have in life.

Walls, Jeannette. The Glass Castle. Scribner; 1 edition (January 9, 2006)

The Best Thing I Learned Last Semester was...

     Last semester the best thing I learned was how to analyze the things we read better. I learned to manage my time better when writing a timed essay.

A Must Read Book

    I would recommend this book to anyone. It's an easy book to read and makes you think about what you have and should be grateful for. If your the type of person that likes memoirs this is definitely a book you have to read. I don't have anything negative to say about this book, it was very well written and was a page turner.

Summary

     Ashley's mother, Lorraine gave birth to her when she was only seventeen years old and then shortly after she had another baby, Luke. At the age of three Ashley and Luke were taken from her and they ended up in foster care. Ashley was in foster care for nine years and was place in many homes. Ashley and Luke were seperated many times but ended up together at a children's home. They lived with their grandpa and Adele in South Carolina for many months. Luke and Ashley got very attached to Adele and saw her as a mother figure, but they knew it was to good to be true and knew they could be taken away any minute. While they were outside playing their grandpa got shot, and shortly after they were taken away once again. After that they were both placed in the care of the Moss'. There they were both abused, but they eventually got out of their worst nightmare. Once they were placed in a couple other homes, they both got sent to the Children's Home of Tampa. They lived there for a while until two families became interested in them. Luke got adopted first then Ashley by Phil and Gay Courter. It took many months for the adoption to become official. During the time Ashley wasn't giving the Courters the easiest time, especially Gay. As time passed and the adoption was official Ashley grew to love Phil and Gay and knew that they would always be there for her.