Reflect on Your Semester in English II

This semester in English II was hard, but I learned a lot of things. One thing in the class that made it hard for me was that we had to read a lot. Some of the books were very good, but not all of them. The only book that I really did not like was “Frozen in Time”. The book was not interesting to me, and it was hard to read. It was also hard to remember what I had read in this book. I thought that “Persepolis” was a better book to read. It was more interesting, but I could not understand why people were doing some of the crazy things that they were doing. “Girl with a Pearl Earring” was a good book and very interesting. I did not realize how much I remembered from the book until I saw the movie. When I was watching the movie, I would remember that something different happened in the book. “Pobby and Dingan” was one of my favorite books, but it was too sad at the end. When I was younger, I would play with my stuffed animals and pretend that each animal had its own personality. Kellyanne’s friends were invisible, but reading about them made me think about when I would play with my stuffed animals. “Gathering of Pearls” was my third favorite book that we read. I liked how Sookan was so brave and worked very hard in school. Her mother was very kind, but I thought that her sister was really mean and only thought about herself. Sometimes when I was reading the book, I would be angry at Sookan’s sister because of something mean that she did to Sookan. My second favorite book that we read was “Me and You”. I felt sorry for Lorenzo and was afraid that he would get into trouble for hiding in the basement. At first, I thought that Olivia was a bad person, but as I read the book, I started to think that she just needed help. It was very sad how she died and that Lorenzo was the only person that was called. “We Were Liars” was my favorite book, no matter how much we had been assigned to read in this book, I would always think about reading more, because I wanted to know what was going to happen. I still think about whether the other Liars were ghosts or just in Cadence’s imagination. I did not like that it had a very sad ending, but it was my favorite book that we read.

            The things that I improved on the most were understanding what I read and writing. As I read more and more, I got better at understanding the story that was being told in the book. At first, I would read word after word, and never think about the story. Now I think about the story more. The other thing that I improved on was writing. When we started having assignments where we would have to write 500 words on something, it might take me 4 hours or more to write 500 words and correct my mistakes. Now, it takes me much less time. I have still not been able to write 500 words on any of the plays that we have seen, but when we saw the play “Bone Chiller”, I remembered the story and most of what happened during the play. It was easy to write about what happened during the play. I just could not think of 500 words to write about the play.

            Next year, I need to work on improving my English vocabulary and writing without making so many mistakes at first. During the summer, I want to read some books with happy endings. For part of the summer, I will go to summer school to work on being better with English.

Review of Bone Chiller

The play “Bone Chiller” is an interesting and very funny play. With some plays, it is hard to follow the story, and it is easy to get bored. This play was easy to follow and never boring. Funny things happened throughout the play. The set was very nice, and some of the actors had some really funny hair. The animals in the set were cool, and some of them looked like the real animals. The lighting was good, so everything on the stage was easy to see. I could hear everything that was said by the actors.

When the play begins, someone has killed Josiah Travers. Josiah had a lot of money. He has left a will that is written on the wall. The will is made up of words and pictures, and is like a puzzle. The money is inside a penguin, and it will go to the person who can solve the puzzle to figure out who killed Josiah and how to open the penguin. A group of people have come to read the will and to try to figure out who killed Josiah. Some of the people are family and friends of Josiah, but some of the people seem strange. Pippi is the maid, Lucretia is the cook and Mauve is the butler. They all worked for Josiah. Connie, Theodosia and Kissy Travers, and Eloise Ainsley were family members. Jerry Devlin is engaged to be married to Connie Travers. Addie Sheridan is the family lawyer, and Buzzy Burdett is a family friend. It seemed normal to have those people there. But, it seemed strange that Dan Denton who pretended to be a policeman and was maybe a friend of Flame Fondue was there. Flame pretended to be a kindergarten teacher, but was not. Zita Van Zok had some kind of magical powers, which made this a very interesting character.

Mauve, the butler, was the first to be killed while they were trying to solve the puzzle of the will. We thought that Lucretia, the cook had been killed, but we later found out that she was not dead. Toward the end of the story, it was discovered that the killers were Addie Sheridan, Josiah’s lawyer, and Dan Denton. Both of them had guns. Zita Van Zok used magic to turn Addie Sheridan into a frog, but Dan Denton still had his gun. Then Lucretia, who we thought was dead, came out and hit the other killer, Dan Denton, in the head.

In class writing

In my opinion I think the three liars are ghost, in the book, when cadence in beachwood island .she saw them again, and the three liars always talk something to her and let her remember, and when cadence find back her memory,  they are still here, and say goodby to her, if they are cadence's imagination, I don't think cadence can remember what was happened in summer 15, and they can stay with cadence forever, but they leave cadence, and they can't stay too much time.

My Reaction to "We Were Liars"

“We Were Liars” was my favorite book that we have read this year for English class. It was easy to read and the story was interesting for the whole book. It is the only book that we read where I would sometimes want to read ahead to find out what happened next. All along, I imagined that the Liars had a very good life on the island. The adults let them do what they wanted to and did not bother them most of the time.

The adults in the family all seemed to have problems in their lives. All three of the Aunties had broken up with their husbands, but they seemed to have good lives. I don’t think that any of them had to work, but they complained all the time because they wanted Granddad’s money. Each Auntie would even try to have their children do sweet things for Granddad so that they would be his favorite. The Aunties were very greedy. But, Granddad made it worse because he used his money to control his family. He would sometimes do things to make the Aunties fight more.

As we learned how Cadence hurt her head, we found out what really happened to the Liars. The first thing that made me think that Johnny, Mirren and Gat might be dead was when she had not talked to Johnny, Mirren or Gat since her accident. Nobody had answered any of her emails. When Cadence went back to the island, Cadence had grown, but Johnny, Mirren, and Gat were the same size as in Summer 15. Then, I noticed that Cadence was the only one that was talking to them. I did not know whether it was her imagination or maybe she was talking to their ghosts. As she started to remember, I wondered whether what she remembered really happened or maybe she was confused.

It seemed like something was missing at the end of the book. Cadence and the Liars had done such a bad thing burning the house. When Cadence realized that she had killed the dogs in the fire, she got very upset. I thought that when she realized that she had killed her friends in the fire that she would go crazy or maybe kill herself. I thought something big and surprising would happen at the end of the book like we would find out that she was dreaming and the Liars were not dead. The way the book ended was not as exciting as the rest of the book. At the end of the book, it seemed like Cadence had become a better person and was kinder to her family. She would probably grow up, go to college, and live a happy life. That was not what I expected, but it was still my favorite book.

in chapter 50-70 candence remember  she was in the ocean and she can see the bass of the beacheood island, she talk about three times though 50-70. And she also remember  the house was burned, and Gat gave her a book she give to Gat.

1.why grand father gave candence most of the heritage?

Liars - Chapter 31-40 Notes

Chapter 31

·      Cadence is still giving her things away

·      She asks Mirren about the doll that she sent to her. Mirren did not get the doll

·      Cadence wants to ask Mirren about summer 15

·      Mirren offered Cadence some colored rocks

·      While Cadence is talking with Mirren, Johnny comes

Chapter 32

·      Gat calls her name as she is heading up the walkway to New Clairmont

·      She thinks to herself, “Is he going to be my Gat?”

·      They are walking, Gat turns quickly, and Cadence almost runs into him. They hugged

·      Cadence said that touching him is familiar, and touching him is unfamiliar.

·      Gat mentions to Cadence the time when they stood on a flat rock, but Cadence does not remember

·      Gat wants them to start over

Chapter 33

·      Granddad has replaced his old life by spending money on a replacement one.

·      Cadence asked Aunt Carrie if she got back to sleep after she saw her last night, and Carrie said that she did not know what Cadence was talking about.

Chapter 34

·      Cadence asks Taft and Will how things were last summer, but they did not tell her anything. They are not supposed to talk about how Cadence ended up in the water.

Chapter 35

·      The Liars relocated to Cuddledown. Bess has been trying to get out of Cuddledown for years

·      Cadence and Gat start over

Chapter 36

·      Johnny got excited when Cadence mentioned a blue toilet in Rome.

·      Cadence wishes that Gat had been in Rome with her

Chapter 37

·      Aunt Bess wanted the Boston house. It is a $4 million house

·      All the aunts wanted the Boston house.

·      Cadence remembers that during summer 15, the aunts were fighting. Now they are a beautiful family.

Chapter 38

·      The Liars talked about having a motto that can help you get through tough times. Cadence said that hers was to always do what you are afraid to do.

Chapter 39

·      Cadence follows Gat upstairs and she kisses him.

·      Gat is concerned that Cadence only knows him on the island. She does not know his real life. He and the servants are the only people on the island who are not white.

·      Gat says that Granddad thinks of him like Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. Not good enough.

Chapter 40

·      Cadence made up another story about a King with three daughters. In this story, Gat is a mouse who the princess falls in love with. She ends the story by saying that if you want to live where people are not afraid of mice, you must give up palaces.