Book Project

On the Day I Died

by  Candace Fleming

   Mark is driving home after a party, passed his curfew, when he comes to a bridge. His cell phone is ringing (probably his mom calling to chew him out for being late), but he ignores it to help a girl, who randomly appears in front of him dripping wet standing on the bridge. He offers to drive her home and she accepts. She has him drop her off at the beginning of a dirt driveway. As he is pulling away, he sees she left her brand new saddles in the car. He ignores his still ringing phone to take the shoes to her house. At the house he learns from her mother that the girl died fifty years prior from a drowning accident. Several other young men have found her haunting the bridge, taken her home, and found her shoes left behind in their cars. Mark doesn't believe the mother, so she goes to take him to the cemetery for teens she was buried in. He finds a pile of shoes, some so old they are faded strips of leather. Ghosts from the surrounding graves approach him, wanting to tell their stories. Each story borders on the weird. Some teens are heroes, others not. Some stories creepy others not, but he sits down to listen to every last one.

Setting:

  This story takes place in Chicago, but as every ghost tells their story you are drawn back further and further to the earlier years of Chicago.

Character development:

   There isn’t much character development in the story it mostly just consists of Mike listening to every story from the kids in the graveyard.

Conflict

 There isn’t much of a conflict in this book other than Mike trying to figure out if he is really dead, but it isn't really

Critique:

 In my opinion, I thought the book was a really good one. Each story had a completely different unique plot and outcome . There were so many plot twists you’d come upon that would just make you want to read more. What I most liked was the suspense and tension created by the author the way each story was told. One thing I didn’t really like was the vocabulary used to fit the specific era each story was told in. I felt like the dialogue was unnatural and forced upon. Like when a teacher tells you to write a paragraph using a word bank, you focus more on making it fit rather than making the story flow naturally.

 

Rewrite: The Ungrateful student

     I remember back in 1st grade there was a little boy who was the teacher's favorite. He would always  help the teacher whenever he could and was the brightest in his class. The teacher always trusted his opinion in the class. Although he was a well behaved boy, he was often jealous of all his classmates who brought their colorful backpacks filled  with new notebooks, crayons, colored pencils, and pencil boxes. His family was poor so they could not afford new notebooks and supplies for him.
    One day in the beginning of class as everyone hung up there backpacks on their hooks and went to sit down in their seats, the little boy decided to open one of the girl's backpacks and took her pencil sharpener. The next day he did the same only this time he took another student's pencils. This continued for about a week as he stole small notebooks,erasers,and crayons. The teacher was informed by the students of their missing school supplies and quickly asked the whole class if anyone had seen another person steal something from the student's backpacks. The little boy began to notice everyone slowly turn their eyes at him then the teacher asked him if he knew anything about this. In a panic the boy quickly blamed it on Sophia another girl who was just as poor as him. The class believed him and so did the teacher. The following week Sophia was punished and had to stay in class during lunch every day. while the little boy went back to stealing.
   One day as Sophia was heading to class for lunch she saw the little boy grabbing another student's lunch money from the backpack, she quickly ran into the class and told the teacher. They both rushed outside and found him stuffing his pocket with the lunch money, he had been caught. Sophia was finally free to play during lunch, but the little boy had to return everything he had stolen and had to stand in front of the cafeteria with a sign that read "ungrateful student". For the rest of the school year kids would tease and remind him of what e had done and shunned him for that.

Constructive response #2

A Dark Brown Dog & The Day I Got Lost

A Dark Brown & The Day I Got Lost

In A Dark Brown Dog by Stephen Crane, a small child befriends a small dog from the street. The child takes the dog home accepted but not cared by the parents. Over  time the family often beat the dog, but he still had unconditional love for the child. One night when the family came home the father was quite drunk, Through laughs he picked up the dog, swung him round and through him with accuracy out the window only to fall to his death.

   A Dark Brown Dog has such a depressing tone. Through the story you feel sympathetic for the dog because of the way he was treated  “the family were careful how they threw things at the dog.” The family only held back when the child was near because they didn't want to upset him. The family never seemed to have an ounce of compassion for the dog only the child. The dog loved the child so much which is why I believe he put up with the abuse from the rest of the family. The child and him would always be together unless the boy was asleep. Towards the end of the story, the dog is thrown out the window by the father of the boy which is a complete surprise. You wouldn't expect the father to just through the dog out with accuracy so he was sure that he would get thrown out of the window. The author created momentum at the end to leave you stunned. The momentum I believe is what helped to create the reaction at the end.

   In The Day I Got Lost by Isaac Bashevis Singer, an absent minded man by the name of   Professor Shlemiel living in New York. One day on his way home, accidently leaving his umbrella on a bench and forgets his briefcase in a taxi Professor Shlemiel finds himself stuck. As it begins to rain Professor shlemiel takes shelter under a bus stop. In despair a dog appears walking towards him lost. The professor feels empathy for the lost dog and takes him under his arm. As they both stand there the professor promises the dog to take care of him and in a miracle a friend of professor shlemiel saw him and took him & the dog home. Professor shlemiel accepts the dog and names it Bow Wow. At the very end he says he began writing a memoir of his life in which this whole story was a chapter in it.

     The Day I got Lost had a very confusing tone. When Professor Shlemiel is stranded in the rain he becomes very worried about never being able to go home, but Bow Wow gives him a sense of comfort because now he had someone else who was lost just as him. Unlike A Dark Brown Dog, Bow Wow is taken very good care of and is loved by Professor Shlemiel. The story also has a funny ironic twist and is much cheerful then A Dark Brown Dog.

"We Breathe You In" by Patti Tana

      In the poem "We Breathe You in" by Patti Tana, you can see as the poem as talks about present & future. It describes a bit about the scenery that day"air in clouds of smoke the clouds we feared when first we saw the desert fire." The toned was fearful as the poem says "Oh no not me not here not where I am I want to be not here not me." It describes how others there must have felt very fearful. How so many people didn't want to be there. In the second paragraph it talks about how the ones who died that day soul's now reside with ours, now we honor & remember the people who died that day.Now we "breathe them in". Connected with us for a moment, we keep their memory alive now.