Stones by William Bell

So considering I've already read half of the other choices, I am picking Stones as my book of choice from the other novels. I would mostly likely like to read this one because it has a large part doing with the underground railway and slavery, etc. I used to be really into that, and haven't been lately. May be neat to see if I still found that all fascinating. Although this book sounds more "magical" and unrealistic than other non-fiction books I have read, I a sure I'd like it on some level. Even just as something to read when I am bored!

The Book Thief - Beginning?

Wow. Big surprise. Yes, I had figured some people would die. Like Max or Hans or the mayors wife. I didn't expect EVERYONE on Himmel St. to die(with the exception of Liesel)! I mean everyone! Rudi, Tommy, Rosa, Hans and a whole bunch of others. Sweet, little innocent Liesel was just sitting in the basement, minding her own business. Then... BAM!! Bombs flatten the street. But she survives. Death watches her running around weeping. Continuously weeping. She lost her best friend and love, her "father and mother" and her neighbours. So many people. She has to live with the fact that she survived and the didn't. I'd probably feel guilty. Very, very guilty. Death doesn't really go into detail about the rest of the book beside she lives with the mayors wife and meets ax again.

As we all know, life comes to an end. Liesel's came much later. She meet Death and didn't argue just knew it was her time. She was even given back a book she had written many, many years before.

Maybe just maybe, she thinks/knows there's something beyond death. If that is at all possible....
Maybe we should find out.

The Book Thief - Something Simple

Air raids. Immediately doesn't those words make you think of war and hurt and fear. Imagine a war. There's a city. 12 000 people. In the middle of the night, an alarm goes. No big deal, right? Dad's off to work. But no, it's an alarm telling you, your town is being bombed. You have to wake up, get out of the house and to the nearest air raid shelter. But when you get there you realise one of the families that is supposed to be there too, isn't. You can't go out to see if they are alright. But you have to know. And still you have to sit and wait in the darkness. Hundreds of thousands of people are put through this still; and were put through this during the past wars. All the people that died because they were bombed.



Himmel St. is being bombed. Maybe not specifically Himmel St, but the general area. All the people of the street must go to one of the families basement and stay there until another alarm goes off so they can return to hell. (well, at least the one that is above ground.) The first raid, the basement is crazy with tired/anxious children and nervous parents. They all return to their "normal" lives afterwards and carry on. Then another raid occurs. This time it's different. Fear has settled in. Liesel, to come herself reads from her book, The Whistler. Eventually everyone in the cramped basement gathers around, calms down and listens to her read. She doesn't even realize they are listen(at first). It's cool how in a situation such as theirs, they are calmed down by a little girl reading a book about a murderer who whistles after killing his victims. Some how I don't think that story would calm me. Just saying. But I have never been in a predicimate such as theirs, so how would I know. ZJust wanted to say how odd I found it that something so simple, could mean so much.

The Book Thief - New Beginnings

So in this section, the third one, Liesel has a Jew move into her basement. Max. His father had been a good friend of Hans Hubermann. Since his father had saved Hans' life, Hans said that if Max's father's family ever needed help they could go to him. So Max arrives at Himmel St. on one dreary day/evening(?). And, well, the Hubermann's great him and allow him to "live" in their home. Liesel becomes connected to Max on a larger level than she will ever connect with anyone besides Rudi and Hans.




Now, I personally love the connection between the two of them. The Jewish man and the German girl. They are able to understand each other because they are both living in their own hell. Max, a Jewish man in a country who are killing Jews. He had his father die young. His mother is dead. As Death describes him it sound like he doesn't have much to live for. Liesel she's lost her brother and her mother all on the same day. One died, the other taken away, however now most likely dead. She doesn't know who she is. She wants to be loved but I think on some level the deaths caused her to be less able to recognize it. And happiness. For example there's this one moment, when it's winter and Liesel brings SNOW into the basement and together they create a snowman. Like how unreal and awesome is that. In fact, awesome is probably the only way to describe it.







Both have reoccurring nightmares. Both try to forget about the past and the possibility of it repeating itself. They support each other. Reading. Sitting. Sleeping. Doing regular things(as regular things as you can in that situation!). The grow to "love" each other and a "bond" is formed. When Max becomes sick you know Liesel is hurting deeply on the inside. You have to smile and her childlike hope that he'll become better and everything will be alright. Yet, we know better than that, don't we. No, yes, Max does become better. For now...







I think in a way they free each other. Allowing them to relax for the few minutes or even seconds they are together. I love the "rawness" of their relationship. How open they are with each other, even without having to say anything. I love it. There's is no way to describe how I think about it. It's neat. (You'd have to read the book.)







And then, something happens with Max...

The Book Thief - Friendship Can Become More, But Not For Both People...

Friends.
Friends are something we are lucky to get in life. We should love them and treat them with the highest respect. They make us happy, sad, angry and confused. They make us laugh and cry. Sometimes at the same time. Some make us want to be better. Other times we give them enough to want to live.



Sometimes though, friendship can bring love. Sometimes for both people, other times only one. I

In The Book Thief, Liesel's first friend is Rudi Steiner. Her next door neighbour on Himmel St. Both come from poor families. Both just trying to figure out how to survive. They do a lot together. From playing soccer in the streets to stealing from monks. They have fun together and help each other through some difficult times. However, it soon becomes clear that Rudi has developed different kind of feelings for Liesel. He says things that give away his true feeling and often asks for a kiss whenever he is down or has accomplished something "amazing". Liesel does not feel the same way. She refuses him every time. Rudi doesn't give up though, Never losing hope that one day Liesel will accept. It's kind of a wierd situation. I have never had a friend who liked me(and I didn't), who asked for kisses. It'd be sad because I'd feel like I was letting my friend down. That makes me wonder how Liesel was feeling through this book. I think that maybe she does love Rudi. She just didn't know it when the time was right.

If only she had known, when that timing was right...

The Book Thief - Death

I am in the book group reading The Book Thief. An excellent book by Markus Zusak. For this blog we had to read 110 pages. They were fairly enjoyable to read. In the beginning you could be confused about who is the narrator. Then you realize it's(never says whether it's a female or male) Death.

Death.
How neat is that. It's kind of creepy but it makes sense. The whole book is written during the holocaust. Endless amounts of people lost their lives during those years. What is that called? Death. It made me want to read ahead because I liked how Death described what was going on. Death didn't seem to like its job, not wanting to look at all the destruction and casualties. It remembers colours, describes the sky and such. It's horrible what he has to do, yet Death somehow makes it beautiful. How eerie is that? Technically, the people are about to die anyway, when Death gets to them. A person could just have been shot and lying on the ground, seconds from dieing. Death comes and takes their soul from their body and that is when they are "officially" dead. Death is taken by the main character of this book. Liesel Meminger, a little German girl who is being forced to leave her mother and go to a foster home. He first sees her when it comes to take away her younger brother(just before they are to arrive at the foster home). She is calling her brothers name, begging him to wake up. Death is upset(yes, Death has feelings) by this, even though it has seen stuff like it many times before. It decides to stay with her till the end of the small funeral. It watches her as she steals her first book. Therefore, from then on, it calls her the book thief. Unfortunatly, this isn't the last time Liesel will see Death(times that aren't her dieing). Death watches her pain and grows quite found of her.
I think it would be neat to meet Death, as Markus Zusak describes it in the book. I'm not saying that I want to do it any time soon but it sound like an interesting person. Assuming that Death is in fact a person. The way Death is written it makes me question if there were such a thing, would it be a normal person. An immortal person but still... Would Death be a skeleton, with a cape and scythe? Or would it be a man in a suit? An old woman wearing a cooking apron and carrying a spatula? A zebra with extremely human-like qualities and can talk?
Or maybe it's a little boy. With large blue eyes and shaggy brown hair. Aimlessly wandering the earth, looking for souls to take to a better place...

Advice Column... sort of

Awwww, midterms.. Time just flies, doesn't it? I actually can't believe we are this far into the school year already! Still, I wouldn't say I was a veteran, not yet at least. I have never been good at giving advice, but I shall try my hardest. The biggest one is, listen to your grade eight teachers. They know what they are talking about when it comes to studying, getting ready ahead of time and the teachers' tolerance levels, etc. At the time, I did listen but didn't completely trust what they were saying. Now I know that they knew what they were talking about! It's best to be prepared and pay attention. Also, shouldn't you know that f three is an overhead, or note on the board,you should copy it? Unless of course, the teachers says not to.
Also be open to try new things, or meet now people. Things are going to be a lot different. You are given more freedom and don't feel like the teachers are breathing down your neck all the time. It's fun. Since IDCI has like 1050 students(I think) you are bound to meet new people. DO NOT judge them based on how they look or act. In fact I have recently mad a new friend who I though was extremely geeky and well kind of creepy. He turned out to be a good friend. It was mean of me to awesome that he would be a creep.
Lastly, I have a bit of advice that doesn't really relate to the school part of the whole high school experience. It has to do with hanging out after school. To get to the point it has to do with parties. Parties, I like them and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Generally at almost all the parties I have been to there's been drinking, smoking and drugs. I think, wheat the hack, if you want to do them go ahead. Yet don't go overboard because you look like a compete idiot. You don't want to be one of those kids whose been at the party for around 30 minutes and is already passed out on the floor. You look stupid. Then kids make fun of you later and you have no idea what they are talking about. You could have been in the middle of the road, singing "hit me with your best shot" and you would have no idea. I'll admit those people make things more interesting for the people that go easy but you shouldn't want to be one of those people. So know your limits.
That's really all I can say, I'm sure by Christmas or the end of the year I'd have more to say, but for now this will do.

Take Your Kid to Work Day

My day went fairly well. I got a couple hot chocolates and the odd cookie, muffin or end chocolate bar, so really, a success. Really though, I did have tons of fun. I went to my dad's work. He's a grade six teacher at Rolph Street Public School in Tillsonburg. I got to help with math, than I taught the art lesson and enjoyed lunch in the teachers lounge(felt really cool because normally students are prohibited from going into the lounge!). After lunch, the class did a scientific experiment relating to flight. Which was actually really cool. One of the groups constructed an airplane that flew over 21 metres, whereas some models were only travelling centimetres! Next, the class had french. Which happens to be my dad's prep, so I went and helped in the kindergarten class. At the end of the day, I returned to my dad's class to watch the auction. In my dad's class, the students will earn "dollars" for doing odd jobs, extra work etc. and at the beginning of each month there is an auction for random things. Such as, choosing what to do for gym, gift cards for scholastic, choosing your seating group and free periods. School was out at 3:25pm, when we immediately left to go to Princess Anne Public School(in Ingersoll) to coach Rolph Street's volleyball team.(We won all three of the games!) I think this program is a really good idea. Even though I may not become a teacher, this wasn't a waste of time. I still would get to learn what exactly my dad has to do every week, to earn the money we use to live. I think all students should be offered this chance to watch the "experts". It's tons of fun and you get to "skip" school for a day. And well, who wouldn't want that?

William Shakespeare

Why do we study Shakespeare?

Maybe simply because he literally changed literature for the whole human race...


Or at least I think so. I'm sure there are lots of people that would agree with me. He wrote some of the most famous pieces out there.

• Romeo and Juliet


• The Taming of the Shrew


• Hamlet


• Macbeth


• A Midsummer's Night Dream


• The Winter's Tale


• As You Like It

...to name a few. I think we should be studying his works and I think we should continue till the end of time! That's a bit dramatic, but I do think future generations should have the same opportunities to learn about his works. I think it is important to learn about this "stuff" for several reasons. Firstly, it's our history. We should want to know what our ancestors(or our ancestor's ancestors) found funny and normal and "a part of life". To know how they lived their everyday lives. Also, some stories could be excellent conversation pieces if you want to sound smart or sophisticated or "well-breed". Lastly, we may be able to learn about life through Shakespeare's works. To learn about hate, love, desire, madness, faith and fate. Lessons that could make our lives seem worth living. Maybe these stories give us hope, for something better. I think that, that is by itself, enough to want to study William Shakespeare.

Much Ado About Nothing

A comedy written by Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing is, in my opinion, just okay. Nothing special. I'll admit, if it were to be done at a theatre, I would probably pay to see it. Yet I don't think that it is one of those plays that you "have" to read or hear or see. Not like Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello or (one of my personal favourites) The Taming of the Shrew. So, in short, I did like it a little bit. I had previously known a little about this story so I was fairly capable of following the movie. If I had not have had a previous knowledge of what was going on, I think I still would have been able to follow it because the actors used facial expressions and gestures constantly. Non-verbal communication is sometimes easier to follow, than the words they were saying. I also "understood" the story. I knew what was happening when it was happening, for the most part. I only got a little confused at the parts when Dogberry and his assistant(whose name has currently slipped my mind) were in. The were fairly confusing and awkward but very humorous. Also there were times in the story where I thought they were a little over dramatic. Although what do you expect, it's Shakespeare!