Entry 4

Eddie Puisis

Ship Breaker

Paolo Bacligalupi

          I picked this book because it definitely is more of a male type book. Also I am a big fan of apocalyptic type books or books after a large catastrophe has occurred. I had just finished a book called The Road which is just that and I enjoyed. So I was looking for something along those lines. So I picked this book, Ship Breaker. In this book oil has run out and the ice caps have melted. I did make many connections in this book. In fact, beside gender and age the protagonist, Nailer, and I are very different. He lives in poverty with just he abusive father and struggles to survive every day. I felt more sympathy towards Nailer which drew me closer to the book.  I would recommend this book to mostly men, men who like end of the world books and action. The reason I feel women wouldn’t like this book is because there is more action than drama and although it does have a happy ending its more surviving than it is falling in love. This book wasn’t all that great. There was a lot of foreshadowing, which made the book very predictable. There weren’t many surprises in this book.


 

Entry 3

Eddie Puisis
Ship Breaker
Paolo Bacligalupi

            “Nailer turned to continue down the service passage, but as he did he banged his head on the duct ceiling. The noise from his collision echoed loud, as if he were sitting inside a Christian church bell. Dust cascaded into his hair. Despite the fitter mask. He started coughing as powder leaked in around the poorly sealed edges. He sneezed, then sneezed again, eyes watering. He pulled the mask away and wiped his face, then pressed it back over his mouth and nose, willing the stickum to seal bit not holding out much hope.” This passage is put in the first few pages of the book to hook the reader by almost putting us in the situation. By being able to feel what the characters are the reader feels more involved in what they are reading therefore intrigued to read more. In this passage you can almost hear the echo of the banging, as well as the tickling of the dust as it falls on your nose. Also as Nailer’s eyes starting watering mine did too, just because I was reminded of the dust like feel on my face before. I was able to feel what the characters were and by feeling what the characters do, I was willing to read more.

Summer Reading Blog 2

Ship Breaker
Paolo Bacligalupi

Eddie Puisis

       Nailer is the main character in this book and a protagonist he is a hard worker and a fighter. He works as a ship breaker everyday and does what he needs to do to survive he has his good friend Pima who is a loving girl who has always been there for him. Nailer is constantly being abused by his father and sometimes gets into knife fights with him. I have much respect for Nailer because I feel like a lot of kids that get abused either just give up on life or become abusers themselves. But not Nailer; he dreams off being like the rich... Well not exactly because he feels the rich are snotty and don't care about the poor. Or he wants to escape on what is known as a clipper ship and sail out into the ocean. But before he can do that he has to work hard and get lucky. Right now his next goal is to get big enough so he can work with the big crews and scavenge bigger stuff. The theme right now just seems like do anything to survive. Because when living in poverty in a metal shack that seems to be the only goal a lot of these people have.

    Summer Reading Blog Post 1      

Eddie Puisis

          I am reading the book Ship Breaker. This book is science fiction and takes place in the future. In this book the world has run out of oil and the ice caps have melted leaving all coastal cities practically flooded. This is where that main character Nailer lives. He is a scrawny kid who was born into poverty on the southern coast. Although being small isn't all that bad for him. He's able to find work with a crew that scavenged up old ships and since he's small he's the one to go in the small spaces and scrap up anything he can find. Right now Nailer is just trying to survive and doesn't hold many friendships. Except for his one good friend Pima who's always there for him like his mom used to before she died and now he's stuck with his abusive father who is addicted to drugs and alcohol.  Like I said his biggest worry now is surviving but i have a feeling he's going to find something in one of these ships thats going to change his life. This book is like a lot other apocalyptic type books. I read this other book earlier about this father in son traveling alone around the world scavenging for supplies and in one house they find something that changes their lives. That's why I'm guessing Nailer finds something is one of the ships.

Krista Ramsey's Columns

I read her article on how lose a month of what they learned over the summer. And the article is exactly what the title says. It explains how kids lose what they learned and why. My favorite line is this article is, "
 young brain at rest tends to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force." I like it because it references Einstein's theory while still being very true and as being a student I understand. I feel Krista's writing style is very informative and a little persuasive like she's trying to get to do something. She says in her article,

"By the end of the summer, that outside force is usually highly frustrated parents who resent having to be the homework police.

But somebody's got to step in."

She literally says that someone has to step in and make a change and give kids something productive over the summer because the losses are too great. Although she does give evidence which where I said it's informative, it's more like a persuasive speech trying to make a difference.

Article

Connection

I made a very weird and gross connection from my book to a movie I saw. In my book "The Road" the man and boy find a house that seems to be in relatively good condition, and given there circumstances of not having much food left, they decide to check it out. When they go in the can't find anything on the main floor and decide to go down stairs. The main pulls out his lighter and looks around and sees about ten naked people all staring at him and they whisper, "help us" The man grabs his sun and sprints up the stairs and sees a couple men about to walk into the house through the front so they turn and try to find another way out. Then right there was when the teacher said put away your books...


This part in the book actually gave me nightmares. I don't think this book was suppose to do that but I just stopped reading for a couple days because it freaked me out.


Although that part freaked me out, it reminded me out a movie called "The Book of Eli" This is another apocalyptic movie and in this movie they find a similar house and get trapped in there by people who eat other people. This helps me make inferences on why those people were trapped in the basement. But don't let this part discourage you from watching this movie, it was very good. It's about the world going through a nuclear war and books are scarce and people try to find them to rebuild.

Finished Miracle on 49th Street

     
       I finished the book Miracle of 49th Street by Mike Lupica and I was very disappointed in the book. In the beginning I thought this book had some potential with a girl looking for her father trying to put together the clues and the story of man learning to love something other than himself. But the girls ignorance and the stories predictability really bothered me. Molly's mother dies and she seeks out to find her biological father, then he doesn't believe her then he does. Then the have an awkward relationship and everything gets smoothed out. This post is short because there really isn't much to say on this book. Although there was one character in the book that I really liked and that was Mattie Josh's maid. She is such a doll. She is always there for anyone and always consults Molly and Josh. She reminds me of a sweet old grandmother.

      The next book I'm going to read is hopefully better and a little more challenging than this one. this one had a very simple plot and not a wide vocabulary.