Mystery of Life

Author’s Note: This is a theme piece about the determination of a young boy named Bud to find his long lost dad.  

If you lived in an orphanage for almost your whole life and you knew that you have other relatives living in the world that you could find, what if you found a clue that could help you find one of them, would you try to find him or not?  A young kid by the name of Bud in the book Bud Not Buddy by is about a boys’ determination to find his lost father.  Determination is a huge theme in this book and it is also shown in life and literature.

The first  of many reasons that this book shows the theme determination is how Bud never gives up looking for his dad. One moment in the book he misses a train that would have brought him right to his destination, but he didn’t give up, he researched maps and decided to take the 7 day walk to Grand Rapids.  Also, when he finally made it to the house his dad was at, is father turned him down and denied any relationship between them.  Bud didn’t give up, he kept spitting out evidence like a printer spits out paper and finally his dad caved in and told him the news.

Although Bud is extremely determined to find his Dad, the whole city of Flint Michigan is also determined to help Bud find his dad. Right after Bud misses the train he went to  a library and a librarian gives Bud food and a map  so Bud can walk to Grand Rapids. Likewise, while Bud is walking to Grand Rapids a random bus driver pulls over, picks Bud up, feeds him, and takes him to where his father is.  Lastly, Bud’s father’s band always sticks up for Bud when his dad didn’t believe they were related.

Even though, Bud, Not Buddy is a one of a kind book with a giant amount of determination, Enclave by Ann Agurrie is another story that shows determination because the main character Deuce is determined to save her section of the city or Enclave and find out who her parents are.   Both of the characters in these books are very strong and started off with nearly nothing.  But, given a small  opportunity each of these characters can get determined and do almost anything.   An example is in Enclave when Deuce and her partner are running to help save a city, they run days on end determined to save the collapsing city.  Both of these stories show a significant amount of determination.

Not only does the theme in this book relate to literacy, but it also relates to life.  Most humans and animals that are determined will go to an extraordinary measure to accomplish a task, kind of like Bud.  For example, if a  

After overcoming all of these obstacles Bud is so much stronger and his journey paid off with Bud having an actual family.  None of this would have happened though, without Bud’s amazing determination. Also, Bud would have never got to where he needed to be.  Determination truly is a huge theme in this book and in many other literacy writing and throughout life.

Defending Your Colony

Author's Note- This is a prediction piece about what I think will happen in the book Enclave. I have wrote an alternation ending to explain what I think will happen as well as my other predictions. 

In first part of the book Enclave by Ann Aguirre the main character Deuce has her naming day, which consists of Deuce getting 6 scars up her arms to represent that she is a huntress.  The next day she is rushed into battle with the briefing that an unknown animal called the Freaks are threatening their village.  I predict that Deuce and the rest of the hunter and huntresses will go out and try to stop them but most of Deuce’s ally’s will die and they will have to retreat.  I will also predict that the beast will have a giant leader that Deuce and her remaining ally’s will have to search for and kill throughout the book.  Lastly, I think that Deuce will kill the leader Freaks and things are going to return to normal in their village.

I think this prediction is accurate because most of the Hunters and Huntresses are new recruits so I think that the savage Freaks will maul the un experienced bow men and women.  Plus, Deuce is probably the toughest one so I think she will survive.  Finally I know if there is a leader beast that the Hunters will have to follow it because the leader of the village is very strict and un caring about the conditions of his people and has very harsh rules in place . 

This book is similar to the character Catness in the book The Hunger Games by Susan Collins because both of them have a main character who is trying to survive in a different environment than normal.  They both have to hunt for food and survive by themselves.   Also, both of them are really good at hunting and amazing with a bow.  Finally, both of them have broken up family’s, Catness doesn’t have a Dad and Deuce only has sisters and brothers.

Alternate Ending-

Deuce and her partner Silk marched off into the darkness of the winding underground tunnels.  Their job was to hunt the freaks and find the food that got caught in the traps.  Silk and Deuce went for the first trap and saw their first freak tearing apart the game they caught.  They sliced the beast up and five  more jumped out from their hiding places and jumped on top of Deuce.  Through the hoard of freaks a giant mutated freak slipped into Deuce’s view.  Silk was trying to get the freaks off but there were too many.   

The freaks took them back to their den and locked the Hunters in a cage.  After being starved for 2 days the whole colony went on a search for them and fought off the hoard and Deuce escaped and had to kill the giant freak.  After a mighty battle the Huntress came out on top and the colony turned back to normal.