Changing Wilderness

Author’s Note: This is a Character Development piece about how the character Cole changes in the book Touching Spirit Bear.  Cole doesn’t think he has to change but as he finds out, he does need a change.

At the beginning of Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikealsen, the main character Cole hates every speck of life including a fellow student Peter.  Cole  bullies just about every kid in his school and when he hears that a boy named Peter is talking bad about him, you know something is going to go down.  After school Cole strikes with UFC like power and causes Peter have real issues.  Cole is sent to a bare Alaskan island for a punishment and is forced to survive for 6 months.  At this point everyone knows Cole needs to change.

While Cole was on the island a huge series of events occurred that helps Cole become the man at the end of the book.  First, Cole burns all of his supplies so he has no food, and then he tries to kill a random white bear.  The white bear turned out to be a Spirit Bear which mauled Cole leaving multiple flesh wounds and barley any life left in him.  It is a struggle, but Cole somehow makes it back to the camp and survive long enough for rescue after this Cole is a changed man.

When Cole returns from his punishment he is anew person.  His attitude for life changed, as well as his attitude for Peter.  As the book quotes “Cole put down the bag. Today things are going to change.”  On the first day back Cole visits Peter and help him recover, even though he s still immobilized Cole helped Peter recover a lot.  After Cole does this the people in the town start changing their attitude towards Cole.  All of the kids don’t rat him out after he does something small and the cops act a little nicer to him. 

Not only does Cole affect the lives of the people in the book, but he also affects the reader.  At first the reader thinks that Cole is lifeless being with no sole.  Although as the book goes on the reader feels Cole’s pain when he is hurt in the woods and end up loving him after he returns.  He really influences the reader to not make the choices he makes, because there will be consequences. 

This transformation is similar in the book The Call of the Wild where the main character, Buck, who goes to the Tundra  to escape from life, which is basically what Cole did in Touching Spirit Bear.  Both character need to change their life Cole needs to handle his anger and Buck has to escape from dog slavery.  The characters receive countless beating shaping them into the finished figure they are at the end of the book. 

Cole’s appearance changed in a whole bunch of ways.  First, he started acting nicely to everybody he sees as to the mean Cole where he would bully everyone.  Also, when the community sees that Cole is helping out Peter, they start to like him more too.  Now everybody in the town likes Cole more and he is feeling  better about himself.

Founding America

Author’s Note: This is a piece about all the great thing our Founding Father’s gave us in America.  They were the men that sculpted America and her people.

How did our great country of America come to be?  We started off as a bundle of colonists with no order or leader.  That all changed when our first president and part of the Founding Fathers took charge.  In the upcoming years there was a variety of different Founding Fathers that helped America become the country we know and love today.  They added things like beautiful monuments, freedom, and our amazing  government.  Our country wouldn't be as good as it is now without our Founding Fathers.

One thing our Founding Fathers brought to America were all the monuments, city names, and money.  If we didn’t have our Founding Fathers our money would be really different because either a president or Founding Father’s face is on our currency.    In addition, we wouldn’t have the same cities or states as we do now since most cities are names of our Founding Fathers.  George Washington is probably the biggest influence,  a whole bunch of cities are named after him and his face is on a lot of money.

Another way the Founding Fathers affected us is the way we have our freedom.  They gave us the freedom of speech, political, and many more.  Without that we would be like any other country that has to follow certain rules that the people can't change.  Every day we can choose what to wear and what we want to do that day.  Most people don’t know how good freedom is.

Probably the most important way the Founding Fathers affected us is the government they put in.  Our democratic government is like no other we can actually choose our president and government figures.  Also, like the freedom our president cannot order us around like a bunch of slaves, they can't  put in rules we don't like.  We have a few broken holes in  it, but overall it is an incredible government.

Without our founding fathers, this nation wouldn’t be half as good as it is now.  The founding fathers dedicated their lives to making our country better.

New Recruits

Author’s Note: This is a writing piece about the cause and effect happening in the book Percy Jackson and the Titan’s Curse.  This piece also analyzes the climax of the book.  Some things people might need to know about this book are that half-bloods are half god and half man.  They have the powers of the gods and help save Olympus in the Percy Jackson series.

When Percy Jackson and his friends go on a smaller mission to try to recruit two potential half-blood recruits, the job turned into a whole new assignment when a group of hunters, half bloods that run around with bows, and monsters show up.  All of a sudden a mini war is taking place between the hunters, monsters and Percy.  Percy and his crew had to act fast and finish their original mission.

Even though, the battle played a big part in the book the climax took place when the captain of the hunters gets captured and one of the new recruits , Rico, discovers he had underworld powers.  Now Percy and Rico go to rescue the leader of the hunter, they encounter a titan named Atlas who is literally holding the world.  When the leader of the hunters get captured Atlas switch places with her and she is forced to carry the world or else the earth will get destroyed.

This book is very similar to the book Enclave because in the book the two main characters Deuce and Fade have t escape a run-down underground town.  When they escape they find a girl getting beaten on by gang members, so they fight the gang and rescue the girl.  The girl whose name is Teagan tags along with Fade and Deuce like how Rico tagged along with Percy and his friends.  Overall these two great books have the same rescue concept.

Rico eventually battles Atlas and forces him to switch back with the Hunter leader.  Rico joins the half-bloods and everything turns back to normal.  Plus, Rico has a brilliant plan to get back on the titans which applies in the next book.  If Percy hadn’t recruited the powerful  Rico then they might not have rescued the leader of the hunters or created the amazing plan.  

The Battle for War

Author’s Note: I wrote this piece about the main conflict and resolution in Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief  

The book I read was Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan there were a lot of conflicts like the one between Percy and Annabeth at the beginning or the battle between Percy and his Ad-Hd.  Probably the biggest conflict though is between Percy and Zeus.  The main conflict is how the God Zeus  is falsely accusing Percy for taking his lightning weapon and is threatening to start a war among the Gods.

In the book Percy has  to try and get a weapon that he didn’t steal and has to find it with no knowledge to where it is.  Percy has to think fast to get it because Zeus said in three days he will start an attack against Olympus.  So Percy travels from state to state searching for clues to where Zeus’ Lightning Bolt might be.   Along the way he encounters monster, gods, and also has to decipher clues hidden across the US.

The conflict is in this story is really similar to the movie Over the Hedge because the main character in the movie a raccoon gets falsely accused for stealing a bears food and has to get it back before a certain date.  If he doesn't the bear threatens to start a war between the bear and the raccoon friends.  The whole movie is basically the same as the Lightning Thief but instead of a missing lightning bolt it is the bears hibernation food.

Even though there are so many things wrong the conflict gets resolved when all the clues point to a former friend ,Luke, who stole the weapon all along.  Percy confronts Luke  they both have an epic battle, but  in the end Percy prevails and gets the lightning bolt back to Zeus before he could start a war among the gods.  However, Luke makes a daring escape and starts to plan another way to start war.

In my book Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief the main conflict is between Percy and Zeus’ stolen weapon.  When Percy realizes how bad the situation is he steps up and fixes everything.

The Road to High School

Author’s Note: This is a personal narrative piece about the struggles kids face on the way to collage.  I got the idea for this piece when our school had an assembly for anti-bulling.

The road to high school might not be the easiest way to travel, but everyone needs to do it.  Some kids suffer from getting bullied, getting caught  in drugs, or just don't get anything in school.  Also, there are some kids that feel left out because they don't play any sports.  There are many issues in school that nobody can completely resolve.  Even though there are a lot of issues, if kids stay on track and out of trouble, they can overcome these obstacles.  

First off is bullying, a huge problem in every school.  Any kid that gets bullied feels powerless or scared.  As Chris Colfer quoted “When people hurt you over and over, think of them like sand paper. They may scratch and hurt you a bit, but in the end, you end up polished and they end up useless.” Although every school has countless ways to try to help, almost none of them do.  If the bullied kids tell an adult that talks to the bully, they feel like a snitch; if they don't they keep getting bullied and hurt.  Not only does bullying bring down students self esteem, but it can also lead to kids killing themselves because they don't feel right.  

Although bullying is bad, I don't think it is as terrible as kids doing drugs,which is a problem in most suburban areas.  If a student doesn't like the way they are, they might resort to drugs to make them feel better.  Most times a victim sees another kid doing it, so they think it is all right to do when really it isn't.  Other times they might want to look cool so they start doing drugs to try to impress their friends.  Drugs can affect how you work in school and can sometimes mess up your whole life too.  

Finally, some kids just don't get how to do good in school.  It may be from a messy binder and folder to a disease where they can't learn as well.  Many people could improve in school if they gave a little more effort, like reading  a book at home instead of watching TV.  Or asking for more help in school and taking notes to remember what they learned.  Other people with more severe learning problems might have to get tutored or stay after school to get extra help.  People that struggle now need to do something because they still have high school and collage ahead of them.

Student can overcome most of these challenges in school if they don't get in trouble and stay on track. If you do what you need to do and word hard, you can have a very successful life.  

New Life

 Author's Note: This is a retelling piece about the book Crossing the Border.

A young and poor Mexican boy nicknamed Turtle journeys to America in hopes to get extra money for his family.  Along with his friend, Pepe, the boys will face Border Police, a group of killers, and  fearsome mountain lions.  When Pepe and Turtle finally make it to America they look back and notice how lucky they are to be alive.

Fall the Wonder Season

Author’s Note: This is a piece about the joys you can have in Fall.

Think of the crisp air, beautiful leaves and chilly wind.  Fall is finally in season after spending three months in the thick muggy summer air, we get to relax in what seems like the perfect time of the year.  From  Halloween to fall football and baseball Fall truly is the greatest season.

All of the kids are out raking leaves to try to earn the extra money to get those new shoes or the expensive gaming system.  Raking the leaves into one big pile on the street and then inviting all the kids over to jump in it was one of the many highlights for elementary kids around our block.  Another would be how they bust out their Dad’s new leaf blower and spray all the leaves at the daredevil of the group.  Then some of them just like riding through them with their bike hoping some leaves would get caught in the tires so the bike sounds like a motorcycle. 

Not only do the kids get to have fun but adults get the family time when Thanksgiving rolls up.  So much delicious food and deserts you don’t even know what to get first.  Nothing is better than eating a slice of turkey and watching the Bears cream the Packers. Parents love meeting distant relatives that come in from different states to enjoy an amazing night.  The thing I like to do most after Thanksgiving is go shopping at Black Friday.

Although all of those other activities sounded fun, there’s nothing I love more than starting football and basketball.  For the whole summer I’m stuck with just recreational baseball.  Which is fun for a while, but there is something about the sport where you can hit someone and not get in trouble by the kids mom.  Or rejecting someone so hard that the ball goes in the stands.  These sports play a big part in my life and they all start in fall.

The nice weather, amazing sights, and fun for everyone is a great part of everybody’s life. Fall really is the most superlative season of them all.