The Face On The Milk Carton/ Character Analysis

The day after Janie found the dress, she gave her parents dull and mean responses since she was upset with them. The text states, “Something wrong, honey? Why are you mad at us?” Janie then starts giving her parents attitude and they start yelling at each other. The next day, Janie had a Honors Breakfast. After the honors breakfast, Janie asks her “parents,” “I want to know why there aren’t any photographs of me until five. Even if you didn’t buy a camera until then, you would have had a baby portrait done. I want to know who Hannah is upstairs in the trunk. I want to know why you won’t let me see my birth certificate.” 

*SPOILER ALERT* Janie’s mom and dad sit her down. They tell her that Hannah is her mother and that they’re not really her parents. They tell Janie they are really her grandparents and that Hannah was their daughter. They began telling her that basically her mother, Hannah was an unusual teenager. She wasn’t crazy about boys or stuff like that, she was mostly concerned of right and wrong. When a cult came along and swept thousands during the 60s and 70s, from the East Coast to the West Coast. It attracted Hannah. When Hannah was 16, she begged on her knees for her parents to let her join the cult. The text says, “We tried everything to get Hannah out. We took her on long vacations, we sent her to live with my cousin in Atlanta, we tried traditional church.” They say no matter what they did, Hannah would never budge. They wrote to Hannah a lot, but she rarely wrote back. Janie’s grandfather, Frank, got a letter by the cult that Hannah had been married to a member in the cult. Then, one day, the door opened, and Hannah was standing there with Janie. She had escaped.  After everything they could do, eventually hannah went back to the cult. So, for the sake of Janie, Hannah’s parents lost touch with Hannah. Stopped calling on her birthday, stopped sending presents, stopped writing letters and sending postcards. After all the crying and hugging, Janie was relieved. Janie says, “Mother and daddy are all I have, and all I want.” 

Character Analysis

Reeve was Janie’s next door neighbor. He doesn’t care about about his schoolwork. In the text it states that,” Reeve never did homework.” But he got B’s as grades at times, also with some D’s ad F’s. Janie and Reeve knew each other since they were little kids because their parents know each other as well. 

Face On The Milk Carton- Summary/ Character Analysis

Janie goes upstairs to the attic to see if there was any clues or things about her kidnapping. She starts looking around the boxes so see if anything looks suspicious. She sees a box in a corner and remembers her mother telling her that it is junk, and that she'll "toss out." The narrator said "If she had really intended to toss it out, or if it was really junk, it would have never gone to the attic; she would have donated it to the Salvation Army." Then, Janie finds a box that has the letter H written on it.After Janie had found that box with the letter H on it, she began to look through it. She found book reports, maps, worksheets, and photographs.  Even a report on Mesopotamia. It turns out that the letter “H” stands for Hannah. Then Janie found a photograph of Hannah. Heres how the text describes her, “A pretty girl- perhaps twelve or thirteen-looked back at her. Sweet, blond, mild.” From behind the papers, Janie realized a little piece of fabric. It was a white cloth, with tiny dark polka dots. It was the dress on the milk carton. 

Janie Johnson is a redhead, from in which she inherited from her mother, Hannah. She is lactose intolerant. In the text it says, “They had recently discovered  she had a lactose intolerance. This was a splashy way of saying she had stomachaches when she drank milk.”

Would We Be Killed? - Life On the Rez.

Native Americans have been marginalized by society and made to feel as if they didn't exist by: Captain Pratt tricking the children's parents into thinking that he is going to give them education. In the text it says, "He believed that Native American children deserved a quality education." So he came up with a plan, his plan was to turn abandoned army barracks in Carlisle, as said in the text. This had convinced the parents to let their children go. But Pratt didn't tell the parents the whole story. Pratt also wanted to kill the Native American culture inside the person. He believed he needed to do this to them in order for them to succeed in America. The text says, "Pratt believed that the children needed to completely abandon their "Indian-ness" in order to succeed in America." This proves that Pratt would then make the children completely change their lifestyles.

The purpose of Shanice's essay was to tell to people that just because she is a Native American, she is just as normal as everybody else. Also to inform the readers the many different things her tribes do. She wants people to know that Native Americans are regular people, but they still proudly show their culture through their actions. Her town is just like any other town, with restaurants, paved roads, a grocery store, like a little small community. She wants the readers to know that they have a lot of traditions they pass down generation, through generation, and if you don't pass them down, that part of the tradition might disappear.

The Face On The Milk Carton

In the book, The Face On The Milk Carton, Janie attends school like any other day, she gets nervous in her English class because she had to present her essay to the class, but the lunch bell saved her. So she decides she has 27 minutes to write a much better essay. In lunch, Janie and her friends turn over the milk carton to see who had been kidnapped. When Janie turns over the carton, she sees a little girl in a dress with a narrow white collar and tiny dark polka dots,  and with her hair in tight ponytails. Janie soon realizes the little girl in the milk carton is her. After school, it’s pouring rain. Her guy friend,  Reeve, offers to take Janie for ice cream, even though lactose intolerant. Janie was feeling dizzy because of what had happened earlier, so Reeve decided to take her home. Once she gets home, she discovers nobody is home, irritated, she runs over to Reeve’s house. “The silence of the house was suddenly unbearable. She leaped from the bed, pounded down the stairs, flung open the side door, and ran over to the Shieldses’ house.” Once there, Janie sees Mrs. Shields is watching Lassie. 
More to come.. 

Theme-

I think the theme of this book so far is mystery because I think Janie will spend her time through the book searching for her real parents, and answers. Also, in the book it states that, “Or is she my mother? Is she daddy’s second wife? Or is it daddy who is somebody else?” I think though out the book Janie will try and figure out these questions. 

Tolerance

Tolerance- the ability or willingness to allow the existence occurrence, or practice of something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with.

One time I experienced intolerance was when I seen someone bullying another kid in my old school's hallway. This affected me because I felt bad for the person that was getting bullied so I decided to back them up.

Tolerance to me is to accept things just as long as it doesn't harm/or have a negative effect on you in any way.

A Child Called It- David Pelzer

Summary:
Six year old David got beaten until he was 11 years old. From warnings like yelling, to being forced to lie down on a hot stove.  From discipline to punishments. David's mother was once a caring, loving mother who cared for her children just like any other mom. David's dad was always away working. As a result of this, David's mother became addicted to alcohol and began beating David for being a "bad boy" even though he did nothing wrong. David got angry and started disobeying her. David later regretted being disobedient to his mom because the outcome was tragic. Since he was being disobedient, his mother decided she would stop feeding him. First 3 days without food, then later 10 ten days without food, to him just having to steal food from the stores and his school cafeteria. In the story it says that David would fall asleep fantasizing about food. Also from his peers lunches. One day his mother had a knife in one hand and David's baby brother, Russell, in the other. As she was yelling at David, she lost control and the knife went flying to David's chest. While he was there bleeding severely, his mom quickly went into action. She treated the wound with cloths. David wasn't shocked because he knew his mother wouldn't just let him bleed to death, no matter how evil she was.  The author says, "Mother was still on her knees wrapping a cloth around my lower chest."Weeks later David's mom started treating him like a normal child. At first he couldn't believe what was happening. As the days went by, things became clearer. The reason she had started acting all nice and sweet was because an agent from Child Services came to speak to David about his mother. Just as soon David said the wrong thing, his mother's smile faded. You can guess what happened after the agent left. David was called down into the nurses office and was instructed to take off his clothes so they can inspect his bruises. Once the nurse saw the beating scars, she called the police officer into the office. He then inspected his body, instructed him to put his clothes back on. The police officer called David's mother and told her she had just lost custody of David then hung up the phone. The text says, "Mrs. Pelzer, this is Officer Smith from the Daly City Police Department. Your son David will not be coming home today. He will be in the custody of the San Mateo Juvenile Department. If you have any questions, you call them." David and the cop took the police car and went to the orphanage where David would live freely until he was adopted.


Character Analysis: David is a sweet, loving little boy. Just as soon as his mother stops feeding him of course. He's not so sweet. In the text it says that David would take up weeks of planning on how to steal food from the stores and from lunch boxes in the classroom. He was very obedient to his teachers and would respect his classmates. In the story it says that David would get along with his teacher and his peers. He would play very well with the kids at recess time when he wouldn't be planning on stealing food.

Summary/Character Analysis- Life as We Knew It

Summary: 

Something surprising happens, but we already saw it coming. November 25: Thanksgiving Celebration. Each person was allowed one leg and two bites of thigh off a chicken. November 26: Miranda’s mom asks her kids if they have done any of their schoolwork yet. The text states,” Have any of you done a bit of schoolwork all fall?” She then asks them to pick one subject and to work on that. Miranda chose history, Jon picked algebra, and Matt decided on philosophy. December 1: The temperature was above zero so Miranda took  her mom’s skates and decided out to the pond. No one was there, so she enjoyed her time alone. 

Character Analysis: 

Brandon is an ice skater from their hometown who is training for the Olympics. He is loved by fans worldwide. As in the text it said that Brandon has his own fan-site (website) dedicated to him. He gets along with Miranda very well, maybe because they both connect to ice skating in their lives. 

Life as We Knew It/ Character Analysis

Summary: 

Trouble has struck for Miranda’s family.  Miranda’s water and stopped working just as she was washing her mother’s bedpan. Miranda told Matt who was mad that Miranda hadn’t told him immediately. Matt said,  “You should have told me right away! If the pipes are frozen I might have been able to do something.” Only the pipes weren’t frozen. The well ran out of water they could've used. Matt suggested since the well had run of water, they should just conserve the oil and move into the sunroom with their mother. Miranda didn’t feel very supportive of that. The author wrote, “No! I won’t!” Her mother, (Laura) came to a compromise and said, “Tomorrow morning, we’ll bring the mattresses in then.” 

Character Analysis

Mrs. Nesbitt is an caring, old woman. When she calls Miranda over to discuss something, she ends up telling Miranda that when she dies, whenever that may be, that Miranda should not be scared to come and take stuff that she needs from her house.  “Now after I’m gone, go through the house and take everything you can possibly use.” She says. She also tells Miranda to take two paintings for Matt and Jonny. She says,” Matt’s to have the painting of the sailboats because he always liked that when he was little, and Jonny should have the landscape in the dining room.” 

Life as We Knew It/ Character Analysis

Miranda wanted the guards at the hospital to deliver a message to Peter, (Miranda's mom's boyfriend) that her mom had twisted her ankle but the guards said, "We can't leave our post to bring someone a message." So, Miranda waited until her brother Matt showed up. Then, the guard realized that Matt was one of his students, so he let him go on inside. Matt had delivered the message to Peter and Peter was in such a rush to get to Miranda's mom, he told Miranda to hook up her bike onto the bike rack on the car to get there faster. The text states, "Hook it up to my car, I have a bike rack."

When they got home, Peter put an Ace bandage and wrapped up Miranda's moms' ankle tightly. The author writes, "Don't even think about stairs for a week, stay in here."

       Horton is the family cat. Horton has unbreakable bond with Jonny. In the book, it says that Horton will always sleep with Jonny or at dinner be sitting on Jonny's lap while he eats dinner. Horton is comfortable with anyone, as in the story it says that he will curl up with anyone, and just fall asleep. 

Life As We Knew it/ Summary & Character Analysis

The first sense of coldness rolls into August. Miranda asks her mom if things can get  any better, her mom says that there is still volcanoes erupting, and much more life threatening things happening. The text states, "She said no, that once the moon's gravitational pull had changed, things could never to where they'd been." Miranda and her mother get into an argument which results in Miranda leaving her house & biking into town. While there, Miranda witnesses a gang with a gun breaking into a store. Several days later, Miranda and her brother, Matt decided to be homeschooled rather than going to public school.
      Lisa is Miranda's step mom and also the soon to be mother of Miranda's sister. Miranda's mom and Miranda herself accept Lisa into the family, Lisa also accepts them. While in the story it states that Miranda's dad asks Miranda to be the godmother of their child & Lisa also wants her to be the godmother.

Life as We Knew It- Summary/ Character Analysis

Miranda finds Horton at the kitchen after he dashed off eight days earlier. Miranda's mom gets a letter from Miranda's dad and Lisa (girlfriend), stating that they will be visiting them right before they take off to  Lisa's parents house. The text states, "You know things are. Anyway, Lisa is desperate to see her parents, to be with them when the baby is born." When Lisa and Miranda's father finally arrive, everyone was happy. They had bought Miranda and her family canned foods, boxes of pasta, powdered milk, and mashed potatoes, jars of meat sauce, applesauce, cases of bottled water, and a half dozen hugs of distilled water. Then the next day they decide to chop wood and store into the dining room because they hardly ever eat there anymore. The author writes, "Mom thought about it, and decided the best place to store the firewood was the dining room, since we never eat there anymore." After gathering the wood, they had a dinner party. Miranda's dad was telling jokes, while Miranda's mom and Lisa roll their eyes.


Character Analysis.
Megan is overly-religious. She picked church as an interest soon after her friend Becky died. She always tries to get Miranda into being religious and to pray to God with her, but she does care for Miranda's safety.  The text states, "I pray for you Miranda, and Mom and Dad and even for Dad's other family." This shows that Megan is trying her best to keep Miranda safe even though Megan knows Miranda has sinned before.

Life As We Knew It/ Summary-Character Analysis

Summary

     Miranda finds out the pond she swims at is pretty soon going to be too cold for her to swim, so she better start swimming while she can. The text says, "What about the pond? I can keep swimming can't I?" "I think so, for the time being. Of course if the temperature really plummets, it might get too cold." This means that if it gets to cold due to the lack of sunlight because of the ash in the sky, Miranda won't be able to swim for a while. Miranda also loses their cat named Horton because Horton ran out the door as soon as she opened it to go inside. The author writes, "I guess Horton's as confused about what's day and what's night as the rest of us. He raced out as soon as I opened the door."

Character Analysis

Johnny is Miranda's younger brother who has a passion for baseball, he also is attending a baseball camp. In the text it says, "He's fine, camp is fine, he's eating okay, playing baseball is fun, etc." He is being secretly voted the "most likely to survive" because of how much he is eating and also because he's also active at playing sports. The author writes that Johnny is eating three meals at camp while his family is skipping lunch or even breakfast in order to save some food for Johnny when he comes back from camp. 

Life As We Knew It- Summary/Genre

Miranda wanted to hang out with her boyfriend, Dan, but her mom didn't let her. She thought Miranda was going to fool around with Dan, and she got worried she was gonna end up pregnant. "I'll forbid you to go to the pond. I won't let you leave this house alone again. Do you understand me? I can't risk you getting pregnant." So after the argument, Miranda went up to her room and stayed there for the rest of the day. Then, at breakfast, Miranda decided to talk to her mother and they made up. Later, Miranda's mom and Matt discuss with Miranda that there will be lots of eruptions of volcanoes because the moon is closer to the earth, so that effected the gravitational pull.



The genre of this book is fiction because it's not possible for an asteroid to hit the moon and knock the moon out of orbit. Well, maybe it is. I don't know. Well, for all the volcanoes to erupt around the same time is quite fake. I think that an asteroid doesn't have the force to knock the moon out of orbit.

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

In Life As We Knew It, Miranda's dad and wife are having a baby. They don't know the gender yet, but they want Miranda to be the godmother. Miranda says yes because she didn't want to disappoint her dad. During that day, they find out that a asteroid will hit the moon on Wednesday, & some people freak out thinking that the asteroid will miss the moon and come for Earth. On Wednesday, the neighborhood gets ready to see the asteroid hit the moon. During that time Miranda's mom goes inside to get the telescope, but when she comes out the asteroid was already going towards the moon. Nothing really happened until later, when the radio reports that as a result of the asteroids hit on the moon, tsunami's have been popping up everywhere, and the death rate goes up. At school the next day, there is a severe storm & Miranda's teacher takes it as a tornado and makes the kids go into the hall. Miranda's mom picks up Miranda from school and drives her, Jonny (her brother,) & Mrs. Nesbitt to the supermarket to get emergency supplies. Miranda's mom gives everyone ten fifty dollar bills & tells them to bring whatever is necessary & whatever they want too.
   more coming next week. ☺️
             Character Analysis:
Miranda's mom is very caring and loves her family. She wants the best for them. "I'd love to wrap you and Matt and Jonny up in swaddling clothes and protect you from everything but I know I can't." Miranda's mom is protective of her family, she doesn't want them to catch West Nile Virus, so she tells them to wear mosquito repellent to be safe. 

Goals

For my first goal, which being personal, is that I be more generous towards people but not too generous because that's how people take advantage of you. This is one of my goals because I can be really mean and rude, I just don't show it. To achieve this goal I will keep my negative thoughts to myself.
   For my second goal which is educational, I want to be successful in school. Not just earn good grades but actually learn stuff I never knew before. This is one of my goals because if I'm successful in school, I'll be successful in life and go really far. I will achieve this goal by: studying, paying attention, & working my hardest.