I have been reading the book "Child Star" by Shirley Temple Black, (autobiography). This book is about her relationship with her family, and her journey in Hollywood.

In the beginning of the book, Shirley Temple's mother frequently tells her to sit on somebody's lap. She says this because she thinks that if Shirley listens to her, more people will think she is sweet and cute, but really, people just become uncomfortable. From what i've read so far Shirley Temple's mother is very confusing and competitive. In one scene, Shirley Temple and her mother are running to a movie set from lunch. While they run down a flight of steps, Shirley falls and cuts her forehead. Instead of worrying about her daughter's health and pain, she worries about the movie. How will she be in the movie with a big bump on her head? So she creates a spit curl to cover it up.

Frequently, Shirley gets injured. Every time something happens to her and she gets a scrape, bruise, bump, or cut, her family worries about her image, rather than her feelings. I think that her health is more important than getting a movie filmed in time. Although in the beginning of the book, her family is more careful about her movies and career than small injuries, they change later. 

In another scene towards the middle of the book, Shirley Temple and the man who takes care of her horses, where riding in a cart, and he let Shirley drive. During the time she was driving, she cut a corner to short and the cart was about to tip over, before the cowboy who took care of the horses grabbed the reins out of her hands, accidentally knocking her out of the cart. Even though Shirley agreed with the cowboy that it was an accident, her parents fired the cowboy, because they wouldn't take another chance for Shirley to get injured worse. Her parents changed from worrying about the movies more than her health, to worrying about her health more than the movies. If she got injured, her career would be over. 

Until she was about 7 years old, the directors for her movies made her costars pick her up at least once in the movie. They thought that by having her get lifted up, people would think she was still young and cute. Keeping Shirley seem young was very important to the movies, and her fans. Once Shirley Temple began to get more fans and viewers, she found out that somebody told the public that she was one year younger than she really was. So, in 1934, on New Years day, the public thought she was 5 instead of 6. People would do anything to keep Shirley Temple's image youthful and fun. 

Close Reading Kathleen

In the movie, Kathleen, a girl named Kathleen lives in a large house. Her father is always out at work, and her mother is dead, so he hired a governess to take care of her. (Mrs. Feril) Kathleen dreads Mrs. Feril, and when she tells her father, he fires Mrs. Feril and hires a new governess. Mrs. Feril tells this to Kathleen, and Kathleen gets upset because she thinks the new woman will be just like Mrs. Feril. I chose to close read the relationship between Kathleen and the new governess, Matha.

Mrs. Feril has been Kathleen's governess for a long time. During all her time as the governess, Kathleen  finds that she is snoopy and untrustworthy. Mrs. Feril looks through Kathleen's room when Kathleen is out. Kathleen frequently finds Mrs. Feril looking through her things lying about it. Kathleen comes up with an idea to prove that Mrs. Feril doesn't mind her own business and looks through her things without permission. She finds a box and fills it with firecrackers. On the box she writes keep out, do not touch, private. Just like Kathleen hoped, Mrs. Feril opened the box. Later, she complained about Kathleen to Kathleen's father.

 When Kathleen hears someone new is coming to take care of her, she gets angry and kicks her dresser. When Martha comes in to meet her, she sees that Kathleen has a bruise on her foot. She helps put a band-aid around her toe. She doesn't ask any questions and doesn't say anything. Then, she introduces herself, and leaves the room. This causes Kathleen's first impression of Martha to be that she is caring, and minds her own business, unlike Mrs. Feril. Kathleen realizes that Martha is very different from Mrs. Feril, and decides to give her a chance to prove that she really is different from Mrs. Feril.

During Martha's time at the house, Kathleen asks if she can help unpack Martha's things. When she is helping unpack books, she finds Martha's initials on the inside of the front cover. The initials show that Martha is her middle name, and she has a first name starting with the letter A. She asks Martha what the A stands for. Martha decides to tell Kathleen her name, and says Angela. By telling Kathleen her first name, she proves that she is different from Mrs. Feril. Kathleen had to call Mrs. Feril Mrs. Feril. Martha lets her call her by her first name, and reveals a secret to Kathleen. By letting Kathleen call her Angela, she is showing she trusts Kathleen not to make fun of her or tease her.

By helping Kathleen with a bruise on her foot, and putting her trust in her and telling her her first name, she proves she is very different from Mrs. Feril. All Kathleen wanted was somebody she could talk to about her problems, and a good friend. Mrs. Feril was the opposite of what Kathleen needed and wanted. Mrs. Feril broke into Kathleen's room to steal things. She didn't treat Kathleen like she should have, instead she treated her like she was just a big waste of energy. Martha treats her like an equal. She tells her secrets, and gives her all of her attention. By doing that, she causes Kathleen to have an almost instant liking for her.

          After reading the story The Stolen Party, it made me think that Senora Ines was cruel and unkind and rude. Now, after rereading and focusing on certain parts of the story, i realize that what senora Ines did was very important. The story was about a girl named Rosaura, who's mother worked as a made for a rich family. Rosaura was invited to a birthday party at the house her mother works in. When she told her mother, she said that Rosaura couldn't go, but Rosaura went anyways. At the party, she learned that not everybody is the way you thought they were.
          The conversation Rosaura has with her mother, Herminia in the beginning of the book shows that Rosaura took charge over her mother instead of the other way around. Rosaura yelled at her and didn't believe a thing her mother said about the party. Her mother told her that people would treat her like the daughter of  maid instead of how she should be treated, which is as a guest. And her mother made it very clear that she didn't think fondly of rich people, which cause Rosaura to say, "Rich people go to heaven too."  
          During the party, Rosaura is convinced that her mother was wrong. She has fun talking to all the other children at the party, playing games, helping the magician, and helping Senora Ines hand out food and drinks. She tells a guest at the party that she is the daughter of the employee, and is proud of it. Even though she didn't listen to her mnother about coming to the party, she listened to what her mother told her to do once she got there.
          Once I read the end, I thought Senora Ines was terrible. Now, my views on the end have changed. Rosaura's mother told her almost exactly what would happen at the party, but Rosaura didn't believe her. She had to live through it and experience it herself for her to understand what her mother was telling her. If Herminia took charge over Rosaura and kept her from going to the party, Rosaura would have never learned about people and the way they think and feel. She wouldn't have learned that not everybody believes in equality.

         At the end of 7th grade, i read a book called Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli. I chose to write about this book because of the characters. I think that in every book, there should be at least one character that you love. In Milkweed, you love the main character, Misha. Another one of my favorite books of 2013 was Make Lemonade, by Virginia Wolff. The way she wrote parts of the book put a very clear picture in my mind. It wasn't hard to get pulled into the book for a long time.
         Milkweed is a book about a small orphan boy named Misha, who lives in Warsaw, Poland, during World War ll. He has to steel food to survive. He meets another thief named Uri, who decides to help him and take care of him. Soon, he is living with a large group of homeless boys. While he is out steeling food, he sees German soldiers invading Poland. He doesn't realize the danger he is in when they are around. Instead, he admires them and says that he wants to become a soldier when he is older. Soon, he meets Janina, a "little girl" who lives in a nice house with her big family. The book is really about the friendship between Misha and Janina. Both the characters are likable, and you are able to connect with them.
         The book Make Lemonade, by Virginia Wolff is about a girl named a girl named LaVaughn. She is very interested in school, and going to college. She had been looking forward to college for a long time, and began saving up money. In school, she sees a poster asking for a babysitter. She decides to take the job. When she goes to the address the poster had on it. She finds that she signed up to take care of the two children of a 17 year old, Jolly. She becomes good friends with Jolly and learns that she lives by herself in a small house. She was fired from her job and can't seem to get another one. The book is about the relationship between LaVaughn and the two children. I enjoyed this book because of the characters. Books need a good character to connect to and to look forward to reading about. I liked the character Jolly because of her struggles and how she handled them.

         The article "Man From Ministry Bans Potter" by Tania deLuzuriaga talks about how the Harry Potter books were banned from St. Josephs School. It was banned because people thought that the themes of witchcraft and sorcery are not appropriate for a catholic school.
          A woman who's child went to the school said that "Most children were strong enough to resist the temptation." Meaning, that he thought that if children believed in magic, it would be bad. Using your imagination and believing in magic is not a bad thing. I don't think that they had a reason for banning the books. Also, the article says, "I'm upset it was done without talking to anyone about it." None of the parents were told that Harry Potter was being banned from the school. I think that they should have told more parents. It is up to the parents to decide what their children should be reading. "Police vice squad arrested anyone selling works considered offensive." If anybody sold or has a book that is considered offensive, they are arrested.
          I think that St. Josephs school had no real reason for banning the Harry Potter series. The only reason they said it was banned was because it had themes of witchcraft and sorcery, but Harry Potter books are not the only books with magic in them and they only mentioned banning Harry Potter. Also, the article says, "most children are strong enough to resist the temptation." She said that you have to be strong to read Harry Potter books and because of the "weak" children, the book has to be banned. I don't think that any child or adult should not be able to use their imagination or read what they want to read.
           I am a very big Harry Potter fan, and I don't think that there is anything wrong with reading those books. It is possible that if the article told better reasons for banning the book, then I might understand, but it doesn't matter if children believe in magic or use their imaginations. That's just part of being a kid.

Your Past is Important

       Sometimes I convince myself that doing one thing is a good idea, but soon I realize that I was wrong. In the book Diverent by Veronica Roth, the main character Tris chose to move away from home and change her life forever. She thinks that it was a good idea, but after her mother comes to see her, she makes Tris realize that she misses her family and doesn't want to forget about her past, by telling her to go and visit her brother. She misses her old life and her family, all her new friends and leaving her, her teachers don't like her, and she is constantly getting beaten up by a group of bullies.

       This part of the book is meaningful because it shows that you should never forget where you came from. You should revisit your past. Tris was trying to convince herself to forget her family but when she saw her mother and brother, she realized how important her old life is to her and she doesn't want to forget it. 

       Once I got to the 6th grade, every day during lunch, I would wait outside for my friends from my old school to come outside. Once i saw them, it was like a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders and I felt happy. Soon, my friends started bring their own new friends to lunch with us. I thought that my friends were rude and unthoughtful for bringing knew people to eat lunch with us. A couple weeks later, I noticed that nobody was paying attention to me. I realized that my friends had started to act differently. I didn't fit in anymore. So I stopped eating with them and ate with my new friends instead of my old ones. I thought that I should just forget about the and focus on my new friends. But, now I realize that your past is what makes up your life and you shouldn't just try to forget about it. So, I shouldn't forget my friends.

Finished books:

-Divergent
-The House on Mango Street
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
-Insurgent
-Allegiant
-Catching Fire
-Mocking jay