Book Review

          Imagine a Japenese-American family back in the 1920's where segregation has not happened yet, blacks and whites are separate and the only job for a family like yours is a hatchery only making half a penny for every chicken. That's what it was like for Katie's family in Cynthia Kadhota's Kira-Kira mezmorizing tale of unexpecting turn of events that will leave you flipping page to page.

          One of the characters, Lynn, made an impact on the way I saw her because she is just like me in some ways. She was the older sister by a few years just like I am. The way she looked at the world was different. The phrase Kira-Kira actually means glittering or shining in Japenense. I loved the way she looked at the world, she could "take something as simple as a blade of grass and make something wonderful out of it," as Katie, her little sister would say. Her love for the ocean is another reason why I connected with Lynn so well. She wanted to go to Califonia and see the ocean in real life; however, in a change of events she develops anemia and is hospitalized. In a few short months her disease acts up or it stays constant. Sadly though she does not recover and dies before she has a chance to visit her one true place, the ocean in California.

This book takes place in different locations, first we are taken to a small town in Iowa then to an even smaller town in Georgia where Katie and Lynn's family have to live in a town where whites overwhelm the Japenese. Lynn's family have to work two jobs each to pay for there little apartment and they basically live at the factory where they work. They rarely ever come home anymore and that is forcing Katie to grow up faster than a little kid should. I think the move caused Lynn to become sick because she is not happy and doctors do say that the more upset you are the more likely you are to become sick and develop a cold.

I connected to this book when I read it in 7th grade. I picked the book up as just something to grab in my English class and I never realized how much I would love this book and even go as far as buying it for my own personal reads. I loved connecting with this book because the characters and the way the author wrote this book made me feel like I was there in the 20's and I was the one suffering. The suffering of these characters made me feel a lot actually. In one part of the book when Lynn's death was portrated I cried when she passed and the author described the death. How no one was with her when she died and she died in her sleep as the author put it. I cried because that is one sorrow I have. I am afraid to die alone and I would love to die in my sleep if I had to choose which way I wanted to die. So that is why I connected with Lynn that much more when she passed even though she was scarcely mentioned the rest of the book.

Kira-Kira was an inspiring book that made me actually feel something. I enjoyed reading this book because I have never cried or felt anything when reading any other book. So I would love to read this book over and over again, and everytime I do I will tear up just because I loved the way Lynn's death was portrayed.

Current Connection #6

           In the article by the Odd News, Toy Gun Falls Apart During Robbery,, Pov Pidor a policeman from Cambodia, arrests a Cambodian-American, Khem Ra, who used a toy gun during an attempted robbery of a currency exchange and money transfer buiness. His supposed "gun" fell apart when he "striked the female clerk." Running to a nearby house, Ra hid inside and would only come out in exchanged for" not being charged. The chief lied and told Ra that he would not charge him for the attempted robbery, but instead when Ra did leave the house Pidor was there to make the arrest.
       I disagree with the way Pidor lied to Ra, he got Ra's hopes up only to knock him down when he was then arrested. Of course, this happened in Cambodia not the U.S. so things are very much different. I understand how a toy gun can look realistic, for I have had a few in my past and at a quick glance they can look just as real as a pistol. Thankfully the female clerk was only up against a toy gun and her worst injury was a hit to the head, if it was a real gun the injury would have been a gun shot.
         This article demonstrates how far a person would go to get money or whatever they need. According to this article, Ra did not sound like he really wanted to hurt anybody because of his use of a toy gun. If his intensions where fatal a real gun would have sufficed, but he did not so I don't believe this man wanted to truely harm another person.

Current Connection #5

According to Associated Press, Congress is looking to "do away" with the dollar bill and swtich to dollar coins. In the article Congress looks at doing away with the $1 bill , there is a heated discussion in whether the dollar bill should stay circulated or be taken out and replaced with a dollar coin. The article states, "the Government Accountability Office on the potential savings from switching to dollar coins entirely comes as lawmakers begin exploring new ways for the government to save money by changing the money itself." I disagree with this statement because I do not believe we, the people,  can save money by switching to coins. The coin has to be made with nickle, or copper, or even zinc and obtaining these minereals take time and money to get where they are in our pockets, but then again I can see the coin saving us money because instead of replacing the bill every 5 years this coin can stay in curculation for up to 30 years. This saves the money makers to have to produce more money every few years.

"Rep. Lacy Clay, D-Mo., said men don't like carrying a bunch of coins around in their pocket or in their suits. And Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said the $1 coins have proved too hard to distinguish from quarters." All that change that we are going to have to carry around would weigh down our clothes by a lot. I would not want to carry around $5 worth of coins in my pocket when I can easily open my wallet and pull out flimsy 5 ones. So I can see where so many coins can be a hassel. Also, I have seen a dollar coin and at a glance this coin is much like the regular quarter so if a product was a dollar and you hand the cashier a quarter u just paid 25 cents for a dollar product. If the coin goes in currculation, Congress needs to find a way to clearly distinguish the difference between a quarter and a dollar coin.

This article reminds me a little about the book I am currently reading, Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata. In this book the main character's parents hate banks so they keep all their money in a bag hidden in their closet. The setting is set in the 1920's where money was hard to get especially because the characters protrayed are Japenese and are shown no respect. So all the money they make takes another meaning to "hard earned". The way money back then was used was a simple dollar went a long way as compared to now where a dollar can't even buy a bottle of soda.

This aritcle makes consumers who use dollar bills think whats going to happen if there are no more dollar bills in currculation and coin collectors might have to save a few of those old one bills so if and when the simple one goes out that little one dollar would be worth about 20 dollars. You know what, venders. I didn't even think of them. Dollar bills jam machines and a coin would save money to have the machine fixed. So many coins coming and going I wonder where we are going to go next in our lifetime.

Current connections #4

According to LA Times, Colts cheerleaders shave their heads in support of Chuck Pagano. The article states that the beloved coach,Chuck Pagano of the Indianapolis Colts, was diagnosed with leukemia earlier that season.

"Megan M. said two weeks ago that she would shave her head if Blue, the team mascot, could raise $10,000 for the Colts' "ChuckStrong" charity. Crystal Ann later said she would join her."

That is a strong choice made by one of the cheerleaders to help find a cure for this cure-less disease. Both women knew that they did not have to do that, but out of the kindness of their hearts and love for their coach they decided to shave their head for the cause.

"Well, Blue raised $22,670 and Sunday, between the third and fourth quarter of the Colts' 20-13 victory over the Buffalo Bills at Indianapolis, their hair came off"

Those two brave ladies made a huge statement by shaving their head, sitting on the field holding hands all of their hair came off. And to be honest, they were still just as beautiful. Now if only all the cheerleaders would have came together to chop off their hair, I believe they would have made a bigger statement. But not everyone can be a genorous as those wonderful ladies.

I wonder if a bigger statement could have been made if all the Indianopolis cheerleaders would have gone together and shaved their head as one. I wonder why the rest of the group didnt join in?

Current Connection #3

       The Daytona Beach News Journal has the article, "Twinkies going, going, gone ..." and according to this article the twinkie corportation has declared bankruptcy on all Hostess products and every store is selling the last little bit to consumer buyers for 50 cents a "single serving package".

       "A bankruptcy judge gave interim approval to the liquidation on Nov. 21. Nationwide, 18,500 people will lose their jobs and all 570 outlet locations will close. At the Nova Road location, the only outlet store in Volusia and Flagler counties, alone, 19 people will lose their jobs."

       18,500 people jobless, that plus the way our economy is now the taxes on everything will increase once again. The Hostess corportation was one of the largest corporations in the nation. Almost 19,000 people will have to go and search for jobs once again and try to make the best of things while trying to keep their utilites paied for and not falling behind in payments. All 570 outlets of Hostess will be out of buisness as well, so however many people who were working in those stores will have to search for jobs else where. This corportation is making a domino effect on the rest of the world whether they know it or not.

        And,"while many analysts say it's likely another company will pick up production of many of the products through a bankruptcy auction, the thought of a Twinkie-less world has sparked a feeding frenzy on the beleaguered company's products."

      If another company tries to buy the remains of the Hostess products at a bankruptcy auction there is going to be one huge fight to try to be the last company to hold Hostess brand products. Did you know that there is a box of Twinkies on Ebay right now that has a starting rate of 75 dollars? Nobody thought that we would ever run out of Hostess because it was such a huge profit making company, but I guess our wold is making something better if we dont't even need the simple Twinkie anymore. A "twinkie-less world" is not something I wanted to grow up in. 

      I'm not sure about the rest of the world, but stated in this article, "As for the Twinkies, they sold out in less than a hour Sunday at the Nova Road store."...."A fair supply of bread, chocolate cupcakes and Zingers remained at the Nova Road store mid-Sunday afternoon. Just no Twinkies, alas."
As for this store, Twinkies are now a thing of the past.

 

 

 

Current Connection 2

            According to Space on NBCNEWS.com, Proposed space boat could explore lakes on Saturn's moon Titan. The craft could use paddles or wheels to navigate a methane lake near Titan's north pole. The main idea for this article was to inform readers what goings on would be happening with Saturn's Moons and if it would be possible to thrive on one of Saturn's moons.

           Titan, Saturn's largest moon of 60, is covered in seas, lakes, and rivers of methane and has a really dense atmosphere. Some scientists believe life is unsustainable because "average temperatures are a chilly minus 289 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 178 degrees Celsius).Yet others say the insulating atmosphere and plentiful liquids, not to mention a possible subsurface ocean, could be hospitable to microbial organisms." the Titan Lake In-situ Sampling Propelled Explorer, or TALISE, would land the boat, propelled by wheels and paddles or screws, to float around Ligeia Mare, the largest lake on the moon, located around Titan's north pole. "The main innovation in TALISE is the propulsion system," a member of the TALISE team, said in a statement, This allows the probe to move, under control, from the landing site in the lake, to the closest shore. The displacement capability would achieve the obtaining of liquid and solid samples from several scientific interesting locations on Titan's surface such as the landing place, along the route towards the shore and finally at the shoreline." 

    Every Soul A Star is a connection I made to other text because the book is about these three students, one is a prep type, one is a total nerd, and the last one is a astronomy freak. Saturn is a planet and planets are astronomy related, so I based this article after this book. This book popped into my head every few seconds while I was reading this article.


         Saturn's moon could not possibly be sustainable to live on even by the smalled micro organisms based on the fact that the temperature reaches well below the limit allowed for any single celled organism to survive. Negaive 45 degrees is the minimum temperature an organism such as ourselves can live with out physical damage well beyond repair, or even death.

Current Connectinons #1

According to New, colorful monkey species discovered in Africa rain forest, a new species of monkey had been found by John Hart, a veteran Congo researcher. Because of a picture he found by going through 2007's photographs from Congo, now locally known as Zaire, he stumbled across this unusal looking monkey beside a young village girl that the monkey had become attached to. Five years of gentic work and research the unknown monkey had become known and was " dubbed Cercopithecus lomamiensis." (Now locally called the Lesula.)

So why was this primate never found or recongized by scientists? Well, I can answer that one...turns out "Lesula, a cryptic, skittish primate", roams around in 6,500 square miles in the dense rain forest bottom.

The Lesula live in small groups of five and eat fruit and leafy plants. The males weigh up to 15 pounds, twice the size of the females. And check this, "they have giant blue backsides, bright aquamarine buttocks and testicles. What a signal! That aquamarine blue is really a bright color in forest understory.", says Hart.

I wonder what made them aquire that color blue? And why blue?

Aquamarine blue reminds me of going to the zoo with my parents and checking out the aquariums with all the exotic fish and undiscovered underwater creatures. Talking about the monkey itself reminds me of the zoo, visiting the primate habitat and looking at all the different species of monkey and listening to the different coos and cries of the monkey's calls.

Now that the new monkey has been identified, Hart's next task is to save it. However, there is a "thriving" market for bush meat, or wild animal game, in urban areas. Apparently bush meat is a low income diet because it is cheaper than chicken or beef. "This is not a new problem, but it's a problem that doesn't have a solution yet.", says Hart.

Eating wild animal game is not new, people even in the early days have been doing it for years so it is not frowned apon. However, eating bush meat should be minimized to little or none at all. If chicken or beef wouldn't be so expensive people wouldn't need wild game to satisfy their hunger with what little money they have.

WTC

                      Rebirth in Lower Manhattan: Inside Four World Trade Center  



          

 

According to the passage we discussed in class today, to discourage any farther attacks on the WTC in New York, the architects and construction workers have made the walls to be no less than three feet thick in solid concrete, and to up the patriotism of our country we have made the new World Trade Center to be exactly 1,776 feet in length. That makes the Center the tallest buliding in the United States. The message that we are sending is clear and loud that even though other countries may come and try to tear us down and break us we will just come back even harder and have a fighting chance in defeating the other countries.

Shelby Cogar's Reading Bucket List

If I had to choose ten books that I would want to read in my lifetime, these ten would be on my list.

1. Harry Potter Series by: J.K. Rowling- I have seen all the movies to the series so I thought the books would be even better. Fantasy is something I have always wanted to get into, but never thought I would like because it is too out there. I hope the books are good if not better than the movie.
2. Fahrenheit 451 by: Ray Bradberry- So no books are allowed in this futuristic town and they are burned to ashes. This book is going to be interesting and the idea behind it will be chaotic and intense. I would love to read a book where all books are destroyed and people have no written record of anything such as the Bible or anything in the present life.
3. Thirteen Reasons Why by: Jay Asher- All my friends have read this book and fell in love. A girl who commits suicide and sends tapes out to the thirteen people who caused her death. This book has won an award for best Teen book published. This book could really connect to depressed teens who need a confidence boost in their depressing lives. This book is supposed to be a great read to all upcoming teens.
4. Fifty Shades of Grey by: E.L. James- This book has been on the best sellers list for quite sometime now and I thought I would get in on the action and see what is the big deal about this book. When I went on Amazon to check out the summary of it at the very bottom of the description it says it's for mature audiences only and that statement alone captured my intrest.
5. Reason to Breathe by: Rebecca Donovan- The cover on the book looked really interesting so I looked farther into it, if the outside looks interesting I will actually concidering reading it. Books that have cruelty and pain are books that I consider reading most of the time. They seem to have a better story and alwasy end in some hope to the main characters. I'm a sap for happy endings..
6. Divergent by: Veronica Roth- So in this book the state of Chicago is split into five different factions and every sixteen year old boy and girl has to choose one and spend the rest of their lives devoted to the choice they make. Well this young girl does not want to choose one of the five so she makes a decision to create her own, I want to read this book because I want to find out what each of the five factions mean and what jobs are associated with that choice.
7. Uglies Series by: Scott Westerfeld- I read the first book and liked it then read part of the second book and couldn't get into it, so I want to try and start over. I really liked the first book so I'm hoping I am mature enough and more well educated to get into the series again. I was to young to really comprehend how the story went and have the book capture my interest.
8. The Barcode Tattoo by: Suzanne Weyn- I first heard of this book in 8th grade and I read half of it, but never got a chance to finish it. So I wanted to add it to my list because I am hoping to one day finish the series. This is an old book so it wouldn't seem like a first choice to some people but the book just popped into my head and I thought well why not, I should give it a try again.
9. Marked Series by: P.C. and Kristen Cast- This new and upcoming series has become popular since it's first book. Based on vampires that are behaved and civilized and actually go to school to be educated, this book has captured my intrest because it is for teens like myself who have an intrest in vampire books. I want to one day complete all 10 books in the series.
10. Kira-Kira by: Cynthia Kadohata- This book is actually old and I first heard about it from a friend and said it was really good, it had won a Newberry Award so the book must have been pretty good. It is based on a Japenese family who has to move to a new town where the economy is low budget and they have to thrive to maintain their once ok lives.