Last Entry !

1) This semester I read Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes, Slam by Walter Dean Myers, and A raising in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. All of the books that I have read have been great and i enjoyed all of them greatly.

2) Before I came to reading for pleasure I only read if a book was assigned to me. The tree books that i have read sort of made me look at reading in a different light. I really liked the book Bronx Masquerade because of the poetry and how realistic Nikki Grimes portrayed the characters to be. I also liked the story in The Raising in the Sun. The situation that Walter and his family were in was common for African Americans in that time period.

3) Over the year my reading has changed for the better in some aspects. I have read more books in the ninth grade than I have in middle school alone. At my middle school they didn't really push reading on us until we got to the eighth grade. At the beginning of the year i would rather do anything else expect for read. Reading was just a task that I never wanted to do.

Bronx Masquerade Ending

I'm two pages away from the end of the Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes. The book is really good and is most likely going to have a really good ending. I really like how Grimes is so distinctive and really gets into depth with the 18 students in the English class. Through the poetry they write the students learn to have hope about the future and not to judge a book by its cover. They learn not to give into stereotypes and lives that others seem to have pre-determined for them, but to follow their own dreams to look past their judgmental and stereotypical of the students of other ethnic back grounds. Grimes also has great talent when it comes to her peotry and it really shows in the writting in the book.

Now the book is getting good. The poetry is really good and the way the author is patraying these teens are very beleiveable. Now for one of the open mic Fridays Mr. Ward has had an famous guest poet to come and listen to the classes poetry. He also suprises them by rewording some of his poetry.
In the last chapter that I read the poetry class really was taking off.

Contract

I, Elisha Darden II will read a minimumof four books and make a conscientious effort to meet my individual goals inside and outside of class. I plan to blog weekly about my experience of "reading for pleasure." The four books Iplan to read are:

Slam, Walter Dean Myers
Bronx Masquerade, Nikki Grimes

The end of Slam. Begining of Bronx Masquerade

I am finally done with Slam. I must say that the book was very good and did have a little bit of irony in it towards the end. However, people say that their is always an beginning of something new at the end of something old. In my case its talking about the new book i am reading call Bronx Masquerade. This book is a book about a class of modern day New York English students. The book is told from the perspective of  about ten teens in the English class. The book starts with an assignment that the teacher gives the students. The assignment is to writ e a poem an resit it to the class on Friday.There are so many fantastic poems that the teacher started something called "Open Mic Fridays" that are held every Friday. With these poems the book comes alive! One major part of the book that I like would be that Nikki Grimes portrays modern day teens who live in an "urban" society very well.

She hits so many key topics in the teen world such as love, appearance, friendship, and stereotypes.

So far my favorite character in the book is tyrone. Although hes always has something to say, he truely tells it like it is and for that he has my respect.

Slam by Walter Dean Myers

This book is starting to get very good. Im only on the fourth chapter but its truly a page turner! The book is about a young black teen named Greg who loves the game of basketball. So far he is going through many things. His classes and teachers aren't really working out in his favor. He is also starting to worry about one of his close friends named Ice who he suspects in getting into the drug game.He also has a very sick grandmother who is in the hospital with a serious tumor. In the fifith chapter  Greg has to get a concler to help him bring up is grades or he will get put off of the basketball team. He isnt so happy about this but his coach and mom think its the best thing for him right now. His gets laid off again and Greg thinks hell prombaly start drinking again and acting crazy. Greg and his team have thier first game and so far it wasnt going so good. But when the coach puts Greg in the game things start to turn around for the better! At his game Ice and some of their friends from the block are there to support him. Greg starts to fell wierd when his coach recognizes Ice from he good talents on the court.