We All Looked Up

Jyoti Tamisier- Fayard                                                                                                                  3/26/16

            804

We All Looked Up 

"We All Looked Up" by Tommy Wallach tells the story of the 4 teenagers.  Throughout his book, it is interesting to see the characters develop and how they slowly change as Ardor is slowly approaching Earth. Ardor plays an important role in this book because it is a meteorite that is coming to destroy Earth. This also plays an important role through out the book because it made 4 teenagers named Eliza, Peter, Anita, and Andy meet. If it weren't for Ardor, they probably wouldn't have become couples. Ardor in this book was a metaphor to say that with still very little time, you can still accomplish many things and you can change things.

To begin with, when Ardor did not exist, Peter and his Sister were on bad terms. But when Ardor came,  Peter many times put is life in danger just to make Samantha his sister come back. Peter was later able to die in peace knowing that he was able to save Samantha and that he had finally been able to become the boyfriend of Eliza in which he had been in love with for a very long time. Although Peter died, he was able to die with a light heart because he accomplished what he couldn't do.

Furthermore, Ardor completely changed Anita. Anita was before a child who would do whatever her parents told her to do. She gave up her passion which was singing because her parents told her that she would go nowhere by singing just like he uncle. But again, Ardor came and changed Anita life. Anita decided to run away and do what she loved. Once she left her house. she felt free like a bird out of their cage.  Once out of her cage, Anita moved into Andy's place. Together, they composed music. Anita at the end was able to fulfill her dreams because she was able to sing to a big crowd just before Ardor came and she was no longer a virgin.

Out of all the 4 characters, Andy was the one who changed the most. Andy at the very beginning was someone was was very laid back. He never cared about school, doing drugs and always hanging out with his "friend" Bobo. If it weren't for Ardor and Anita, Andy most likely would have wasted his life being used by Bobo and being a follower. Anita changed his life because she unfolded his blind eyes and always told him the truth and made him realize that Bobo was not a good person and that Eliza was not the real person he liked and that it was actually her Anita that he liked. Ardor changed him because it made hime start moving and not be lazy like he used to.

In conclusion, Ardor was a metaphor, in the sense that although the world is about to end, you can still change things and do what you wish.

Tears Of A Tiger

Jyoti Tamisier- Fayard                                                                                                                  2/12/16
804

Tears of a Tiger

Tears Of A Tiger, the author, Sharon M Draper, tells the story about a teenager named Andy Jackson who killed his best friend Robert Washington after a basketball game while driving. While Andy and his other best friends were able to escape the car that was taking on fire, Roberts legs were trapped in the front. Seeing his friend burning and crying for help, burned the heart of Andy. After the accident, Andy's other friends were able to move on, but still feeling guilty. However, Andy was not able to move on. All he felt was sorrow, despair, grief, and was heartbroken. The memory of his friend burning and crying for help was engraved in his heart and never stopped replaying. While, most people thought he was getting better, Andy was getting worse and worse. His only light was his girlfriend who was supporting him no matter the sircumstanses. Keisha, his girlfriend, always was there for Andy when in need. 

To begin with, Keisha always tried her best to be supportive understand Andy when he was in bad condition. When they were on a date, Andy was at first very happy and optimistic, but as snow fell, he suddenly remembered Robert and felt terrible. He wouldn't stop talking about how cold he was and how Robert must be cold in the pile of snow piling over him. Although Keisha could not do much about his pain, she still stayed close to him and did not leave him. She soothed him by telling him that Robert was fine and that he could not feel the coldness of the snow and where he is, he is warm and in peace.

Adding on, when Andy was at the psychologist, he was asked if he depends a lot on Keisha and what would happen if she wasn't there. He answered, " She's there for me when nobody else is [...] Me and Keisha are tight. She's my lady [...] She keeps me in balance. " All these things he told to his psychologists shows how much Andy loves Keisha and how much he needs her.

Lastly, although Keisha was getting annoyed with Andy's depression, she still was willing to be there and listen to him. In her diary she wrote,  "Andy can't seem to get over it and i'm the only one who knows it. His got his parents, his teachers, even the stupid counselor at the Outpatient Psych Center fooled."  This shows that she understood Any the best and knew him better than his own family.

Brown Girl Dreaming

Jyoti Tamisier-Fayard                                                                                                                 12/12/15
             804

Brown Girl Dreaming

Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson writes about how she grew up in the 1960s/50s as a black girl. During her childhood, jacqueline writes a lot about how, the people surrounding her had a big influence on her and growing up. She shows how her grandma and grandpa were people that had a big impact on her life and how they are no different from other people. During her time period, there was still a lot of racism going on because she was born as the South explodes. A quote that was very appealing that Jacqueline mother said was " Your just as good as anybody else."

As Jacqueline grew up, she was faced with racism. This was only natural as she was born as the South was exploded and there was the march of martin luther king that was going on. Throughout the book, The words of her mother had a great impact because when facing troubling times, she would remember her mothers word. 

Her mothers word also had an impact on her and her siblings while growing up because it was telling them that no mater the fact that they were black, it did not mean that were inferior to the white people and less good. This also helped them because when being laughed at and teased by other people although it may have hurt them and question about themselves, they still thought of there mothers words.

I really loved this quote because, i thought it did not just apply to race but to other things such as gender. Throughout history, women were always viewed as object, weak and inferior to men. It still does occur in our daily life as in when playing sports and etc... 

La Fleure Du Démon

Jyoti Tamisier- Fayard                                                                                                                  11/9/15
             804

La Fleur Du Démon

Have you ever had a present where you are so attached to it that it almost becomes an obsession? Or that it becomes so dear to you that when you lose it, it feels like you lost a big thing. La Fleur Du Démon ( The Flower of the Demon) by Oto Hisamu is basically the story of how a demon named Bibi came to the human world because he was bored of his life in his demon world. On his second year of living in the human world, Bibi found a baby girl abandoned in front of his castle. Not thinking, Bibi took in the crying baby and named her Hana because her smile reminded him of a flower. 14 years have past and Hana has brought a flower (mostly a rose) everyday to Bibi. 

As time was passing, Hana never knew when her birthday was and never celebrated her birthday until a demon friend of Bibi convinced him to celebrate it. For Bibi, it was very hard to find a present for Hana because he did not understand the purpose of celebrating the age of someone who had such a short life compared to the life span of a demon. Finally, with the help of Ayam, a lady who used to give blood to Bibi, he bought a necklace with the pendent of a pink rose. When Bibi gave Hana her gift and saw how much she cherished her necklace, this is when I thought, "A present can mean more than just a present. It can become a symbol". 

My first reason I thought this is because in the case of Hana, since she is the main character of the whole serie, the necklace was like a good luck charm to her. As long as she had it around her neck at all times, she felt like she could do anything. Furthermore, the necklace is also a symbol of the first time Hana and Bibi met. Since it was her first birthday celebrated, a flower necklace was like a thank you for both of them and Hana in Japanese means flower so the necklace also relates to her name.

Lastly, when Bibi was gone or they were apart, the necklace made her feel less lonely and safe because she felt like Bibi was with her.

To go back to the questions I asked in the first paragraph, they relate to what happened to Hana at the end of the story: when Bibi returned to the Demon world, he snatched the necklace as a sign of goodbye forever so that Hana would forget about him. As Hana understood his actions, she felt a great grief and sorrow because the necklace was the only thing that she had from him and was the only thing that tied them together. 

  

Summer Reading

Hi Guys! My name is Jyoti and today I will be talking about my summer reading, but do not worry because it will be very brief. So to begin with, I read 4 books and you can add to this magazines and mangas. In this post, I'll discuss only the 4 books, which I did not all like.

So the 1st book is called A Little History of The World by E.H. Gombrich. If you love history then read this book as it gives you a great overview of the world history from Prehistoric times to Second World War. The author writes as if he is talking to you and he writes in a way where you are not confused by all fancy kinds of words. He is very detailed and very clear as well. Yet, at first, I had a hard time getting hooked because of his writing style but I got used to it and realized that his way of writing helped me understand what was going on later on. This book is very well-written and I recommend it. Plus it is an International Bestseller and has received many praises from famous journals and writers.

The second book is called Set In Stone by Linda Newberry. I liked this book a lot  but I wouldn't say its a book that I will remember in the near future. Anyway, the story is about a young artists named Samuel Godwin who leaves his home to tutor the two daughters of a wealthy man named Earnest Farrow. As he lives in this beautiful mansion built by Earnest Farrow, he falls in love with one of the daughters who is a bit crazy. As time goes by, he then discover ugly secrets with the governess who takes care of the two daughters and try to solve the mysteries that lie in the household. This book is interesting in the sense that you get the point of view of the governess and the young artist. Also Samuel Agnew was a real artist that once lived. If you like romance, mystery and a bit of fantasy than you may like or love this book. This book is a Winner Of The Costa Children Book Award.

I'd be honest I did not like the 3rd book I read. The title of the book was Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. The reason I did not like this book is because I did not like how she wrote: I thought it was just very vague. I read this book because it was on the summer reading book list. Although I did not like this book I still do love the author because she has written other books that I thought were much better and more interesting. Anyway this book has won the NewBerry Honor Book, the National Book Award, and the None-Violent Social Change.

Finally, the 4th book I read was also one of the books you had to choose during the summer and it was Changers by T Cooper and Allison Glock-Coopper. I liked this book and would't mind reading the sequel books. This first book is about how on the first day of high school school, the main character, originally born as a boy, suddenly has the appearance of a girl and is told that he is a changer just like his father and must absolutely keep it a secret. Changers are people during high school years change 4 times gender and personality (once per year) and then get to decide which person they prefer and want to be. I understood it a metaphor for teenager years where people tend to explore who they really want to be. More deeply, I was surprised to realize that whether the character was a boy or a girl who he or she "was" as a person did not really change. My take-away was that at the end, boy or girl, people are people.  If you like weird, romance, funny, and teenage, then this book is perfect.

Of these 4 books I read, none of them were similar. They were all very different in terms of genre, style of writing and types of characters. I loved some more than others but none were boring.