Reading Response

I recently started reading the book,  Million Dollar Throw, by Mike Lupica. This book is about a thirteen year old boy named Nate Brodie, (nicknamed Brady-- after Tom Brady), who is a football quarterback in New England. In this book, Brady gets the chance of a lifetime when he wins a contest sponsored by a chain of sports stores known as SportStuff. The winner of the contest gets a chance to attempt to throw a football through a twenty inch ring from thirty yards away during haf-time at an NFL game. Winning this contest is about as likely as winning the lottery, but Brady actually won.
Brady's family is poor and could really use the million dollars that Brady may or may not be able to win. His father recently lost his job, his mother is working two jobs, and the Brodie's are in danger of losing their house. Brady is a fantastic quarterback and he is confident that he can make the throw, but as time goes on and it gets closer and closer to the big day, Brady starts to lose his proffessional touch.
I think that Brady will be able to make the throw because he is a really good football player and he appears to always be very confident and self-motivated. Also, Brady seems like a good kid and he probably just wants to make his family, friends, (especially his best friend and next door neighbor, Abby), coach, and his inspiration, Tom Brady, proud of him. As a result, I think that this will make him practice a lot and work really hard so that he will be able to make the million dollar throw.
In conclusion, I think that Brady will make the throw and win one million dollars because he is a good kid who is both confident and self-motivated.

Reading Response due 2/14

The book "Don't Eat This Book," by Morgan Spurlock is about "Fast food and the supersizing of America." In the first few chapters, I learned about obesity in America and how big of a problem it has become. According to the book, the United States is the fattest countryin the world. 65% of all adults in the United States are overweight and 30% are obese. Many companies have now had to start making extra-large, reinforced car seats, huge chairs, and even "super-heavy-duty" bathroom scales. Morgan was on a journey to show people the effects of fast food on a persons health. He ate only McDonalds food for thirty days which was documented in his documentary "Super Size Me."
According to this book, school lunch is partially to blame for kids being overweight or obese. School lunch is usually a variety of fattening and unhealthy foods. There is pizza, mac and cheese, french fries, cinnamon buns, snack cakes, chips, sugary drinks... it's a big buffet of bad for you foods. *
In this book, the author wants to get everybody thinking about how they should eat and possibly even convince them to change their diets. I think that Morgan made his point in a very interesting way by eating McDonalds for thirty straight days. It is really different than just writing a book about it and expecting people to read it and become informed. He experienced the fattieness first hand. He also wrote this book in first person so he is talking directly to the reader which makes it all that much more interesting.
In conclusion, "Don't Eat This Book," by Morgan Spurlock, is a really good book that tells the true story of how fast food can effect Americans.

Reading Response

Who has the power in this text?
  In the book Chinese Cinderella, by Adeline Yen Mah, the people that have the most power are the adults, mainly her stepmother, Niang. The other three people that have the most power are her grandparents, Ye Ye and Nai Nai, and her father.
  Her stepmother Niag is in charge of everyone and everything in this book. She is very controlling and makes all of the plans for the family, which usually exclude her five stepchildren, who she despises. Her grandparents only use their "powers" to get a meal or some hot water, and her father mostly just goes along with whatever Niang says to keep hef happy.
  In conclusion, the people that have most of the power in this book are the adults, especially Niang, Adeline's stepmother.

Critical Thinking Question Response #2

Question: How does this text deal with individuals and groups? Are the people acting alone and in competition with one another, or does the text help us imagine people working together?
  I have been reading the book, The Diary of Anne Frank, by Anne Frank. In this book, many people are acting as individuals, while forming small groups of alliances. I know this because the people hiding in the office Annex are mostly taking care of themselves, but they do care for eachother by cooking, cleaning, and sometimes sharing with one another.
  All of the Jewish people who are hidng are caring for themselves, and tended to be very selfish. An example of this is when Mr. Dussel recieved a large care package filled with food for his birthday from his girlfriend. He was very reluctant to share, and he didn't. He savored all of his food, and ate it in front of the others who had very little to eat.
  In conclusion, in this text people are acting both individually and in competition with one another.

Social Action Reading Response

Response Question: How different are people allowed to be in this text? Does it assume everyone is happy and good in the same ways?
  In the book The Diary of Anne Frank, by Anne Frank, people aren't allowed to be different. This is because the story takes place in Europe during the Holocaust. During this time, if you were Jewish you would, (in most cases), be killed or forced into hiding for years on end.
  In this book, Jewish people were hated by the German Nazi's because of their religion and beliefs. They were killed or brought to concentration camps, (death camps), but a few lucky Jews went into hiding and weren't discovered until the wars end. They weren't allowed to be different in any way, and the Germans, (especially the leader of the group, Adolf Hitler), thought that the Jewish people were worthless and didn't deserve to live.
  It does not assume that everyone is happy and good in the same ways because people weren't allowed to be different! The only people that didn't have to worry about survival at the time were Christians and Jews who joined the Nazi army! In a sense, I guess the Christians and Nazi's were happy and good in the same ways, but they were the enemies and were transformed into what they were. For example, the Nazi army was all trained to be the same, act the same, and fight the same.
  In conclusion, in this book nobody is allowed to be different and it does not assume that everyone is happy and good in the same ways.

Social Awareness Project 3

Believe-Justin Bieber

In the song “Believe,” by Justin Bieber, the lyrics in the chorus are “Cause everything starts from something, but something would be nothing, but nothing if your heart didn’t dream with me. Where would I be, if you didn’t believe?” This addresses the issues in the song which is being confident and living up to your full potential. For example, if Barack Obama didn’t believe in himself, he never would have run for president and become the first black president. He also wouldn’t have been able to help the United States get out of war and out of debt.

The main message of the song is to always believe in yourself, even if nobody else believes in you. It says that no matter what, you need to be yourself and you can always make your dreams come true, just like he did for himself. For his whole life, all that Justin wanted was to be a professional singer. He sings about how he wouldn’t be anywhere if none of his fans believed in him, or if he didn’t believe in himself. One of the lyrics in song is “Where would I be, if you didn’t believe? Would I know how it feels to touch the sky?”  This supports the idea that the main message of the song is to always believe in yourself, and live up to your full potential.

When I first heard this song, I thought about how I didn’t always feel confident and believe in myself so I may not have worked up to my full potential. For example, sometimes in chorus and show choir I really want a solo, but I’m too nervous to audition for it. I don’t believe that I can do it. This song really inspires me to try 110 percent all of the time. That is why I intend on making my dreams come true, just like Justin did. I want to be a singer and an actress, and thanks to this song, I am going to live up to my full potential and make this happen.

Oh, and if you ever read this Justin, (cause it’s on the internet), I LOVE YOU!

Social Awareness Project 2

A person that changes the world everyday is Wanda Butts. Her son, Josh, died when the raft that he was  in capsized. He didn’t know how to swim and drowned. Soon after this tragic incident, she learned that a minority child is three times more likely to drown than a white child. This is because many minority children never had the opportunity to learn how to swim, or their parents were afraid that something would happen to them in the water, so they stayed away from it.

"After losing my son, I wanted to do something to help other people, to help another mother not have to suffer the way I do every day from the loss of a child drowning," Butts said.

In order to do this, she founded the Josh Project. The Josh Project is a non-profit organization that teaches children how to swim at costs as low as ten dollars for four Saturdays worth of swimming instruction at a local high school in Toledo, Ohio.

Here is what Lisa Hayes has to say about the Josh Project:

"The public pools near our home have been closed in the past, and other places were not affordable. I am less worried if he is near water because he has the basics of how to swim. And we're thankful for that."

But Wanda Butts doesn’t only teach children how to swim. She makes everybody aware of the dangers of drowning.

According to Butts, "The joy on the faces of those children -- when they see that they can learn, once they get it -- they are so happy with themselves. And it's like all of them are my children. It's like I didn't lose my son."

This is why Wanda Butts is a hero who changes the world everyday.
(http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/10/us/cnnheroes-butts-josh-project/index.html