Independent Reading Post #4

After Mom and Jeffery came home, things started to go better. First, Steven was relieved that his brother did not die. Jeffery, Steven's brother, started to smile again in his daily life. However, Dad was still like a stone statue doing nothing. This book has unique style. I realized that while I am reading this book, I feel very happy and joy. However, after I read and close the book, my heart crushes. After all the happiness, I feel emptiness and loneliness just swooshing through my heart. I feel the pain in their family...



I finally realized that this book is not a comedy.....

Independent Reading Post#3

Book I read: Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie

Author: Jordan Sonneblick

His Weekend was terrible; he could not stop thinking of his brother. He was thinking that he caused Jeffery’s Leukemia. His father still did not mention about anything, and he was feeling hatred toward his mom about not calling him for whole week. He was so worried that he even thought that Jeffery and his mom are having little vacation in Philadelphia and the doctor was wrong. After weeks past, Jeffery and his mom finally came back to home. Steven imagined Jeffery smiling in the car. However, when they came, it was different. His brother was sleeping in the car, which was very rare to see. When they got out of their car, Steven was shocked. He could see his mom was very tired and her eyes were red. Steven went to his mom and asked her “Why did not call me for whole week? The doctors were wrong right?” His mom was little shocked and asked his husband that why he did not tell Steven about everything. Therefore, there was one more family fight, and they went back to their daily life.
After I read this section, I was feeling very stupid toward Steven’s family. His family was very selfish, and blamed others for no reason. I hope they reconcile and become a big happy family. At last, I am enjoying this book very much.

Independent Reading Post#2

Book I read: Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie
Author: Jordan Sonneblick

After Jeffery and his mom went to Philadelphia, Steven’s life became more tragic. He could not stop thinking about his brother, and started to miss his schoolwork. In addition, he and his dad did not get along and did not talk to each other for a long time. Even with these tragedies, Steven kept up with playing drum and practicing for upcoming jazz concert. When he was practicing his drum set alone in the school music room, he closed his eyes, blocked everything from the world, and just played the drum set. He flied through his drums and was very into it. After few minutes of crazy drum play, he opened his eyes. Here he was, in front of 10 to 20 people, played without noticing. People cheered for him. After this event, he went home and felt more optimistic, and prayed for his brother and his mom in Philadelphia.

The section I read, I was happy that I could see Steven going through the hardship by himself. However, I was very uncomfortable that he did not ask his father for any help. His father was too busy for his work and came home very late. In addition, Steven gives no respect to his father. As I read through the book and I realize that I am very blessed kid. I have my parents taking care of me and praying everyday for my success. I know realized that I have to be nice to my parents.

Independent Reading Post#1

Book I read: Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
Author: Jordan Sonneblick

Drums Girls and Dangerous Pie has unique style of writing. As I was reading page by page, I could feel the main character talking next to me. This book uses first person point of view to make sure the reader gets the main point. The main character is Steven and he has a brother named Jeffery. Steven is a drum genius. His drum skills are so amazing. In this book, for few chapters at the beginning, it shows that Steven's thinking toward his brother. He really loves him but sometimes he gets annoyed. However, after few chapters, his family finds out that his brother has leukemia and his mom and his brother has to go to Philadelphia for hospital. Therefore, now on Steven and his dad has to work together as team and solve problems they face.


I think this book will be my favorite book. I seriously hate reading but, by reading this book, I cannot believe I am actually sitting at my desk and reading this amazing book. When it talked about his brother having Leukemia, tears dropped from my eyes. I was amazed with how author puts the word together to make you involve in the story.

Blog #5: Entry of the choice

Did George Washington exist?
As I read 1984, many doubts grew inside of me. Every time I see news, I always make questions and try not to believe all of it. Therefore, I came out of one question, “Did George Washington really exist?” Of course, all of the people in this world will say he did, but I might say he did but maybe he did not exist. I really do not want to think like this, but what if the government of United States was already became like a government in 1984, and started manipulating people’s mind. People who are living in 21st Century never saw George Washington, nor met him before. So, how do we know? They know by historical text, pictures, and the house he used to live in. However, what did the government in the 1984? They changed history and manipulated people’s mind. Yes, I am saying that we might be being tricked by government and became puppets of the country. Because, It is a piece of cake to change the history by President’s order. Unfortunately, we will never know the truth, and be puppets forever. Therefore, we put trust in authority and we have to just live our life. There is no way we can know the absolute truth in this world. It’s sad that the world became like this, but we can ask God for the truth and find it at the end.

Blog #5: The Passage

* please choose one passage from the novel that is significant to you.
why is this passage meaningful? Please type it into one of your entries and comment on what you think about the passage.

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past”. This quote shows strong sense of the mind manipulation. Just like the quote, the government in 1984 controls the past, which controls the future, and controls the present, which controls the past. In 1984, there are many examples of changing the past, present and future. The part when Winston changed the news about the decrease of the chocolate to increase in chocolate, after he changed, people believed it. In addition, Winston erases rebels’ history. Once thought police catches a rebel, he or she is brainwashed and confess in front of the tele screen. After they confess, government vaporizes them, and erases their history. Maybe people might say, “ Where is David? He was here yesterday” and ask the government. Nevertheless, government will say he never existed, and even though you do not want to believe it, it is easier to just believe what government tells you, or else you will be “vaporize”. Once you change the history, changing people’s mind is just piece of cake. Also, it shows how dangerous is the mind manipulation can be. The mind manipulation in the 1984 made human being like the product in the grocery stores, and made people worthless. Even I do not know is the government telling the truth, or is the information 100% accurate, maybe, the world we are living in might already became the society in the 1984 and mind manipulating us. We will never know the truth.

Blog #4: Mood(Book#2)

* What is the mood of this novel? Do you and this novel saddens you in
Any way? Why?

Mood is emotion of reader while reading a book. Mood of 1984 is very dark, gloomy, and depressing. As I was reading 1984, I felt very uncomfortable, and disturbed, because people’s life in 1984 is very miserable. Their life has no value to government. They are like products in a grocery store, so that government calls them by numbers. This shows that the value of human being was never existed. The society in 1984 is the successful government, which does not care about the people. The story is sad through out the book, but when I found out that human being has no value in this book, I felt very sad. Another thing is that current government is doing similar thing as the government in 1984. Treating people like products is already in this society. When we go to United States or another country, we carry our passports. However, I heard the news about giving us a card that has a certain number. For example, in the airport, instead of calling “David Song, please come up front”, they will say, “Number 1328453, please come up front”. Every time I think about this, always saddens me, because the society is becoming like a society in 1984. Even though many people are warning the government, they do not listen and do the best thing for the economic growth, not for the people. This novel 1984 is very depressing and sad story, that gives a government a last warning to watch out.