Independent Reading Response #6

Judy Moody was in a Mood

Response #6: Pg1-159

Response Type: Connections through experiences, memories, or issues

I read a book call “Judy Moody was in a Mood” during 2nd quarter which is written by Megan McDonald and illustrated by Peter Reynolds. It is about a girl who has a project from the begging of the school. However, she is really exciting about that project which is to make a collage relates her. She finds something that is useful for the collage with her brother and her friends. Actually she doesn’t like one boy, but as she stays, she and he will be friend. In this book, I don’t have any similarities between the protagonist and me, but I found the same things between my sister and her.

The first similarity between my sister and the protagonist, Judy Moody is that they have a younger sibling who always follows the older. For Judy, she has a younger brother named Stink. He loves to do something with Moody and even though she is doing her work, making collage, he always asks something to her and it disturbs her sometimes. For my sister, when I was the same age as Stink, I wanted to stay with my sister all the time, so I just followed her everytime whenever she goes. She really hated it, but even though she said don’t come to me, I just followed her. Therefore, for elder people, younger sister or brother always makes them in the trouble or annoyed, but the younger couldn’t realize it and just accompany or follow them. If I have a younger sibling, I might feel annoyed if they did so.

The other same thing as this book and my sister is that both of them had Venus flytrap which is a plant that eats flies. My sister got that plants for her birthday and it is very rare to get it. Both Moody and my sister treated the plant well, but for my sister, my rabbits ate the plants so it died. I think Moody loves this Venus flytrap, because she named it Meet Jaws and she always worried about it. For example, when she gave a fly to that plant, it closed the mouth and didn’t open for two days. Moody was so shocked about it and screams at her father and mother that it died even though it was not. It is also same as my sister that when the plants got eaten by my rabbits, she screamed and shouted at me. Therefore, it is the same that my sister and Moody loved the Venus flytrap and treated it well.

These two are the similarities between Moody and my sister. They both don’t like to get disturbed by their younger sibling and they had Venus flytrap. I like this book now, because when I think about the connection between real life and this novel, I could find some interesting thing such as my sister’s life and the main character’s life, so it is good for me to remind what happened to me when I was a child. Also I could know the difference between Japanese and American school lifestyle. Therefore this book is good to learn the other cultural things.

Independent Reading Response #5

Judy Moody was in a Mood

Response #5: Pg 112 -159

Response Type: Quotation

The book that I have been reading is call “Judy Moody was in a Mood” written by Megan McDonald. This book is about a girl who is very exciting to do a project which is to create a collage about her. She spends most of the time with her brother and her friends to finish her project. Finally, she finished making the collage and tried to bring it to the school, but a bad event happened to her. However, the happening creates her collage even better. Here are some quotations that I found while I’m reading.

·“I want to be a doctor like Elizabeth Blackwell, first woman doctor! She started her own hospital. She knew how to operate and put together body parts and everything” – This quote is from chapter 2, page 39. I like this quote, because she has a dream what she wants to be in the future. Also she respects Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman doctor. She is motivated by this woman and wants to be the doctor For me, I do not even have an aim right now and also I have no one to respect. Therefore, when I read this parts, I was little jealous at her and felt I have to find something that I want to do in the future. I also learned a history about the first woman doctor from this sentence, so I like this sentence.

·“It’s okay. At least it didn’t get run over by a bus in a tornado.” - The sentence is from chapter 9, page 146. This is when her brother dropped juice on her final collage. Actually, she doesn’t want her brother to touch her collage, because it is her perfect project, but she had many things to carry, so she asked her father and brother to bring it to school. However, her brother did that accidentally, and both her brother and father said sorry to her a lot. What she said after she saw her wet collage, she said it is okay. Actually, she will get angry, but this time, she accepted their deed. When I read this part, I felt that she grew little bit, because after that event, she used that speck of juice to make one drawing. I was so proud of her and it disposed me to see her collage.

I enjoyed this book, because I learned how Judy Moody, the main character’s personality is like and how she manage her time for her project. I like her personality which is active and imaginative. She always goes outside to find something interesting with her brother and her friends. When I was young, I always go out side and play with my friends as her, so I feel an affinity with her in someway.

Independent Reading Response #4

Judy Moody was in a Mood

Response #4: P1-111

Response Type: 5.Question

The second book that I am reading for this quarter is Judy Moody’s series called Judy Moody was in a Mood written by Megan McDonald and illustrated by Peter Reynolds. Judy Moody is the protagonist of this book who is just started the third grade and the first project that she gets from the teacher is to make the collage. In the collage, she has to put some information about herself such as her hobby, happiest thing, and worst thing. So far, I read 111 pages and I learned that Judy is kind of selfish and strange girl and I found a part that I don't understand.

I don’t quite understand why Judy Moody didn’t like to paste her cat, Mouse’s picture on her collage when she had to put her family’s picture. When I read the part which Judy said, “We need a new pet. I have to pick my favorite pet.” If I were she I would choose Mouse. She was the only one pet in her family and even though she had some weak personality, she always stayed with them and spent her life with them. I thought that they don’t need to have a new pet to choose for collage. And I also feel weird when Judy’s parents don’t complain about buying a new pet for the collage. What her father says to Judy was “Let’s take a ride over the pet store. I’m not saying we’ll get a sloth, but you might like to have some goldfishes.” Actually, in my family, my parents don’t allow me to buy a new pet if I have one. The reason is we already love the pet that we have and if I buy new, it waste money. Also if we have time to buy a pet, it is better to finish the collage. Therefore, I felt that Judy’s parents are little bit kind to their child and Judy is a little selfish girl. Finally, they buy a pet called Jaws which is Venus trapfly. It is a flower and it catches flies by spreading out its fragrance.

As follows, I read more than half pages and I don’t quite understand the relationship between the title and the story, so by continue to read, I want to get some ideas why this title is “Judy Moody was in a Mood”. And also I can’t wait what happened to the end, so I will read it as soon as possible. I recommend this book to everyone who likes to read about the school life fiction. If I can, I want to read other books of Judy Moody’s series.

Independent Reading Response #3

The Beast from the East (Goosebumps)

Response #3: Pg1-151
Response Type: 3. Connection to Other "texts"

The book calls “The Beast from the East” is about a girl who had struggle time during the camp, and she and her twin brother had to play weird tag which they never played before. This book’s ending is not understandable for me because I thought the ending will be finished by happy ending, however it was not. After I read this book, I realize that this has some similar setting as a movie called “Friday the 13th”, but this book is not crueler than this movie.

The first similar thing is the ending which I don’t like. I feel really sorry for Gender, the main character and her brothers because after the climax, they have to play harder game than they played before. I know this book does not end happily because on the last sentence of this book is “Tag! You’re It.”, so this shows me that the tag will continue. If they lose the game, they might get eaten by the beasts which they play against. It reminds me that Friday the 13th because after Jason, the murder in the movie dead, he appears some day and kills many people again. Those stories never ended. Therefore, it has the same ending and makes me unhappy and nervous, but this is not only the similarity between the book and movie.

The enemy of the main characters have same hobby, killing the people. In the book, the main character’s enemy was big beasts and if the beasts win the game, they will eat Gender and her brothers. Also, on the page 36, the beast says to Gender “Free Lunch Place. It means anyone can eat you!” They really like to eat people and animals. For the movie, Jason always has the saw or chain saw to kill the people even though they are innocent. Although, he is different from the beasts, they kill animal or people as much as they want. I realized that both this movie and book’s genre is horror, so it also might have some similar plots.

It is the same that they kill or eat people. Nevertheless, it is different how cruel they are. In the Goosebumps, when the beasts lost the game, they said sorry and let the main characters leave. Also, they followed the rule, even though it is unfair for them and main characters. However, in Friday the 13th, Jason never listens to the people and kills them without any reason. He kills many innocent people. If I compare those, I feel that the beasts are much kinder than him, but they are still mean and killer. Therefore, the difference between Jason and the beasts is that Jason is real murder and the beasts are little bit kinder than him. I don’t like both of them though, because they kill people anyway.

As follows, I compare Goosebumps and Friday the 13th to find some similarities and differences. Both of them are horror, but different fear that I get from the book. I like to read and watch horror books and movies, but I don’t like when it is not happy end. I hope these similar connection might not happened in the world.

Independent Reading Response #2

The Beast from the East (Goosebumps)

Response #2: pg. 26 – 151
Response Type: 6. Creative

I tagged the beast! My heat was beating very fast. Nat and Pat started at each other and cheered.
“Okay, I am It.”, the beast said and rose his hands up.
Now, it was me, Nat and Pat’s turn to run away from those scary beasts, but I had ideas that can quite this tag game. What we have to do it to escape from this scary strange area before the sunrise! So that the beasts will not eat us! I whispered to my twin brothers to follow the stream to escape from this area. They nodded and we run as faster as we can. However, the beasts were very big and they were already behind us! I took my brother’s hand and pulled them as hard as I can.
I could see the stream! It was almost there! We will win soon! When my brother and I were having the hope the big foots which is covered by blue fur and thick long tails were in front of us. I looked up and a beast was laughing and looked down us with hunger. The beast hand was almost touching me, but I screamed
“STOP!” the beast hand stopped for a while and it asked,
“What do you want?”
“I have a new idea how we tag a person! I think it will interest you!”
The brothers looked each other with wired and surprise face.
“Okay, the new way to tag people is that you spin your body ten times and catch as us fast as you can. If you do that, I will be It.”
“…That sounds fun. Okay, I will spin as fast as I can!” the beast started to spin very fast and while it was doing that we dashed to the stream where said “You can stop you game here”.
Finally, Nat, Pat, and I could go out from the forest and could quit the game!!! We shouted each other with sense of free joy. When I saw the beast, it was still spinning very fast and after finished spinning, it fell in a faint. I was really really happy about it and asked my brothers to follow me. We talked about mother and father. Are they going to believe us? Of course not, but I could explain what was happen in the forest. While we were talking I saw a tent and two black shadows in that place. It was my mother and father!! We dashed to them. They were smiling us with opened their arms widely and we jumped in their arm. We hug them very tightly to make sure we were home.


The Letter to Gender:
Hi Gender, my name is Misako and I am writing this letter for you to tell you what I feel about you. At first, I really want to say you’re very brave person even you are playing a game which you forced to do by the beasts. If I were you, I would not do anything and just sit down and cry, because if I lose the game, the beasts will eat me! But also, you have twin younger brothers and you have to take care (have a responsibility) for them too. I do not have younger brother or sister, so I do not know how people feel about your younger siblings, but you finally won the game! This part encouraged me. The reason is that I play soccer and if my opponent gets the shoot, I always give up continue playing, but after I read the story I felt I should not give up! I might have something lucky if I don’t give up to something. Therefore, I really respect you and I hope you can win the next game against Level 3 beasts. Thank you and good luck!

Independent Reading Response #1

The Beast from the East (Goosebumps)

Response #1: Pg 1 – 26
Response Type: Reaction and Evaluation

I’m reading a book call ‘Goosebumps’ by R.L.Stine. Ginger Wald, the narrator and her identical twins brother, Nat and Pat separate from the parents, get lost in the forest during the camp. She and her family know how to take care when they get lost, but this time, they notice that the grass is yellow, the bushes are purple, and the trees are as tall as skyscrapers. In that wood, what they see is the large blue like bear beast and they are trying to get Ginger and brothers! There are many reasons why I like this book.

At first, I like the characters especially the identical twins brother Nat and Pat because they have very unique characteristics. For Nat, he really loves to climb the trees and if he is gone, everyone knows that he is climbing the trees, so someone must look up at the woods all the time. On the other hand, Pat has Game Boy every time and every where. If one of the brothers has a Game Boy, their family can realize that is Pat and this is the only way they can notice who is Nat or Pat. The writer describes the characters a lot and I can imagine how each person like. Also those people are really realistic. Some people might have the same personality as them. If there were in real world, I would want to meet them.

Furthermore, I like the genre of this book which is horror and also the way the writer changes the chapter. For example, a chapter ends after the dialogue “The beasts have got us!” I was really nervous and in my brain, I predict many way what happened to next. I don’t read next chapter yet, but I can predict two ways that the beasts will bring them to their house and eat them or the beasts will play with three of them. I also like the eeriness of the front page. It shows this book scares and that motivates students to read it, if they like horror story.

I read only 26 pages and I think next chapter is the most interesting part for me. I like this book because it describes each character and setting very much and also it is horror. Before I finish reading this book, I predict that the climax will be the beasts, Ginger, Nat and Pat become friend and find Ginger’s parents together. I didn’t have enough time to read the book last week, but now I want to read this book as soon as possible and want to continue to read this series.

Gr.11 Misako English response #1

"The Year of Impossible Good-Bye"

Aug.26. 08

What is Sook Nyul Choi's attitude to the occupation of Korea?
What is her purpose in writing?

I think Sook Nyul Choi's attitude is very complicated because she loves both Korea and America. She might feel angry at America, but she cannot. America is her second home country, so she cannot say anything about America. For Japanese occupation, I think she got angry about it because Japanese forced her to move in America and her culture became all Japanese culture as well. Therefore, she was really angry at Japan and she might not forget what Japan did to her and her family.

Her purpose in writing is to show how Japanese people treat and use Korean people and by telling those facts, many other countries people can know what happened to Korea and Japan during that time. In my opinion, she wants modern people to know about the history and wants young people to stop doing like that kind of things. Also, I think she wants to tell the relationship between Japan-Korea, and America(Russia as well)-Korea. If people know how other countries people are doing, everyone can know about the world and their cultures. Therefore, her purpose is to share the feelings, ideas, and about each country and its people's life by using all her experiments.