Ransom Riggs I love you!!!!!

Ransom Riggs

Ransom Riggs is a accomplished author, he has written many books. The ones he is most known for is his series Miss        Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. I love these books!!!! So far he has only written two and a third one is coming out. The covers of these books are very eye catching. On the cover there is a picture of a girl in is a 1920s dress. she has a cute little tiara she looks pretty normal except one thing, she is floating above the ground. This picture is one of the character in the book. When I was in the book store and saw this book I was intrigued just the cover made me want to buy it. This series has made Ransom Riggs my new favorite author. Riggs has added pictures to his stories which most YA writers do not do such a thing. With these photos Riggs tells as a story. he has borrowed these pictures from collectors who have lent there personal archives. Riggs also collects some of the pictures himself he started collecting vintage snapshots at flea markets. he began to wonder who some of the strange looking children where. He started with the photos and made stories off of them. Riggs said "It was a fun, strange, organic writing process, unlike anything I had attempted." I find this very amazing.
So the first book Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, starts out with a boy named Jacob. When Jacobs Grandfather dies he is devastated. Jacob whats to find the truth to his grandfathers tales and pictures. Jacob goes back to the island where his grandfather spent his childhood. Jacob discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Jacob finds that the children may not have just been peculiar but also dangerous. And somehow impossible though it seems they may still be alive. Duh duh duhhhhh. The book is so thrilling. And it is a must read. I have bought Hollow City and will keep you all updated when I am finished. Ransom Riggs style and "peculiarness" has made these books wonderful. READ THEM!!!!!                

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children here is a link to buy it.

Here I want you to buy Hollow City Its Wonderful!!!

Love you all please comment and subscribe. And most of all read!!

"Quotes"

Quotes are important to literature. They help us remember what was written or said before. I think quotes are very important to us in our society. People rely on them in many ways. I use quotes in two ways. One way is for motivation, my favorite one right now is one by Gandhi.

" You must be the change you wish to see the world."-Gandhi

I love this quote it inspires me to "change the world." On some days it is my motivation. This is a very known quote by Gandhi. I think this is the most meaningful was to use quotes. There are different types of motivational quotes. There are ones that are just for motivation, also for joy like a funny quote. There are also motivational quotes for remembering.  I have one that I use from my story. I write it on a note card and stuck it on my desk.

" I just wanted to be a tree."-Ethel

This quote is taken from the story I am writing. In this chapter my character Ethel is young and has pretended to be a tree, and her Mother beats her for it. I use this quote to make me remember to write in my story. I love this quote from my story because it shows the imaginative nature of Ethel. I love using quotes they are beneficial to me. These quotes I have shown are more sentimental, but there are other ways to use quotes. One way is for evidence. You use this a lot in essays. When you read a passage and are asked to do an essay or short answer you have to use evidence for the passage. This is effective because you are giving your claim and it is not strong without evidence. Quotes are used in many ways and they strengthen who we are as people and as a community. 

Here are some great quotes about writing!!!

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” 
― Maya Angelou

“No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.” 
― Robert Frost

“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.” 
― Anaïs Nin

“History will be kind to me for I intend to write it.”
― Winston Churchill

“A word after a word after a word is power.” 
― Margaret Atwood

“Write what should not be forgotten.” 
― Isabel Allende

“You always get more respect when you don't have a happy ending.” 
― Julia Quinn

“I hate writing, I love having written.” 
― Dorothy Parker

“You can fix anything but a blank page.” 
― Nora Roberts

“Deliver me from writers who say the way they live doesn't matter. I'm not sure a bad person can write a good book. If art doesn't make us better, then what on earth is it for.” 
― Alice Walker

“A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.” 
― Friedrich Nietzsche

“some moments are nice, some are
nicer, some are even worth
writing
about.” 
― Charles Bukowski

“The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes. ” 
― Agatha Christie

“You are what you write.” 
― Helvy Tiana Rosa

“If I do not write to empty my mind, I go mad.” 
― George Gordon Byron

“There's no such thing as perfect writing, just like there's no such thing as perfect despair.” 
― Haruki Murakami

“It is the tale, not he who tells it.” 
― Stephen King

“I never exactly made a book. It's rather like taking dictation. I was given things to say. ” 
― C.S. Lewis

“My bursting heart must find vent at my pen.” 
― Abigail Adams

“That's all we have, finally, the words, and they had better be the right ones.” 
― Raymond Carver

Book Groups; The Joys, and Pains.

Book groups can be a joy or a pain. It is really not fun when they waste time, but they can also be a good experience. I am in a book club right now, we are reading the book "Make Lemonade" by Virginia Euwer Wolff. So far I have found it a very enjoyable read and written very well. The problem with the book club I am in is that most of the other people don't share the same interest in reading as I. They don't like to participate and are not benefiting from the book. This is one of the pains to book clubs, people. Not all people share the same interest in books as you or I. Some think it's a waste of time. So when you are in a book club with those types of people it is hard. Another pain is the book. Not always do you get a book that you like. When other people choose the book usually they have different taste than you. It's a fact that when you don't like the book you don't get as much out of it.  And it is really not fun to read a book that you don't like. Always be willing to step out of your reading comfort zone, but don't think it's a fault of your own if you don't like a book. It is not fun to be forced into a book club and for me most of the time it is not fun. Have a book club that is fun for everyone. Some things that are very enjoyable about book clubs if that you get to read more books. This is the point of book clubs to read a good book and then talk about it. Have an intelligent conversation about reading. This reason is why I love book clubs. There are alway pains of book club, but join one it is worth it.

So sorry about the wait I had a super busy week. Don't worry I am still working on posting every week. Don't forget to comment and subscribe.

Let's talk about Goodreads.

I have had Goodreads for a while now and I thought it was time for me to share my thoughts about them. If you don't know Goodreads is a social media site for readers. You can search books, review them, rate them, post what you are reading, what you want to read, join book groups, make "friends," and much more. Right know Goodreads has about 20 million users, only about 2% of the number of Facebook users. Goodreads is big but not huge. I would never thought that social media and books would mix, but this is the 21 century. So when social media and books interbred it created this Goodreads. I used to be into Goodreads, but my attention span was short for this.  Once they took away the free ebooks I lost interest. I want to read while I am posting about I what I am reading!!!!!!! Don't you understand!!!!!! Darn you Goodreads, taking away my free ebooks! :) Well they did take away the ebooks but they still give you suggestions on books to read. I have read none of my suggestions. Sad huh. I would think that the point of Goodreads is to make you want to read more. If that is true it is not working. I want to read more, but not because of Goodreads. I think it is because of the social media aspect. there are alway annoying people in social media. Some people who review books don't know what they are saying. I just finished To Kill A Mocking Bird and I was about to rate it when I saw this person. I will leave the person unnamed.

"I could give this no stars, I would. This is possibly one of my least favorite books in the world, one that I would happily take off of the shelves and stow in dark corners where no one would ever have to read it again... The characters are one dimensional...(characters) have no identity outside these roles... there is none of the delightfully subversive slyness that real children have, the sneakiness that will ultimately allow them to grow up." 

This person goes on and on about the failure this book is. Books don't win the Pulitzer prize because of one-dimensional characters. I acknowledge this persons opinion, but I do not agree. I believe I will always keep Goodreads, but I also believe that it is nice to just read a book and un-plug ( then you can re-plug.)

The New York Times has a great article about Goodreads, click here to view it.

I am on Goodreads so friend me and follow me, I will try to make myself more visible

.

Essays every one hates them right?!?

Essay writing!!

Essays, everyone hates them right? Well so over my vacation not only was I writing my own story, I also had to write a persuasive essay on nature vs. nurture. Fun? That is what I thought. I really enjoy persuasive essays, because I have strong opinions I like to question and talk about views, problems, people, and society, and much, much more.  It's a gift and a curse, mostly a gift :). So when my language arts teacher said she was partnering up with my science teacher to write an essay I was like ok, I can do this I like persuasive essays. And I still do, but I learned some things over this writing essays. Don't just assume that something is easy, always try your hardest, and be willing to change. So to tell my story I need to explain the essay. The essay was about nature vs. nurture and what is a bigger impact on humans. I after a lot of research I came to the conclusion that nurture has the most impact.  So in in science we researched , and in language arts we wrote. I had done many persuasive essay in 5th grade, they would make us do them monthly on the spot to mark our progress.  Now or this essay we had about a week to write it. We were given all these articles about the subject. After we read them we ware given a paper that said this

Example paragraph using my evidence from this source:

The most important impact on a person's life is _____________________. In the source called, "________________________________" it states that ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ This supports my claim because _______________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________

So I was fine with doing this for the articles. It did not help me though. But then I was told that these should be used as our body paragraphs. I really don't like the structure of this. Its so basic no originality. I like to be original. She also gave us a packet that told us to do everything. I kinda did not follow the packet I did not just do the basic. 

Once I was finished I was so happy with myself I thought I did so great. I was ready to turn it in but, I always like to have someone check over my work to get feedback. The problem was the feedback I wanted was it is "perfect." I was so wanting to be done so when I had someone read it I was mad that it needed so many changes. I got frustrated at the person even though it was my work I was mad at. I WANTED TO BE DONE!!!!! I did understand what the person was saying and after blowing off some steam I took a deep breath and listened to the feedback. This made my essay ten times better, I was able to improve. This post is more about listening  to your feedback, and be able to change. It also shows that essays can bring out the best/worst in you.

Now this has nothing to do with the meaning of this post, but you 200 people who are viewing my blog, I want you to comment and subscribe. So you can receive my weekly posts!!!!

Also I had a new idea, I love reading books and I want all of you to give me suggestions and maybe I will review it on my blog. The best would be if there young adult (because the blog is about young adult reading and writing.) I would love for you to give me any ideas to blog about and I will say that you gave my the suggestion.

Thanks so much,

Aidyn Stevens