Letters About Literature

To Lieutenant Colonel Jay Kopelman and Melinda Roth,

            The novel that you wrote From Baghdad, With Love was an excellent book to read. I liked how you teamed up with Jay and wrote the book from his point of view and how you put his personality and speech into it. The book really drawed me in whenever it wasn’t in an official format but instead in the words of a Lieutenant Colonel. You were very well at explaining the hardships in Iraq. Since you guys teamed up together to write this you had solid facts to base all of your writings on. It seemed like Jay would basically tell you the whole story of his travels in Iraq and then you would transform that and put it in paper but at the same time still keep it very interesting. I really liked the book because you exposed a lot of the things that are happening in Iraq that nobody ever notices. What really hit me is when Jay explained that going out to a Port-a-potty could be a life or death situation. The littlest things like that most times add up to being the most stressful things. It’s hard to even imagine living on the brink of death every second you’re out in Iraq. In school we always learned about the 911 attacks and suicide bombers but I never really understand and grasped what they did until I read your book. It was crazy how Jay seemed to always be on the alert for a bomb. It seemed like everywhere he planned to go he would have to think about the situation like crazy so he wouldn’t die. Its crazy how much we take to granted in life. Just a simple trip to school could be influenced by a suicide bomber crashing into your car. I have to say the best part of your book is when Jay talks about Lava. It’s hilarious to see how this big tough military man meets his match in a small puppy. I like it when you describe Lava as a means of keeping all of the men in the military sane. It’s awesome how you say that Lava makes the men think of home and make them feel like normal people again. I think everyone deserves that feeling especially those that are fighting the wars for us so that we don’t have to. I think that not many people realize how impacting being in the military lives. After they get into a fight a piece of them dies and never comes back. A lot of veterans in the world today have scars about past wars. Not just physical scars but also mental scars. They still have all the memories of the terrible things that they encountered over the course of the war. Your book really opened my eyes to a lot of the military things that happened. Your book was very impacting and I now have a newfound respect for all the veterans and people now serving in the military.

  

My Feelings on the 21st century Classroom

   I really love the fact that our class gets to blog. Blogging has helped me understand the books way better than just simply writing an essay about them. Usually people, myself included, will just take the essay prompt without even reading the whole entire book and just look at the book for answers for all the essay problems. But Blogging is different than that. Since we blog every week, I instead read my book step by step and blog as we go each week. I love how we divide blogging into each week because it is way easier to do it that way. Its also cool because instead of having a six page paper due in like a week we do a page a week due in six weeks which is one of the best things about blogging. I also really think the fact that we get to communicate with other schools about blogging is also awesome. In our school Mrs. Hayes is pretty much the only teacher that does blogging from what I've heard. But since we have been communicating with Fremd we have found another school that blogs. Its also awesome to see their viewpoints on the books that I have read and even on some books that I haven't read yet. It helps me look at the books in a different way and helps me overall understand what they are talking about.

Music for From Baghdad, With Love

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PXSK3iDeAI This song is called Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue by Toby Keith. I chose this song because its all about American pride and how we should be really proud to all of the men who are serving in the military. I think this song has a lot to do about my book. A brief summary of my book is a military man that is in Iraq found a stray puppy there and is trying to get it to America. The story from there on is showing all the struggles and hardships he has to face just to do this. The song has tons of support for the troops and points out how hard it is for the people overseas. The man in the novel explains a tons of times about the many bombs over at Iraq and the amount of suicide bombers and how his life is threatened everyday. He explains how even taking the time to use an outdoor restroom can get you killed. This song really points out how much you need to respect the people that are fighting so hard for us so we don't have to fight. Overall I chose to use this song because it was a very Patriotic song telling us to respect the veterans and the men that are serving right now.

SparkNotes Analysis

   Sparknotes has been used through the years as a tool to slack off and procrastinate. If you had to read a couple chapters in a book, just sparknote it instead and read a summary over the few chapters. But honestly, is Sparknotes better than reading your book? In my opinion it isn't. Sparknotes just gives a brief summary, while the book itself gives all the information. Noone can explain the book better than the author that wrote that book. I went to the Sparknotes website and searched up my book and no results showed up for my book title. This also goes to show how bad relying on sparknotes is. The best way to look up information on your book is to quit being lazy and actually read the book you chose. Sparknotes is overall a useful site if you didn't understand the chapter you read and wanted someone else to sum it up for you. But besides that reading your book is a way better way to learn.

2nd quarter blog-The Redemption!

     One word to describe my first quarter blog, failure. I could of put a lot more effort and personality into my blog. I'm planning on putting forth more effort and putting more of my personality into the blog this quarter. I also need to pay attention to the blog prompts more. On some of the blogs I should have wrote way more sentences than I did.
     Honestly I love blogging. I have never liked writing essays in English class. I've always been so terrible at writing essays and overall didn't like English class. But blogging makes English class way easier. We still do the same amount of writing but we do it in a way that is easy for me. Blogging just takes off all the stress that comes with papers. Working on the Blogging every week is also a very good idea because instead of doing a paper in one week we do one Blog entry per week.
   

Critique

To Pierre McCauley,
   I completely agree about the problem of procrastination. With blogging being due months into the future it is very easy to put it off until last minute. Also i agree about the point that you need to focus on your book more. I also had this same problem. I look forward to seeing all of your posts about "Hold me Closer Necromancer". I was thinking about reading this book but I didn't know if it would be good or not. I'm looking forward to seeing your more creative and hilarious blog posts.

To Jamieson Deamer,
   I completely agree with your opinion on why you got the grade you did. I too did the same thing you did and had around the same grade. I agree that one way to improve the way we blog is to not cram all the blogs into the day before they are all due. I also missed some blog days which screwed me up a bit. I also agree that all the blog prompts were easy to understand. I think that overall the reason we got the grades that we did were because we slacked off and procrastinated a bit when it came to blogging.

To Josh Darling,
   I agree that its crucial to use all the time in class for your blogging. Last quarter I kind of blew off the blog and I know i could have improved my blogging in a ton of ways. I also had the same problems with the Vlogging and know this time that I should either do a different topic or upload the video while at the school. Last quarter I read Ship Breaker so I'll be following your blog to see your thoughts and opinions on it.

Music that relates to Ship Breaker

http://www.classicalconnect.com/Piano_Music/Gabrielyan/10_Impromtus/2687- This seems like a slower and more laid back song. I think that this relates to my book because it shows Nailer's Feelings towards Nita. I think that overall this song shows all of the emotion in my book.

Ship Breaker Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper_ships- This would help the reader of this book to understand what a clipper ship is. In this book they mention clipper ships a lot. The rich people in this book are always on a clipper ships and the main character is always dreaming about being on one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poverty- The main character in this book is very poor. He barely eats food because he cant afford it. This link will help the reader understand the types of things the main character has to go through.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane- In the story a hurricane hits the Island they live on. By reading this the reader will more fully understand the full impact of what a storm can do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_tanker- The main characters main occupation is ship breaking. Ship breaking is the process of scavenging old parts out of old oil tankers that have no oil left in them. By reading this the reader will understand the harsh working conditions that the main character has to go through.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island- The main character lives on an Island. By reading this the reader will start to understand the environment the main character lives on. This will help them to better understand the setting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port- Later on in the story the main character goes and stays at a ship port for awhile. By reading this the reader will better understand what a ship port is and what it looks like. It will overall help the reader to understand the setting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copper- The main character strips copper from old ships as a ship breaker. By reading this the reader can better understand the uses and worth of copper. Also by reading this the reader might start to understand how rough stripping copper wire is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drunk- The main characters father is an alcoholic. By reading this the reader can better understand what alcohol is. Also it could help the reader to better understand how alcohol can affect somebody.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth- The main character works for very wealthy people. The main character also encounters some conflicts with rich people. By reading this the reader will better understand what being wealthy is and why wealthy people act in certain ways.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team- The main character has other people on his crew that compete against other crews. They all work together and trust each other to accomplish making quota each day, By reading this the reader can better understand the main characters feelings towards the rest of his crew.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence- In the book the main character encounters a ton of violence. By reading this the reader will better understand what violence is and what it can do. It will help the reader understand all the results of violence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean- In the book the main character swims in the ocean and sometimes travels on a ship over an ocean. By reading this the reader will better understand what an ocean would be like. This would help the author to better understand the setting of this book.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution- The main character encounters a ton of polluted waters throughout the book. By reading this the author will better understand the challenges the main character has to go through. The reader will better understand what pollution does to the environment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_breaking- The main character's job is a ship breaker. By reading this the reader can understand what ship breaking is. Also by reading this the reader could better understand the challenges that a ship breaker has to go through.
http://www.newscientist.com/special/drowned-cities-myths-secrets-of-the-deep- In the setting of this book there is multiple cities that are now underwater. By reading this the reader will better understand part of the setting of the story. This will also help them develop an image in there mind of the setting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forge- The main characters job is ship breaking. When they strip the valuable metals from the ship the only thing that is usable is the things that are able to be smelted down by using a forge. By reading this the author will be able to understand the functions of a forge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warship- In the book the main character fights against a warship. By reading this the reader can better understand what fighting a warship would actually be like. It could also help[ the reader create a visual image in there mind about what a war ship is.
http://www.thepirateking.com/historical/cannon_garrison_and_ship_guns.htm- During the book the main character fights on ship. By reading this the reader can understand how cannons are used on a ship. They can also find out the advantages and disadvantages of having a ship.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bargaining- In the book the main character is always bargaining items. He is always trading things for food or trading things for clothes. By reading this the reader will better understand the concept of bargaining.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kidnap- In the book the main characters friend gets kidnapped by his father. By reading this the reader can better understand the concept of kidnapping. This could also help the reader to understand why people kidnap.

Vlog about ship breaker

A Vlog post about my book, "Ship Breaker"

Pictures of Ship Breaker

A cannon from the ship
the main character is on

The main character killed
someone with a knife




Setting

 


Oil Ship

 

Broken Ships lay on the beach ready
to be stripped of there valuabe materials




Copper Wire

 






Oil is rare in the book

 



A huge storm hits the Island





The main characters Dad is a drunk with a dragon tattoo.

 





A Clipper Ship

 





A train that travels across the Island



They live in a Shack



They work to strip materials from ships for money



Stripped metal from a ship



Anything that can be melted
down can be sold for money



Alot of cities have sunk underwater from
the various amount of "citykiller" storms



The main characters father is an alcoholic and
some people on the Island sell alcohol for a profit

Setting

Gold will automatically make you
rich if you live in this time period

Ship Port

 

My comments

To Angel Agrawal,
   Very good explanation on your biography. I feel that you really showed your personality through your writing. I feel that your future blogs will be just as entertaining as this one has been. I think you chose a very good book that fits your personality. I can tell that you are a total gun and war head and this book seems to have plenty of that in it.

To Cody Zamora,
   I think you really showed your personality throughout this blog. You made a blog post that didn't describe yourself at all actually interesting. It seems that when you wrote this you were completely out of your comfort zone for essay topics. You did a really good job "winging it". Your biography is overall really good because you give no information about yourself but you actually also tell a lot about yourself. You show that you are more of a guy that keeps people guessing.

To Alex Burke,
 Very good way to show your personality through your writing. It seems like you are a very complex person. You also seem like a very smart guy because you are into band and robotics. You seem to be a very talented person.

Biography of Me

   Hello there my name is Nick Clerk. I am 16 and attend CCHS as a junior. I live in Carbondale, Il in the middle of Nowhere. In my spare time i like to videogame it up and also play basketball. I also like to go fishing every now and then. Most people call me the gentle giant because i am one of the largest people in my high school but i wouldn't hurt a fly. I am usally very calm and chill. I live at home with my Mom and I also have a sister that is 6 years older then me and she lives in her own house. I also only play one instrument which is the drum set, but i cannot read music. When I was younger in the 4th and 5th grade i played the trumpet but nowadays i cannot remember how to read music. One "unique" skill of mine is I know how to rope cattle. I have never actually rode on a horse and roped a cow but i can rope small immobile objects such as a tree stump or a bush. I dont play any school sports or do any extracurricular activities. I am overall just your regular, average, ordinary guy.
    The purpose of this blog is to blog about the book i am currently reading. The book i am reading is called Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi. I actually didnt intend on reading this book. I went up the the library shelves with the intent on grabbing A Boy Who Dared. When i actually got to the shelves they were all out of the book that i wanted so i randomly picked up this book cause i thought it looked at least semi-interesting. So far the book has met up with my standards of a good book. The beginning of the book is kind of boring but the exciting parts are starting to happen so it makes you wanna come back and read more of it. Overall i think the book is getting progressively more interesting and I think overall i will enjoy reading this whole book.
   I think that we should do alot more opinionated blogs. To me it is really easy to write about how I view things. I also really like creative writing. Using your imagination in writing makes the writing so easy. I basically like every type of essay except for research papers. In my opinion i would like to blog about recent events happening in our books and also our opinions of those events that happened in our books.