Stolen Children

Reader’s Journal #7

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,                                                                               10/11/11

I just finished reading Stolen Children by Peg Kehret.  I enjoyed this book a lot.  At the beginning of this book it was sad because Amy’s dad died in a car accident and she had never said sorry to her dad about not being responsible.  At the end, this book was a little bit scary.

            The protagonist of this book is Amy.  The antagonist of this book are Hung and Smokey.  The foil characters are Jane and Kendra.  They were in a cabin in the woods.  It was sunny.  Hung and smokey were poor and wanted more money, so they kidnapped Kendra and Amy which is the conflict.  The main conflict was man vs. man and it was external.  The genre of this book is mystery.

            First, Mrs. Edgerton asked Amy if she could babysit Kendra because Mrs. Edgerton was going to the hospital for five hour.  Mrs. Edgerton leaves and closes the door.  Amy forgets to lock the door because she was giving Kendra ice cream.  Amy falls asleep for an hour and a half and Kendra sleeps for two hours so she thinks she woke up in time.  She goes upstairs to check on Kendra and couldn’t find her after searching the whole house.  Then heard an engine and ran out because she thought  it was Mrs. Ederton.  But instead there was a white van and she saw Kendra inside.  Amy and Kendra went to a cabin in the woods.  They would send videos to show the Edgerton’s that they are ok.  Amy and Jorja played a game that included clues and the person has to guess what they are trying to say.   Well Amy would say clues like remember Mrs. Cara, Mr. White and Mrs. Van to explain that they have a white caravan.  Then they were finally found and they got home.

            The tone and mood of this book is scary.  The theme and moral is if you are babysitting, always lock the door and pay attention to who your babysitting.  The author’s point of view is third person.  The pattern of organization is cause and effect.  The author’s purpose was to entertain.  Five types of figurative language I found in this book we similes, metaphors, hyperbole, irony and analogy.

            Two strategies I used before reading this book was skim and scanning and asking questions.  Two strategies I used while reader were answering my questions and summarizing each chapter.  Two strategies I used after reading writing my reader’s journal and summarizing the whole story.

I would rate this book a 10, 1 being the lowest, and 10 being the highest.

                                                                                                Sincerely,

                                                                                    Your favorite student Erika Alban

Harriet Ross Tubman

Reader’s Journal # 6

                     Dear Mrs. Zrihen,                       10/4/11

            I just finished reading Harriet Ross Tubman by Don Troy.  This book was a lot better than Where Washington Walked.  The genre of this book is biography because it’s about Harriet’s life, her real name was Araminta Ross.  The topic of this book would be slave freer because that is what she did that made her a hero.  The main idea was that Harriet freed many slaves.  The main idea was implied because I had to use supporting details to figure out the main idea.  For example, she helped other slaves all her life, she went to the south many times just to help slaves, and she even went back to the south even though a reward of $40,000 had been offered to whoever captured her. 

The essential message is that you accomplish more things when you are brave.  An example of cause and effect is she freed a lot of slave and they gave her respect.  Harriet and her family are different because Harriet is brave and her family isn’t, but they are alike because they were all slaves at one point. 

Some text features I saw were photographs, captions headings, title, cover, synopsis, subtitle, a timeline, table of contents, publication page, italics, glossary, and index.

The pattern of organization is chronological order because the book had dates and they were in order.  The author’s purpose was to inform.  The author’s point of view was in second person.  I didn’t see any figurative language because it was too serious. 

I would rate this book 8 out of 10, I being the lowest and ten being the highest.  I rated this book 8 out of 10 because I didn’t get bored but I wanted the book to be more detailed.

Two strategies I used while reading were skim and scanning and read the synopsis.  Two strategies I used during were looking at the words I didn’t know in the glossary and summarizing each section.  Two strategies I  used after were writing my reader’s journal and looked at the timeline at the back of the book.

                                                                                                Sincerely,

                                                                                    Your favorite student Erika Alban