readers journal #12

Reader’s Journal #12

                        Dear Mrs. Zrihen,                                                                                       11/1/11

            I am currently reading The Lost Boy by Dave Pelzer.  I am really enjoying this book.  First, David, the main character, runs away because his mother abused him.  Then one day he went to school and the police came to pick him up.  When they got to the police station, the police called David’s mother to tell her that he was going to juvenile.  Then the police told David on the highway that he was free.  A drop of tear came out of his eye because he was so happy.  Then they took him to a place where there were kids.  He was in court with his mother to decide if he wanted to stay with her or not.  He decided not to.  And then a family wanted him.  He had his own room.  And rules he had to follow were don’t steal, go into other kids room, and has to tell where he is going and for how long.

The genre of this book is memoir.  If I would change the title, I would change it to A Foster Child.  The main idea of this book is that David is now free; he is away from his mom.  The main idea is implied because I had to use supporting details to figure it out.  For example,  he is with another family, a tear came out of his eye when the police officer told him that he was free, and when Carl told David the rule that he can go anywhere, David said “anywhere?”  an example of cause and effect is that his mother abused him so he didn’t  want to live with her and ran away.  His new home rules are different from his old home rules.  in his old home, he had to keep the secret about what his mother does to him and in his new home he doesn’t need to keep a secret.  They are both alike because he has to do chore but less in his new home, like to just help.  In his other home he was a slave and didn’t get feed food.  Five text features that I found were italics, title, picture, subtitle, and headings.  The pattern of organization can be cause and effect.  The author’s purpose is to share his life with other people.  The author’s point of view is first person.  I didn’t find any figurative language.  I would rate this book so far a 10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. 

            Two strategies I used before reading were predicting what the book would be about and skim and scanning.  Two strategies I used while reading were summarizing each section and reread a paragraph before starting to read where I left off.  Two strategies I used after were writing a reader’s journal and summarized everything I read so far.

                                                                                   

Sincerely,

Your favorite student Erika Alban