Blog for Week 11/09/15- School's Out-Forever By James Patterson

     In the book School's Out-Forever by James Patterson, a big theme is family.  Family is a big theme in the book because it is supported by the conflict, the plot events, and the character's actions. This book is the second book in the sequel, Maximum Ride, which is also by James Patterson. In this book it just follows the lives of Max, Iggy, Fang, Gasman, Nudge, and Angel after they have discovered who they really are and who their parents are. All they ever knew in the world was just each other, so being together was really important. Especially when Erasers are chasing them around the country all the time, they are more powerful together than separate. The School is always sending out Erasers to capture them and bring them back. 

    

     Another reason why family is a big theme in this book is because of the plot events. When Iggy gets injured by an Eraser they need help from the outside world, so they take him to a hospital. Having 6 kids in the hospital by themselves is a little shady, the FBI shows up and decides to give the flock a home with an agent. They were originally suppose to leave Iggy in the hospital until he got better but everyone refused and stayed with him. They all knew what could have happened to him if he was alone the whole night, but stayed because there was no point in losing one of them. 

     The final reason why family is a big theme in this book is the character's actions. Max is the most who does most of the action in the book. When Max realizes that she is changing she tells Fang what is happening to her and gives him orders on what to do. She says "I took a deep breath. "If I turn into an Eraser," I said more strongly, "will you deal with it? To protect the others?"...If I turned into an Eraser, it would be his job to kill me." She told Fang because she knew he would understand and do what's right, no matter if it meant to kill Max. Max's actions aren't the only ones that support the theme of family, but she is the one that does more actions out of the rest of the flock, which indicate family.

Commented on Sumar's Blog, Amelia's Blog, and Hazelle's Blog.

First Quarter Reflection

    I have learned about the world so much this quarter, more than in the past years. I have learned about Mount McKinley being renamed, President Obama wanting to enforce more gun laws, Syrian refugees, people making fake online identities, and the weather on Mars. This has benefited me because now I actually know what is happening in other parts of the world. It's important for me to know what is happening around the world because I might be able to help someone in need in another country.

    Some strategies that I have benefited from are annotating and writing objective summaries. These strategies have helped me be able to understand different pieces of writing. Annotating for some reason has made reading articles and book more fun for me, because it lets me asks questions and write down different ideas. Writing objective summaries has become helpful for me because I know that in the future I am going to need to write summaries and instead of writing a paragraph, I can just write around 3 sentences.

    My research skills have improved because now I can cite a website properly and find key ideas in the writing. With the help of one website I can cite websites properly and now my work looks more professional than before. Now I don't have to keep rambling about one little detail in the article, I can find the main ideas and jot them down. These research skills will come very helpful in the future.