Half Brother Literature Circle Blog

Half Brother By: Kenneth Oppel

Our EQ was how does the relationship between Ben and Zan affect Ben and his Dad's relationship? Once we had read the first few chapters because Ben and his Dad had this separation because of the whole move and all. It tied into our novel study at the end because that question was answered when Ben and his Dad reconnected to save Zan. They both wanted to help him and they both have the same goal.

As we progressed to through the book. The family was talking a little bit about bio medical labs. Ben learned that the bio medical labs were really bad and that Zan shouldn't be kept there at all. After Zan had bitten a student, they were going to a university to learn more about these bio medical labs.

When  Peter are Ben got their, the speaker was describing the bio medical labs during his presentation about them. He has specifically said in his presentation "should we be torturing animals so we can heal humans? Is that fair?" (Paragraph 2, pg. 165). That was what I thought was the most important thing he said and put a good picture in my head that these labs are terrible.

When I read the article I chose had said, "Sadly, in the early 1920s, experimenters in the U.S. began purchasing baby chimpanzees who had been kidnapped from the forests of Central and West Africa." The article had also said, To capture baby chimpanzees, hunters would kill the mother chimpanzees and any other adult chimpanzees who tried to defend the babies." This was from a source called "Chimpanzees in Laboratories." Now obviously both the person at the university and this author described the labs pretty negatively. The thing about sources is that they provide more information on a certain topic and books probably poetry them pretty vaguely only giving you the certain information.

Character Development Blog Second Post

In the book Bronx Masquerade, there were many characters who made tremendous changes.  The character who I think was developed the most throughout the story was Tyrone. First we see this kid named Tyrone. Tyrone is this very judgmental person and has a worry that he may die one day. He has this friend named Wesley who also has fear of dying and they both just want to survive. He seemed to care a little less about school then Wesley considering he said "school ain't nothin' but a joke," is evidence that he does not care about school which is probably the kind of attitude that drives his character because of where he lives and what he is exposed to. I also wanted to say that he never really cared for his classmates and that him and white people are have some sort of separation created.

Once we start to looking at the other students poems. As he listens he gives these little comments at the end. Comments like after listening to one of Janelle's poems, "I'm starting to feel like I know Janelle..." As he listens to some of these great poems, he feels connections between some of the poets like Janelle. When he listens to these poems he learns something different about each person who is reading that poem. Like what they want to do in life or maybe something that is effecting them very badly. Sometimes it can be from something that he has done. Like when Tanisha said "If Tyrone calls me "caramel cutie" one more time, I'll scream." Then once she read her poem he had said afterwards, "Now I know why the sista hisses every time I called her "caramel cutie." After listening to her poem, he obviously listened to it and understood what message Tanisha was trying to give. That is what made him change or in this case made him realize that he shouldn't call her that. That is how affected these poems can be.

When you get towards the end of the book when Tyrone takes over in the last chapter before the epilogue. Tyrone says something interesting, "It was kinda sad seeing the walls all bare." After looking at this quote, I knew that Tyrone had finally felt the importance of his school and what his fellow classmates were coming up with on Open Mike Fridays. The poems were obviously important to him and is what brought everyone in the class together no matter who they were, or what they looked like, and what their background was.

The setting of this book affects Tyrone and the story because, Bronx is not a healthy neighborhood, especially for teenagers. This probably brought out the worst of him considering his father was killed and he thinks that he will be killed soon enough. The characters affect him and the story because, his school welcomes a lot of people. In the story some characters we see are Hispanics, blacks, whites, and some are even Italian. He thinks that there has to be this separation between some cultures in his school just because he thinks that is the way things should be and he probably isn't the only person who feels that way. Once people shared their poem, that was what brought everyone together and that separation didn't seem to take affect as much anymore. The conflicts affected Tyrone and the because, sometimes a poem can share more feelings then others and can send messages to the people who are listening. If some people share a conflict their having and express it in their poem, when Tyrone gives his feedback he does have emotions towards peoples conflicts and sometimes feels for them. Lastly, plot impacts the story and Tyrone because, someones backstory and poem leads to the problems some other people are having which leads to the book introducing more of peoples back stories like Tyrone's when he comments on all the poems.

Do You Like What You're Reading

Currently, I am reading Half Brother. It is about a 13 year old boy named Ben. His parents are planning on raising a chimpanzee named Zan. They want to raise him to conduct research on him and teach him how to physically speak. 

I have to say, I do like what I'm reading. One thing I like about the book is that it is like a carbon copy of the movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes. I mean the movie literally has the same main idea as the book. They want to teach a monkey named Cezar how to talk. They first start out by signing with him just like the book does. I just thought I was really cool and there was even a cameo. Ben's friend had a Rise of the Planet of the Apes pinball machine.

I also liked the book because Ben is a very interesting character. He is basically indescribable. One day he acts like one person and the next day he acts like a totally different person. He acts like this because he seems to have to prove something when hanging out with that person or he just want to fit in. I just like how the book has him switch characters

. 

Poetry Reflection

Now that we have done poetry for over a month, I feel that poetry has it's importance, it's important in school. So far in my life, I did the most poetry in this class and all the poems and lessons that we learned were all different. It wasn't like the lessons and poems were boring, all of them were fun in their own way. You may not find poetry a vital part of your life, but it is a vital part of your life at school in this class.

 Honestly, I still think that poetry does not belong to everyone. Like I said, poetry may not be a vital part in everyones lives. It doesn't matter how long you go over in class, some kids still may not find it enjoyable. Maybe some poems that some kids had to do were hard for those certain kids. Mostly, kids may not like it because they probably think its boring, just based on what kids said before and what they say now that were finished with the lesson still think it's unenjoyable. That's how I know that poetry is not for everyone.

Of course everyones life is different, and different people have different experiences. Like Edgar Allen Poe for example, as you all know Edgar is not the most sane person in the world after viewing the Edgar Allen Poe web quest again. For a poet he is very creepy and insane. Now, what do you do you think make him insane. He is crazy for a reason, no one is just crazy. Poe is bizarre and insane because of his life. Edgar was crazy, alone, he had phycological issues and his life reflected on what he wrote in his poems and books, most of them were weird, crazy, creepy and they had so many other negative characteristics. After viewing some of his poems and researching on his life, this leads me to believe that poets life experiences do have an effect on their creations and that the poets life experiences are truly expressed through his or her creations.

Here is a poem about a tree. As you can see, the poem is quite short. When poets write their poems, mainly their poems structure is formed based on what they are writing and what the whole idea of the poem is about or is trying to get across the reader. If the poem is about a tree like this one, then maybe the poem will be formed into a tree of some sort. If the poem is depressing and is about sadness, then what I would think is that maybe the poem would look like a tear drop or just anything that symbolizes sadness. When I look at this poem I think "why is it so small?" "Why is it so short and why is the tree so short?" When I see the lines "a tiny tree, on a tiny table, with tiny lights, and a tiny star on top...." (just do you know, I put commas to crete a separation for different stanza of the poem) I think that maybe the poem is small because the poem is describing tiny objects like a tree, following up with other tiny objects that go on a tree at Christmas time. When the poet wrote this, he or she could have thought that maybe since the poem about the tree is talking about small things. Maybe these things should be described very briefly, then making the poem about the tree small. 

Here is another poem that is structured based on the main point if the poem. This is what I was talking about. Structures of poems are based on the poem. Like this poem with the apple. If I was going to change the formatting of the poem in a fun and cheerful way I would make the poe out of an apple. It makes sense because the poem is about apples so it wouldn't be irrelevant in any way to make my poem into a shape of an apple if I was writing the poem about apples. 

Nonsense Poem

Non fiction

Bio Poem

Spine/Found

"Where are you From" 

Prompt Blog - Do You Like What Your Reading

The book that I recently finished was called Born Too Short by Dan Elish. It is basically about two friends, Matt and Keith. They are two very different people, Matt looks at Keith like this perfect child. Keith has perfect hair, he has had a lot of girlfriends and has lots of friends. Matt describes himself as "born too short," he is not the most popular kid in school and has had only one girlfriend. They still like each other at first, but as time goes by things start to change about each character and their lives.

I liked this book because it really reflected on what we middle schoolers act like. The characters act just like us and do things just like us. Only in the book, I am guessing it is in the 90's. This shows me that school and the kids in them never change. the will always behave the same way for generations and generation. I really thought that was something cool that I noticed throughout the book. All middle schoolers may not be the same, but we all are a like, it wouldn't matter when the book was taken place, we would all act the same.

I also liked how this book really reflects on real problems students have now. Like girl trouble, arguments with friends, and peer pressure. It's kind of like what I said earlier, kids act the same no matter what year we are talking about. All these problems and way more happen all the time in Heritage and these problems will stick with all schools because that is just what happens when your in school. Problems like that are bound to happen.

Sanctuary - Nonsense Poem

"Afraid"

Hello, everyone

I thank you for coming today to listen to me ramble.

As we all know, there have been some concerning incidents

incidents that state that these voting ID laws affect the minorities votes

This outrages me

When I heard of this, I looked out my window

looked straight at a black women.

I looked as serious as someone who is at a funeral.

When I looked at this woman, I felt horrible, not just for her, for everyone, when I pictured

myself as this woman voting

I could see the hesitation from my eyes.

This hesitation making me sweat, I imagined myself as sweaty as cow,

sweating even worse than an cow.

I then saw this hesitation turning into fear, this fear was literally kicking at my brain and heart

making me think “will I get judged based on my vote.”

I see this in all different people, blacks, Asian, and the list goes on.

I don’t want this fear in all you people.

Even if researchers do say that minority votes dropped 4.7 percent in states that

have strict voting laws

Or, that the effect that these votes have on presidential candidates

We can change this

I don’t want our upcoming president to fear that their votes will ruin them

I don’t want a president who shouldn’t be president

And we can’t fear these laws, if it means changing them then so be it.

Poem inspired by: Strict Voter ID laws have a greater effect on minorities, liberals 

Bio Poem

Tyrone,

Judgmental, critical, unattached, badboy

A character is "Bronx Masquerade"

A lover of being bad, learning from experiences, and being in Mr. Ward's class

Who notices what he has done wrong, what he has to do right, and notices good poetry

Who feels true , strong emotions, and strong feelings in poetry

Who learns from his mistakes, and learns what he should do

Who used to think is was going to die

But now knows he is alive and will be alive

Major character in "Bronx Masquerade"

A book that shows, people's true self, people's history, and people's livelihood