Six Word Memoir: Peak 4/27

                               Hard work, for nothing? Hope not.

    In the book Peak, fourteen-year-old Peak is climbing Mount Everest with his dad and a climbing team. Even though he is with people to help him, he could fall into the trap of sickness, most likely to get a sickness in which you can't breathe. It is really hard work climbing Mount Everest because you have to climb up and down   from multiple camps so many times that you feel like falling down dead right in the middle of a climb. Even at the camps, you could freeze from taking a fatal step outside. So far, a few climbers have gotten sick and had to be taken back down. That means not climbing Everest because you have to have perfect timing. The worst it could get: Peak would have to fail his attempt on trying to be the youngest person to climb Everest. 

             Could all of this hard work be for nothing?

(Hard work: reading the book, For Nothing?: I might get a fine, Hope not: hope to finish book before next Wedsday so I won't get a fine)

Character Reflection 4/25

    This week I'm reading Peak by Roland Smith. In this book, Peak Marcello lives in New York and (illegally) climbs skyscrapers. His long lost father is a famous climber and he presents an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them to summit Mt. Everest together. That would mean he would be the youngest person ever to stand above 29,000 feet! Immediately, Peak says yes and they go on an adventure full of surprises lurking around every corner. Will he make it to the peak of fame?
    Peak has some very interesting character traits. His first trait is hard to put into words. It is like a cross between being brave, reckless and impudent. Here is a passage that describes it.

I was trying to decide what to leave behind when Captain Shek walked up........."Where he go?" I shrugged. "You lying to me! I kick you off mountain if you lie." "Go ahead." I said, zipping my pack closed. Probably not the brightest thing to say, but I'd had enough of Captain Shek and everything else on Everest. He looked like he was about to explode. I don't think he was used to having a fourteen-year-old call his bluff............"I watching you." I walked away feeling his eyes drilling into the back of my neck, proud of myself for not even thinking about ratting out Sun-jo.

That passage might help you understand Peak's trait better. Peak is also very independent for fourteen. An inference that I made about this is that he became more self-reliant because he choose to be alone a lot. Peak is a very unique person. My inferences include the one about Peak's independence. Another inference that I made was that Peak can be himself more with his dad than his mom or step-dad. I almost want to say that Peak is a real person. Roland Smith makes you believe that he is more than real, but someone who you can relate to. It's not like his feelings are all the same or different. Instead, his emotions go in a cycle, with some feelings to choose from. Also, this is a realistic fiction novel so it has more lifelike characters. Overall, I like Peak. I think that his emotions, family, hobbies, and the basics of a character are well chosen. I also despise his lack of humor and the way he doesn't care about other characters that much, except himself. If I were the author, I would first change the things that I despise about Peak. In the whole book Peak is never really exhilarated. I would make him more enthusiastic about things in certain parts because this is Mount Everest. You've got to be thrilled at some point! Here are some reasons of why Peak is needed and important in the story. Peak is the main character and that is one of the most important roles in a story. Peak is also writing this as a documentary for his English teacher and without him, the writer, there would be no story!    I think that this is a fabulous novel and that you should all try this book. Come and get it off the shelf right away or all the copies will be gone! (P.S. It's really overdue, so I'm aiming to finish it by Friday and find out what happens.)

Reading Reflection 4/19

    This week I read The Extraordinary Education Of Nicholas Benedict by Trenton Lee Stewart. It is the fourth book in the Mysterious Benedict Society series. First, I made a connection to Nicholas' love to read. To some people, this may seem like a "normal" connection, but it is really extreme. You might say that we have the "Reading Flu". If you've never experienced it, it's like a secret that would make you the richest person in the world lies in the pages in a secret code and you're searching for it. No matter what, you have to find out the secret! Here is a sneak preview into how extreme it can get. "Nicholas gasped. Could it be true? He sprang to the door and tried the knob. It was unlocked. Ignoring Mrs. Brindle's sputtering protests, he swung the door open and barged into the darkness beyond. He held up the lamp-and gasped again. Three walls of books. Floor-to-ceiling books. Books in the thousands...........By some miracle, he had not fallen asleep, despite witnessing the most exciting spectacle of his life." Nicholas had lived in orphanages all of his life and none of them had libraries. If I were put in his shoes, I would have done the exact same thing. I am a true bookworm!
    Loneliness can hit you like a bullet, and there's no stopping it. Here is an excellent example of my connection to Nicholas. "The truth was that it was one of his worst. Nicholas had never felt so lonely. But nobody in this wretched orphanage was going to know that. Not if he could help it. And as soon as he possibly could, he would be leaving them all behind forever. Starting tonight." I think that a lot of other girls, including myself, have felt this way before. The time that I had that lonely feeling the strongest was with my friends. All of my friends had always played together in one large group. Then, one year, some of my closest friends broke away and formed a group with some other girls. They didn't necessarily do things that intrigued me, so I just did the same things that we had always done. After a while, a couple of my friends broke away, but only a few of my friends actually played with me anymore. I felt like all of a sudden I became an outcast, and they had thrown me away and moved on to the next popular thing. I felt like I was abandoned. The weird thing was that this only happened at school! When we were alone together they were their old, funny selves. I really wish that people wouldn't do that to each other. I would recommend this book in a second!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!