TKAMB

Jem Finch took the jury’s verdict of Tom Robinson as guilty very hard. He was upset not only for his dad, but he knew the only reason why Tom had lost the case. The jury saw a color distinction, and it was obvious that they didn’t make their decisions solely on the evidence as Atticus had told them to. Aunt Alexandra was mainly worried about Atticus. She was saying that this case was affecting his health. From my point of view she could’ve cared less.

Dill I think was the most effected person out of anyone in the whole book. Even before the verdict was decided he finally saw the prejudice and racism that was occurring in the world around him. He realized that everything was all wrong. He finally saw the truth when the verdict was decided. He’ll never think the same way again. When the children came to visit her after the trial she had made them a cake. She wasn’t particularly sad or happy, but in truth she did not even want to attend the trial. Bob Ewell was not at all happy at what occurred at the trial. Though they had won, Atticus had revealed so many things about the Ewell home life that permanently ruined his name. Atticus also made everyone realize who was really at the bottom of the social status. And that being the Ewells Bob was very upset about that

TKAMB

Journal #6

Compare and contrast yourself to either Scout or Jem at their age. Compare and contrast your summer activities, friends, relationships with your dad, siblings, and adults.

I am most like Jem Finch. Though I am a girl we have many similarities. Jem is the older sibling in the family. His younger sister looks up to him in the same way my younger sibling looks up to me. Because he is the oldest in the family he happens to mature faster. He is becoming wise, and starting to understand many things that never occurred to him before.

Jem is less fiesty then Scout. I never trouble anyone for anything and I listen and obey my parents. During tough times I stay strong and grounded, and do my best to ignore vexations that I might stumble upon. I try to hold myself together during tribulating times, but once in a while I'll break down just how Jem got upset at what Mrs. Dubose had said about Atticus. I am very much like a mockingbird.

Jem tends to take after his father. They both have a bad eye, and they both are very wise and calm. I take after my father, so people have told me. I look up to my father for everything. We both have migraines, and we both enjoy each other's company. When my dad was a kid he always wanted to travel the world. My biggest dream is to travel the world like my father. Like Jem and Scout I'll do anything to protect my family. Like Jem Finch I am a mockingbird

TKAMB

Journal #5

Perspective of Jem

Chp.12-14

Mrs. Dubose's death was hard for me to bear, though I would never have admitted it. Things have changed over the past few months. I am starting to see things differently. I am not so fond of childish play anymore, and I rather keep to myself. I've noticed my moods have been changing rapidly. Atticus left to go to Montgomery for his job so Calpurnia took care of us. On Sunday Cal took us to her church. When we got there everyone was very welcoming to us. Well except this one black lady, but Cal told us not to mind her. We went into the church and had a nice service. A service quite similar to the one we attend. At church Reverand Sykes wouldn't let anyone leave the church until they raised $10 for Mr. Robinson's wife. His wife couldn't get a job and earn money to raise their kids since her husband was in jail. Church came to an end, and we walked home. An unfortunate sight awaited us at our front door. It was Aunt Alexandra

Aunt Alexandra came to stay with us and brought hell with her. She was taking over our lives. She came to stay with us because she thought that Scout needed some feminine influence in her life. I do agree Scout is too much like a boy, but why did Aunt Alexandra have to come? One day we found Dill under Scouts bed. He told us that he ran away from home because even though his parents loved him, he didn't feel like he was needed there. So he ran away, and we found him under Scout's bed. Aunt Alexandra did something quite ridiculous. She tried to convince Atticus that we didn't need Calpurnia anymore. I can't believe she tried to get rid of Calpurnia, who after all has been like a mother to us. Atticus wouldn't hear it and said no. My father is a good man.

TKAMB

Journal #4

Chapters 10, 11, & 12

Perspective: Scout

Atticus was older then most of our contemporaries' fathers. He was old and boring and didn't do what all of the other fathers did.I talked to Miss Maudie and she told me that there was more to him then meets the eye. I didn't believe that until one day, when Jem and I decided to go hunting with our air guns. We saw old Tim Johnson, a dog that belonged to one of the folks from town. We saw him tinkering his way down the path getting closer to us. He looked tired and sick. A sick dog, that wasn't good news. So me and Jem ran home to tell Calpurnia. We told her that we saw Tim Johnson and that he was coming up towards the house. We described to her what he was doing, and she told us he was sick. But from what we saw he didn't seem all that sick, just tired. Cal ran to the phone and called Atticus. She then called the operator, and told her to call anyone who has a phone and warn them about the dog. She asked us if the Radleys had a phone. We looked it up in the phone book and there was no sign of their number. So Cal decided to go over there herself and warn them. Atticus came soon with the sheriff. The sheriff was armed with a gun. Old Tim Johnson came slowly but surely up the path towards the Radley's house. The sheriff was aiming at the dog, but was taking too long to shoot so Atticus took matters into his own hands. He took the gun from the Sheriff, and without a hesitation or a thought he killed the dog in a split second. Atticus's accuracy was one thing that surprised me about what had just happened. I had no clue Atticus knew even how to hold a gun. Later on I talked to Miss Maudie about this. She told me that that my father ad been the greatest gunman and hunter of his time They called him Ol' one shot. Ever since that they I saw my father in a whole new light.

Jem had just turned twelve and we decided to go down to the store since his pockets were hot with money. He bought himself a steam engine toy, and he then bought me a baton I had been wantin' for a long time. On our way back home we passed by Miss Dubose's house. Miss Dubose was a cranky old lady who yelled ugly things about our mother, Atticus and me and Jem. Jem had promised Atticus on no matter what circumstances Jem would be a gentleman when people said hate comments about Atticus to us. Jem promised. But under these circumstances Jem would have to break his promise. Once miss Dubose left her porch, Jem snatched my baton from and ran into her yard. He started smashing all of her plants and bushes with my baton as if it were a machete. He had gone ballistic. Once he was done with his rampage on the garden he took my baton and broke it in half and threw it on the ground. As we walked home he was silent. When we got home Atticus wasn't there. When Atticus came home he brought with him the broken baton. He told Jem to go to Miss Dubose and apologize. When Jem came home he told us that she wanted him to read to her for a month everyday, for about two hours. Atticus told him he had to do that. So everyday for a month I went along with Jem. When Jem would read to her she would listen at first, and criticize and comment on what Jem was reading to her. After a while though she would fall silent and start to have fits of spasms. That really scared me. Soon came the day when Jem and I no longer had to visit her. We were so happy. A month later we got a phone call. Atticus had to go and visit Miss Dubose. He finally came home late at night bearing the sad news of her death. Not only did he bring us bad news but he had brought home a candy box from Miss Dubose to Jem. Inside was one of the flowers that Jem had wrecked about a month before, In the end, I decided Miss Dubose wasn't a bad person after all.

Atticus has left us alone before. When Atticus left for one week Calpurnia stayed with us. On Sunday we went to her negroe church. Jem and I dressed up like how we would normally dress up if we went to church. When we got there something had changed about Calpurnia. She started to talk in black slang like all of the other people. I wonder why she didn't talk to them like how she talks to us at home. We were welcomed warmly by everyone, except for one lady. The Sunday service was similar to ours. Everything was pretty much the same. Almost everything. Calpurnia's church didn't have hymn books. So I asked her they were supposed t sing hymns if they didn't have any books. She told to watch and see. I was amazed at what had happened. Every single on of the people in the church new the hymns without even looking in a book. I later asked Calpurnia why they didn't have books. She sad that the church didn't have money to get the books. Plus even if there was enough money there would be no use in getting the books becuase none of them could read. Accept for Calpurnia and a selected few. Calpurnia had grown up on Finch's Landing and was taught how to read. She had also taught her son Zeebo how to read. After church we walked back home only to be met by an unpleasant surprise. Aunt Alexandra.

TKAMB

Journal #3-

Chapters 8 & 9

Perspective: Uncle Jack

Every Christmas I visit my brother Atticus and my niece and nephew, Scout and Jem. This Christmas was quite interesting. The first day I arrived there I heard little scout cussing. First of all Scout being a child, cussing isn't acceptable. But the other thing that bothered me was that scout is a girl, and she should be talking with refined language. I told her to hold her tongue because it might end up getting her into trouble. Scout is being influenced by the talk of the kids at school. On Christmas we went to go visit my older sister Alexandria. Alexandria is, well, she is a lot different from me and Atticus. She is a cold hearted woman, but she is still family, so we went up there to visit her. She lives with her husband and TYRANNICAL grandson. Between Atticus his kids and I it was UNANIMOUS that Francis was a brat.

We had a nice feast of three different meats, summer vegetables from Alexandria's pantry, cake, and ambrosia. As soon as dinner was over Scout and Francis went outside as us adults had a heated conversation about Atticus's case. In no time I heard yelling coming from outside and a wild yell. We all ran out to see Francis crumpled in pain and I saw the source of his pain. Scout. I ran to her and held he hands back before she could take another swing at him. Francis went on about how Scout had called him names using words I told her would get her into trouble with. Scout was about to runaway, but I was a lot more quicker then she was. She screamed and hollered at me telling me that she hated me. We soon went home after the incident. When we got home Scout ran to her room and slammed the door. Softly I tapped on her door. She told me to go away, but I came in anyways. I told her that she got what was coming for her. I asked her if she still hated me. She said she reckoned so, but she loved me. She told me I was nice, but that I didn't know nothing about children. So I asked her as to what she was talking about. She said that I romped on her for messing with Francis without even hearing her side of the story. She told me that Francis had been the one TORMENTING her. So she used the foulest words she could come up with. I was gunna go tell Alexandria what her grandson had been saying, but Scout made me promise her otherwise. Left her to go to bed, and sat down to talk with my brother. I told him that I don't ever want to get married, 'cause I don't want kids. It's not that I don't want them, but as Scout said, I don't understand kids. We discussed this matter and I told him what scout asked me. I told him that I just told Scout some other story. Atticus got upset with me. He said that I should've answered her question. Of all the people in the world children will be able to tell if you use EVASION. So I learned a lot that night. Now I hope Scout won't be getting herself into anymore trouble!

TKAMB

Journal #2-

Chapters 4-7

Perspective: Jem

After coming back to Maycomb from Meridian I met up with Jem and Scout. We decided to play a game about Boo Radley. We all had characters and we would act out the various events that have occurred. We ended up making our own plot and developing it quite well. Scout was being a scareddy cat and chickened out a few times. She was scared that the Radley's would see us and that we would be history! Atticus caught us playing, and Jem lied to hime saying that weren't doing nothin'! I know Atticus ain't a dumb man so I'm pretty sure he knew what we were up to. Jem came up with a brilliant idea. In case Atticus came around again while we were playing, we would just simply change the names of our characters so no one would know what we were really doing. The three of us decided to write a letter to Boo Radley, asking him to come out of hiding. As Jem was about to go deliver it Atticus came. Quickly I sprang into action and grabbed a bell and started ringing it in his face to distract him. Sadly that did not work. I stopped ringing the bell and he got the letter from Jem. He asked us why on earth we would want to have come out of the house. I said to him I thought he might enjoy us, but abruptly stopped when I saw the look on his face. He got especially mad at Jem, maybe only because he is the oldest of us and told him to stop tormenting Boo. Honestly we were just being kids trying to "help" this poor man. Jem tried to defend us, and said we weren't making fun of him. Atticus in return said " So that's what you were doing, wasn't it?" Then he started accusing us of putting his whole life's history on display for the edification of the neighborhood." That was ridiculous I have to say. It was my last night in Maycomb and we were in a fish-pool. Then an idea struck me. I suggested to them we should go for a "walk". Jem and I decided we were just going to go peep inn the window with the loose shutter to see if they could get a good look at Boo Radley, I decided to go at night 'cause no one will see us and Atticus wouldn't bust because his nose would be stuffed in a book. We snuck onto the property and walked further along. Then I saw the shadow. It was the shadow of a man. Jem leaped off the porch where he had been and ran towards us. He pushed us back towards the fence and we ran. As we started running Scout tripped. When she tripped we heard gun shots. Oh boy was my adrenaline pumping. But my fear grew and my heart was pounding. We ran to the fence by the school yard. Suddenly Scout and I realized Jem wasn't with us so we ran back only to see Jem stuck in the fence! Jem ran free void of pants. We saw Nathan Radley with a shot gun in his hand. Rumors were swirling almost instantaneously.

TKAMB Chpt. 1-3

Journal #1

Chapters 1-3

Perspective of Ms. Caroline

This group of first graders here in Maycomb, I have to say are quite interesting children. It's not exactly a good interesting either. First I have miss Jean Louise Finch who goes by the name 'Scout'. She comes to school already knowing how to read. My job as a teacher is to teach. How can I teach if these children are already taught by their parents how to do everything. So I tell her that she ought to tell her father to stop teaching her at home, for that's what school is for. Not only that, I can just tell by the looks of her that she is trouble. Next I have a kid, whose name is quite peculiar. Burris Ewell! What a name! I was teaching my class, and as I walk by Burris something crawls out of his hair! I nearly fainted. Another child Little Chuck Little helped me to my desk, since I was still in sheer panic, and got me a glass of water.Chuck told me to calm down and said it was just a cootie. I didn't know cooties could move? Didn't know the Ewell's name at first. Poor child didn't even know how to spell his name when I asked him for it. After my nerves had settled down a bit I excused the boy, and told him to go home and wash up. I cannot have critters running around my class room, and most definitely don't want to see another "cootie" in a child's hair. What made everything even worse about Ewell happened when he stood up to leave. He was the most filthy person I had ever seen in my entire existence. His neck was an unnatural color of grey. The back of his hands were disgusting, and his finger nails were an atrocious shade of black. As he was leaving I told him to come back tomorrow bathed as well. This comment started an up roar. "You ain't sending me home, missus. I was on the verge of leavin' - I done done my time for this year." Now this comment didn't quite make any sense to me. The people indigenous to Maycomb have quite interesting vocabulary, so I ask what he is actually talking about. An older boy in the class says that he is one of the Ewells and that the whole school is full of them. The Ewells have reputation for coming on the first day of school ever year and not being present the rest of the year. I wasn't going to let this child go so I tell him to sit down instead of going home as I had ordered him to before. As I said this once again Burris got upset that I had ordered him to stay and at once was ready for the attack. " You try to make me missus." he says to me. My little hero Little Chuck Little once again comes to my rescue. He tells me that I'm better off sending him home then having him stay here or continue this argument. He tells Burris to leave and see something quite odd occur. Ewell seems to be afraid of Little Chuck Little who I noted is half his size! As I second what Chuck had said that most foul words came out of Ewell's mouth. It is too savage for me to write down, but I can tell you it was horrible. The child made me cry. All the kids, the rest of them sweethearts (though I would never admit it aloud), came around my desk trying in all the ways that they could to comfort me. After a while of their comforting I smiled, blew my nose and carried on with my day. If this is only the beginning of my school year I wonder what is yet to come.

The Secret Garden

Sholeh Sisson Feb.18.10

The Secret Garden

Frances Hodgson Burnett 1-358

180-250

• What advice would you give to a particular character? Why?

The advice I would give to Mary's uncle would be to live in the present and not in the past. His wife was pregnant when she was killed ten years ago, and somehow they were able to save the baby and not her. Because of that he hates his son. He is isolated form the rest of society, and therefore is known as a hunchback. He locks Colin, ( Mr. craven's son), up in a room where no one can find him. Many do not even know he exists. His son is sour and sickly, just like Mary was before she came to live with her uncle. He blames the death of his wife on his son. Mr. Craven should stop drowning himself in misery of the past, but look forward to the bright future. He should stop blaming his son, and start treating his son as if his wife were still alive.

• Which character would you like to be like? In what way? Why?

The character in the book I am mostly like would be the main character Mary Lennox. Though she is sour and repulsive in the beginning of the story she blossoms into a nice young girl. She is very curious and she likes to explore things for herself instead of hearing other peoples experiences. When a friend needs help she tries to make them feel better, and helps them through her own experiences. When she helps out a friend she knows what's best for them even if they try to stop her. She is like the peace maker, and likes to bring people together. I am a good friend that is always there, and whenever there are fights between my friends I am the one who tries to bring peace back to the group. She brings joy to all that meet her. Well most of them.

Sholeh Sisson Feb.12.10

The Secret Garden

Frances Hodgson Burnett pages: 40-108

68

• Which character would you like to be like? In what way? Why?

The character I would like to be like would be Martha. Martha is Mary's maid, and I like her because she is always cheery and youthful and nothing gets her hopes down. I would like to have Martha's optimism, because that is very important in life. Martha also helps Mary come out of her shell and brake the sourness that makes her so repulsive.

• If you could change one thing in the book, what would it be? Why would you change it?

In the book Mary is all by herself in the house and doesn't really have anyone to talk to but maybe the maids. The story is also very dark and drags on. The thing I would change about the book would be make it more cheery and less lonely and depressing. Another thing I would change would be Mary's character. Instead of her being "Mistress Mary quite Contrary" I would make her more like how a real little girl would be. I would have made her as pretty as her mother was and not shallow and sour like how her character is like in the book.

The Secret Garden Blog #1

Sholeh Sisson Thursday, Feb.4th / 2010

The Secret Garden

Frances Hodgson Burnett

1-358

1-18

How did what you read today make you feel? Why?

What I read today made feel really depressed and sad. The character in my book Mary, is a very sour self indulgent brat who just lost her parents to cholera, and thinks nothing of it. All she wants to know is why everyone forgot about her. Because she has no other relatives but her uncle she has to move from India to the Yorkshire moors with her uncle. She already has a thought of her uncle even before she meets him. By how people describe him he seems like a grouchy old hunchback living alone in the middle of nowhere.

What does this book make you wonder about? Why?

With what I have read so far I wonder how Mary's parents could just ignore her, and pretend like she doesn't exist. If Mary's mother didn't want to have a child then why did she? I also can't imagine how a little girl as young as nine years old can be so selfish. Mary's way of thinking is so ignorant and shallow, it's incomprehensible to me.

Independent Reading

THE SECRET GARDEN

The Secret Garden is the book I am choosing to read for my independent reading. I want to read this book because I had read the book before, and it ended up being my favorite book. I want to read it again because I think now that I am older my understanding of the book will be more advanced then it was when I was in elementary school. I know also that the second time you read a book you will notice certain details you didn't pay attention to before. Finally, I want to read this book just to see why I liked it so much.