Lois Lowry's The Giver

The Giver by Lois Lowry is a book that has made an impression on me. The Giver is a a story of a boy named Jonas who lives in a perfect city. In this city all forms of emotion, such as happiness, fear, pain, love and sadness, are removed. The emotions are all stored inside one person called the "Receiver of Memory" who holds memories of the past. The memories are kept away and brought out when decisions are needed to be made to prevent making similar mistakes. In this world there is no color and they kill off defective people. The book made an impression on me because it shows that you cannot have a perfect world. Our flaws are what help make us who we are.

The City of Ember Book Summary

The City of Ember, a science fiction novel by Jeanne DuPrau, takes place in an underground city that was made to keep the human race alive after the war/plague. The underground city, Ember, is falling apart and running out supplies such as food, clothes, soap and school items. It is a dark, damp, mold filled, dying city. The people in the city have become less aware of what humans used to know and do not know how to fix broken things and only know how to replace them. This is why, when supplies start to run out, they are forced to leave the city because they do not know how to survive. In the book, the main character, a 12 year old girl named Lina, finds a piece of paper with instructions. The instructions explain how to leave Ember once Earth becomes safe to live on again. While on her journey, Lina gets help from a boy named Doon.  In the end, the people of Ember get to the world above, but have no idea how to survive. The book seems to be addressing that today we do not make our own things anymore and we are materialistic consumers.

The Stainless Steel Container: A Description

The color is brushed metallic silver. It mirrors the light and makes a frosty gray line. Out in the sunlight, it is hard to look at because the shiny metal reflects the sun. There are very fine streaks going horizontally around the cylinder. All the edges are rounded and smoothed. It does not have any sort of seam. It looks as if it is one solid piece of stainless steel. I can wrap both hands around the cylinder with my fingertips touching. The top of the container is open, and the bottom is closed off. There are over 300 holes smaller than my pinky tip. From eye level, I see a rectangular cylinder with rectangles made of dots. The shape reminds me of a big cup. It can hold other objects such as pencils, silverware and other knick knacks. I would like to use it as a pencil holder in my room. It feels like slick glass but grips to my fingers with a bit of traction. The holes feel like a cheese grater. The texture reminds me of my pocket knife. They are both made from stainless steel and have the same brushed finish. On my forearm, the cylinder feels like cold glass, almost like ice. Against my cheek, it feels cold at the beginning, then the metal heats up rapidly until it is the same temperature as my cheek, so it feels neutral. When I smell it, I imagine a surgeon’s rooms with everything made of sterile stainless steel. The smell is sharp and makes my nose tingle. It makes me feel comforted because the smell of metal reminds me of working at StarBot where I do robotics and engineering. The object alone does not have any sound, but if I flick it with my fingernail quickly, it will make a high-pitched ringing resonating sound. When I drop it on a tile floor, it makes a clanging sound and it reminds me of when you pull pots and pans out of a cupboard. 

Writing Workshop: The Super Sandwich

The Super Sandwich

At twelve noon on a sunny Friday, I was in my kitchen. I was very hungry and wanted lunch, so I decided to make a sandwich. I found two pieces of soft wheat bread and put them in the toaster. Ding! They were done. Rapidly, I took them out and put them on the counter. I put shiny olive oil, Swiss cheese slices and salty ham on the crispy bread. But I wanted more, so on went crunchy lettuce and juicy tomato. I fried up some bacon and added three sizzling strips. Hungrily, I wolfed down a big bite. But I felt like it was missing something. So I ran quickly to the cupboard and pulled out a green, squishy avocado and spicy red hot sauce. I added a thick layer of avocado and shook the hot sauce over the whole stack. As I was about to take a second bite from my now pretty large sandwich, I thought to myself, “I am so hungry I could eat way more than this.” So I decided to go all out and put anything I could find from the kitchen on it. I added a cooked hamburger patty, black olives, wavy potato chips, slices of onion, finely diced garlic, thinly sliced pineapple, green apple, red apple, strawberry yogurt, hummus and a fried egg. Now my sandwich was two feet high. I lifted it up, but I could not fit it into my salivating mouth. It started to fall apart, slipped from my hands and fell all over the floor. All the ingredients coated the floor at my feet. I looked at the pile of food and thought it was disgusting. I didn’t want it anymore. My dog came into the kitchen and started to lick it up. As she gobbled up the super sandwich, I was relieved that I did not have to clean it up. I went to the cupboard and got a bowl of cereal. My lunch was delicious.

A Book Summary: The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick

The story takes place in a train station in Paris.

Hugo is twelve-year-old  boy who lives inside the train station. Hugo's father, a watch-maker, finds an automaton in a museum, and in his free time, he tries to fix it. An automaton is a complex, gear-driven machine that does a task.Unfortunately, the museum burns down and the father dies. Hugo goes to the burned museum, finds the automaton and tries to fix it with found and stolen materials.

Isabelle is a girl who helps Hugo go on his adventures.

Papa Georges is an older man who works in a toy booth in the train station and is Isabelle's godfather.

  The story ends with Hugo living with Papa Georges and Isabelle. he goes to school and makes his own automaton. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is over 500 pages but more than half of them are very detailed and descriptive pencil drawings.