Taken Hostage!

Authors note: this piece is a character analysis of the book Zach Lie by Roland Smith. I focused on closely on analyzing  the main character throughout the  book. I wrote about how Zach changed throughout the book and how other characters changes him.

At the beginning of the book Zach’s Lie by Rolland Smith, Zach is just a normal kid who has normal friends, but he experiences one thing not many people want to experience in their lifetime . As the book begins to progress three men take Zach and his family hostage and tell them they are not allowed to tell anyone about what happened. This totally changes Zach because before he was a social kid and now he a shy kid. Zach and his family are forced to go to the Witness Protection Program and located in a new town. When Zach is in the Witness Protection Program Caitlin(his new best friend) shows him the true meaning of friends and life. Throughout the whole book of Zach’s Lie many characters cause him to change many times, which results with Zach finding the true meaning of friends and Life

Throughout the book Zach changed various times. At the beginning of the book Zach’s life is affected in huge way as the men take his family hostage. This affects Zach because he basically becomes petrified he never talked to anybody or made eye contact. As the book begins to develop Zach becomes friends with a girl called Caitlin. Caitlin totally changed Zach’s life as she made Zach become more of a social person instead of being that on kid who never talks. She also taught Zach what the real meaning of life and friends is.

When I read the book Zach Lie’s Zach kind of reminded me of Peeta in Hunger Games. Zach was shy at the beginning but the main character changed him dramatically and made him a more social and friendly person to talk to. Just like in the book Hunger Games Peeta was always shy to people but Katniss changed him in such a dramatic way that he became more social. Another connection I made with Peeta and Zach is that they both experienced things not many teenagers experience like Zach was held hostage, and Peeta was forced to fight until death in the Hunger Games.

Despite the dramatic changes Zach has to go through throughout the book it really helps him throughout the book. During all of the changes Zach went through he learns one of the most important lesson of life, what friends and life really means.

 

America's True Heroes

Authors Note: This piece is a letter to the Founding Fathers about what I would tell them. Most of the letter is about what I would have done rather than what they did.

Dear Founding Father’s

I want to start off this letter by thanking you for everything you have gave us like , The Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, and all of the freedoms. There are some things that you did that I thought weren’t some of the smartest things when the colonist first settled. You gave the Indians blankets that were contaminated with small pox and you told the Indians it was a present, that really isn’t one of the nicest things you did when you first settled. Alongside giving the Indians infected blankets you also allowed slavery which later led to the Civil War and almost the destruction of our country . Despite you creating the laws and bills that made and created our country to be so successful, you also almost destroyed it without banning slavery.

Slavery was a massive thing back in the late 1700’s, most if not all of the Founding Fathers were salve owners. There were some notable names that were against slavery like Benjamin Franklin, John Jay, and Jon Adams. Despite Benjamin Franklin being  against slavery he and Benjamin Rush set up a program against slavery. During the program it later got slavery banned in some states including Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. After a while many of states started abolishing slavery and later Rufus King and George Washington signed a law which prohibited slavery in the Midwestern States, but not the Southern States. Slavery is one of the things the Founding Fathers could have improved on, such as maybe not being slave owners themselves or banning slavery all together right away as it started to become popular.

Although the Founding Fathers of America made some mistakes along the way are still the ones that created our country to make it so successful today. That is why the Founding Fathers should be recognized as some of America’s true hero’s.

Sincerely,

Jake M

Fake Identity

Authors Note: This piece is about the conflict and resolution in the book Zach's Lie. I focused on the climax(the point of no return)  and the events that lead up to that lead up the climax.

Imagine being placed in the Witness Protection Program so you have to move to whole different place and change your name and looks, you basically have to change your life. Then every day you worry if these people who want to kill you know where you are, and with one little slip up like you telling your friend who you really are and the secret spreads and just before you know it these people who want to kill you know where you live. This is what Zach to face throughout the whole the book, and when Zach make that one little slip it creates the cause of the story.

Zach creates the Cause the story when he leaves his journal in his mom bookstore and it falls into the wrong hands. In that journal it contained all of Zach journals about who he really was before he was in Witness Protection program. When the journal fell in to the wrong person hands this is how the climax was starting to be created.When Zach creates the cause of the story the effect of it is the people that are looking for Zach find were he is living and take him The climax of the story is when the people that are looking for Zach are holding him captive and threatening to kill him, this is the turning the point of the story because Zach has to leave Elko and go back in the Witness Protection Program leaving all of his friends behind him and have to start a whole new life. A connection that I make with Zach, is that I saw a movie about a women in Witness Protection Program and it's not an easy thing keeping your secret which is the problem Zach faced throughout the book. Zach's life in the Witness Protection Program was not easy, considering you couldn’t tell anyone who you really and it probably is the same for people that are in the Protection Program today.

Are you Hungry?

Authors Note: in this two paragraph writing piece, I wrote about the conflicts and resolutions in the book Hunger Games. Please give me any feedback if you think any changes need to be made.  

Visualize being trapped in a arena full of other teenagers wanting to kill you so they can stay alive and be the outright winner of the Hunger Games. In the Hunger Games there are many conflicts like Katniss having to leave her family and sadness that Katniss and her mom and sister experienced, the biggest conflict of the story though was  Katniss fighting for her life against 23 other contestants wanting to kill her.

In Hunger Games there were many conflicts that sometimes would drive Katniss crazy, but towards the end of the book most of these conflicts were resolved in different ways. The main conflict of the story is an example of a person vs. person as Katniss fights for her life against 23 other contestants. There is a little of person vs. nature in the story, because at one point of the book it talks about these poisonous bees attacking the contestants in the games.One connection I can make with the main conflict of the story, is when I'm playing paintball it's me verses 9 other people fighting for their life not to get hit by a paintball. Even though Katniss had to go through all of hard times she faced in the games like starvation, being attacked by people, and seeing people in her alliance die, beyond all of these conflicts all of them were resolved including the main conflict from Katniss winning the Hunger Games.   

Every Kids Dream

Author’s Note: This piece is Personal Narrative of my family trip to Florida that my Family and I take every year.

Envision yourself in a scorching climate down in Florida, then entering through the gates to where every kid’s dream is to go to Disney World. Then after you spend the day in Disney World you and your family go to a beach by were your staying and you see many things you never see at beach like jellyfish and exotic fish. Lastly you spend your last day at a swimming with dolphins place and also getting to hold stingrays. Swimming with Dolphins, Disney World, and Exotic Beaches were some of the things I experienced on my family trip to Florida.

On the first day of our trip we took a direct flight to Tampa Bay. Once we arrived at Tampa Bay we had to drive to Englewood, Florida to my grandma’s house where we would be staying for most of our trip. When we arrived at my grandma’s house we got settled and swam in her pool till the sun went down. We went to bed early that night because the next morning we were going to swim with the dolphins. That next morning I woke up very early to see if any alligators were in the pond behind my grandma house, and sure enough a alligator seemed like it was stalking its prey(a duck) on the mini Island.

Finally just as everyone in my family was woken we were going to swim with the dolphins. All my sisters filed in the car and we were off, the drive the drive was long and tiresome but when we got to Dolphin Cove everyone was ready and energized . We entered the building and my dad quickly paid for us; we got a fast tutorial on what we were going to do when we with the dolphins. My family and I all entered  the water quickly eager to swim with the dolphins. We all got to touch the dolphins and do other things together as a group, then once we finished with that we got to ride on the dolphins back while they swam. The dolphins were very friendly and they were as smooth as silk, this was a once in a lifetime experience. Once my group finished with the Dolphins, we trotted over the sting rays were we got hold the sting rays and pet them. My second day in Florida had been a blast and I knew I’d never forget it.

Seeing that yesterday was a great day I was excited for today. My grandma gave us a suggestion of going to the beach near their house, despite my grandma saying that we deiced to go check it out. When we arrived there we ran right for the water but instead of jumping in the water we sat there in amazement. As we looked in the water we saw all kinds of different fish, beyond that on the shores of the beach we saw tons of shark teeth this beach this was one great beach. We spent the rest of our day at that beach having a great time, snorkeling and looking at the fish or searching through the vast amount of sand for shark teeth.

On our last day in Florida we got to tackle Disney World, I was really thrilled because I hadn’t been to Disney World in a long time and I hadn't really remembered it a lot. When we arrived in Orlando went straight to the Animal Kingdom and rode some of our favorite rides. After we rode the rides we wanted to go to a different park and we still had some time, before it got dark so we toke the monorail to Magic Kingdom to ride some of my mom’s  favorite rides. As soon as we got to magic Kingdom we headed for my mom’s favorite ride Splash Mountain, on the ride Splash Mountain we got soaked during the ride. After the ride it started to get dark and we watched the exciting light parade, alongside the light parade we had a enjoyable time at Disney World.

As we bordered our plane I sat there in my seat thinking of what great things we did in Florida, beyond that this trip was a great bonding experience for our family and we all had a entertaining time. Some of things we experienced in our trip were Disney World, Beaches, and swimming with dolphins were great memories that should never be forgotten.

Hunger Games

Author Note: This post is about short summer about the Hunger Games without giving away to much information.

24 contestants are allowed. Only the winner survives. A young girl is forced to fight for her life in a arena against 23 other forced contestants. During the Games Katniss learns the true meaning of survival and love. Who will come out victorious of the Hunger Games.

A Soccer Field from Heaven

Jake M. Fall DWA

Authors Note: In This piece of writing I wrote a personal narrative, it is about a trip to Kansas City for a memorable soccer tournament I played in

Envision yourself climbing out of a car and looking at a resemblance of some of the best soccer fields in the world. Then even better you get to play on those fields against some of the  best teams in the Region. My trip with my soccer team to Kansas was one of the most exciting and enjoyable trips I ever been one.

My trip started with a long tiring nine hour car drive. Most of the trip I slept, but for the time I was awake Me and Kevin would draw facial expression on our friend Daniel, and watch movies. Once we entered Kansas City, Kansas I started to get a feel  for what Kansas City was like lots of barbeque restaurants, big atmosphere, and lots of shopping and dining places. Around every corner of Kansas City there was always something interesting to see.

Just as I was getting a feel for Kansas I saw what looked like soccer fields from heaven. We drove the car into the complex and stepped out in amazement. Just after we got out of the car Kevin’s dad told us that this place was where we were going play our tournament. When I heard this I almost fainted, all of the 20 fields had Astroturf, lights in case if you play under the lights, and a scoreboard. Our parents told me, Kevin, and Daniel that we could go explore the complex. The first thing I wanted to check out was the fields when I walked out on to them I was speechless. I couldn’t believe it they had some much stuff  here like cafes, clubhouses, and huge tents I knew this was going to be a great tourney.    

After we experienced the soccer fields from heaven we headed back to our hotel to meet up with the team. Once we arrived at the hotel we had a meeting with our coach about our game times, we found that we had 3 games in 3 days and if won all three we make it to the finals. After the meeting was over my mom and I headed to our room because it was getting late and we were burnt out from the car ride. I didn’t go to sleep for the first 30 minutes because I decided to lay in my bed and think of tomorrow’s game.

Our first game was the next day early in the morning, we played a team from Missouri and we knew it was going to be a tough game. We jumped ahead right away in the first half leading 2-0, then in the second I scored my first memorable goal on that lead us to a 5-0 win. Kevin and I both thought that if all the teams were like this we would easily win the tournament, but we didn’t know this team from Kentucky was going to bring lots of intensity when we played them tomorrow. The next day we had another early game and this time we played a team from Kentucky. We put pressure on them right away and at the end of the half it was 2-1 we were up. The game was 2-1 for a long time in the second half, but then they scored 2 quick goals and their crowed erupted. It was 3-2 for the last 15 minutes in the game and we lost a heartbreaker 3-2.

The next morning we had one more game and then we had to head on home. We played a team from Chicago and they beat us easily 3-1 but I scored my second goal of tournament. Even though we lost two games one being a heart breaker Kevin and I both thought we had accomplished a lot to even qualify for this high level tournament. When we were leaving the complex I looked back at fields out of the car window and I knew that my trip to Kansas had been one thrilling and entertaining trip I have ever been on in my life.