Summer of Fear.... Response to Literature

The book that I read is called Summer of Fear and it is about a girl named Rachel. When her witchy cousin Julia comes to live with them, she ruins her life. Her cousin steals her room, her boyfriend, and her life.

Lois Duncan’s book sets place in Albuquerque, New Mexico in about the 1970’s. The whole book takes place in the summer time, all summer long. I liked this book because it was mysterious. Each time you read a page or a chapter you had think something bad was going to happen I like books that are like that.

The main character is a girl named Rachel. She lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She’s 16 years old who is a normal girl with a normal life and then her cousin comes into her life. Rachel suspects something is not right about her cousin. So when the dance is near, Rachel makes this dress for the dance. The days of the dance, she gets hives, so she misses the dance. She asks Mike to take her cousin to the dance, but she insists that she doesn’t want to go, but goes anyways.

When she starts to find out about witchcraft, her neighbor has a stroke. Rachel said that Julia put a spell on the professor so that he doesn’t tell Rachel’s mom about what they were talking about.

Toward the end of the book, Rachel finds out that Julia name really is Sarah Blane. Rachel was suppose go to Santa Fe with her mom but doesn’t want to because Julia/Sarah was going with her. But her little brother Bobby says that she stayed home feeling sick and finds out that she has to spend the day with her after all.

Rachel goes to her mom’s dark room to start developing her film. When she gets there she finds Julia/Sarah in there, she’s has one of the films in her hand and Rachel says that if she expose the film to light that it wont develop right. So she pulls it out and drops it to the floor.

Julia who is really Sarah Blane tells her what’s going to happen to her mom. As fast as she can Rachel asks Mike to take her to the high way to catch her mom in time before the crash. So she does. Sarah only wanted Rachel’s mom to die because she wanted to marry Rachel’s dad. But when they get to the house Sarah is gone.

All I have to say is that parents that have children should try to believe them more often. If they think they are telling a lie, the lie might or could be true that could save a life. Just because some people may be nice doesn’t mean they aren’t really somebody else.

My quote.

Is it... Are you... Is um.... Hey!!!

Ethanerella.... not Cinderella.

Short Story
By Heather Whitman

Once upon a time there was this boy whose name was Ethan. He lives with his evil stepfather whose name was Pete and his evil stepbrothers Brock and Trent. They are jocks and jerks. His evil stepfather makes him do very hard yard work like taking care of the lawn and making the grass stay green everyday, and mowing it every other day. He has other chores like painting the house so it stays white, washing the dishes, cleaning the house every day, taking out the trash, cleaning the gutters, under the stoves and couches, cleaning the very dirty bathrooms (which haven’t been cleaned in a long time and takes a long time to clean) so he cleans it everyday till it is spick and span, cleaning really greasy stuff like car parts, around the kitchen, chopping wood, and whatever else.

When he’s working in the yard the only friends that he has are the animals that come to see him like birds, sometimes rabbits, all the little crawly things, dogs, and cats. Ethan goes to a high school in New York City. He has no friends at the high school and no one talks with him maybe except a few students that ask him for help with home work, like papers, math, and other subjects they need help with. After completing 11th grade, he got tired of what he had to do at home and started to get depressed.

The way he finds out that he has a genie is he goes up in the attic and finds some stuff that was never given to him. So when he goes though them, he finds a really old Coca Cola glass bottle that has writing on it. He tries to make out what it says and when he can’t read what it says the genie comes out. He asks the genie how he got there. The genie says that Ethan was trying to read something he couldn’t read and he comes out. The genie tells him that he has ten wishes to make. But he also has to use them wisely. When he meets his genie he grants Ethan more then three wishes. Ethan asks for help to go to the prom but so that no one will know who he is. The genie makes him a special mask to cover his face.

Luckily the theme of the prom was a costume ball. He asks to go to the prom with the head cheerleader Becca and she says no. Ethan is really sad but he goes anyways. The Genie says that he only has a limited time to be at the prom and get back home. He has to get home was by twelve midnight or else it will all fall apart.

Now in his new Genie wishes cool tuxedo he impresses Becca and she says she will dance with him, not knowing whom it really is. When he is dancing with her he is having so much fun that he forgets about the time.

Then he notices the clock and says, “I have to go!”

Becca was pretty up set that he had to go so soon. After he left the head cheerleader and other people helped clean up the next day.

The next day Becca is on clean up duty and she finds a cool pimping hat that the mysterious dance partner had left behind. The next Monday at school she goes though every one of the guys in the school and checks if it fit any one of them and it doesn’t fit anyone. After school while getting math help from Ethan she realizes she never tried the hat on him. When she puts the pimpin’ hat on Ethan, she realizes that she was with him at the prom. She never did notice him and she really liked him now because it was him the whole time.

After she finds out that it was he, she apologizes to him. He says that was okay and that it was okay for them to start a relationship. When he tells his evil stepfather that he has told the authorities what he has been making him do the father, they make the evil stepfather and evil stepbrother go to a place that teaches them to be better parents and brothers. They go to the same college after high school and live HAPPILY EVER AFTER!!!

5 things that I'm Thankful for...

1. Friends
2. Family
3. Life
4. Me of course
5. School

5 things I like about myself...

1. Helping people out.
2. Some people like me.
3. That I'm back in school.
4. Trying to get school work done.
5. I don't act cool, I just act like myself.

Teen Keeping Her Pregnancy a Secret

Heather Whitman
Summary
Phase 16

I read “Teen Secret Birth” in the CBS News by The Associated Press. The article was about a girl that kept her pregnancy a secret from her mother. She gave birth when she was taking a shower at 5:30 in the morning. She was getting ready for school. Then she said that the contractions took over her. As she felt the head coming out she sat right down and pushed so that her baby could come out. She did not even bother to call 911 because her home phone was disconnected and she didn’t want to go to her next door neighbors and wake them at such an early time. So she wrapped her baby up and got dressed and walked and jogged all the way to the local hospital. She had walked for four blocks and made it to the hospital in time.

She gave birth to her baby on May 3, 2008 in Long Beach, California. The young lady’s name was Xochitl Parra and her sons name was Alejandro Parra. She kept her pregnancy a secret from her mother because she felt she would get kicked out of her mother’s house if she told her and she would have no where to go. After her mom found out though, she was disappointed but got felt as though she had to help her daughter with her baby. Her mom is now helping her take care of her baby while she continues going to school. Her baby by is very healthy, and one of the doctors called the outcome “heartwarming.”