Blog #7
By Brendan Rodisch
Prompt A

Most people in Maycomb thought that it would be wrong if Tom Robinson won the trial. It was obvious that he didn't do anything. But since he is black they voted against him. I think that if the people were not racist, Tom would not have been convicted. I have had a similar experience to this were someone said something that they knew wasn't true.

My friend was on the field one day at his school. He helps out at lunch by reffing soccer games. One day a kid comes up to him after the game and punches him. He loses 3 teeth, and has to have some root canals. The kid that hit him is in serious trouble, not only did he hit my friend in front of a teacher but in front of a lot of other kids.

Before the kid gets sent to trial to see if he can stay in school, his father invites all of the kids that were around to witness the event over. After wards, one kid changes his story to say that it was an accident. The kid was still convicted despite the kid that changed his story but I thought that was a similar example to the one that happened to Tom Robinson.

Journal #6
5/23/10
By Brendan Rodisch
Prompt #3

I think that if Jem and Scout had their mother still, it would make a big difference in the book. For one thing Calpurnia would not be working for the Finch’s. She is only there to be a makeshift mom to scout and Jem. Also Scout would probably behave more lady like if she had a mother around. This is because her mom would teach her how to act like a lady.

Atticus also would be happier. He wouldn’t need to work so much because he wouldn’t have to pay Calpurnia anymore. Also the kids would have a harder time sneaking out at night.

I think the author didn’t give Scout a mother because the book would be happier and it wouldn’t have been as much fun to read. Without Scout having a mother Atticus has all these people complaining on the way he is raising his children. Also Scout wouldn’t be as violent, which would be boring. I think it was a smart idea to not give Scout and Jem a mother.

By Brendan Rodisch
Journal #5
Perspective of Atticus
Chapters 12-14

A while back I had to leave on an important trip. I left Scout and Jem with Cal. I totally forgot that they had to go to church. I wasn’t there but they told me the church that Calpurnia took them to was very different from ours. It had none of the ecclesiastical things that the normal church had. No instruments. Apparently they all sang together. Also the reverend was collecting money from the folks at church for Tom Robinson’s wife. The reverend wouldn’t let anybody leave until he had acquired enough money.

Also I forgot to tell Jem and Scout that aunt Alexandra was coming to live with us. I know they don’t particularly like her, but I did not want to antagonize her by not letting her live with us. She tells a lot of gossip and really disapproves of Calpurnia and the way I am raising Scout. But I think Calpurnia is good compensation for a mother of Scout.

Today the two kids got in a fight. I haven’t seen them fight like this ever. When they finally emerged from the fight they weren’t bruised to badly. Also scout found Dill under her bed. Apparently he had run off. He said his parents ignored him too much. So I said he could stay as long as he lived with his aunt. That is what he did.

By: Brendan Rodisch
Journal #4
Chapters 10-12
Perspective: Scout

A few days ago me and Jem wanted to see if our daddy had any talents of much perplexity. We talked to Miss Maudie and she told us that he could play the harp and was really good at checkers. We were surprised but continued playing around in the yard. Then ol' Tim Johnson started walking towards us and Calpurnia freaks out. She calls everyone in town and tells them a rabid dog is lose. The sheriff comes in his car with our daddy, and he tells our daddy to shoot the dog. I did not think my dad had many talents, but he just crouches and hit the dog dead on. I try to talk to him about it but Jem stops me and says not to tell anyone that daddy can shoot a gun. Says if he wanted us to know he would have told us he entrusted us not to tell anyone at school.

One day Jem and I go to the store to go get him a toy train and me a baton, when Mrs. Dobuse starts harassing us. Says our father is some word I don't know. She says it the same way that made me punch Francis.We are acquinted with her and we hurry past her house. Then on our way back Jem takes my Baton and cuts all of the flowers in Mrs. Dobuse's yard. When daddy gets home Jem has to go talk to her. She said that he had to read to her everyday for a month.Her house was very isolated. So Jem and I do that and try to forget that month. Soon after she dies. Daddy said she was a morphine addict and that is why she died.

Today our daddy was out of town, we were debating on what to do but Cal decided to take us to church. We went to her Negro church and it was weird. They had no hymn books and sang all-together. It was really weird. The church was collecting money for Tom Robinson's wife. When the collection came around, there wasn't enough money, so he didn't let anyone leave until after he had raised ten dollars. Then when we got back home and we found out aunt Alexandra was there and that she was staying with us.

Journal #3
Chapters 8 & 9
Perspective Jem
By Brendan Rodisch

Today I made I snowman with my sister. This is the first time in my life that it has ever snowed in Maycomb and I am happy. The only thing is that there wasn’t much snow, so we made the base of the snowman with dirt and then covered the dirt with snow. He looked downright decent.

That night my father woke my sister and me up in the middle of the night. The fact that papa wouldn’t say anything tormented me. We left our house in the freezing cold and saw that Miss Maudie’s house was burning. I was worried that our house would burn to, but papa told me it wouldn’t. Me and my sister went and sat in front of the Radley place quibbling as we watched the house burn.

When we came back in my sister had a mysterious blanket around her and we unanimously knew that Boo Radley must have given it to her. The chameleon must have come right up behind us and placed it on her without her knowing.

Soon Christmas came and we spent the holidays with our family. I didn’t really spend much time with scout until I heard that she had punched our cousin in the face. Then we left for home before the end of the gathering. I tried to talk to her but she was a master of evasion. I still want to tell her about that night when I went to go get my pants.

Journal #2
Chapter 4-7
Perspective of Jem
By Brendan Rodisch

Well it was real boring but I finally did it. I’m done with the fifth grade. I am rally glad that dill has come back. He is a lot of fun. We have started a new game; it is called “The Radleys.” Basically we all act like members of the Radley family. I am Boo, scout’s Mrs. Radley, and dill is Mr. Radley. However papa doesn’t want us playing that game anymore so now we are bored. Dill and me have been coming up with schemes to talk to Boo Radley. My sister doesn’t want to talk to him so we have not been playing with her. One day we tried to give a note to Boo, but our dad found us and stopped us. I still had more plans in store.

On the night before Dill left to go back home for school, we convinced my sister to help us in our best scheme yet. We were going to go to the Radley’s house and look in the open window to try and see Boo. My papa said not to bother the Radley’s but I couldn’t help it. So we all stayed up late that night and at around midnight we crept out. We went around the back and crawled under the fence. I was to short to see through the window so Dill and Scout helped me up. I didn’t see anything, it was to dark. But there was a faint light coming from a back window. I decided to take a look.

I crawled up onto the patio, which looked really scary. I got ready to look through the window when I saw a shadow pass by me from inside the house. We were running back to the fence as fast as we could. BANG!! A gun shot rang through the air. We left as quickly as possible but my pant legs got caught so I left them and ran back home with the other two kids. When we got back my papa asked were my pants were, Dill said he won them in poker. My dad was angry and I knew it. I had to get those pants back. Later that night I crawled out of bed and ran back to the Radley’s and got my pants back. They were not were I left them though, they were folded and hung up on the fence. Without thinking about it, I grabbed them and ran back home.

Journal #1
Chapters 1,2,3
Perspective of Jem
By Brendan Rodisch
Today I was playing in our backyard with my sister, scout, suddenly a boy nextdoor yells out that he can read. I go and speak with the boy and say that my sister can to. He doesn't believe me though so we invite him over and I show him how wrong he is. We became good friends. One day he asked who lived in the house that looked all scary. I told him it was the Radleys. This irked him and he dared me to go and touch the house. We made a compromise and he said if I did it, he would stop calling me a coward. I did it and ran home.

When he went back home we were sad. We missed him, but we wrote him letters. But my sister's first day of school was coming up and I had to prepare her for it. My dad had an eccentric plan were I take my sister to her first day and I make some money. It was gonna be tough but I knew I would preserve through it. She had a good day but I had to stop her from whalin' on another kid. She was angry because he made the teacher dislike him. Later in the day she told me about a boy that came for the first day of school only. He was indigenous to our school. My sister didn't want to go back the next day because of her teacher, but my daddy convinced her otherwise.

Brendan Rodisch 2/23/10
“ The Hunt For Red October”
By Tom Clancy Pages 262-387
Total pages: 125

#18 What has surprised you in this book? Why?

What surprised me in this book was what happened to the Red October after the Americans got it. The Russians thought the Red October, which was originally their ship, was sunk. So all of the soviet naval forces in the area left except for the V.K. Konovalev. When the Red October went by, guarded by two American submarines that were escorting it safely to a naval base, the Konovalev realized it was the Red October.

So the Konovalev fires on the Red October, and the October deals with it in the most surprising way. It rams the Konovalev in the side, puncturing it’s hull and venting it to the ocean. The Konovalev sinks and the October moves on. That is what surprised me most in this book.

#20 I wonder why the author…

I wonder why the author put the Politovskiy in the book. In the book the Pilotovskiy is a submarine that is heading towards the American coast as fast as it can. It ends up having a reactor problem and sinks. One man survives and is interviewed. While this part of the story is sad, it’s significance to the story is hidden and not obvious.

Brendan Rodisch 2/17/10
“The Hunt For Red October”
By: Tom Clancy Pages: 172-160
Total pages this week: 88

#7 How did what you read make you feel? Why?

What I read made me feel a little scared. The book explained that the Russian navy could easily blockade our coast without us being able to do anything about it. In the book the Russians are looking for a rogue submarine and setting up a look out for the boat but this could also turn into a blockade of our coast. However , I felt safer when the Americans showed the Russians they could easily sink their boats. They did this by dropping flares on their ships. But the fact that the Americans could be blockaded so easily still scares me.

#12 Do you think you would read another book by this author? Why or why not?

I think I would read another book by this author because his book is challenging for me to read and that is very rare. I also like how he writes. Every sentence is suspenseful and the book has a clear plot that is apparent right from the first page. The only down side to this book is that it is so long. It does not have much pages but each page has an ocean of words that you have to swim through to get through the page. If I were to read another one of his books, I would do it over a longer period of time or I would read a shorter one of his books. But all-in-all, he is one of the best authors I know.

Brendan Rodisch 2/11/10
“The Hunt for Red October”
By: Tom Clancy Pages: 71-172
Total pages this week: 101

Question #9: What is confusing in this book? Why?

Answer: The thing I find confusing in this book is which boat is which. There are so many Submarines and battleships, that it gets confusing. The book labels which ship the author is writing about before the paragraph starts but I still can’t remember that many ship’s names.

Question #3: What does this book make you think about? Why?

Answer: This book makes me wonder what really goes on down in a submarine. The book made me think about this because it talks about what can happen if you run a nuclear engine for to long. The ship sunk, and this made me think of what it must be liked to be trapped in a submarine when it is sinking. It also must be very scary down there, since there is practically no light.

Free choice post #1

Brendan Rodisch 2/2/10
The Hunt for Red October
By: Tom Clancy Pages 1-72
Total pages this week: 72

6. Explain how the author creates suspense in this book.

The author creates suspense in the book by making the Red October hard to find. It has broken away from the command of Russia and is going to Cuba to bomb the U.S.. Since It has a special device called a caterpillar, it is nearly impossible to track or pick up on radar. Even though the U.S. Has a lot of ships and many defenses, the Red October has bypassed them all. This creates suspense because the ship could pop up anywhere and bomb the U.S. I think the author did a good job in making the book suspenseful.

13. which character would you like to be like? In what way? Why?

I think I would like to be like Ryan in my book. He is a man that works for the CIA in an American-British relations position. He has an awesome job where he works for his country and gets to live in England. He also gets payed a lot and gets to hire his friends to help him. I would want have a job like his. Working for the government is very rewarding. You get payed a lot, and you feel good about yourself. I would love to have that kind of job and all the bonuses that came with it.

Book choice

I am going to choose to read The Hunt For Red October by Tom Clancy. I am choosing to read this book because my mom suggested it to me, and it looks interesting.