Reading response Looking for Alaska (Spolier Alert)

This week I finished Looking for alaska by John Green, the first half of the book was more of a happy more uplifting half. But it the "before" part ended with Alaska and pudge kissing and Alaska leaving in a drunken haze of confusion and anger but nobody stopping her, only helping her off campus whenever she wanted to leave. Pudge and Colonel fell back asleep and woke up only to realize their bestfriend had been killed in a terrible accident the night before. Basically the rest of the book is them coping with the loss of Alaska, and how much of an impact somebody can make on someones lives without you even realizing it. Before you know it someone you love can be gone, and pudge realizes that by the end of the book, and personally, I think he finds his great perhaps.

Face to face Sayema Hameed

Sayema was born and raised in America, her religious choice to be a Muslim and cultural background that supported her and her family were no longer feeling safe after the September 11th attacks. Sayema said that she felt scared to even leave the house by herself because she felt as if she would be harmed or somebody would be rude to her out in public. People would tell her that the whole Arab nation needed to be wiped out, but what is it going to do? She pleads that people need to realize where the source of misery from the suicide bombers are coming from, within an individual and not a whole country. She says that she wishes that bombings did not happen and that she feels bad for what happened on September 11th, but she doesn't understand why she is still blamed for what happened twelve years ago whenever she personally was not in charge of it all. It is most definitely not fair how people still continue to judge Muslim culture for the actions taken place on September 11th, as Sayema said, "Suicide bombers are individuals, not a whole country." So why do people continue to judge the people from the country and countries surrounding?

What inspires me

What inspires me is my family, my mom, my dad, my sister, my grandmother, my boyfriend, his family, and my dog Wookie. My dad inspires me by how hard of a worker he is he was with the Greene county sherrifs department for almost thirty years before he retired, but he didn't want to retire it was forced because he is in such bad health. That's what I call dedication, I also feel like I have inherited wantintg to help people. Because I feel like I want to help people whenever I am oldder. My sister inspires me because she is such a beautiful person, she has gone through a lot and I can't even imagine what goes on inside her head I am just greatful to have her in my life as my bestfriend. My mother is one of the most strong minded strong minded women I know, that must be where I get it from. My boyfriend and I have been through a lot of the same things in our lives, both of our sisters were hospitalized for the same mental illness and our thoughts are very similar on evyerhing, I think that is why he inspires me because we are so similar. My dog wookie inspires me just because I love him so much and can't imagine life without him!

Reading Response 2: Looking for Alaska

I've been reading the book looking for alaska and it's about a boy who is obsessed with famous "last words" which i find very interesting. He decides to go to Culver Creek boarding school to look for a "great perhaps" because he isn't finding it at his public highschool. His father went to CC and so thinks it will be fun, his father warns him not to get into drugs and alcohol and to stay on top of things at CC. But right away he meets his roommate "the colonel" who gives the boy the nickname "pudge" because of how thin he is. Pudge then meets colonels friend Alaska and falls in love at first sight, but heres the catch; she's madly in love with her long time boyfriend. so pudge ignores his feelings, as the school year goes on he starts smoking and drinking a lot. Until the night whenever Alaska and him get drunk and she kisses him, but tells him it's to be continued.

Begining and ending sentence.

My begining sentence was "The past is a foreign country, they do things differently there" and it's from the book the go-between by LP Hartley and my ending sentence was "He heard the ring of steel against steel as a far door clanged shut" they werent too hard to tie together because I felt that they were sort of related to crime in some sort of way and so that's how i tied them together.

Readers resonse

My book is titled "Cut" it is about a young girl suffering from many mental illnesses that cause her to think of her life as a waste. As she cuts herself to find any relief from people, she is sent to a home for the mentally ill. She feels like even an outcast there because most of the other girls there are suffering from anorexia or bulimia and not something as simple as depression. At first she is hesitant to go forward with treatment feeling as if she is being pressured and it won't accomplish anything; but throughout the chapters she is taught to love herself and to recover without any more fits of self harm. But without the help of her friends in the mental illness hospital then she could never  have recovered so easily. Now this book reminds me a lot of my younger sister lindsey; last september my sister attempted suicide and was put in lakeland for almost a month in hopes that she would recover and not think any bad thoughts about her life anymore. While my sister was in there she learned to love herself and not to think about things so negativly and I feel like thats what happened with the main character in my book.

25 Things about me

1. My name is Taylor  Marie Penland
2. I'm Welsh, Native American and German.
3. I have a dog named wookie
4. I have a fish tank full of fish
5. My dad was a police officer.
6. My mom is a dental assistant.
7. I have been with my boyfriend for two years.
8. I love reading as long as its a book that I want to read.
9. But it's really difficult for me to find books that I enjoy
10. My parents are divorced.
11. My bestfriend is my sister,
12. I'm a competitive swimmer.
13. I like doing makeup a lot.
14. I can't decide if I want to nurse or get into law enforcement as a career.
15. My room is pink
16. My favorite color is teal/turquoise
17. I love art.
18. I've been to eight different countries
19. I am really bad at math
20. But I like chemistry.
21. I have lots of animals.
22. I have a gold BMW
23. I am a junior
24. My favorite book will always be Harry Potter
25. My favorite teacher was my 4th/5th grade teacher Mr. Post.