Hate List

     This beautiful novel by Jennifer Brown is intriguing, heart stopping, and most of all mind blowing. The main character Valerie Leftman and her deceased boyfriend Nick goes through many uncalled moments in high school. Both Nick and Valerie have made a list of people that they both hate, it's called the Hate list. but there is only one person that has been on that list as long as they both can remember. Christy Bruter.

      But that's not the only problem. Nick has not only been a bad student but he has been taking drugs, cutting school, and hanging out with the wrong people.
    
     A few days ago Nick met someone that used to go to the same high school that he go to, Garvin high. Nick and his "new best friend" Jeremy both take drugs, but Jeremy might not be the person that he may seem to be. Not much people know this but Jeremy beats his girlfriend, that's one thing that Nick would never do. But that doesn't mean that Jeremy still can't persuade him into doing things.

     The day that Nick finally comes back to school, he dose something unforgettable. As they look around the cafeteria or also known as the commons, they spot Christy and that's when the shooting went down.

     Even in thinking about it my heart stops. What will happen to you when you read it?

This I Believe

     I believe in goals. Many people might think that goals are just another way of getting to something you want. No, goals are more than just that. Goals are a way of thinking about yourself and who you want to be. It can also show people who you are as a person. Many people have different goals. But my goal is to become one of the greatest Olympic swimmers.

     Now, goals aren’t just something that you make up off the top of your head. It is something that has to captivate you in a way that only you can understand. Make you want it so bad. Then without turning back, you go for it. When you have your heart set on a goal, you never look back under any circumstances. If you do look back, it shows that you never really wanted it in the first place.

     I myself have had second thoughts on my goal. But the thought of quitting the one and only thing that I love most in the world, kept me going. It motivated me to keep pushing on, and to do the best that I can. But that’s not all. Just saying that you want this goal, isn’t enough. You need to work hard for it.

     All goals take the same amount of endurance. Most people may not really know this but a goal takes a lot of muscle. I know what you might be thinking right now, but not the kind of muscle you have on your body. I meant mental muscle. To achieve the goal that you want you need to have that mental ability to say “yes, I can do this. I am not afraid, I am not scared.”

     The first time I encountered the goal to become one of the greatest Olympic swimmer, I didn’t really have the mental ability to say that I CAN do this. I would make up excuses, about why I can’t do this and why I can’t do that. But what I failed to realize is that I do have the physical strength to do this, but I don’t have the mental strength.

     When I realized where my weak strength was I quickly fixed it, and now look at me! I am the youngest swimmer in the A lane! There are three lanes where I swim, lane A, B, C. The C lane was for the beginners. The B lane was for the kids that already know how to swim but didn’t have the ability to train with the A swimmers. And now I am an A swimmer. Just yesterday I was a B swimmer just going along with what my instructors said. Now I am an A swimmer, training with the fastest kids on the team.

     It is not easy finding your true goal, or even achieving them. But once you do, you will know what relaxation feels like. And not only that, you will be so astonished by the way that you aroused from just learning how to do something, to being one of the greatest.

Revolt of the Evil Fairies

                                                            Revolt of the Evil Fairies

     In Ted Poston’s story “Revolt of the Evil Fairies”, the protagonist in the school play tried to his limit to get the one and only thing that he desired the most, to be Prince charming. This means so much to him because ever since he started the Booker T. Washington Grammar School all that was available to him was the role of the head evil fairy. After a while he noticed that the yallers (light colored blacks) were being treated better than the darker blacks. The yallers bot the better roles, and if any lucky person that was not a yaller and got a good role, they weren’t allowed to speak.  He noticed this was constant. It was not a new thing.

     But he was not only discriminated by his skin color. It was also because of his character. His family was very poor and didn’t have that much to look forward to, except for their children getting a good job. But like the yallers they had things that the nonyallers wished they had. Their character was also better. The yallers had high jobs and lives. As you can see there was not only discrimination between the blacks and whites but also in their own race. Because of this situation, it made many people indignant. But the sad thing was, they couldn’t do anything about it.

     The protagonist was so determined to get the part he wanted; nothing could stand in his way. As he says” I went out with the part with all of my heart”. Also at the end of the story, he didn’t care that he was a firebrand in the play. He was satisfied with what he did; make a mess out of things. He stood up for himself. And not just for him but for other people that felt like he did. He didn’t even worry about what he could be next year, because he knew that without a doubt, he wasn’t going to be in the play anyway.

     “I didn’t care if they wouldn’t let me in the grand dramatic offering next year, because I wouldn’t have gotten the part anyway”. This means a lot to the character because he knew that he wouldn’t have gotten the part even if he was in the dramatic offering. What’s the point of fighting for something that can never be yours no matter what you do, without going to the extreme? So all in all no matter what happened it wouldn’t have made a difference to him anyway.

     This protagonist grew so much during the course of the story that it is unspeakable. He had learned something that most people learn in their older days. But he didn’t just grow; he also learned to deal with his problems during the story. I think that this situation is such a problem that it just ended up in a non-intentional physical interaction, which is a bad concept to teach the younger.

Something like fate

     In this amazing book Something like fate the characters go on an amazing adventure of love. The book starts off about a girl and her two best friends in high school with secrets that nobody else knows about. Out of the three friends only two of them know something that the other doesn't. Someone is gay. His name is Blake and the only other person that knows about this is his best friend Lani. Even Blake's father doesn't know about this, much more for their other friend Eric. But Eric has problems of her own. She is in love. And his name is Jason. Although Lani might not know it, Jason is in love with her.

     When  Lani finds this out she is speechless. And not because Jason and Eric are dating, because she feels the same way about him. When Eric goes off to summer camp Lani and Jason decide that it is time to take matters into their own hands. They decide to be together. By letter Jason broke up with Eric but he never told her about him and Lani. They don't tell anyone, and this is a good thing because someone actually found out and told Eric about it!

     when they finally get back to school everything took a turn for the worse. Eric is making up lies about her best friend Lain, making her sound like a slut. (What a bad friend she is huh?) But Jason doesn't care what people say about her. All he knows if that he loves her and that's all that matters.

     There were a lot of sad, happy, and very unexpected things during this book. Susane Colasanti really put her heart into this book, just as she always dose, and that's why i love her books! Susane Colasanti's books always catches the hearts of young girls everywhere. She really knows what it  feels to be caught up in a love feast, and that's what she portrays in all of her books. And i hope that she dose the same for you!