Tom Spanbauer

Author of the year ( Chloe's year )

           
            The owner of the hands that wrote Now is the Hour is quite the guy. He is a teacher that lives in Portland, Oregon and is definately something else. He is the author of many other great novels like Faraway Places, The Man Who Fell In Love With The Moon, In The City Of Shy Hunters, and his most recent, I Loved You More. Luckily, he has a website all about him and his great novels.  Go ahead! Click it! It'll tell you some great things about him. He is one that has a lot of interesting things to say. If you go to the section tabbed as "blog" he has some friggen great quotes in there. (sorry for saying friggen.)
But mostly, check out his great novels. At least one. I really am enjoying mine. I think he is an all around great writer. From the looks of it, he is a great teacher too.

The Early Days

          I am making steady progress in my beloved novel Now is the Hour and I am wrapping up the section titled "The Early Days". In this section you get to peer into the early childhood of Rigby John Klusner, while it was still golden. At the end of this section it explains why his early childhood lost its gold touch a little later on. Rigby's life losing its polish, is the work of a sibling. His little brother, Russell Klusner.
         Russell was no evil villan though. His life just threw a bit of a curve ball that the family couldn't quite prepare themselves for. No no Russell's life wasn't a mistake. A perfectly planned baby, born a cripple.The stress of not only letting him grow up happy, but struggling to see him grow up at all was too much. "Mom was never the same. The music stopped, and she locked herself inside her room with Dad, and me and Sis were outside her room, and her eyes were never the same. I couldn't find her anywhere in them."
          There was lots of tension when his little brother was born. Luckily, this section of the book shows lots and lots of times before Russell was even alive. It shows every flicker of gold there could possibly be in the little boy's life. I think to watch those times slowly become less and less frequent helped this book really get a hold of your emotions. Still highly recommend this book! Please pick it up if you ever get the chance.

Starting off "Now is the Hour"

    Yesterday, I started a book called Now is the Hour by Tom Spanbauer. I am currently on page 23 of 459 however, there is already a lot to say about this book. For this post, I would like to focus in on the setting of the novel. The year this tale takes place in is 1967. The seventeen year old Rigby John Klusener is finally getting away from his deeply religious farm family in Pocatello, Idaho, and is headed for the dream spot named San Fransisco. From what I understand, the deep morals of the Klusener family and the still life style that is a farm family in the 1960s is enough to drive Rigby insane. He seems to be one that can't hold still. I love the writing style of this book and I am really intrigued to find out what is going to happen.

Kendra

               I am currently reading a really great book by Ellen Hopkins called Perfect. Overall, it is about a group of kids with their own stories who are striving to be "perfect". However, there is one character that I am really interested in finding out more about. Her names is Kendra. On the surface, other characters see her as a snobby and dumb cheerleader. However, when the reader is given the opportunity to see the world through her eyes, it is very easy to understand that what other characters see on the surface isn't all true. She is a pageant girl. (eek) Also, she knows that she is "pretty" in others eyes. But in poor Kendra's eyes, she isn't very pretty at all. In fact, throughout the story, she unfortunately becomes anorexic. She is also very obsessed with working out. No matter how much weight she loses she always tells herself "15 pounds to go." And when her hunger becomes unbearable she still doesn't turn to food. Instead she picks up pill bottles. In her story the reader is given the chance to see the horrifying roller coaster that is an eating disorder. Even though this novel clearly contains heavier topics, I highly reccomend it.

Blogger Final Reflection

Clickhere to view my best blog post

 Chloe McDonald

               This is my best blog because I have met all requirements in a clear and simplified way. My blog is over theme! First, I state the theme statement "The theme of "The Night Circus" is doing what makes you happy will often times not be approved by everyone." This clearly states the underlying meaning or "lesson learned" of the text. Next, I explain why I found this theme to fit the independent novel I was reading. "in the beginning, the daughter is expected to face and defeat a subject of a competitor of the magician's. However, when she grows up and is well trained and ready to face her challenger, she of course.. falls in love with him. So of course she doesnt want to destroy him and he sure doesnt want to hurt her. However, running off with this guy will not be okay with her dad." Long explanation, however, I think it clearly justifies my theme. This is why I think my Theme post is my best one!  

               While I am very pleased with English 1a this trimester, I believe that next trimester when I have English 1b, I can do even better! A goal I have next trimester for reading, is to slow down and really try to understand the text I am reading. Including, the surface meaning, and deeper meaning. Another reading goal I have is to reading more frequently. 3-4 days a week for twenty minutes a day. Now for writing, a goal I have for next trimester is to work on my voice and tone. I feel that a can push a tone and feeling better in my writing if I work on my diction and syntax. I feel if I add a variety to my pieces, I could influence a reader's feelings even more than I have before. Next, I feel there is always room for improvement. I feel that I could improve my reading and writing very much! One thing that I need to improve in reading is not being lazy and rereading things and looking up words I dont understand so I can truly know what is happening in a text.  With writing, things I could improve are the way I order things in a text to make them flow better. When reading one of my own pieces I sometimes feel it is rather choppy, so I can promise that is something I will try my hardest to improve on! This trimester has been great but all good things must come to an end and im excited for next trimester! Thank you!

The Forbidden Romances

Since my novel that I am reading and a play I am studying in class are forbidden romances I thought it would be okay to compare the two. In The Night Circus reason the two loving foes were chosen, not born into hate. They were chosen by their trainers (I CHOOSE YOU PIKACHU) to fight the other in a magic duel. While in Romeo and Juliet they were in fact born to hate each other. The last really big comparison I came up with is that Romeo and Juliet had a fatal ending while The Night Circus luckily did not. yay!

Analysis

The novel The Night Circus states very clearly that Marco and Celia are in love. I know this because it says "Ceilia wishes she could freeze time as she listens to the steady beat of Marco's heart against the ticking of the clock. To stay forever within this moment, curles in his arms, his hands softly stroking her back, To not have to leave." I think this chunk of text makes it very very obvious that the now not so little girl is in love with Marco. As he is also in love with her. Although this is just another forbidden romance, this is also another book that will chase you down until you fall in love with it as well.