White Cat by Holly Black

Imagine a world where your next-door neighbor could be a curse worker--able to curse you or anyone else with just the brush of a bare hand. Now imagine that you are a member of a family of curse workers, all of whom happen to be criminals, but that you have no magic of your own.

This is the life that Cassel Sharpe faces in Holly Black's book White Cat. Cassel seems to be the only "normal" one in a family of criminals. That is, except for the fact that he murdered his best friend, Lila, three years earlier. When Cassel begins to have dreams about a mysterious white cat that is trying to tell him something, the careful facade of normalcy that he has built up begins to shatter and he starts to discover things about his past and present that challenge everything that he ever thought he knew. He no longer knows who to trust, where to turn, or even what is real. In the answer to these questions lie also the answers to his fate and the fate of the world of curses and family which is the only one that he knows.

This book is an action packed story that is chock-a-block full of plot twists and turns. Once you start reading, it is nearly impossible to put down. I would recomend this book for teens who enjoy fantasy and action novels. Though it is a fantasy story, the characters, situations, and settings are all very easy to relate to. I think that the book is very well written and the author, Holly Black, is one of my favorite authors. Overall, this was a great book that kept me guessing right until the end, where it left me dying to read the sequel!

O. Henry

As part of our Short Story unit, we read a story by the author O. Henry called "The Last Leaf." So, now (before we start on SHAKESPEARE) we are researching a little bit about him.

1. The name O. Henry was a pseudonym for William Sydney Porter.

2. O. Henry was born in 1862 and died in 1910.

3. He only went to school unto age 15, then he dropped out to work at his uncle's drugstore.

4. He was accused of embezzling funds and fled to Honduras to escape trial. He returned to the US when he learned that his wife was dying and turned him self in after her death.

5. He was in prison for 5 years and this is where he began to write short stories.

6. Many of his stories were set in New York City, including "The Last Leaf."

7. O. Henry wrote more than one story a week.

8. He published ten collections of stories in barely ten years.

9. A trademark of his stories is his use of ironic endings.

10. There is now a Memorial Award in his honor for the best American short stories.

Source: Encarta

Picture Source: http://campsmoke.fmallen.com/?p=2138

"Masque of the Red Death" Essay

The Green Revolution

            In the story “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allen Poe, the third room’s color, green, represents the adolescent period of a person’s life. This color can represent energy and a loss of some of the innocence in the color before it, purple.  Green shows an adolescent becoming more mature, but mostly the process through which they become mature. It also represents envy because in ages thirteen to twenty a person becomes more materialistic and always wants the next best thing. This color basically represents the process through which a person goes from a child to an adult.

            The adolescent years are essentially an age of transition, and this is what the color green represents. Green shows the loss of much of the innocence and ignorance in the color purple, but without the growing anger represented in the color orange, which comes after this stage of life. Adolescents are also often “green with envy,” as they become more materialistic and care about many things more and more. The color green seems more mature than purple, but not quite as mature as the color orange, and this is also representative of the “in-between” stage that adolescents are in. In the clock of life, the ebony clock in the story, this color would be almost in the middle, but not quite there yet. This color perfectly represents the adolescent stage in life.

            Green relates to my life in many ways because I am a teen or adolescent. Right now, I am in the transition stage of my life. I just entered high school and I am seeing how different it is from middle and especially elementary school. Since I am one of the youngest people in my family, I can see glimpses of the adult world through them as well. Yes, I have been jealous of people for having the newer and cooler things than me and for many other reasons. I often feel caught between being an adult and a child, such as being in limbo. My life is transitioning right now, so green corresponds with my life very well.

Edgar Allan Poe

A webquest about Edgar Allan Poe begins our new quarter. Basic information, and some other details. Voila!

Edgar Allan Poe

1. Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, MA. He died of mysterious causes on October 7, 1849.

Source: http://www.nndb.com/people/469/000022403/

2. Tragic events in Poe's early life which influenced his writing may have been his father's abondonment and mother's death. He was also adopted by a childless couple, Mr. and Mrs. John Allan.

Source: http://www.poestories.com/biography.php

3. Five of the theories surrounding Poe's mysterious death are (1) beating, (2) epilepsy, (3) rabies, (4) murder, and (5) diabetes.

Source: http://www.poemuseum.org/life-death.php

4. According to the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, Poe called the state of Virginia home.

Source: http://www.poemuseum.org/life.php

6. The West Point Military Academy expelled Poe in March 1831.

Source: http://www.nndb.com/people/469/000022403/

7. Poe secretly married his thirteen-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm, when he was twenty-six.

Source; http://www.baltimorecity.gov/Government/BoardsandCommissions/HistoricalArchitecturalPreservation/PoeBaltimore.aspx

9. "Murders in the Rue Morgue" is considered the first detective story or murder mystery.
Source: http://www.editoreric.com/greatlit/books/MurdersRueMorgue.html
11. "The Raven" was published on January 29, 1845.

Source: http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Guides2/Raven.html

12. The portrait of Poe, "Pratt daguerroeotype, 1849" looks the most like the Edgar Allan Poe that I envision. This is because he looks just a little crazy in this picture, which is how I have always thought of him. At the same time though, he looks intelligent and like he lives in an elegant society, though he may not quite belong there.

Source: http://poestories.com/view.php?photo=42bfa6d8289f9

14. I signed the guestbook at poestories.com.

Source: http://poestories.com/guestbook.php
Image Source: http://medchrome.com/extras/stories/berenice-by-edgar-allan-poe/

Reflection: Overall, I think that Edgar Allan Poe was brilliant but a bit crazy. He had good reason to write tragedy and haunting poems though, seeing all the tragic things that happened to him as a young child. It seems like there are many conflicting facts about his life all over the internet and it is very hard to distinguish the right from the wrong. The mystery surrounding his death is also very interesting. It seems as though Poe's real life was almost as tragic and haunting as one of his stories.

A New Beginning

A New Beginning

Monologue by Margaret

(Enter MARGARET, the author of the blog and poster of all its fabulousness.)

MARGARET: It's a new quarter, a new unit, and a new look for this fantastic blog! (gestures grandly to blog)

MARGARET: What is our new unit, you say? Well, to start we are reading short stories.  Short stories are pretty great, except a lot of them are very frustrating in their endings and the fact that they are often too short! Personally, I don't read many short stories on my own, but I don't mind reading them for school. We'll also spend a little time on Edgar Allan Poe, right around Halloween. (spooky noises play)

MARGARET: And after that, Shakespeare! Drama! Theater! I love reading plays, especially when we act out the characters in class. Plus, I'm totally phsyched (even if it's far away) for our field trip to DC!

MARGARET: So, I have some pretty high hopes for the second quarter! We shall see how it turns out!

(MARGARET waves, exits. Blackout.)

(This picture is of my friends and me on Halloween this year. I'm one of the "Imma Bees" :D)