Book Summary: Summer Ball

In the beginning of chapter 5, the author talks about how the things that revolved around him was school and church. Outside school and church there were the endless street games on 122nd street. The block was safe to play on under the watch of housewives. Plus on page 39, Walter and his friend decided to hang Richard Aisles. Fortunately, the pastor came there and stopped the whole thing.

Every story has the one character who may stand out from the group and act slightly different from the rest. They may have some peculiar thoughts, but by the end, they play an important role in developing the plot of the story. In Summerland, by Michael Chabon, the author created Thor Wignutt, the unusual character of the story. At the beginning of the novel, Thor and Ethan Feld and Jennifer T. Rideout aren’t the best of friends. Ethan and Jennifer T. know how intelligent Thor is, and they need him in order to continue to travel between the worlds.

Katherine Senechal Professor Infranco History 110 27 January 2016 Revolutionary Summer Revolutionary Summer by Joseph J. Ellis begins in the spring of 1776, a year into the fighting between Britain and the colonies. The battle at Bunker Hill had resulted in the death of more than 1,000 British soldiers and American deaths in the hundreds. After the British raided several New England towns, American soldiers led by Benedict Arnold trudged through the wilderness of Maine in winter, “suffered a crushing defeating in the attempt to capture the British stronghold at Quebec” (Ellis, 2013, p.4). The leader of the radical party in the Continental Congress was John Adams. Many of his colleagues found him obnoxious.

“A group of big-city mayors released a study showing that in 2000, requests for food assistance from families increased almost 20 percent, more than at any time in the last decade. In Quindlen's essay “Schools Out for Summer” she addresses many of the food struggles happening not only in other places but right under our noses. During school months it's much less of a problem because of the students going to school and the food programs. So the question is how many kids during the summer are getting the necessary amount of food. “Fifteen million students get free or cut-rate lunches at school, and many get breakfast, too”.

The poem “American Hero” by Essex Hemphill, is about a competitive match of basketball, however, towards the end the author describes a social denial from other neighborhoods that despise his team. To convey his feelings, the author’s tone in the beginning of the poem is thrilling as it stimulates the feeling of playing competitively in a game of basketball when reading until the game is over when the tone gets wretched as the thought of being denied by the opposing team’s school sinks in to the author’s mind. Furthermore, the tone and the use imagery are used to convey the sense of being in the game and knowing the environment in this tense basketball game. An example of this is on lines 5-9, it states “It’s a shimmering club light and I’m

In this autobiographical narrative A Summer Life, Gary Soto vividly recreates the guilt felt by a six-year-old boy who steals an apple pie. Through his visceral reminiscence he shows us the adolescent ignorance about morals and the understanding of religion. The story is a journey about his guilt, paranoia and then - understanding of what he has done. When people have to choose a decision that is based between right and wrong, and they choose wrong, it is often that they then battle the guilt that eats at them after. Soto uses somewhat of a humorous telling of the experience that is shown through imagery, diction, and biblical allusions.

When society thinks of the word “childhood,” they imagine it as a precious time for children to be in school and freely play, to grow and learn with the love and support from people dear to their hearts. It is also known to be a cherished period where children are to be innocent and live carefree from fear. However, in the context of The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, childhood is viewed as a tough hardship that Jeannette and her siblings have overcame, and the memories they carry has greatly impacted their lives that it has molded them to who they are

The Subject of the poem Ex-Basketball player is a guy named flick who was a really good athlete in high school. This athlete's name is Flick Webb and he grew up without learning a trade so he works as a mechanic. The narrator used to watch Flick play in high school. This poem describes how Flick used to be a really good athlete. It also goes over his current life and how his work life is.

Can uncontrollable self accusations eventually overtake over your everyday mental state? Can your thoughts really in time take full control over you, your entire body and each and every judgment in life? In Laurie Halse Anderson novel Wintergirls we are transferred into the protagonist's mind of Lia. A young 18 year old high school student that suffers from an eating disorder. Lia is tortured so severely from her disease that her day to day ambition is her own weight.

Summary “Children Need to Play, Not Compete,” by Jessica Statsky is a thoughtful insight on the competitive sports for children. She is of the view that the competitive sports can ruin the enjoyment that games are supposed to provide. These methods of playing the games like adults can prove to be lethal for physical and psychological health. The author quotes from an authentic source that “Kids under the age of fourteen are not by nature physical.” (Tutko)

Of course, only Flick is able to imagine them as such, which tells how much Flick is rivetted in the past. Thus, the variety of uses of figurative language show the reader what is going on in Flick’s mind, and the reader sees that Flick is eluding into fantasies about former victories. Updike depicts Former athlete to the current gas station attendant, allowing the reader to sympathize with Flick’s partiality for reminiscing. Updike employs a number of words regularly linked with sports to imply the former athlete’s skill. Words such as “runs,” “bends,” “stops” and “cut off” (Updike) are strong action words often used to express actions in basketball.

PLOT SUMMARY AND THEME OF THE NOVEL: Magnus Chase and The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan is the story of how Magnus Chase, a son of the Norse God Frey, meets his untimely demise at the hands of the fire giant Surt after learning of his heritage. After being revived in the Norse afterlife, Valhalla, Magnus is taken back to the world of the living to fulfil his destiny as being the harbinger of the Wolf. Along the way Magnus meets many mythical creatures including: a talking goat, a deaf elf, and a tall dwarf. In the end Magnus and his new found friends rebind the Wolf Fenris and defeat the fire giant Surt. The Theme of Magnus Chase and The Sword of Summer is that when things are at their worst it can always get better.

This is well illustrated in Sky High, written by Hannah Roberts. One phrase in particular relates to growth and development. The phrase, “There are too many things tying me to the ground”, by use of the metaphor “tied down”, suggests that people may be obstructed with activities such as a job or family matters. This shows that in this sense, a metaphor is an example of the protagonist’s changing self. This contrasts to the protagonist’s previous “daredevil” self.

In John Updike’s poem, “Ex-Basketball Player,” the darker part of a similar story is told. In this poem, the speaker is a big admirer of former high school basketball star Flick Webb. However, by the end, the reader and the speaker

Literary Analysis Suspense. It's what makes us sit on the edge of our seats at movies, or has us biting our nails as we read. It’s the backbone behind any classic horror film where the babysitter keeps getting unknown phone calls about checking the children and she asks the police to trace the call only to get a call back saying it's coming from upstairs.