Entry #8 - Mother To Son .

        I appreciate the fact that Langston Hughes made a clear focus in this poem, Mother to Son. His main focus was " life for me ain't been no crystal stair" He means my life hasn't been perfect, there has been some bumps on the way. I like the fact that instead of saying it like how I did above, he made a metaphor out of it. It makes the reader think/ dig deeper, it's better than just telling the readers exactly what he means.

  I like that he added little metaphors after he said "life for me ain't been no crystal stair" it supports the his focus. For example, he said : "And splinters , and boards torn up , and places with no carpet on the floor" This poem is like an essay, it has its main idea, then it has three supporting body paragraphs, then a conclusion.

        I also like that Langston Hughes didn't make his poem the type of poem that ryhmes. It shows to people that a poem doesn't need to ryhme to be good or meaningful. I also like the accent the mother has, and how he incorporated it into the poem so beautifuly that it makes the poem really personal. And I like that he divided the poem into short sentences , it allows the readers to read it some sort of way , its ethier you read it fast or slow.

        I also like the fact that he made the poem sound like the mother is talking directly to her son. For example, she said : " well, son , I'll tell you ... So boy, don't you turn back. Don't sit down on the steps. 'Cause you find it's kinder hard. Don't you fall now" I love that she said " Don't you fall NOW" because it's like she's saying you traveled along, tough way through splinters, torn up boards , and tacks. You can't quit now. The mother is givinng her son advice about life, she's saying dont give up and don't quit in life.

       

My Appreciation .

        No one's "just normal". Every one's unique and different in their own way. Just like Stuart Little , Stuart Little is very small , probably the size of your index finger doubled. But his smallness doesn't take away from his adventurous life. Stuart Little is unique because of his size, some people think that being small can limit what you can and cannot do. But it's actually the other way around. For example , in the beginning of the book Ms.Little's ring fell down the drain and no one could get it but Stuart. Being small is an advantage for Stuart, he could do many things other people double his size cannot do.

   
        Even if your small you can still do big things,, for example, one day Stuart Little was walking down the street and he saw a guy upset, Stuart doesn't even know the guy, but he asked him anyways what was wrong and the guy said that there was a many teachers absent because they're sick , and he needs a susbtiute. Stuart Little was nice enough to help out the Principal and teach kids much larger than him, he didn't even give it a second thought. That's what I appreciate about Stuart Little , he's very brave and confident in himself in doing jobs that are meant for adults, meaning jobs that are too big or tough for a person his size could do. But that proves my point that even though your small you can still do big things.

        Even if your small you can still do things you put your mind to. When Margalo left he was determined to find and save her. It's a tough job to do, because there is lot's of danger when Stuart Little steps outside his house, from birds trying to eat him to people stepping on him. But danger never entered the mind of a smart, brave, confident young mouse. Before he  started this long journey, he set his mind to saving and finding Margalo, and that's what he did.

        In life there's always that one person you depend on for everything. In the book Stuart Litte, Ms.Little and Mr.Little depend on Stuart Little a lot in the book. I connect with Stuart's parents because I also depend on many people in my life. For example , whenever something rolls under a place that's small , and they can't reach it, they just wait for Stuart to go and get it. An example from my life is that I depend on my mom on waking me up everyday in the morning for school.

        I appreciate that Stuart Little , [ even though he know's he small and some people don't take him seriously ] that he is still confident and brave. On the first page of the book Stuart Little, there is a picture of him standing in a confident pose , where he has his head held high and it shows that he's happy in himself and who is he, he never complained once about his smallness. That's what I appreciate about Stuart Little, he never complain's, he puts other people before himself, and he never tries to act like anyone else - he's always himself.

        Stuart Little is a great book for little kids, to help them boost their confidence in themselfs and to remind them the importance of family and friendship.  This book is a memorable childhood book because it's full of little adventers throughout the book and it has many different characters that the little kids could connect to.

       

    

Entry #7 . What I Researched About Stuart Little

     What I started researching about the book was why the author wrote it in the first place. On http://www.juggle.com/Stuart-little , It says that he had a dream many years later in a car , and during the night he dreamed about tiny boy who acted like a mouse and that's how the story Stuart Little got started. I like the fact that he based the book on a dream , it kinda of makes you think of all the other ways authors come up with interesting , exciting story idea's.
    
    The second thing I researched was the main idea and theme in the book. Even though I knew some ideas and themes, I wanted to find out the main one , the one E.B White wanted to elaborate the most in this book. On http://www.ask.com/wiki/Stuart_Little it says that the main theme in the book is friendship , but I disagree. I agree that it is one of the themes in the book , but not the main ; important one. To me , I think the main theme is : even though your small you can still do big things , for example : when the ring fell down the drain in the beginning of the book , Stuart was the only one that was able to get the ring out of the drain, so it's kind of like saying that being small is a good thing. There was many different themes through out the book , but I think this one is the main one because it repeats and appears in every chapter. Like there is many different problems in each chapter, and in each chapter Stuart is solving the problem - which goes back to the main theme that even though your small you could still do big things.

    The third thing I researched was a question I had , which was why did E.B White write two books that are similar to each other. What I mean by that is why did he write two books that both included talking small animals ? On http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/contributor.jsp?id=3410 , It says that E.B White lived on a farm in Maine where he kept many animals , and some of these animals made it into some of his books. And E.B White even said himself : " I like animals, and my barn is a very pleasant place to be, at all hours !" So that probably answer my question , that he really likes animals.

Entry # 6

        An intresting note i wrote was on page 3. I said "His parents are differeny then Fern's parents in the book Charlotte's Web. Fern's parents wanted to kill the pig because he was so small, and Stuart is so small as well, but his parents want to keep him."

     

        It shows how different Fern's parents and Stuart's parents are from each other. Fern's parents wanted to kill Wilbur because it was so small , and they thought it would have no use in anything. But they thought wrong. Killing Stuart never got in the mind of Stuart's parents, in fact the were often scared oh him getting hurt or killed by someone or something else.

        It shows how much more caring Stuart's parents are. Im not going to say that Fern's parents are mean old people who like to kill innocent little animals, but I am going to say that if they do kill an animal they won't care afterwards.
   
         It was kind of funny that E . B White ( the author ot Charlotte's Web & Stuart Little) added talking animals in two of her books. And I like the fact that she made them very different but very smiliar at the same time. For example , the things that was smiliar was that there was very tiny talking animals in each book, and the difference thing was that in Charlotte's Web, Fern's Parents wanted to kill Wilbur, but in Stuart Little his parents wanted to keep him and they over - protected him from any kind of danger.