Laurels

My Glogsters:

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My Zine:
My first read-a-thon This is going to be about the first read-a-thon I was ever in. One Friday there was a message in our Friday folder about the Ronald McDonald Read-a-thon that was going to happen in our school. If we wanted to we could participate in the read-a-thon to see who could read the most or raise the most money to donate to the Philadelphia Ronald McDonald House. I didn’t really expect to win it since there was probably going to be a bunch of older kids competing but I thought it would be nice to raise some money for The Ronald McDonald House and that it would be fun to see how much I could read in the month of February so I decided to do it.

During the read-a-thon I read more than I ever had before. I had a lot of fun and read a lot of good books. Since I was in pre-k my mom was allowed to do some of the reading with me. I got a lot of my aunts, uncles and other family members to sponsor me for a lot of money per minute because they didn’t really expect me to read that much but when I read an amazing 1650 minutes and raised $611.60, which I considered to be a pretty good amount for a pre-k-er over the month of February. Six years later I have raised over $__ and read 25,001 minutes.

At the end of the month we had an assembly and Mrs. Granados announced that a girl a couple of years older than me had read the most minutes and most importantly that I had raised the most money in the lower school! On the way back to our classroom all of my classmates were congratulating me. I was really surprised! I had won! When I went home my parents were really proud of me. This was one of the things that made me start to love reading and ever since I have won the read-a-thon and have love reading ever since.

Why reading is good

Teachers and parents always talk about what a good thing reading is but some people only read because they have to for school and they are making a mistake. Reading is a good thing to do for three main reasons. It is fun, it helps with spelling, and you have to do it for school anyway so you have to get used to it. I have won seven read-a-thons at my school, I love to read and never like to have to put down a good or exciting book.

The first reason reading is good is that reading is fun and there is not much more that I can say. But books can be incredibly exciting when you get to the climax especially. Some of my favorite books and series are Percy Jackson, The Lord of the Rings, Artemis Fowl, and Fable Haven. When you open up a good book you can’t stop reading. I love opening a new book or finishing the end of an old favorite. When I read a book I can see the main character and the scene, it’s a great feeling. These are some great reasons to read.

Another important reason to read is that it can help you with spelling for school. Like for my homework I have to do vocab and you are supposed to spell everything right. When you read a word a lot it stays in your head and is easier to spell. I also learn a lot of new words when I read and I can figure out what they mean by using context and other clues. If you aren’t very good at spelling then reading can definitely help. This will help you get good grades.

You have to read books for school anyway so you might as well start reading now. This will make your school reading easier and more fun which makes you feel a lot better about yourself. If your school reading becomes easier than you do a better job and get a better grade. When you get a better grade you get into a better college. When you get into a better college you get a better job. When you get a better job you get a better salary. When you get a better salary you get more money, which everybody wants.

These are some of the reasons why everyone should read. Almost every job or good school requires you to read anyway so why not. I can’t think of anything bad that happens if you read it is only good SO READ!!!

Walking in the Bookstore One of my favorite things to do is to pick out new books. When you walk in the door to the bookstore to get a new book there are shelves of books everywhere and it feels so quiet compared to the loud sound of the cars speeding by on the road outside. There are shelves of books everywhere and if it is me. I walk right over to the fiction (my favorite section) or young adults section to get the book I came for or just to browse. But no matter whether I came to browse or to get a single book I always am tempted to leave with more books than I was expecting because there are so many different choices. I always leave with at least five books. You can feel the stiff piles of gift cards in your pockets. These are from whenever your aunts or uncles who don’t know exactly what to buy you for Christmas or your birthday. They buy you a gift card to Barnes and Noble or before it closed Borders (I was very sad when this happened). Somebody else opens the door and if it is winter a rush of cold air comes in like a rabbit running for its life. You pick out the books that look interesting or are the brand new sequels to a book that you really liked. Sometimes, it is impossible to choose like choosing one special grain of sand in an entire desert. But you eventually make your choice. Then you go over to wait in line at the counter. The books feel so heavy in your arms like a thousand pounds while you wait for the person in front of you to hurry up all ready so you can go home and read. Even though the books are heavy they are definitely worth it. The person finally finishes! You put the books on the counter with your gift cards. You see the amazing Lindor Truffles that dissolve in your mouth like a snowman in heat. Beg your mom or dad if you can have one of the delicious vanilla Lindor Truffles and if it is your dad he lets you have one and if it is your mom she will not let you have even one. The cash register clangs shut and your receipt pops out but you immediately throw it out because you know that you will never return these books. The person at the counter gives you back your books and a bunch of money because you had too much money on your gift cards. She gives you her, I’m-only-saying-this-because-my-boss-pays-me-to, “Have a nice day.” You walk out of the store, get in your car and drive away with your books. Ancient Greece A couple of days ago I was just a normal kid who liked Greek mythology. There was nothing special about me. I was a fifth grader at Shipley School, I got okay grades on my tests, and in other words, I was a normal kid. Now everything has changed! My name is Andrew Brose and I think I might be the youngest time traveler ever. What I mean by that is that I really have time traveled and I think other people might have too. This is the story of my life. I was sitting at my desk taking a test on Greek mythology this was probably the only test that I thought I could get an A+ on since I had studied all night and knew all the names and the difference between Perseus and Persephone, between Hephaestus and Heracles. My teacher Mrs. Sweetman announced that we had five minutes left to finish the test. I started writing as fast as I could. I needed to finish half a page in five minutes. I finished my test and my mind ended up wishing I could have been in a Greek myth with all that excitement and all the action. A voice somewhere asked me if I really wanted to be in a Greek story so of course I said, “Yes I want to be in a gree-hey wait who just asked that? Whoa!” All of the sudden everything got distorted and when it went back to normal I was in ancient Greece (not that I knew that yet). I was in front of an ancient Greek temple with three roads going to it. I was wearing a Chitin and sandals while still holding my test and pencil. I put down my test put kept my pencil. There were people driving carts to a market place while a battalion of soldiers marched passed on another road. Then all the sudden from the third road a mob of people ran towards us screaming as if they were running for their lives (which I found out later was actually true). The soldiers readied their spears and slowly marched toward the mob I asked somebody what was happening and he screamed, ”The Sweetmenian monster is attacking and if she catches you she forces you to do homework forever!” One of the reasons why I had wished I was in a Greek myth was so that I could get away from homework. So the last thing I wanted was to do homework forever. I finally saw the monster. It was a gigantic ten-foot tall monster that looked like a cross between the Nemian lion and a Chimera (I found out later that it actually was a cross between the sphinx and a griffin even though it looked a lot like a chimera). It was spitting fire with all five of its heads! That’s right, I said five heads. The thing had five heads. One was an eagle, the next was a grizzly bear, a lion, a serpent and a red thing that looked a lot like a dragon. I said it looked like a Nemian lion because every part of it was covered in a golden hide. It had two tails one covered in spikes and the other dripping with venom. It had big eagle wings on its back. I was so scared that I froze; my legs wouldn’t move. The last thing I remembered before I blacked out was the Sweetmenian monster sweeping down and picking me up with its talons. When I woke up I was in a cave with about seventeen other kids all doing their homework. “Wait Kiran, Aaron what are you guys doing here?” “Who is Kiran my name is Kirin” “And who is Aaron my name is Eron” “Wait when I wished that I could be in a Greek myth I must have wished everybody here!” “This isn’t a myth this is real life you know”, Kirin told me. “Believe it or not I am from the future and some how I got whisked back to this time.” “The gods must have sent you!” Eron said. “Believe it or not people in my time have realized that there are no gods!” All of the sudden thunder rumbled which didn’t really make sense because from what I had figured out it seemed like we were deep underground. “You should not say such things about the god. You have angered the lord Zeus. Besides how do explain the change of the seasons?” “The gods do not exist! The only reason the seasons change is because of the tilt of the earth!” “Impossible! If the earth tilted than everybody would fall off!” Kirin told me. “Actually the earth has this thing called gravity which pulls everybody towards it but whatever, I’m never going to win this argument. Let’s focus on how to get out of here,” I said “We don’t get out,” Kirin told me. “Why not?” I asked. “Because we are just normal kids we have to wait for Heracles or Perseus or some other hero to save us! That way they can get more glory and fame,” Eron said “So we just wait?” “Well if we happened to escape or kill the Sweetmenian monster than the other heroes would get mad at us for stealing their chance to get more glory. There are only so many monsters left in the world to kill especially since the mighty Argus, guard to Hera, killed Echidna the mother of monsters so that she can’t make any more kids. If we kill one monster than the heroes will think that we took their chance for fame, and since this is the strongest monster left they all want to be the one to kill it,” Eron explained. “Well I don’t care what Heracles and the others think, I’m busting out.” All of the sudden the Sweetmenian monster flew back in with more of my classmates. “Planning an escape are you? Well that won’t happen. I am going to enlist a hydra to guard the entrance hahahahaha! Tomorrow you will start your homework!” Then she flew away. “Well it’s getting late and I can’t think of anything to do so maybe we should go to sleep,” I told the rest of the kids. “Yes Mr. Strange person in weird clothes,” one of the new kids that looked like Matt Sherman said. So we went to sleep and in a dream Apollo appeared to me and started talking to me. “I am Apollo the god of the sun and music but I am also the god of prophecy and I can see the future so I know that you will escape from here and get back to your own time. Just remember what starts in a time ends in that time.” By the time I was done being in shock at the fact I had just met a god and I had so many questions. “Wait, what do you mean what starts in a time ends in that time?” But by the time I asked him Apollo had already disappeared which seems to happen a lot in these Greek myths. When I woke up the Sweetmenian monster was yelling for everybody to get up and start doing homework. She threw a sheet of math at me and for some reason I was able to read it even though it was written in ancient Greek. I took out my pencil and began to write. Everybody started staring at me so I asked them what was wrong. Kirin asked me, “How did you get a writing tool that used wood to write?” Then I realized what Apollo meant. My pencil was from the future! I decided to try wishing for my pencil and me to be back home. All of the sudden everything went black and when it got light again I was back taking the test at school. Everybody was working and acting like nothing had happened I thought it was over but when I went home there was a Greek guy wearing a chitin in my room! He was holding my Greek test and I could tell what had happened. “What is this strange land?” he asked me and I knew that this wasn’t over.

Poems

Reading is awesome

Books are the best things ever!

I love to read books.

Books are amazing

Books are the best

Reading is my favorite activity

It is better than the rest

Reading oh reading

You are the best

I wish I could read instead of doing tests

If I could chose one thing that I could do every day

Reading would win it would win any day

Reading is great and it helps you learn

There are books about everything even about worms

If you do not know how to read you should definitely learn

It is one thing you will definitely need to pass your college term

Reading is important and don’t forget it

My author study:

My author is Linda Sue Park. Linda Sue was born in America but her parents met in South Korea and were married there. Shortly after they were married they moved to America. Linda Sue was born in Urbana, Illinois on March 25, 1960. She grew up outside Chicago. When Linda Sue grew up she was not allowed to speak any Korean in her house so that she would have to speak English and thus learn English. She has been writing since she was four and when she was nine she sold her first poem to a children’s magazine. She was given a check for one dollar by the company and gave the check to her father for Christmas. A couple of months later a letter came asking her dad to cash the check but the dad wrote back asking if he was allowed to keep the check which was hanging over his desk in his office. She went to Stanford and became a public relations writer for a big oil company for two years. Than she left the oil company and was married in 1983 to an Irishman and had two kids. Then she moved back to America. Linda Sue received a lot of awards for her books including a Newberry Medal award for her book __A Single Shard.__

The four books I read were: __Kite Fighters,__ __Keeping Score__, __Archer’s Quest,__ and __A Single Shard__. One thing I noticed was that all of her books are somehow linked to Korea. __Kite Fighters__ is based in South Korea. In __Keeping Score__ the fire fighter named Jim is in the __Korean War__. In __Archer’s Quest__ Chu-Mong is actually a king from ancient Korea. Finally in __A Single Shard__ Tree-ear has to take a shard of a pot to the capitol of Korea and it is set in Korea. I think the reason why she writes about Korea is that even though she was born in Illinois, she thinks of herself as Korean.

One thing is that in Linda Sue Park’s books they all have to do with Korea even if it is just barely linked. For example in __Keeping Score__ the war that Jim is in is the Korean War even though he is not the main character. One common theme was that it seems like happened is that all of the books was that when the main character was facing hardship they still persevered. Also something that is very important is that everything has to do with Korea and made she made almost all of her books about a kid.

This was one of my favorite authors ever along with Rick Riordan because I really liked how she wrote all of her books about Korea Out of these books my favorite book was definitely __Kite Fighters__ because I liked how they figured out how to give themselves a better chance at winning. My second favorite book was probably __Keeping Score .__ Those are two books that I would definitely recommend. I really liked studying this author!