Non-Fiction Blog Post

     The New York Yankees have recently added a great Japanese pitcher to their pitching rotation.  His name is Masahiro Tanaka.  The article "New York Yankees Welcome Newest Pitcher Masahiro Tanaka" by Kymbrye Temple they talk about adding him to the Yankees.  Tanaka was one of the best pitchers in Japan With A 24-0 record with a 1.27 ERA.  Players like Derek Jeter are excited for this great future all-star.  Tanaka was signed to a 7 year $155 million dollar contract.

     The Yankee players are excited for Tanaka Is coming to the Yankees.  Jeter said to Tanaka "You're
a major addition."  Jeter also said that the Yankees are willing to find other prospects to pick up and are willing to spend money.  People predict that Tanaka will boost the starting rotation so much.  The Yankees spent a lot of money in this off season getting Brian Mcann, Jacoby Elsberry, and Carlos Beltron.  Also since the Yankees lost their best player in Robinson Cano they need to get some better defense.  The author thinks that Tanaka will be a great add to the Yankees and will help them in many ways.

     One way that he will greatly help the Yankees is obviously with his pitching.  His opposition got 7 hits per 9 innings and the average amount of hits per game in the MLB is about 18 hits.  This is showing how dominant he can be.  Also other Japanese players like Hideki Matsui and Huroki Kuroda have been great successes in the MLB.  I also think that he'll bring better team chemistry since the whole team wants him there, which will greatly affect how they play.

     I also think that he will be a great success for the Yankees and will step up their game.  I have high hopes for Tanaka since I'm a big Yankees fan.  The Yankees also need some new pitchers and I think that this guy will defiantly do good since he was so dominant in Japan.  This can relate to teenagers because I know a lot of kids that like the Yankees and are excited for Tanaka to come.  I agree with everything that the author said about him fitting in with the Yankees perfectly.

Glass

In the book Glass by Ellan Hopkins there is a lot to do with power.  A lot of the power has to do with age.  The ages are mostly different because of parents/step parents.  For example Scott and Marie have power over Kristina and Hunter.  Kristina also has power over hunter because hunter is her kid.

In one part of the book Scott takes away Kristina's driving privileges because they got into a fight.  Scott has power because he is older and it's his car.  Marie in one part kicks Kristina out of the house because she found out Kristina was on meth.  Marie has more power because she is kicking Kristina out of the house and because she is Kristina's mother.  Kristina's mom can also do other things like she also kept Hunter because she doesn't think Kristina can take care of her.

Kristina, Scott, and Marie have power over Hunter because Hunter is a baby.  Since hunter is a baby he can't make his own decision.  Most babies can't also make their own decisions because they don'y know better.  This is a lesson in real life because you should listen to your teachers and parents.  You should do this because they're smarter and wiser than you and you should listen to them.  This shows that you should listen to your elders because they know better.

The stolen party

In the book "The Stolen Party" Rosaura reacted differently to different signs of power.  In one case Rosaura reacts to the girl with the bow angrily.  She resists the power because of the way the girl is treating her.  In another instance Señora Ines asks/tells Rosaura to help serve hot dogs to other kids.  She does it because she doesn't realize that she's getting "bossed" around, also because she treated Rosaura respectively.

In one part of the book, a girl with a bow says to Rosaura mean things about Rosaura and Luciana not being friends.  She states that Rosaura and Luciana aren't friends because the girl knows all of Luciana's friends and they don't know each other.  Rosaura doesn't like the way that she is talking to her so Rosaura fights back, she resists the power.  An example of how Rosaura fights back is by showing how Luciana and her are friends and by kicking the girl in the leg.

Just after this scene, Señora Ines, Luciana's mother, asks Rosaura very politely to hand out hot dogs to the other kids.  She took this as a compliment since she knew the house better than any other kid.  She also helped out because Señora Ines asked her very nicely, unlike how the girl with the bow was talking.  Señora Ines said it nicely because that's how you get people to to agree with you, and be nice to you.  This also teaches you a lesson; if you do good things, than you will get good karma.

my favorite book of 2013 (warning: spoiler alert for Every Day)

     My favorite book of 2013 was Every Day, by David Leventhal.  This book was so touching and really mad me think.  I like this book because I really like the ending.  In the end A embraces that he will never be with Rhiannon and it teaches you that things aren't always going to be great and you need to be prepared for what's ahead of you.  This book really made me think because in the beginning of the book I thought that it would be cool to switch bodies every night because then I could mess with people but now I see that you could never love anything and you would have to be so mentally strong to do this.  I don't think that I could ever do this and I think at the end of the book A couldn't deal with it either.

Reading Inquiry

     In the book Every Day by David Levithan, "A" travels through bodies every day but then he falls in love.  When he falls in love with this girl Rhiannon he wants to stay in a body so that he can stay with Rhiannon, but he cannot control this.  During this adventure you find that some of the people that he enters help out in the school or in their communities.
      One little thing that one kid does is that he drives her sister to school.  This isn't the biggest thing but it helps out the girl in minor ways.  If the kid didn't drive her to school than maybe should wouldn't be able to go to school quickly, learn how to socialize with people and other small things.
     In Upfront Magazine there was an article about kids trying to stop people from being distracted while driving like eating or being on their phone.  The kids put up signs that told them not to eat while they drive.  More than 1,300 students between 6th and 12th grade went to a contest called Drive2Lifeto see who could make the best rode signs.

Social Justice

         Social justice is justice exercised within a society, mostly as it is shown in the world and our communities.   Social justice comes up a lot in the world all around us.  One place where it happens a lot is our independent reading books.  A lot of books have it in a lot of different places.
         One place where it happens a lot in my book is at the school.  At the school I think it happens a lot because there are many people and topics there so some of those topics have to be related to social justice.  For example, in the school it talks a it about drugs, drinking and other things that you shouldn't be doing.  This is making a statement that all teenagers are druggies and all of them do bad things.  However, a lot of us know that this is a false accusation and a lot of kids don't do illegal, bad tings.
          Another place in my book where social justice comes up is at the characters house.  A lot of the story takes place at her house and she does a lot of thinking there.  She thinks a lot about things that are happening in her life and really explain deeply about what is happening.  The thoughts are thoughts that some people have but not others.  For example a lot of people think about things at school like tests, homework, and friends and that's something that she'll think about.  But then there are things that she thinks about that the average person wouldn't think about like drug trades, being pregnant at 17 and other things such as that.

About Banned Books Week 2010: An Anti-Censorship Manifesto

         After reading Banned Books Week 2010: An Anti-Censorship Manifesto by Ellan Hopkins I learned somethings about her life, her books and how they were related.  I learned that one of the reasons that she writes all of these dark books with a lot of drugs is because he daughter is addicted to methamphetamine.  She wrote one book, Crank, and she started getting fan mail from drug addicts about how this book changed their lives and got them off of drugs.  Since she was changing so many peoples lives she started making more books about these topics and she was changing even more peoples lives.  This article was about how this process happened and that her books shouldn't be banned from school libraries because they can teach people things and change peoples lives.