Pages: 148-156

Mena arrives at to school to see her fellow church members outside protesting. After reading the signs and listening to the chants, Mena finds Casey, Josh, and K inside. Right when Mena sits down, K plopped the newest issue of the schools newspaper on her lap. When she read the first page article she completely flipped. This was because it was so obvious that you could tell that she wrote the article. By this happening she thought that all the kids that she wrote about that she use to go to church with would bully her like they did to the boy named Denny. The Church group bullied a boy named Denny because he was gay. By them bullying him, he tried to commite  suicide. 

Pages: 135- 147

K gave Mena an assement for the news paper to write an article about the whole evolution problem. When Mena was writing it she deciede to call the acticle, Bible Girl. When she printed this article out, at Casey’s and K’ s house she could not find the printer. By This happening Mena by mistake wonderd into a room which she thought was Casey’s moms office, but it was actually his dads. Casey’s dad died a couple of years ago from cancer. And his office looked as if he was still alive. After finding the real office where the printer was everyone came in.There was a gaint book shelf from the floor all the to the ceiling the  office, and then Mena was looking at the books she saw the book Red Horizain, an Science fiction book that turned out to bewritten by Casey’s dad. When Mena picked it up, Casey said that she could have it. When Mena heard this, she was shocked and did not know what to say.

Pages: 122-134

Pages: 122- 134

Ms. Shepard talks to the class about what she thinks is the is the write way to teach evolutions, and after she stated her opion, the pastor told her she was doing a bad job a teaching. This made the 9^th grade Science teacher, extremely mad! Ms. Shepard kicked the pastor out of her class , and counitued to keep working. When school was completed for the day, Mena went to  Casey’s house to work on their Sciecnce project. Unforunetly though, the puppy with the orange ribbon was bought and so to prepare the puppy for the plane ride, Casey would extend his arms to make it seem like the puppy was  flying. Although when it came time to spin the dog around he ended up barffing all over Casey.

K and Mena were in the car together, when K told her that Casey had a major crush on her. This surprised Mena, but once she was told this she thought that she actually might have feelings for Casey too. The next day at school, Tessa was laughing with one of her church friends and then pointed at Mena. For some odd reason this did not make Mena mad, but she was wondering what they were saying. After a couple of minutes Mena knew exactly what they were whispering about. The minister at there church, the one where Mena is banned from, was slowly walking into the classroom and while he was walking in, he was giving Mena a very interesting look. The reason he was in the Science classroom was because he was coming to dispute Ms. Sheppard’s teaching of evolution. The class could tell that Ms. Sheppard was not happy at all with him coming into her class and disturbing everything.

Page: 103-114

When Mena was over at Casey’s house, his sister, K, wanted her to be the source for her article, for the school newspaper about the students that were protesting in science class. The only way that Mena said that she would participate was if K pretended to be Casey and gave her a ride home, so that Mena’s parents would not know that their daughter was hanging out at a boy’s house. Later that night when K was driving Mena home, Mena asked, “What happened to your father?” K responded saying that their father had cancer, and through out this dying phase, Mrs. Sheppard really helped her. She also said that Mrs. Sheppard was the only adult who told her the truth about her father’s illness. 

Eliza Griffin

Pages:   95-103

Casey and Mena were sitting calmly on the couch, when a six foot tall screaming girl  and the boy who delivers Ms. Sheppard her coffee, ran through the door screaming Casey’s name. This was Casey’s sister, K. K, and she was screaming at Casey because she was quite mad that he did not tell her that many of the kids in his science class revolted about learning  about evolution.  KK was very mad because she was the editor in chief of the school paper, and because Casey did not tell her about this, she was not able to write about it. 

Eliza Griffin

Pages:  84-94

Mena finally went to Casey’s house to work on their science project. As they were walking to his house, Mena was thinking that her neighborhood was nothing like Casey’s. When Mena entered Casey’s house, she immediately she fell in love with the interior . After telling Casey this, he told her that his mother made everything inside the house. This amazed Mena, and when she met Casey’s mother, she wanted her to be her mom. A few minutes later, Casey told Mena what their science project was going to be. This meant taking her outside to show her the 12 puppies that he had. He explained to Mena that for their experiment, they were going to study how the puppies grow and mature. This news excited Mena so much that she did not want to leave Casey’s house. 

Personal reading blog Pg:72-83  

When Mena on Monday to school Casey enemdetly rushed up to her, to seeif she liked the Lord Of The Rings movie. Mena finally had to addmite that she was not allowed to watch those  types of movies because her parents thought that they were like the devil. When Mena told him this she was not sure if was going to laugh at her face, or understand. After laughing for a bit, casey under stood and he stop laughing. After this all happened, Casey asked Mena if she had asked her mother and father if she was allowed to come over after school to work on their science project. Mena called her mother asking her if she could go over to Casey's house. Mena's mother agreed because she thought Casey was a girl.

Eliza

In this Chapter, Adam was complaining to Ms. Shepherd that a jackolope is not a real animal. When she asked him where he read this, he said the Internet and then started to blush. Later in science class, Ms. Shepherd started talking about Evolution and immediately Tesea stood up and protested   that it was wrong for Ms. Sheppard to talk to the class about this . Ms. Sheppard, expecting that this was going to happen, she summoned Casey to the front of the room and read an article to the class. The article stated that there was a school where a teacher taught evolution to his students and then got into major trouble. 

Eliza Griffin

Pages: 40-51

Personal Reading

Casey did not come to science class, and this made Mena very worried. Mena found Casey in the hallway, reading Ms. Shepherd’s (the science teacher) blog. After they both finished reading it, Mena and Casey walked to the library to eat their lunches because both of their mothers forgot to give them lunch money, so they had to pack one.  While in the library, Casey told Mena about the AMAZING movie The Hobbit and that she needed to see it. Mena did not have to guts to tell Casey that she was not allowed to see movies like Lord of the Rings because of her religion. Later that night at the dinner table, Mena father who rarely speaks to her since the incident engaged in a conversation with her about earning money. What ever happened caused Mena parents agency to loose business.

Me, Evolution, & The Other Freaks of Nature Pages: 30-40

Eliza Griffin

English Personal Reading

Monday, April 12, 2012

Me, Evolution, & The Other Freaks of Nature 

Pages 30-40

Mena and Casey were walking in the halls when Teresa pushed Mena into her locker. Casey could not stand this, so after Teresa walked away he screamed “YOUR EXCUSED” to make it seem like she pushed her by accident. The next day when Mena and Casey were walking to Science class, they both were talking about how they thought they were going to win the potatoes observation contest. In a matter of fact they did win. When they walked up to get their prize, Mena looked over at Teresa, who was very jealous of Mena. After unwrapping their prize, they were shocked to learn that their prize was a stuffed jackolop.  This discussed Mena. 

Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature

April 1, 2012

Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature

Pages: 1-30

It is Mena Reece’s first day of High School and many of the kids in the 9^th  grade are snubbing her.  She has not said why everyone is mad at her, but it has to do with her church and that everyone is going to be sued for a lot of money because of something that Mena did.  When Mena walks in to her first yoga class, she realizes that her former best friend ,Teresa , is in the same class .This upsets Mena  because she took yoga to help her stay calm, but now that Teresa is in her class it is going to be difficult. After surviving first and second period , Mena’s third period was science. After being introduced to her science teacher, she is paired up with a boy named Casey who is going to be her lab partner. Their first lab together is writing down all the observations of a potato. 

The Calder Games

Tommy found Petra face down in the dirt. He asked her if someone had tripped her and she said no. After helping her up, they made a pact saying that they were not going to be mean to each other anymore because if they wanted to find Calder they needed to work together. While walking, they saw many police cars surrounding the entrance to Blenheim Park. They both were extremely hungry when they saw a little cart that had sandwiches. While paying for lunch the man running the cart said I know who you are you are the children from Chicago and then told them that lunch was free. While walking home, a policeman stopped Tommy and Petra and told them some bad news. This news was that the police had found a boat. In the boat, there was a red blanket covering a body. When the children heard this, they both started crying and could not stop. Is the man in red blanket Calder?

The Calder Games

Petra and Tommy entered the gate to Blenheim Park to begin to look for clues to find Calder. After walking a short distance, they came across the kitchen green. While standing there, it hit Petra that Calder was actually missing and that he might not be found again. With the thought of this, she started crying and ran away. Tommy thought she was going to come back, but she never did. Tommy became very scared because now two of his best friends were missing. He decided to go to the maze and walk through it to see if he could find Petra . Just before he entered the maze ,Tommy found an old coin on the ground . He picked it up and put it into his pocket.  It started to get darker and darker, and while he was walking through he maze he felt as if someone was following him. After looking over his shoulder a few times, he looked on the other side of the maze only to discover that someone was indeed   there . He held on to the coin in his  pocket, thinking it would give him strength when he looked up and saw Petra lying face down in the middle of the path. 

Calder Games

Mr. Philly, the children and Mrs. Sharpe were having dinner together. At this point in the dinner, Mr. Philly was not very happy. In fact, he was quite depressed. It had been 2 days now and his son Calder, had not shown up. While ordering dinner, Petra noticed that all the meals that they had ordered either had the word blood, mash, or whipping in it, and the kids wondered if this upset Mr. Philly. 

The Calder Games

Petra and Tommy were on the plane with Ms. Sharp traveling to London, England. While on the plane, Tommy and Petra were trying find books about Bleheim Palace because that was where Calder was last seen. Ms. Sharp had a book about Bleheim Palace , but did not really want to let the children use her book. So they compromised and said that she would read the book out loud to them. They learned that Bleheim, where Calder supposedly is, is where  King Henry the Second lived . Also, they learned that King Henry had a mistress. His wife did not like this and hid` a will and the children thought this might be what Calder is trying to find.

The Calder Games

Pages 122-134

Calder’s dad had just gotten home from a long work day, when he entered the hotel room, and did not see Calder anywhere. When he put all his bags down, he found a note on the ground that said “to dad” on it. He quickly opened it, and the note said that Calder was taking the train to Blenheim Park and not to wait up for him. Calder’s dad was so worried that he immediately ran down to the concierge and asked them if they had seen his son leave. They said no and then Calder’s dad got really nervous. He  finally  decided  to take the train to Blenheim Park to try to find his son. When he got off the train, he realized that Calder might not be here and that England is so big,  that Calder could be anywhere. When he arrived to the part of Blenheim where Calder might be he saw a guard, and asked him if he had seen Calder. The man said no, which made Calder’s dad even more nervous. Will Calder ever be found? 

Calder Games

Calder was stopping for lunch, and the waitress who took his order asked him his name.; he realized that it was the same  girl  who he saw taking pictures of the Calder sculpture. When Calder told her his name, she completely freaked out.  When she gave Calder his lunch, she asked him again if his name was truly Calder. After Calder finally got to eat his lunch in peace, he took out his graph paper that had the pentominos sketches on it. As he was taking out the piece of graph paper, the waitress’s father came over and asked Calder what on earth was he doing. Calder was so scared of this man that just when he approached Calder and began speaking to him, Calder collected his belongings and left the restaurant. Calder finally decided to go eat his lunch in front of the sculpture  in the square 

2-6-12

Pages 67-82

Calder’s father was having a meeting at the Botanical Gardens in Oxford for the day, so he took Calder along. Calder was amazed with all the different types of plants., especially the plant that could kill you. After looking at the all the plants in the gardens, Calder walked by himself to get lunch. At first he got lost and then he realized that he had been walking around the same block. He finally decided that he was going to have lunch at a little deli that he kept passing by. When he ordered his hamburger, he realized that the British called it something else and became embarrassed. Later, when Calder and his father were returning to their hotel, they passed the sculpture in the square where they saw a girl who was measuring and photographing it. Her father came up to her and started screaming at her. Calder and his father thought this was a little strange and then to make the situation even more odd, Calder saw a woman , staring at him from her window . The moment their eyes met, she closed the curtain. 

Calder Games

After Calder and his father got a good night’s sleep, the next morning Calder took the bus across town. He was supposed to go the giant maze, but he decided to save it for the following day . Instead he chose to walk along the streets and look at all the shops. He was very surprised, because he saw a shop where you could buy dead animals and he could not think of why you would want to buy such a thing. After a little shopping, Calder went into a museum. In the museum there were animals that had lived in England and were supposedly from prehistoric times . Also, in the museum, there were many weapons such as different bows and arrows that were used to kill these animals.