Friday, February 1, 2008
Customs
Have you read or are you currently reading a book about people in other places and other times? Discuss what you have learned about the writing and customs of another culture. Are the experiences of the characters in the book similar or different from any of your experiences?(CT Standard: Making Connections: compare, respond to, and interpret texts that represent many multicultural experiences.)
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I am currently reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and Harry and his friends go to a school of magic, Hogwarts. I think that Hogwarts is located in London and they have many cultures in that area. There are muggles who don't know magic and aren't wizards or anything. Then, there are people who use magic such as Harry and Ron. These people's cultures vary greatly by what one can do and the other can't.
Stephen D.
I am currently reading a book about a girl that travels around Europe. The name of the book is "Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes." Her currently dead Aunt sent her a package with thirteen little blue envelopes that are her guide around Europe. On her way she learns many lessons about life that her aunt wants her to understand. I think that her aunt wants her to understand the person that she was better. I learned of the ways in Rome, England, France and Switzerland. I thought they were interesting but I could not relate to them.
Lizzie T.
Period 1 & 3
Mrs. Marusa
The book I am reading right now is, Silent Thunder: A Civil War Story, a historical fiction novel. This book takes place in the time when African Americans were slaves. This book takes place in Vergina. The customs of these two different races differ greatly. The white people all have expensive houses and many slaves. They also dress very nicely and eat as much as they want. On the other hand All of the Afrcan Americans have an entirely different lifestyle. They have to do all the work and make everything for the white people. They also get a fraction of the food and dress in very mild clothing which they have very little of. They also live in small huts on htere masters property. That is what it was like in this book but now everyone is equal and we live in the house we can afford and no one is a slave.
The book I finished reading is The Lightening Thief. This book is held in New York City. In the book the main character, Percy, attends a camp for fighting the evil. Here, it is a custom to burn part of your food and send it to the gods showing how thankful you are for your food. This custom is s lot like the customs of todays main religions. Most religions say a prayer of thanks before they start their meal. I find it really interesting to see how authors twist in real life customs with something fake or imaginative.
(Gabby S)
In the Tale of Despereaux, the mouse, who is main character, models his life after that of a knight. We learn about the customs of a medieval court and also learn about the knightly ideals of honesty, chivalry and protection of the innocent.
Sarah W
In the Nancy Drew mysteries, we see how live was in the early 1940s and 1950 where women did not usually work outside of the home or become professionals. We see a lawyer Dad with a very daughter Nancy who is outgoing and not the normal teenager of those times. Nancy takes more risks than what the average girl then seems to have wanted to.
Sarah W
Call of the Wild is about a dog who is civilized but then becomes wild because all his hopes and expectations are destroyed. It shows us how, when all our customs are destroyed, we can become uncontrolled and our social bonds can be destroyed
Sarah W
In the book i am reading called The Last Apprentice there are these people who have a sixth sense to see ghosts and other things people can't see they are the seventh son of the seventh son. they help out the other people in the county this is a different life style than most people live by because they are isolated because nobody wants to be there friend because they think they have a curse that they might get the curse.
I just finished a classic called "The Secret Garden" and when I was reading it I realized that the author made it so the characters didn't pronounce their words clearly since that is how people spoke in that time period. Also, I found that words were spelled incorrectly on purpose to show how they talked. I noticed that back then they used a lot of 'slang' words. For example, instead of saying 'the' they would said 'da'. This book definitely shows how times were different back then from now.
-Steph B.
One book I read was "SPUD". In SPUD, it takes place in 1990 in Africa, where John Milton goes to a boarding school filled with kids of all races. I learned the cultures of African Americans, England, Scotish, and Indian. Although, the most common was African American, since more than half of the kids are African American. John has to learn to cope with all of his crazy forein teachers and students in the school.
(Paul c.)
In the book Fighter Pilot which is about the first fighter pilots in World War One gives you a good look into what men thought and believed in during the early 1900s. The pilots took flying like a sport. The way they treated the enemie pilots was almost like a strained friendship. Besides the fact that they were shooting at each other the pilots had an unwritten guideline to what they could and could not do. Like pilots would not shoot at a pilot who they had shoot down. Pilots were also believed in supersition. Many pilots would never leave the ground without a lucky charm.
I am reading the Last Apprentice and there are these spooks that defend the county from the witches and Bogart’s. Everyone hates the spooks even though they help everyone out. The difference between a spook and a normal person is because they aren’t scared and are socially excluded. The normal people are very scared in the book and always around people, (socially active).
I am reading the book "In the Land of the Silver Apples" by Nancey Farmmer. It is very interesting because it takes place in a saxon village and is during the begining of christianity. While there are still pagans there are christians and you see how these religions lived side by side.To compare back then and today not only have the religions but culture and technology have changed greatly.
I once read a book called Young Fu of the Upper Yangzte. As I read deapper into the book, I learned more and more about the culture of Young Fu and His family. Young Fu is a little boy who has just moved into town. He goes through many different adventures through the time he stays in the town, and I learn more and more about him throughout the book.
-Ryan Lei
I read the book The Alchymist which is about a almost seven hundred year old alchymist and his wife who is a sourceror who found a spell to stay young in a book of spells. They have been followed by a man named John Dee who was a student of the alchymist and is trying to steal the book. The book takes place in present day San Fransisco and the characters constantly talk about important historical events in their point of view becuase they were there and how they were actually caused. by magic
I read the book/series "Mates, Dates and Mad Mistakes" by Cathy Hopkins. It is a book about a group of friends and, it is written by a different point of view of each girl in the other books in the series. The reason I liked this book is because it takes place in London, England. It is fun to read because they talk differently. For example, in the book they say "mum" for "mom" and they call their friends their "mates." It is interesting to read about how they go through life because it is different from us. For example, they drive on the left side of the road, but if you can't drive, you can just take the Underground! It is a great book and it is interesting because it takes place in a different country.
--Krista G. <3
A couple of weeks ago I was at Disney (Epcot) and my mom made a dinner reservation in Morocco. So when we got to Morocco we bought a book of Moroccan recipes and customs. In the book it said that they even eat a certain way. In Morocco they do NOT use forks, they use their hands. There you are only supposed to eat with three fingers and more means your gloating and less means that you are disrespectful or are not enjoying your meal. The customs there are very different than the ones here and without different customs all over the world no one would be exotic so I think it's good to learn and read about different cultures and customs.
-Andrianna P.
Recently, I finished reading the "Uglies" series. These books take place in a future world with very advanced technology. Many technologic advances imagined in this series include a surgery that changes the way you look and think, and it boosts your immune system. Also, there are things called interface rings that allow your city to track where you are. Walls in this book can talk to you and serve you food. There is also a surgry that can give you super fast reflexes, amazing vision that can allow you to see in infrared, and much, much more. This series refers to humans in present day time as "rusties." It takes on a point of view on our harmful technology and stupidity. Life in the future acoording to this book is far more advanced than today's. I really enjoyed interpretting what all of the things in this future world do. The culture in these books was very interesting to learn about.
Michaela Wenger
I have read the Artemis Fowl series which takes place all over the world but there is also undeground where faries live. this is a very different culture with different customs because they can use magic and are much more advanced in technology than humans. it varies greatly between faries and humans because of all the different abilities that faries have but the humans are much bigger and stronger there for making their cultures almost completely different in both abilities and technology.
-Josh S.
I recently read the book "Mates, Dates, and Mad Mistakes" as well as Krista. I thought the book was really interesting, because it talked a lot about their culture in London. One of my old friends, James, was from around London, and I thought it was interesting to see what it was like when he lived there. Something in their culture that both James and the book related to was how they have commercials after a T.V. program. Here in the USA, we have several commercial breaks during a show! I would so much prefer them all being at once, at the end. The three girls, the main characters in the books, do call each other their "mates," unlike in the USA how we just say friends or guys. I think its radical how they like have slang like we do, but their slang is totally different.
--Chloe G.
I'm currently reading a book called "Call of the Wild." This book is in the view of a dog named Buck who is kidnapped and brought up to Northern Canada. The people there are very different from us, as they use dogs to pull sleds and they are very self sufficient. They also have to wear thick layers of clothe because it's really cold there. Lastly, the book was set a while ago so a lot of the people didn't have electricity and modern devices that we have today. Those people differentiate vastly from us today.
-Tyler F.
In the book I am currently reading, Artemis Fowl, Artemis' family (the Fowls) have been served by a family called the Butlers for centuries. It is a custom for both the Fowls and the Butlers, that when Fowls are born, they are given a well-trained Butler to serve them and stay by their sides.
Amy P.
In this book have read called Jacob Have I Loved it takes place in the 1950's. It is about a girl who lives on an island and she is more of a tom-boy and she just so happens to be the twin sister of this pretty smart and talented girl named Caroline. Now this girl is trying to support her family by going crabbing in the bay. It is amazing but more of a girls book. She goes on adventures with her best friend Call.
(Ellie Barbieri)
I just read a book called Princess academy and it takes place on a mountian where they have many customs. Some of the customs are that after 5 you start to work in the field and that all the woman do the majority of the cooking and cleaning and people that are toyoung or old and weak herd the goats. I think it really shows how some groups of people have set rules even though they really aren't real laws.
(Emma P.)
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