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The book, Elsewhere, by Gabrielle Zevin, is about 16 year old Liz.  Liz dies in a bicycle accident.  Then, she discovers that when you die you go to Elsewhere.  Elsewhere is just like Earth, except instead of getting older you get younger until you are 7 days old and get sent back to Earth to be reborn.

Liz makes several friends, including her Grandma Betley and Boyfriend Owen.  Things get complicated when Own’s wife from Earth dies.

I like this book because it gives an interesting new perspective on the afterlife, and how maybe, it’s not so different from Earth!

This book is about a girl named Camie Morgan, who goes to a spy school.  One of her best friends, Macy, is the daughter of the future Vice President.  When people attack Macy and Camie on a roof top, they realize that maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with the elections!  Maybe it has to do with them being Gallagher Girls.

I like this book because it is my dream.  I think it would be positively the bestest thing ever to go to a spy school like Cammie’s.

This book is about Gigi, a girl who is incredibly good at computers.  Gigi’s parents died when she was very little.  She goes to a special school for people who are incredibly good at stuff and have no family.

There, she quickly makes a  new family.  And before long she is sent on her first mission – modeling.

I liked this book because it combines spying with the world of fashion.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon is a thrilling adventure set in New York City during the 1940’s. In this story Joe Kavalier and Sammy Klayman struggle with self liberation. Chabon did an exceptional job in portraying different ways people can escape reality.

Joe is a suave Jewish young man who grew up in the Czech Slovakia during World War II. He also excels is drawling and performing escape acts like Houdini did. When he arrived in NYC he was overwhelmed by the traffic and the blinking lights and the possibility that he too could make it big in the comic book industry. Sammy is Jewish as well. He is a loud mouth and has big dreams of making his fortune in the comic book industry. They work together in writing the comic book, The Amazing Midget Radio, which is about the superhero “The Escapist.” Many things that happen to Joe and Sammy deeply affect them and completely change their lives. One important thing that occurs is when Joe meets Rosa Luxemburg and falls in love. Rosa is Joe’s inspiration for one of the comic book character, Luna Moth. Prior to meeting Rosa, Joe was depressed because he missed his family back in the Czech Slovkia. By dating Rosa he kept himself from thinking about his family. Sammy often questions his sexual identity. He falls is love with Tracy Bacon but eventually turns him down after being sexually abused by another man.

It is very likely that the reasons behind Chabon writing an escape novel has to do with him enjoying escape himself. As a child, the author Michael Chabon loved comic books. This is what inspired him to write the adventurous, comic book derived novel Kavalier & Clay. He especially enjoyed Captain America and The Hulk. He deeply admired Jack Kirby, the author of both comics and had planned on interviewing him for his book but Kirby died before Chabon could. He can use the comic books that he loves so much as a method of escape from the real world.

The original book jacket was designed to look like The Escapist defeating a villain. It is supposed to look like an old comic book. Notice how the picture is done in dots and notice the way the artist drew the movement of the superhero beating up the villain? This is how comic books looked back in the day. The book jacket symbolizes the world of comic books a world in which you can escape from reality into stimulating supernatural worlds.

I believe that the main theme of this book is Escapism, but not just freeing from a physical hold. The main character in the comic books that Joe and Sammy writes name is The Escapist. Joe escapes from the Nazi infested Prague in a coffin. Sammy metaphorically escapes from himself. He has a polio-stricken body and he is not sure about whether or not he is homosexual. Sammy tries his best to escape himself by marrying Rosa, Joes lifetime love, while Joe was away in the army. He does this to escape his questionable homosexuality. He wants to change himself and in a sense escape from himself. He succeeds and this is what makes the book at least a bit interesting.

This book was very long and got a bit tiresome after a while. I do not recommend this book to younger audiences because it is difficult to read and has some inappropriate things in it. Some parts of the book can be very dull while other parts can be exciting and trilling. Because I tend to be a slow reader the book bored me, but I can imagine it thrilling to a fast reader. This book could act as an escape route for the reader. It would take them from the 21^st century and deposit them into the New York during the 1940’s. Over all, it depends on whether you are a good fast paced reader in which case go ahead and read the book, or a slower paced reader in which case you might not want to read this. This is the type of novel that has a great storyline but what you get out of it will depend on what type of reader you are.

Click here to buy this book!

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

There’s a debate in Washington on whether or not the government should impose a extra tax on sugary soft drinks such as soda. If there were a tax penalty of one cent per ounce of sugary beverages than 15 billion dollars would be raised that would provide money for the health care reform. If this would to happen then it would apply to soft drinks, energy drinks, sports beverages, and some juices and teas. However, this would not apply to sugar-free diet drinks.

One of the main reasons that this tax was thought of was to help fight obesity. The average US citizen consumes 6,080 ounces of soda a year. As told by President Obama, “There’s no doubt that our kids drink way too much soda.” Kevin W. Keane, a member of the American Beverage Association, says that “It’s not going to make a dent in a problem as complex and serious as obesity, and we’re certainly not going to solve the complexities of the health care system with a tax of soda pop.”

Another idea to help with the health care and obesity problems is to make obese people pay more for health care than a healthy person. If you want life insurance as a skydiver you must pay more than a non risk taker. The same principle would apply to those willing to take a health risk.

I agree with both ideas to make money for health insurance and to make America healthier. 17 year old Ben Morse says regarding the soda tax “Taxing something that is harming Americans is only common sense.” I believe that although neither plans are likely to completely abolish obesity or thoroughly cure the US of health care money problems, It will at least be a step in the right direction.

August 12, 2009

Dear Journal,

Today, we went to the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.  I watched a movie in which I learned two things.

1. The wetlands in which birds lived were drying out because people were stealing water.  That’s why the refuge was created, so they could have water.

2. I also learned that some birds are capable of very elegant, yet hilarious, dance moves.

We went on a drive through the Auto Tour and we saw many birds.  We saw egrets and grebes and pelicans.  It was very fun.

August 10, 2009

We went to Antelope Island on Great Salt Lake in Utah.  We are camping there.

The lake is really salty, even more than the ocean.  Although I did not swim, I sat in a chair in the water reading.  I did, however, get wet from Alex’s splashing and the fact that the water is deep enough for my bum to touch it even in my chair.

As the water dried on my skin, I noticed that it like turned to salt.  My skin was covered in it.  By the end of the day, my skin was a shade lighter.

Although we did not try it, we were told that if you put an egg in the water, it would float.

The book "New Boy" by Julian Houston follows a common theme of many teenage level books: breaking the system.

In "New Boy", Rob Garret is a southern black boy attending an all white high school in the north.  This is during the time when there is still segregation in the South. He is the first and only black student at the school.  While Rob is struggling to keep his honor roll in the North, his friends are organizing a sit in at a store that practices segregation in the South.  Rob returns south so that he could participate in the sit in by handing out flyers in front of the store.

Like in "Little Brother", "Hacking Harvard", and "1984", Rob and his friends fight the system.  Since the whites had decided that the blacks were lower than them, then they could not do the same things as them.  Blacks had to sit at the back of the bus.  Blacks couldn’t eat or even sit at the coffee shop in stores.  Well, to deliberately sit at the coffee shop and wait until you’re served when you’re black?  That’s fighting the system!

Rob also learns that racism takes place in the north also, only it’s different.  Carrot, a popular bully who goes to high school in the north, does not bully Rob.  But, he does bully Rob’s friends.  They endlessly bully Vinnie because Vinnie has bad acne.  They throw shaving cream bombs in his room at midnight and hide dog crap in his closet.  They even segregate the bathroom by putting up signs that say "Vinnie’s toilet" and "Vinnie’s sink."

August 5-7, 2009

We went backpacking on the Granite Canyon trail at Grand Teton National Park.  We went for three days. 

On the first day, Dad discovered that I snuck gum with me even though I wasn’t supposed to because bears will try to steal it.  Dad threw away the gum

We backpacked through an area that still had snow!  I threw a few snow balls at Mom, Alex and Dad.  Mom was a super slow backpacker.  We had to stop every ten seconds so that she could catch up.

On the second day, I woke up to hear Dad shouting, "Bear, bear, bear!"  Apparently, a grizzly ran right next to my tent!

That night, we didn’t just have to set up our tent in rain, but also hail.  And, lucky me, my tent pole broke so I had to share Alex’s 1 person tent with him.  It rained a lot, so we were also cold and wet…miserable.

On the third day, on our way back, we picked many huckleberries.  They were very yummy. 

Despite the hardships of this backpacking trip, it was fun.

August 3-4, 2009

We are staying at the Alpine Mountain Climber’s Ranch.  We have bunk beds.  We share the cabin with strangers also.  Next to the bathrooms is a fun, but small rock wall.

We were at the Grand Teton Visitor’s Center, and don’t forget I’m in the middle of Wyoming.  Guess who we ran into?  Elana and her family!  Elana is my school friend from New York.  We set a time to go climbing together in the afternoon.

Later, I went fly fishing for the first time.  Although my Dad has been fly fishing all summer, he still hasn’t caught anything.  So, he was pretty pissed  when I caught one on my first time.

Later, we went top roping with Elana.  It wasn’t bad, although I prefer California climbing.

Even later, Alex and I played the Worst Case Scenario Survival Game.  I learned that in order to eat worms, you have to clean them and grind them into a powder.  Now, I’m looking everywhere for an earthworm ‘cuz I want to try it.