A New Beginning

OKAY THIS IS REALLY SAD!

Obviously this blog isn't really working for me... I'm not posting regularly, and sometimes I'm not even proud of the content that I am creating. That sucks. No one wants a blog that only posts a once or twice every month. Frankly, I'm not proud of myself, and I'm going to do something about it.

A FRESH START!

I've moved over to wordpress with my good friend Danika and we have a fantastic schedule and everything. It is working out super well so far and I'm excited to continue on with it.

DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?

This blog will die. The content will still be here, but nothing more will come. This will be my last post on this blog. Ever.

BUT WAIT. WHERE DO I FIND YOU AGAIN?

You can find/contact me at any of the following places:

The Blog : http://abookishescape.wordpress.com
Facebook Page: http://facebook.com/abookishescape1
Business Email: abookishescape@gmail.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/12683404-brianna

TOODALOO! I LOVE YOU ALL!

And happy reading ;)

YCJA vs. Touching Spirit Bear

Hello Friends! It's been a while since I've spoken to you... And about that... Let's just see that you will be seeing a post very soon about what's going on.

This is another blog post that I am completing for class. We have been reading the novel Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelson alongside an inquiry on The Youth Criminal Justice Act in Canada. Both things have connections to youth offenders. For this post, I'm going to be making some deep connections between these two things, and invite you on my journey.

Note: This may contain minor spoilers to the novel, so please caution!

If you have read Touching Spirit Bear, you would know that the main character, Cole, was in a fist-fight and was sent to a detention centre. He also faced other consequences/service for recovery, including a sharing circle. What if I was a part of this Justice Circle? What sort of things would sway my decision on what should happen to Cole?

First of all, both Edwin and Garvey have had experience with the very thing that Cole was going through. Both of them had been through the same program because both of them committed an offence. This would be the first thing that gets me listening. What sort of things helped Edwin and Garvey get past this stage in their life? How can we apply this to Cole? However, if none of these things were mentioned, I likely wouldn't be open to the idea of Cole being let back onto the island, et-cetera. He's a dangerous guy, and we need to save the public!

One of the things that I know about the Youth Criminal Justice Act and program, is that they want the best for the youth. That means getting to know them, and understanding what is best for them personally. Since, by reading this book, I am in the mind of Cole, I know and understand him. I do not like him, but I get why he did some of the things that he did. His father's abusive! That's the only thing he's ever known, especially since his mother didn't stand up to him. His father's angry, and he takes that out on Cole. Where does Cole take his anger out? On other people – that's how this began to happen. I feel sorry for him, knowing what's going in his mind. Of course, if I was actually in the book and in the circle I wouldn't know what's in his mind, but since I do I think I would be more open to different ideas. Some specific things that I would consider are:

• Creative Consequences: Taking something he's good at, such as strength, and applying that to his recovery
• Letter of apology: Written for Isaac and his family.
• Donation to a cause of the victim's choice: Cole has enough money, it seems, to complete this. Even if it's only $20.

What do you think should happen to Cole, knowing what's in his mind? What do you know about the YCJA that could connect to this novel? Let me know! And talk to you later... Maybe. 

Top 5 Most Embarrassing Unread Books

So I saw this somewhere a while ago, and I'm sorry for not mentioning you if you were the one ho did this first, but I thought it was super cool, and I really wanted to share with you the books that I find myself very embarrassed not having read. So here they are!

1. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien: I'm... sorry. That is all I have to say for myself.
2. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins: I really want to start on Perkins novels, but I just haven't and I am so ashamed! Nest month? Yeah?
3. The Help by Kathryn Stockett: I swear, everyone has read this book but me. And I've heard it's so good too! What is holding me back? I don't know...
4. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak: I don't really know what to say for myself. This is all kinda sad... but it's The Book Theif!!! Okay, this is on top-priority! Especially since the movie just came out!!
5. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: Oh man... it's a highly-read classic with a beautiful cover, over 1 million ratings on goodreads with an average of 4.23... Where have I been?

I'm really interested to know what sort of books that you haven't read, and that you are totally embarrassed by. Leave a comment below or tell me where to find your own blog post or YouTube video. Thanks for stopping by, and happy reading!

DNF Book Review: Just One Day

Title: Just One Day
Author: Gayle Forman
# of pages: 368
Series #: 1
Reading Span: February 21st - DNF
Rating: DNF

Ugh... How far did I even get into this? A little over 100 pages? Maybe a little less?

This book was so boring!
Okay, so at first I thought it was sort of cool... Whoa! Look at all of the different places that she's going. I love travel, though I don't do it very often (in the "extreme" way like this), so this was super cool for me. Unfortunately, it went downhill from there...

"Where should we go next?"

"The coffee shop." 

"Great"

"Mhmmm... yummy coffee."

Sure, it's not exactly like that, but that's sure what it felt like to me. And who wants to read about a coffee shop when they can get that themselves?

The bothersome main character...
Man did I dislike her. At first I thought, okay, she's cool. But after reading it and thinking about it I'm so shocked that my feelings took so hard to hit me. She was just so plain, boring, and a wanna be. Okay, okay, I didn't finish the book so I didn't really experience the whole "finding herself" part but come on... I think I'm supposed to like her a little more than that.

"Willem's leaving me!"

"Oh wait, just kidding..."

"Look at my gorgeous friend"

"Look at how plain and ugly I am"

"Let's change my name and be someone else!"

Now I'm sure it goes deeper than that but it bothered me enough that I had to stop reading.

The unrealistic aspect of it all was so, so bad

Once upon a time, there was a girl who went on a trip to Europe with a summer group. Then she meets a guy and decides, oh, I love him because he's attractive. Then the girl decides to go on another trip with the guy she just met... Her parent's would never know, of course, because they are just that oblivious, and the guy isn't a psychopath because psychopath's don't decide to take you on a trip, especially if you just met them.

Sounds dumb, right? Well that's the basic storyline of Just One Day, up until the point I read, at least. It was so unrealistic that I had a hard time caring. That's probably part of the reason that the main character (and other characters too, might I add) bothered me so much. They weren't real.

Ah, the problems...

Despite what I just said above, I think that all of you should check it out. Just One Day wasn't my book, but I can see why it may be yours. Below I have left a list of other review's that I have enjoyed reading about this book as well, all having different opinions. Have fun reading!

Ariel Bissett: Five Star Review (written review)

Christine: Four Star Review (video review)

Bonnie: Three Star Review (written review)

TheBookBasement: Four Point Five Star Review (video review, possible spoilers)

TheBookBasement: Four Point Five Star Review (written review, possible spoilers)

GINS Quote Art

We're almost at the end of our novel study with a post on word art. The purpose of this assignment was to artistically illustrate a quote that spoke to us in our novel. For me, this quote was found on page two. 

"Hold onto your dreams as tightly as you hold to the branches."

This quote holds a great significance to my novel. Tree Girl is all about finding your way when times are tough, and the hardships could, and will happen. The name "Tree Girl" comes from the main character's love of climbing trees, which is what "branches" is referring to in the text. Sometimes, it's easy to let go of your dreams, but this novel (and quotation) expresses the importance of holding onto them tight.

Before I go into why I chose to create my word art the way that I did, I just want to say that I was trying to resemble the cover. I think it turned out quite well, actually. Anyway...

If I had to be honest, my word art is quite plain, but I like it this way. I could have easily changed different attributes of different words, but to be brutally honest, the singular words don't stick out to me. It's the phrase as a whole that brings out meaning and power. By changing some random words, I thought it would look random and distracting, so I kept it the way it is. As for the girl holding her hands up to the tree branches, this is showing her openness to dreaming and climbing the trees. Even the black silhouette was chosen intentionally. I wanted to include the black mystery of it all. That person could be anyone... even you.

GINS Free Write Assignment (7)

Hello everyone! For this post we were assigned an exercise. This exercise was to free-write in the perspective of our main character from our novels for a set amount of time. We weren't to stop writing, or go back and change anything that we may want to (although I did sort of go back a couple of times... That's my OCD brain talking :P). Here is what I wrote:

     I wake up in my bedroom, the walls around me made of mud and rocks. Sunlight is streaming through the tiny window, reminding me that it's the crack of dawn. Yawning, I roll out of my bed – careful not to step on my siblings who are on the floor, wrapped in multiple dirty rags for warmth. I reach the kitchen. My mother is already cooking breakfast for the 6 of us. My father is at the door. Guarding. Waiting watching. My mother and I exchange a nod, and I help by preparing lunches for everyone. For ______ (sister), ______ (brother), ________ (sister). So, I guess not everyone, but pretty much. ________ (older brother) has been taken. Not that I would have to prepare him any food anyway, he's a couple years older than me, and out of school even longer than I. It still pains me now, though, to remember that instead of 3 siblings coming out of the bedroom in the morning, it will only be 4. Always three. It was painful. Terrifying. The soldiers are monsters. They don't care about anyone but themselves. Who are they to take away our culture and families? No, they don't have that right. But they do it anyway.

     Grandmama says it's getting worse. "War is coming on, Gabriella. It will only go downhill from here." For the sake of my family, the village, and myself, I sure to god hope that she's wrong.

She's not. When I reach the school at which I teach at, I don't even need to go inside. Manual is off to the side, along with the students. "Why don't we go learn outside today?" he says. So we do. We walk into the forest on the west for a couple miles until we reach a stream. Then Manual sits the children down on the rocks, and he begins to tell his stories, and teach. He doesn't get too far in his lesson. I am just sitting down myself when we hear gunshots. When I look to Manuel, he's crumbling. In a ragged voice, he lets out one word, "Run".

     I grab a couple of the kid's hands, the rest of them following suit. Then we are off, running upstream and away from the sound of guns. In the distance I hear a few groans, and cries. But then… they stop. Manual is dead.

     We continue to run through the forest, but I know that the students can't take it much longer, so a moment later we settle down and walk instead. Another gun fires. Another child dies. We run again, but by the time that we are free from any of the soldiers, only three of us remain. 12 are dead.

I hope you enjoyed! Happy reading!

Shatter Me Read-a-Long

Hey everyone! Happy with my new posting schedule? I sure am :)

So do you remember that post that I made last year all about Burn for Burn? Well guess what... That's what's going to be happening once again! Oh, and about those special joint-posts that we were supposed to do... Um, yeah... Sorry that didn't happen.

What will we be reading? As the title of this post suggests, Danika and I will be reading Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi.

Goodreads summary: Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.
The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.
Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

When will we be reading? Yay! Here comes all of the details about when we will be reading Shatter Me. Just a heads up... it's coming up very soon...

*All of these page numbers are pertaining to the HarperCollins Paperback edition.*

February 13th – Up to chapter 18; pg. 112
February 14th – Up to chapter 33; pg. 225
February 15th – Up to the last chapter; pg 338; it's a wrap!

I encourage you to look into joining us as we read, and be sure to look for a single joint-post that we will be doing at the end of the read-a-long. Thanks for stopping by, happy reading!

Danika's blog: http://loveliterature713.blogspot.ca