Similar, but Different

   Hello, welcome to another book blog. Today's topic is comparing and contrasting. And today's books are Forget Me by K.A. Harrington and Sammy Keys and The Sisters of Mercy by Wendelin Van Draanen, both that are favorite books of mine. One students comes home from school and relieved it was a good day. No one bothered them and they only had to worry about their schoolwork. The students wishes they had more good days, but that doesn't happen often. Why? It's because the students are being bullied at school. Other students call them names or physically hurt them and it happens constantly. Also, not many people will even try to help them. They do not tell their parents and tried to deal everything by themselves, it can be difficult, some days are harder than others. How can these students try to deal with their problem, without any help? The answer is you can't. The main problem is they don't realize that there are different other ways to help get through bullying.

   On a few occasion student that were being bullied, or their friend, came and told me about the situation," Ms. Belkov a teacher that works at Heritage Middle School. This demonstrates that a students have spoken up and talk to a trusted adult. Telling an adult if you are being bullied can be a difficult thing to do because they're scared that the bullying will get worse, so most bullying victims will avoid it.But a HMS eighth grade student, Jessica Sanchez, states her mom helped her get through the bullying. She said "I talked to my mom each day and told me to stay positive and honestly it helped me so much!" This indicates that telling a trusted adult can help you get through bullying because the parent will most likely try to help and give you advice. Although Jessica did end up having depression, so she was being bullied, she tried helping herself get through this, by mostly talking to her mother. But that wasn't her only way to help herself from being bullied. Jessica says she would "try hiding from the people who were trying to hurt me," this strategy has also helped her with being bullies.

I tried to ignore the problem," said another eighth grade student, Jared Almaguer. Jared had also said that she told her parents, but ignoring the bullying and paying attention to more important things has helped her the most. This revels that there can be other ways to help get through bullying beside tell a trusted adult. Also, Jared did get depression. "I pay more attention to the present then to the bad memories of the past," Jared told the interviewer.

  In sixth grade a couple of my friends were saying mean things to my other friend," said another eighth grade student, Christy Arreci, who has not been bullied, but was a bystander. At first she said "stop" to the girls, but it didn't work, so she just pulled her friend away from the girls. She also thinks that she could have done something else. "I think I could have maybe talked to them more instead of just saying 'stop' because it didn't actually help." Christy was asked a question about how she would help a friend with depression, since she wasn't bullied. "I would talk to them, tell their parents, make them feel like their not alone and they have help, or distract them, try not to make them think about the bullying." After interviewing it became more clear that bullying can happen to anyone at anytime and sometimes lead to depression. How do you stop bullying? First of all you can't stop it, but, you can help yourself get through it. There are different types of ways to help you get through bullying and depression. The mostly likely thing to do is tell your parents, or a teacher, aunt, uncle, a trusted adult basically. It can even be a friend. The adult will most likely help you, by either giving you advice, talk to the person who is bullying you, or maybe both. Mostly telling someone can be helpful, because you don't have to feel like your alone, you have people to support you. Jessica Sanchez, one of the people that was interviewed, asked her mom for help and did end up getting it the help she needed. If you are being bullied try telling someone, let it at out, and get the right help you need. 

 

Mind Is Blown!!!

   Welcome back! Today's book blog is going to be about the book Sammy Keys and The Sisters of Mercy by Wendelin Van Draanen. I know I always says that "this is the best book I've ever read," or "I love the detail in the book, making me love the book even more." But this time I really mean it. This book is about a girl named Sammy and she tries to solve the mystery that happened at the church she volunteers at for school purposes. So far (because I have not finished the book yet) the main mystery is who stole a cross that is very dear to Father Mayhew, the priest. He automatically accuses Sammy because she was the only other person at the church besides him. But the truth is, she didn't actually take the cross. Since I have not finished the book yet, I have no idea what will happen next. BUT I do have a prediction on who actually took the cross, which is the whole point of this blog. Anyways let's go!
   Like I said before I have not finished the book, I am 47 pages in, so barley in the beginning, but this is the point of having predictions. At the moment the thief could be anyone, but not Sammy because the book is through her point of view. Her two friends, Dot and Marissa, because they don't really know that much about the church she volunteers at, St. Mary's, and only know what Sammy tells them. So, that leaves 6 suspects, the three sisters of mercy, Brother Phil, Father Mayhew, and this girl that I don't know her name, yet. Out of the six I believe the thief is the unknown girl (we'll call her that.) Why? Let me show you my evidence.
   The main reason why I choose her out of the rest is because she look a lot like Sammy. In the book she says "She's my size and her hair's back in a ponytail, just like mine, and she's not there with her mom or dad-she's all by herself." Also, "She was wearing high-tops. Like mine only older." After that second quote Father Mayhew called Sammy to his office to discuss about the missing cross. This shows that since the unknown girl look a lot like Sammy, Father Mayhew thought it was her, making it seem that Sammy was the thief. And there is another quote that Dot said, which was "Who was that girl with the blue backpack? For a s second I thought this was you." This also proves that the unknown girl took the cross,
   My second reason is also reasonable, but also sad. After the girl leaves the soup kitchen, which is also where Sammy volunteers at, Dot, Marissa, and Sammy decided to follow her to see where she lives because she was the same age as Sammy and she wants to know why the girl is in a soup kitchen. As they follow her, they get father and father away from where they live, like 2 miles away. As the sun goes down they end up following her through a field, into a riverbed, and see her crawl into a refrigerator box. The girls and I found out that the girl is homeless. What hurt the most was she was around the same age as Sammy, Dot, and Marissa. Anyways, the fact that she is homeless shows that maybe she stole the cross so she could sell it and get some money for it and buy things like food or clothes. It could have some worth of money. Either way I predict that the unknown girl took and used it more things she needs, since she is homeless. Also, since she looks like Sammy, Sammy might be accused of other stuff she stole, I guess we will never know.
   And that is the end of the blog. I hope you enjoyed reading it and maybe want to check this book out yourself to see what happens next. Is my prediction correct or not? We'll have to wait and see.