Hi! It’s Rose and today I have a review on an interesting book I read this summer called Do Hard Things (written by 18 year old twins Alex and Brett Harris). Do Hard Things is about teenagers rebelling against the world’s low expectations about teens. These expectations for teens have been weakening through the years. Back in history there was actually no such thing as a teenager--you went straight from a child to an adult and you were expected to be capable of a lot. Now most people put a label on teens as dramatic, rebelling, or even drug addicts. These labels are not always accurate though, and this book is about proving that we are capable of so much more than laziness and corruption.
So now you might be wondering, “What does this low expectations idea have to do with doing hard things?” and when I first picked up the book I wondered the same thing. Here’s why: We can do hard things and use that as a weapon against false labels. One example of using it as our battle plan is that a lot of times, teens are thought of as lazy, so we can fight back by doing what's hard even if it's tiring or stressful. Colossians 3:23 says “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart.” In other words don’t be lazy. I will take that a step farther and say don’t do easy things just because it’s a shortcut. Doing what's hard is, well, not easy. In order to do some inspiring big hard things that this book talks about though, we have to be faithful in our small annoying things. After we practice these little things (like getting along with siblings or getting out of bed on time in the morning), we can then be able to conquer the huge hard thing we are working towards. Matthew 25:21 says, “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’” Lastly, I want to end with some application for both you guys and for me since this is an area of my life that I’m striving to do better in also:
Thanks a ton for reading this post! Please comment saying "25th IABA Post" if you read all the way to the bottom because it would make my day to know that! -Rose
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Hey wormlets! It's Phoebe back with the second post in my new blog series "Let's Start A Discussion" where I pose questions about a popular book and you start a discussion with your opinions on them down below in the comment box! To motivate y'all to comment, I will be sharing some of my opinions on these questions as well so if you are intimidated by commenting you can go ahead and check that out first! Also, as a disclaimer, know that some of these questions were inspired by those found on readinggroupguides.com and other websites but are all adapted in my own words and changed based on my own thoughts:).
Today, I wanted to focus on To Kill A Mockingbird, a timeless novel by Harper Lee, which I love. Since this is a very widely known book, I am excited to see what your opinions are! Let's get started... QUESTION #1: How would you describe Atticus' parenting style? What do you think the fact that he has his children call him by first name says about his beliefs? QUESTION #2: How do Jem, Dill, and Scout mature over the course of the story? What do you think they learned? QUESTION #3: Why do you think Calpurnia has a different way of speaking when she is around other african americans? QUESTION #4: Who do you think are the "mockingbirds" in this story? Why do you think that that symbol is important to the plot? QUESTION #5: Early in the book we learn that Atticus does not approve of the criminal law system. Why do you think he still practices criminal law? QUESTION #6: To Kill A Mockingbird has been banned in many schools because it talks about many hard-to-discuss topics such as race. Do you agree or disagree with this? Shouldn't hard-to-discuss topics be allowed because they can help prepare students for hard-to-discuss topics in the real world? QUESTION #7: In what ways is Boo Radley's story similar to Tom Robinson's? Apparently, one criticism of the book is that the two stories are too separate from each other but do you think they are intertwined more than they appear to be? QUESTION #8: What challenges do you think Atticus has as a single, older, father? Who do you think helps take the place of Jem and Scout's mother? QUESTION #9: For those of you who have seen the movie, how does it compare to the book? Did you like how the characters were portrayed? QUESTION #10: Did you enjoy this book--what kept you reading (or did you keep reading)? What do you like about Lee's writing? That's it for the post! I hope you liked it:). See you next Tuesday for another edition of the series... -Phoebe Hey wormlets! This is Phoebe back with another post just for you. Today I want to share with you my "bookworm success story", (aka how I became a bookworm)! As some of you know, I haven't always liked reading. Some bookworms are practically born with a book in their hands but I am not one of those people. Actually, I pretty much hated reading until this past June. I had to read a certain amount for school and so I would position myself in front of a clock and the minutes felt like hours. But Summer was just around the corner and I didn't have all that much planned. I realized that I needed to find something productive that I could do for the next few months to fill the time. I basically made an internal promise to myself that I would start reading over the summer, whether I liked it or not. But in order to follow through with that promise, I knew that I would need some motivation. That motivation started out as a summer reading program. Little Shop of Stories, a wonderful book store in Decatur GA. had an awesome program which made reading like a huge fun game. That, along with the one at the library, was reading program that got me started! Once I opened up a book when I didn't have to for school, I found myself aching for more. I loved how I felt like I was right there with all of the characters and how reading could transport me to anywhere from a war torn African country (A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park) to a magical path at the bottom of the sea (When the Sea Turned to Silver by Grace Lin). With my newfound love for reading, I started I'm A Book Addict, simply as an outlet for all of my nerdy excitement about books. For those of you who don't know this about me, I love creating websites and blogs, so this was nothing new to me, but the response that followed was un-expected. I told some of my friends about it and they were very interested. Those friends have brought in new people and the fanbase is continually growing! We have flyers at libraries, bookstores, and community centers. I'm A Book Addict is continuing the motivation that Little Shop's summer reading program started--I am not only reading for myself but I'm reading for all of you! I get to think about books in a whole different way and I constantly find myself in "writing mode" while I'm reading...thinking about what I like and don't like about the book, building theories in my brain. All this to say two things: 1) THANK YOU to everything and everyone that helped make this awesome success story! Thanks to Little Shop of Stories and to the Dekalb library system. Also to three of my fav authors of all time Linda Sue Park, Grace Lin, and Jackson Pearce for inspiring me to love reading even more with their terrific books! 2) THERE'S HOPE FOR YOU if you don't like reading now. Maybe this blog will be the motivation for you that the summer reading program was for me! That's it for the post! I hope you enjoyed it! See you on Tuesday for the second edition of my post series Let's Start a Discussion! -Phoebe (exec. worm) QUESTION OF THE DAY (leave your comment down below in the comment box): Percy Jackson or Harry Potter? Hey ya'll! This is Phoebe back with another post. I want to involve YOU, the reader, more in the posts that I write and so I decided to start a post series called Let's Start a Discussion, where I'll tell you my basic reaction to a book but then ask you for your opinion on certain things. You can reply your opinions/answers to these questions in the comment box below and we'll start a discussion down there (hence the series name:). There are literally no right answers so there's no pressure to get it "right". Let's get started!
Today I want to talk about The Hobbit by J. R. R. Toilken. I recently re-read this book and I loved the adventure, the fantasy, and how all of the writing was so detailed and descriptive so that I felt like I was right there with all of the characters. I thought I'd pose some questions that I've been thinking about lately regarding this book! Question: Why aren't there any female characters? (You may have noticed that there are no female characters in The Hobbit. Do you think there's any significant reason for that? Do you think there should have been female characters? Bilbo's mother is mentioned, but other than that, it's almost as though females don't exist.) Question: Are dwarves really good or are they "bad"? (We can tell from the book that at least some dwarves are greedy (cough, cough--Thorin) but does that make them bad? Was the only reason they went on the quest to get gold and if it was, was that a bad motive?) Question: What do you think Bilbo occupied himself with before he went on this adventure? (I know that he was very content with a cup of tea and breakfast alone in his hobbit hole but, I mean, there must be something he enjoyed doing before that. Thoughts?) Question: What do you think Gandalf was doing when he had to leave on "other business"? (For those of you who have read The Lord of the Rings, is this what Gandalf was referring to?) Question: Why do you think it was important that Bilbo was chosen to go on the quest with the dwarves rather than someone else? (How would the story have been different if someone else had taken the 14th spot?) Question: Do you think the songs and poems in the book added anything to the story or to your enjoyment of it? (If you were the author, would you have included them?) Question: Did you enjoy The Hobbit and, if so, why? (What kept you reading or did you keep reading?) That's it for the post! Thanks for reading. I look forward to starting a discussion in the comment box. If you comment, I'll be sure to reply to you with my thoughts! Just so you know, I will be posting an edition of this series on Tuesdays for the next few weeks, but there will still be other blog posts on other topics uploaded on different days (be sure to follow our blog to get notified when a new post is up)! Keep reading, Phoebe BONUS: Did you enjoy this post? Send an email to three friends with a link to it, forward the email to us, and then you'll get a special shout-out on our blog! Hi everyone! It's Phoebe back with another post for you:). This past week, my grandpa, David, turned 81 years old (!) and so I asked him to help me come up with a list of 81 books you should read before turning that age. We ended up having more than enough titles because my grandpa is a big reader, but we narrowed it down to the favorites! For clarification, the list isn't ordered by favorites, but we tried to put some of the books for younger kids at the front (adult books start at #22.) Let's get started! 81 books to read before you turn 811. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
2. Charolett's Web by E. B. White 3. The Cat and the Hat by Dr. Suess 4. The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum 5. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling 6. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens 7. Because of Win Dixie by Kate DiCamillo 8. A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park 9. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol 10. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis 11. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain 12. Huckleberry Fin by Mark Twain 13. The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo 14. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell 15. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee 16. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 17. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas 18. Watership Down by Richard Adams 19. The Merry Adventures of Robinhood by Howard Pyle 20. Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson 21. Heidi by Johannna Spyri 22. One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest by Ken Kesey 23. The Lords of Dicsipline by Pat Conroy 24. All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren 25. The Baron and the Bear by David Kingsley Snell (shameless self promo:) 26. The Deeds of War by James Nachtwey 27. 1984 by George Orwell 28. All the President's Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstien 29. Advise and Consent by Allen Drury 30. The Final Days by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstien 31. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller 32. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 33. The Bible 34. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck 35. Wait 'Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin 36. Semi Tough by Dan Jenkins 37. Near Christianity by C. S. Lewis 38. Main Street Sinclair Lewis 39. Traveling with Charlie by John Steinbeck 40. My Dog Skip by Willie Morris 41. The Rainmaker by John Grisham 42. The Firm by John Grisham 43. Ball Four by Jim Bouton 44. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway 45. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway 46. Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway 47. The Scarlet Letter by Nathanial Hawthorne 48. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe 49. History of the English Speaking People by Winston Churchill 50. The Sugar Creek Gang by Paul Hutchens 51. Candide by Voltaire 52. The Canturbery Tales by Geoffre Chaucer 53. Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift 54. Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale 55. The Odyssey by Homer 56. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen 57. The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw 58. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 59. The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier 60. Dr. Zhivago by Boris Pasternak 61. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck 62. The Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 63. The Art of War by Sun Tzu 64. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 65. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert 66. Of Human Bondage by W. Somerset Maugham 67. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald 68. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne 69. The Trial by Franz Kafka 70. The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe 71. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne 72. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes 73. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 74. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov 75. The Sound of Fury by William Faulkner 76. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger 77. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte 78. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 79. The Call of the Wild by Jack London 80. The Lord of the Flies by William Golding 81. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway I hope you enjoyed the post. Make sure to comment down below any favorite titles that you would want to add to the list! Keep reading, Phoebe (and David) |
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