First Blog Entry

             My name is Sarah Goodale, I am a Junior at Carbondale Community High School. I am 16 years old, and have lived in Carbondale for two years. I have lived in four different states: Utah, Indiana, Oregon, and now Illinois. I have played basketball and ran track for as long as I can remember, and they are a huge part of my life. So far in high school my experiences in my English classes have been fun and interesting and I am looking forward to completing this blog throughout my junior year. It's a new experience, and I can already tell, I will like blogging more than writing papers.
            The purpose of blogging is to try a new way to express what we liked, disliked, or thought about the books we will be reading for Read For a Lifetime. It will replace analytical essays and give a more modern view on analyzing books, and ideas. Read For a Lifetime is a program where you are given a list of books to  read, and analyze. This is a fun way to be introduced to a new genre of books, and topics you never may have thought of reading. The book I choose for Read For a Lifetime is Because I am Furniture by Thalia Chaltas. My book is about a teenage girl Anke whose father abuses her brother and sister. To everyone in her family she is invisible, "a piece of furniture." Anke then decides to tryout for the volleyball team, and learns she has a voice, a voice that is hers and it can be heard. When reading through the summaries this book appealed to me, because it is about finding your voice, through sports, and I completely agree. Sports have made me more outgoing, and able to speak my mind. Playing a leadership role on a team requires you to constantly talk and encourage your teammates. I am looking forward to reading this book, and blogging about it. I think it will be a lot of fun, the only thing I am worried about is that I will not have enough material for some of the prompts.
            Whenever I write using a prompt, I always find that it is easier, and more interesting when I thoroughly know the topic. My book deals a lot about emotion, feelings, finding your inner strength, and standing up for yourself. With this in mind, I feel that an appropriate blog prompts would be how do you feel about the challenge your main character has to go through? This directly effects the main idea of the book, and helps you relate to the story. Another prompt that would be engaging for all readers is how do you feel the issue, or problem in your book ties into issues today? This would help relate and get a chance to look at reality. A prompt that would be interesting for the end of the Read For a Lifetime unit would be when looking back at all your books, was there something in common with them? Why do you think you choose these four, and which did you feel was the one you really connected and understood? I believe that these prompts would be intriguing to many students. I am interested to see what Read For a Lifetime is all about, and hope that I will have a positive experience. Goodbye for now!