Reading response- final version.

Casey Gallagher

814

Reading response(literary essay)        

I am in the midst of reading “Percy Jackson and The Olympians” series written by Rick Riordan. In these books, Rick Riordan creates a half-god character named Percy Jackson who I can deeply relate to. Percy and I don’t only have similar characteristics, we also share the same age, which makes these books easier to read. I can relate to Percy Jackson for three main reasons. The first reason is the fact that our mothers are very alike. Another reason is that we have similar relationships with our friends. The third and last way I can relate to Percy Jackson is the fact that he has powers that I have always and will always envy.

         Percy Jackson’s Mom is very similar to my mother in this series. First of all, both of our moms are human, it doesn’t mean anything in reality, but in these books, not everyone is mortal (human). Another reason is that both of our moms push us to do better in life, when we aren’t strong enough to push ourselves. Both of our moms are divorced, but have found someone new, and that affects their lives as well as ours. The last reason is that they both love us more than anything, and would do anything to help us if we needed them.

         Another reason Percy and I can relate to each other is that we have similar relationships with our friends. Both of us don’t have many friends, but the friends we do have, we care about a lot, and vice versa. Also, if we were in trouble, our friends would go out of their way to help us, and so would we for them. The last reason our friends are similar is that we have friends older, younger, and the same age as us.

         The last reason Percy Jackson and I relate to each other is the fact that I have always envied the powers that he actually has. Percy Jackson has the ability to see the future or past or present in his dreams, he can breath under water, he can control what water does, he doesn’t get wet at all under water, and while he does all of these amazing things, he is just a thirteen year old middle-school student, like me. All of the special abilities I just named are things that I would die for, in other words, I envy them.

         In the series “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”, Rick Riordan creates a half human- half god character named Percy Jackson that I can relate to in many different ways. Percy and I share relationships with our friends, and family. Percy Jackson is an 8^th grader, like me, yet he has special abilities, because he is the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea.

Response on my research of litter.

 LITTER... I used to think this word was simple, and didn't think much of it, but ever since my class has started doing social issues, I have learned that its complicated, and in my opinion, one of the most important issues in the world. Although it falls under the category of pollution, I'm focusing on the single topic.
      
          When we first this assignment, in my head I really didn't want to do it, but now that I'm actually doing it, I regret that thought, because I'm having fun and learning a lot from it. My main source was sirs, on ms51library.org. Its a great website, and has accurate good information. First, when I typed in "litter" , a lot of the things that came up didn't say litter, they said "trash". And right then, is when I realized what litter really was, TRASH. Just the thought of trash sounds and makes me think about dirty things, who likes dirty things? Nobody. So why do sososososo many people in this world litter? Nobody knows, but my goal is to help as many people as I can stop littering, or at least not as much. Walk around park slope for a while, and please try to find a single block that does not have any type of litter on it. If you do that would be great, but the thing is, you're not going to.

           In the article I found, written by Frank Greve from mcclachy newspapers, It said that litter experts say that "they estimate that deliberate trash tossing has fallen about 2 percent a year since the mid 70s in areas they have measured." Now, it makes me happy to hear that it is falling. But first of all its only two percent, and secondly, its only in certain areas of the world. So, that means that there could be different areas of the world that it isn't dropping, but it is increasing... well, I hope you have learnt that you really shouldn't litter, and it makes planet earth a worse place every time you do.

Poem on Littering Assignment # 6.

RETTIL T'NOD

             DONT LITTER
      Its quite bitter
              dont be a critter
             AND LITTER
          its opposite of glitter
       LITTER IS BAD!
             it makes me sad
         its worse than my DAD
          AND ON TOP OF THAT............ IT MAKES ME MAAAAAAAAAAADDDD!!!!!!!!!

Observe your Surroundings Assignment # 2

Heres a list of social issues I have seen or noticed in my surroundings:

. Kids around my age getting mugged or beat up by near highschool students. (mostly john jay)
. Grownups or kids littering on the street or out of car windows.
. Kids calling other kids inapropriate or discusting  names the internet (mostly facebook).
. Racist remarks!

REFLECTION:
       All of this stuff makes me sick to my stomach! First of all kids getting mugged by bigger and stronger kids is just plain out wrong, and HAS to stop sooner or later. Who ever is picking on smaller kids are either messed up in the head or raised poorly. Secondly, I HATE when I see grownups litter!!!!!! They should know that its not good for the enviorment at all, and on top of that it might not effect their life but it will effect their great grandchildrens life!

MOTHER TO SON by langston Hughes

       I love this poem, Mother to Son by Langston Hughes for several reasons. One is that in the poem there is a lot of words that are not real, and that I'm not used to, for example "kinder harder" and "ise". What I like about this is that by the third time reading the poem, the words sound regular to you, and you can read it super fluently.

       Another think I appreciate about Mother to Son is that there are a lot of sad and unlikable sentences and words in the poem, but in the end it gives a happy and positive message. The message is that you should keep going on in life, and it can be good in the end, even if you font hit the crystal stair.

       Overall, Mother to Son by Langston Hughes is a great poem and teaches a powerfull message. If you have not read it you should, because its probably one of the best poems out there.