Phoebe’s Comments (group member since Sep 30, 2012)

Phoebe’s comments from the ELEVEN READER'S CLUB group.

Update 1(pg. 1- 62)
1) The eyes get milky and hazy and the skin peels at the corners of its mouth. They curve themselves left and right and left and right, looking for something to hook onto….

2)Abstemious -sparing

Indignation –resentment, anger.

Lingered –tarry, loiter.

3)Anaphora- Then a few hundred years later, the
Norsemen swept down, murdering,
plundering, pillaging until Alfred the
Great, King of Wessex, fought back.

Alliteration- I was born bad, and lived bad, and
should die bad.

4) The author uses lot of metaphor and new vocabularies in the novel. She uses the first person view to tell other people’s story. It did not tell a lot about her own self but only feelings toward the story of her aunt Anne at the beginning. It confuses me because it only tells who the first person is in Chapter 5 but not at the beginning. However it gives reader a detail description of the environment and characters of the story. It already attracts me in the beginning when it gives me a quiver description of a corpse. I feel interested and I am looking forward into the future plot because Connie Flood the main character has find out something “difference” about her school principal Parley.


Update 2(Pg. 63-123)
1) diamond-patterned

2) benevolent- nice

shanghaied - forced conscription

belligerent – of warlike character; aggressively
hostile

3)connotation- All around her was the curdled essence
of this clever man, who found ways to
blind you to him to get you into his
pot, where you simmered.

Personification- English has a monosyllabic soul.

4) Coming to the middle of the story, it talks about the school’s daily life about Connie the teacher, her students and Parley the principal. Getting more into the plot, the vocabularies become easier with more conversation but less description. It became easier and faster for me to read but the chapter become longer. And this is when the story becomes so interested and excited. A girl in her class was raped and afterwards knocked in the door by her parents, and afterward died in mystery. The next day after Susan’s died, someone disappeared. It gets into so interesting that I am so curious about the fact. I can’t wait till the next section.


Update 3 (pg. 124-184)
1) She was lying flat on her back, her head turned sideways and her left arm raised over part of her face. The entire left side of her head was crushed and her jaw was broken…

2) squeamish- easily shocked by anything slightly
immodest.

reupholstered- to furnish, to provide.

resurrect- to bring back into use, practice; to
rise up from the dead.

3)Personification- We’ve in present when the past
touches us.

Personification- The seats so deep your spine has to
go on a journey and arrives sorry it
ever got there.

4)In this section, this is where a few years after and people met back. And it is also the climax part of the whole story. Lots of question in my mind without any answers. Facts seem to be near but not yet. The author uses this way and let the reader be persist and curious to read until we could find the answers.


Update 4 (pg.185-245)
1) She opened the newspaper and was slammed backwards against her seat. The light went out. Then grinding steel, and another jolt, which flung her into the air, after which she seemed to be falling all the time, grasping on vacancy…

2) acquiescence- agreement or consent by silence or
without objection.

maneuver- act in order to achieve a certain goal.

Conciliatory- tending to overcome the distrust or
hostility of

3) Smile- He was patting her head like a boy patting
a strange dog.

Hyperbole- You opened up the universe to me.

4) In this section, story still gives me a lots of questions, and the plot seems like telling me that the questions will never be answer because anything that is happening is not much relate to the murdering that happened before, it only talks about the love relationship between the characters and I feel it boring and creepy.


Update 5 (pg.246-306)
1) My fingers follow my mother’s working into being the deeply furrowed forehead, the scornful eyes and flared nostrils, the peevish mouth that drags down at one side, and the coiled braids arranged in two figure-eights at the back of her head and held in a place by a hairnet.

2) marooned- to abandon and leave without aid or
resources.

proliferate- to increase in number or spread rapidly
and often excessively.

monumental- exceptionally great, as in quantity,
quality, extent, or degree.

3)hyperbole- A sentence bears the weight of the world.

Personification- The flower opens like a plate and
comes right out to greet you as if it
were a school girl and Parley a
squirrel.

4) This section is a really sad part. At first I thought the author is not going to give us any clue about who the sinner is because most of the character is already really old and most of them are already died. However, the fact is coming out from other’s mouth, but none of them realize since they have misunderstood Parley was the sinner.

Rational for choosing the novel
I have chosen a few books from the website; I booked them from the library. However, I have waited for almost a week without any notification. I was rushed because I read slowly. I am afraid I would have lack of time to read. At that time, I notify from my friends that books labeled with maple leave and awards also meet Mr. Geist's requirements. I was delightful. That evening, I went to the library alone to choose books.
There are lots of books, but only a few that could attract me. Other teenagers like bloody novel, love stories, wars, and fights, however I hate those. I think those are unreal. I like books that express human's natural feelings or things about life or death. A thing that relates to our every days life that could makes me thinks. I think it helps me to understand more about myself and to know the purpose of my life. From a bunch of books, their content mostly tells about how an injured person stands up and some deep feelings about Psychiatric problems. Those were really great books, however I know I would never experience and it does not relate to my life. Fortunately, I choose this book; "Alone in the classroom", written by Elizabeth Hay. Compare to other books. It has less vocabulary that would help me to have more easy understanding during my reading; it also talks about human’s deep feelings that make me think about life. It expresses the usual sensation of an ordinary being. The main character Connie Flood is a student, who exists in a world that's full of adult's lie. Until the day facts gives the lie to the fallacy. This book attracted me by the exploration of the people's inner feelings. I ultimate what decisions will be make when truth were being unveil. What will our instinctive reaction are when we find our usual become strange? I think I will get this answers from this book.

Rational for choosing the novel
I have chosen a few books from the website; I booked them from the library. However, I have waited for almost a week without any notification. I was rushed because I read slowly. I am afraid I would have lack of time to read. At that time, I notify from my friends that books labeled with maple leave and awards also meet Mr. Geist's requirements. I was delightful. That evening, I went to the library alone to choose books.
There are lots of books, but only a few that could attract me. Other teenagers like bloody novel, love stories, wars, and fights, however I hate those. I think those are unreal. I like books that express human's natural feelings or things about life or death. A thing that relates to our every days life that could makes me thinks. I think it helps me to understand more about myself and to know the purpose of my life. From a bunch of books, their content mostly tells about how an injured person stands up and some deep feelings about Psychiatric problems. Those were really great books, however I know I would never experience and it does not relate to my life. Fortunately, I choose this book; "Alone in the classroom", written by Elizabeth Hay. Compare to other books. It has less vocabulary that would help me to have more easy understanding during my reading; it also talks about human’s deep feelings that make me think about life. It expresses the usual sensation of an ordinary being. The main character Connie Flood is a student, who exists in a world that's full of adult's lie. Until the day facts gives the lie to the fallacy. This book attracted me by the exploration of the people's inner feelings. I ultimate what decisions will be make when truth were being unveil. What will our instinctive reaction are when we find our usual become strange? I think I will get this answers from this book.