Kelsey

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Kelsey is Currently Reading

Kelsey is currently reading

The Lost Boy (Dave Pelzer #2)

by Dave Pelzer (Goodreads Author)

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(page 66 of 331)
— Oct 07, 2021 11:46AM

Sep 01, 2021 11:54AM

Kelsey is currently reading

Wonder (Wonder, #1)

by R.J. Palacio

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Kelsey said: " Kelsey Vollrath
Ms.O'Hara
Adv English 9
11 May 20
Wonder
The book I read “Wonder” by R.J. Palacio is a story about a ten year old boy named Augie Pullman. Augie was born with facial differences that have prevented him from going to school up until the fi Kelsey Vollrath
Ms.O'Hara
Adv English 9
11 May 20
Wonder
The book I read “Wonder” by R.J. Palacio is a story about a ten year old boy named Augie Pullman. Augie was born with facial differences that have prevented him from going to school up until the fifth grade when he first started school at Beecher Prep Middle School. All Augie wants is to be treated the same, but due to his facial differences he is not seen the same by his classmates. Augie’s school is in New York City, New York. This affects the novel because there are many more kids that he has to attend with everyday. This means more students that could make fun of him.
The main character of the book, also known as the protagonist, is ten year old Augie Pullman. Augie is the youngest child in the family and he was born with a facial difference that has prevented him from going to school up until fifth grade when he first started going to Beecher Prep Middle School. Augie’s motivation is to just go to school and be looked at like a normal person by others. What frustrated me the most is when he was getting toured around the school by some of his new classmates and Jillian kept bullying him. In ways that many teachers and adults would not appreciate. Augie’s most prominent characteristics would be bravery and tolerance. He had the bravery to start going to school when he did even when his face wasn’t “normal”. He had tolerance from putting up with classmates like Jullian who always had the guts to make fun of him. Augie is unique in the way he still went to school even facing challenges and had the courage to do it. A second important character in Wonder, also known as the main antagonist, is Jullian Albans. Jullian is in the same class as Augie and always feels the need to make rude comments to him. Jullian and all his friends perceive Augie as strange and scary simply by what his face looks like. When I was reading I got so angry and wanted to just yell at Jullian through the book myself. Once again Jullians most prominent character traits would be uptight and not pleasant to be around. An example showing him not being pleasant is when he was spreading rumors about Augie that if you touched him, you would get the “plague”. This is a very nasty comment and certainly not true at all. Jullian is unique in the way that he finds ways to still be teachers pets at the beginning of the book. He is also unique in a way where he is so rude to Augie, yet he still has so many friends at Beecher Prep. The third character that makes a big influence in Augies life is Jack Will. Jack became one of Augies first friends. Jacks would always stand up for Augie when Jillian would say something rude and ignorant, and he would always sit with him at lunch too and they finally bonded and never stopped laughing. Jack Wills motivation is being polite to Augie since so one else likes him because of his looks. He shows us being polite when he made Augie feel better at the school tour and Jullian said a rude comment, Jack Will told Augie to ignore him because he is a jerk anyway. His most prominent character traits would be being good hearted and protective of others. The way he shows this is being friends with Augie and not caring what others thought about that decision. Jack Will is unique in the way that he can be friends without no one caring. This is hard because in today's society everyone is judged and everyone feels like they have to be “cool”.
Since this is Augie's first year of going to school due to his facial difference, the main conflict in the story is Augie trying to get through his first year of school he has ever attended. The challenges he faces throughout the story from people bullying, making funny faces, and laughing at him makes me sad. All Augie truly wants is to be treated normal like the other kids but people like Jullian are preventing that.
Overall I really enjoyed reading this book. I liked hearing about what Augie had to go through and his struggles he had particularly in the beginning when he wouldn't even talk to his family some nights. I think everything was handled well except at the beginning when Jullian was making fun of Augie really bad. I think the style R.J Palacio wrote in was fine.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes hearing about kids' struggles as a youngster. When I read these types of books it makes me appreciate what I have more than I already do. I think that any age could read this book and enjoy it. The reason I chose this book is because I recently had seen the movie and I really liked it. The way Palacio put details and wrote the book was amazing. I would highly reccomend this book if you have never read it before! ...more "

May 25, 2020 10:51AM · see review

Kelsey is currently reading

A Child Called "It" (Dave Pelzer, #1)

by Dave Pelzer (Goodreads Author)

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Kelsey said: " Kelsey Vollrath
Ms.OHara
Adv.English 9
3 March 2020
A Child Called It
Everything had all started after the summer of 1960 in Dale City, California. In the book I read, “A Child Called It” by Dave Pelzer, talks about a young boy named David at the age of Kelsey Vollrath
Ms.OHara
Adv.English 9
3 March 2020
A Child Called It
Everything had all started after the summer of 1960 in Dale City, California. In the book I read, “A Child Called It” by Dave Pelzer, talks about a young boy named David at the age of nine that gets brutally beaten and tortured by his emotionally unstable, alcoholic mother who plays deadly games against his son. David has to learn how to react to these tortuous games his mother performs to be able to survive. Not only is David not considered not a son anymore, but though a slave, not a boy anymore, but an “it”. David wore the same ragged clothes to school everyday because he had nothing else. He would sometimes starve for up to ten days, but when he did get food it would be spoiled scraps from his little brothers that even any hungry animal wouldn’t bother to touch. This influences the novel because it shows a true story of how Dave got abused as a kid and how he survived all of his mother's obstacles and overcame everything.
The main character of the book, also the protagonist, is nine year old David Pelzer. His most prominent character traits are seen as fighting off his mother's deadly games. Durning school, David would steal snacks from other students' lunch boxes or run to the store up town during recess outside to fight off his hunger. But when school was out, things were different and the fight for food was harder than it already had been. David’s five year old brother, known as mothers “little natzi”, watched Davids every move making sure he didn’t steal any food. David's mother threatened to kill him many times. One day mother was waving a knife around and lost her balance, the knife flew out of her hand and hit David in the stomach. After this action David thought everything was over. No more of mother lying to the school, and no lying to the hospital of what had happened, but he was wrong. Mother wrapped his side and the next day acted as if nothing happened. David's motivation was faith, his positive attitude and God. After the knife incident though, he started to lose his relationship with God and didn’t know why he was making him go through what he was. David is a very unique character because he never gave up the fight towards mother. Many others would have given up and not fought back, but David did.
The second character, also known as the antagonist of the story is David's mother. Her name is Catherine Roevera Pelzer. At the beginning of David's life she was a nice young lady, but as time went on she turned into a crazy alcoholic and started to brutally beat her son David. She can not keep herself under control and lies to David's school about the bruises and scratches on his body, and the rips on his clothes. Mothers most prominent character traits is coming up with many brutal games such as rubbing crap in David's face, slugging David in the stomach on the daily, making him drink ammonia which is poison that can kill you, and almost drowning him in a bathtub. Her motivation is to see David suffer because that must make her happy. Mother is unique because she doesn’t really have reasons to be beating and abusing her child on a daily basis.
The last character is father. His name is Stephen Joseph Pelzer and he works as a firefighter in San Francisco and is gone for large periods at a time. As time went on, David and father's relationship began to drift very fast. Father's most prominent character traits is helping David out and sneaking him food when mother wasn’t around. But as the beating and starvation continued to occur, father sat back and just let everything happen. He did not try to stop anything and this made David start to hate him too. Fathers motivation was to help his son out, but he couldn’t always accomplish that. Fathers unique character traits is that when mother would constantly beat David, he would sit back and end up not doing much, unlike other fathers, others would try to put an end to the situation.
The main conflict in the story is basically between mother and David whenever mother creates her torturous games. Another conflict that happens in the middle of the book is when father stops really caring about David and doesn’t even try to stop mother from her viscous games on David. Father also stops secretly giving him food. This causes David to feel hopeless and doesn’t want to believe anything good will ever happen. All David wants is a caring family and nothing is hopeful about this.
In my opinion I thought that this was overall a very good book. This is because after every page I read, I would want to keep on reading and not stop to see what mothers next deadly game would be. It would pain me to read but it also interested me very much hearing about David's pain and what he had to go through. This shows me how thankful I should be for my family and a great life my family and I have. Most things were handled well except when mother sprinkled ammonia in the trash so David couldn’t eat scraps, or when she shoved poop in his face. This just pained me to hear that David had to go through this. I really like how Dave Pelzer wrote this telling the world what he had to go through and how he didn’t stop fighting.
I would definitely recommend this this book about Dave Pelzer’s childhood to anyone who can’t wait to see what will happen next and who is against child abuse. The purpose Dave Pelzer wrote this is to show how severe child abuse can be, and using one of his real life experiences to tell the world about it. It also shows how abuse ruins the child mentally and physically. The reason I chose this book is because when I was younger, kids around me always said it was a great book. I would highly recommend this book if you have never read it before! ...more "

Mar 13, 2020 04:44PM · see review

Kelsey’s Quotes

“It's not time to worry yet”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

tags: worry

570 likes

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

tags: better-life-empathy

18381 likes