readers journal - biography

#6            Readers Journal         10/03/11                                                                                                  Dear Mrs.Zrihen,                                        I just finished a biography book called Martin Luther King Jr. Young Man with a dream by Dharathula H. Millender. This book was really inspiring to me. One passage that really stood out to me was:                                         I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation were they will be not judged by color of their skin but by the content of their character.                          I have a dream today!! (Pg, 67-68)                                                                                                         I picked this passage because this speech was his most famous because it took a part of the development of the civil rights movement. This passage is significant to the text because it shows the readers what he was trying to make a reality and what he dedicated his whole life to. I used many strategies before, during and after I read this book. One strategy that I used before reading this book was to skim and scan trough the book to check if there was any text features. Another strategy that I used before reading this book was to use information that I already knew about Martin Luther King Jr. One strategy that I used while I was reading this book was to look at the text feature while I was reading so I can understand what was going in the book. Another strategy that I used while I was reading this book was to visualize the most intense and exciting parts of the book. One strategy that I used after I read this book was to reread the most important and exciting parts of the book. Another strategy that I used after I read this book was to make inferences about Martin Luther King Jr.                    There were many non-fiction elements in this book that I was able to find. The genre of this book is biography because this book is telling you about the life of Martin Luther King Jr. the topic of this book is civil rights and Martin Luther King Jr. The main idea of this book is Martin Luther King Jr. and the fight for equality and the end of segregation. The main idea is stated. Another good name for the book can be Martin Luther King Jr. and His Fight. I think that this book could be called that because it sums up what this book is about. One supporting detail is “Only through boycott can we make it clear to the white folks that we will not accept this type of treatment any longer.” This detail explains how they were treated and how they finally said enough is enough and they are trying to do something about it. This detail is factual. Another detail I found in the article is “ Using Gandhi’s method’s he could take Jesus’ message of “love your enemies” to a new level. This supporting detail is factual. The essential message of this book Martin Luther King Jr. dedicating his life and sacrificed his life for equality. A cause and effect relationship that I found was when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man and was put in jail after Rosa Parks was put in jail Martin Luther King saw an opportunity to fight for the right sitting when and wherever you like so he took that issue to supreme court an all Negro’s started to boycott the buses. I can compare Martin Luther King Jr’s story to Fannie Lou Hamers. They both tried to help slaves and black people be free and have equal rights. The difference between Martin Luther King Jr, and Fannie Lou Hamer was that Fannie Lou Hamer was Fighting for voting rights for women.                                                                                            I was able to identify five text features in this book and there impact on the text. The title of the book gives the reader a clue on what the book will mainly be about. The pictures helped me understand the setting, people and events that were going on at that time. The captions under the pictures helped me understand what was going on in the pictures. The sidebars expanded a little more about what was going on in the event. The timeline of events helped me find out what and when something was happening. The pattern of organization is chronological order because the book explains the events that occurred through out Martin Luther King Jr’s life and the order they went in.                                                                           The authors’ purpose was to inform and the authors’ perspective is subjective. The authors’ point of view is third person objective. Unfortunately I was unable to find any figurative language in this book most likely because this book did not contain any dairy entries, poems ects… I used three sources to check the validity and accuracy of the information in the book. The first source that I used was the internet to see if the information about Martin Luther King Jr was right. Another source that I used was a history book to see if all of those non- violent marches took place. The last source I used was my mom’s memory about Martin Luther King Jr, to see if he died of a bullet.                                                                                         I found five vocabulary words that I did not know while reading the book. I used context clues to help me understand what the word meant. ‘‘Desegregate” which means to not use. “Huskier” means muscular. “Leaflet” means a booklet. “Regulations” means ruling. “Flocked” means congregation.                                                                                                               I was able to relate the book to another text, the world, and myself. I can relate to the book because some people discriminated me. This book and the book about Abraham Lincoln are easy to relate to each other because they both tried to help slaves and the black race be free and equal to the white race. This book relates to the world because there are still racists in the world.                                                                                                                            This book was very inspiring and emotionally to me. I recommend this book to boys and girls of all ages because it was really good. I rate this book a ten out of ten because not only was the information correct but the author wrote it in a way that was interesting to the reader.                                                                                                                                  Sincerely,                                                                         Roxanne Fine