#12 Readers Journal 11/15/11 I just finished a breathtaking book. The book that I read is called Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes Courter. This book was a memoir because it is about a specific part of a person’s life written by that person. I found one passage in this book that was interesting to me which was: “ I thought my teacher was going to lecture me about my past not being and excuse for my poor behavior. Instead she went on to tell me that she had also had come from a rough background herself and knew what it felt like to not to struggle without support at home.” This passage stood out to me because it shows you that more people have things in common with you then you know. This passage was significant to this book because from that point on Ashley tried to make every negative into a positive. I used many strategies before, during and after I read this book so that I would understand the book better. One strategy that I used before I read this book was to look at the picture on the front of the book to predict what the book was going to be about. I predicted that this book was going to be about a young women writing about her childhood because a memoir is a person writing about what they experienced at a specific time in their lives so I knew it had to be about the author. Another strategy that I used before I read this book was to read the synopsis on the back of this book and get an idea of what this book was going to be about. One strategy that I used while I was reading this book was to visualize the most intense and emotional parts of the book. Another strategy that I used while I was reading this book was to reread the parts of the book that I didn’t understand. One strategy that I used after I read this book was to reread the most interesting parts of this book. Another strategy that I used after I read this book was to reflect on what I read and put it in to a readers journal. I was able to identify many non-fiction elements I this book. The genre of this book is non-fiction, obviously and the sub genre of this book was memoir. The topic of this book was foster care system. The main idea of this book is the improvement foster care. The main idea was implied. One supporting detail that supports the main idea is “ I don’t understand how people can treat innocent children or any human being like this, with so disrespect. I need to do something about this right away!” this detail was factual. Another supporting detail that supports the main idea is “ I wrote my essay on my life in the foster care system so that I could give a voice to the other children that’s going through the same situation and make the foster care system better, so that these children have something to hope for.” This detail is factual. Another good name for this book could be “The Fight To Start Over” because in the text it stated what she had to overcome in her past to start over with her life. The essential message of this story is that when children are put into foster homes they sometimes are not treated very well so they need some one to stand up for them and take care of them such as Ashley Rhodes Courter did. One cause and effect relationship that I found in this book was that Ashley’s mother made very bad decisions so the police came and took her children away and put them into foster homes. One contrast that I found in this book was that the Moose family mistreated Ashley by treating her like a slave and the Courter family treated like she was there own daughter by treating her kind and loving. I was able to identify some text features that were in the book. One text feature that I found in this book were pictures of Ashley’s new family and the journey though out her life. Another text feature that I found in this book was captions under the pictures that explained what every picture meant. Some other text features that I found in this book were bold words, capitalized words and italicized words that showed the readers the significant of the title and the word. The author’s perspective was biased toward the moose family and the foster care system. The P.O.O of this book was chronological order because it presented the book in which the events occurred. The author’s point of view was first person. You can’t really check the accuracy and validity of this book’s information because if what Ashley said was true then there is not really anything to check. While I was reading this book I was able to make connection. I couldn’t really relate to this book because I have never been in the same situations as Ashley. This book could relate to the world because many children are in foster homes right now and maybe they are not really being treated correctly. I have never read a book about this topic so I can’t tell how this book can relate to another book. All in all this book was very entertaining. I thought this author’s story was very inspiring. I would rate this book an 8 out of ten because this book was very descriptive, entertaining and well put together but I think she could have done a little better describing her mother. I hope to read another book about Ashley Rhodes Courter’s life adventures soon. SINCERELY, ROXANNE FINE
Dear Roxanne,
ReplyDeleteYour Readers Journal was great. I just have a few questions. First, what would you change if you were the author? Also what would you do in the main characters shoes? Lastly, what was your favorite part?
Sincerely,
Mikey
Dear Michael, Thanks for the compliment.I would not change anything if I was the author because I thought this book was great.If I was in the main characters shoes I would have complained about the foster care system to the head people that were in charge of the system. My favorite part of this book was when Ashely said the three little words that changed her life which were I guess so. Thanks again.Sincerely, Roxanne Fine 702
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