Most Important Line in Chapter 18

At the point of the book that I’m in which is Chapter 18 and the most important line/lines would be “I hadn't thought about it that way. My head might also need a fresh-air breather if that much was swirling around in it at once, but I would never go outdoor camping for head-clearing R&R. I would go to a spa where beautiful bronzed boys wearing togas would bring m poolside fruity drinks with little tiki umbrellas floating inside,” (Cohn 133).  These lines would be the most important for this chapter because this is when she realizes how everything works, and how different people could think of some things. Also that some people just don’t think of the same things the same way you would think them to. This when she learns that sometimes you have to think of things in more than one way, think about what that person would think also.

Vocab in Shrimp

The vocabulary in the book "Shrimp" is unlike some vocabulary you would normally see like when it say "Having Shrimp and his mellow vibe permeating our house is like having Paxil dosed through the central heating ducts" (Cohn 103). In this quote the word permeating, me not knowing what it means, I looked it up and the Google definition was spread throughout (something); pervade. Some other vocabulary would be when it says “I was left with no choice but to exercise my Big Sister prerogative. “SCRAM!” I yelled, and they were outta there” (Cohn 106). Using this quote the word prerogative is unfamiliar to me, so when I looked up the definition and the meaning of prerogative is a right or privilege exclusive to a particular individual or class. The vocabulary of this book can and can’t be elevated or maybe even low, this story has a combination of both. 

Best Thing about Shrimp

The best thing about my book would be the different language when it says "She was not going to mess with the simple freedom either, and did not complain once as we climbed Divisadero Street, a street so steep not even buses will navigate that section of it--and "Diviz" is a major thoroughfare." Just the ways she says it seems different than what a normal book would say. The diction isn't similar to anything I have read before. Another things about this book that makes it good would be the title "Shrimp" by itself contrasting to any other book titles. The book cover is another good thing because it draws you in, the picture of a surf board with the girl standing next to it.

Why I Chose Shrimp?

The reason I chose the book Shrimp by Rachel Cohn would be that this author isn't really popular and she seemed like the time to try a new author. I haven't heard much about this author and might as well see what kind of writing style she has, to see if I will like her books. The title Shrimp also interested be just because it didn't seem like normal title for a book and it seemed like it would be interesting. Another reason I chose this book would be the it seemed different and would differ from the normal books that I would read. Also a reason i chose this book was from the title it gave the impression that the plot, characters, and language would differ from normal everyday book that people would read my age. The front cover of the book also seemed different and it really drew me in to want to read it.

http://www.teenreads.com/reviews/shrimp

About Rachel Cohn

Rachel grew up near DC, and attended Barnard College, Manhattan at the age of 17. She graduated with a B.A. in Political Science, thinking she wanted to be a journalist. Instead, she moved to San Francisco - where Gingerbread was set - to work at a law firm and began writing. After moving back to New York City, Gingerbread was published followed by a number of other books, often about a strong, witty female protagonist. Rachel Cohn (born 14 December 1968 in Silver Spring, Maryland) is a young adult fiction author. Her first book, Gingerbread, was published in 2002. Since then she has gone on to write many other successful YA and children's books, and has collaborated on three books with the author David Levithan.
From the time I learned how to read and write I was always trying to create stories. I grew up surrounded by books and by family who were educators – the desire and encouragement to write came readily in my household. When I was a kid, I loved books by Judy Blume, Ellen Conford and E.L. Konigsburg. (I loved Judy Blume’s books so much that I used to actively wish I would get scoliosis so I could be like Deenie.) My favorite books were: Harriet the Spy;Deenie; And This Is Laura; Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret; Anything for A Friend; From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler; and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth. Oh, and anything by Jackie Collins or Sidney Sheldon.

Final Blogging Assessment

Over the course my writing in my blog posts have grown from in my third post it said ”The reason I started reading True Believer by Nicholas Sparks because I have always been interested in reading a book by Nicholas Sparks for a while but I never got the chance. Now for our independent reading novel, I thought this would be the time to start reading his books.” This post involved no textual reason behind me choosing this book over all Nicholas Sparks’ other books. My quality of writing from that post has improved in my new posts like in my sixth post when I said “If I were to as about his family he would probably respond with “Even his highly emotional Italian mother didn't believe that true love could blossom overnight. Like his brothers and sisters-in-law, she wanted nothing more for him than to marry and start a family, but if he showed up at her doorstep and said that he'd met someone two days ago and knew she was the one for him, his mother would smack him with a broom, curse in Italian, and drag him to church, sure that he had some serious sins that needed confessing.” In this post it shows me using more textual evidence to prove my point more than my previous posts just stating what I think and not using evidence to prove it. From post to post my writing has gotten much better as I went through and understood the book more and what I can really write. The quality of my blog post has also improved with the type of information I put in it including the actual quotes from the book. Over time I think my writing quality has greatly improved.

  An area of struggle that I had during these blog posts at the beginning of the trimester was to know when to use the quotes and evidence to prove my point better. What I did to overcome this struggle was to pay more attention to the details while actually reading the book to find the good quotes to better improve my understanding what I was writing in my blog posts. Another area of struggle that I had while writing the blog posts was using the appropriate language so more people could better understand what I was trying to explain in my book. What I did to overcome that struggle was to write it in the language a person in my grade would understand, which helped me understand, helping me to be able to explain if anyone needs an explanation of what I’m writing. A strength I had during the blogging was the length of the posts having to be at least a paragraph. During the blog posts the length of my posts were the how long they were supposed to be. Mostly all my post an explanation for the point I was trying to make. I think my strength helped me have better improvements and get better at the blog posts.

What's Next?

Now that I have finished True Believer, my next step would be to continue reading Nicholas Sparks books. The development of the story as it went on made me want to read more of his books. Also his books are highly recommended by many different people. As I read this book I noticed the elevation of diction or word choice varied as the book developed. The tone of the book also varied on the situations happening to the main character. Throughout the book his language used to describe different things didn't change much. The next think I will probably do is also read different books that are similar to Nicholas Sparks' writing style. Overall, to find and read book similar in writing style of True Believer.