The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian 130-230

After getting a letter from his sister after she ran off with another Indian fellow to a different state Junior decided to try out for the basketball team. Coach comes up to him and tells him that if your here to try out then start doing some running and making some shots. After watching junior for a long time he then sees he has much potential to play for this team. Junior was a great shooter and could sink three pointers like his day job. He was not a strong dribbler though and had some trouble over powering and being faster than most of the kids on the team. The coach then put Roger up against Junior to see what he can do. They played one on one for a while Roger easily over powering Arnold but Arnold made a lot of shots on him and even stole the ball once. Coach was impressed and said he would be playing a little varsity. Junior was shocked to hear that he would be playing varsity ball. After some time practicing and going to school he then goes home to find out his grandmother passed away. This upsets Junior more than anything and he starts to realize all of the things that his grandma had taught him and what some of her greatest traits where. He thinks his Grandma's best trait is tolerance and how she put up with everything that happened around her with a smile. At the funeral there were thousands of Indians there who knew his grandma and he realized just how much she meant to not just him but many others and how she traveled everywhere and made so many friends. One person who caught his eye was a white man who was there and looked very rich. At the funeral he tells how he loved the Indian people and collected many things from their culture. He tells a story about a Indian who came to his house and begged for cash for his sister who had cancer and how he would sell him a woman's beaded dancing dress to him. He gave him a thousand dollars for it and sent him on his way because he knew he stole the dress from someone but it was so beautiful that he had to buy it. It kept him up at night knowing that he bought a stolen dress and he then went on his way to return it to the owner. He had asked a expert look at it and he said it was Spokane and was owned by Grandma Spirit who was Junior's grandma. Junior's mom then went up to look at it and tells him its Cherokee and his expert was not an expert and he went on his way. Everybody at the funeral burst out in laughter and laughed the whole funeral. Junior played many basketball games and even played his hometown and it was an intense game. Rowdy played against him and gave Junior a concussion and won the game against them. Later the last game of the season they played them again and Junior gave a interview to a news person and told him how this meant the world to him to win and show everyone he was strong. They go out and play hard and Junior guards rowdy and steals the ball from him and goes and sinks a three pointer on him. This set the whole mood of the game and Junior's team won against them by 40 points and he was so happy until he saw the faces of his fellow Indians. During the summer he stayed in his basement and read comics and watched T.V and still thought Rowdy hated him but then came a knock on the door. It was Rowdy and he tells Junior how he always knew he would leave and was happy for him and pretty much brought their friendship back together. They went out to play some one on one and played all day and all through the night and did not keep score.

Anna Dressed in Blood 114-213

After going home, Cas got cleaned up and went to bed. The next morning, he went to school and talked to Thomas and Carmel during lunch. He told them that he went back to the house, leaving out what all happened, and they couldn't believe that he went back by himself. He then told them, as well as Will, to meet him at Thomas's shop after school. After school they all met there and talked about a plan B. After discussing it with Thomas and Thomas's grandfather, Cas decided he needed a spell in order to kill Anna. He then went home and talked to his mom to see what she thought about it. They talked it over, and Cas asked her if she could get some chicken feet and other things for the spell. Cas then went back to the house. Anna's house. When he got there, he hesitated about going inside, but knew he needed to. When he did, Anna met him at the bottom of the stairs. She asked him what he was doing there and he said he had to talk to her. He wanted to ask her what happened to her so he could find out how she got so much power. Anna almost told him, but something was holding her back. She couldn't let herself tell Cas. She began to tell Cas that her step-father had touched her and she hated him and wanted to leave the house, but couldn't. Cas then had a hunch about what happened but couldn't get it out of her. Anna then began to change, her skin became less pale and her black veins resided into her body. She then began to cry, thinking about how she had died. Cas then reached out and touched her cheek, and just as he did, Carmel came through the door. Right when she did, Anna saw her and turned back into her ghostly self. Cas told Anna that it was ok, but Anna couldn't control herself. She went after Carmel, but Carmel go outside of the house just in time, with Cas following her. She had followed Cas to the house, wanting to know what he was doing. They then rode back to town together, and Carmel kept asking Cas questions, but all he could think about was Anna, and how she had changed. A week later, Cas had gotten everything for the spell, and they went to the shop to practice it. They felt that the chanting and everything was silly, but Cas knew it was his only chance he would have to kill Anna. After practicing, they went to Anna's house. They began the chant outside, in a circle. They had to get Anna inside the circle in order for the spell to work. They then kept the circle, and went inside. Cas was the first to enter, and as he did, Anna told him that she couldn't control herself with the others, but Cas said it would be alright. They then all got inside and Anna was in the middle of the circle. As she was, Cas began to feel the spell working and asked her how she died. She then replayed the scene in all of their minds. It showed how her mother was a witch and how the stepfather had touched her and made Anna want to leave. As she tried, her mother stopped her. Seeing the sick grin of Anna's stepfather made Cas sick. He wanted to reach out and break his neck, but knew he couldn't. As he kept watching, Anna's mother went and grabbed a knife and slit Anna's throat. Cas and the other's watched the blood drip from Anna's neck. Anna was know getting weak and could barely stand. Will then grabbed Cas's athame out of his pocket and went to stab Anna. Cas stopped him though, and Will then ran out of the house with Cas's athame. Cas wanted to chase after him, but knew he had to find the dress that Anna's mother had hidden in the floor. Once he did, he gave it to Anna. She began to become stronger, but as a person. She got up, and her dress was white, not stained with blood. She began walking towards the door, and before going through it, she turned her head, and smiled at Cas.

13 Little Blue Envelopes 101-200

Ginny asks Keith if he wants to go to Scotland with her because that’s where her next note leads her to. He agrees, and kisses her. Ginny is falling big-time for Keith, but she still hasn’t convinced herself that he has the same feelings. Ginny and Keith go to the house of one of Aunt Peg’s artist friends like the note says. She was very eccentric, but Ginny kind of liked her. When they left, Keith told Ginny his story. He used to have a serious girlfriend, and she got pregnant, aborted the baby, and then left him. He also had kind of a rebellious streak and stole some things and was arrested a time or two. He then gives Ginny a tiny Godzilla statuette, and she recognizes it as being from the crazy artist’s house. She gets really upset because he stole, but he doesn’t see that it’s such a big deal. They get in a fight and he storms off. Her next letter tells her to go to Rome, so she has to leave, and she’s afraid she’ll never see Keith again. When she’s in Rome, she’s supposed to go see a monument for the “vestal virgins,” which were one of Aunt Peg’s favorite part of Roman Mythology. When Ginny is at the temple of the vestal virgins, she opens the next letter which tells her to spontaneously ask out a Roman boy on a date. She asks out a cute blonde boy, but he ends up being a creep. He takes her back to his apartment and tries to sleep with her, but she runs out. The next letter from Aunt Peg tells her to go to Paris to the Louvre museum. When she gets there, she opens the next letter, which tells her to find a cafe that Aunt Peg had decorated when she lived in Paris for a while, but it doesn’t give her any directions to the cafe. She eventually finds it though, and when she gets there, to her surprise, Keith is there too. He’s in Paris to do a show, and he found her there. She and Keith hung out all day, and then he took her to visit a Parisian cemetery. They started making out in the cemetery, and were chased out by a cop. Ginny thought it was just the most romantic thing ever, but Keith has to go back to his town, and she’s afraid she won’t get to see him again. Her next letter takes her to Amsterdam where she’s supposed to visit the house of one of Aunt Peg’s friends, but when she gets there, she discovers that someone else has moved into the house.

13 Little Blue Envelopes 1-100

Ginny becomes the recipient of thirteen little blue envelopes with letters in them from her Aunt Peg. Peg was a very flighty free-spirited lady. She never lived in one place for very long, and she was very artsy and a little odd. Ginny’s mom, Peg’s sister, was also kind of disapproving of her lifestyle. However, Aunt Peg had been dead for three months, so these letters were really odd. The first envelope contained a thousand dollars and instructions for Ginny to buy a plane ticket and go to Europe. When she was on the plane, she was supposed to open envelope number two, which gave her directions to a man’s house and directions of how to get money from one of Peg’s accounts. When Ginny gets to this man’s house, she discovered that Aunt Peg had lived with him for quite a while. The man, Richard, works at a giant department store. He’s not quite as free-spirited and odd as Peg. Ginny is to stay with him while she’s in Europe until the envelopes take her elsewhere. He also has the code Ginny needs to get into the ATM and get money. She then opens envelope three, which instructs her to find a poor artist (whether it be an artist, a musician, an actor, or anything else was up to Ginny) and just randomly give him a lot of money, to sort of help jump-start his career. After a day of searching, she found an actor named Keith who had his own show staring just him. She went and bought every ticket to every one of his shows for the next three nights, which cost her all the money in Peg’s account. This man, Keith, asks Ginny why she bought out all his shows, and then nobody else was able to come to them. She just completely freezes up in front of him and can’t talk, which kind of indicates that she has a crush on him. The next night, they start talking and kind of flirting when Ginny feels awkward, and gives him the rest of the money from Peg’s account, then asks to go home. The next day, Ginny opens envelope four. It tells her to go to this other country to meet one of Aunt Peg’s artist friends. She thinks it’s weird because Keith had told her he’s also going to this other country. She goes to his house, though she’s not entirely sure why. When she gets there, they go out together, and the reader can tell they’re kind of interested in each other.

Girl, Stolen Response

Book Title: Girl, Stolen
Author: April Henry
Year of Publication: 2010
Number of Pages: 213
AR Points Awarded: 7.0

Literary Elements
Narrator - It’s goes back and forth in third-person limited between Cheyenne and Griffin. “For a second, Cheyenne forgot she wasn’t talking to a friend, like Sadie or Kenzie.” p. 59. “Griffin watched his dad’s expression as he listened to the phone ring.” p. 103
Protagonist -  The main protagonist would be Cheyenne. She is kind of small and weak physically, and she’s sick and blind, which makes it even worse. However, she is so strong-spirited. Even being kidnapped, she never loses hope, and she’s always fighting to escape. Griffin could also be considered a protagonist, because he tries to help Cheyenne escape. “And if it seemed like he was going to do something bad,s he wouldn’t go quietly. She would give him the fight of his life.” p. 25
Antagonist - The antagonist in the story is Roy. He’s the one who’s preventing Cheyenne from going back to her family. He’s very rude and extremely greedy, and he’s also a criminal. “‘And we also need to know how much you think your daddy might part with.’ He paused to let that sink in. ‘Here’s a tip. It had better be a lot.’” p. 53
Setting - The story takes place at Roy and Griffin’s house. It’s very gross, rundown, and full of junk, and it’s out in the middle of nowhere. It makes the mood of the story more mysterious and suspenseful, since it decreases Cheyenne’s chances of ever escaping. “They were set well back from the road...The barn was where they did most of their work, but the overflow spilled out onto the lawn. Only it wasn’t really a lawn, just bare patches alternating with weeds...West of the barn was the house. It was a few decades newer than the barn, but it had needed painting ever since Griffin could remember. Now the paint curled up in long, rusty red strips. Behind the house rose forested hills where nobody noticed if you shot a deer--in season or not...the forest was rich green pine and Douglas fir.” p. 33-35
Conflict - There are two main conflicts. One is Cheyenne fighting against her captors to get back home to her family, and the other is Griffin fighting to stand up to his family, even when it’s hard. They’re both man v. man. “She knew it was too much to hope for a pocket-knife, a telephone, a pair of scissors. But even a pen would be good. She might be able to hide a pen and use it later to stab someone.” p. 41. “Griffin realized the only one he trusted to let Cheyenne go was himself. He had to do it, even if it meant risking everything.” p. 151
Theme - The theme of this story is not to judge people right away. Cheyenne assumed Griffin was bad because of his family, but Griffin was actually on her side the whole time. “‘I’m out here trying to help you, not kill you...’ ‘Wait. You came out here to help me? After what I did to you?’” p. 173
Historical Context - This book doesn’t have much for Historical Context. It all takes place in the present. The most “historical context” it has is talking about Griffin and Cheyenne’s pasts. “For the first two months after the accident, Cheyenne was basically in bed.” p. 92

Reflection
I really liked Girl, Stolen. It was a quick read and it was really easy to understand. I like how the author flipped from Cheyenne’s to Griffin’s viewpoint so the reader would be sure to understand that Griffin wasn’t one of the bad guys. I sort of identified with Cheyenne because she’s kind of little and not too strong, but she’s very strong-willed and determined. It reminded me of a book I read a few years ago about a girl who gets kidnapped and abused. I think it would be tough to make a good movie out of it, because it would be tough to show the viewpoints of both Cheyenne and Griffin. I would recommend this book to other girls around my age. It didn’t end who I expected. I expected Cheyenne to realize Griffin was good, and they would kind of become friends. However, the author never says if they become friends. She leaves that kind of hanging for the reader to decide.

Girl, Stolen 201-213

Cheyenne ends up kicking Roy out of the car. Even though she’s blind, she remembers learning to drive when she could still see, so she tries to drive away. She has to go really slow, but she manages to get away from Roy a little bit by feeling whether or not the tires are still on the road. While driving, she grabs Roy’s phone and calls the cops, and they locate her and return her to her family. In the meantime, Griffin learns from TJ that his mom didn’t move to Chicago, Roy killed her one night on accident when they were in a fight. After Griffin is found, he’s moved to Chicago with his mom’s relatives and treated like a delinquent. In the end of the book, he calls Cheyenne just to talk to her.

Anna Dressed in Blood 14-113

The next day, Cas returned the car to it's owner and went home to keep packing. He and his mom, who is a witch, are planning on moving to Canada. Cas got a tip from one of his sources that their is a ghost there that his been killing anybody that comes near her. She was killed on prom night while walking home by somebody that slit her throat. Her name is Anna. Beings she was in a dress that night, and it was covered in blood, they call her Anna Dressed in Blood. Cas's mom knows he does this and respects him for it because his father used to do the same type of work. He was actually killed by a ghost, that he was sent to kill, when Cas was seven. Ever since then, Cas has been killing ghosts. His mom worries about him, but knows he won't stop so she does whatever she can to support him and help him out. Once they had everything packed up, they set off and hit the road for Canada. When they arrived at their new home, Cas's mom sent her cat, Tybalt, into the house first to make sure their were no ghosts in the house. Once the house passed Tybalt's inspection, they started to move things in and Cas's mom sealed the house with some spells and other things that witches possess. The next week, Cas started school. He spent the whole day looking for the certain person that he know he could get answers from. The certain person that he knew would know everybody and would know the most gruesome ghost stories ever told. Finally at lunch, he found her, Caramel. She was the most popular and prettiest girl in school and he knew she could help him get what he wanted. He then went over to talk to her and she invited him to a party. Just as she was doing so, her ex-boyfriend Mike came up and started talking to her, paying no attention to Cas. Cas put his hand out to have Mike shake it, but he just gave a head nod and kept talking to Caramel. Cas knew that this had to be her ex-boyfriend and that he didn't think much of Cas for talking to her. Caramel decided to pick Cas up at eight for the party and then went to class. As Cas was walking home from school, he could feel that somebody was following him. When he turned around he realized it was an old ghost lady. She didn't mean any harm, so he didn't think she was the only one around. He then walked a few more feet and a car came up and stopped beside him. Thomas, a boy about Cas's age that could read minds, hopped out of the car. Right when Cas saw him he knew that the person who gave Cas the tip about Anna had told Thomas too, and Thomas wanted in on the action. Cas however, wanted to do it on his own, and told Thomas this while walking away. Later that night, around eight, Caramel picked Cas up and took him to the party. After being there for awhile, they walked off and Caramel started telling Cas ghost stories. This is what Cas wanted to hear. Finally, she got to the worst one of all, Anna's. Once she began telling it, Mike and two of his buddies, Will and Chase, came up to join Caramel and Cas. They then finished telling Cas the story and asked him if he wanted to see the house. Cas didn't exactly want to go for the first time with them, but he knew they could show him where it was so he went. When they got to the house of Anna, it was as if it had been there for three hundred years with nobody inside. It was old and run down and looked as if it was painted black. Cas then walked up to the house but did not go inside. He did not want to disturb Anna while the others were there. As he turned around and started to walk away though, Mike said they weren't leaving until they went inside. Cas then agreed and went up to the door. Just as he was about to open it, he saw Mike in the reflection of the window, holding a 2x4 and then everything went black. When he awoke, his head was pounding and bleeding severely. He realized that he was now inside the house. Their was no sign of Anna, so he looked around to see if they left him there. He then saw Chase and Mike and Chase looked worried but Mike was laughing, saying he knew he didn't kill him. Caramel was in the background shouting Cas's name to see if he was ok. Cas then hit the ground again, his head causing him to become dizzy. He then looked up towards the stairs, and he saw Anna. She was like nothing he had ever seen before, and she was coming down. Cas couldn't think straight because of his head and couldn't get up. Chase and Mike then saw here and froze. They didn't know what to do. They didn't know whether to go pull Cas out of the house or just leave him and run. Then Anna was right beside Cas. Cas thought this was the end. He thought that he was going to die, and not because the ghost totally defeated him, but because a human did. Anna however stared at Cas for a moment, but then went towards the door. She grabbed Mike and ripped him in half. Then out of nowhere, Thomas came in and grabbed Cas out. When Cas awoke again, he was at Thomas's. They then went to school to talk to Caramel, Mike, and Chase. They all decided that they couldn't tell the true story and that they would figure something out. They decided to meet at a restaurant later that night to dicuss it further. Cas said he had to help his mom with some things right after school, but knew he was going back to get Anna. When he arrived at the house, he went inside. He then saw her, in her white dress, covered in blood. He told her that he was there to kill her and she said he couldn't. She told him that for some reason she spared his life the night before, and that he should go. Cas wouldn't listen though, and knew that he had to get the job done. He sliced at her with his Dad's knife, but she dodged and threw him against the wall. After a few more tries, she threw him outside. He hit the gravel hard. He then decided that pure force wasn't going to work, and that he needed a plan B.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian 30-130

He was suspended from school after throwing the book for a week. Junior spent his time in his house helping his mother and one day out of the blue Mr. P shows up at his house. Junior is terrified and wonders what is he doing here. He goes outside and they both sit down on the porch and talk. Mr. P then tells about his times teaching here when he was younger and tells about the horrible things he done to Indian children when he disciplined them. He tells Junior that he deserved to be hit in the face with that book and that he knows he did not do it on purpose. Mr. P starts to break down and cry and tells him how all of the older Indians on the reservation have lost hope and have given up on life. He tells Junior that he needs to leave the reservation any way possible or he will die here. He needed to go find a place where hope still existed so he could have a better life than all of his relatives. After all of that Junior goes to his mother and father and tells them he wants to enroll to Reardan's School, an all white school in a nice farm town about 20 miles from the reservation. His parent's are very skeptical at first but agree to take him there and enroll him the next day. The majority of the reservation is outraged and look at Junior as a traitor. He goes to tell his body Rowdy about what he is going to go do. Rowdy gets really mad and punched Junior in the face and runs away mad at Junior. The next day his dad takes him to school and wishes him luck. He goes into the school and everybody is looking at him funny. He goes to the office to find out where his class was and the lady told him and was really nice about it. He gets there and a girl in front of him turns around and asks him his name and he tells her and she tells him that her name is Penelope. Many called him names and made fun of them. Couple days later a big kid named Roger insulted Junior with a very racist insult and Junior finally had a enough and punched him in the face and dropped him. Blood running out of his nose he did not get up and punch him back just told him he was crazy and ran off. Junior totally confused showed up the next when his dad's friend gave him a ride to school on his bike. He gets there and notices everyone is giving him a lot more respect except Penelope who still does not know if he exists. Halloween roles around and Junior goes as a hobo because he does not really have a lot of nice clothes so he thought he would fit the part well. Penelope goes as a hobo too and they talk and agree that they are going to ask for spare change when they go tricker treating and give it to the poor. Junior is jumped though and the money taken from him and Penelope feels bad for him. He goes through some weeks of school and one day goes to the bathroom and when he finishes he can hear someone puking in the bathroom and learns its Penelope and that she is Bulimic and how she is very alone. They hang out with each other a lot and become a item. This makes Junior happy and starts to feel a lot of self worth. He tries to talk to Rowdy but he still feels that he still hates him and this makes him sad. He then is asked to go to a dance with Penelope and so he wears his dad's suit from the 1970s and everybody loves it. He dances with Penelope all night and she loves it. After the dance Roger asks him and Penelope if they wanted to go to a Pancake place somewhere. Junior worried because he does not have a lot of money goes anyway because he knows Penelope wants to go. They eat and he goes to the bathroom because he is scared because he does not have money and does not want Penelope to find out and not like him. Roger comes in and asks him if anything is wrong and he tells him that he lost his wallet and Roger gives him 40 bucks and tells him its alright. Astonished he pays for the meal and goes back. Penelope asks Junior if he is poor and he says yes but Penelope is not embarrassed and likes him even more. Junior feels on top of the world right now.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian 1-30

Junior is a boy who was born with many problems. He was born with to much fluids inside of his head so the doctors had to cut the top of his head open and take out all of the fluid. They told his mom that he probably would not survive and if he did he would be a vegetable. He survived and he is not a vegetable, but many problems came from the surgery. He has terrible seizures that appear about once or twice a week. His eyes are messed up, one is near sighted while the other one is farsighted. His head and feet were not proportional to his body. Junior also had a lisp when he spoke and stuttered terribly. All of these problems made him have a really rough childhood. He was picked on and bullied a lot by other people on the reservation. The only friend he seemed to have was his dog Oscar. One day though he got really sick and his dad seen the only way to make it so it would not suffer anymore was to shoot it. He hated being poor and not being able to keep his only friend. He did make a friend though his buddy he called Rowdy because he always seemed to be fighting. He fought everything that made him mad because he had a really bad temper. One night they both decide to go to a Pow Wow where there was singing and dancing. They get there and Rowdy trips and hits a van and gets really mad and starts beating up the van and destroys it. Junior runs away and runs into the Andruss Triplets who picked on him and beat him up. Rowdy hears about it and shaves off their eyebrows and hair when they where passed out drunk. The next step in Rowdy and Junior's life where to go to high school. They go to their first day and meet Mr. P their geometry teacher, which Junior was really excited about because he loves angles and sides. He learns though that their text books are almost as old as his mother and gets really mad and throws it into Mr. P's face. 

The Eleventh Plague 210-280

He returns back to the barn to find it engulfed in flames. Stephen scatters to find Jenny in the flaming mass. He enters the barn and the inside was falling apart and smoke filled the whole building. He covered his mouth and nose and went to search for Jenny. He finds her under some fallen wood that is still burning. He tries to pick it up but it burns his hands so then he tries again and moves it off of her. He loads her up on his shoulder and carries her out through the fire and smoke. She wakes up and tells them that she did not recognize the people that did this. Stephen then goes back into the fire to grab some things. He reaches for his grandfathers rifle but the barrel and metal was way to hot so he sees Jenny's sketch pad and grabs it and makes a run for it. He jumps through the walls and wakes up and attends to Jenny's wounds she got from the burning log. They then move back to town and find a huge commotion going about. He goes in talks to Marcus and Violet who tell him that they are going to war with Fort Leonard and that they should go to a safe place. Violet tells them they need to go to the old casino outside of town. They make their way down there and get their things settled in. They talk about all of the things going on around them and how they could fix it. Then while sitting inside around the fire he notices it starts to snow outside. He goes out into the snow and walks a little ways admiring all the sights around him. He then returns to find Violet trying to sneak into the the Casino and she went there to tell Stephen that his dad had passed away. He is sad and goes to his dad at Violet's house and grabs him to go bury him. He digs him a grave in the ice cold ground and struggles for hours. Jenny comes to help and they finish the hole together and bury his dad. He covers it and returns back to the Casino. One night Jenny and Stephen hear something outside of the casino so they wait and listen and go see what it was. Two men in all black and with rifles are scouting the area. They follow them to a whole group of Slavers that they thought must of been sent by Fort Leonard to take out Settler's Landing. They go to warn the people of the slavers that where about to take over but learn that it was them that hired them to take care of Fort Leonard. Outraged he tells them of the bad things that could happen to their town and how they are not better than the people that came before them. Some people agree but Caleb who was in charge still wanted to go through with the plan. Jackson joins with Stephen and Jenny to go slow down the movements of the slavers. He notices the man with the scar that he and his dad saw in their first encounter with the slavers. Jenny runs in the middle of camp yelling Japanese nonsense and during that Stephen made a run for a bag full of grenades and threw them and blew up the whole camp setting fire to a lot of the stuff and disabling one of the two jeeps. They return to town to find a whole war was being fought. The town turned on the slavers and were fighting them. Stephen helps Violet patch some people up and sees Will Henry on the ground bloody and dying. This makes him sad even though he hated Will. He then finds Marcus and friends pinned down in a ditch taking fire from the front he tells them they are pinned down and they need to flank the enemy. He sees the other jeep in the woods and he planned on getting it. Stephen, Jenny, and Jackson go back to Henry's farm to release the animals as a distraction. Everybody runs off leaving a couple trampled but the man on the scar still remained on the jeep. Stephen chokes him out for awhile but the he gets choked out and before he passed out he heard a bang. When he woke up he saw Jackson's rifle by his body. They go back into the town and the people ran off all of the slavers. They put out all the fires they could that had engulfed much of the town from the fight. Couple months later he Stephen spends his time helping the young ones learn in school on the weekends due to Mr. Tuttles injuries from the fight. He teaches a girl not to be shy around others when she reads out loud. Stephen then talks to Jenny who got enough money for a horse and rifle and tells her he wants to go with her traveling. He packs his stuff and gets ready when he looks back at all of the things he was leaving. Jenny tells him to stay and help the community because he fought for this place so now it is his home. Stephen then entertained the new thought in his head....a home

Girl, Stolen 101-200

Griffin’s dad, Roy, called the cops and told them that he had Cheyenne held hostage, and he would only return her for five million dollars. Even though Cheyenne’s dad is the president of Nike, she still knows her parents don’t have that kind of money, so she’s worried that she’ll never get to go home. Cheyenne told Griffin that she lost her sight by getting hit by a car when she was younger, and that same accident killed her real mom. Cheyenne realizes that they might not ever let her go. They might just get the money and then kill her so she can’t turn them in to the police. Griffin is starting to become protective of Cheyenne, and he tells her he’ll make sure she gets back to her parents. One day, Griffin is making lunch for himself, Cheyenne, and TJ (a guy that works for his dad), and TJ goes into Cheyenne’s room and tries to rape her. Griffin comes in and saves her just in time, and when he does, Cheyenne leans into him and starts crying. When her head is against him, she notices a giant scar across his neck and chest. He tells her that he got this scar when he was younger. His dad was making meth, and when it was cooking, some of it spilled onto him. Cheyenne knew that she wasn’t with the best people, but she didn’t realized that they made drugs. Griffin also tells Cheyenne that his mom left his dad shortly after that and moved to Chicago to be with her family. That night, Cheyenne decides she needs to escape. She sneaks out of her room at two in the morning, but before she leaves, she hits Griffin over the head with a wrench to knock him out so he can’t follow her. When she hit him, he quit moving and breathing, and she thought she killed him. She ran out of the house, and somehow made friends with their evil dog, Duke. She used Duke to help lead her through the forest, but he heard an animal moving, and he ran away. Shortly after that, Cheyenne heard a person in the trees, and she thought she was dead for sure. It ended up being Griffin, and he saved her life. He tried to lead her toward a road so she could escape. He had been good the whole time, and Cheyenne felt bad for not trusting him and almost killing him. He stepped in a hole and broke his ankle, so he couldn’t go on with Cheyenne. He sent her to the road so someone would find her, and said only then should she send crews back to find him. TJ and Jimbo (guys that work for Roy) are also walking through the forest, and they see Griffin lying there hurt. They figure out that he helped Cheyenne to escape, and they’re going to shoot him. However, they end up getting mad at each other, and TJ ended up shooting Jimbo and leaving. Cheyenne walks toward the road, and a cop finds her, so she thinks she’s okay. However, the cop ends up being Roy tricking her. He takes her in his pickup to drive her somewhere to kill her. She takes his gun and shoots him, but she can’t tell where she shot him or how bad it was, but she knows he’s still alive.

Anna Dressed in Blood 1-13

Cas Lowood is out on the road in a 1969 camaro he borrowed from a retired colonel he was working for. He picks up a hitchhiker on the road and is taking him toward the bridge. He wonders how people always pick this guy up and can't tell he's dead. His pale skin and smell should give it away alone. They make small talk and then when theyre about to the bridge, the guy yanks the wheel to take the car off of the road. Cas then grabs a knife and slits his throat, while trying to stop the car. Once the car is stopped, he inspects it for damage. The tired are still smoking, and he knows he only has three days left before he moves, and he's going to have to spend at least one putting new tires on this car. Or not even take it back until he gets new tires on.

Outpost 231-317

While looking for Fade, Deuce and Stalker and Gary and his partner all ran into a group of Freaks. While Stalker and Gary were fighting them off, Gary grabbed Deuce and put his gun to her head while dragging her back into the woods. Deuce knew this was going to happen beings they had confrontations at the outpost, but she didn't know when. Well now was the time, and she was ready for it. She knew Gary had underestimated her strength, and she used this to her benefit. While he was trying to get her to do stuff with him, she threw him on the ground and killed him instantly. She then ran back to help Stalker and Gary's partner fight off the Freaks. When she arrived all of the Freaks were dead, as well as Gary's partner, and Stalker was injured. His leg was wounded, but he could still walk. Deuce and Stalker then followed the trail the rest of the way until they found where the Freaks had taken Fade. It was a village of about 1000 Freaks, but luckily they were sleeping. Deuce then saw where she figured Fade would be. Their was a huge pin that the Freaks had kept many humans in and Deuce went for it. She knew Stalker couldn't keep up, so he stayed back watching and waiting for her to return. After looking for a little while, she found Fade. He was hardly recognizable after he had been beaten, but she knew it was him. Fade couldn't believe Deuce was there, and was slow at recognizing her, but Deuce knew they couldn't wait for him to completely come to and so she helped him up and they both go out of there, back to Stalker, and on their way back to the outpost. When they arrived at the outpost, Deuce reported to Longshot what they had seen and he knew that they had to get back to Salvation as soon as possible. Deuce then wanted to go help Fade, but after everything that had happened to him, he didn't want anything to do with any contact. This hurt Decue greatly, but she knew she just needed to give him time. Once the crops were ready for harvest, the growers worked as hard as they could for two days to get all of the crops harvested and loaded onto wagons. Once the last load was ready, everyone took off back to Salvation, Deuce knowing this was when the Freaks were going to attack. Just as she had guessed, they did. Many of the growers and guards died, leaving only Stalker, Fade, Duece, Tegan and two others left to return to Salvation. Deuce had seen Longshot stay out there, fighting off the Freaks, knowing he was going to die, but saving Deuce as well as few others. A few days later, Deuce was invited to the mayor's house. She didn't know what for, but she found out right when she got there. Longshot had left Duece his house and all of his possessions inside of it. Deuce then went over there and looked at the house. It was a simple house, but she knew he had put alot of work into it, building all of his own furniture and everything. When she went upstairs, she began to cry. She knew she would cry someday for him, and this was the day. He had loved Deuce like his own daughter and she missed him dearly. Once she was done crying, she finished looking at the house. She then found Longshot's traveler's maps from all of his journeys in between settlements. Deuce knew that Longshot wanted her to have these for a special reason. Deuce then left and went back home. The next day, Deuce went to find Fade. It wasn't a surprise to her that he didn't want to see her, considering how much he went through, but she put that aside and began talking to him anyway. She then gave Fade the keys to Longshot's house and told him that the house was now his. She knew he hated living with the guy he lived with, and just wanted to be happy. She could tell he was very thankful, but he didn't say much. She then left and went to see how the walls were holding up against the Freaks. Their were many out there, and she didn't know how long Salvation was going to last. They hadn't breached the walls yet, but she was afraid it was going to happen soon. As she was there, the mayor's wife came and started a huge protest against Deuce saying how she was the cause of all of this because she was a woman doing a man's work. Many of the women agreed with the mayor's wife, and Deuce knew what she had to do. She then went to the mayor and talked to him about it. She told him that she was going to leave and use Longshot's maps in order to find other Salvations and hopefully bring word of how they were doing. Stalker and Tegan both agreed to go with and then she went and saw Fade. She wasn't going to ask him to go beings he hadn't wanted to be with her, so she went just to say bye. After she did, and as she was walking away, Fade yelled to her and asked her why she didn't ask him. She didn't know how he had found out, but realized the word probably traveled quickly. She then explained the situation and so did he, and then he decided to go. This thrilled Deuce to know end. She knew that she still had to give him a bit more time, but she was just happy to have her "boy" back. They then all went to the Oaks's to say goodbye, and then to the mayor's house. Their was an underground tunnel there to get out of the backside of Salvation that hadn't been used in over 50 years. They figured though, that this was the best chance to escape and get away from the Freaks to start their journey. Deuce didn't know what was going to happen, but all she knew was that she was with her three partners and that they were ready to fight in order to Survive and protect their home, Salvation.

The Eleventh Plague 110-210

After the fight Mr. Tuttle comes and breaks up a potential fight. Will then tells Mr. Tuttle that he brought a knife to school and he takes it from him. Mr. Tuttle dismisses all the boys except for Stephen and tells him he has a nice knife. He tells him that there are many punishments he can do to him but the worst one being kick him and his dad out of town if he needs to. He lets him off with a warning and tells him not to bring the knife back to school or he will be suspended. Angered by this he goes home and sulk by his father who is still in a coma. Violet then comes in and he tells her what happened at school. She tells him that he should go play baseball with Jackson and his friends. He tells her no because it seems pointless to do something like that in a time like this. He then finds himself going down to the baseball field to watch, he saw no harm in doing that. He watches the game for a little while watching remembering all of the things his dad told him about the baseball games he used to go too. Then Jackson comes to Stephen's side and tells him he should join in on the game. First he declines and says no then Jackson tells him having a little fun is going to end the world. He then joins the game is up immediately to bat. He is worried because he has never played this game before but knows all the rules of the game and how it is played. First pitch flies by him before he even realizes it and is strike one. He then posts himself up and when the next pitch is thrown it is like everything slows down in time and as the white ball headed toward him he took one mighty swing and hit with a satisfying crack against the bat. He watched it fly then was reminded by his fellow teammates to run to the first base. He sprints toward first and sees that they are still chasing the ball and he runs toward second and slides in there. Then one of the kids drops the ball and so he steals third then runs for home he leaps up into the air and lands on the ground tagged but with his hand on the plate he was safe and scored them a point. The game went on tell dark and Stephen did not do as good as hit first time up to bat. They go by the river and drink and talk about their lives before they made it to Settlers Landing. They then return home and get some rest. Couple days later before they go into School he sees Jenny sitting up in the courtyard up against a tree sketching on her note pad. He talks to her when Will and his gang of goons show up to meet them both. Jenny starts a fight with the boys and Stephen joins in after minutes of fighting it was broken up by Mr. Tuttle. He tells Stephen and Jenny to come in for a detention. Their punishment is to copy three chapters from a history book. Stephen and Jenny pass notes to each other and Stephen was mad at Jenny then she said something to him that made him think twice about if he wrote or if she did. She then walks out of the room and Mr. Tuttle tells Stephen about the good he can do in life if he studies so he gives him some extra books to study on. He then returns back home and hears all the bad stories about how they could get kicked out. He then decides to leave and grabs his things and goes off into the woods. He finds a barn which is where Jenny stays. They talk for a while and decide to get a little revenge on the Henrys. They open up all of their farm animal pins and throw fireworks in there and run away after they cause a stampede. They return back to the barn and Stephen and Jenny start making out. The next morning he decides to go back and get the books that Mr. Tuttle gave him and tells Jenny when his dad wakes up she can join them on their journeys. He returns to town to find out nobody is home and are having a meeting about making an army. He learns from Marcus that after they threw the fireworks they thought the people at Fort Leonard did it so they went their shot two of the guards and destroyed a food storage building. He may have started something way worse than just a practical joke.

Girl, Stolen 1-100

Cheyenne Wilder was taking a nap in the car while her step-mom Danielle went in to the store to fill a prescription. The prescription was for Cheyenne because she had just been diagnosed with pneumonia. As soon as Danielle went inside, somebody got in to the front seat of the car and started driving away. Cheyenne is blind, so she couldn’t see who got in the car, but she immediately knows it’s not Danielle. She tries to fight off the car thief, but she can’t, and she ends up being taken by him. The boy stealing the car, Griffin, is a teenager like Cheyenne. He takes her to his house, where he lives with his dad and his dad’s two employees. His dad runs an illegal business selling stolen cars and parts. Griffin’s actually a really nice kid, but his dad is really mean and abusive to him. He wanted to steal the car to show that he could do something right, but it turned out badly when he noticed Cheyenne in the back seat. When they learn that Cheyenne is the daughter of a millionaire, Griffin’s dad wants to try to get ransom money for her. Cheyenne is trying to plot a way to escape, but it’s tough since she can’t see anything. She doesn’t trust Griffin’s dad at all, but she’s not quite sure how she feels about Griffin. He kidnapped her, so she’s obviously not too fond of him, but she senses that he may not be as bad as she first thought. Griffin likes Cheyenne, but he’s torn between trying to help her escape and continuing to hold her hostage to make his dad happy.

The Postmistress Response

Book Title: The Postmistress
Author: Sarah Blake
Year of Publication: 2010
Number of Pages: 352
AR Points Awarded: No quiz

Literary Elements
Narrator - Third person omniscient. It goes from many different view points, including Iris’s, Emma’s, Dr. Fitch’s, Frankie’s, and Harry’s. “Frankie took one step forward with a scream...” p. 178 “In the snow, Emma thought, looking out at the afternoon disappearing in the gently falling white, nothing terrible could happen.” p. 140
Protagonist - There are different protagonists depending on what part of the story we’re in, because it switches view points. Emma, Iris, and Frankie are all protagonists. Emma is very quiet, shy, and easily upset, and Iris and Frankie are very bold and independent. “Emma reached and switched on the light without breathing, and then stood directly in front of the radio, her arms crossed over her chest, her heart pounding.” p. 159
Antagonist - In this story, the antagonist is not a person, but the war. The war kills many people, including Dr. Fitch, and traumatizes many lives. “...a war knocks down the regular, steady life we set up...” p. 75
Setting - For Emma and Iris, the story takes place in Franklin, Massachusetts. For Frankie and Dr. Fitch, it takes place overseas in various places in Europe, but mostly London. “And bombs were falling on Coventry, London, and Kent. Sleek metal pellets shaped like the blunt-tipped ends of pencils aimed down upon hedgerow and thatch.”  p. 11. “The bait at the end of the sandy hook sticking fifty-odd miles into the Atlantic, the town of Franklin waves slyly back at the shore. The first thing one loses there is a sense of direction. Ringed by the yellow-white sand dunes and water on all sides, North and South seem to switch points on the compass, and the sky is no help. It is a place swollen by fish and the smell of fish, of cod oil, of the broken spars of whale bones and masts spat back from the sea onto the broad swath of beaches behind the town.” p. 18 The mood in Franklin is kind of cool and misty like the beaches and sea. The mood in England is very intense, which is emphasized by the war going on there.
Conflict - The main conflict for most of the characters is just the war, which is external. They all are fighting against it in their own way. It’s affected all of their lives in a huge way. “The scraps added up to a terrible time for the Jews, any man at home could see...But war was terrible. God knows, war was hell. And what were we supposed to do about it?” p. 37
Theme - The theme of this story is that sometimes times get tough, but people can do things about it to try to help. If nobody tries to help, nothing will change. It’s up to us to shape our world, but we need to do it together. “Here--she turned and looked across the lawns to Emma’s house. Here we are. Here we all are.” p. 350
Historical Context - The whole novel is historically significant, because it takes place in the 1940s during World War II. “Now the talk was of a German invasion. Would England stand?” “Buchenwald was as yet only a town in Germany, where sunlight splattered the trees. Auschwitz. Bergen-Belsen. Simply foreign names.” p. 12

Reflection
The Postmistress was not one of the books I’ve ever read. It was a little slow, and kind of confusing. Throughout the course of the book, it went from the point of view of probably five or six characters, which got way too confusing. I had a hard time keeping the characters straight. I sort of identified with Emma because she’s sort of a perfectionist, but she’s way more timid than I am. It didn’t really remind me of anything else I’ve read. I do think it would make a better movie than a book, because it would be way easier to keep the characters straight with a visual representation. I would probably mostly recommend the book to older people. I think my grandmas may enjoy it because they’d be able to identify with the time more. It did not end the way I expected. Harry dying was very unexpected for me, and I also didn’t expect Frankie’s tapes to ever be heard by anyone but her and Otto.

The Eleventh Plague 10-110

After a day of traveling Stephen and his dad ran into a big bloch way down range of their position. His dad grabs the rifle and looks through the scope and sees that is a crashed plane. They move in closer to see if anything was left over for them to salvage. They look at the plane and his dad points out that is a B-20 bomber and must of crashed after the war sometime. They enter the bomb bay and find most of everything was salvaged. Stephen's dad finds a old rusted locker though that has not been open. Stephen and him tug on it pulling the door free and find a blanket worth keeping and a giant can of pears inside. They debate whether to eat it or save it for later and trade it. They eat the whole can clean and sit for awhile savoring the memory. Then as they get ready to leave his Dad spots a vehicle approaching toward their position so they hide the mule behind the plane and make their way deep into the pitch dark bomb bay to hide from them. Two men get out of the Humvee with a woman and her child and right away Stephen recognizes who they are and they are slavers. They make a fire in the  bomb bay out of the rain that is falling outside. They pass around bottles of whiskey and eventually pass out from being drunk. They see this as an opportunity to make their escape but Stephen's dad is angered by the slavers and wants to free the woman and child.  He reaches for the man's keys off his belt but awakens one of them and he starts shooting at them. They run away from them taking their jeep but are taken out of it and get in a fist fight with the men and then Stephen runs away and his dad follows behind him but his dad falls down a deep cliff into a river. Stephen jumps in after him and rescues him and brings him to shore. He is unconscious but breathing. He sits by his side waiting for him to wake up and builds a fire and goes out to find their mule they had but it was gone. He makes his way back to find some people at his campsite with his dad. He had the rifle and he takes a shot at one of them and nicks his side. He is then knocked out by one of them and awakens with all of them around them. He learns they are friendly and want to help them. With his dad still unconscious he takes their help and follows them to the town they are from. He arrives and everything looks so fresh and new and he feels a weird feeling here. They take his dad to the doctor in town named Violet. He sits with him never leaving his side but then decides to go out and see what this place has to offer. He meets some boys his age their and hangs out with them sometimes. He decides to work in the fields with Jackson for something to do while his dad was in a coma. He then meets a girl when he was checking out the school. Her name is Jenny. Stephen then decides to go to school the next day and gets in a fight with the kid he took a shot at and was threatened to be expelled from the whole town. This is the last thing he needs right now, more enemies.

The Postmistress 334-352

Emma learns that her husband died overseas. She realizes that she’s known all along, and she just didn’t want to admit it to herself. Iris gave her the letter that Dr. Fitch had wanted her to have if he ever died, so she kind of gets closure too. After watching for months, Harry finally sees German submarines coming into their harbor. When he sees them, he just drops dead. Iris is really upset, because they were engaged. Frankie’s tapes that she recorded overseas end up being played for all to hear.