Final "Curveball The Year I Lost My Grip" Blog

This is the last blog I'll be doing on this book; I finished it! I'll be doing a summary of the book (try not to give spoilers), and what I believe is the theme. 

The summary, as the last summary I did, is just a boy named Peter. He was a pitcher, but due to an unfortunate accident, he is unable to play at all anymore. Not only is this the beginning to a horrible first year of high school, but adding onto that, Peter's grandfather is showing the early symptoms of a disease. He's really close to his grandpa, so he isn't ready to accept it. With all this going on, Peter takes a liking to a girl named Angelika. 

Now, from where I left off, all I can really say is Angelika and Peter work with each other in class quite a lot. That leads them to begin liking each other more than friends. Since this is in Peter's P.O.V, he's been wanting to date her and get closer to her ever since he saw her, do he's thrilled. Which makes one thing to brighten his year up. 

Now, for the theme. I believe the theme is that no matter what happens, things get better. Peter had baseball, pretty much the only thing he loves, and it was ripped away from him. He began photography with his grandfather, but as I said, he is beginning to get sick. Now his grandfather, the person he's the closest to, is about gone. He isn't the same, so he can't enjoy photography anymore with him. Right there, with the stress of school as well, everything is just piling up. It seems like nothing will ever be the same again, like you'll never be as happy as you were before everything went bad. But, with just the right people, they make you forget. New things happen; exciting things. They soon replace the old things. What you thought would never happen again, has happened. You're happy again, possibly even happier. 

That's my take on it. I'm sure other will think differently, but I like to think this is it. 

Curveball The Year I Lost My Grip

This week, I'll be doing character analysis. The character I'll be analyzing will be, Peter. He is the main character of the story, as you might recall from the last blog. I wrote about his personality, and a little about what the story is about.
Peter seems to be really, there really is no words to describe this... The only thing I can kind of think of for it is, disconnected from his feelings. I know that with him being injured, and not being able to ever pitch again, it will have some serious damage to his emotions since he enjoyed baseball so much. One of the things that keeps standing out to me is when he says how bad his elbow hurts from the surgery, and how he wants to cry, and how much he misses playing baseball. Peter holds back his emotions, in my opinion. Another thing, probably the biggest one, is how he didn't tell anyone at all, not a single soul, how bad he was really hurt in the first place, just so he could continue playing baseball. He also doesn't tell anyone, especially his best friend, AJ, that he can never play again. AJ always tells Peter things like, "Don't worry, everything will get better when you can start playing again." Peter's excuse for him not telling AJ about this is that he thinks he won't be his friend anymore. He thinks AJ will just leave him, and forget about him, only because he can't play anymore.
The second subject, or topic, I'll be doing this blog is Tough Questions. I immediately thought of Tough Questions when I was reading last night. Peter's grandfather is showing early symptoms of Alzheimer's disease, according to his new friend, Angelika. He turns to her, late one night when he has no one else to talk to. He explains to Angelika how earlier that day, his grandfather had called him twice. He missed the first phone call, but answered the second. His grandpa had called to ask Peter to come over, because he has fallen. When he rushes over to his house, his grandfather tells him to not tell his mother (which is his daughter) about the incident. Peter called Angelika to ask her what she would do, and what she thinks would be the right thing to do. Peter knows how important his grandfather's health is, especially how serious falling is in elders. At the same time, though, he doesn't want to betray his grandfather. This is a really tough spot for Peter; I would imagine it would be for about anyone who is really close to their grandfather, like Peter is.
I'd like to think if I was Peter, I would tell my mother. I know that I told my grandpa I wouldn't, but some things are just too big to keep secret.  

Curveball The Year I Lost My Grip

This time, I am reading a teen fiction kind of book. I think what made me attracted to the book was the summary. Pretty much, the book is set on a freshman in high school. This freshman's name is Pete. Pete is a great pitcher for his baseball team, until he gets hurt and is unable to play anymore. Pete and his family thought, because he was such a great pitcher, and getting so many opportunities from baseball, he should be fine in high school. This really changes everything for him, playing was everything for Pete. Now that he can't play, what is he to do?
I can kind of relate to this. Although, I am not the athletic type, and far from it. When you have something you enjoy doing, and you have support from others, you want to continue doing it. Especially if it's something beneficial to your future (like a baseball career). When it's taken away from you, you have no idea what to do anymore. It was your main activity to do, the thing that soothed you, the thing that kept you going. It almost feels like, you're lost. A little part of you is gone, that some may know you for, and you identify yourself with. It's actually sort of sad now that I think about it... Nonetheless, I think I'm really going to enjoy the book.

Scary Stories Treasury

This short scary story is called, "Cemetery Soup." As the title sort of hints at, it's about food; soup to be exact. I'll be doing a character analysis:
So, one of the characters is a women. She is more of the main character to me, since she is the first introduced, and the one that is drawn in the picture. She seems like she is a normal, kind, woman. She is just calmly walking through the cemetery took a short cut. She just sees the bone sticking out of the ground and thinks that it could make a good edition to her soup. Because of this, I also think she might be a little unobservant, or maybe might not be a clear thinker. I know it's just a short, scary, story, but I can't help but to think that really no one would do that.

I'm now doing the plot analysis:
The women just ate the soup she had made out of the bone in the cemetery, and of course, nothing goes without consequence in this book. She is later haunted by the person the bone belonged to. I think it was a little weird how after all the yelling, and chaos trying to figure out who took her bone out of her final resting place, the woman just got up from bed after she threw the bone back and served herself some more soup. It's definitely odd...but I like odd! This is the weirdest, grossest, story I think I have ever read.