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My Chocolate Year

March 2, 2010 By siena 2 Comments
my_chocolate_year

My Chocolate Year




Author: Charlotte Herman Illustrator: LeUyen Pham
Main character: Dorrie Meyers Background(s): Sidewalk, school, house, backyard, and store


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Favorite part:
When the flour went all over the kitchen when she was trying to make brownies, because the flour went everywhere and I enjoyed thinking about the way it would look.
Another favorite part was when Dorrie and her friend, Sunny, tried unsuccessfully to make chocolate gum.


“My Chocolate Year” is a book about a 10-year-old Jewish girl,Dorrie, who in 1946 was looking for a recipe for a cooking/essay contest called “Sweet Semester”. The event is held at school every year by the Fifth Grade teacher, Miss Fitzgerald. She tells the class at the beginning of the year, so that they have all year to plan a dessert that they make themselves. They also will need to include the recipe and an essay about why they decided to make it. This year was special, because it was the first year that it would be photographed and written about in the Chicago Daily News paper!


All that Dorrie knew was that she wanted to make something chocolate. However, after many failed attempts, she put the project aside for a while. Her Jewish cousin, which they thought was lost in the war in Europe against the Germans, arrives and she forgets all about planning for “Sweet Semester”. Then, one day, her mother asks her what she is going to make. She has no idea what recipe to choose. Her long-lost cousin, Victor, hears about this and gives her just the right recipe to use which he used to make at his family’s bakery before the war. It is a recipe for peppermint chocolate sticks and they have great fun crushing up the peppermint.


After inspiration from a movie, Dorrie has an idea to help the orphans in Germany. She asks her teacher if it would be okay to have a jar where guests of the Sweet Semester event can make cash donations to help the children that need food and clothing. Her teacher agrees.


Finally, the contest day arrives! She sees Melvin’s Superman cookies all decorated in red and blue and believes that she now has no chance of winning. When they announce him as the winning recipe, she is not surprised. Each person reads their essay and when it is Dorrie’s turn, she talks about her cousin, Victor, and how he gave her the recipe from his favorite candy before the Germans took him and his family away. She wrote about him hiding and living in a camp and being the only one in his family to survive. She hoped that the fun they had making the peppermint sticks this year had helped create happy memories to replace the sad ones. At the end of the contest, they announce that she is the essay winner and she is so happy that she jumps for joy! Everyone is there to celebrate with her, including her cousin Victor. As the photographer takes her photo, she pulls Victor into the picture with her.


I hope that when people read this book they are inspired to help others the way Dorrie did.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: ,

My Life In Dog Years

March 2, 2010 By siena 5 Comments
My Life in Dog Years Book

“My Life in Dog Years” by Gary Paulsen
Book Review


My Life in Dog Years Book

“My Life in Dog Years” is a book about a man named Gary and many of the incredible dogs he has rescued throughout his life. Each chapter is dedicated to the special memories he has for each of his “best friends”.
My favorite story was about a dog named “Josh”, a Border Collie with a black-and-white shiny coat. Josh was very smart and seemed to think like a person. He liked to herd people as well as animals! He was still living out his 18 years at the side of the author as he finished writing this book.


The toughest dog was a mix of just about everything and Gary named him “Dirk”, after a tough guy he saw in a movie. Gary first met Dirk when he was a young man being chased in an alley by bullies. Gary had climbed down a fire escape and heard a mean growl. He was carrying his dinner, so he threw half of his hamburger towards the noise and ran. The bullies caught up with him and, just as they were about to beat him up, Dirk bit the biggest bully and they all ran off. After that day, Dirk followed Gary everywhere they went, although he walked about five feet behind him, and Gary was never bullied again.


The funniest dog was an enormous Great Dane named “Caesar” who was as big as a car! He would play “get the kitty” in the house when Gary’s wife was gone, knocking over furniture and anything in his path. One morning, Gary took him out and, all of a sudden, the kitty ran past! Caesar dragged Gary through his neighbor’s yard and down the street and halfway through town trying to “get the kitty” when Gary realized that he was still in his robe and underwear!


Caesar also had a lack of control around hot dogs. Once, he broke out of a parked car he was in, and hovered over a little, tiny girl holding a hot dog. As Gary watched from far away, fearing the little girls entire arm would be slobbered, Caesar delicately took the hot dog and moved on to the next person. From that moment on, Caesar was loved by the entire neighborhood.
Some of these stories will warm your heart and make you laugh, while others might make you cry with joy or sadness. Either way, you will want to read this book over and over again.


Here is a poster I made to go a long with this book report.


My Life in Dog Years Poster

My Life in Dog Years Poster

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: , ,

You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown!

January 31, 2010 By siena 5 Comments
peanuts_gang

Charles Schultz was an American cartoonist who was born in Minneapolis on November 26, 1922 and died February 12, 2000 at the age of 77 in Santa Rosa California.


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He was best known for his “Peanuts Comic Strip.” Here are 10 interesting facts about Charles Schultz and Peanuts:


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1. His uncle nicknamed him “Sparky” after the horse Spark Plug in the Barney Google comic Strip.
2. He started making Peanuts in 1950, until 2000 and it appeared in more than 2,600 newspapers and in over 75 countries.
3. He drew a picture of his dog Spike and sent it to you “Ripley’s Believe It or Not.”
4. Like Charlie Brown’s parents, Shultz’s farther was a barber and his mother a housewife.
5. Shultz had a dog when he was young, but it wasn’t a beagle like Snoopy it was a pointer.
6. A Charlie Brown Christmas was the first Peanuts television special.




7. “The animated version of Peanuts differs in some aspects from the strip. In the strip, adult voices are heard, though conversations are usually only depicted from the children’s end. To translate this aspect to the animated medium, Meléndez famously used the sound of a trombone with a plunger mute opening and closing on the bell to simulate adult “voices”.” (Source: Wikipedia)


8. MetLife usually uses Snoopy in its advertisements as opposed to other characters: for instance, the MetLife blimps are named “Snoopy One” and “Snoopy Two” and feature him in his World War I flying ace persona.


snoopy-metlife

9. “Peanuts characters even found their way to the live stage, appearing in the musicals You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown and Snoopy!!! — The Musical, and in “Snoopy on Ice”, a live Ice Capades-style show aimed primarily at young children, all of which have had several touring productions over the years.


You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown was originally a successful off-Broadway musical that ran for four years (1967–1971) in New York City and on tour, with Gary Burghoff as the original Charlie Brown. An updated revival opened on Broadway in 1999, and by 2002 it had become the most frequently produced musical in American theatre history. It was also adapted for television twice, as a live-action NBC special and an animated CBS special.” (Source: Wikipedia.com)


Here’s a picture of the cast when my school put on the play, “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.”


cast

10. The character, The Little Red-Haired Girl” was inspired by Donna Johnson, an accountant with whom Shultz fell in love with.


Here’s a picture of me when I played “The Little Red-Haired Girl” in the play.


siena-as-little-red-haired-girl


THANK YOU CHARLES SCHULTZ FOR GIVING US PEANUTS!

Filed Under: People, Plays Tagged With: , , , ,
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