Extra Credit

An assignment almost every little kid has to do is write about their favorite place. This is my favorite piece of writing I've ever done.
While everyone else wrote about Disney Land and Hawaii, I wrote about Grandma Dode's backyard. Her 99 acres had everything a adventurous kid could dream of. From the beach to a "mountain", you could explore for days.
I wrote about the pack of odd coyotes my grandma and I would see when she would babysit me, strolling down to the barn like it was no big deal. My cow who my cousin Morgan and I fought over whether her name was Suzy or Sally; how she fell in a pot hole and died a few days after we finally agreed on one(I don't even remember which one we chose now). I mentioned how the hill of our playhouse turned red with the apples it's trees produced in the fall, and how the bay reflected the orange leaves on cold, sunny fall days.
The quality of my paper wasn't astonishing, but for a second grader it was pretty good. It was my favorite assignment because when I read it to my grandma and grandpa, they just smiled and their eyes glowed. I knew it made them happy, and it was that reaction that made writing the piece worth it.

Extending the Theme

 Even though this part of the story may have passed over many people's heads, I was fascinated with the father-daughter bond between Atticus and Scout. I love the way Atticus treats Scout like she's her own person, not a descendant of him. This perspective made me view my dad in a different light as well. I see him more as himself now, not just as my dad.
 Another one of the little things that caught my eye was the childish relationship between Dill Scout and Jem. They reminded me of My older brother Willie, my cousin Gabe, and me when we were younger. Gabe would come over to our house every night and we would stay up until 4:00AM playing poker where the loser would have to drink a secret potion or run to the end of the backyard in the dark, or something silly like that. Although we all got along, Gabe would often make fun of me to impress Willie, like Dill did to Scout when he and Jem would go off and play by themselves.
 Relationships between others was what I liked most about the story. Although the main plots were suspenseful and exciting, I looked most forward to the excerpts during summer so I could reminisce about my childhood.

Outside Reading, The Catcher in the Rye

 To be honest I chose to read this book because my dad had been talking about it a few nights before the project was introduced. I wanted to read about something he liked so I could try to relate to him more. So far The Catcher in the Rye has been really good. I love the sarcastic tone J.D. Sallinger has created, and how clearly Holden Caulfield's personality is made through his words.
 In seventh-grade we read The Outsiders as an in-class story. These two books relate because they're both about troubled teens who are prone to violence. They also have a similar tone on life, but The Outsiders was a little more depressing.
 Since I'm not too far into the novel yet, I haven't come to a very clear distinction of what my creative project will be. Although they will probably change, my thoughts right now are that I will make a poster or some visual representation of the book showing the theme.