I finished watching "The Help" yesterday with my mom and dad. Two words: Awe-some. :D Sometimes I read a book and then watch the movie and I think, "Eh," but the movie was really good. I still like the book better, but the movie was really well done and made me cry at some parts. I don't have a favorite character, but Minny's great. :D I'm not going to give anything away for those who haven't read the book yet, but I love when she's telling the story of, "The Terrible Awful." The actress who played Minny actually won an award for the Golden Globes. :D
For those of you who have read the book but haven't watched the movie, watch the movie. It's awesome.
For those of you who have watched the movie but haven't read the book, read the book. It's definitely worth reading.
For those of you who haven't read the book or watched the movie, I recommend both. :D
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Encyclopedia of Me- L
Love- This one is pretty obvious. If everyone in the world learned to love more, there wouldn't be any wars, and the world would be perfect. Why is it so hard to be nice to each other? Love is a wonderful thing. I love to give people hugs and presents. It feels so good and makes me so happy. :D
Life- This one is also pretty obvious. Life is awesome. There's so much you can do in life. The words "life" and "love" and "peace" make me jittery for some reason in a good way. It gives me inspiration. When I was looking up "love" and "life" in Google images, there were so many cool pictures to choose from.
Laughter- I love to laugh and I love to hear other people laugh. I especially love it when I make my friends laugh or when a baby laughs. (Baby laughter is so cute). Whenever I go to INCH, I usually get the hiccups coming home from laughing so much. My best friend, Kirsten, and my friend, Sophia, are the best at making me laugh. Everyone knows Sophia as one of the funniest kids at INCH. She is hilarious. :D
Lemonade- Pink lemonade is my favorite drink, but any kind of lemonade is good. Strawberry lemonade is my second favorite drink. The strawberry lemonade at "Red Robin" is the best I've ever tasted because they leave huge strawberry chunks in the cup and you can scoop them out with your fork. :D
Lists- I love lists. I make a list practically everyday, whether it's a list of story ideas, a list of Christmas presents to make for my friends and family if it's around Christmas time, a to do list, or a list of images to get for the "Encyclopedia of Me" posts, they help me a lot. :D
Luke- One of my absolute favorite characters in Modern Family. (He's the kid with the shower cap over his head and a hairdryer without a shirt on in the picture above). He's the goofball, oblivious, sweet kid in the show. He's kind of ADD. He'll be sticking a straw up his nose one minute and playing "Plants vs. Zombies" while sticking his face in a bowl of cereal. Yeah, he's that kid. It's impossible to put all of my favorite quotes from him onto this post, but this is one our family quotes all the time.
(Seeing that everyone is too busy on their electronics to pay attention to anyone or anything around them, Claire gathers the family and tells everyone that there is a week-long ban on anything electronic).
Luke Dunphy: "Can I still play Plants vs. Zombies?"
Claire Dunphy: "Are you not listening?"
Luke: "But you learn about plants. And plants are life. Are you against life?"
:D Hilarious.
Other "L" words that didn't make the list:
Lemmings: Totally cute, but totally stupid. I think I've told you the story about how I learned about lemmings, but I'll tell it again for anyone who didn't read the post. My friend Sophia told me about them so I looked them up then my dad told me that sometimes one lemming jumps off of a cliff, and the rest of the pack jumps off, too just because one of them did. So whenever someone does something just because someone else does it, I have to yell out, "LEMMINGS!" :D
Library: I didn't think about this until after I wrote the post. INCH meets at the library almost as much as we meet at the park. I love our library and our librarians. :D
Friday, January 20, 2012
Encyclopedia of Me- P
Playground: My favorite part of INCH is when we play at our local playground all day during the summer. :D
Pickle: During NaNoWriMo, everyone we know that is participating goes to the local coffeehouse to write. Our favorite activity to do there is pass-along-stories. Everyone writes a few sentences in a certain amount of time and then passes it to the next person. When your story gets back to you, bam! Instant story. Anyway, I got this crazy idea to add a pickle with googly eyes and a mustache that was screaming and doing the ChaCha in every story. Don't ask me where I got that idea, because I have no clue. Everyone got a kick out of it and now it's sort of a running joke. :D
Published Books: My biggest dream is to get my books published. You probably knew that already, though. :D
Puppies: My favorite animal! :D I had a hard time picking just one adorable picture. :D
Percy Jackson: One of my favorite series. (Besides Harry Potter, of course). :D
Popcorn: My favorite snack. :D
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Writing Prompt
I took a writing prompt from my book Writing Magic and wrote a short story. The prompt was to write a short story by starting it with the sentence, "Ms. Fleming's wig had gone missing."
Ms. Fleming’s wig had gone missing. And whoever stole her wig was going to get an earful of her shouting and a noseful of her bad breath.
Ms. Fleming is an old pain in the neck. She has eyes like an eagle and a nose in the shape of a hawk’s beak. Her head looks too big for her body and her accessories look like costume jewelry. She’s too skinny and when she puts her high heels on, she’s almost painfully tall. Her makeup is cheap and she uses too much of it and when she’s not wearing a blindingly vibrant dress, she’s wearing a floral shirt and plaid pants or polka dots and stripes.
She’ll come into class each day with the day’s newspaper and a cup of coffee. She’ll sit down at her desk and tell us to read chapter five and complete the worksheet. Then she puts her high heeled feet up on the desk and open up the newspaper.
After recess, all the kids in my class went inside and waited for Ms. Fleming. She must’ve gone to the teachers’ lounge. I was the last kid inside and I immediately noticed that her prized, snow-white wig wasn’t sitting on her desk as it usually was after recess.
Ms. Fleming entered the room. Her hair was short and very gray; where as her wig was white and elegant. She gasped and pointed a stubby finger at the desk. Her huge, black eyes widened, making her look like one of those stuffed animals with eyes the size of ping-pong balls.
“Who-what-I!” she stuttered.
Her nostrils flared and she looked at each and every student, her eyes sweeping the room. I suddenly felt very hot and nervous.
“I demand to know who did this!” She screeched.
The class was silent. I sat very still and tried not to blink.
Her stomach rose and fell very fast.
She started to march back in forth in front of the class, as if doing this would make her look bigger, scarier.
“Well? Anyone?”
It was so quiet, you would be able to hear a pin drop to the floor.
Ms. Fleming’s mouth curved slowly into a smile; no, a sneer.
“Well, then. Your parents won’t be very happy to hear that you’ve all earned detention!”
“What?” Alexis Sparks burst out from the front of the classroom.
“But that’s not fair!” Added Jordan Jones, who was busy loading a spitball into a straw.
“Oh, it’s fair!” Ms. Fleming’s eyes were widened in joy and her smile was evil. She looked like she had gone mad. “And from now on, for the rest of the month, you will have detention!”
“But-!” Samantha Smith started.
“Two months of detention!” Ms. Fleming raised a shaking finger. “Want to make it three?”
The entire class started yelling protests and Ms. Fleming started yelling back. I tried to block out the noise by humming to myself when I noticed something white on the ceiling. It was Ms. Fleming’s wig! Someone had glued it there. The wig fell onto Ms. Fleming’s head. But she was too busy yelling to notice. The class, though, stopped and stared at her head.
“Ms. Fleming,” I said cautiously, raising my hand. “Your wig is on your head.”
Ms. Fleming stopped and cocked her head slightly, causing the wig to look very lopsided.
“How’s that?” She looked confused.
“Your wig is on your head.”
She patted her head and the wig fell into place. She kept feeling the wig and a look of utter bewilderment fell upon her face.
“I must be going senile,” she muttered.
Ms. Fleming’s wig had gone missing. And whoever stole her wig was going to get an earful of her shouting and a noseful of her bad breath.
Ms. Fleming is an old pain in the neck. She has eyes like an eagle and a nose in the shape of a hawk’s beak. Her head looks too big for her body and her accessories look like costume jewelry. She’s too skinny and when she puts her high heels on, she’s almost painfully tall. Her makeup is cheap and she uses too much of it and when she’s not wearing a blindingly vibrant dress, she’s wearing a floral shirt and plaid pants or polka dots and stripes.
She’ll come into class each day with the day’s newspaper and a cup of coffee. She’ll sit down at her desk and tell us to read chapter five and complete the worksheet. Then she puts her high heeled feet up on the desk and open up the newspaper.
After recess, all the kids in my class went inside and waited for Ms. Fleming. She must’ve gone to the teachers’ lounge. I was the last kid inside and I immediately noticed that her prized, snow-white wig wasn’t sitting on her desk as it usually was after recess.
Ms. Fleming entered the room. Her hair was short and very gray; where as her wig was white and elegant. She gasped and pointed a stubby finger at the desk. Her huge, black eyes widened, making her look like one of those stuffed animals with eyes the size of ping-pong balls.
“Who-what-I!” she stuttered.
Her nostrils flared and she looked at each and every student, her eyes sweeping the room. I suddenly felt very hot and nervous.
“I demand to know who did this!” She screeched.
The class was silent. I sat very still and tried not to blink.
Her stomach rose and fell very fast.
She started to march back in forth in front of the class, as if doing this would make her look bigger, scarier.
“Well? Anyone?”
It was so quiet, you would be able to hear a pin drop to the floor.
Ms. Fleming’s mouth curved slowly into a smile; no, a sneer.
“Well, then. Your parents won’t be very happy to hear that you’ve all earned detention!”
“What?” Alexis Sparks burst out from the front of the classroom.
“But that’s not fair!” Added Jordan Jones, who was busy loading a spitball into a straw.
“Oh, it’s fair!” Ms. Fleming’s eyes were widened in joy and her smile was evil. She looked like she had gone mad. “And from now on, for the rest of the month, you will have detention!”
“But-!” Samantha Smith started.
“Two months of detention!” Ms. Fleming raised a shaking finger. “Want to make it three?”
The entire class started yelling protests and Ms. Fleming started yelling back. I tried to block out the noise by humming to myself when I noticed something white on the ceiling. It was Ms. Fleming’s wig! Someone had glued it there. The wig fell onto Ms. Fleming’s head. But she was too busy yelling to notice. The class, though, stopped and stared at her head.
“Ms. Fleming,” I said cautiously, raising my hand. “Your wig is on your head.”
Ms. Fleming stopped and cocked her head slightly, causing the wig to look very lopsided.
“How’s that?” She looked confused.
“Your wig is on your head.”
She patted her head and the wig fell into place. She kept feeling the wig and a look of utter bewilderment fell upon her face.
“I must be going senile,” she muttered.
The Help
I am currently reading The Help and I only have less than a hundred pages to go. I am LOVING it! :D It's set in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s. It's about the rights of black and white people. In the book you read from the perspective of two black maids and one white woman. It's a REALLY good book. I recommend it to anyone and everyone. (If you are a younger kid, I'd get your parents' permission first because it has some heavier topics).