(Thank you Unsplash for this photo)
J.K. Rowling, Rick Riordan, Lewis Carroll, Madeleine L’Engle. These are just a few authors who have made whole worlds in just a book. Visiting those worlds can be an amazing experience. I love visiting these other worlds and getting to feed my curious mind. Recently I read A Wrinkle in Time and while I was reading it my thoughts kept wandering back to the book, turning it over in my mind, trying to piece together the storyline to figure out where Meg’s dad could be. After reading a good book I always want to keep flipping the pages for more. I am never satisfied even if the book filled up my entire reading stomach. Sometimes finishing a book feels like having a friend that moved away.
Finding new books is really hard for me. Usually I’ll ask my younger sister for recommendations because she reads every single day for hours and hours on end. Lately though, I’ve started to catch up to her so she’s running out of suggestions. Sometimes I just have to go to a bookshelf and drag my finger along it with my eyes closed. I’ll stop randomly and pull out the book, checking out the cover. If I think the cover looks interesting I’ll read the blurb. One of the reasons that I like long books, because the longer I can read the same book, the longer I can procrastinate finding a new one.
Electronic and audiobooks are sometimes really hard for me to pay attention to. Electronic books always make me frustrated because the device that I am reading on can die and I can’t read offline unless I download it. Paper books cannot die, paper books don’t need charging or wifi! With audiobooks I just get distracted because when I am listening my eyes have to be focused on something else and that something else always consumes my thoughts.
I like to read in quiet spaces so that I can really immerse myself in the book and really think about how the author is telling the story. When it’s quiet I can almost dive into the book and be one of the characters. As I’m reading the characters are so clearly imprinted in my mind but then when I try to really see them I just can’t. Who was your favorite character to meet?
I just finished reading A Wrinkle in Time. This is a science fantasy novel written by Madeleine L’Engle. This book is about a girl who has to travel through time to find her father who has been missing for many years. I found it to be a window book but there were a few mirrors.
A window book is a book that really lets you take a glance at someone else’s life. I find window books really fun to read because they let you understand another person’s perspective. Seeing someone else’s perspective lets you broaden how you think about things. So now why did I say that this book was a window for me? Well as you’ve probably guessed I don’t know how to travel through time. My father is also probably taking a call right now and not trapped on a different planet and I don’t have a brother but those are just a few reasons why I see a window when I read A Wrinkle in Time.
A mirror book is a book in which you can see reflections of yourself and your life. Seeing a mirror book can be really comforting. Because when you read it you can see that you are not the only one who feels some way. One way that this was a mirror for me is that Meg, the girl who traveled through space to find her father really cares for her family and friends. That is one of the reasons I see a small mirror in Meg.
I prefer window books to mirror books because when I read a window book I get to experience something crazy and new to me. While I find mirror books something really nice to relate with, sometimes they can get a bit boring because you are kind of reading snippets of your life which you are already living. Next time you read a new book try to think of whether it’s a mirror or window! Thanks for reading!
FLL is an extracurricular activity that lots of kids do around the world. FLL stands for First Lego League. In FLL we have to build a robot made out of Lego pieces and code it to do missions on a game board sort of thing. But the robot game is actually only 25% of the scoring, the other 75% is made up of core values, the innovation project, and robot design. Core values are how well you work with your team and support each other. For the innovation project your team has to decide a topic that they will research and create a presentation about. Each year there is a different theme and when you are deciding what you want to do your innovation project on you have to pick something that relates to the theme and technology because well it’s a robot competition. The robot design is a small presentation on your design process with your robot because all of the teams are given the same robot base but you can add different attachments to your robot. FLL is a commitment that takes dedication and that probably sounds sort of silly considering that this is just a toy that I’m talking about but SOMEHOW (sarcastic) kids can get so competitive over this kind of thing. I chose to do FLL so that I could earn coding skills and get closer with my teammates.
Last week on August 30th the Durham Academy 6th grade embarked on a two and a half hour drive to Camp Kirkwood. The bus ride was filled with laughter, plenty of snacks, bored kids with no entertainment whatsoever, perfectly content kids just reading their book, and kids belting out Taylor Swift songs at the top of their lungs. Ahhhhh, good times…
Hurricane Idalia was heading our way and we were already getting a little taste of what she felt like so once we got there raincoats were put on, heavy bags lugged around, and puddles splashed in.Then we got settled into our cabins. After we got cleaned up a meal of grilled cheeses and ham sandwiches was passed around and well no comment on that… Then we got ready for activities, I had orienteering and v-swing . Orienteering was okay but it was so hot that I couldn’t even pay attention very well. But v-swing was awesome. What happened was you got harnessed onto a rope and your classmates pulled you up. There was another rope so you could pull a trigger and it would let go of one of the ropes and you’d be swinging by that one rope that was still on there and it was super fun. After that it was dinner time, yummy pasta and delicious garlic bread that definitely made up for lunch. After dinner we got the option to watch the Lorax or you could go play dodgeball in the pavilion. It was kind of a 50/50 split. From being in the rain and mud everyone was desperate to take a shower, brush teeth and just generally get cleaned up. Then we went to bed.
9 hours later…
Bright lights flashed in our faces as a wake up call. Time to get up, the worst time in the morning. We brushed our teeth, got changed, and braided each others hair. Then for breakfast we had eggs and croissants. My group just got to stay in the dining hall because we had forest ecology where we learned about trees and the most common ways that we utilize them. Next we went to the POOL!!!!! But before we could get in we had to take swimming tests (dun-dun-duuun). All we had to do was jump in and swim freestyle to the other side, not too hard. We had so much fun splashing and jumping in the pool. Lunch was somewhere in the middle of all that. I don’t really remember what we had but it was pretty good. After lunch we made our way to the pavilion where one of the counselors led us to somewhere near the lake to do team building. Team building was actually pretty fun, we played a game with a hula hoop where you could only have one finger on the hula hoop but it had to be flat and once we rose it up in the air we had to bring it back down and it actually took a lot more work than you’d expect. We also had the Kanga jump which was a huge trampoline blob thing made out of plastic.
Once we finished activities, those of us who were wet changed into dry clothes and headed to the dining hall for dinner. After dinner we all met at the flagpole and took a walk to this little tiny amphitheater and we had a campfire with s’mores and songs. Once we finished we walked back, got into our PJs, and headed to bed.
Another 9 hours later…
Bright lights flashed in our faces as a wakeup call yet again. Time to get up, the worst time in the morning. We brushed our teeth, got changed, and braided each others hair… again. Then we trudged through the wet grass over to the dining hall. We had slightly soggy waffles that were okay. Then we all met together with our groups and found out where we were going. My group went to the zipline first, gaga-ball and pig (an actual pig) second, and canoe third. The zipline was pretty awesome. We got all harnessed in and climbed up to a high platform. Then we jumped! It was kinda short but it was pretty cool to be able to fly over the lake and see all the canoes floating past. Gaga-ball and pig were also pretty cool. Bubbles(the pig) was so cute even though her skin felt really hard which was a weird sensation. Wow, who knew I would ever be saying “I met a pig named Bubbles and she had really hard skin”. Canoeing was okay but after all the excitement of camp the tranquility of it was a little too much calm. After all of the activities we had lunch which was some really delicious pizza. Once we all loaded onto the buses we set off for a 2 ½ hour drive back to Durham. This ride had even more Taylor Swift, books, screaming and snacks. Ahhhhh, good times…
