Rumbling glass colors disappeared the blue suddenly.
Blackout Poem
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Book Blog
I am a reader. I started liking reading over the past summer. Earlier, I couldn’t find the right book so I wasn’t very interested in reading. But, in my opinion, reading is relaxing now. It makes me happy to read a book that I really like. Reading is also something nice to do when I’m bored. It’s a nice way to calm down and, for some reason, reading makes me less tired and have more energy. I love reading so much now and I have really gotten into it.
I love reading realistic fiction and fantasy books. I like realistic fiction because I can somewhat relate to it and it is very comfortable to read realistic fiction for me because they are usually pretty easy to read. The other genre I like is the opposite of realistic fiction: fantasy. I love fantasy books because I can imagine so much. I love reading about these fake worlds that just seem so real. I just have so much room to imagine so many things for fantasy books. As much as I love realistic fiction, I can’t really imagine that much because there are limits. Realistic fiction sounds like the world we live in, so I can’t really imagine that much.
A realistic fiction series I am reading right now is The Summer I Turned Pretty series. I am currently reading the second book which is called It’s Not Summer Without You. I started reading this series because I watched the show and all my friends had read it, so I decided to start reading it about a month ago. I love this series because it seems so real. I can really understand everything because I live in the same state as the characters in this book. I don’t really relate to what’s going on in the book though. The series is about a girl named Isabel (or Belly) Conklin. She is 16 years old. She goes to her family friend’s house on a beach called Cousins Beach every summer for the whole summer. She has a brother named Steven who hangs out with the family friend’s kids, Conrad and Jeremiah. I don’t want to give too many spoilers but I can say that I love the series.
I love the author of The Summer I Turned Pretty, Jenny Han. I also love her book To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before which is also a realistic fiction book. Another author I like is Carl Hiaasen. I read his book Flush and I loved it! It was about a boy in Florida saving the ocean from a cruise ship. Do you have a favorite author?
I love reading. Some books don’t catch my interest as much as others, but I still love reading. I am always looking for new books or series to read. If you have any favorite books or authors, I’d love to know.
The Summer I Turned Pretty
Photo from Sora
Recently, I read The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han. This is definitely a window book for me. A window book is a view into another perspective or something you don’t relate to. However, a mirror book is a book that you see yourself in, and you can somewhat relate to. The Summer I Turned Pretty is about a girl named Isabel, Belly to her friends, who goes to a summer house on Cousins Beach every year with her mom’s best friend, Susannah, and Susannah’s two sons, Jeremiah and Conrad. Belly always feels left out when her brother, Conrad, and Jeremiah hang out. But this summer, she changed. I can’t really relate to Belly or any of the characters in this book. Sure, I have a beach house and I’m living at the same time as her, but I don’t really see myself in any of the characters which is why it’s a window book to me.
Alaska 2023
Image from Unsplash
This summer I went to a few places, but my favorite was our trip to Seattle and Alaska. We were so excited because this was our fourth year trying to take this trip. We were originally going in 2020, but for obvious reasons we couldn’t go. Then in 2021 we were nervous to go on a cruise when covid was still everywhere. Then, in 2022, my sister got covid four days before our flight to Alaska. We thought since we had been waiting for so long, we would go to Seattle for three days before the cruise, and three days after. We arrived in Seattle on a rainy night, and we took an Uber to our hotel. I loved our location. When you looked out the window there were hills and beautiful houses. I thought our view looked like California. It almost looked like the Hollywood sign would be sitting at the top of the hill. As soon as we got to the hotel, we fell asleep. It was almost 3:00 AM in North Carolina by the time we fell asleep. Good thing the beds were super comfortable.
I woke up at 7:30 the next morning, tired but excited to be there. When we were in Seattle for the first three days we went to a glass sculpture museum and the Space Needle. We also just explored the area. After the three days, we flew to a small town in Alaska and stayed there for 1 night. It was a beautiful town. While we were there, we went to a place where they kept bears and a place where they kept birds. The bird place had old birds that couldn’t be in the wild anymore. The place that had bears had 5 bears, and they lived in a place that looked a lot like their natural habitat. After staying in that town for a night, we left to go on the cruise. We were on the cruise for a week. There were only about 40 passengers (not including staff) on the cruise. While we were there we saw sea lions, bears, otters, jellyfish, whales, and lots of other animals. We also saw 2 glaciers! We went kayaking, hiking, and just exploring Alaska. After we left the cruise, we went to Seattle for another three days.
Camp Kirkwood
The 6th grade came to Camp Kirkwood on August 30. We arrived around noon. First, we went off to our cabins to unpack. Girls cabins were 1,2,3, and 4. Boys cabins were 5,6,7, and 8. I was in cabin number 4. My cabin had one other girl from my advisory and two other advisory’s girls. My friend Ainslie and I bunked together. After we got settled in and unpacked we ate lunch at the Dining Hall. We ate a grilled cheese sandwich with ham. After we ate, we went off to activities. We were split up into 6 groups. I was in group 6. The first activity my group did was the Kanga jump. The Kanga jump was a trampoline. It was a different shape than most trampolines. It was a curved shape, but instead of climbing onto it from a ladder, we ran onto it. All of the activities were one hour, except the pool was two hours. After the Kanga jump, groups 4, 5 and 6 went to the pool. Before we got in, we had to do a swim test. We had to do Freestyle across the pool and if you passed, you got a blue band, but if you didn’t pass, you got a green band and wore a life jacket. I passed the test. Once everyone was done with the test, we played moss, swam around the pool, and dived for two hours. Then we did a team building activity. After we did that we ate spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner. After dinner we went to our cabins and got into our pajamas. Then, instead of a night hike, we watched The Lorax. Then we went back to the cabins and went to bed around 10:00 pm.
We woke up the next morning at 7:00, got dressed and headed to the dining hall for breakfast. The hurricane had hit the first night so it flooded. We couldn’t do outdoor activities in the morning because it was flooded and raining. So after breakfast my group went to the pavilion and learned how to use a compass which was fun and surprisingly easy. After we did that, we did forest ecology inside and learned about trees and what some parts of trees are called. Then we had lunch. After lunch we went to the pool, then we had dinner which was chicken and mac and cheese. After dinner my group did the V swing which was scary but super fun. Then we had some advisory time for 1 hour. After advisory time, we had s’mores in the woods. After that, we went to our cabins and went to sleep.
Then, on the third and final day, my cabin woke up at 7:00, got ready, and went to breakfast. After we had breakfast we did the kanga jump again, went canoeing, and did a super fun zip line over the lake. After the activities we went to the Dining Hall and ate pizza for lunch. Then, we went to the cabins and packed up our things. When we were done packing we had to bring our duffles all the way from our cabins to the bus. Then we went to the Pavilion and a teacher told us which bus we were on. I was on bus 1. I sat at the back with my friend Sona. After the two and a half hour ride back, we were home.
That’s what I did at Camp Kirkwood. One thing that wasn’t my favorite was the food, but I loved the V swing and zip line. But overall it was good!