I have just finished reading our literature circle book called 38 Weeks Till Summer Vacation by Mona Kerby. I can relate to this book a lot because I'm in 5th grade and this takes place in 4th grade. In the beginning of this book, Nora Jean Sampson (main character) couldn't wait till 4th grade was over because of this bully named Jimmy Lee. Well, I'm the total opposite- I feel really excited and can't can't wait till the school year is over. We all deal with bullies so I know how Nora Jean felt when she was being bullied about her being so thin (not to mention, like a stick!). A lot of things in the book could make sense to me since we are only 1 year apart. This helped me comprehend what I was reading. I don't think this was a "Just Right" book for me because I found it fairly easy to read. Even my lit circle group thought it was very easy and wanted a book a little tougher. I want the next lit circle book I read to be a little bit more challenging because I kind of felt like I was reading a book WAY to easy to read. It was a nice book to read but it didn't have much description and I'm the type of person who likes to read books with lots of description.
The main people who changed were Jimmy Lee and Nora Jean. Like I said, In the beginning of the book, Nora Jean wanted the year to end as quickly as possible. At the end though, she enjoyed being in 4th grade and felt the opposite of what she felt at the beginning of the year. She also changed because she had a BFF (best friend forever) and a BF (best friend). She thought she was "best friends" with Thomasina- A very pretty girl who never ever got teased, she was also very popular. Thomasina was a little bossy but nevertheless, Nora Jean admired her. Nora Jeans best friend was Rosalie Chester who was always nice to her and everyone else. She was fat though that's why she got teased by Jimmy Lee. At the end of the book when Thomasina says "Help me carry my things. You can come back for your stuff later" Nora Jean said, "Do it yourself, Thomasina. I'm busy." Which just shows that she didn't care for Thomasina anymore. She also started liking school because Jimmy Lee was being nice to her and saved her life when she choked on pizza. Speaking of pizza, Jimmy Lee changed. As I told you, he used to be very mean and tease many people, but when his class had a pizza party and Nora Jean choked on her pizza, Jimmy Lee saved her life by pushing her stomach in and doing some precedure he saw in a magazine. He started being nice to everyone after that. But how did he suddenly become nice? That I don't know. It's a good question though.
The problem of the story was that Jimmy Lee kept making fun of Nora Jean and sometimes Rosalie and stole things from Nora Jean. She wanted to get back at him for all the mean things he had done to Rosalie and her. It got resolved by the pizza party (in the library) when Nora Jean choked and Jimmy Lee saved her and became nice to her. She was nice to him as well. I have a prediction: maybe Jimmy Lee had earlier problems in life which made him become a bully only because he felt bad for himself. I'm glad everything worked out between Nora Jean and Jimmy Lee at the end though. I think the authors message is to not bully others but just have fun.
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This blog is extremely thoughtful and descriptive. I liked how you added questions, speculations, and good examples in your blog.
ReplyDeleteHow did Nora Jean come to be less under the thumb, shall we say, of Thomasina?
By the way, very profound thoughts at the end. You are a good blogger.
I really like how descriptive this blog is. You added questions and facts and details from the book you were reading. I wonder why she was best friends with Thomasina if in the end she just didn't like her again? What made her change this dramatically? Could it be because she wanted to be nice to everyone else? Maybe Jimmy inspired her.
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