Sweet Dates In Basra - Entering Adulthood (Spoiler Alert)

          Sweet Dates in Basra by Jessica Jiji is a book about friendship and love but simply it can be said, the book is about growing up. Growing up is a part of life because it involves going through hardships and experiencing new things and we see a lot of these in the book. 

          In the book, there a three main characters, Shafiq, a Jewish boy, Omar, a Muslim boy and Kathmiya a Muslim girl. Shafiq and Omar are childhood friends and they are more like brothers and they go in a journey to find their identity and their relationship to their families and to the world in a time of war or more precisely, World War II. They are like normal friends trying to find a place for themselves in this world but of course it's hard for them because there are so many things getting in their way. 

          Kathmiya is a marsh girl who gets sent to the city of Basra to work to earn some money for her family. But the whole time she was upset that her family couldn't get a husband for her. In Iraq, at that time, it's a bad thing for a girl who is around 13 and 15 not to have a husband and for Kathmiya that was all she knew about marriage because her knowledge on relationships in the world was very limited. Kathmiya is the type of girl that goes by what others say, she doesn't t think outside the box and that goes for Shafiq too because both of them are going by what society has to say about everything. 

          When Shafiq and Kathmiya meet's, the first thing Shafiq sees is her seductive eyes and he instantly falls in love with her. But where a boy would try to make a girl realize that he loves her, Shafiq doesn't try to do anything because he knows how the society he is living in is. In Iraq at that time period (and even now in some countries where Muslims live in) it is considered a bad thing for a boy and a girl to have a boyfriend and girlfriend relationship because they might do things that are supposed to be done only after marriage, for example a girl getting pregnant. If a girl did get pregnant at that time in Iraq, she is considered "impure" and that could result in the death of the boy who got her pregnant and the girl herself. With all these in mind, Shafiq tries to stay away from Kathmiya and he does a pretty good job of doing so for four years. The same goes for Kathmiya because even though at times she thinks about Shafiq, there are walls that keep her from thinking about him in a way someone might think about someone else if they are in love with that person. But after four years, there mind starts to take control of their bodies and they find themselves in love with each other. Even though it took them a long time, their ignorance to the world turned to knowledge and their innocence turned to experience.

          At the end of the book, Shafiq prepares to go America to expand his knowledge. Also, Kathmiya gets pregnant by Shafiq and her mother, Jamila, is horrified when Kathmiya tells her. Even though most Muslim mothers would do anything to get rid of the baby and even abuse the girl who is pregnant, Jamila gives Kathmiya the privilege to keep the baby and visit Shafiq before he goes off to America. After he leaves, Kathmiya gets the responsibility of taking care of her baby. The privileges and responsibilities that Kathmiya gets marks the end of her childhood and the beginning of her adulthood. 

          The way Kathmiya exits her childhood isn't similar to how others might exit their childhood. For everyone, its a different experience that leads to the same stage in life; adulthood. Its not all about privileges, it's also about how one's views of the world changes and how the world's view of one changes as well.         

(: Sweet Dates In Basra :)

          Sweet Dates In Basra is a very good book about friendship and love.There are three main characters in the book, Kathmiya, Shafiq and Omar. Shafiq and Omar are childhood friends who consider themselves more like brothers and Kathmiya is a beautiful maiden who works in the city of Basra. The first time Kathmiya and Shafiq meets, Shafiq was captivated by her seductive, large eyes. Later he starts to like her. But Kathmiya wants to get married even though she is only 17. But her father doesn't want her to get married not because he will miss her but because he just doesn't like her. Now Kathmiya and her mother is trying to get Kathmiya's father to agree to her marriage and trying to find a suitable boy for her.
          In the book, Kathmiya tells herself she is aging and she should get married but I think the real reason she wants to get married is because her sister Fatimah is already married and Kahtmiya is jealous. Fatimah is not the best big sister a girl could ever have. She would taint Kathmiya and was always mean to her. Kathmiya always hated her sister and her getting married to a good guy just made her more sad and jealous that she wasn't in Fatimah's place. If Fatimah was a better sister then maybe Kathmiya would have been happy that her sister is getting married to a  good guy. The relationship Kathmiya and Fatimah shares is not a relationship typical sisters share.
          Even though they might not like each other, Kathmiya and Fatimah will still like each other because they are sisters. No matter how much they hate each other, they will still like each other and will try to protect each other. I think the only reason Kathmiya is jealous of Fatimah is because she might be insecure and that she thinks that she might never get married and stay as a maid for the rest of her life. And, she is sad because her father favors his oldest daughter to his youngest because he never showed an affection for Kathmiya.
          Me and my sisters fight all the time and we act like we hate each other but to tell the truth, deep down we still love each other and will always care for each other no matter what. Somethings insecurity can lead to what someone might think as hatred but really might be jealousy or sadness or both. No matter what happens, siblings will always love each other and never forget that not are they tied together by name but also tied together by the same blood.   
     

Friendship: A path to love and enmity

      How would someone feel if their first friend turned out to be there best friend? It would feel awesome to have a best friend who is also that person's best friend. This is how Bree Tanner feels after she meets Diego who becomes her first and best friend. After 3 months of trying to not get attention after Bree becomes a vampire, life got easier when Diego befriends her and they turn into best friends. But I think their friendship has a possibility of turning into something else.
      In the book, The Short Second Life Of Bree Tanner, Stephenie Meyer creates a world of vampires that tries to fit in with the humans. Bree, a curious but scared vampire, is a newborn trying to fit in with the group of vampires created by a very powerful vampire. Bree always tries to not get noticed, not even from the teenage group of vampires because they are dangerous. Vampires can tear each other apart and every month, one of the leaders of the clan would kill a few vampires either from anger or irritation. After Bree and Diego becomes friends, they realize they are the pawns of a huge game. In the book, its easy to notice how Bree's feeling toward Diego changes becuase she starts to think about how cute Diego is and how sweet and different he is from the other vampires in the clan. And, I think Diego is also starting to like Bree since he even kissed her twice. This shows how Bree and Diego's relationship is changing from strangers to best friends to a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship.
      I think through this Stephenie Meyer is trying to tell us that friendship has a possibility to turn into anything including love and even enmity. Friendship is a powerful thing and everyone needs a friend in their life but sometimes friendship can turn onto something totally unexpected because friendship is such a beautiful thing it can turn to something bad or good. In a scale, friendship is in the middle because it's neither enmity nor love so through friendship it's always hard to identify if two people's relationship turns to enmity or love, or if it stays the same.
      In reality, this might occur but not through two peoples recent friendship because in real life everything is unpredictable not like stories in a book where if someone knows part of the story, they have a pretty good idea about what will happen next. In reality, a person has to know another person to really decide what title to give them, either friend, enemy or lover. To make right choices one has to know about one's options to decide what path they want to take and this is one of the places in life where someone needs to decide between what's right and what's wrong.  

A Guide

      When someone hears, "young adult literature" they probably think of teen romance aand issues in young adults life. Well, forget that kind of literature and move on to "young adult zombie literature." In Banished, Sophie Littlefield creates a world of Healers and zombies. 16 year old Hailey is a healer, a teen with the power to heal anyone but she finds out about her powers after she meets her aunt Prairie for the first time. Before, Hailey's life was a mess that she was trying so hard to fix. Her grandmother is a drug- dealer who only adopted Chub, Hailey's brother, for the money Chub should get for being only a baby boy. After Prairie arrives, Hailey faces traumatic changes in her life and her whole world turns upside down. She learns about her mother who she thought died giving birth to her but who actually commited suicide at age 14. Hailey gets caught in a race to stop an evil man who wants Hailey to work with him to create zombies by healing the dead. All this is too much to bear in a matter of 6 days even for teens but when a teenager has someone to guide them they can acomplish anything even the impossible.
     Before Prairie came to Haileys life, Hailey was unable to do anyhting. She couldn't support Chub and her dog, Rascal and she couldn't escape Gypsum, Missouri which was her dream. She had many problems living in a house with her grandmother but the biggest was that her grandmother had friends who misbehaved with her. Even though her grandmother was there to see everything she didn't say anything. When Prairie showed up, for the first time Hailey felt like she can trust soemone. She felt like there is someone in her world who can show her the truth after living a life full of lies created by her grandmother. This is what everyone wants, not just teens. People don't like to live a life of lies they want to know the truth, th truth about who they are.
     Through what Hailey is feeling, Sophie Littlefield is trying to say that teenagers need mentors in life. They need someone who could give them advice, show them the right path when they feel lost and comfort them when they can't face all the obstacles that life throws at them. Littlefield is trying to tell the reader that guides are necessary in one's life, it is difficult for someone to accomplish something without the help of someone that someone can trust. The whole book is about how to reach ones goal when someone is there to support others. This shows that the author is trying o say that it's not a bad thing to ask for help once in a while.
      Teens should break their shells so someone can reach out to them and give them support they need. A lot of teens have a secret or something that they are struggling with and its important for them to to ask for help. It doesn't matter who but as long as someone is there to help, teens should go to them because oneday no one might be there for someone to ask for help for.  
          

* Romeo & Juliet *

   Hate, it's such a powerful word, isn't it? What does it make you think of? Violence? Well, whenever I hear the word, the word 'love' pops into my mind. This might be weird since love and hate are two totally opposite things but I think even in hate, love somehow squeezes itself in.

   In Romeo and Juliet, deep love existed in a world of pure hate because the Capulets and Montagues, Juliet and Romeo's families hate each other and whenever someone from the opposite family sees people from the other family, well... violence occurs. They would try to kill each other but even with all the hate, Romeo and Juliet still had love for each other which shows that they are totally different from their families. I really liked Romeo and Juliet (except the fact that they fell in love too quick) because it shows that you could find love and hate anywhere. And, if both of this powerful things exist in the same place then they are much more powerful and none of them would be able to overcome each other so something must occur to one to affect the other. I think this is the reason why Shakespeare made Romeo and Juliet die, when love was affected badly that it died with this "star-crossed lovers" then the hate was affected as well , fading away with the love.

   I really love how Shakespeare made this whole thing with love and hate work out because it showed that behind his beautiful play, hides a more beautiful meaning giving Romeo and Juliet a whole new level of beauty!

This Book Is Not Good For You (SPOILER ALERT!!!)

   This Book Is Not Good For You by Pseudonymous Bosch is about a girl named Cass and her two best friends named Max-Earnest and Yo-Yoji. Together they are part of a secret society called the Terces Society. As part of the Terces Society, they fight against a society known as the Midnight Sun. The leaders of the Midnight Sun, Dr. L and Ms. Mauvais, have assigned a new agent of the Midnight Sun to kidnap Cass's mom. And he is a chef called Señor Hugo who wants the tuning fork which can turn anything to any desired food or drink. When Cass found the fork, she gave it to Senor Hugo who promised to give Cass's mom back but actuallly he didn'y keep his promise. At last, Cass rescued her mom  and other children, who were forced to work for the Midnight Sun, and got the tuning fork back. But in the end while eating a time traveling chocolate she gets sent to the past and she is stuck there...

   I really love this kinds of book because it involves a secret society with a hint of fantasy. The book was really interesting with a very good twist and also funny. I think the theme of this book is to show that young kids can do anything if they are interested in something. And this theme is just perfect for the book because it shows so many things that an adult can't do but a child can do and this shows that a kid is capable of doing anything even if there parents or some other adults think they can't do it.

   I try very hard to show my parents that I am capable of doing anything but for me that's actually very hard to do since My parents have a hard time understanding what I am trying to tell or show them. So, usually, I try to not show or tell them anything unless it's very necessary. 

Posts From The Best !!!

http://aishwaryaselablog.blogspot.com/2011/01/life-is-peaceful.html?showComment=1297045885703#c6255142126935463760

I just love Aishwarya's post, Life is Peaceful because even without seeing the painting, just by reading the poem, the image that forms in my mind looks very similar like the painting. Her vocabulary is one of the things that makes her poem so strong. Her poem is written with passion and the repetition made the poem much more meaningful and interesting. Also, just by reading this poem makes me calm and... well, peaceful. I really liked the way how she ended her poem. The ending was very different than the other poems I read and this made the poem very different and interesting. Good job, Aishwarya!

http://ninamoransblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/starry-night.html?showComment=1297047601932#c507970703391208211 

Nina's poem is so beautiful. The rhyming made the poem very interesting to read and this poem also created a very nice image in my head. I really like this line, "for the soundless noise they make in the night" because it reminds me of when at night I can't sleep, I would stare at the sky in silence imagining what it would be like to go to outer space where its so quiet, peaceful yet filled with incandescent light. When I read this poem, I actually see a star filled night so vast yet so small.

http://shadman1212.blogspot.com/2011/01/giver-no-choice.html?showComment=1297125756003#c1751039018000781460  

 Shadman's post about The Giver is really good. Because he used the three paragraph structure, each paragraph containing separate ideas which made the post very good.  In the first paragraph, he gives the background info with all the necessary info. In the second paragraph, he tells us the main  character's task with really good questions. And, in the last paragraph is where his post got better because the ideas he had was amazing with thought provoking questions that gave the reader the hint that he is thinking and asking himself a lot of questions. I love his last sentence, " In my eyes this community is an imaginary paradise where nothing goes wrong but should. " 

Amazing work, Aishwarya, Nina & Shadman !!!!!

 

Aurora, Goddess of Dawn

http://josephinewall.com/aurora.html

Just before the sun rises
there is a hush
Slowly and quietly comes Aurora, Goddess of Dawn
Her gorgeous gown following her
her wings swiftly brush against everything it touches
Awakening the trees, the birds, the leaves
Slowly she takes out her paintbrush
and her kaleidoscopic palatte
Then the brush makes its first stroke of paint
Bursts out the color of yellow
the radiant rays of the sun
Then other colors bursts out
the luminous orange, the dazzling blue, the majestic purple
the beaming green and the incandescent red
Slowly she puts away the paintbrush and palatte
and walks away
Leaving the world to awake!

Love

If Not For You If not for you, I wouldn’t know
What true love really meant.
I’d never feel this inner peace;
I couldn’t be content. If not for you, I’d never have
The pleasures of romance.
I’d miss the bliss, the craziness,
Of love’s sweet, silly dance. I have to feel your tender touch;
I have to hear your voice;
No other one could take your place;
You’re it; I have no choice. If not for you, I’d be adrift;
I don’t know what I’d do;
I’d be searching for my other half,
Incomplete, if not for you.

By Joanna Fuchs

   This poem is a really nice poem with a beautiful meaning. I observed that the poet was only talking about the desires and how the he/she will feels if their lover isn't there with them. I noticed that the poet described love as a silly dance and I think she meant all the craziness and foolishness a person does when they are in love. I like the last line because I think it means how lost and incomplete someone will be if they don't find the person they are made for. I really like this line as well, "You’re it; I have no choice" because it's like saying "you are it, I love you, end of discussion!" 

   I really like this poem because its shows that when someone is in love they are enchanted by how beautiful it is and how it makes you feel all happy and joyful. I also think how when you find someone you really like you only think about that person and you want to be with that person with all your heart and you just can't stop thinking about that special someone.

   Love is a beautiful thing in life and it can also be painful, really painful. When someone is in love, they are blind cause they only see that person they love, deaf cause they hear only that persons voice and they can only speak about that person. I really wish that one day everyone finds their special someone and there hearts won't break because they will be happy together forever and ever. But of course that won't happen because there is so much cruelty in this world but I still wish that love, one day, will spread like wild fire in this world, not one kind of love but many kinds of love including the love you give to your family and friends!

"Love that is true never grows old'

    I just finished reading the book Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater and I loved it! It was awesome with romance and a little bit of fantasy. The story started with a girl named Grace who has been watching a particular wolf every day for six years. A wolf who watched her back, a wolf who made her feel joy whenever he is near her. And, that wolf and his pack turned out to be werewolf's and soon as the wolf , Sam, meets Grace as a human, they feel like they know each other which is true and they starts loving each other. Though its just the beginning of their romance, things start getting complicated what with Sam trying to stay human and a new wolf in the pack.
   I really loved the entire book but the best part was the ending. Before the full ending, Grace thinks she lost Sam since he completely turned into a wolf because of the cold weather but in the last page of the book it says that Sam was watching Grace but it didn't say in what form. And when he reveals himself to Grace she is totally shocked to see him human! I love the last two lines of the book which goes like this:
   "Grace," I said, very softly. "Say something."

   " Sam," she said, and I crushed her to me."

   There is something really unique about this two lines that gets me amazed. I mean with these four words their relationship and their love for each other totally deepened and showed that their love is not the only thing that's keeping them together. This kind of romance is the type that shows that the two people will always be each others and together for eternity. The best thing about love is that one can't stop loving or wanting to love because when it is right, it's the best thing in the world. When someone is in a relationship and its a romantic love that person is sharing with someone else, even if nothing else in ones life is right, that person feels like their whole world is complete.