The childrens books we are writting are started.  My book is about BLEEEEEEEEP.  Can’t tell you its a secret.  To see more go to this page.

We are splitting into groups and writing children’s books.  They will be digital and we will make iMovies out of them.  To prepare Mr. Mayo had us read an article and post about it.

Theme:
Don’t blurt out your theme.  Let it emerge from the story.  If you must come out and say it, do it in dialog, not narration.

Keep your theme positive.  If writing about a social problem, offer constructive ways for your reader to deal with it.

Plot:
The conflict should result in increasing dramatic tension.

A novel may have several conflicts but a picture book should have only one.

Story Structure:
At the beginning, jump right into the action.  At the end bring the story to a prompt close.

Keep the structure as simple as possible.  Keep events in chronological order and avoid “flashbacks”.

Characters:
before you begin writing, know your characters thoroughly.

Identify your characters with one or more traits but don’t give a full blown description.

Setting:
set your story in a place and time that will be familiar.

Style and Tone:
write simple and directly, in short words, sentences and paragraphs.

Use language that creates an atmosphere or tone suited to your story.

In the final chapters, chapters five and six, A lot of crazy stuff happens.  Kino is attacked by someone while going down to his boat.  He has to kill the man and when he gets back home, the house is on fire and Juana and coyotito are screaming.  He takes his family to his brothers house so they can hide from the people that are after them.  That’s when they realize that the people are after the pearl, not them.  So they decide to run away.  that night they escape and in the morning they hide.  They see three trackers following their foot steps.  They escape into the mountains and the trackers follow.  That night the trackers make camp some hundred feet below where they are hiding.  Kino decides the only way to survive is to kill the trackers so he leaps at the man with the rifle and kills all three of the trackers.  But in the comotion, Kino kills his son by accident.  They return to their village and toss the pearl into the sea.

My favorite genres of books are adventure, realistic fiction, action, and some fantasy books.

Two issues that interest me are the New England Patriots video taping the New York Jets defensive signals.  Another one is Global Warming.

My favorite types of writing assignments are short stories and freewrites when MR. Mayo plays creepy music.

Today in class, we read an article called 8 Lottery Winners That Lost Their Millions.  It was about 8 lottery winners that lost their millions.  Imagine that. 

William “Bud” Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania lottery and is now living of social security.  An ex-girlfriend sued him for a large chunk of the cash.  His brother even hired a hit man to kill him in the hopes of inheriting some of the cash.

A Missouri woman, Janit Lee, won $18 million and after eight years, she had filled for bankruptcy with only $700 left in the bank and no cash on hand.

 Prediction

    After reading the article, I predict that Kino, from The Pearl, will Get into trouble and people will try to steal the pearl of the world from him.  This is sort of like what happend to the lottery winners.

Connection

     After reading chapter three of The Pearl, I came up with some connections between the book and the article (above).  In the pearl, Kino and his wife find the pearl of the world.  This is like winning the lottery in Kino’s village because every one is poor.  But people become greedy and try to steal the pearl.  They begin to ask Kino for favors, for money, and for help.  This si the same thing that happend to a lot of the Lottery winners in real life.