Lauren

2/1/2011 pages 1 through 30

I am reading //Christina's Ghost// by Betty Ren Wright. In the beginning of the book, Christina and her sister, Jenny, are in their Uncle Ralph's Chevy on their way to grandma's house. Their parents are on //their// way to Alaska, so they have to stay with their grandma, which they usually enjoy. On the other hand, Uncle Ralph isn't too glad he has to drive them there. He's also not happy that Chrissy keeps making him stop because she feels sick. When they reach grandma's house, they find out that she had a gall bladder attack. Their grandma is now in the hospital and their Aunt Grace was at the house. Uncle Ralph and Aunt Grace have an argument about who is going to take the kids.

Eventually, Ralph and Grace decided that Grace will take Jenny and Ralph will take Chrissy, and he is not excited. Christina isn't too joyful about that idea either. Aunt Grace figures that they could get to know each other, but Chrissy knows that her and Uncle Ralph do //not// want to get to know each other. Later, When Uncle Ralph and Chrissy get to the house he's looking after, she picks out a bedroom. It's an old cabin, but she's going to have to deal with it until grandma gets back. When Chrissy goes to the lake, she finds a boy. She says 'hello', but he disappeared right after she did. She's very curious to who this boy is.

The main character of my book is Christina. She is a ten-year-old girl and is a tomboy. She doesn’t like to wear or do girly things. She likes to wear ripped jeans and old hats. She also dislikes her Uncle Ralph. On the way to their grandma's house, Chrissy got carsick very quickly. Uncle Ralph kept having to pull over. At one point when they pull over, Chrissy gets out and smells the fresh air. She said it was very nice compared to the smell of pizza and oranges. She wishes she could walk to grandma's house, but it's definitely too far.

So far, I have really enjoyed this book. I love to read horror/mystery books. Sometimes, I like to make predictions on who or what did something to cause this problem. Another book that I read by this author is //The Doll House Murders.// One night, towards the end of the book, I was reading it late at night, it got me so scared, that I couldn't sleep! I think that finding a random boy that disappears when you say 'Hi' is kind of creepy. Something else kind of creepy about this book, is finding a little boy's bedroom behind a locked door and find the same exact outfit the odd boy was wearing, in a closet! I hope others will read this book too!

Lauren, nice entry! Why do you think Chrissy and Uncle Ralph dislike each other? What do you think about Christina's personality? Is she outgoing or withdrawn? Does she behave the way you would expect her to? -Miss Bond

2/4/2011 Pages 30 through 49 In the beginning of chapter 5, Chris sits by the lake and thinks about the strange little boy. She starts to think that when someone gets lonesome, they make up a friend. Chris thinks that that boy, is her made-up friend. When she starts to think about what her mother had told her, about finding a project, she goes out to find one. She decides that she wants to teach herself how to swim. After a few tries, she got frustrated with her disappointing results. For quite a few days, she kept trying and trying, and finally, she got to the other side of the lake! She was very proud of herself!

When Christina finally achieves her goal in swimming, she notices the little boy across the lake watching her. She tells him to wait as she jumps into the water. Once she got to the other side again, he was gone. She believes he fell and went to the other side, so she jumps in and swims back only to find nothing but the empty sand. Christina then tries to think happy thoughts, but yet, the only thing she can think of, is that boy. Christina now assumes that he is a ghost. She is very interested in finding out the truth.

After a few more chapters, I have found out more about Christina. For example, during the pouring rain, she was soothed. When the rain slowed to a drizzle, she felt oddly comfortable. I have also found out that she doesn’t know how to swim. She loves adventure. The most interesting thing is that she wants to help that little boy. There are so many great and extraordinary things about Christina and much more to find out.

So far, in this book, I have been very interested. A connection I have made with Chris is when she had a victory. Her victory was learning how to swim all on her own. When I first learned how to swim, I couldn’t stop swimming! I love to try new things, just like Chrissy. It’s a great opportunity to have a wonderful new talent. I hope Chrissy achieves some more goals throughout the rest of the book.

2/10/11 Pages 49 through 69 Christina and her Uncle Ralph finally go and visit grandma in the hospital! She is really excited to tell her all about her adventures and achievements. She asks her grandma what she would do to find out about something in the past. She then finds out that she should go to the library and look through old newspapers. She can’t wait to go! On the way to the library her Uncle Ralph has to go to the drugstore and she finds a joke and riddle book to cheer up Ralph. The only downside is that Uncle Ralph is a loner.

When Uncle Ralph and Chris reach the library, he tells her to go wait in the car. Instead she decides to walk around and find something to do. She is about to walk into the ice-cream shop, but a sign that read “The Clearwater Journal” caught her eye. She automatically knew that it was a newspaper office! Chrissy asked the man at the desk for some old newspapers. Chris then pulls out the newspaper and one of the headlines read //CHARLES MURDERS SOLVED!// This scene reminds me of a similar scene in The Dollhouse Murderers because Amy looks through old newspapers and finds out that her grandma and grandpa Treloar had died in her Aunt Clare’s current home. This scene gives me goose bumps!

Chrissy decides she wants to bring sunshine into her Uncle Ralph’s life. So, she buys a joke and riddle book from the store. She hopes that she can make him get in a better mood other than grumpy and silent. She also wants to find out more about what happened in the house that she is currently staying in. I, too, want to find out about the house. Chrissy and I are very much alike. We both enjoy adventure and mysteries that have happened in the past.

This section makes me think about the time I saw creepy red eyes around the baseball field. One night on Halloween I was trick or treating with my friends and we went by the baseball field. I was only about 7 years old but I thought I knew what I saw. We looked at it and we saw random beating red eyes just floating in the air. Now that I’m older, I know it was just an illusion. The section that made me think about this was when Chrissy saw the little boy and assumed that he was a ghost. Sometimes, illusions make me confused and I think they’re real, but it’s just me seeing things!

2/17/­­­­­­­­­­11 Pages 70-83

Chrissy told Uncle Ralph that she saw a ghost and his name is Russell Charles who was shot to death along with his tutor. They were shot because his tutor, Thomas Dixon, stole rare stamps and left his partners and took the stamps with him. He took the position as Russell’s tutor while Russell’s parents were away so he could hide for awhile. Eventually, Dixon’s partners found him and he refused to give up the stamps, they shot him dead. They shot Russell because he’d heard too much. Uncle Ralph then saw the little boy but denies that he did. While Chrissy is on the phone with her parents, Uncle Ralph hears footsteps in the attic. He also said it’s getting colder by the minute. Chris believes that in the attic, is Thomas’s ghost, and Russell’s ghost is afraid of him. Uncle Ralph wants to go up to the attic and find out what’s going on.

Uncle Ralph and Christina decide, together, to go in the attic but they’re both frightened. When they open the door a big icy wind backs them to the wall. At first, all they see is dark shadows among the room, but then, they form together well enough that Christina could make out the figure. It was a man! The beam from the flashlight shone right through him! They slammed the door shut and pushed Uncle Ralph’s oak bureau against the door. This is when Ralph says he could really use a cup of cocoa.

I was surprised when the shadows made out a figure! It was a very scary yet astonishing moment in this book. I wonder if it was Thomas Dixon’s ghost. Chris is excellent at pointing things out like that. She has a good eye, unlike me. Sometimes, I can’t find what’s right in front of me. Christina is also really talented and has a good sense of humor, just like my mother!

I predict that Chrissy and Uncle Ralph will search the house and find the stamps in a secret door. Maybe, they will find the hidden stamps in the attic in a floorboard or something like that. They might not even find the stamps and could possibly be able to communicate with Russell and he can tell them where they are. I also have a feeling that Ralph’s //friend// might have the stamps and might even be the one who murdered Russell and Thomas. Also, his “friend” might come home while they’re searching the house and bust them. He can tie them up and keep Chrissy and Ralph hidden. There are so many possibilities!

2/24/11

Pages 83 through 105

For my fifth entry, I was able to finish this amazing book! After their terrifying night, Ralph and Chris decide the next morning at breakfast that they're going to look through all the books in the study. After doing two walls of books, they have dinner. After dinner Chris doesn't want to flip through books anymore, so they both sit down in the parlor and read a book. Chrissy wants to read a comic to get her mind off of things. When she finds her book she reads a couple riddles and jokes to Uncle Ralph, at about that moment, Russell shows up, But this time it wasn't because of her laughter, and he wasn't smiling like usual. He had a frightened face on, and he pointed to Christina. Just then, They hear a scraping noise coming from upstairs. Uncle Ralph yells out that it's the chest moving across the floor! They then hear heavy footsteps walking down the hall. Ralph grabs the comic from Chris and shook it real hard. An envelope fell out! Ralph reaches for it but it slides across the room as a cold wind sweeps passed them. Chris then runs over and grabs it, Ralph opened a window and they jumped out. They both ran to the car as the back door of the house swung open. Ralph started the car and drove out of there as fast as he could while the ghost of Thomas Dixon tried to stop the car.

Uncle Ralph and Christina make it to a coffee shop in the center of town. Chris opens the envelope and discovers stamps inside. There was one strip of five stamps of George Washington. The other strip of five stamps had a picture of Benjamin Franklin on each of them. After they ate, they looked at the stamps one last time. Ralph asks Christina if she wants to go back to the house or spend the night in the car, she picked the car. The next morning, they drive to the police sheriff and give him the stamps. Only Ralph went in, but he didn't tell him anything about the crime from thirty years ago or about the ghosts. After that they went back to the coffee shop for breakfast and then drove back to the house. Surprisingly, when they go there Aunt Grace and Jenny were waiting by the house. They announced that their grandmother was coming home and that they were going back to the house. Aunt Grace wants Chris to take Jenny upstairs to show her her room but she is a little scared. She goes anyway and everything was just like the way it was when she arrived the first day. Jenny finds Russell's room and it had completely changed. Then, she finds the attic, but Chris wants her to stay out, Jenny wants to go in anyway, so she did. The attic was just a dusty room like any other attic. No creepy sounds, none of those cold winds, and definitely no ghosts...anymore.

I think the relationship between Uncle Ralph and Chris is interesting because at first it was barely talking. Now, it's wanting to never be apart. With the fact that there is a ghost haunting the house they're currently staying in,Chris doesn't want to leave her uncle. The horrifying sights of ghosts has really brought them together. In the beginning of the book, Chrissy didn't want to be anywhere near Uncle Ralph. Now, at the end of the book, Chris wants to stay with Ralph at the old house instead of going back to grandma's house. The relationship between these two has really grown. They really love each other now!

This book was entirely interesting. I love this author and these types of books. I could read this book everyday for the rest of my life and it wouldn't bother me one bit! Betty Ren Wright has a wonderful way with words. She is very creative and has a lot of awards for this one book! Horror novels like this one give me goosebumps...and I love it! I'm hoping to get another book by this author soon! This a fantastic book!

3/8/11 Pages 1-9 Now that I have finished //Christina’s Ghost//, I am reading //Misery// by Stephen King. In the beginning of the book, something terrible has happened to Paul. The doesn’t explain what had happened, but he feels pain. There is darkness surrounding him among the haze. At this point, he feels a woman’s lips, then air being pushed into his lungs. She then revives him to conciousness. After Paul finds himself awake, he falls back asleep and starts imagining himself as a young boy. He is sitting on the beach watching the tide get higher and higher. It eventually goes over the pilings he sees. The next time Paul awakens, he finds himself in a strange place. He sees the woman sitting in a chair reading the book he wrote. She says she’s his number – one fan.

Paul comes to a point where he becomes afraid of Annie Wilkes, He is afraid of her because she almost killed him with an accidental overdose of pills. Paul finds that his wallet is missing, but it turns out that she has taken it and kept it safe. He doesn’t like this idea because to him, his whole life is in that small little money holder. It’s his life outside of that room, outside of the pain. He says he’s uncomfortable with this fact because his told him to keep an eye on it. I don’t think he would break his promise.

Paul Sheldon is the main character of my book. He writes novels of two kinds, good ones and best-sellers. Hes’ been married and divorced two times. He had also smoked too much before “all this.” He sounds like a very interesting man. He is also a very talented writer. I’m excited to know more about him.

My opinion on this book so far is that it is very detailed. It is also very discriptive. This book can get confusing to me sometime. For example, he writing as if it’s and autobiography, but it’s not. He talks about how he wrote a book and that someone is reading the book I am reading. Which would be //Misery//. At times it can get a little boring, but other times, it’s a real page turner!



3/10/11

Once Paul tells Annie that his father told him to keep an eye on his wallet, he apologized. Annie immediately understood. She brings Paul a bowl of steaming hot soup to try to help him feel better. After he eats it, Annie explains what had happened to him. He remembered all of it as she spoke. Paul supposed it was good to know how you happened to end up with your legs shattered. When he tries to move his legs, he feels and awful bolt of pain.

Annie explains that there was a storm coming before she found Paul. She then heard it turned around and was going South, but it changed it's mind. She had to feed the animals but she was miles away and there was no one to help. She started driving and got about 5 miles when it started snowing. This is when she saw Paul's car on the side of the road. He then remembers that he didn't have his lights on because he was quite drunk that night. As soon as she got out, she heard groaning. She had found Paul.

As I get farther into the story, Paul seems to remember more about what had happened to him. Especially after Annie explained it. He has broken legs and he seems to be sick at this point. He also seems to becoming more open with his thoughts and trying to keep track of his things. I think he is eager to get away from this woman because he tries to move his legs, but fails. Paul is beginning to talk more to Annie too. I think he is making progress.

As I got further into this book, I became a little more interested. Stephen King uses very descriptive language and very detailed paragraphs. Sometimes he gets too crazy with words and it's hard for me to follow. There are also some words that I have never seen or heard. For example, crevasse. I dont know what this word is, how to pronounce it, or what it means. Otherwise, this book is beginning to interest me and i'm a little more excited to continue reading!