Post #7: Book Review for Cut by Patricia McCormick

Hello guys I am back with another book review, I know this is weird but the book Cut only took me one week to finish. Surprisingly this book is only 150 pages long, it is one of those books that you can read for a quick read and relish when you need something to read, for the first impressions of the book I thought that the book was going to be very mind numbing and dull; having no plot.

For this book's rating I am going to give this book 3 out of 5 stars. To start off my reasoning for this rating, I thought that the book's plot wasn't as eye catching as it was meant to be. I mean the plot was pretty decent for an 150 page book but I feel like the author could have elaborated on the plot more. But on the back of the book it did state that Cut was Patricia McCormick's first book she had ever written. So I couldn't put my standards up too high for this one. Another reason for my rating is because in the book they never told the author how Callie got into the care center. You have knowledge that she cuts herself and they thought that she was putting her life at risk but you never got the inside scoop on what her life was like before the care center. I thought that when I started to read the book it was very confusing to understand what was going on because you didn't get the knowledge from what happened in her earlier life. Lastly, I wished that the author would have made an epilogue to the end of the book because in the end (I am not going to spoil it) but it kind of leaves you on a cliff hanger wondering what happened to the main character Callie.

Mini summary of the book:

In the book Cut written by Patricia McCormick, the story is told about this girl named Callie. Callie was a normal teenage girl until her brother got sick. Due to the fact that her brother got sick her mom volunteered to quit her job to take care of her brother, while her father is always at work supporting the family. Because of all this stress Callie has formed an addiction of cutting herself over the past year. After her parents caught her cutting herself one day while her was hiding they ended up sending her to this facility for girls, called Sea Pines. Sea Pines is a care center for girls of all ages that suffer from the same addiction like Callie, or eating disorders, drug abuse, behavioral issues, etc. Callie refused to talk to anyone, that includes her parents or relatives, any other girls in the programs, or even her therapist. In the program Callie is scared to express her feelings about cutting. The girls try to encourage her to talk about her addiction but her refuse. After a new girl arrives named Amanda, Callie finds out that she suffers from cutting too. From Amanda she learns to become more open and starts talking in group and with her therapist.

Post #6: Starting a new book

So for today's blog I don't have much to write about. I just started a new book called Cut by Patricia McCormick. For my first impressions on this book it seems like a very depressing book becasue on the title it has this long quote that says "Then I placed the blade next to the skin on my palm. A tingle arced across my scalp. The floor tipped up at me and body spiralled away. Then I was on the ceiling looking down, waiting to see what would happen next......"(pg. 17).  From the quote I can predict that this book is going to probabily be about a girl that cuts her self and is trying to cope with hard times or might have family issues. But I aam only on page 11 so I don't really know what to expect. I hope that this book has a interesting plot but on the back of the book it stated that this was Patricia McCormick's first book that she had even written.

post #5: book review for The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith

I am going to be honest. This is really not my type of book. Most of the time I do not read romance novels. I stick to more of adventure/ dystopian novels. But this time I wanted to try something new because I wanted to check this book out since I heard it was a decent book from a friend. So I was like why not give this book a try. Even though when I first saw the cover I knew it was probably going to be one of those teenage cheesy romance novels.



For my rating of this book I would have given it 3.5 stars. My reasoning behind my rating is because, 1. the book was very short(236 pages in total if you were curious), 2 the plot was very predictable from the start(I will give a mini summary down below trying not to give away the ending but you could probably guess it without reading the book) and lastly the book was not that exciting at all. But there were somethings that I liked in this book like how the conflict in the book was set up between the main character and her father and how they were going to try and start over after her parents divorce. I also like the romantic friendship that Hadley and Oliver developed over the book. And lastly I loved the ending and how that turned out.

A mini summasry of the book:
To start off the main setting of the book took place in London. In the begining we meet the main character, Hadley Sullivan, who is a 17 year old girl. We find out that she is on her way to the airport to fly to London to arrive at her father's wedding to meet her new step-mother just right after her parents just got a divorce. She ends up missing her flight by 4 minutes and is going to be late for the wedding. When she gets on the next flight she meets this boy named Oliver. On the plane she discusses and talks to Oliver about her parents and how to is going to tackle the wedding. Through out the books she tries to forget her father and suddenly falls in love with Oliver. Through out the book she tries to regain her trust with her father.
link to a book review for this book :

Post #4: Krista Ramsey Columnist

The article I read by Krista Ramsey was titled Our kids tell the story of why preschool is a must. In the article it talked about how kids are more educated and have a bigger vocabulary if they go to preschool. They also talk about how preschool makes great memories for kids that are starting to go to school and how it prepares the kids for kindergarten. (third column link) 


From this article the best line is "But if it was essential for your kids – if you watched it transform their lives and wouldn't have done without it – how can it be denied to children with so few resources, children who need it so desperately?". This line impacts the reader by making you think about what if you never went to preschool. It helps the reader understand how impactful preschool is on a young child not just helping them learn but also giving them a head start into education. Showing how important it is and how some people can't go to preschool. Even though it might not be required everywhere this quote shows that if kids didn't take preschool, once they get to kindergarten they will behind every other kid. Some things that I observed about this quote's diction and syntax is that in the quote they were many dashes and commas making the quote a very long sentence. Emphasizing how important preschool is.


I think that her writing style is very different because in her article she had entire paragraph that was made up of questions. She said "Did your child benefit from preschool? Would he have done just as well at a caregiver's house? Would your daughter have made the transition to kindergarten as easily without it? Would your grandson have read as quickly had he not gone? Could your niece have developed the same social skills at home?" I found it interesting that she made a paragraph full of questions because she made you think about each question. They all were worded very open minded  questions. In all three articles that I read For better vision, kids need time outdoors, Super Bowl QBs score points for great style and Our kids tell the story of why preschool is a must they each had dashes to emphasize the point she was trying to get across. An example from the first article was she said "In the U.S. alone, the percentage of people ages 12 to 54 who are nearsighted- meaning unable to see things clearly at a distance- rose from 25 percent in the early 1970s to 42 percent now." An example from the second article where she uses dashes is she said "And almost no one dresses up any more for things that were once considered something of an event- dinner at a nice restaurant, religious services, plane flights."




For questions I would have asked her what inspired her to become a columnist writer.

Post #3: text to text connections

I can relate the book The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and The Fault in Our Stars by in both books the plots and themes are very similar. In The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight plot there is a girl named Hadley that struggles through a problem which is being forced to go to her father's wedding and meeting her new step mother after ignoring him for the past year. While she is traveling to London she ends up meeting a guy along the way named Oliver. In The Fault in Our Stars plot there is a girl named Hazel that struggles through a problem which is battling cancer and facing reality of death. To help her go through this her mother decides that the best way for her to make friends is to join a cancer support group where she ends up meeting a guy named Augustus. In both books both of the main characters meet their lover in an unexpected place in the book, making it like a coincidence. Like how Hadley meets Oliver by accident because if she wasn't late for her plane to London she would have never had to take the next flight which was the flight Oliver was taking. For Hazel if her mother never ended up making her go to a cancer support group she would have never met Augustus. In both books each main character ends up falling in lover with their guy instantly.

The books a common theme that is in both of them is love can overcome obstacles. In The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight When Hadley is at the wedding she over hears a conversation that talks about a place that Oliver was going to go to for his wedding. Even though she is at her father’s wedding she immediately takes off to go search for him. This represents the theme example that both books have in common because for Hadley her father's wedding was the obstacle that she was trying to overcome. When she was about to leave Oliver she talks about how she will try to see him again even if she has her father’s wedding. On the plane Oliver was telling her how brave she was for going to her father's wedding. Oliver says "I think it's brave. What? That you're going. That you’re facing up to it. That you're moving on. It's brave."(pg 72).

For The Fault in Our Stars even though Hazel has cancer she spends all her time while she is alive with Augustus. He teaches her that cancer isn't just a disease and you should look as life as a gift not as a challenge that is holding you back from what you want to do. But when she finds out that Augustus is going to die. She tries to make the best of it by helping him with his funeral. This represents the theme because even though Hazel and Augustus are both battling cancer their love for each other doesn't stop them from doing the things that they want. In the book Augustus uses him wish to go to amster damn because Hazel really wants to even though Hazel is fighting cancer and has to bring an oxygen tank with her.

http://tfiossupportgroup.com/ Link to The Fault in our Stars Fanbase page, I would suggest to check it out! :)

Post #2: The most important line from the book so far.

The most important line from The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight so far is When Hadley says "When you're on the other side of it, she says fifty- two years can seem like about fifty- two minutes" (48). During this sene of the book Hadley is getting on the plane to fly to England with this boy named Oliver. When she sits next to this old women she tells Hadley about her own marriage and how time flys and you don't even realize it. How you can easily fall in love in a short period of time and out of love in a long period of time. This quote is important because it shows Hadley that people can fall in love easily even if you just had met them or people can stop loving each other even if they have been together for a long period of time. This quote can relate to her parents' marriage because they were together for 12 years but now her parents are getting a divorce and her dad is getting re married. Later in the book Hadley says "Someone once told her there's a formula for how long it takes to get over someone, that it's half as long as the time you've been together. Hadley has her doubts about how accurate this could possibly be, a calculation so simple for something as complicated as heartbreak. After all, her parents had been married almost 12 years, and it took Dad only a few short months to fall for someone else"(106). She is about to go to the wedding and is very nervous. She started to think if it was a mistake for going or if it will be worth it.

1st post: All about Jennifer E. Smith

Jennifer E. Smith

Jennifer E. Smith is the author of The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. Which is the book that I am currently reading right now. She has wrote many other books like The Geography of You and Me, This is What Happy Looks Like,  The storm Makers, The Comeback Season, and lastly You are Here. Durning her life she has earned a master's degree in creative writing from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Though her books she leaned more towards young adult but   she didn't intend to start wriring for teens. Stated by her "I didn't start out with the YA market in mind, I fell into it by accident. If you try too hard to put a label on it that you are writing for teens, you can end up writing down to them. I think if you happen to write a book that happens to be about a 16-year-old, it shows. I just needed to be pointed in the right direction by my agent, and told that my voice and what I was writing was YA. Once I realised that, I never looked back. I really like writing for teens, there is no better audience out there. I think that when you read something that resonates at that age, it's such a powerful thing. There is something really electric about that time of life, and books are lightning rods for all that emotion." Her job is a senior editor at Random House US imprint Ballantine Books. Her first book was bought while she was still an assistant at talent and literary agency ICM. She says: "Being an editor has helped me become a better writer, but I mean that in terms of craft. In terms of keeping in mind the industry whilst I'm writing, it can be a little bit dangerous. You always need to write the story you are passionate about, not the one dictated by the market. I spend a lot of time in editorial and acquisitions meetings and have a good sense of what publishers are looking for, but if I sat down and tried to make a conscious effort to write that book I'd probably be tied up in knots. There would be too many voices in my head, and I think as a writer the best thing you can do is really turn down the volume."