Author: Ava Lambert

My favorite movies 😀

1. A Silent Voice

This movie I loved. It was very sad and emotional, but it was so good. Basically, a girl moves to a new school, and she is deaf. She writes her words she wants to say down into a notebook. Kids bully her the entire time she’s there. She tried befriending one of the bullies leading to her notebook being thrown away. It skips into the future when they are grown, and the boy that bullied her tries to fix his past mistakes. It may not sound to eventful in my own words but watch the movie.

2. Batman: The Killing Joke

This is my favorite batman movie. I love it because Joker is one of my favorite characters of all time. This movie is kind of dark, not really. In this movie The Joker attacks commissioner Gordon, and his family in his attempts to drive them crazy. In the process Joker shoots Barbra Gordon paralyzing her. For those who do not know Barbra she is commissioner Gordons daughter, or Batgirl. In this movie we also get to see a story line of Jokers past.

3. Scream

We all know why most people enjoy the scream movies. I cannot say I am not one of those people, but I also enjoy the movie itself. If I had to pick only one movie of the franchise to talk about it would be the first Scream. A killer in the town of Woodsboro starts killing several teenagers by the “rules” of slasher movies. The main victim is Sydney Prescott. In the end the killers were two boys in the high school. I will keep the name secret in case anyone has not seen the movie.

4. The Labyrinth

This movie is just a classic. I grew up on this movie watching it over and over again. As a kid it was definitely my number one favorite. In this movie the main character Sarah has to babysit her younger brother. As the babies crying progresses, she quotes from her fairy tale book “Goblin King, oh Goblin King…I wish the goblins would take you away right now!” leading to the summoning of The Goblin King. The king takes the baby, Toby, and Sarah to the labyrinth. He keeps the baby in the center of the labyrinth with his many goblins. Sarah has to make it through this huge Labyrinth to save her younger brother.

5. Why do ghouls fall in love?

This is a monster high movie. I really didn’t know what movie to put at number 5, so I chose this one. In this movie it is Draculaura’s 1600^th birthday and the other girls are trying to plan her a party. Toralie Stripe is a cat, and she poses as one of the mean girls at monster high. Toralie calls Draculaura’s ex-boyfriend Valentine pretending to be her inviting him to monster high. Now, Draculaura has a boyfriend, Clawd Wolf. Draculaura is put under Valentine’s spell. Valentine’s goal is to break hearts through his spells. She starts falling in love with him in front of Clawd. Eventually, everyone figures it out and stops Valentine and Toralie at Draculaura’s birthday.

Recently I picked up a wonderful book of poems from an unexpected place. Walmart, sure they have the one book isle of manga, cookbooks, novels, etc. but they are never very interesting. A couple weeks ago I saw a book titled Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur. This book was sitting alone, and misplaced. I picked up the book thinking it had an interesting solid black matte cover with a bee and the title. The cover was smooth and soft as the book was untouched.  I just read the first couple of poems from page one. I didn’t expect to find a piece in there that jerked my heart strings. I’ll include the piece at the end. This book includes many poems of different meanings, but I have not read them all so I’m speaking on what I know. It contained poetry to cater towards woman, and the serious female struggles in life from the huge issues to the smaller ones. There is a trigger warning if you decide to purchase this book. It discusses serious sexual issues among women. It also includes family struggles, significant other struggles. Here is the poem that got me to purchase this book.

“father. you always call to say nothing in particular. you ask what i’m doing or where i am and when the silence stretches like a lifetime between us i scramble to find questions to keep the conversation going. what i long to say most is. i understand this world broke you. it has been so hard on your feet. i don’t blame you for not knowing how to remain soft with me. sometimes i stay up thinking of all the places you are hurting which you’ll never care to mention. i come from the same aching blood. from the same bone so desperate for attention i collapse in on myself. i am your daughter. i know the small talk is the only way you know how to tell me you love me. cause it is the only way I know how to tell you.”

I loved this poem, because of my personal experience with my father. It really spoke to me, and I feel a lot of the poems throughout this book could speak to many more people as well. It speaks on many problematic things in this world. By spreading the word of this book, I hope for more people to see Rupi Kaur’s poems. I feel it could be an eye-opening thing for some people to hear. Also, it can make people who struggle with those things feel like they aren’t alone or bring awareness to people who haven’t. I know the wording throughout this isn’t very clear in certain sentences. It’s because I either cannot mention what’s in the book or its a suggestive topic for some people. -Rupi Kaur

How to understand literature

                Personally, I have a tough time understanding literature, novels specifically. I forget everything I read on the last page, or I do not fully soak in what is going on in the story. This is a common thing in most people’s lives. Especially during school or college when you are reading something slightly complex or not complex, but it is just very boring, yet you must learn it. This skill does not pertain to only school either. Let us say you like reading in your free time but have trouble remembering or understanding the material. My goal here is to help anyone who needs it better understand literature, because I know I can struggle sometimes.

Useful materials

• Novel of your choice
• Notebook/paper
• Pencil
• Sticky notes
• A comfortable environment

First, you should read the introduction of any book or article. There will always be an introduction that covers main points. Let that information soak in and make sure you understand before you move on. Documenting this section in your notebook or post it note is not very necessary, but if you feel the need to then go ahead. Reading this will give you a better understanding of the pieces theme. Continue to read your sub-headings and summary. Reading these things can give you an idea of the main points and help you to better see when they come up in the book. It is especially important to reflect on what you have read also. From the introduction, summary, and subheadings really take that information in and reflect to be sure you understood and remembered.

Jotting small bullet lists from these things is not a bad idea either. Just on your little post it notes write down some points you had a challenging time remembering or you felt were significant and place them in your book wherever you would like. I recommend putting them at the beginning or end of the introduction or summary, but that is fully up to you how you want to organize your thoughts. Now you are ready to read!

Get your notebook ready and whatever writing utensil you prefer because this is where it comes in handy. As you read your book chapter by chapter write down the main points. Whether it be in a list or paragraph form. You can also do these on post its, but the notebook gives you more space to work with. As you go along stop at the end of each chapter. Write down the main points in that chapter you remember. Also, doing this throughout the chapter is perfectly fine, so those points are fresh on your mind.

Look for signs of explanation. Where the author starts talking about specific events and how they effected other events and be sure to write those down also. Now do not rush yourself. It is perfectly okay to be reading on a book for months at a time. You do not have to finish in one week. If you come across a word, you do not understand or know the meaning of then look it up and jot it down. Make a page in your notebook for vocabulary specifically if that helps you stay organized. One word in a sentence can set the entire tone, emotion, or plot. It is important to know the meanings to the words in your book.

If you follow these steps and still do not seem to be grasping the material, it is perfectly okay to go back and read over and over. Sometimes you can just keep reading and you will get the hang of things. Once you have reached the end of your piece go back and read your notes. If you feel your missing something just read over them as much as you need. The repetition will help you learn it if it is a boring book for school.

Now I have a few more tips just in case!

• Do not beat yourself up about it. Everyone has different processes and learns differently. Just because your process is harder does not mean anything. You are doing wonderful!
• I would not recommend doing this in a noisy place. Your brain will try and focus on all the words except the ones you are reading.
• Try and find someone who is reading the same novel or someone in your class reading the book as well. Its always nice to have discussions about literature, and they may tell you things you did not notice about the book.
• Lastly, do not give up on yourself. I know that sounds cheesy, but you cannot beat yourself down an give up. The issue will never resolve.