Friday, September 25, 2015

Literacy Project Reflection

My project was to send out tweets concerning reading among teens (boys specifically). I had to tweet things like "Reading is cool" or "Look what reading can do for you" in hopes that teens across the country would see m tweets and try to read some more. I chose twitter because I felt that it would be the best way to get the most people to see my content.

Here are some of the tweets I sent out:








I made my tweets very legible for people of my age younger and older. I made sure that each of my tweets could relate to a bunch of different people no matter what they were looking for. For instance, my first tweet showing the celebrities could influence more people to read since their favorite artists/celebrities are also reading. I had to contemplate wether or not to tweet as many times as I planned to. However, midway through the project I realizes that 14 tweets are too much for me, and too much for the people. I tried to get my tweets at the right times since I am a big twitter user, I know the times that most people are online and managed to get a couple of favorites per tweet which is really good for tweets about books. I am happy with my results however, I feel like I could have gotten more retweets as opposed to favorites so that more people could see my message. I also am very happy with the webpages that I found for my project since they were also pretty easy to read and VERY informative.

Finally, I feel like my project was pretty effective. I like the responses that I got on my tweets at school. However, there were a couple of haters and one in particular told me to "chill" on my tweets. This tweet made me realize that I probably should slow down on the tweets. Here is the infamous tweet:




This took part in the reason that I slowed down on the tweeting. I had to. This is because the whole reason for the tweeting was to reach the people. With the people mad that I was tweeting, I had to cater to their needs. I think I made a good decision because I stopped receiving hate tweets. 

Overall, I think this was a good project that probably helped a bunch of teens to read. I had fun while doing this project because it was something that I liked to do. Also it would help a lot of teens. 

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Thursday, September 24, 2015

Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore Review!

Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore was written by Robin Sloan. Robin, a New York Times Best Selling author, graduated from Michigan State University. The book’s story is told through the eyes of the main character, Clay Jannon. Clay is a product marketing designer who out of desperation and unemployment, takes a job working the nightshift at a bookstore called “Mr. Penumbra’s 24 hour bookstore” after seeing a sign in the window of the store looking for employees. The store seems pretty normal at first, however, business is very slow  and not many books are actually sold. Clay starts noticing people coming in at odd times taking these really old books out. After a while it starts to become sort of a ritual for these people to come in at specific times. As time goes on, with the help of his friends, Clay starts to unravel some of the secrets that Mr. Penumbra and his 24 hour bookstore are hiding.
Most of the characters in the story are well detailed, however, there are some characters that do not have much of a role in the plot of the book and it feels like the author had no purpose for them in the story. These characters include but are not limited to Clay’s roommate Ashley and an exotic dancer who comes into the bookstore to buy a Steve Jobs biography. These characters sort of just show up in the beginning of the story and do not really do much. After much analyzation, I could not find a purpose for these characters. Also, although there were characters like this, there are also some deeply developed characters like Mr. Penumbra and Kat who are very dynamic and really complement the story while playing huge roles  in the plot.
Themes are very important literature and this book is not lacking. There are a couple of themes (for instance immortality and technology vs. books) that especially stand out and Sloan goes into great in depth about. They will truly stand out to anyone who reads this book. The ongoing fight of technology versus paper is a conflict that may never be resolved. Sloan instead takes a different approach on the subject and does not really pick a side. This approach is very interesting because it is definitely not biased and actually makes a lot of sense. For example, in the text, Clay is working at the bookstore and decides to make an online log of everything that is happening at the bookstore. After Mr. Penumbra finds out about it, being an old school paper and pen kind of guy, one would expect him to get angry. However, in the text, Mr. Penumbra decides that he should try to adapt to this new way of living instead of only sticking with pen and paper. He does not only choose one side which gives the book a more well rounded approach while displaying that the characters are mostly open to growth. “I walk alone in the darkness and wonder how a person would begin to determine the circumference of the earth. I have no idea. I’d probably just google it.” (Sloan 76).
The plot is also something that is very detailed and thought out. The beginning is great, and even the middle is really good however, just when things seemed like they were going in a huge direction, the story sort of just stops and everything that the reader thought would be, isn’t. Throughout the story, I thought the plot was something that was completely different than what I thought it was. I was mislead by only myself however and others may not make the same mistake that I did. As a warning, I will say, do not read the back of this books and think that it is a story of magic and witchcraft. It is not. However, it does have a really good story for what it is so it should not be thrown out just because of its lack of magic.

In conclusion, this book has some really strong parts. Most of the characters are detailed incredibly well and the plot, complemented by its great themes of technology and immortality, is drawn out quite nicely till the end (in my opinion). The book is definitely a great read and I recommend it to anyone who wants a book with a good plot that may just seem like a story about a guy solving a mystery, but actually delves deeper into the themes of friendship and the evolving world around us. There whole book is thoroughly enjoyable and makes for a pretty good read.
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Monday, September 21, 2015

My favorite narrator

My favorite narrator is, without question, Percy Jackson, the main character in the series of books called Percy Jackson and the olympians. The novel is set in a modern day world where the greek gods are still interacting with humans just as they did in the times of Odysseus and Hercules. They are very interesting books that follow the life of Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, as he journeys to put an end to the evil of Kronos. The story is told in first person from the perspective of Percy and really puts the reader in the front seat by detailing almost everything in a way that is very easy to understand and visualize. Most of the many fighting scenes are very detailed and make the read feel like he can actually see the fight going on as he is reading. I have not had this kind of experience in the books that I have read (although the list is not very long) and would like to find some books that are similar because I know that I will enjoy them.

I also found that Percy was very good at describing things that happened even outside of fighting scenes. He could make a walk through the forest as interesting to people as discovering a new element to a scientist was and could also crack a joke at the most serious times. This kind of narration really kept me interested in the novel and I know that the Percy Jackson series was very good, however, I do not think that it would be nearly as good if the narrator was not as detailed and funny as he was.

I really recommend anyone who has not given these books a try, including adults, to start the first book. I believe that once you start, you will not stop.
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Monday, September 7, 2015

Contemporary Literature Literacy Program Project!!

      The option I am choosing for the literary project is the Twitter Campaign. I chose this option because, having 753 twitter followers I feel like I have a good platform to get my message out. Also, since people, teen guys especially, usually check twitter all day everyday, I feel that twitter is the best way for the most people to view my campaign.
      First off, I will be tweeting once a day. I did not choose this because it would be the least amount of work I had to do, but I chose it because I feel like tweeting one time a day would limit the amount of people that get annoyed or overwhelmed with my tweets, and it would also limit the amount of people that unfollow me because of my over tweeting. Again, I want everyone reading my tweets. By posting less, I feel like people would be more inclined to reading them every time they are posted.
      The times for these tweets would be: Monday - 6:30 am (before school), Tuesday - 7:30 am (as people are arriving at school), Wednesday - 9:30 (Since everyone knows there are people on twitter during school), Thursday - 10:30 (again, during school), Friday - 11:30 (during school!!), Saturday - 12:30 (good time for the weekend when people are checking twitter), Sunday - 1:30 (people are bored at home doing homework/procrastinating on twitter), Monday - 2:55 (as people are leaving school), Tuesday - 3:30 (when people are getting home from school) Wednesday - 4:30 (after school), Thursday - 5:30 (after school), Friday - 6:30 (after school), Saturday - 7:30 (night time when people are on twitter with nothing else to do/the pre-turn up time), Sunday - 8:30 (Just after homework is usually completed and people are getting ready to prepare for bed) and Monday 9:30 (as people prepare for bed).
      The reason for the times of these tweets is so that I reach at least every time I possibly can with only one tweet a day. This way, the most people will see the tweets.
      Each tweet will end with the hashtag #ReadingIsCool. The reasoning behind this is that it is simple and to the point. Also, it is something that people can see quickly and know what the campaign is about. It also pretty much sums up my campaign in three words. Another thing to note is that people can use the hashtag to spread awareness of the cause.
      Each tweet will consist of different reasons why reading is cool for boys. The first tweet, to start off the campaign will look a little bit like this. (And I have pictures of celebs reading but I could not fit them into this fake tweet for some reason...
     



      The rest of the tweets will consist of facts about reading and real life experiments with people that read and how it helps not only make you smarter, but with everyday life situations also. 

******** Also, as a side note. Retweets and hashtag posts will help my campaign be seen by more people, which is why I chose twitter ******** 
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