Erin's MCBA Book Project

Tyler looks out the window of his bedroom and can't believe what he is seeing.
He rubs his eyes. Still there! Some strange people are coming out of the trailer where the hired help usually stays. They have brown skin and black hair, and although they don't wear feathers or carry tomahawks, they sure do look like the American Indians in his history’s textbook last year
in fifth grade.


I think that Tyler is little scared because strangers are trespassing on his farm. This makes me think of how hard it would be if people I didn’t know were randomly walking on my farm (if i had one.) If these people hadn't bin real strangers and Tyler new that they were that hired help I think he would've acted very differently to the site of these people. Although Tyler didn’t know who these people were I think that he handled it very well. If I were Tyler I would be scared that these people were going to hurt me or my family, Tyler might have felt this way to. On the other hand Tyler understands they need to do to save the farm. In addition Return to Sender is a grate book, I highly recommend it

What I'd Say by Aymon

Sometimes people come up to me and say " Why do you wear glasses?" or " Why do your eyes wiggle?" but you know none of that really matters. I think people are almost weirded out because they think I'm different but I'm not. On the inside I'm all the same. So what? I can't see! It doesn't matter as long as I can express my feelings and be a good person. Please don't be weirded out by me and try and take me as on of you because I am.

The Year the Swallows Came Early MCBA Project by Aymon Langlois

"Actually, I'm pretty sure it opens one of the safe deposit boxes at the bank," I told them. " I was just on my way over there.", " That's where treasure is usually kept." Felix said.


I think this is a good way to look at it. I would have to agree with Felix. The bank is where treasure is kept.

When You Reach Me Project

Riley Dowe


Miranda:
Your letter must tell a story---a true story.
You cannot begin now, as most of it has not yet taken place.
And even afterward, there is no hurry. But do not wait so long
that your memory fades. I require as much detail as you can provide.
The trip is a difficult one, and I must ask my favors while my mind is sound.

A postscript: I know you have shared my first note.
I ask you not to share the others. Please. I do not ask this for myself.


I think Miranda cannot share the notes because, like the letter says,
"I ask you not to share the others. Please. I do not ask this for myself."
This could mean the future occurrences will get screwed up if she does, and the writer is going to have to give up on the person he asks this for.
The note asks for favors while the writer's mind is sound.
This probably means they are busy trying to figure out what actions to make
during the future occurrences, for it could get twisted.
All of this probably means that every step in the occurrence has to be perfect, and if anything gets messed up, something bad will happen.

Foolhardy

Foolhardy is brave but daring,
you'd rather be underwater held by a hering,
because you'll find yourself comparing,
the truth between you and the ignorant, daring.

These fearlessly, bold, vacous people,
find themselfs hanging from a steeple,
casually reading about buisseness people.

You could also find them standing,
on the edge of a cliff,
making a batch of brownies in a jiff,
they do this to scare the people stiff.

Regular people have a sensative bone,
but it might scare you that the foolhardy people dont have that tone,
they jump, they swing,
FOOLHARDY PEOPLE ARE GREAT AT SCARING!!!!!

BOO!!!

By: Brynn and Sophie

Burly

By: Rachel Lucas

and

Erin Ferguson

He's big and strong,

like King-Kong.

Powerful, potent, formidable,

violent, solid and sturdy,

the opposite of a birdy.

Durable, intense,

he can break through your fence.

Athletic, robust,

he could break a bus.

Vigorous, invincible,

he's better than your principal.

Haikus

1. Books

Open then close it
Oh no! Can’t find the right one!
Looking for the best

2. Families

Sisters are bossy
Parents love you very much
Annoying brothers

3. Pets

Loved by families
Furry pets are the coolest
Pets can be funny

4. Dynamite

Dynamite goes BOOM!
Dynamite can blow you up!
Quick! Run for cover!


By Rachel Shurland

Route

By: Rachel Lucas

The route is the way to go,

Even in the snow.

It's a course,

Even on a horse.

It's the place where you want to go,

Ya' know,

Like a show.

It's a road,

You can carry a LOAD,

On a road.

short small to the point no need to diley daley when you can just be short small to the point so no need to spend all the explaining when you can be terse better have your ears ready because its gonna be terse

Challenge

Challenge is a summon of skill
Will you accept this invitation
This is hard and you could fail
But don't just let your prize go
Use skill and strategy and you shall suceed

CONQUER

One day i'll be at the top of the world
I'll have them in my grasp
I'll beat them all one by one
They're a thing of the past
Planets will go down two by two
I'll crush them with my wrath
And then we'll see who's number one
After all that
Suffer, Agonize, some more
Feel that pain and furry
I'll lure you with my great sucess
I'll make you feel the power
I'll be the best
Then I'll let you rest
And that's the end of that

Optimist

By Rachel Shurland and Madeline Liberman

Optimist is always nice

One good thing for her will surely suffice.

She always sees the glass as half full

She fights despair like it's a bull.

She basks in happy, denies all sad

Every day is the best one she's ever had.

She's always hopeful and full of cheer

She'll never be found right next to fear.

She's always confident, expectant that things will go right

She's the candle on a dark night.

www.katelynpandablog.com

www. katelynpandablog.com By, Natalie Lovvoll “Dad, why do we need to move each year?” I asked quietly as I stared at the floor. Ever since I was three our family had to move every single year due to my Dad’s job. My Dad replied with the usual, “Sorry we need to do this honey, but I have to do this for my job. Who knows? Maybe you’ll see your favorite animal the panda while we’re in China. You know, China is known for their pandas. They even have pandas on their money!” That’s something else that my Dad always says, something good about the country or state we’re moving to. When we were moving to Australia my Dad said, “Honey, maybe you could see how UGGS are made.” That never happened, and I doubt that I’m going to see a panda. “The plane to China will be landing in 30 minutes, thank you for flying with us on Jet Blue airlines,” Said the computer -sounding flight attendant. As we were walking to go pick up our luggage, I looked around the airport. My Dad was right, China does have a lot of panda themed places; they even had a fast food place called the “Holy Panda”. The airport also had American restaurants like McDonalds and Dunkin Doughnuts, but the names were all written in Chinese, which is an unfamiliar language to me. Life sure was going to be different here. It was a good thing we were only going to be in China for a year. Next year, I’ll finally get to live back in America. Like they say in the national anthem, “My home, sweet home.” “Home sweet, home honey,” my Dad said as we walked in to our 14th new home. So really this wasn’t our “home”. I would call it a cottage not a home. You stay for a year then move to a different one the next year after that. Then my Dad said something I never thought he would say “How about you take the car and go to the mall? Maybe you’ll make some new friends there!” Well, how could I say no to the chance to go in our new convertible and 80 dollars in cash? Who knows, maybe I’ll even learn some Chinese! Though I didn’t learn any Chinese at the mall, I did enter a contest. The contest was to see who could learn the most facts about the panda. You have to post blogs on a website about pandas. So of course I entered because one, I love pandas and two I also know a lot about pandas. I’m even going to the zoo to see a panda! “抱歉，我不讲英语，但是我可以告诉您关于熊猫用中文，熊猫只吃竹子，并且熊猫每天吃磅竹子每天 “said the Chinese zoo keeper. This means “Sorry, I do not speak English, but I can tell you about the panda in Chinese. The panda only eats bamboo and each day they eat 20-40 pounds of bamboo,” said my translator whose voice sounded like a blank canvas. “Thanks” I replied happily, a grin spread across my face. Then I decided to go home and do what my Dad always does; type, type, type! This is a list of all the facts I want to put on the blog. Panda Facts . Pandas can be also called “large bear cats” or “bamboo bears” . Pandas are curious and playful . A wilds panda’s diet is 99% bamboo . Baby pandas are born white then develop coloring later also they are blind for 5 months . Most pandas can live to be 20 years or older . Pandas do not hibernate like other bears . Pandas are endangered Those are all the facts I have for now, but soon I’ll have much, much more. I went back to the mall and I found out that the prize for the contest was a trip for two to go see the black bear, the grizzly bear, and of course the panda bear! I guess my Dad was right. Maybe I will see a panda! I decided to go to the zoo again and surprisingly there was a zoo keeper who spoke English! “Hi, do you want to learn about pandas?” said the friendly American zoo keeper. “Sure” I replied. “Well, the panda is very good at climbing trees and swimming. The panda has an extra “thumb” to help them climb the trees.” said the zoo keeper. “Thank you,” I said. Then the zoo keeper said, “Here’s a book filled with tons of panda facts. Maybe you could learn more about pandas from it.” “Thank you, so, so much.” I said. Then I decided to go back home and read! Back at home, I read a great book on pandas written by John Crossingham. I took some of the facts to write the following blog. Pandas, Raccoons, Cats, Oh My! By, Katelyn Willow What are pandas? That question has been asked thousands of times by scientists. They thought the panda was a bear, cat or raccoon. They thought the panda was a giant raccoon because it uses its front paws to hold its food. Scientists also thought the panda was a raccoon because the pandas face looked like the face of the raccoon. Scientists thought maybe the panda was a type of cat because the red panda looks like a cat. But really the red panda and the giant panda surprisingly have no relation to each other! Scientists thought that the panda might be a bear. Most people also thought the panda was a bear too because it has the most similarities to the bear. They both stand on their legs and are both great at swimming and climbing trees. Scientists soon tested the pandas DNA and found out that the panda wasn’t a cat or raccoon it is a bear! The next day I went to the United States Library in China. As I walked into the library I spotted a white haired old lady who looked like a Librarian. I walked over to her and she said in English “Can I help you?” “Um, do you happen to know where the panda books would be?” I replied. “The panda books are on that shelf over there. It has a big panda stuffed animal on top of it!” “Thanks” I said to the helpful librarian. The library had loads of panda books. I checked out about half of them. Theses books are going to help me so, so much with my panda project! I started reading Giant Panda By, Yvette Metral. It was loaded with facts like on page two it says, “Pandas were discovered about 100 years ago. The first man to find a panda thought it was a bear. That was because it had thick legs and wooly fur.” I’ve read all of my books and I made a couple blog entries. Here are a few of them! Pandas Eating Habits and Extinction Did you know that Pandas only eat bamboo? So it’s not a good idea to cut down the bamboo forest. Not only are you cutting down their home you are making cute pandas starve. The panda’s diet is 99% bamboo. The panda eats 20-40 pounds of bamboo a day! Pandas are endangered and they could become extinct. Would you want to never be able to see pandas in the bamboo forests of China again? You can save pandas by donating money to WWF or to Panda Trust. People need to stop cutting down the bamboo forest or soon pandas might become extinct. I got my information to write that from “Giant Panda in Danger of Extinction, by Anna Clayborne” This is something else I posted on the blog the next day. Red Panda, Giant Panda what’s the Difference? How are they Similar? So what’s the difference between the Red Panda and the Giant Panda? Is it just their name and how they look? The answer is no. The Giant Panda and the Red Panda have much more differences than just their name and how they look. In fact the Giant Panda and the Red Pandas are actually two different types of animals. Though their names sound similar, the Red Panda and the Giant Panda actually have no relationship to each other. The Giant Panda is a type of bear and the Red Panda is a type of raccoon. The Giant Panda and the Red Panda have more differences than that though. They also have a big difference in their weight. The Giant Panda weighs 200-300 pounds and the Red Panda only weighs 11 pounds! Giant pandas also tend to be more playful than the Red Panda. The Red Panda and the Giant Panda are also similar. Sadly both these two animals are endangered. They are both Asian mammals and China is the only place they live besides zoos. The Government of China protects both of these Asian mammals. The giant panda and the Red Panda both eat bamboo. But the Giant Panda eats it much, much more; the Red Panda also eats grasses, roots, nut and berries. The giant panda only eats bamboo. Red Pandas and Giant Pandas are not related to each other even though their names are very similar. I got that information from “Giant Pandas By, Karen Dudley” I learned a lot more about pandas by doing this contest, I just hope I win! Today I took my panda project to the mall to hand it in, and I asked how long the trip would be. The lady said “全部的，整个的；所有的，一切的” which means one whole year! I rushed home to go tell my Dad. He said nervously, “Great, Honey. I hope you win that contest!” “I do too,hey Dad why do you sound so nervous?” I questioned, trying to meet my father’s wandering blue eyes. My dad replied even more nervous than the first time. “Me? Nervous noooo, I’m not nervous one bit!” I couldn’t take it anymore, so I just asked my Dad “Really, what’s the matter?” “Honey, I know you’ll get really mad at me if I tell you this,” said my Dad slowly. “No, Dad I promise I won’t!” I said quickly. “Honey, I’m sorry but we won’t be moving to America next year.” “Its okay dad, I know you have a really complicated job, thanks for telling me, though,” I said sadly, ready to leave the room. I thought back to the other time that my dad said the same thing. I was 6 years old, and my dad told me that we weren’t moving to Paris. I remember my dad telling me that we had to move to Japan. I can just picture my Dads sparkling blue eyes telling me “ Honey I’m so sorry but we won’t be moving to Paris this year, hey maybe in Japan you’ll get to eat some new types of candy!” Even though I did get to taste some Japanese candy, I’d much rather live in Paris. I wasn’t even listening to what my Dad was saying. But then I listened and my Dad said loudly “Sorry honey, but I need to do this for work, hey maybe you’ll get your first job in Mexico!” said my Dad loud but cheerful, but I knew from his eyes that he too was disappointed too that we were not moving to America. I decided to go up to my room and email my friend who lives in America. If I win this contest, maybe I could live in America. Then again, it would only be a year. I guess I will get to live in America for a year! I got an email today that told me I won the contest! I rushed down stairs to tell my dad. “Guess what dad!?” I was so excited I didn’t even give my Dad time to answer. “I won the contest!” I said loudly, smiling at my Dad who was tapping away at the computer. “I knew you would honey, great job!” said my Dad sounding more proud than he did when I got chosen to be Dorothy in are school play the Wizard of Oz. “Dad the prize was a trip for two to America and you get to see the black bear and the grizzly bear and the panda! I was wondering if maybe you wanted to come with me dad.” I said quickly. “Honey, of course I want to come to America! I can just write my books there instead of Mexico!” Then we started packing! “You will be landing in America in 30 minutes. Thank you for flying Jet Blue airlines.” This time I didn’t ask the usual question “Dad why do we need to move each year?” I didn’t need to, we were finally back in the USA! This time I didn’t see any Holy Pandas or anything written in Chinese. I just saw the normal American McDonalds and Starbucks. “Home sweet home honey!” my dad said, in front of our old house that I lived in 13 years ago. The only thing different from the other times that he said that was that this time I believed him. Work Sited Page Claybourne, Anna. Giant Panda in Danger Extinction. 2nd ed. Illinois: 2005 Print. Dudley, Karen. Giant Pandas. 2nd ed. Canada: 1917 Print. Crossingham, John. Endangered Pandas. Canada: 2005 Print. Metral, Yvette. The Panda. 3rd ed. London: 1983 Print Panda Fun Facts." Panda Kids. Web. 10 Feb. 2001. . \

Should Have Been Born in a Spotlight!

When Walt Disney was 12 he drew pictures for the workers at the local barbershop. The illustrations were so good, that local citizens started making trips to the barbershop, just to see his drawings. Luckily for Walt, these drawings earned him free haircuts. Another time, Walt performed a skit for his class and it was so good that his teacher asked him to perform it for the whole school! Walt said yes. He was known for trying to claim every little bit of fame he got a chance at. Young Walt wasn’t able to sweep the audience every time he performed. For example, once when Walt was living in Chicago, Walt and Russell Maas, a good friend, worked out a comedy act together. Their final product must have been pretty bad. When the two friends performed their skit at a nearby theater, they ended up getting kicked off the stage I wonder how they felt about that?! Another time he was in his school production of “Peter Pan”, his brother, Roy, hooked wires up to Walt so he could fly. If you were in the audience it would looked exactly like he was really flying! Walt was getting higher and higher up in the air, all of a sudden the wire broke! The most mortifying part about this for Walt was the landing part. Walt landed in the audience. I wonder what Walt thought was more embarrassing, getting kicked off stage, or landing in the audience? Better yet, how did his parents react? It is pretty amazing that the Disney house was not turned upside down most of the time due to opposing ideas between Walt’s parents. Walt’s mother and father were almost opposites. Flora was a woman with a great sense of humor and a well used smile. Elias was a man of strict religion, a belt whipping arm, and a lot of ambition. Walt’s father was almost always serious. The couple of times he did see his father smile and have a good time were on occasional Sundays when he was with his friends playing the fiddle. Walt’s father didn’t believe in toys. This is why a 10 cent toy was a big deal for young Walt. Elias Disney wasn’t too big on carnivals either. To Elias they were both thought of as waste of time and money. Lucky for us, Walt didn’t turn out to be strict like his father. Thankfully Walt was able to survive all those years with his father and turned out pretty successfully in the world of jobs. Walt’s experiences may well have influenced his later career in children’s entertainment. Walt’s first job was working in the postal business and his second as an ambulance driver in France during World War I. His third was as an artist in Kansas City working with a man named UB. They worked well together. They had everything they needed; the talent, the tools, and the ideas. They were only missing one thing… the customers. It only took a month before they had to close down. Fortunately, the two found jobs together at the Kansas City Slide Company. Working there literally changed Walt’s life. While working at this company, he discovered how everything works in animation. Learning about animation was like going to fun school. Walt didn’t know it, but having learned about animation helped him as he became older. A little while later, while Walt was still working for the Kansas Slide Company, he decided to set up a studio in his shed. Walt created a series of tales called Laugh-O-Grams. These were short and funny. In the end, he only completed one. Creating a person waving could take up to nineteen drawings! Walt tried his very hardest not to let difficult work stop him. Walt sold his Laugh-O-Grams to the “The Newman Theater Company”. The first production Walt created has become a classic. He named it,” Little Red Riding Hood”. Walt’s dream of becoming a famous animator was becoming closer to reach! Walt’s Laugh-O-Grams company failed, but Walt later said, “I think it’s important to have a good hard failure while you’re still young”. Walt felt very positive about his future, himself, and about finding a job to support himself. Walt and his courage moved in with his uncle, Robert Disney. Walt needed a job to pay his Uncle Robert rent for staying in his house. In Hollywood, all he did was search for an open job as an actor or as a director. Every time Walt tried out, he was turned down just like the millions of other teens yearning to be movie stars. Finally, Walt and one of his older brothers, agreed to start a small animation business. They settled on making a series about a girl named Alice and her adventures. Walt thought that they would make plenty of episodes. But a month later, Walt and his brother quit, only having completed one episode called “Alice Hunting in Africa.”. One very special day, Walt and a much bigger company produced movies that had color and sound. The Walt Disney Company also opened two of their very own amusement parks. Children, adults, teenagers, and even grandparents were excited all across the U.S for the grand opening of the new Disney Theme parks. For Walt, all this chatter about his new parks was nothing but the aroma of complete success! “Hollywood stars and entertainers of that time had received special invitations. Thousands of fake invitations added to the crowds. Other people scrambled over the fences, entering the park illegally.” Not everything about the opening day was a success. ”Disneyland Park’s first visitors soon discovered that the planners and workers had run out of time. Only twenty-three of the park’s attractions were ready. Due to a summer heat wave, the newly poured asphalt softened, and women’s high heels sank into the walkways. There were not enough trash cans, drinking fountains, or completed restrooms, which were allimportant features to Walt. The power went out in Fantasyland, and restaurants ran out of food.” ~ Judith, Josephson, “Walt Disney: Genius of Entertainment”, 2006. Even though the beginning was disastrous, the big parade at the end of the day going down Main St. was a huge hit! Over the course of the next couple of years, Walt worked extremely hard creating new characters and cartoons. On December 21st of 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs made its way to the big screen inside the Carthay Theater located in Los Angeles. Many people showed, including famous actors! The audience was in tears to see Snow White had passed away in the last scene from the witch’s poisonous apple. Finally Prince Charming kissed Snow White on the lips and her eyes fluttered open. At that very second the crowd stood up and started roaring with applause. For the first time in history, there was now such thing as a full length cartoon touching people’s hearts. This is Walt Disney’s story, a story about a young man and his journey to becoming one of the most famous creators in the world.

Sleep And Its Stages

You’re watching TV late at night. While you are sitting there, you take a quick glance at the clock. OMG! It is two hours past your bedtime and you have a huge math test tomorrow! You quickly hurry upstairs and jump right into bed. You then fall asleep almost instantly. Next thing you know, your mother is shaking you and telling you to wake up. What happened during those mysterious eight hours?

People called polysomnographic technologists study this very question.

You first begin your sleep journey with transition/stage N1. After this, the extremely long N2 will come around and use up 45-55% of your night! Following this is the very deep Stage N3! N3 is very hard to wake you up from! Last but not least, REM sleep is the most famous for being the time where you have all memorable dreams!

But let’s start where the whole cycle begins, the under acknowledged stage N1.

There are two kinds of sleep; REM (rapid eye movement) and NREM (non rapid eye movement). When you first lie down, the first stage you will experience is Stage N1, the first stage of NREM. You will lose some muscle tone and most awareness of your environment. This stage is very light and you are quite easily awoken from it. So light, that if someone woke you from it you would say you were only thinking! This stage is actually a transition between a waking mind and sleeping which is why it usually only lasts a few minutes. During this transition, it is common to experience hypnic jerks or an involuntary twitch. Following this is stage N2.

Unlike stage N1, this stage is rather long and takes up 45-55% of all sleep in adults. N2 is the stage where you lose most muscle tone and all awareness of your surrounding environment. There is no eye movement and dreams are extremely rare. Unlike stage N1, this stage is rather long and takes up 45-55% of all sleep in adults. The third and final stage in NREM sleep comes next.

Stage N3, previously stages N3 and N4, became one stage in 2007 when the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) combined them to make Deep Sleep or SWS (slow wave sleep). This stage is very deep and quite comfortable. Dreaming can happen now, but it is often less clear and vivid than REM dreams. Still, it happens! This is the stage where parasomnias most often occur. They are things that interrupt natural sleep. Some examples of parasomnias are Somnambulism (sleepwalking), Night terrors (AKA sleep terrors), and Bruxism (grinding of teeth). When I was really little, I used to sleepwalk, but I outgrew a long time ago.

The fourth and final stage in the sleep cycle is REM sleep. It is characterized by, well, rapid eye movement! The stage was discovered in 1952 by Eugene Aserinsky and Nathaniel Kleitman with help from William C. Dement. This stage is most famous because of the fact that the most vivid dreams happen now. Some are so vivid that a muscular atonia can happen to prevent the dreamer from acting out their dreams.

Some people claim that they don’t dream. This is not true. All mammals have REM sleep. The people who claim they don’t dream simply don’t remember them. If you wake up during a dream that is the only one you will remember. If you don’t wake up during a dream then you won’t remember anything. This stage usually takes up 20-25% of sleep in all human beings or 90-120 minutes of sleep.

After all this happens, you will keep going through this cycle until you wake up. Then you get out of bed, go to school, come home, do homework, eat dinner, and then watch some TV late at night. While you are sitting there, you take a quick glance at the clock. OMG! It is two hours past your bedtime and you have a huge math test tomorrow! You quickly hurry upstairs and jump right into bed. You then fall asleep almost instantly. Next thing you know, your mother is shaking you and telling you to wake up…

By Simon

Silverstein, Alvin, and Virginia Silverstein. The Mystery of Sleep. 1st ed. Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1987. Print.

"Sleep." wikipedia.org. N.p., 3 Mar. 2011. Web. 3 Mar. 2011.

"sleep." 6th. ed. Colombia University Press, 2007. factmonster.com. Web. 18 Feb. 2011.

"Rapid eye movement sleep." wikipedia.org. N.p., 14 Feb. 2011. Web. 3 Mar. 2011.

The Different Ways to See a Color

by Colin Canavan

“Colin move up to the center line!” my dad yelled. “Where did my dad think I was,” I wondered as I was in the first half of my soccer game. “Aren’t I on the line?” Finally I figured it out because I suddenly noticed a thin outline of an orange line in the grass. So I quickly moved up to it. I am colorblind, so when I see orange next to green it looks like green. Since the green fields at my soccer game were lined with orange, it all just looked like green.

Everyone who wonders about my colorblindness and knows that I am colorblind asks me, “What color is this?” or, “what color is that?” They expect that I cannot see the color they are asking because I am colorblind. When I answer their question correctly, they say, “You aren’t colorblind.” They do not understand that I can see colors but that I just see some different shades of colors.

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->The angle and light can affect the way you see colors. I looked at a colorblind test from far away and I couldn’t see the picture that was supposed to be there. But, when I looked at it closely, I saw the picture. The test had a circle and a triangle in it and I could see the circle but not the triangle, until I looked at it closely. On the left test you are supposed to see a circle and an x and on the right you are supposed to see a circle and a triangle. If you are colorblind, the colors that you confuse are often very close. It might be that blue looks like purple, or one dark color and other dark colors look the same. But, bright and dark colors do not look the same!

If someone can’t see any color then they have no cones at all. <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->Everyone has cells in their eyes called cones, which receive light. Without light your eyes cannot see any colors. A person who is not colorblind has three cones in their eye. A person who is colorblind but can see colors has one or two cones.

Since I am colorblind, I have learned to say the correct name of a color even when I don’t see it. For example, I see blue as purple, but I have learned what the color blue is. Everyone would say, “That color is blue, not purple.” After years of everyone saying that to me, I know to call it blue even when it looks purple to me. I still get confused sometimes and then say, “I really don’t know what color that is at all!”

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> If you are colorblind, you can wear glasses or contact lenses that are tinted to help you tell the difference between colors. For example, if you see blue as purple they can make glasses that have a lighter color so you can tell the difference between the two colors. It might look goofy to wear these special colored glasses, so eye doctors recommend wearing contacts. I wouldn’t choose to wear these glasses.

I have always wondered what the right colors would look like. Unfortunately, I will never know. Maybe I could try the glasses once and see if they make the colors look how they are supposed to.

Since colorblindness is genetic, which means it is usually passed down through families. The males are usually the colorblind people in the family. If they have a girl, that girl usually passes it down to her son, in the form of a recessive gene, and so on. My Papa is colorblind and his grandfather was colorblind. I blame it on them for making me colorblind. My Papa is red-green colorblind which means he can’t tell the difference between red and green. My great-grandmother used to tell stories about how after school she would have to go help her father. He was a tailor and couldn’t tell what color thread would match the suit fabrics his customers had chosen to buy. She would go pick out the matching threads for him. Women can be colorblind, but very few are. In the U.S.A., 7% of men and 0.4% of females are colorblind.

Even though you weren’t born colorblind, beware, because you could become colorblind even though you aren’t now! You can develop colorblindness by taking certain medicines when you are old that contain chemicals that can make you colorblind. Another way to become colorblind is through injury.

Colorblindness can affect you in lots of different ways. One way it can affect you is in school, where lots of things rely on colors. If you are colorblind, it takes you longer to find the color you want in a crayon box. You might think brown crayons looks like red crayons, so you reach for the wrong color and have to look at the label to see if you are right. Colorblindness can also affect the job that you choose. You will not be able to enlist in some Military Forces, nor will you be able to work in railroad engineering or engineering that works with colored wires. I’m still wondering what jobs I can do in the future, and I am making a list of jobs that I can and can’t do.

If you ever want to test if you are colorblind, you can go online or take the <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->colorblindness test at the Museum of Science. They usually have circles or blocks that have a number, letter, or shape inside and if you see it differently than normal people or you just see different color dots, YOU MIGHT BE COLORBLIND!!!

Before I looked at a colorblind test to see if I was colorblind, I was still coloring the sky purple. That was while I was in kindergarten. My mom grew suspicious and asked me the color of the sky that I had been coloring. I responded blue, because that was what I thought it was. Later, my mom remembered that her father is colorblind. She had been looking out for my two, older brothers when they were younger and had forgotten about it when she had me. Then, when my mom took me to the Museum of Science so I could take a colorblind test, I felt weird looking at one of the pictures. In the picture, I saw a different number than the rest of my family. That was the moment when we were sure I was colorblind.

Colorblindness is a funny genetic trait to have. Typically, the colorblind person is oblivious to the problem. It is usually brought to their attention by the people around them. I thought that two ties were green, and then my mom told me that one was orange. I also thought a room I was in was light blue until someone walked in and blurted out, “This room is my favorite color, purple!” Check your family tree. You might be colorblind and no one has told you yet.

Work Cited Page

Color Blindness Homepage." http:// colorvisiontesting.com. 20 Jan. 2011. Web.

"Color Blindness." www.allaboutvision.com/conditions/colordeficiency. 20 Jan. 2011. Web.

Rosenthal, Odeda, and Robert H. Phillips. Coping with Color Blindness. 1997. Print.

The World Book Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. 2007. p. 827. Print.

Ancient Korea vs. Modern Korea Dear Diary, July 6, 2011 My parents always tell me about Ancient Korea and how my great x10 grandmother lived. It sounds fascinating. But I wonder how much has changed from a thousand years until now. Probably everything has changed except the food, language and some of our culture. Most people think of a seesaw as a toy little kids play on. But did you ever think that a simple toy could serve a big purpose? In Ancient Korea it did. Women were once not able to go out and see the world, like us. So what did they do? Play Nul-tti-gi of course. Nul-tti-gi is a Korean seesaw. When we travel back to 1,000 B.C., you will experience the diary of a Korean girl living an Ancient Korea. Traveling Back Thousands of years… Dear Diary, Dec. 11 I’m not allowed to see outside. I’m not allowed to see the grass. My friends and I lay down a big bag of rice. We heave a plank of wood onto the bag and my friend squats down in the middle to balance the board. I go over to one end and step on the plank of wood, hoping it will stay. Then I jump. My friend flies up and then drops. When she hits the wood, I fly up and I see the grass, the trees. It’s wonderful! I plan to do this every day. Nul-tti-gi was very important to girls because they were very isolated. Imagine what it would feel like looking at the exact same surroundings, every single day! No one is sure how Nul-tti-gi was created, but this is just one theory about how it was invented: Girls were isolated because it was a belief that boys and girls should not be together and were to be separated. They weren’t always separated though. Before they turned seven, girls were allowed to go anywhere. After they turned seven, goodbye boys and hello, isolation! So I guess the girls missed their freedom and created a way to see outside: Nul-tti-gi! Not only were young girls isolated, but they also had many chores. One was da-deumi, an ancient Korean method of ironing. Dear Diary, Dec.12 Oh no…a great big pile of laundry to iron is right in front of me. I have to finish this by the end of the week. I grab two rollers which resemble clubs and sit in a comfortable position. I start beating the cloth with the wooden rollers, ironing the cloth to make it fresh and crisp. Thump…tap…thump…tap…the rhythm comforts me and I start to enjoy making rhythms. Thump BOOM…taa…tap tap… Tap…tap…boom… Maybe da-deumi isn’t so bad. Dear Diary, Dec.12 Later My hanbok got dirty finishing up da-deumi so I had to change clothes. I’m going to wear my best hanbok. It’s quite beautiful, made out of fine silk. I tie the chima around my body. It’s a long billowing skirt that reaches down to my toes. I love it. It billows out so I can stretch my legs; I don’t have to walk little baby steps. Then I slip on my chogori and tie it up. It looks like a small jacket. All these fancy hanboks are reminding me of my cousins wedding that will be soon. I’m having a new hanbok made for the wedding. Her wedding will be the best! I just know it. Dear Diary, Dec. 14 The wedding was very nice. Of course it had all the things any wedding should have. I love the little mogan figurine on the wedding table. It stands for everlasting love which everyone attending the wedding hopes for the bride and groom. I will miss my cousin though. When she is married, she is no longer part of my family any more. She is just suddenly severed apart from our family. Now they go to her house and then to the groom’s house for pae-baek. It’s a small ceremony with only family members present. The groom’s parents will toss dates and chestnuts at them and the bride tries to catch them in her skirt. Tossing the food at them represents “many grandchildren.” Dates represent boys and chestnuts represent girls. I hope they will have many grandchildren too. New Years’ is coming soon. In a few weeks, we will make rice cakes. We eat them as a special food on New Years’. We mostly eat rice cakes on special occasions. I’m mostly excited about making rice cakes because I get to watch people make them. Dear Diary, Dec. 31 Watching them make rice cakes was sooooo much fun! Someone brought out steamed rice and put it on this great big board. Then a strong man hit the rice with a big hammer-like thing. Then some women turn the rice over and wet the hammer with water so the hammer won’t stick to the rice. Soon, it will be a rice cake. It looks so good. I can’t wait to eat some. Tomorrow my friends and I will play Nul-tti-gi. It is the beginning of a new year…. Going back to now… Now, this is a diary of a Korean girl living in modern South Korea. It is the day before her baby sister’s first birthday. Dear Diary, July 8, 2011 Today is my baby sister’s first birthday. My family and both of my parents’ families are coming to celebrate. We are all gathering at our house, so I have to clean my room. What a waste of time; we’re not even doing it in my room. Once I asked my mom what happens at dol because I have no memory of my first birthday. “At dol, one event that everyone enjoys is when a baby is dressed in traditional clothing, and is seated at a table where small items are laid down. The belief is that whatever the baby picks up, it will represent the baby’s future. For example, when you had your first birthday, there was string, money, a toothbrush, a stethoscope, and plastic food on the table. You picked up the money, which means you will be rich when you grow up.” (Oh yeah! I’m going to be rich!) My sister picked up string out of the same things there were at my first birthday. String means long life. It’s not as good as being rich, but I guess it’s okay. Dol is a pretty fun event. (Probably not to the baby though.) We’re having a family outing to the beach for my sister’s birthday. Dear Diary, July 9, 2011 We just got back from the beach! When we went, I saw people taking baths. Not real baths of course. There are some mud flats nearby, and people take mud baths and mud massages. Then they wash off the mud in the ocean. It looks really fun. I beg, beg, beg my mom to let me take a mud massage. She always says no, though. Oh well. I definitely don’t think that people got to do this in ancient times. For some reason, all this fun is now making me want to do a big project. I should think about it. Dear Diary, July 12, 2011 I know what I want to do! It’s been the same thing everywhere. In America, Russia, Europe, and even here, Korea! Pollution. I bet that when my greatx10 grandmother lived, the air was super clean and the water was the clearest you could have ever imagined. I’ve done some research, and I found out that a lot of South Korean cities are polluted by cars, factories and other air polluting things. It’s terrible. You know how I wrote that I wondered how much has changed from Ancient Korea to now? I’ve got a pretty good picture in my head now. Dear Diary, July 20, 2011 Well I’ve learned a lot and I think I’ve got an idea of what’s changed and what hasn’t. I’ve learned that for government, we have a president instead of a king. That’s pretty good. A lot of stories seem to have mean kings who do only what they please. I’ve learned that some American cultures have mixed in with ours. When I hang out with my friends, I can go to McDonalds or Dunkin Donuts. But we still have delicious Korean foods like kimchi, bulgogi, and jap chae. I’m glad. Some of them are really goodJ. We still have the ondol heating method. It heats the floor, so if I ever have to sleep on the floor, I’m toasty warm! I guess not as many things have changed like I thought they would have. Glossary Nul-Tti-Gi (Nul-ddee-ge) a Korean seesaw which women play on New Years’. Dadeumi (Da-duimi) an ancient method of ironing using two rollers. Hanbok (Han-boke) traditional clothing Pae-Baek (Peh-bek) a small ceremony with only family members after the wedding. Ddukchigi (Dduk-chee-gee) the process of making rice cakes in ancient times. Dol (Dole) the event for a baby’s first birthday. Kimchi (Gim-chee) a spicy side Dish, foundKorean meals. Bulgogi (Bool-gogee) barbecued beef with many seasonings including soy sauce and sesame oil. Jap chae (Jap-che) sweet potato starched noodles mixed in with many vegetables.

the dark moon, comparing lunar and solar eclipses

I didn’t really see it, but I saw it on a video tape so it was safe to stare at the sun. How could this be happening? This was amazing being a four year old I wanted to burst, pass out, this was amazing! How did the moon and the sun align? What was going on? What was this miracle that was happening?

A lunar eclipse happens when the earth comes between the moon and sun. Now I look back at that moment, and wonder why did I act like that. Isn’t it obvious? It’s an eclipse, to be correct a solar eclipse. How did I not know that?? Then it hit me I was only FOUR. I hadn’t started school. I was starting in a few months, so I didn’t even know what 1+1 was. What was I thinking? And, number two, I didn’t know how to spell my name, which was surprising because I was already playing baseball. Lastly number three, I couldn’t write….. now I’m saying to myself I was only four I couldn’t spell my name, I couldn’t write, and I didn’t know what 1+1 was!! Then it hits me again, I was only four.

Some questions I have about lunar eclipses are, why are they called lunar eclipses? , how do they occur? Why do they occur?

Lunar eclipses happen 3 times a year. In order to have a lunar eclipse, the moon has to be in its full phase. The moon, earth, and sun have to be all in a line to be in totality [in that order]. Lunar eclipses are visible over an entire hemisphere. When there is a lunar eclipse you can see the earth’s shadow projected on the moon, the shadow shows that the earth is completely round. In a lunar eclipse, the earth blocks the sunrays from hitting the moon. The longest lunar eclipse lasted 3 hours and 40 minutes. During a lunar eclipse the moon looks red, but its not. The rays get diffused or scattered when they enter the earth’s atmosphere. A solar eclipse always happens two weeks before a lunar eclipse. Some questions I have about solar eclipses are, why are <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->they called solar eclipses? , why are there more lunar eclipses than solar? How and why do they occur? A solar eclipse happens when the moon passes behind the sun and earth. Solar eclipses are only visible through a narrow path of 167 miles wide. So it’s not visible to everyone over an entire hemisphere. A solar eclipse can only occur when there is a new moon. Why? Solar eclipses can occur at least two times a year, but no more than 5. The max time a solar eclipse can take is 7 minutes and 40 seconds.

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->The Chinese have recorded eclipses for more than 1,000 years!! In Ireland there is a stone that seems to be a record of eclipse that took place in the year of 3340 B.C. Eclipses have been recorded for many years, to see some of the ways they have been recorded For thousands of years. The cycle of solar and lunar eclipses repeats every 18.6 years. This is called the Saros. The earth’s shadow has two parts: the umbra (inner full shadow). And the penumbra (outer partial shadow). The eclipse’s shadow travels at the speed of 2000 mph at the earth’s poles and 1000 at the equator.

The most recent solar eclipse occurred on January 4^th 2011. It wasn’t visible to Massachusetts. It was only a partial eclipse not a full eclipse so the moon wasn’t completely dark. The last full eclipse was on July 11 of 2010. The next full solar eclipse will happen on November 13 2012. The most recent lunar eclipse happened on December 21 2010. it was visible in California and called “one of the near greatest eclipse.” The next two lunar eclipses will occur on June 15 2011 and December 10 2011.

WORK CITED PAGE

http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0816707.html 9 March 2011: published 2007 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse 11 March 2011

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_eclipse 11 March 2011

http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0857876.html 11 March 2011

http://www.factmonster.com/ce6/sci/A0857875.html 11 March 2011

Collies and the life they live

Ruff! Ruff!” You’re a collie and trying to herd sheep in an open field but they just won’t listen. But it’s really no big deal because you can run up to forty miles a day. Not all dogs run the same distance when herding. You just keep your mind off your stomach since you haven’t eaten all day. Your behavior changes from a nice and cuddly pet to an extremely aggressive dog. Then one of the sheep goes the wrong way and you have to run and snap him on the leg. You can feel the bone that you wish was in your mouth. Then before you know it the herding is done for the day. You never gave up and kept your willingness to work very hard all day. Some border collies always need to be doing things such as obedience classes or herding. If not some dogs will go crazy. Running around the house and barking are one of the many things they will tend to do. They are meant to do things like herd, play, and be a protective dog. Like this dog below. Mostly you will see dogs at an airport to sniff out drugs and bombs, but a border collie in southwest Florida does something else. This 9- year old dog named Radar has been chasing away birds! At this airport, Southwest Florida International, birds being sucked into aircraft engines are one of the most common problems. The birds will mess up the engine if they get sucked in. This caused many plane flights to delay or even cancel. They do not hurt the birds they only scare them. This airport is the first commercial airport to use dogs. Have you ever heard of a dog that was spelled so many different ways? There’s coll, colley, coally, coaly, colle, and of course collie. If you look at a collie most of them aren’t white. This is because if you have a herding dog that is white the sheep think that the collie is a sheep. That is something that could affect collies herding abilities. They are very trainable dogs that excel in everything that is competitive such as Frisbee toss, fly ball, and performing tricks. He runs, he leaps and he snatches the disc out of mid air. Then he lands perfectly. The dog got a score of 45/50. You’re a border collie and your job is to beat that score to win. Your owner makes too strong of a throw and you think you are going to miss it but your speed is so good that you are able to use your scissor-like bite. You get lucky that your body is so long. The land is good and you win. You become a very proud dog. That is the way you act around your owner. Collies are also great pets that are excellent to have around your house. They can make good guard dogs that are great at protecting your home. Collies are lovable, active, and amazing pets. Some jobs are search and rescue, police dogs, bomb sniffing dogs, guide dogs, and herding dogs. If you’re a collie life is a busy one. From herding sheep to competitive play you’re always doing something. Collies are dogs that are smart and very friendly. by Declan

Border collies were developed in the border country between Scotland and England in Great Britain. They were chosen for their instinct to gather stock, or farm animals, and bring them back to their masters. Instinct is what a dog wants to do without being taught. Many herding dogs drive stock forward but the instinct of a border collie is to bring the stock back. Border collies work quietly, with little or no barking. They are energetic and much focused on working. They use their eyes to control the animals.

And border collies are smart. "Because they were chosen for their herding abilities and not their looks, they maintained their intelligence," says David. "They are considered the smartest dogs in the world.

Oh, it's harder than it looks!" They want to work all the time, and this is the problem when people get them as pets," says David. Border collies need work to burn off their energy and to keep their brains busy. Those two things keep them happy.

Work cited Snyder, Rebecca Upjohn. "It's a Dog's Life." Boys Quest Sept. 2010: KidsInfobits. Web. 15 Feb. 2011

Border collie infobits.com

Border collie, breed of medium-sized, sheepherding dog developed in the British Isles. It stands about 18 in. (45.7 cm) high at the shoulder and weighs from 30 to 45 lb (13.6-20.4 kg). Its double coat consists of a soft, fuzzy under layer and a harsh, very dense, wavy or slightly curly topcoat of varying lengths. Its color is black with white around the neck and on the chest, face, feet, and tip of tail. Bred for many years exclusively to develop its herding instinct, the Border collie is unsurpassed as a sheep dog and has been used with equal success for herding cattle, swine, and poultry. It is exhibited in the miscellaneous class at dog shows sanctioned by the American Kennel Club.

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/bordercollie.htm

Dance Your Way Through The Years

“Wow look how beautiful this ballet is, I wonder how long it’s been around.”

2011...1400

Ballet has been around for 600 years. Today ballet is French, but it hasn’t always been. Ballet was founded in Northern Italy. It has been passed down for centuries, in many styles and in many ways.

In the 1400s, ballet was not as we know it today. It was NOT French. It was Italian. Ballet came from Northern Italy.

“In 1533 Catherine de Medici married the future King Henri II of France and introduces Italian dancing to the French court”. (The Ballet Companion by Eliza Gaynor Minden page #292). She taught the French the techniques; twirling, leaping, positions, and so much more. That’s how it all started. The French never knew about ballet up until then.

In the late 1500s France started to kick off ballet, but they needed help from the Italians. Throughout the late 1600s and 1700s ballet was mostly included in the Italian Opera.

By the time the 1800s came along. The ballerinas started to go up on their toes and started to perform the beautiful ballet on pointe. Then in the 19^th century Carlota Grisi became the first greatest ballerina. She worked hard by putting extra effort in ballet and making ballet her passion. “Giselle the most famous ballet of the Romantic ballet, was devised by the French writer, Théophile Gautier, for Carlotta Grisi, whom he admired inordinately, likening her to 'a tea-rose about to bloom”

( http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O106556/print-carlotta-grisi-in-act-ii/)

Well there you have it the timeline of ballet. As ballet changed throughout the years, the language of ballet also began.

The language of ballet is interesting. Sure it is never in English, but there is a reason why. English was not known to be “formal.” Now when I heard that English was not known to be “formal” it made me start to think, why? But then it came to me, since ballet was a formal dance, that English wasn’t fancy enough.

There is a lot that goes on behind the scenes of ballet, costumes, make up, hair, and most of all rehearsing. It would be impossible to know everything about ballet. However, we do know enough to pass down stories and continue the beautiful dancing.

% Arabesque

Plie’↓

Language and Legends

By Olivia Blumenshine

A biography on J.R.R. Tolkien

‘There rose a huge shape of shadow, impenetrable, lightning-crowned, filling all the sky. Enormous it reached above the world, and stretched out towards them a vast threatening hand, terrible but impotent; for even as it leaned over them, a great wind took it, and it was blown away, and passed; and then a hush fell.’

-Tolkien, J.R.R. The Return of the King

What is this?! You wonder. Well, it may seem random and unnecessary now, but you see, this is the writing of J.R.R. Tolkien. He was an amazing author with an amazing past. He wrote many books, including The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King, and The Hobbit (my personal favorites). I can’t imagine writing with such excellent qualities myself. He makes sure you see what his characters see and feel what they feel. He was inspired in many ways, which you will see. Read.

His imaginary worlds bring to life some of the deepest human thoughts and emotions while creating some of the most complicated and interesting characters. His writing could not be without inspiration, and it got me wondering what this inspiration could possibly be.

It all started in South Africa.

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> Imagine this: you are a toddler running through the tall grass of your home. You are almost to your beautiful tree; one of the only trees here. A burning pain causes you to stumble, and then fall. The black of a tarantula shoots out from under you as you watch in horror and fascination. Your anxious nurse catches up to you, and while she sucks the venom out of your foot, you babble about ‘a spider as big as a dragon’. The spider came to be Shelob, the horrible monster in The Two Towers.

‘Not far down the tunnel, between them and the opening where they had reeled and stumbled, he was aware of eyes growing visible, two great clusters of many–windowed eyes – the coming menace was unmasked at last. The radiance of the star-glass was broken and thrown back from their thousand facets, but behind the glitter a pale deadly flame began steadily to grow within, a flame kindled in some deep pit of evil thought. Monstrous and abominable eyes they were, bestial and yet filled with purpose and with hideous delight, gloating over their prey trapped beyond all hope of escape’.

-Tolkien, J.R.R. The Two Towers

This tarantula must have scared poor toddler Tolkien senseless to have shaped this horrible (thankfully, fictional) beast. Her chapter in his book, The Two Towers, in my opinion, is one of the most intense parts in the whole book. It makes you watch, helpless, as the unknowing main character is almost killed by Shelob.

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->She was a monster! A huge black tarantula with silvery webs thicker than rope, she had a habit of letting her victims dangle in her webs. I am so glad that she is merely a fragment of J.R.R. Tolkien’s imagination, not real!

His experience with the tarantula was just the beginning of his rather unusual life. Imagine now moving to England, without your father. Your mother introduces you to botany, which encourages your love of nature. (If you remember, in South Africa he was running to a tree when the tarantula bit him). Near your home, there are many beautiful plants worth observing. You love all plants, especially trees. Later on, you will write about the ents, who act like humans, wiser humans, but look more like trees. They are related to trees, and are their ‘shepherds’. It is hard to describe ents, (especially their eyes; the character who saw them couldn’t describe them either). To get the full picture, maybe you want to hear it from their creator.

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->‘They found that they were looking at a most extraordinary face. It belonged to a Man-like, almost Troll-like, figure, at least fourteen foot high, very sturdy, with a tall head, and hardly any neck. Whether he was clad in stuff like green and grey bark, or whether that was his hide, was difficult to say. At any rate the arms, at a short distance from the trunk, were not wrinkled, but covered with a brown smooth skin. The large feet had seven toes each. The lower part of the long face was covered with a sweeping grey beard, bushy, almost twiggy at the roots, thin and mossy at the ends. Bt at the moment the hobbits noted little but the eyes. These deep eyes were now surveying them, slow and solemn, but very penetrating. They were brown, shot with a green light.’

-Tolkien, J.R.R. The Two Towers

In Tolkien’s imaginary ‘Middle Earth’, ents are a species that is dying out. They cannot reproduce, and Saruman, a wizard, is killing them off, and using their wood for his own needs. They are not ‘hasty’ and peaceful, and prefer to take a long time to do what they like. Now that Saruman is killing them off, they are roused and they are ready to fight!

Later on in Tolkien’s childhood, he has to move again, leaving the flowers and the trees and the cottages he has come to love. He feels that wherever he may live, his home will always be in the flowered meadows of Sarehole. This beautiful Sarehole inspires Hobbiton, a hobbit land. (Tolkien thought himself similar to a hobbit. Hobbits are short, stout creatures, similar to humans, with hairy feet and a liking for comfort).

‘The late afternoon was bright and peaceful. The flowers glowed red and golden: snapdragons and sunflowers, and nasturtians trailing all over the turf walls and peeping in the round windows.’

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->Tolkien, J.R.R. The Fellowship of the Ring

Tolkien’s new house is a rickety old one, also in England. Almost as soon as he starts to settle in there, the officials pull it out from under him and his family. His widowed mother couldn’t pay the rent, so again his family has to move. This one is a row house next to the railroad tracks and a coal yard. There are old, abandoned coal trucks in the coal yard. The Welsh names fascinate him. Nantyglo and Blaen-Rhondda are interesting names, don’t you think? The names they inspire are important, too. Some of them are Faramir, Arwen, and Galadriel. Arwen and Galadriel are elves, not your typical Keebler elves, or Santa’s helpers, but tall, beautiful immortal warriors who die only in battle. Faramir is a lord of Gondor. They all have important parts in the Ring trilogy (The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King).

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> <!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> At Oxford, Tolkien was a top student in many subjects. He loved to read Gothic, Norse, German, and Icelandic mythology. Those are also influences for the product of his work. For example, in Prose Edda, (a Scandinavian myth), he later copied ‘the sword that was broken’, and from Nibelungenlied, (a Teutonic epic), he took the ring, for use in the ring trilogy, The Silmarillion, and The Hobbit. In Nibelungenlied, the ring has corrupted a dwarf, who calls it ‘my precious’, similar to Gollum, who was once a hobbit, or a related species. Poor Gollum was always weak in mind, so the powerful ring drove him crazy easily. He loved it, yet hated it. He called it ‘my precious’.

‘Deep down here by the dark water lived old Gollum, a small slimy creature. I don’t know where he came from, nor who or what he was. He was Gollum - as dark as darkness, except for two big round pale eyes in his thin face.’

-Tolkien, J.R.R. The Hobbit

When Tolkien left college, he joined the army, and served in World War 1. Did he like it? The glory, the danger, the feeling of serving his beloved country? No! Some of his best friends died in battle. He saw blood and disease and death firsthand. Himself, he almost died of trench fever (a disease caused by ticks and lice). No, he didn’t like war at all.

‘The drums rolled louder. Fires leaped up. Great engines crawled across the field; and in the midst was a huge ram, great as a forest-tree a hundred feet in length, swinging on mighty chains. Long had it been forging in the dark smithies of Mordor, and its hideous head, founded of black steel, was shaped in the likeness of a ravening wolf; and on it spells of ruin lay…

Over the hills of slain a hideous shape appeared: a horseman, tall, hooded, cloaked in black. Slowly, trampling the fallen, he rode forth, heeding no longer any dart. He halted and held up a long pale sword. And as he did so a greater fear fell on all, defender and foe alike; and the hands of men drooped to their sides, and no bow sang. For a moment all was still.’

-Tolkien, J.R.R. The Return of the King

As you see, World War 1 influenced his writing to an extent only someone who was in combat could create.

You might notice that he pretty much only wrote fantasy. Well, he had a vivid, mythological imagination, tailored to writing fiction, so that figures. Throughout his life, he read ancient myths and stories. When he was a child, he ‘desired dragons’. A favorite pastime of his was to make up languages.

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> So, he made languages. It was fun for him, and he was good at it. He was good with words in general. Gothic and Anglo-Saxon were his favorite languages, and his made-up languages had some resemblances. Quenya was his best, and was inspired by the Finnish language. He worked on it at Oxford. At Oxford, he found a poem in Old English that also influenced his writing.

‘Eala Earendel beorhast

Ofer middangeard monnum sended’

It means:

‘Hail Earendel brightest of angels,

Over Middle Earth sent to men’

Isn’t it nice? Anyway, he loved experimenting with languages and sounds. His first language was Nevbosh, meaning New Nonsense. It was literally nonsense. One phrase was, ‘Dar fys ma vel gom co palt “Hoc pys go iskeli far maino woc?”’ That means, ‘There was an old man who said “How can I possibly carry my cow?”

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--> How could someone carry their cow? I wonder. Anyway, there you have it. The inspiration for all the books Tolkien has written. How J.R.R. Tolkien was inspired to write!

I think that Mr. Tolkien was an amazing author. What do you think?

Note

J.R.R. Tolkien died on September 2, 1973. He was eighty-one years old.

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: 1892-1973

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Works Cited

Realms of Tolkien: Images of Middle Earth. 1996. Print.

Hodges, Ted. Understanding the Lord of the Rings. 2003. Print.

Neimark, Anne. Myth Maker: J.R.R. Tolkien. 1996. Print.

"J.R.R. Tolkien." www.wikipedia.com. Web. 18 Jan. 2011.

"J.R.R. Tolkien." www.biography.com. Web. 18 Jan. 2011.

"J.R.R. Tolkien." www.tolkiensociety.org. Web. 18 Jan. 2011.

"J.R.R. Tolkien." www.indephinfo.com. Web. 20 Jan. 2011.