Final Response

Strategy 1- Predicting: I like this strategy of interacting with the text the best. This is because I get to share my opinions of what will happen next and later I get to see if I was right or wrong. In this novel, many of the predictions I made were right and so that would please me. When the predictions I made weren't true, I would actually feel very curious and excited to see what the real answer was which kept me interested to the book.
Strategy 2- Questioning: When reading this book, I only asked questions to the part that I didn't get or there was something in it that I didn't understand, which made that whole part hard for me to know about. I would find the answer to the questions that I had because we'd discuss it so much that we could start to understand everything. Sometimes in this book, there were also some sudden acts of a character that confused me because it was totally random.
Strategy 3- Visualizing: Visualizing is one of the most fun parts of reading a book because I can see clear images of what is going on, and it helps me to picture the characters in more detail. Like in this book, I like that there is a lot of description which helps to keep track of everything that's happening, which makes it easy for me to make a little movie kind of thing in head with so many scenes. For example, I can totally imagine Richie pouring Root Beer on Russell's head because the author describes it so well.
Strategy 4- Summarizing: I like to summarize at the end of reading each chapter. That way I can put together all the main ideas and most of the important stuff that happened. I can also keep track of what the characters did and said so I won't mix them up or get confused and forget them.
Strategy 5- Reflecting: I think that reflections just happen all the time when you're reading a book even though you are unaware of it. When I was reflecting in this book, there were a lot of things I was thinking about; the character, setting, plot and basically everything that was happening. In that process, I like to think of the important things and reread them sometimes if I think I will forget them.

Myself as Catalina

Envision yourself as Russell, Elliot, or Catlina. Describe how you would feel and react to the bullies in the story.

If I was Catalina then I would just ignore the bullies or actually go up to them and stand up for myself. Most likely I would ignore them to make things not very serious. But I would also not want them to think that they were the best and they could do whatever they wanted to do to the new student (which apparently they disliked for some reason). I would feel very upset because I wouldn't want to be part of a place where everyone disliked me. Its good that she keeps ignoring them for the time being like when she just ignores the letter that Bethany gives to her. I like her response to that letter and reaction which was good because she didn't make such a big deal out of it.

Revealers- Keeping Quiet

Q: Should kids solve their own problems, or should adults/parents get involved?

A: I think that kids should solve their own problems. They need to know how to handle their own matters properly so that in the future they can deal with their problems themselves. Parents should not get involved because that way the kid won't be able to stand up for himself later on in life. Of course, there are some sitituations in which things get all intense and suddenly there is a lot of physical abuse going on. In that case, I think parents should take some action. Like in the 'The Revealers', Russell's mom wanted to talk to the school principal about how Richie bullied Russell even though he wanted to ignore this problem (p. 45). That is very serious and I think she should immediately inform the school no matter what her child says. In the book the mother says "If one adult did this to another, he'd be in jail. Why should it be different for kids?" (p. 46). That is something I would definetely say as well but I wouldn't just do that. If my child got bullied in such a horrible way, then I would make sure that the bullier's parents would be informed and also inform someone from the school who could keep an eye on anyone who would harm my child.

Two truths and one lie...

I hate Math
I was born in Saudi Arabia
I hate dark chocolate