"Killing Mr. Griffin," by Louis Duncan

      I recently finished reading the book "Killing Mr.Griffin," by Louis Duncan. This book is about some students who decide to kidnap their teacher as a joke. During the kidnapping Mr. Griffin, the teacher, dies. Now the kids are left with a large problem to cover up. I enjoyed this book for the most part. There were some parts that were slow and boring, but overall the book kept me on the edge of my seat. One thing I can really compliment about this book is the fact that Duncan didn't hold back in showing us how sick some of the characters in the book were. She showed us how far some people will go to keep a secret safe. For example one character is willing to kill multiple people to keep the secret safe. If I could, I would defiantly recommend this book to a friend. I think that once they got past the slower parts they would really enjoy this book.

revised

In the book The Drummer Boy of Shiloh by Ray Bradbury,the story centers around Joby, a young boy who has just joined the army. He is younger than everyone else and only has a drum but no gun.  All of the other soldiers have guns and Joby feels left out. He meets a general who convinces him that he isn’t useless, and that he is quite important. The general says that Joby sets the pace of the army, which is essential for the soldiers to have during battle. the theme is that even a small and what can seem insignificant part in a large thing can actually be important. 

At first Joby feels like he is unimportant and useless in the army.  In the beginning of the story Joby is on the ground and has his drum just lying there like he doesn’t care. Then Joby notices that everyone else has a gun and he doesn’t have one. “ I only got a drum, two sticks to beat it, and no shield.” This shows that Joby feels left out and unimportant to the army. 

Then the general of the entire army comes over and talks to him about that. The general calms him down and shows Joby how he is important to the army.  The general says to Joby that Joby sets the pace for the soldiers during battle. That’s important because if he sets a rhythm too slow then the soldiers will slow their own pace. “ ‘ You boy,’ said the general quietly. ‘ You are the heart of the army. Think about that.’”

             After the general has a talk with Joby, Joby thinks it over and then starts feeling better about the army. Later that night when Joby is going to sleep, he looks at his drum. Then Joby lies down and tucks his drum under is arm and goes to sleep with it there. That’s different from the beginning when he left it on the grass.  Now that the general has showed Joby it almost seems like Joby is treasuring it. That shows how now he has changed because now he treasures his drum and before he didn’t.

          This story shows me that Joby realizes that even a small part can actually really matter. Kind of like a puzzle, in the sense that if you don't  have one piece, no matter how small the puzzle would never be complete. Maybe these days other people should realize the same thing, and not get discouraged just because they aren't the biggest part in something. 

Bone

          I am reading the book called "The Dragon Slayer" it is part of the series Bone. I think that Fone Bone the main character is trying to do what is right. Whenever his cousin Phoney Bone gives him the chance to steal, cheat or lie for personal gain, he always declines. The reason for this is because of Thorn. Fone Bone loves Thorn, yet she doesn't love him. He always is trying to do the right thing to try and impress her and get her to love him. But deep down he knows that there is no way that she will love him back. So he does everything in his power to make her love him.

My prediction for the ending of the series is that Fone Bone and Thorn fall in love, because Fone Bone helped the townspeople win the battle they had with the rat creatures. Thorn thinks that was really great of him. Fone Bone may not have the looks, but I think that Thorn will eventually like him. This is because all of the things that they do together. They are going to have to win a war together. After all of that then I would be surprised if they haven't fallen for each other.

Reading Response on Drummer Boy of Shiloh

Reading Response on the Drummer Boy of Shiloh by Ray Bradbury

In the book The Drummer Boy of Shiloh by Ray Bradbury, the theme is that even a small and what can seem unsignefigent part in a large thing can actually be important. The story centers around Joby, a young boy who has just joined the army. He is younger than everyone else and only has a drum but no gun.  All of the other soldiers have guns and Joby feels left out. He meets a general who convinces him that he isn’t useless, and that he is quite important. The general says that Joby sets the pace of the army, which is essential for the soldiers to have during battle.

At the beginning of the story we don’t know much about Joby, but we do know that he has been in the army for a measly 3 weeks. We have no idea about where he comes from and don’t know if he ran away from home to join the army. Its not even clear on whether or not it’s the Civil War. 

He feels like he is unimportant and useless in the army.  IN the beginning of the story Joby is on the ground and has his drum just lying there like he doesn’t care. Then Joby notices that everyone else has a gun and he doesn’t have one. “ I only got a drum, two sticks to beat it, and no shield.”

Then the general of the entire army comes over and talks to him about that. The general calms him down and shows Joby how he is important to the army.  The general says to Joby that Joby sets the pace for the soldiers during battle. That’s important because if he sets a rhythm too slow then the soldiers will slow their own pace. “ ‘ You boy,’ said the general quietly. ‘ You are the heart of the army. Think about that.’”

             After the general has a talk with Joby, Joby thinks it over and then starts feeling better about the army. Later that night when Joby is going to sleep, he looks at his drum. Then Joby lies down and tucks his drum under is arm and goes to sleep with it there. That’s different from the beginning when he left it on the grass.  Now that the general has showed Joby it almost seems like Joby is treasuring it. That shows how now he has changed because now he treasures his drum and before he didn’t.

            In conclusion, the story tells us that even a small part in something really big, can actually be important. Joby learns that even if he is a small part in the army he still is important. Joby is a small piece in a big puzzle, but without him, the puzzle would never be complete.