Alex+W

1/26/16 Most of us have been in this position, it's the first day at a new school and we get a tour of where we will be spending the next x amount of years in our education. August Pullman, who has a deformed face, is in such a position and three kids who will be in his homeroom this year, Julian, Jack Will, and Charlotte, give him a tour of the school, and I feel a few different emotions trough out the tour, but mostly anger. Through out the entire thing, Julian makes fun of August's face, and August in general. This makes me upset, because I feel everyone should be treated equally, regardless of their appearance, just like how you can't judge a book by it's cover, you can't judge someone by the way he or she looks. It also wouldn't be fun to be made fun of or laughed at because of something you can't control. I do feel a bit better when August is around Charlotte and Jack, though, as I feel they treat him fairly and even stand up for him, but in the end Julian still acts like a jerk and ticks me off with what he did.

2/2/16 Auggie has just started his first month in a new school and I feel that his first month wasn't //the best//, but that's to be expected, and overall I think it went reasonably well, especially since he has never gone to a school before. The kids at his school do look and stare at him, and they do carry out conversations about the way he looks, but they aren't just flat out mean to him(with a few exceptions). In addition he has made a few friends, Jack and Summer, who don't mind his face, or don't show it anyways, are kind to him and hang out with him and sit next to him during classes and lunch. His teachers seem pretty funny and nice to him as well. Not to say everything went according to plan, Auggie did lose most of his free time to himself, but overall I do strongly think it was a reasonably good start to the year.

2/4/16 One of Auggie's best friends, Jack Will, has, without even knowing it, set Auggie's view of him in a whole other direction after saying how he would kill himself if he looked like Auggie and some other things when he thought Auggie wasn't around. This upsets him, as it should, and makes him feel sad, crushed, maybe even depressed, and in this situation I think he should actually not try to tell an adult and instead talk to Jack or some of his other friends and try to work things out. The reason I believe this would be the best course of action because telling an adult could potentially make matters worse than they already are, for example if Jack or some other kids like Julian got in trouble because Auggie told on them, they might dislike him even more. It can spiral downwards //very// quickly from there, if things don't work out, where as he could resolve the issue by talking with not much of a down side. This, however, is likely the more difficult one to do. I think somethings that could get Auggie to go back to school are encouragement from his friends and family and knowing that going back to school would likely be the best option and trying to face his fears, or having Jack apologize or say he didn't mean what he said in a meaningful way(mostly having Jack apologize). Though things haven't gone very well for Auggie in the past day or so, but I believe he can and will pull through.

2/7/16 A few questions I would like to have answered in the following section are: 1-Why is Via so defensive about how Auggie looks? I mean, I know that he is her brother and he is part of the family, but is there something else? Does she have some kind of an experience with that kind of thing or something? Does she get annoyed? 2-Who is Via? Not literally,but what's her personality exactly? What does she like to do, what are her hobbies? What are her friends like? General info like that. 3-What is happening in her high school? Auggie has said she started having some fits about school, and I wonder why that is.

2/9/16 In Via's side of the story up to the point of the Halloween event a ton has been learned about Via and some other aspects of the story, but one of the things that stuck out to me about Via was her acceptance that Auggie's needs were more important than her own in such a smooth manner. If I were in Via's position I would honestly hate my brother for needing and having so much extra care and it would annoy me that my parents would always prioritize my brother over me. It would likely take several years for me to get used to Auggie's face and his priority over mine, and even then, I would still complain. However Via is //totally// fine with basically everything that is happening. Not to say that she's perfect about it or anything, but it takes real effort and realization to just straight up say, my brother's needs are more important than my own and whatever I go through is not as bad as what he is going through, even if it were the truth. That was the one thing that surprised me the most about Via, her understanding of Auggie's requirements.

2/9/16 Both Auggie and Via have had a chance to talk about their own points of view on October and somethings were similar, but somethings were different in their perspectives. A few differences were what they went through, what was happening around them, and their emotions at different times, for example on the morning of Halloween, Auggie was totally pumped up and excited about the day ahead, but Via was sad because it brought back the memory of the day her grandmother died so she was crying on the steps. Mom understood what was bothering her because she was feeling the same thing and stayed home that day. Another example is the night of the first day at school and the day after that, Via is upset because mom didn't check on her later that night, but Auggie wasn't that much affected. Via then yells at mom because things haven't gone too well in school, whereas Auggie is fine with what was going on in his school. These are some of the things that differed in Auggie and Via's points of view.

2/16/16 Justin is an interesting person to talk about, as unlike most of the other people in the book, he is normal, to an extent. He is also older than most of the other kids, which is likely what makes his view and his part so important for us to read and understand as well. Justin gives us another point of view to look at, an interesting one as I have stated he gives a view on Auggie, a bit about maybe some of the problems that are occurring, Via's family compared to his own, and some other things I won't go into right now. He has never seen Auggie before, he has heard of him but not seen, now we know(possibly a slightly tuned down version) of what people think when they see Auggie, not likely good thoughts. We can also see a few of the problems uprising such as the issues in school, like how Julian turned everyone against Jack and Justin realizing why it's not such a simple fix and tries to make things better by telling Julian and his squad not to mess with Jack. Also about Via, and how she thinks she is a terrible person, we get another point of view on that. He stated that his own parents were divorced and his family never paid so much attention to him and couldn't wait for him to be able to take care of him self. Yet here was this other family right here that included everyone, was really friendly, caring, they spent a lot of time with each other and knew each other well, and supported each other and he mentions how he wants a family like that. Almost as to say, hey, Auggie's not in this alone, he has his family for support, he has someone to back him up, someone to lean on. As he states himself, though the universe did not make Auggie look too "good", it has not left him either, and everything does kind of balances out in the end. But back to the topic, Via and Auggie's family take a ton of time and devote it towards Auggie and help him through his deformity. Again, Justin's brother barley knows that he exists in the first place. This is important to understand and I truly believe that this is one of the main reasons R.J. Palacio included this section in the book.

2/18/16 Miranda has been one of Via's friends for a long time, but things haven't been going too well for a number of reasons, and when Miranda admits that at that moment, she was truly happy, I wasn't surprised. In fact, you could almost say I expected it considering it would giver her a chance to be with people she likes and in an environment where she was happy. So first off, Miranda's parents were divorced and that always causes problems with relationship problems and over the summer in her summer camp, she had a taste of what it was like to be popular by doing some off things, like dyeing her hair pink and smoking. She cues Ella in on this but not Via because she thinks Via will be against doing these things, and because of this, Via feels left out and this causes Via to hang out and talk to Miranda less and less. Things like this about her family or her friends, have had an impact on Miranda, its almost like she changed completely, as Via says. So when at the end of the play when the Pullmans ask Miranda over to have dinner to celebrate and Via says, you're coming when she tries to back out, would probably make Miranda happy because of several things. First, she has said that she loved the Pullman family, that she felt safe with them and that they felt comfortable and loved to be with the Pullman's even more than her own family, once again making the point of Auggie having a great family, so being able to be around them must be great. In addition, Via wanting her to come is a sign that she appreciates what Miranda has done and that they are still friends, and in addition to that all it just gives her a good feeling, that umpf feeling. So this is why I feel Miranda is truly happy of a long time.

Characterization Protagonist - Main Character, usually "the good guy" with good traits. (Positive) Usually)) Antagonist - Usually "the bad guy", the one who is against the protagonist or some other thing. (Negative) Usually)) Conflict - Internal and External Conflicts Can happen to anyone, not just the protagonist A character can be Dynamic or Static Static Characters - Undergo very little to no change (Can be good or bad) Dynamic Characters - Undergo some change to a lot of change (Can be good or bad) Direct Characterization - Author literally states something about a character (Ex. Sam is smart) Indirect Characterization - Author tells something about a character with a person's actions and thoughts (Ex. A scene where a character beats someone up or something)

1. Do you think parents should believe the stories their children tell, or should they investigate the truth when important matters are involved? Do you think a parent's role is to give a child emotional support even when he or she has done something wrong? Is there a point at which a parent may have to let society punish a child for wrong-doing?

I think that as long as they are reasonable, parents should believe the stories their children tell before investigating the truth when important matters are involved. I think parents should give a child emotional support, but not when they have done something wrong, as in that case I think the parents should talk about what the child did and help them learn what to do in the future, or even punish them if it was something seriously wrong. There is a point when a parent may have to let society punish a child for wrong-doing,such as if the child killed a person.

2. When a rule at school does not make sense to you, do you have the right to decide which rules you will obey and which you will not? Can you think of a rule you would refuse to obey? What would be the consequences?

If a rule at school doesn't make sense to you, as long as the rule is a rule that actually limits you or takes something away from you, you could decide to not obey that rule sometimes, or speak out against that rule. I do know a rule which I refuse to obey in my head, which is the rule that some adults have where they have complete authority, control, are more important, and think there ideas are more important than mine just because I am a kid and there're an adult. In this case, that means I will be disiplined.