Khristina's Book Blog

"Okay, everyone have their hula hoops ready?" I ask. Heads adorned in hijabs and 6 small, masked faces look back at me with pure excitement. "Remember, you want to try and be the last one to let your hula hoop touch the ground!" I explain. Hands tightly grip the hula hoop and sparkling, dark brown eyes look at me eagerly to begin the countdown. "3, 2, 1, Go!" I exclaim. All the hula hoops start spinning, little bodies moving inside them keeping the colorful hoops from stopping. "Y'all are doing so great! Keep it up, Usman!" I encourage. I smile as the sound of giggles escapes from the lips of each kid inside their hula hoop. "Just sit inside your hula hoop once it falls!" I instruct. Riyaz. Saifullah. Nasrina. 3 looks of disappointment glance my way. "Y'all gave it your best! Let's cheer on our friends!" I encourage. Hands clap and shouts of "you can do it" fill the air. Usman. Roya. Zahara leaps with joy...

  Some of my book connections were that this story is about a boy named Jordan who is starting at a new Private School, even though he'd rather be starting Art School. In this book we see Jordan's journey as he faces challenges such as fitting in, racism, and typical, every day middle school struggles. When it comes to my "head" connections, my thinking was changed while I was reading because, at first, I was reading it as all  white people being displayed as Andy. However, as I kept reading, I realized the author was trying to display hardships through Jordan's experiences. My "heart" connection is tied to my "head" connection because I was definitely flustered at first with white people being represented by Andy because I know that I, personally, try my best to treat everyone like they are important and valuable. However, as I continued to read my heart changed because I saw myself reflected in Liam. So, even though there are definitely peopl...

  My mom has always told me, "reading is like a movie in your mind." Last we talked about how for some people reading isn't like a movie and a lot of people agreed that they don't experience that when they're reading. However, for me, I really do see a movie in my head as I'm reading, and the more I read of a book the more detail is added to the movie I see in my head, or my mind's eye. Obviously, fiction and books with characters and a plot make richer pictures in my mind compared to non-fiction texts. I do feel like if it's a shorter text like a short story then the picture is more like a painting. However, when I read novels my mental picture as I'm reading is very similar to a movie. When I read novels, not only are the visuals compared to that of a movie, but so is how I hear it. The characters have voices that match their gender, but the narrator voice is my own inner voice. I picture characters as they're described by the author and then...