Princess In the Spotlight: Spoiler Alert-ish...

I recently began reading the second book in The Princess Diaries series, called Princess in the Spotlight. The title of the book pretty much explains the situation the main character, Mia, is going through. Like the beginning of the first book, nothing in Mia's life seems to be going smoothly. When Mia finds out her mother is marrying, and even worse, having a baby with her math teacher, she struggles to keep it a secret. But some things in life are not as bad as she thought. Mia has a secret admirer, and is trying to figure out who that could be. I think it is important for Mia to look on the posative side of things to take her mind off of the negative things.

For example, Mr.G, her Algebra teacher, is moving in with her. She believes this is probably the most embarrassing, horrifying, worst thing that can happen. What can be worse than randomly finding out that your Mom and Algebra teacher are pregnant, moving in together, and will be married soon. When I first read this, I thought about how horrible Mia's life is. But later I realized, hey, maybe Mr. G will raise her grade, and help her with work. Maybe he won't be as hard on her and maybe, he won't be such a bad stepfather/algebra teacher. Mia has a way of turning posative things into negative things, and if she keeps doing that, she is going to get herself into some trouble.

I think I have a similar problem to Mia. I worry a lot, and I also think of negative things instead of realizing how they can benefit me. As a runner, I sometimes race with older people, like ninth graders. Recently at Nationals, I remember going through the list of girls and seeing how a lot of them were in the ninth grade. Of course, the first thing that comes to my head is "thats not fair, they are a whole year older. They have a full year of more training." But really I could say how they could make me run faster, and be stronger. I realized how they can help me throughout the race. Mia needs to realize that some things are benefitting her, and making her life a ton easier.

Anothing thing that Mia is thinking too negativitley about is being a princess. Mia finds it totally unreasonable and terrible that she is the princess of Genovia. She thinks that her life is ruined. She will never just be a normal girl again, and she won't be a normal teenager, and do  normal teenage stuff without having a bodyguard following her every step she makes. I think there are some posative parts to being a princess. Mia already has her future picked out. Although it may not be the one she wanted, she still doesn't have to worry about what she has to do in the future. Also, maybe after Mia learns how princesses act, it might be a little fun. I think it is imortant for Mia to turn negative things in life into posative things.

Princess Diaries: Theme of Book--Spoiler Alert!

I recently finished reading the book Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot. Towards the end of the book, I picked up  on the theme of the book. I learned that things aren't always the way they seem. In the end of the book the main character Mia finds out that the most popuar, most handsomist, most amazing "love of her life" Josh Richter, turns out to be the complete opposite of what she ever wished for. She found out he was only using her for the fame. Mia realized maybe she isn't made for Josh Richter, and he isn't the perfect boy like she thought.

Realizing Josh Richter was not like what he seemed like was good for Mia. She was able to see the real Josh under the perfect face. If Mia never noticed how rude and self-centered Josh was, she maybe would have stayed with him longer, and she would never know that Josh did not actually love her for her. This kind of remindes me of when people say "things happen for a reason." It remindes me of that because it was good that Josh was showing off to the public about their relationship for the publicity. It also benefited her because it saved her from later humiliation, if she realized later, or if something happened.

There have been times in peoples lives where they might have learned the same message. I know that plenty of times I have looked at people and from what I have heard from rumors, I autimatically think one way about them. But as I got to know people, I have realized that they are not the person I thought. People who I thought were stuck up girls, ended up being nice, funny girls and great friends. But also on the other hand, I always think people are nice, and outgoing, and they end up being mean, and not the person they seem to be. I think people should get to know the person more before they think they can have any sort of relationship with them.

Another example of things not always being what they seem, is Mia's grandmother. To Mia, Gradmere is annoying, mean, rude and unloving. But at the end, Grandmere is loving towards Mia and shows her that she is a very caring Grandmother, that supports Mia's ways. In these examples, they show that people are not the way they seem and they are different when you get to know them.

The Lorax Mentor Text

In class, we read the book The Lorax by Doctor Seuss as a mentor text for our picture book unit. What I want to talk sbout is the messages from this book. As a group, we gathered many messages from this book, such as being greedy can be harmful, never give up, and the message that i made myself was once you make a big decision, you can never go back. This book is about a creature called onceler that sort of took over and cut down all the truffalo trees in this fantasy world of Doctor Seuss's book. In the fantasy world, the onceler uses all the trufflao trees to make his new product called thneeds. He makes a big decision to get rid off all the truffalo trees, which causes global warming, to create a new company. Not only do I find this greedy, I find it a big mistake.

I believe the message of the this story is that once you make a big decision, you can never go back because he made the decision to cut down all the trees, andhave a mass production of thneeds. Instead he could of left the world a bright colorful place with the truffalo trees. At the end, he felt regretful and sad when all the trees were gone, and he couldn't go any further with his company. It also shows how greedy he was to take away all these trees.

I think Doctor Seuss shares this message with little kids in a great message. Although little kids may only think of the message in terms of that certain situation, it also applies for other people in life. Some people have made some decisions in life, and later on regreted it. People also do not realize that their decisions in life, or maybe their greediness may also affect other people, like the oncelers decision. If you think back, what would happen if the onceler decided to not cut down the trees, and maybe if he realized the destruction he caused, he wouldn't have done it. To connect the two messages between messages and greediness, some people make greedy decision, and regret it later on, not realizing the effect it had on them. The oncelor made a greedy decision that effects others.

I have never made a big greedy decision that effected others, besides eating the whole pack of cookies, and not leaving any cookies for anyone else, but I don't think that counts. But what I am mostly trying to say is that not that I ate the whole pack of cookies, I can't go back, and not eat all the cookies, because I aleady ate them.  Comparing that to The Lorax , the onceler cannot go back and keep all the trees, because he already made his decision and cut them down. I believe Doctor Seuss has a great way of showing a very large meaningful message through small, childish ways.