Summer Blog Post 4

There were many choices of books on the list.  After looking through all of them, I limited all the books down to Ship Breaker and Looking for Alaska. I ended up picking Ship Breaker because a friend of mine recommended it to me because he read it in 9th grade.  Some things that drew me toward reading this book is the title.  I haven't read a book with a similar title or plot. also it had one thing in common with many other books I read,  It took place in a dystopian society.  Many books that I have read in the past took place with a dystopian society.  Examples of books I read previously are Divergent and The Hunger games.
A reason this book is so good it is because it is relatable. The main character, Nailer, is a young teenage boy who is about our my age.  many of the characters are teens which helps you relate to the plot.
 I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read a book with some action in it but is also a very different plot than other books.  This book would be a good book for anyone that enjoys adventure and risk-taking decisions.  This book is very thrilling as Nailer, Nita, and Pima escape the golf Coast and Richard Lopez.

Summer Blog Post 3

Authors use many different forms of hooking the reader and grabbing his/her attention. Some examples that authors use to hook the reader are dialogue, description and creating a picture in the readers' mind. Poalo Bacigalupi gives conflict early on in the novel to attract the audience to his book. He engages the reader very early. This is one of the reasons that made me want to keep reading.
In the first paragraph in chapter 4, he starts engaging the reader, "In a way, the black muck of the oil was no worse than the blackness above. Nailer let his hands do the work of seeing.  He quested down along the rim of the door, sinking deeper, reading its outline. His hands touched a wheel lock.  Nailer's heart surged with relief" (Bacigalupi 32).
During that paragraph Nailer fell into a oil pocket while searching for copper in a ship.  While crawling through vents, the vents collapsed, dropping him into oil.  This intrigues the reader wanting him to read more and learn how he escapes.
Another example of how Bacigalupi uses his writing techniques to keep me engaged in his writing is by using dialogue. On page 127 there is a conversation going on between lucky girl, Nailer and Pima. By using dialogue it makes the story more interesting and it makes it easier to visualize a picture in my mind.
So once again I think Bacigalupi uses many techniques to make me want to keep reading this novel.

Summer Blog 2

In Ship Breaker, many characters want or desire something throughout the novel.  Almost everyone desires wealth of some sort, whether it is a lucky strike or they find a wealth of jewels.
Nailer desires a way off the island which he expresses through his decisions.  He desires to be free from his violent father. Sloth desires a lucky strike all for herself.  She attempts this by not helping Nailer when stuck in an oil pocket, aspiring to have all of the wealth for herself.  Richard, Nailers father, is much like Sloth and desires his own lucky strike as well.
Themes that constantly reoccur are characters gambling with the fates.  Characters make decisions that could either lead to great fortune or them losing everything.  For example, early on in the book, Sloth gambles with the fates.  Instead of helping Nailer, she gambles and leaves him in there.  Nailer escapes and she lost everything instead of having a fortune.  This also occurs when finding Nita, instead of killing her and taking her fortune, he saves her which can either take him from his father or be stuck with nothing at all.

Summer Blog 1

The book I have chosen is Ship Breaker as my summer reading book.  It takes place in a dystopian society where there is a very limited supply of oil and other parts of oil tankers. The protagonist is named Nailer, lives on Bright Sands Beach where they live in crews and tear apart any of the valuable parts of beached oil tankers.  Nailer is a member of the light crew which collects wires from the ships. He is considered very lucky after finding an oil pocket and living. When stick in this oil pocket he calls for help from a crew member, Sloth, who does not help him in hopes of hiding the oil pocket and keeping it to herself.  This is against the blood oath causing her to be kicked from the crew.  Pima, Nailers friend, is very loyal to her crew. She is on the verge of heavy crew and light crew.
There are multiple conflicts in this novel.  The first conflict is Nailer being stuck in an oil pocket.  A second one is a major storm along the coast which destroys everything on bright sand beach. After this storm there is a beached tanker hidden from other crews. inside of the ship is a large amount of wealth from diamonds, silver, and gold. But... there is a girl trapped under furniture who could claim the wealth. Nailer wants to save her but others want to kill her and claim the loot.
A connection that I made during the part of the book where Nailer is stuck the oil pocket is a book-book connection.  If you have ever read the Alex Rider series, Alex is tuck in a pocket of water where he also finds a door at the bottom of the container and he swims out into the water of Venice.  This is very similar to how Nailer finds a door at the bottom if the pocket to escape.
After he escapes they start calling him lucking boy. Will he continue to be lucky?  Will he be jinxed by his name?  I think that he will start acting lucky and eventually his luck will turn unlucky. He will be stuck in another situation and it would be as if he were stuck in that oil pocket again but there is no way out.