Writing a Good Hook

Authors Note: This is my hook in short story form. It had to include an Old man named Leroy, kids in a wagon, and kids in the backround lauging,and Old man Leroy bathing in the sink.

"Rubber Ducky you’re the one, you make bath time so much fun." Old man Leroy chuckled to himself. "Why would anyone take a bath in the tub when they have a perfectly good kitchen sink. I swear people these days."Old man Leroy had been bathing in the sink since he was a little bean sprout. He grabbed his towel, and slipped into his yellow Speedo. He started the sink up and looked outside. Little Johnny from across the street had brought out his little red wagon. He had his helmet on and was pushing the wagon to the top of the hill. Before Old Man Leroy knew what was happening little Johnny had jumped in the wagon and sped down the hill. Old man Leroy ran out of his house and saw little Johnny crying on the ground. "Hahahahahahahah." the neighborhood boys were pointing and laughing.  Why were they laughing at a crying boy? Old man Leroy thought to himself. He turned around and noticed they were pointing at him. He looked down and realized , he was still wearing his speedo!!! Old man Leroy chuckled to himself. At least he was wearing something!!

Authors Note- I first started out with the idea of three friends at a sleepover then went from there. I'm not sure what the dad was doing so if you guys have any ideas please leave them. AND THIS IS NOT BASED ON MY REAL LIFE------FARIHA!!!!

"Ummmmm truth or dare?" I ask my friend.

"Dare," Tori says almost automatically. My friend Jennie and I had already come up with six dares and we were having a hard time coming up with more for Tori. It was 1:00 AM and my parents thought we were asleep but we were up the whole time playing truth or dare.

"I dare you to go outside and tepee the principals yard!" I tell my friend. She looked at me like I was crazy."No, that's way to hard!"

"C'mon, you picked dare. You have to do it." I said to her.

"But………"

" We will go outside with you." My other friend promises.

"Fine. But if I get in trouble you guys have to take the blame with me." she says with a smile. I thought about this. Getting in trouble for something I didn't do always made me mad. But I guess I did come up with the dare…….." Fine, deal." We changed into all black, and I laughed as my friend streaked black face paint across her face. " Wow, you sure take a dare seriously." Jennie says. We laugh then grab rolls of toilet paper. "Guys, we have to be quiet or my parents will hear us." I tell them.

"How about we go out the basement door so they wont hear us." Tori suggests. I decided it's a good idea and we made our way to the basement door.

Outside, it is pitch black and you could only see the luminous  street light, lights. We open the sliding door and the fresh air flows into our faces. I had never been outside at 2 am and it seemed like we were in a different world. The houses were pitch black and the streets were empty. There was no traffic sound and no one was in sight. The world seemed frozen and empty like we were the only ones experiencing it

. We stepped outside with our million roles of toilet paper, and made our way down the street to our principals house. It was always weird to me that my principal lived down the street. I mean she could see everything going on at our house and it was weird thinking my principal had a personal life. But I guess her house is now useful for something. We arrived at the house then handed her the first role of toilet paper. She took it then whispered "Guys do it with me it seems fun and if you are going to get in trouble anyway don't you just want to try it?" I guess she was right. What was the point of watching her have all the fun, I mean how many times do you get to toilet paper your principals house?

 I grabbed a roll and joined in on the fun. We threw the toilet paper in the trees, on her porch, and on her mailbox. It looked like we were pro's at it. Suddenly a light turned on in the house. We ran behind a tree across the street and decided we were going to make a run for it. We made our way crawling on the ground to the next tree. We finally were far away enough to stand up and walk. "That was so fun!!" Jennie exclaimed. And I always thought she was the boring one…boy was I wrong.  "Yeah I just hope we don't get caught!"Tori says.

" Agreed, imagine how mad my parents would be." I say.

"True, but first we have to worry about getting back inside without getting caught." Tori says.

"We can just go back through the basement door again."

 We were almost at my house and we were starting to get cold. I was glad to see all the lights were off. We walked to the basement door and tugged on the handle."Oh my god we are locked out." Jennie tells us.

"No it can't be."I said. I tugged and tugged on the handle but it wouldn’t budge. "This is really bad." I checked my phone and found out it was 2:00 am. We still had at least 5 hours until my parents wake up. "They can't find us outside we have to get inside." I tell my friends.  We walked around my house hoping a window was open or something……..Nothing. We sat down and thought about what we were gonna do.

Suddenly a car, driving really slow, came into view. "Wait isn't that your car?" Tori asked me.  I took a closer look and realized it was. What is my dad doing driving at 2:00? "Weird I wonder what's going on." I say. We walked to around the house so we could slip inside when he opened the garage door. The garage door opened and we went inside. My friends slipped downstairs so my dad wouldn't see us. I stayed by the basement door and cracked it open. My dad walked inside and threw the keys on the table. He sat down at the table and closed his eyes. I had no idea where he had been and I kind of didn’t want to know. I knew my dad, and I knew he wouldn't make any bad decisions but I was still worried. I walked downstairs and knew sleep would help me think better.

Tell Me Everything but Promise Me One Thing,

Authors Note: This poem seems depressing at times, but I just thought about writing a poem with that first line, then everything just flowed. In my poems I wanted to do a better job at rhyming so it always makes perfect sense.
 
Tell me that everything will be okay
Tell me that our tears will go away
Tell me that the sun will shine brighter then ever
Tell me that we will be together forever
Tell me that you will never leave my side
They told us everything would be OK, they lied.
Tell me that our dreams have stayed the same
Tell me that we will stop this crazy game
Tell me we will get back on track
Tell me we will never go back
Tell me what I want to hear,
even if I know it's a lie.
Tell me everything.......
But promise me that things WILL get better.

TANGLED

The sparkling lights fly through the air every year, signaling another year that the princess has been missing. Tangled  is exciting and is a never ending adventure. Her long hair is kept a secret in the tower by the witch. This twist on Rapunzel teaches kids to follow their dreams and never give up.

Everyone has dreams in life. Whether it's becoming a millionaire, acing a test, or going bungee jumping everyone has something they want to achieve in life. In the story Rapunzel's dream happens to be wanting to see the floating lights. To achieve your dreams in life you have to work hard and be brave. Rapunzel wouldn't have left the tower if Flynn had never come to the tower. Everyone needs someone to give them that final push so they will achieve their goals.

Rapunzel wasn't the only one with a dream in the story. Almost every character in the story had a dream. I didn’t realize this at first because their dreams weren't broadcasted as much. The wicked mother had a dream of staying young forever. The parents had a dream of finding their long lost daughter, and Flynn had a dream of becoming rich. This story taught kids a good lesson because all the characters worked hard and all their dreams were achieved (except the wicked mother).

Although people think kids movies are cheesy and boring, it's good to watch one with a good lesson every once and awhile. Because Rapunzel never gave up and kept working her dream was achieved.

A Big Symbol in Tangled

A big symbol in the story is the sun. The sun is what made the magical flower. The sun is a symbol of life and the sun flower kept the queen alive and it makes the witch stay young. Rapunzel found out she was the princess because the suns popped out in her painting and she remembered the sun on her crib.The whole plot basically revolves around the sun and the sun flower.

The Three Leaders in "Animal Farm"

Author's Note- This essay is about the first few chapters of "Animal Farm" and who the characters resemble. At first I wasn't quite sure who everyone resembled but I think I know now.

During the Russian Revolution many people were critics of the revolution and the communist idea. One of those critics was Orwell, mainly a critic of Stalin.  Orwell was so fed up with it all so he wrote a book named "Animal Farm". In this book he made fun of the people in the Russian Revolution and the ideas. Each animal develops the personality that resembles someone in the Russian Revolution. Orwell makes fun of the events and as you read on you can really tell who each character is supposed to be.

" The problem is -man. Get rid of man and overnight we could become rich and free. Men are enemies  and all animals are comrades. And always remember that all animals are equal."Old Major said this a few nights before he died.  Orwell based Old Major off Karl Marx who came up with the idea of the Rebellion. After this happened the pigs all followed Old Major's idea and agreed that all animals were equal. But as time went by the pigs realized that they were smarter then most of the animals. Together three pigs, Squealer, Snowball, and Napoleon slowly made themselves the leaders without the other animals really noticing. Those three pigs resembled the three leaders who were fighting to lead the Russian Revolution. Snowball the speaker and nicer of the three pigs resembled Trotsky because he got overthrown(chased into a hole) right away. Napoleon's ideas were always the exact opposite of Snowball's. Napoleon emerged as the leader right after the Rebellion. He uses his military force to intimidate the other animals and gain power.  Napoleon is based off the controlling Stalin. Lastly is Squealer. In the first few chapters Squealer doesn't do anything major he just seems to agree and do what Napoleon does. Squealer resembles Lenin but so far he hasn't had a major part.

Orwell had a great dislike for Stalin and his ideas. Because of this he made the book "Animal Farm" to mock and share his opinion on the topic.

 

FINAL PIECE

Authors Note- This is the final prompt for the book "Peace Like a River". The book was hard to understand but it had a strong message. I still haven't finished the book but I wrote about what I knew.

Do you believe in forgiveness? In church we are taught that forgiveness is one of the most important things if you are a Catholic. But if someone came to your house and broke your windows, what would you do? I bet most of you answered that you would go to their house and break their windows or call the police. Most people would do that but then they would go to church on Sunday and call themselves a Catholic. They are wrong. By breaking the windows they had revenge and revenge is not forgiveness. So if they had gotten revenge they could no longer call themselves a true Catholic. But revenge has become so normal that no one thinks about it before they do it. We would all not be Catholics but God has forgiven us. In the book, “Peace Like a River” I learned that forgiveness is always the best choice and revenge can lead us to consequences.

In the book Reuben’s family is faced with a problem, that his brother wants to deal with one way and his dad another way. His dad wants to forgive them and when his son asks him what they are going to do about it he replies “Nothing, what the fellows don’t realize is we have already won. The victory is ours.” He means that they are going to be the bigger person and forgive them and not make revenge. While his dad handles it his way Reuben’s brother, Davy, is handling it another way.  He decides to get revenge and in the process he ends up killing two boys. This is what I meant when I said revenge always leads us to consequences. If Davy would have just followed his dad’s example it wouldn’t have happened. Forgiveness makes us the bigger person and we are following the Catholic way.

The plot of the book leads me to believing the mode of the novel. The mode was definitely irony. A few examples were Reuben was born not breathing, another one was when Davy shot the two boys the police cars showed up right away but the cars weren’t there when the boys attacked Swede. Throughout the book it just had an ironic feel .In the whole book the characters were trying to fight someone or run from something. Like in the beginning when they were fighting against Tommy and Israel and when Davy was running from the cops. Symbolism also helped me figure out the mode. One really important symbol was Jeremiah Lands blew life and air into his son who was described as a clay baby. This reminded me of God who made Adam a clay man then blew air into him. The symbols and mode was strong throughout the book and was easy to figure out.

The author of, “Peace Like a River” is Leif Enger. He wrote “Peace Like a River” in an unique way. He wrote it as a flashback. The narrator, Reuben, was telling what happened as a flashback. He also included lots of poems. The style of writing was fiction. He wrote a reader-friendly book about a Minnesota family in 1962. The message he was trying to get out is forgiveness is always the best choice and you can’t always get revenge.

“Peace Like a River” is a book full of decisions. The decisions make them who they are and they decide what happens next in the book. In the book they have to decide if they will get revenge or if they will be the bigger person and forgive.