Dear Ms. Doering,

     Over the past two months of free reading I have read the book, Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand. The genre of the book is biography since it retells the life of Louie Zamperini during World War II. The book contains 496 pages. I chose this book because my brother and mom read this book and absolutely loved it. They showed it to me, and I decided to give it a try.

     This book is about Louie Zamperini who rises to become a track star at UCLA and a member of the 1936 Olympic Team in Berlin. In Berlin he meets Adolf ****** and also steals one of ******’s personal flags. When WWII breaks out, he enlists in the Army Air Force division and becomes a crewman on a B-24 bomber. After passing training, he is sent overseas where he is shot down over the Pacific Ocean. He survives a record 47 days at sea on a life raft only to be captured by the Japanese. They move Louie to a training camp and somehow he lives despite horrible torture and treatment to be released after the war ends. One key topic in this story is how people from all walks of life, including superstar athletes, joined the war cause. This really stood out to me because nowadays you can barely get people to think about war let alone get professional athletes to join the army in a time of need. One literary element that stood out to me during the course of the book was indirect characterization. We learn about how Louie feels about going into war by his description of the setting. He describes the land by being “empty” and “ghastly” which tell us that he is somewhat scared and uncomfortable about the war.

     I found this book to be a lot more interesting than some other biography books that I have read in the past. Some biographies are very boring, but this one contained events you might see in an adventure thriller. This might possibly be the first biography that I really enjoyed reading. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for an adventure book while also wanted to learn a little bit about the history of WWII. This book is a little long with a lot of words but isn’t a particularly hard read.

     One thing I noticed while reading this book is the constant loss of life there is during time of war. I always thought that death came in spurts during war but it seems like there is lots of death that the media and the common person doesn’t notice. I am doing great on my free reading goals this trimester and don’t see any reason to make adjustments. The book I plan to read next is, The Book Thief, Markus Zusak. My mom read this book and really enjoyed it so I thought I might as well give it a try.

From,
Matt McDaniels

When I think of you
I see royal blue
The color of your logo
Screeching at the top of your lungs
At eight o'clock in the morning

When I think of you
I hear keep the faith
And I got up at four in the morning to be here
As you storm off across the field

When I think of you
I used to think fat old man
Crazy and delusional
Why did you always pick me out

Now, I still think of you
As crazy and delusional
But also the greatest coach I've ever had
And quirky
And my friend

He is
Coach Dishman

Being worried is a thing that shines.
That you find for twelve hours of the day.
It shines everyday,
even without an outlet.
It's always there.
Yet sometimes we forget about it.
On cold days we praise it,
but on others, it burns us black.
Some days we wish worries would go away.
But really, they are a ray of sunlight in a dark room.

Listening to nature in early April.
Brings back the serenity you lost during winter.
You begin to take notice,
of the harmonious lullabies.
Sang by birds that seem to disappear,
during the death-like silence of winter.  
Things begin to grow,
basements flood from the melting of snow.
Cars get ***** on the dirt roads,
and the possibilities of snow days come to a close.
Springtime means lots of cleaning,
while also it is the start of a new beginning.

Flower buds popping,
Mud squishing under your feet,
Trees growing new leaves.

Flags blowing in wind,
Smell of fresh mud and decay,
Birds in harmony.