Other books I read over the summer:

The two main characters in this book are Ellie and Jeremiah. They are both 15 and in high school but Ellie is white and Jeremiah is black. This book takes place in New York. Jeremiah lives in Brooklyn and Ellie lives in Manhattan. A conflict they face through out the whole book is not caring what others think. Because one is black and the other is white, others always talk about them behind their backs. Also both Ellie and Jeremiah don’t have picture perfect lives they have their family issues can also cause a conflict.

The main character is a “13 year old Negro girl”. She is a “gold star” student and was the Queen of the 6th grade. Her family travels a lot through out the book and she never really feels like she has a home. They travel from Oklahoma to Texas and all through out America becoming the First Negro do do something. Her mom enjoys being the First Negro in a town or a school because that makes history. And even though this book is titled “How I discovered poetry” poetry isn’t really a bog part of the book, at the end of the book she finds it helpful to write her feelings down. A conflict she and her family faces is segregation. Her and her family are Negros and because of that, they have to keep moving to find schools for her and her sister and jobs for her working family.

The final book I read this summer was titled The Secret Life of Ms. Finkleman by Ben H. Winters. The main characters of this book are name is Bethesda (She is an interesting seventh grader who loves mystery solving) and Tenny (the schools rock and roll wiz). The story really starts when Bethesda gets curious about the Music teacher Ms. Finkleman. But there seems to be some questioning as to who Ms. Finkleman really is. Bethesda gets more and more eager to solve the mystery.  But when she solves the mystery for a school project, the whole school finds out that Ms. Finkleman…is a retired ROCK STAR! But when Ms. Finkleman is pointed out that her past has been revealed Bethesda is realizing maybe she shouldn’t have solved the mystery. As the story goes on Ms. Finkleman decides to put on a rock and roll performance for the schools Coral Choral with the help of bethesda and Tenny. The grade is separated in to three groups to perform at the Coral Choral, music of the 60s, 80 and 90. The whole seventh grade over the corse of the year is transformed in to rock stars and leaves the audience of the Coral Choral speechless.

The Hampton Classic is the biggest horse show of the summer, people from all over come to watch and show. When you first begin horse back riding your goal is to show in the Classic at the end of the summer. The Classic is a week long show because there are some many people and so many horses and divisions. It started on a Sunday and I showed on Tuesday. I had to arrive at 8:00 a.m. It was already so hot by 9:00 that my pony was completely wet from her sweat from warming up before we even entered the ring. I never get nerves for horse shows but right before I went in the ring I totally freaked out. I didn’t want to tell anyone because I had already told them I was completely confident. I walked into the ring and before I knew it I was over the last jump and out the ring. It wasn’t my best round but I knew I has five more rounds to make up for it.

I went tubing with my cousin Beatrice. We went on a flat tube like in the picture. Tubing is one of those things that no matter how manny times you so it, it is still nerve racking getting on that tube. My dad told us to jump in the water and to get on. We both struggled getting on the tube laughing and crying  even though the boat hadn’t even started. Once it did start we felt our bodies lift off the tube then slam back on. We were both screaming on the top of our lungs hoping we would get off the wake and then at the same time wanting to stay on the wake. As the boat made a sharp turn our tube whipped itself around and off the wake. Beatrice was now up side down on top of me holding on to my shoulders as if it was the end of the world. I let go plunging in to the water. Once the boat came around Beatrice said “i had a really soft landing.” But I was thinking to myself, thats because you were on me.