The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt

Tuck Everlasting Annotations

My favorite book that I read out of the three books, The Secret Garden, Alice in Wonderland, and, Tuck Everlasting is Tuck Everlasting. I will describe the  characteristics of a few of the main characters, backing them up with quotes. Also I wrote about where the story takes place.

Winnie Foster: Stubburn- “Why not? said Winnie as she stood up. Its mine, anyway if it’s in the wood. I want some. I’m about as dry as dust.” pg. 29 Winnie was acting stubburn because when Jesse  was telling her not to drink the water she kept on resisting to have some until she will get it.

Sacrificial  – “I can help! When your mother climbs out the window, I’ll climb in and take her place.” pg. 114 When Mae  was in the prison cell, Winnie said that when Jesse  get’s Mae out of the cell Winnie would climb in and take her spot. She sacrificed herself for another person.

Mae: Comforting- “I want to go home.” “The tucks stopped eating, and looked at her, surprised. Mae said soothingly. Why, of course you do, child. That’s only natural. I’ll take you home. I promised I would, soon’s we’ve explained a bit as to why you got to promise you’ll never tell about the spring.” pg. 57 When Winnie wanted to go home, Mae comforted her saying that she promised she would take her home, and made her feel more comfortable around them.

Protective – “You leave that child be she said. Winnie stared. Mae was standing just the outside the doorway. She held Tuck’s long-forgotten shotgun by the barrel like a club” pg. 99Mae defended Winnie by pointing Tuck’s gun at the man in the yellow suit, so Winnie wouldn’t have to go with the man. (Winnie did not want to go with the man in the yellow suit)

Jesse: Mysterious/Anxious- “Is that good to drink?  she asked. I’m thirsty.” “Oh, that. no-no, it’s not, he said quickly. You mustn’t drink from it. Comes right up out of the ground. probably pretty dirty. And he began to pile the pebbles over it again.” pg. 29 Jesse was acting very mysterious when Winnie was around because at first he didn’t want to tell Winnie about the water. So he kept on saying “the water is dirty,” and making excuses for her not to drink the water.

Imaginative- “Well, listen, how’d it be if you was to wait till you’re seventeen, same age as me-heck, that’s only six year off-and then you could go and drink some, and then you could go away with me! We could get married, even. That’d be pretty good, wouldn’t it! We could have a grand old time, go all around the world, see everything.” pg 72. Jesse was being very imaginative with Winnie, thinking about marrying her. Winnie and Jesse had only met that day. (And it ended up not happening. )

Miles: Caring- “Mile’s got a plan, but I don’t see how it can work,” said Jesse. pg 113 Miles was so caring about his mother, he made a plan to get her out of prison. Even though Jesse didn’t  think the plan could work, it actually did.

Helpful-  “He knows a lot about carpentering. He says he can take Ma’s window frame straight out of the wall, bars and all, and she can climb through.” pg 113-114. Miles was very helpful because he had carpentering skills to help Mae get out of the prison cell. If Miles didn’t know anything about carpentering, the plan wouldn’t have worked and Mae might not have been able to get out of Prison.

Setting:

When Winnie first meets Tuck’s family, the setting is in the woods of Treegap. Winnie’s family owns the woods, so that is where she goes off wondering around.

Another setting that is used in the book is the Tuck Family’s house. This is where she finds out more about the spring water, and where Mae shoots the man in the yellow suit.

When Mae gets out of Prison, the setting is the prison cell.

This year my summer has been really fun and mellow. In June and July I went on two really fun trips to Korea with my mom and Colorado with my dad.  When I came back I had some time to just stay in NYC and relax. In August I was supposed to go to gymnastics and do a month of summer training, but since I got into the Ailey School I decided not to do gymnastics anymore and do that instead. It was a hard decision because I’ve been doing gymnastics for 6 or 7 years. So for August I’ve been able to have some time to play with some of my friends and just hang out. I haven’t been able to do that in August for about 4 or 5 years, so it was nice. I think that this summer has been one of the best summers so far, even though most of my summer breaks are always fun. I am looking forward to going back to school and seeing all my friends, even though everyone wont be able to get the whole day off of school for 2 and a half months for a while.

This is the seafood we ate at the restaurant

This is at the deck where we could see the sea

This is in front of the restaurant we ate at

On the second week of my Korea trip I went to a city in Korea called Busan. I went with my mom and my grandma. Busan is the second biggest city in Korea, the first is Seoul where I was staying at during my trip. We took the train there, it was about a two and a half hour train ride. When we got there my grandmas cousins picked us up from the train station. I’ve never met that part of my family because they live in Busan and it was my first time going to Busan. My grandmas cousins brought us to a seafood restaurant right next to the water. When you walked in there was a smell of the sea. Each table had a grill and we had Octopus, Sea cucumber, Squid, Scallops, Clams, Mussels and mushrooms. Busan is famous for seafood because Busan is surrounded with water. After my mom and I rested at the hotel while my grandma spent time with her cousins.

The next day my grandma took my mom and I to the place that my moms grandpa lived, there was also a big street market there called Jeli-sigtang. There were a lot of people selling fish, meat, clothing, shoes and a lot more. After my grandma wanted to rest to we went to the Lotte department store and got some things there. Lotte is the biggest brand in Korea. There is also Lotte World, Lotte buildings, Lotte Hotel and the Lotte food buisness. After we took a long walk in a big park that was kind of like an island. Once you walked 20 minutes in there was a deck where you could see the sea, it was very beautiful. Then for dinner we went to a restaurant that was famous for kong-gucksoo. Kong-gooksoo is soy beans blended in the blender and it turns into a soup with noodles. Then we went to another Jeli-sigtang because I didn’t really like the kong-gucksoo. Once we finished walking around we went back to the hotel. The next morning we got ready to leave but before that we had lunch in Busan. And then we went to the train station back to Seoul.

This is my cousins and I before surfing

This is me surfing

This weekend I went surfing in the Hamptons. I surfed three days in a row.  On my first lesson I was really nervous that the board was going to get on top of me when I wiped out or jumped off the board but it didn’t happen this time! I really like to surf when the waves aren’t too big and and they don’t come one after the other. I surfed at the South Hampton beach and Ocean Road beach. I think that the Ocean Road beach has bigger waves so I like surfing in South Hampton better. The first time I surfed I was really nervous, but then after I noticed that I didn’t need to worry. Soon we settled in a spot in the ocean, my cousins went and then it was my turn. When I went the surf instructor was saying “Paddle, paddle, now pop up, lean forward, good” After I was up on my surf board I could feel the waves pushing my surf board and the wind blowing in my face. After I paddled back to where my cousins and the instructors were, everyone was saying “That was great!”  I felt really good and wanted to surf more.  I learned that surfing is not always the same every time and each time I go I learn something new about surfing and the instructors there. I also learned that surfing is really fun and for most people you will always be able to challenge yourself in surfing because if you think the waves that you are surfing are too small you can get bigger and bigger ones each time you get better at surfing.

This is me jumping off the boat

This is the front of the boat

This is at the dock

When I was in the Hamptons I went on my uncles boat with my cousins. Every year we get to go on it, so it’s a tradition. My uncle lets each of the kids to drive the boat for a little while. Normally we go to my uncles friends house and jet ski, but this time we stopped in the middle of the bay. The first thing I did was jump into the water from the top of his boat. To me, thats the best part of the whole thing. Only one of my cousins and I jumped in, the rest didn’t want to. At first I was a bit scared but after I jumped in I realized that it was super fun. I jumped in more than everyone of my cousins. Soon we had to leave so I did my last jump and we started moving back to the dock. I always have a fun time on the boat and I can’t wait to come back next year!

These are the stamps you got to choose from

This is my set of the stamp

A few days ago I went to an area in Korea called Samcheondong. There are a lot of restaurants and tents selling food. I went to one tent where you would make your own stamp. You could customize it any way you wanted to.  Then the man who made the stamps would carve what you wanted on a little stone, which was the stamp. You could choose which stone you wanted because there were designs on all of them. I asked the man to carve my English name and my Korean name on the stamp. After he would stamp two really special types of ink with the stamp you made and then I picked a little bag for it. I learned that a lot of korean people have their own stamp, so if you need to sign a paper they use their stamp instead of a signature. (The words on the stamp mean, lets dream high.)

This is me touching the really clean water

This is the bike ride on the rio grande trail

This is the balloon I got from the street artist

This is at the Maroon Belles

In June I went to Colorado with my dad, one place I went to in Colorado was Aspen. This was my first time going to Aspen in the summertime. In the winter you mostly go skiing, but in the summer there is so much to do. I first checked into the Limelight hotel, I always stay there when I am in Aspen. Then I went to a really good restaurant called Meat and Cheese, they have the best rotisserie chicken I’ve ever had. After we ate we walked around the area and went to a bookstore. It was rainy so I couldn’t do so much that day.

The next day we went on a 6 or 7 mile bike ride called the Rio Grande Trail. It’s not only for bike riding you can also jog or take a walk there. After we went bike riding we went to one of my favorite restaurants called Brunelleschi’s, you get to make your own pizza there. Soon we finished lunch and started walking back to our hotel because the hotel is in the town. On our way back there were street artists. One of them was a clown/face painter, she was better at being a clown than painting. She called herself Lizzy Dizzy and also made up names for everyone who stopped by her area. There was also a balloon artist who made really cool animals out of the balloons. And there was a girl who did hennas and tattoos on kids. The last street artist was a magician, he did really weird and cool tricks. That night we went to another magic show and he was a professional magician. He did a lot of card tricks and coin tricks too. When the magic show ended we walked around the Snowmass village and then went back to the Aspen town.

The day after we went on a hike to the Maroon Belles, everyone who goes there says it’s an excellent hike.  The water on the hike was so clear and fresh I couldn’t tell when my hand was going to touch the water. I learned that Aspen in the summertime is so much different than in winter time and you get to do so much more things. Also the views are really beautiful in the summer. The cool thing is that since there is no snow on the mountains the skiing mountains are covered in grass and they look so different.

I didn’t have a picture of me so I used this one

A few days ago I had an Alvin Ailey dance audition with Emma D. I haven’t done dance in about 3 years so I wasn’t very prepared. They said that I needed a tight bun and a good ballet outfit. At around 4:45 I went in. I was really nervous. A lot of the time the instructor/teacher would say moves that I didn’t know so I had to look at other people. A lot of us felt more pressure because the Junior Division manager kept on looking at us with a serious face, even though she was just looking to see our ability and what we could do. After the audition was over Emma and I both thought that we weren’t going to get in but a few days later they sent us an email that said we got in!