This month I read “Love and Olives” by Jenna Evans Welch. This story is about a teen girl named Liv. Liv’s mother wants her to go with her absent father to Greece. Her father claims that he needs her help with a project, and that she will have so much fun. He even called Liv by her old childhood nickname. Liv doesn’t know how to feel about her absent father suddenly trying to regain her trust, but at least she gets to go to Greece. Liv finds new possibilities, adventures, and even love.

I love this book because of the family drama. Liv has so much history with her father, and her father threw it all away to research for Atlantis- the lost city that Liv’s father cannot get rid of. I have read this book once, but it has definitely kept my heart beating in suspense! A couple of months ago, I read the first book of this series, and I will definitely read the last book!

“Olive,

Great news! I’m working on an exciting project, and I could really use your help here in Santorini, Indiana Olive. How does June 15th sound? I have already emailed your mother the plane ticket.

-Baba”

This is my favorite quote from this novel because it really brings the whole book together. It shows that Liv’s father is still in the past, acting like everything is okay, and the same as how it was when Liv was 7 years old. What her father doesn’t know is that Liv’s feelings about the past don’t match up with his.

My favorite character from this novel is definitely Liv’s mother, because she helped push Liv to reach the rest of the book. If it wasn’t for her, none of the stuff in the story would’ve happened!

“‘Liv, I know it’s very sudden, but I think it’s a good idea.’”

This quote shows that Liv’s mother is my favorite character because she knows deep in her heart that Liv needs this opportunity to change her life and mind forever.

This month I read the book Starfish by Lisa Fipps. This story is about a 12 year old girl named Ellie. She had struggled with body positivity for her whole life. Her mom and siblings had brought her down her whole life due to her weight. Her dad, on the other hand, had supported her and everything about her since she was born. In this book, Ellie tries to find her way out of the jail cell she calls school. With a lot of twists and turns, Ellie makes her way through middle school struggles.

I love this book because of the surprising climax’s throughout the story. A great example of this from the story includes Ellie’s bully being confronted. I wont spoil the rest for you, but it’s really juicy! You should definitely try this novel. I have read this novel it’s of times before and it never gets old.

“Every kid needs one place to escape to when life gets too much.” (Page 16)

This is my favorite quote from this novel because it shows how much kids really need alone time and a place to escape. Every kid always needs somewhere that they can let all of their stress go.

My favorite character from Starfish is definitely the librarian, Mrs. Pochon. She is such a sweet character that helps Ellie through her struggles and lets her be herself without judging her.

“She’s the first person to smile at me today. The first to make me feel wanted.”

This quote shows that Mrs. Pochon cares about Ellie and her struggles because she actually wants to let Ellie know that she’s wanted and okay. Mrs. Pochon wants nothing but the best for Ellie.

My dream job is to be a chef. One reason why I would want to be a chef as my dream job is because I can experiment with different flavors and textures. This would make it very fun and exciting to try new things and expand my pallet. Another reason my chef dream job is because cooking and baking is my hobby. Whenever I get to bake or cook, I always have the most fun. The last reason why my dream job is to be a chef is because I can make food for other people. I would like to have feedback on what I make, and let other people enjoy my food. Even if they disliked the food I made, I would make it better next time and take in the feedback.

I’m invisible! Let me explain…

One day, I was just laying in bed bored as ever. Instead of just sitting around, I decided I would go take a walk. I go on my walk for about ten minutes. Mid-walk, a sorcerer randomly popped out of the corner and pointed his magic wand at me! I didn’t notice that anything happened at first, but then when I got home and looked in the mirror… YIKES! “Where am I?!” I thought. I suddenly realized that I was invisible. Next, I found a note in my pocket! It read, “24 hours left… use it wisely.” The first couple hours I was invisible, I went around parks and grocery stores and held things in front of peoples faces, making them feel like they were going crazy. The rest of the day, I broke into and Knotts Berry Farm too say on the loud speakers, “SNOOPY……….. PUT SOME PANTS ON!!”I also didn’t have to wait in the lines. I could just go through the employee only doors and get on. I rode on those rides in the empty seats. Nobody noticed!! Until… this guy that said his name was BRAD elbowed me in the face without knowing. Ouch. Then I went to the ice cream shop and got an ice cream for free. When I was leaving at really late at night, my time must’ve ran out! My invisibility went away! A security Garuda caught me stealing ice cream and put me in jail. I’m still in jail to this day. Wish me good luck in prison!

My life on an abandoned island is stressful. It’s another day on a paradise island and it is time to get to work. How did I get here, you ask? Well, it’s a long story… I was just peacefully watching a movie on the plane. 16 candles. Great movie, by the way. Anyways, I was watching the movie and fell asleep in the middle of the movie. When I woke up, an alarm went off in the plane. The flight attendants yell out be stay calm, but obviously nobody was calm. Then, one psycho takes over the plane controls and crashes us in a deserted island! Next thing you know, we’re are trying to survive here all together. A couple days go by and a rescue helicopter comes to rescue us. They helicopter picks up everybody that was on the plane and leaves. Without me. I tried getting on, but I was too late. They already started flying away. I was devastated. Then I remembered, “Hey! I have my phone! I can call the police!” I tried calling the police to come rescue me, but there was no service. Now, I’m stuck here for good. I luckily had all my luggage still, which was amazing. Better than amazing. I had so much stuff! A toothbrush, toothpaste, a few changes of clothes, a portable phone charger, and some other stuff. I even brought a bunch of snacks in my carry on! Bingo! I’m currently snacking on some Chees-Itz while writing this. Wish me luck on my abandoned island journey!

This month I read the book We’ll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han. I haven’t finished reading the book yet, and I’m on page 77. This story is about a teen girl, Belly, who was dating Jeremiah, her long time friend from Cousins beach. Suddenly, Jeremiah is caught cheating on Belly during a trip. They then take a little break from their relationship, but they make up quickly. While their relationship is bonding back together, Jeremiah bends down and asks Belly the one thing she’s always dreamed of… to be Belly Fischer.

I’m loving this book so far because of the twists and turns throughout the story. A twist and turn from the story includes Jeremiah proposing. I’m not too much of a reader, but this series is definitely a recommendation. You should definitely try this series. I don’t usually stay with a book series for long, but this series got me hooked.

“As I pulled into the driveway, I let out a big whoop. It was good to be back. This was my first time at the house in over a year.”

This is my favorite quote from this novel because it shows how much Belly appreciates the summer house. She was relieved by being there because to her, the summer house is like a place that she can let all of her stress go away.

My favorite character from this novel is Belly. This is because she cares for everyone is aware of others feelings before she acts. She cared so much about Jeremiah while all the drama was surrounding Conrad. She understood both brother’s feelings about her, and she was very understanding about Conrad’s feelings about Susannahs death.

“He was my best friend. More and more, I understood. This is the way it was supposed to be. He was the one. My one.”

This quote shows that belly cares about Jeremiah because she is deeply in love with him and cared about him throughout all the years they have known each other

One day last year, I was at a school dance. The Valentine’s Day dance. There were drinks, snacks, candy, games, and a DJ! It was so fun! Until… I fell. You see, I had an unopened lollipop in my hand. All my friends and I wanted to go in the gym to see the DJ. Although, there was a “no food in the gym rule”. I still wanted to keep my lollipop, so I was going to put it in my backpack. I ran over to my backpack and put the lollipop in the front pocket. Here’s the gruesome part. While I was running back, THUD! I crash to the floor because of tripping on a backpack. The fall thrashed my knees, so they were bleeding a lot. My hands were all scraped up from catching myself. My hands and knees were bleeding a lot, but the pain did not even compare to the stabbing agony of my left wrist. At first I just thought it was normal, because sometimes my wrists just randomly hurt. But no. This time, it was serious. I went to the nurses office to clean up my knees and hands, and got some ice for my wrist. After I went back to the dance, I felt like my wrist was about to fall off. I couldn’t move my wrist or my knees, so trying to have fun was difficult. After a while, I couldn’t do it anymore. I texted my mom to come pick me up early. Once she picked me up, I told her everything and went straight to urgent care. At urgent care, they cleaned up my knees and hands with some hydrogen peroxide and weird medicine that stung really bad. They took X-rays, tried to move around my wrist (but obviously they only could do it for 2 seconds, be cause they could hear a cracking in my wrist), and eventually gave me a cast. But not only a cast that ends by the center of my forearm. A cast that went all the way up to the center of my bicep and ended at the middle of my fingers. And the worst part is, I had to get a weird tan color! The choices were either that or neon green, but I was out of it. I wasn’t thinking straight. They put me on a bunch of pain killers. Anyway, I ended up having that cast for only a few days. After that, I had to have a brace for around 3-4 months. My wrist is all good now, but it still cracks when I move it. 🤣

Dumbledore quote:

”Happiness can be found in even the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light.”

This quote means to me that happiness is in everyone, even in the worst times of their life. No matter who you are or what happened to you, you will always have the happiness everyone else has tucked inside. This quote is meaningful to me because whenever I’m in a tough situation, I can always be happy somewhere on the inside. Sometimes you don’t have happiness in a certain moment in time, but you always need to remember to trigger the happiness and not bottle it up. That is why this quote is most meaningful to me.

I really admire my mom. My mom is my hero because she goes to work for 12 hours a day for me, does everything she can do to help me, and keeps me safe. My mom goes to work for 12 hours a day for me because she needs money for my family and I. She does everything she can do to help me because if she didn’t, then I would not get the help I would need. Lastly, my mom keeps me safe. She keeps me safe because she always does anything she can to protect me. Those are the reasons that my mom is my hero.

My word of intention for 2024 is organization. There are a few reasons why I would like to be more organized this year. The first reason is that I’m often very messy. Whether it comes to a messy room, a messy schedule, or even a messy brain. To do this, I would write in my binder reminder, clean out my binder every quarter, set reminders for myself to clean my room, and start a journal to organize my thoughts. Another reason I would like to be more organized this year is that I would like to organize things in my backpack. My backpack is usually the messiest thing I own. There are so many papers at the bottom of my backpack, I cant even count. Also, my pencil case has so much junk in it, it’s overflowing! One last reason I would like to be more organized this year is that I would like to clean out my closet often. My closet is a mess and I would like to clean it out.

Hopefully I’ll keep this New Year’s resolution going and ill finish it out until the new year comes around!