Nineteen Minutes- Acrostic

Judge Cromier (Alex Cromier) is Josie’s mom. At first she liked the idea of her mom being a judge but then once she became one, Josie drifted farther and farther apart from her mom. Alex has a dilemma of being a judge and a mother and this strongly affects Josie and Alex’s relationship.

One gunshot, that was all it took for her to shoot her boyfriend, Matt Royston and kill him. They were “ideal couple” she was smart and pretty and he was a jock and popular, they were high-school sweethearts. But she unexpectedly killed him it was as if she had loved Matt so much that she hated him.

Sterling high school, a perfectly normal high school where nothing has ever gone wrong and everyone has the same routine. But on March 6, 2007 everything changed. Peter Houghton decided to walk in to Sterling High and kill 10 people. This was the day that scarred Josie and everyone else at Sterling High’s life forever. This was the day that changed Sterling, New Hampshire forever. Sterling High would never be the same again.

“If you listen carefully, in a hospital, you can hear the truth” (100). Josie isn’t able to re-cap what happened after the shooting because she is so shocked. In the hospital she listens around and discovers the truth, 10 people had been killed and she had one of the injured. But she can’t seem to remember ever being there. Also, doesn’t want to believe what had happened and all of her friends had been killed. Later, she begs her mom not to have her testify in court because she is scared to remember what happened.

Ex best friend of Peter Houghton. In the past, Peter and Josie were best friends. Whenever he was bullied, she would always stick up for him. Then, she ditches him when she becomes popular in middle school because she can’t be seen with a “loser” like Peter. She never meant to deliberately ditch him, it just happened that way. Once Josie became popular, she became obsessed with social status and looks, someone she never wanted to become.

Secret Life of Bee's Literary Techniques

“People who think dying is the worst thing don’t know a thing about life"(2). Lily says this in the beginning of the novel during the exposition. This is an important quote because Lily’s life has been profoundly affected by her mother's death. This statement suggests that living with someone else’s death can be more painful that dying. Not only does Lily have to live with the fact of her accidently shooting her mother when she was an infant, she also has to deal with May. May is the sister of August Boatwright. May also had a twin sister named April who was depressed and committed suicide at a very young age. May and April had so much in common. When one of them got sick the other got sick. They were best friends. Throughout May's childhood she had nervous breakdowns and was emotionally insane. The way May expressed her feeling was by writing her emotions and thoughts on a peace of paper and placing them in the "wailing wall."This was the way to calm May down. One day May ends up killing by drowning herself in a river. She left a note saying that she would finally be reunited with her mother and of course her twin, April. This quote may seem irrelevant. Dying is the worst thing in life, but in the eyes of Lily it is not. Lily has experienced a lot of sorrow and sadness in her life. She has come to realize that when someone dies, everyone else becomes closer. In my opinion, this seems like a strange remark but she is wright in a way. You should lament in death but move on and focus on those who still surround you.

Sherlock Holmes

"Looking back we saw the figure moving slowly away over the broad moor, and behind him that one black smudge on the silvered slope which showed where the man was lying who come so horribly to his end." In this book it is not like many other there is not one big murder and then the detectives examine that one murder. in this book there is more than one murder and many close calls. Holmes and Watson are kept one their toes always trying to catch up with the murder. Even with the last murder Sir Arthur Conan Doyle squeezes even bit of mystery while he can by changing who Holmes and Watson think was the victim. After this murder Holmes and Watson make their final decision of the murder and plan their trap, which adds even more suspicion to the book.

Sherlock Holmes

"Very stealthily we heard it pass along until it died away in the distance. then the baronet gently opened his door and we set out in pursuit." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle really does a good job of getting and keeping the readers attenion with his contant action and suspicion. He keeps Sherlocka and Watson always in danger and with the murder suspect always changing mostly each chapter.

Percy Jackson, The Last Olympian

Vince Carrozza

Character sketch

My first impression of the main character of my book was that he was kind of like me. He is dyslexic like I am and has A.D.H.D. like I do. Then I kept reading I noticed he had some of the same problems in school that I had or do have. Then I read a little more and things got weird and I realized he is nothing like me considering he is part god, he has gotten kicked out of every school he has gone to, and has no friends. Other than that he seemed, at first, like an average kid in school. He wasn’t the coolest guy around or anything, but he seemed pretty normal.

As the book goes on he starts to get the characteristics of being brave, lucky, talented, powerful, and having qualities of leadership. He goes on many quests and through the quests you start to pick up how he is brave. When he fights the titan lord Kronos, he does not run away; he stays and fights like a warrior. He stands tall (figuratively) and shows bravery. He is lucky when his friends come just at the right time to save him. Like at the end of the battle with Kronos, Clarisse and the Ares cabin comes in to save him from a dragon monster. He is talented and powerful when he creates the hurricane to beat the Hyperion the titan. No other demigod can do that, or anything close to that. He shows the qualities of leadership when he leads his armies to fight Kronos and his army.

Other characters in the book say the same thing that I do. They say they depend on him to lead them against the army of Kronos. They are astonished by his great power to create a hurricane. They realize how brave he is to fight Kronos, the titan lord, all by himself. They don’t say anything about him being lucky, but its obvious he has his lucky moments. There are many more things other characters say in the book, but I think those are the most important.

Early in the book Percy says, “if I really had the power, what difference would a week make? I could end this threat right here by taking down Kronos. Hey, I’d fought monsters and gods before” (21). In this quote Percy shows his bravery, and from what other characters have said he makes the conclusion, that he is powerful. He does display a little overconfidence and he underestimates his enemy, but when he is fighting that is where some of his power, talent, leadership, and luck kicks in.

Percy Jackson, The Last Olympian

Vince Carrozza

Explore feelings

There was one scene that I thought was very exciting in the book. During Percy’s fight with Kronos’s army a flying pig (The Clazmonian Sow) attacks Percy and he uses Daedalus’s inventions, the statue automatons, to take down the sow. He throws a rope around the pig while it is flying, trys and fails to climb up it, but successfully guides it to the statues that take it out. Percy says, “It’s one thing to climb a rope in gym class. It’s a completely different thing to climb a rope attached to a moving pig’s wing while your flying at a hundred miles an hour” (250).

This scene shows how Percy is brave and how he is smart and uses strategies. When he knows that he can’t take something down himself, he finds a different way to take it down instead. This event might foreshadow him defeating his main threat, Kronos. Kronos is more powerful than Percy and he is going to have to find away to defeat Kronos with strategy and not just power and strength. His ending plan for defeating Kronos is by dipping himself in the river Styx and becoming invincible.

The significance of this scene is that this flying bore is extremely powerful and no other half blood can take it out, but Percy. This scene shows the other half bloods how much they need Percy and the difference that he makes for them. Not only is Percy powerful and a good leader, but he doesn’t rely only on brute strength and his power for everything. He shows the Half bloods that he can pick his battles right and he knows what to do during them. Percy knows his limits. The only thing Percy gets out of this fight is that he realized that he met his match, that he came close to dying, and he has to be more careful next time. This scene was very exciting to read through because a lot of things were going on during it.

Percy Jackson, The Last Olympian

Vince Carrozza

Acrostic poem.

P: Phenomenal. Percy never ceases to amaze people with his incredible luck and talent. During his fight with Hyperion; he creates a hurricane to cool out the monsters fire and harnesses great power. No matter what adventure or task he sets his eyes on; he always prevails. He is the one who sticks out in the crowd and does what no one else can do.

E: Enthusiastic. Percy is always excited for things and takes part in them too. He does more than just take part; he even takes charge of things. An example of this is when he becomes; basically the general of the Half bloods and defends the empire state building from the monsters. Throughout the book he is a great leader because of his enthusiasm and he gives everyone else a reason to take part in things, which later on in the book his enthusiasm and need for Clarisse and the Ares cabin encourages/causes them to come and help.

R: Remarkable. Percy is remarkable because of the things he does. When he saved Mount Olympus from burning down to the ground, the gods offered to give him gifts because of the remarkable things he did. He is also remarkable because he is one of the few sons of Poseidon.

C: Commander: Percy is a commander and a leader. The other half bloods did not just pick him to lead their armies against Kronos. The campers naturally followed Percy. He was a natural leader because of his ideas; because he had a plan; because he enforced it; because the other half bloods naturally followed him. Percy had the qualities and during kronos’s attack he became the leader.

Y: Youthful. Percy Jackson is very young and after seeing him do all these remarkable things you start to get the prospective that a kid his age could never do that. His youth in this book is his enemy because things are threatening, like Kronos and Luke, that are much bigger, stronger, older, and wiser than he is.

J: Just. Percy was just when he turned down being a God. It was the right thing to do, to return the favor from Annabeth. It was the just thing to do when Percy had the chance to kill Ethan, an evil half-blood, but he let him survive.

A: Ambitious. Through out the book Percy was always striving to defeat his enemies. He is a hard worker and is eager throughout the book to complete his tasks. During Kronos’s rising Percy knew that Mount Olympus could be overthrown and with his ambition and many other traits he made sure that didn’t happen.

C: Courage. One thing that got Percy through all his adventures is his courage. Without that he wouldn’t have been able to stand up above all the other campers and become the leader of the Half-bloods. Without courage he would not have been able to fight Kronos and Luke. Without his courage he would not have been able to succeed in his dangerous tasks.

K: Keen. Percy is smart and keen and always has a plan. He goes into fights knowing what he is going to do and executes it perfectly. When he fought the Clazmonian Sow (a flying pig) he tricked it in to flying near some stone statue automatons and they destroyed the Sow.

S: Selfless. Percy is selfless because he was offered to be turned in to a god after he saved Mount Olympus, but he turned that down to ask for a gift that would help all half bloods like himself. He asked that all the Half-bloods would be claimed by their parents (gods). Also he would be turning down his best friend Annabeth if he became a God. Earlier she had been offered to join Artimis and her hunters, but she refused so she could stay with Percy.

O: Open-minded. Percy was open-minded. He thought about all the possible outcomes. When he was defending Mount Olympus from Kronos he made sure every thing was defended. He thought about all the possible places that Kronos could attack from and he made sure everything was covered. He also made his plan open to possible outcomes, so he could be ready for anything

N: Nonhuman. Percy during the book says to Rachael his friend, “Let’s pretend we’re a couple of normal people” (8). Percy is a half-blood he is part god and part human. In this book part of him is nonhuman and the whole book is the way it is because of this. He can see and do things, that normal people can’t. When Kronos stops time for all humans Percy can still move around and stuff because part of him is nonhuman.