Discuss the way the author built suspense in the book.  Was it effective?

I am reading The Eye Of The Minds, and it has a lot of suspense. There is a lot of action scenes and you are always wondering what is going to happen next. There are random people and situations that pop out in the story. This makes it interesting and unpredictable in such a strange environment. There are a few specific scenes that really showed suspense such as the scene where Michael and his friends are continuing their mission through The Path. A strange man appears. As soon as the man is mentioned, there is suspense because you don't know who this man is. The quote that introduces this man is, "And standing next to the beginning of the trail, under the boughs of a huge oak, was a pale man dressed in a red cloak, the hood pulled over his head." The description of the man is creepy and suspicious so the reader is left wondering why this creepy man is suddenly in the scene.

I think suspenseful stories are my favorite because they persuade me to keep reading. I get hooked and want to find out what is going to happen, so I keep reading. I personally feel that books without suspense are not as fun to read because you are not reading to discover what you have been wanting to know. You are reading a story event after event, but you might be able to predict what is going to happen. Suspenseful books can be unpredictable and I think they can even make you shocked when something happens. I think it is more interesting and entertaining to read a book that is unpredictable because the story could go anywhere. In The Eye Of The Minds, I think the suspense is very effective because I like reading suspenseful books. The suspense sucks you in to read more. A book full of suspense is a book that is hard to put down.

I like to relate it to math. If you have easy math problems, it gets boring to do them. If you have hard math problems, they are hard to figure out and you have to work harder. You are learning with the hard problems and it feels good to gain knowledge. It is just like books with and without suspense. A book without suspense is easy to predict. A book with suspense is unpredictable and sometimes hard to figure out what is going to happen next. It is fun to read a book where you don't know what is happening. Books are boring if you already know what is going to happen.

My second memoir is "I Am Malala." I am relating this book to an article called "Texas Cheerleaders Going to Court Over God's Word?" The central idea of both is to stand up for your beliefs.
Link to article:
http://m.cbn.com/cbnnews/US/2013/March/Texas-Cheerleaders-Fight-to-Promote-the-Gods-word

In "I Am Malala," Malala is fighting for her right to go to school in Pakistan. She never gives up because she really wants to go to school and have equal rights for girls. When Malala is forced to move away from her home, she is very upset and wants to stay so she can get an education. When she returns she is happy to find her books and school supplies. In the book, Malala states, "To my joy I found my school bag still packed with my books, and I gave thanks that that my prayers had been answered and that they were safe. I took out my books one by one and just stared at them. Math, physics, Urdu, English, Pashto, chemistry, biology, Islamiyat, Pakistan studies. Finally I would be able to return to school without fear." Malala was so happy to get back to her old life of being able to go to school. She doesn't let anyone stop her from going to school because she loves going to school so much. She believes that she should be able to go to school, so she does.


The article "Texas Cheerleaders Going to Court Over God's Word?" shows how cheerleaders stand up for their belief: God. They put bible verses on signs at the football games because they felt they were encouraging to the players. When they stood up for their faith, they were told that they could not share these bible verses. The girls said that this was a violation of free speech and they filed a counter suit when they were told to take their bible verses down. They won't give up. "They're good kids, they've been raised right. They know what they believe and they weren't afraid to stand up and say what they believe and to take whatever came with it," Mama Jack, a local restaurant owner, said.


Both Malala and the cheerleaders showed courage because they both strongly believe in something. Although people disapprove of their beliefs, they still continue to do what they want. Malala continues to go to school because she loves school. She can't go to school, but she still does. The cheerleaders are Christians and they want to have bible verses at the football games. Even though they were told not to, they were later able to do this because they stood up for themselves. Malala and the cheerleaders are inspirational and confident. They strongly commit to what they believe in and they don't let anyone get in their way.

  The most important line from a chapter is…  (and explain why it is important and how the plot develops from that line)

I  am currently reading "The Color Of  Water" by James McBride. It is a memoir that is from the point of view of James and his mother Ruth. In chapter one, Ruth discusses her background. The line from the chapter that is most important is, "You want to talk about my family and here I been dead to them for fifty years. Leave me alone. Don't bother me. They want no parts of me and me I don't want no parts of them." Ruth is talking about her relationship with her family. Their relationship is obviously not good, and this shows in later chapters. Ruth changed her name multiple times, and to me that means that she wants to change who she is and get away from her past. Ruth is someone who tries to change the subject when something about her past comes up. Her children didn't know much about her past until they got older. 

Ruth describes her dad as "hard as a rock" and "he was nobody to fool with." In a later chapter she describes what her father would do to her and how it made her really insecure and unhappy. Her mom, she says was the "one person in this world I didn't go right by...." Her mom and dad were the opposite from each other and her dad didn't love her mom. Ruth's mother was sweet and caring, but her dad was not. Her family life is rough and this definitely changes who she is.  

When Ruth says she has been dead to her family, she feels like she is worthless to them. She never talks to them because of her rough family life. In the chapters that I have currently read, Ruth talks about her past. I am curious to see after she has talked about the past if she will talk about the present. Then I will be able to know exactly why she doesn't talk to her family anymore. I felt that chapter 1 was foreshadowing because chapter one was the beginning of the story telling of her life. She started off with saying possibly like, "You want to hear about my family? They have been dead to me for fifty years. I will start from the beginning." I want to know at the end of her story why she is considered "dead" to her family.

I am currently reading "The Eye Of The Minds" by James Dashner. The characters in the story are faced with a difficult task of finding a pro gamer in the Virtnet. The Virtnet is a virtual world that the characters go into and they use there hacking skills to get through specific areas of the Virtnet. Michael, Sarah, and Bryson are looking for Kaine to try to stop him from killing people in the Virtnet. They have to find a place called "The Path" which will lead them to Kaine. The Path is really difficult to hack and they go through a lot of obstacles.

The book is futuristic and has technology that is not available currently in the real world. The worst thing about this book is that the description is a little hard to visualize because no one has really seen the Virtnet or the places that the characters go in the book. I do like the setting though because it is different and is a mystery to put together. The author was very creative while writing this book. There is a part in the book where the 3 friends are just getting to the path. An old lady who was sitting at the entrance told them that they have to figure out what time it is to go forward in their journey. I liked having to try to solve the old lady's riddle. The friends found out that there were stone disks in the ground and they had to go through the 10:00 disk. They had to go through the 10:00 disk because this is what time it was.

The description of the disks was difficult to picture because I have never seen them before. A quote in this part of the book that describes the disks are, "Michael sprinted across the disk, jumping over several more gaping holes that had formed. To his left, another huge piece of the stone broke away from the edge and fell, then another to his right. In the middle, where the old Satchel had sat in her chair, a section exploded in a spray of rocks, the dull purple light of the clouds shining through the hole when it was gone." I wanted to know more about the colors and facial expressions. I also wanted to know the size of the disks compared to the size of something I have seen before. If I could relate the setting to something I have seen before, it would be much easier to visualize the setting in the book.

Make a text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connection to the book (You could easily write a paragraph on each and create links to other sites, videos, etc).

I am currently reading "The Eye Of The Minds" by James Dashner. The text-to-world connection to my book is the movie called "The Matrix." In the Matrix, the main character goes into a virtual world where he faces problems. There is a character named Mr. Anderson who is taking over this virtual world. The virtual world is called the Matrix. In my book the main character Michael is faced with a challenge that he never expected. He is supposed to find the Mortality Doctrine within a virtual world called the Virtnet.  The Virtnet is a world outside of the real world just like the Matrix. It's like going into a video game that feels real. Michael has to stop Kaine, he is doing something horrible to the people who are in the Virtnet, and find the Mortality Doctrine that Kaine is somehow linked to. In the Matrix, the main character has to stop Mr.Anderson from destroying their virtual world.

The text-to-text connection is relating a book also written by James Dashner called "The Maze Runner" to "The Eye Of Minds." Both of the main characters (Thomas and Michael) are faced with a problem that will be difficult to solve. Thomas has to figure out the maze and solve it to escape. Michael has to stop a cyberterroist in the Virtnet that is just as confusing as the maze. They have to figure out their surroundings. Both books have an adrenaline feel and are suspenseful and action filled. Both books take place in the future with advanced technology. 

The text-to-self connection is the 3 friends, Michael, Sarah, and Bryson, stick together and work as a team. They have to go through a mission together to find Kaine and the Mortality Doctrine. When my friends and I have to go through something together, we help each other and we are always there for one another. When a friend needs you, you are always there to help them. I help my friends and do things with them just like Michael does with his friends. Sarah and Bryson are helping Michael with the mission, and Michael works with his friends to complete the objective.