End of One Book, Start of Another

Hang A Thousand Trees With Ribbons~~~Ann Rinaldi
I read from page 162-the end or from chapter 21-the end.

There was a lot that happened towards the end.  Mrs. Wheatley dies and so does Aunt Cumsee.  Phillis gets to meet George Washington because she wrote a poem about him.  Phillis loved the visit with George Washington.  The book says that she didn't walk out of the room, she floated out.  Before that, John Peters asks her to marry him, but Phillis wants time to think about that.  Phillis and Mr. Wheatley move in with Mary for a little bit.  George Washington and Mary convince her a little bit that she should marry John Peters.  Phillis decides to, and they get married.  They lived in a good part of town, but then John Peters loses his job.  A couple of other bad things happen to them.  Phillis had three children, but along the way two die.  Phillis tries to publish a second book of poetry.  It didn't work very well.  Phillis died on the same day that her only living child died.

The next book that I am going to be reading is called Little House in Brookfield.  This book is written by Maria D. Wilkes.  It is about Laura Ingalls mother, Caroline.  Caroline lives in Brookfield Wisconsin and tries to make a living with her mother and siblings because their father dies out at sea.  There are other books about Lauras Grandmother, and great-grandmother.  I haven't started it yet, but look forward to.

Questions:  A question that I had was how long John Peter lived?  Ann Rinaldi leaves you to wonder about that because she never said.

Predictions:  I predict that Little House in Brookfield will be about how Caroline lived, and what her daily life was like.  I predicted that because that is what all of the other books are about.

Connections:  The connection that I am going to make this week, is a text to text.  The book that I am going to compare Little House in Brookfield to is the Caroline series, (the American Girl Doll.)  Caroline, almost loses her dad at sea, and in Little House in Brookfield the other Caroline loses her dad.  In both of those situations life was hard without their fathers.  And het, they have the same names. :)

Hang A Thousand Trees With Ribbons--Part 4

Hang A Thousand Trees With Ribbons~~~Ann Rinaldi
I read from page 126-161, or from chapter 16 to chapter 20.

Chapter 16:  Phillis meets an African American painter.  The stamp act was going on.  They find out that Prince is part of the Sons of Liberty.  A crowd comes by the Wheatley's house.

Chapter 17:  A year later, Phillis wrote her very first poem!  Yeah!!!  Phillis didn't like her hair the way it was, so Nathaniel took her to get it cut.  While they were gone, Mary had gone snooping around in Phillis' stuff.  She had discovered her poetry and had it in her hand when they came home.  That caused a bit of an issue, but in the end, it turned out good that Mary had discovered it.

Chapter 18:  The last couple sentences of my summary of chapter 17 blends in with chapter 18.  So some of it happened then, but it made sense to put it in with chapter 17.  In chapter 18, the Wheatley's were "praising" her writing.  They were shocked when they found out it was hers.

Chapter 19:  In chapter 19, it sort of skips ahead a year in her life.  It talks about how she did not really make any poems during the next year.  On Pope's Day, there was a crowd outside of the Wheatley's house.  This is what inspired her to write her next poem.  She wrote it about the ruckus that the Harvard boys were making on the street below.

Chapter 20:  This chapter startes off by stating that she had lost her cowrie shell.  That shell was very important to her because her mother gave it to her on the slave ship.  Phillis searches for it for about 10 minutes, but can not find it.  She is called down for supper.  Mrs. Wheatley was having a party, and Phillis was to recite her poetry afterwards.  They have conversation at the table.  A slave trader comes up to Phillis afterwards, and asks for a private recitation.  Phillis doesn't want to, but in the end, she does it for him.  Mostly, she does it because Nathaniel tells her that his parents were thinking about getting her poetry published, and that meant begin able recite on demand.  She does it because it would be good practice.


Questions:  I didn't know what a bunch of the words meant this week.  The first one was seditious.  The word seditious means troulemaking.  It got that answer from the dictionary on my desktop.  Another word was pernicious.  Pernicious means destructive, or hurtful.  I found this answer on my desktop dictionary.  I didn't know what jest meant, or what Braintree means.  Jest means to fool around.  I also found that out on my desktop dictionary.  I found out from Wikipedia that Braintree was a document or a letter that was written in protest of the stamp act.  On Wikipedia it said that a bier was a type of stick or coffin.  Syllabub was a traditional English dessert.  Found my answer on Wikipedia.  Vellum is a type of paper.  Found on Wikipedia.  Wikipedia also said that potpourri was a type of dried fruit.  Tapestry is a type of art.  Found my answer on Wikipedia.

Prediction:  I predict that Prince will get in trouble for being part of the Sons of Liberty.

Connection:  My connection this week is to the Revolutionary War.  In the Revolutionary War, there were others who were in the Sons of Liberty just like Prince was.  Some of them got caught, and some of them didn't

Key Question:  The theme in this book was that a black person can be just as good as a white person.  They can do things just as well.  Phillis became the first African American to publish her poetry.

Hang A Thousand Trees With Ribbons--Part 3

Hang A Thousand trees With Ribbons~~~Ann Rinaldi
I read from page 98 to page 125 or from chapter 13 to chapter 15

Chapter 13:  In this chapter, it starts off with the Wheatleys arguing about the small pox.  Phillis then hears the doctor knock on the door to inoculate the Wheatley family.  She decides to go out to the barn to hide.  Phillis falls asleep, and dreamed of her mother pouring out water before the sun.  Nathaniel wakes her up and is mad at her because she hid.  She tells him why she is hiding, and the reason is because she didn't follow the instructions that her mother gave her when she was home.  It was her fault that her mother was dead and she thinks that the small pox is a curse on her for doing so.  Nathaniel says that it isn't and carries her into the house to get inoculated.

Chapter 14:  The next morning Phillis woke up with her head throbbing.  Sulie came in and gave her some nice hot broth.  She said that her name was Old Bettie because she didn't want Phillis knowing it was her.  Phillis asks how Aunt Cumsee is, and she says that she is doing fine.  The second day, Phillis felt feverish.  "Old Bettie" talks Phillis into writing a letter to her friend Obour.  Later, when she was sleeping, she had another dream only this time Obour was involved.  She sees Obour chasing away the birds from the fields and then her mother appeared and told was pouring water out before the sun.  Her mother told her what to do about Aunt Cumsee and then she said, 'Find Obour.'  The next day, Phillis goes out and pours water out before the sun.  Nathaniel finds her out there and gives her a speech about not doing it.  She tells him about "Old Bettie" and he is shocked.  He says that Sulie took care of Phillis while she was sick.  Phillis asks Nathaniel to write a letter to Obour, and he says that she can do it by herself.

Chapter 15:  Phillis gets the letter done, but Nathaniel tells her to do it again and leave out some of the parts.  Phillis does it after a little protesting involved.  At supper another night, Nathaniel brings up what Phillis has been doing.  Pouring water out before the sun.  His mother gasped when she heard this.  They were trying to make her into a Christian, and they expected her to act like one too.  Nathaniel decides to take out the fountain that is in their yard.  That is where Phillis has been pouring her water out.  She started to write down her feelings on paper.  She writes the bad ones first, and then the good ones.  It makes her feel like she is free in her own way.  :)


Questions:  What does jurisdiction mean?  I got my answer from Mrs. Koster.   It means that you are in charge of a piece of something.  What do the words inherent and inalienable mean?  For inherent, I got my answer from my desktop dictionary and it means existing in something as a permanent.  Inalienable means that no one can take it away.  I got my answer from Mrs. Koster.

Prediction:  I had two predictions this week.  The first one was that I thought Phillis was going to do something bad when she went out of the house in chapter 13.  The second one was that I had the feeling that Phillis' letter was going to turn out gorgeous.

Connection:  My connection this week is that I know how hard it is to write a perfect letter.  I tried writing one to President Obama, and it was definitely not perfect.

Key Question:  One conflict is that Phillis wants to continue her old religion.  Well she is a Christian, but she wants to be able to pour water out before the sun just like her mother did.  It reminds her of her and helps her feel like she is back at home with everything all right.  With her mother living and Phillis begin able to go to the fields to chase away the birds with Obour.  The conflict is person to person because the Wheatley family doesn't want her to do that because that is not Christian like.