Morgan+McCullough


 * ﻿May 27th, 2011 **

I started a new book. I had to return the previous book I was reading and it was getting boring. It was too predictable for me. The new book I'm reading is called __Motherless Daughters__. An older friend recommended that I read the book, because just like me, her and her mom had a very bad relationship when she was my age. __Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss__ by Hope Edelman, is about Hope's own personal loss of her mother. She includes other stories of women who have lost their mothers as young childern and adults. I looked at the greif of the women in the stories and try to figure out what my greif will be like whenever my mother passes. It's really hard to say what it'll be like. Knowing that any day could be my Mom's last day made it really difficult to read the book. We do not have a good realtionship at all. We never have. That's all that I think about when I read the stories of young girls who lost their mother to an illness. I feel like I've lost my mother in a way, even though she's still around. I can't talk to her about just anything. I have to think and think again before asking her something or telling her what happened that day. I'm always worried that she'll think something I did was wrong. Every day is something new with her. I found myself crying almost every time I read. I could only make it through a few pages at a time. It's so sad to think about all the people in the world who have lost their mothers. It's sad because some of those people had to have had awesome realtionships with their mothers. It's something that I'll never know what it's like.

I'm sorry that this doesn't exactly meet the blogging requirement. To be honest I didn't even read it. I just logged on and started typing. It's freeing. I think I'll start doing this more often.

Have a good summer, Mrs. Olson!!!

**April 18th, 2011**

In the book The Problem With Paradise, which I am four chapters into, Casey just broke the news of her leaving for the summer to her friends. They didn't really react the way she expected them to. They took the news fairly well and didn't get very upset. Her friend that is a boy, who Casey expected to be very upset was actually happy that she was leaving. He was leaving himself for the summer and he felt that it would be good for both of them to be apart for a while.

I can totally relate this book to my life. Only I'm not Casey, my boyfriend is. He is leaving for college-he's going to be over three hours away in Ottumwa I know that it's just a part of growing up but neither of us are ready for that. He doesn't want to leave and I don't want him to either. This whole book will be very interesting to read, it might even be painful at times, since it's so relatable.



**March 31st, 2011** (I'm a little late-but late is better than never.) :)

I choose the book The Problem With Paradise by Lesley Dahl. I got this book from the HS library. I choose this book because it is different than what I usually read. It sounds like it should be a good book!

This book is about a girl named Casey who is stranded on a deserted island with her dad, step mom and two brothers. Casey's dad is going to study endangered sea turtles﻿. Casey is very upset that she is going to be away from all her friends and technology for the entire summer. It seemed like nothing was going to be good-until Casey met a boy.

I have read the first couple pages of the book and it's really good!! To find out more on the book you can visit: []


 * March 10th, 2011 **


 * ﻿Characters: **

Hannah, Aria, Spencer, Emily & A #2

These five people are the main characters in the book. Hannah was the fat girl that went to fat camp and got skinny. She became very popular and pretty much filled Ali's spot after she died. Ali was very...mean. Hannah fills Ali's spot perfectly. Now that she's skinny, pretty and popular she is almost as mean as Ali was, but not quite. Aria got close with her new english teacher. He was young and very attractive, Aria's dream. They made a perfect couple. Spencer was the observant one. She takes in every little thing and puts together the big picture, something that was key in her hectic, confusing life. Emily was confused. She knew in her heart that she was gay, but her parents didn't tolerate that type of "behavior." She found a way to go for the one she loved, and it was worth it in the end. A #2 is still unknown...


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Plot: **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">The plot is all surrounding the death of Ali DiLaurentis. Her four friends each know something about her death and they are taunted by "A" through text, email, little notes left around and packages. The girls all take on different lives after Ali- their queen bee- dies. They are lost at first but then they adapt and become completely different people. They are all hiding something. Hannah, Aria, Spencer and Emily will go anywhere and do anything to please the very demanding A- even if it means death.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Hannah struggles with and eating disorder and A knows that. Hannah's mother was going broke, but she stole money from one of her customers and stashed it in the pantry. A found out about the money and broke into Hannah's house and stole the money. Hannah found that the money was gone and was very upset. She received instructions from A on how to get the money back thru text. She was to go to the local bakery and pick up an order for Hannah from A. It was 6 cupcakes with pigs on them and she was to eat them all. After she finished them she got some of the money back but I wont say how- you'll have to read to find out more. :)


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Rating: **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I give this book a 5 for sure. The whole book is awesome and it kept me interested. I really like how it differed from the TV series. I was worried that the show would start to get boring since I know a lot of important details from reading, but the books are very different from what happens on the TV show.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I like the book Sliding Into Home by Kendra Wilkinson. It sounds like it would be a really good book. I've watched Kendra's TV show a couple of times and she's really funny. I think it would be cool to learn more about her life and all the struggles she went through before she became famous.


 * <span style="color: #800080; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">February 14th, 2011 **

Dear Spence, When I told you that he had to go, I didn't mean he had to die. Still, there's something really sketchy in this case...and it's up to you to figure out what it is. So better get searching, or the next one "gone" is you. Au revior! -A

This is another taunting text that Spencer Hastings received from A. Ian, a friend of the girls who had been in jail, was missing. Ian had escaped his house, he was supposed to be on lockdown. Spencer and her family had been planning a benefit party. The Hastings family debated calling the party off, but after the lengthy planning they decided to have it, just with extra security around the house. Nobody was supposed to go outside without a police escort, but Spencer decided to go out to the back by herself. She found Ian there and she was shocked. She didn't know what to do. Her gut instinct was to run into the house to get help from the police officer. Once the office and Spencer returned out back Ian was nowhere to be found.

This book is starting to get frustrating. I just want to know where Ian is. I want to know who the second A is since I already know who the first A is, (I wont say who just incase others out there haven't read this far yet). I also want something BIG to happen. Like one of the girls needs to get involved in something scandalous again. Aria had a relationship with her english teacher in private, it became public, but not that big. I think the author needs to revisit that topic or throw something like that into the mix. Or even better yet. Ali needs to come back. That would be great. I'm going to continue reading and hopefully it'll get more exciting!

Until later, Morgan


 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">January 27th, 2011 **

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">I'm reading the book __Killer__ by Sara Shepard. It is the sixth book in the Pretty Little Liars series. I checked the book about a week ago from the BHS library. There are four main characters in this book: Hannah, Aria, Spencer and Emily. All four girls are seniors at Rosewood High in Pennsylvania. Hannah is a preppy blonde that is very popular among the guys. She is very thin and in the book you find out she isn't 'naturally' thin. Aria and Spencer are the oddballs of the group. The do different things than the other two girls and aren't very popular. Emily is the 'pure' one of the group. She is a goodie two shoes and she only does good things, or so she says. All the girls used to be friends with Alison DiLaurentis, until she disappeared mysteriously one night when the girls were having a sleep over in Spencer's barn. The girls were harassed by someone of the name 'A' who taunted them about Alison's disappearance and eventual death. In the fourth book A ended up dying. The girls finally thought they were free of the harassment and torture, but another A is back in play. I LOVE these books. I thought after the fourth book I'd be bored with the series, but I'm not. Each chapter is something new and exciting. There are several flashbacks in the books, some of the flashbacks are repeated with more detail each time.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">There is a TV series on ABC Family based on the Pretty Little Liars book series. It's really interesting to watch the show and make the comparisons to the books. The show has a lot of differences from the book, the books are so much better than the TV show. The books are very relatable and seem real. The TV series at times seems fake.

<span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">To read an in-depth review of this book you can visit: []

Today I created my Wikispace account, joined this Wiki and created a page.
 * January 13th, 2011 **