Derrick’s Blog

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Hatchet

By: Gary Paulson

Derrick – Core 4

Brian is a 13-year-old boy who is on a plane going to visit his father’s house in
Canada for the summer. As the pilot is flying, he has a heart attack leaving Brian to fly the plane by himself. After the pilot’s death, Brian takes the pilot’s radio off his head and tries to radio for help every ten minutes. He finally gets a signal, but then is disconnected and never finds any others. When the plane runs out of gas, Brian flies the plane into a nearby lake.

Over the next few days, Brian is very sore and hungry from the crash. Later, he finds ways to get food by making traps for fish, a bow and arrow to kill rabbits and other game, using his hatchet given to him by his mother just before he got on the plane, and finding edible berries in order to survive in the Canadian wilderness. The book’s setting was in
Canada’s wilderness where Brian survives until he is rescued.

One part of the book that I was most touched by was when Brian was finally rescued after he went through surviving in the wild and going back into the submerged plane in order to get the survival pack and the transmitter that brought the rescue plane to save him. Another part of the book that touched me was the pain the pilot went through when he was having the horrible heart attack that killed him.

Some similarities that I see between this book and my life are that Brian and I are both in our teens and are surrounded by the outdoors.  That is to say that although Brian was in a much more rural area of
Canada compared with
Milton, Delaware, I am definitely not in a city. 

Out of all of the books that I have read this year, my favorite has been The Series of Unfortunate Events “The End” because it finally summed up the series of 12 books that I had been reading since I had first heard about them. The series had a great story to tell about how three orphan children could survive many unfortunate and tragic events caused by a treacherous villain who was trying to capture them along with their fortune.

This summer I will probably read more of Gary Paulson’s books or other adventure genre. Otherwise, I will try to find another series similar to The Series of Unfortunate Events. These kinds of series’ keep me busy and interested in reading the next book in the series.

The flowers are blooming,

I have lots of homework.

It is spring,

My neighbors aren’t home.  I can wear shorts and a t-shirt,

I got sunburn.

I like watching many baby animals,

Some get eaten as food.I can now go fishing,

I don’t catch anything.

School is almost over,

But not yet.

At the end of 7^th grade I was offered the choice of enrolling in the Academic Challenge program at Delaware Tech. I was recommended for both the English and Math classes.  In talking to other students about the program, I learned that it was difficult and a lot of work. After talking over the opportunity with my parents, I understood that I had nothing to lose by trying out this program; therefore, I chose to enroll.  

A week into summer break, I received a huge packet from Delaware Tech consisting of math problems and a list of books that had to be read by the first class in August. During the summer, I normally just prefer to hang out, go to the beach, and other things that I can’t do as often because of being busy with schoolwork. I then got this horrible feeling that this would be the worst summer ever, full of reading books that were not so interesting, and lots of math problems. 

The summer passed quickly, as most summers do, and I did accomplish the majority of the assigned work.  During the first class in each subject, here are a few things I quickly learned.  There was a large homework load that I would be held responsible for each week, in addition to my regular homework. I also realized that there are a lot of other smart kids who wish to be challenged coming from many other schools.  I definitely was not the smartest person there, and the math class had a large jump in the material from what I was learning in regular school. I would have to adapt to survive. 

I struggled through the first couple weeks, begged to quit, and then started getting into the routine of having a large amount of homework that would sometimes be confusing and difficult. I also began to attend the extra help offered at the college in math both before and after classes. When I started attending both of the extra help sessions, I realized that they helped me understand the material better and completing the homework was easier. 

As the end of the school year is approaching, I must say that I have learned so much by accepting this academic challenge.  In math we covered material such as factoring, graphing hyperboles, and quadratic formulas, just to name a few.  In English I read and learned about mythology, poetry, how to do a research paper, Greek and Latin roots, and much more.  Preparing for the final exams was also challenging.  However, I did my best.  The English exam turned out to be not as difficult as I thought it would be.  On the other hand, I underestimated the math test; another one of life’s hard lessons.

My Mom

By:

                                                                       Derrick 

hands that are rough and dry from many years of continuous hard work

washing everyone’s clothes, making beds, helping with homework, and dusting and cleaning around the house

a clean house and happy kids

she wears a white short sleeved shirt, tan shorts and sneakers

playing with her many brothers and friends in the snow

as she remembers the past she smiles at all the good times she has had

she is loving and caring toward everyone  

Dedicated to my mother.

Happy Mother’s Day

Love

Derrick

May 2007