How do authors try to create a feeling of empathy in their readers?

Imagine that you are being chased by a rhino, it's catching up, it's about to hit you and then... you flip the page. Authors are good at making their readers feel empathy. You read about something and there is so many descriptive words that you feel like it is happening right there in front of you. Great authors have the ability to really bring their characters to life. Great books make you feel empathy.

Authors add descriptive words to bring their creations off the page. The breadwinner is a book about a girl named Parvana living in Afghanistan. It has a lot of descriptive words that tell you how it was like in Afghanistan. Descriptive words that create empathy make readers continue reading. I really enjoy books that make you feel empathy, don't you?

Breadwinner

Imagine that you alone are responsible for earning all the money your family needs. How would this change the way you live your life? What would this kind of responsibility feel like and how well do you think you would handle it? I will answer these questions in the following paragraphs.

This is how it would change my life. I am used to playing with my brother or my friends, but I wouldn't have that privilege. I love to play hockey but I would be too busy. I would have to work hoping that I would be able to feed my family. Life would have to wait.

I don't think that I could handle it. My days would be wasted! My life, ruined. Too much doesn't ever seem to be enough. Handling it would be torturous.

This responsibility would wreck my life. I would absolutely hate it! I would complain to my family but deep down I know that I am the only one that can do it. I would have mixed feelings about it, angry or sad that I have to do it and happy because I know that I am doing my family a great thing. I would hate having a responsibility like that.

I hope that this never happens to me and my family.

Eva Olsson

On Monday, October 26, 2009 a Holocaust survivor visited my school. Her name was Eva Olsson. In 1933 when she was 19 years old a man came down her street beating a drum. He told everyone that they had to go to Germany to work at a brick factory. She left with a large group of people. They had no idea where they were actually going.

They walked for 7km to a set of cable cars to load into them for a long journey. They stood for four days sharing a pail of water and a pail for the washroom. Many people died from lack of oxygen. People had to stand the whole time because there was very little room inside a cable car, they stood during the day and had to sleep while standing. It was not what Eva had expected.

She arrived at Auschwitz to find that she was lied to. All of the survivors lined up in front of a man that told them where to go (left or right). She was one of the fortunate people who were chosen to go right. The people who went right had to work. Eva saw her mother go left and she never saw her mother again. The people who went left were put in gas chambers.

This was just the beginning of her adventure!

I think Eva Olsson is a great speaker. She made me feel like I was there watching everything happen. Her story was phenomenal and convincing. I believed every little bit that she said, who wouldn't? She made the story very sad and it was summarized very nicely. I really enjoyed her speech.

MS Team Building Day

The Middle School Team Building Day was a lot better than last year. We had 8 kids in my group and we had a lot of fun. My group had a lot of difficulty completing, "The Wizard Walk." It was our first course that we were doing as a group. It was hard to do because Kate and Andy were goofing off and we weren't working very well together. When we started working together we completed it. It was a great experience.



My team worked together well when we were doing, "The Zigzag."
Liam had an idea at the beginning and we stuck to it until we succeeded. Andy and Kate were still goofing off, so it was harder than we expected. When Kate took it too far I had to save Liam. We worked very well together.

The trip to Norval was awesome! I didn't think that I would enjoy going to Norval this year, but I was wrong. We first did some fun tag games and then we broke up into our groups. We started off with, "The Wizard Walk." We did it twice and it was very fun. We then did, "The Zigzag." It was very stressful and fun. After that we ate lunch and then we had the drum circles. It was very fun to play the drums and the leader, Chris, was very energetic. Overall I had a great time.

Do clothes shape who I am?

I think clothes can and can't shape who I am. Rich people usually wear very nice clothes and other people might wear clothes that aren't as nice. Your clothing can show what colours that you like. Or if you are showing up at a business meeting the clothes you are wearing will show what kind of person you are, if you showed up with a suit and a tie you would look formal or if you showed up wearing jeans that have holes in them you would look like a bum. Therefore clothes can shape who I am.



Clothes can't always shape who I am.
Hair as an example can shape who I am. If you visit a fancy restaurant and you have a mohawk, you will look like a fool. While if you had a nice buzz cut you would look proper. Therefore Clothes can't always shape who I am.