D.C. man indicted in Ham Lake fire

Today I read D.C. man indicted in Ham Lake fire by Larry Oakes. It was about the wildfires in Northern Minnesota last year started on May 5, 20o7. Stephen George Posniak was indicted on Tuesday for caussing one of Minnesota's wrost wildfires. It has been said that Posniak failed to fully extunguish his campfire at his campsite before leaving. With the dry, hot conditions Northern Minnesota was experiencing, failing to put out his fire was very dangerous. As we know, his failure to extiguish the fire caused a huge wildfire. The fires destroyed nearly 140 houses, cabins, and other stuctures before finally being contained and put out but cooler, wet weather and the work of more than 1,000 firefighters. The three-page indictment says, "in truth and in fact, as the defendant knew, he camped overnight on Ham Lake on the evening of May 4, 2007, and he started a paper trash fire at his Ham Lake campsite on the morning of May 5, 2007, that spread to nearby [forest]." Posniak knew what he was doing, and knew he should've put the fire out.

Finding Miracles

Over MEA break I read Finding Miracles by Julia Alvarez. Finding Miracles is about a girl who was adopted. In English class she is told to write a story about her life. She writes about a girl who gets an itchy rash on her hands when she thinks about where she came from or belonging to her family. When a new guy comes to school, she finds out that he is from the same country that she was born in. These two thing make Milly want to learn more about where she is from. When the Bolivars decide to take a trip back home, Milly is invited to go along. On the trip, Milly learns about possible families that she may have belonged to. At the same she gets close to Pablo. Finding Miracles is similar to Animal Dreams in the sense that the main character is on a journey to find herself. Like Codi, Milly has to find a sense of belonging and being needed to truly find herself.

So B. It

So B. It by Sarah Weeks is about a girl who grows up with a mentally disabled mother. Her neighbor Bernadette helps her with her mother, but it still make growing up hard. As the story goes on, Heidi decides she wants to go meet her father. She knows exactly who he is and here he is, or at least that's what's she's hoping. Each chapter of the book is titled with one of the twenty-three words her mother could say:
Heidi
So be it
Good
No
Blue
Soof
Out
Hot
Bad
Done
Shh
Uh-oh
Back soon
Hello
Dette
Tea
Go
Ow
More
Again
Pretty
Now
Kiss

Each word is tied into what the chapter is about as you watch Heidi search for her father.

Saving Grace

I tend to get bored with books really fast so what I do is pick up a book, read some of it, then pick up another book, then come back to it later. But this book was different. Saving Grace by Katherine Spencer is about a girl who loses her brother, Matt, of which she is really close to. As the story goes on you learn about what happened to her brother and the effects it is having on Grace. She can't stand to be around her friends; they remind her too much of Matt. Grace finds some new friends, the popular kids. They drink, they smoke, and they get in trouble, but anything is better than the painful reminders of Matt. Then a girl named Philomena shows up right when the most painful reminders of Matt's death are surfacing.. She always seems to be there in Grace's most difficult moments.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban

When I don't have anything else to read I tend to pick up one of the Harry Potter books. Though not my favorite, I started to read Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban by J.K. Rowling. I picked this one up because I hadn't read it in a while. I love that there is a sense of mystery in all the Harry Potter books, yet my favorite one is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. While trying to save his godfather, Harry and Hermoine also save another life, Buckbeek. The two escape their scheduled deaths and run away, or in the case of Buckbeek, fly away.

13 Little Blue Envelopes

I started to read 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson. The book is about a girl whose aunt disappears. She decides to go to the place where her aunt lived and found a package with her name on it. When she opened it she found 13 blue envelopes. Each envelope had instructions inside of it, but she couldn't open the next one until she was in the place where the previous one told her she needed to be. The envelopes take Ginny all over Europe to see some amazing sights and to see what her aunt saw.

Edina Residents and Their Say

I eat breakfast every morning with the Star Tribune newspaper sitting in front of me. Now whether I read it or not all depends on whether or not something catches my eye. Well, on Wednesday that happened. My dad had left the "West Extra" section on the top with an article reading "Edina aims to let residents have more of their say" by Mary Jane Smetanka. Living in Edina I was curious as to what it said. I learned that some residents in Edina have been upset that they couldn't talk during the City Council meetings. According to Eden Prairie, who have held such meetings in the past, they seem to be a sucsess. Edina wants to give its residents the same chance. They want to give people the chance to come and complain, complement, or ask a question about what is giong on in the city and why. At Edina City Council meetings, there is currently time alotted for people to come and speak, but are not aloowed to speak about issues from the previous month or that are scheduled to be discussed in the months to come. Edina hopes that this new idea of an informal meeting where people can simply come and speak what is on their mind about Edina will make the city a better place to live.