Kenzie-Amy

= Adult: Amy Levine = **Student: Kenzie Helmink**
 * Book Title: //Belle Teal//**
 * Pages Read: 157**

This week got a little better, but I am still not enjoying the book as much as I would like to. Gran’s memory is still worsening, but on the bright side her mom is doing well at college. Another thing that happened this week was, Belle Teal decides to talk to Little Boss about her friendship with Darryl and how it is affecting the friendship between herself and Little Boss. Little Boss still doesn’t like the way that Belle Teal and Darryl are friends so he pretty much blows Belle Teal off. Belle Teal decides that at the Halloween party that Darryl and she are going to play a trick on Little Boss and his posse. Weeks before the party, Belle Teal and Darryl talk about what kind of costumes they are going to wear and how awesome they are going to be so that the whole class can hear them. What everyone didn’t know was that Belle Teal and Darryl were going to switch costumes and pretend to be the other person for the night. On the night of the Halloween party, Belle Teal and Darryl switch costumes, and fool everyone. Especially Little Boss and his group of friends! When Little Boss finds out though, things turn ugly. Belle Teal wonders if she made a huge mistake, risking the safety of Darryl, and harming the friendship she had with Darryl. I think Belle Teal should have realized that doing this prank could have harmed Darryl. She should have thought the plan through and realized that there are some negative points and that realizing those are just as important as realizing the positive points. One thing I like about Belle Teal though is that she isn’t afraid to be Darryl’s friend. She isn’t afraid to be the one person to stand up for Darryl and become his friend. This reminds me of what happened in 1st grade when Gabby first came to Grove. I remember playing on the teeter-totters and Gabby didn’t have anyone to play with, so I went up to her and asked her if she wanted to play with my group of friends and myself. This is how we first started to be friends. Being friends with Belle Teal wouldn’t be that bad, but sometimes it would annoy me. She acts without thinking sometimes and causes big fusses over nothing. That would drive me insane, but I guess you could learn to live with it.

One of the antagonists in the book is Belle Teal’s grandma. Her grandma is one of the most important people in Belle Teal’s life. She takes care of her, feeds her, and listens to her. When her grandma starts to lose her memory Belle Teal becomes nervous about what is going to happen to her. Sometimes her grandma calls her, her mother’s name and tells her to do things that she would tell her mother to do when she was a kid. I hope that her grandma gets better in the book! So far this book is okay, but I’m not enjoying it as much as I wish I could be! Are you enjoying it?

Since I have read ahead a little bit, I think I know what is going to happen next week, but I will let you find out what is going to occur! This book really isn’t my favorite, but it is something to read. Are you enjoying it? I think that it’s a good historical fiction book that students should read if they are studying about segregation in the 50’s and 60’s. You can learn about how African-Americans were treated during that time. Today is Monday, and I hate Mondays! Today is really hard for me though. Yesterday April 25th was a month before Harmony moves to Florida. I’m really not looking forward to it. It’s going to be really hard for the both of us. I can’t imagine my life without her in it every single day. I am going to miss her so much. She is like a sister to me. Have you ever had a friend move before? It’s really hard. Trust me. Tomorrow I think I am going to go to the track meet. I am excited. I really miss doing track. I loved it so much. I am not going to do it in high school because I don’t want to mess up my knee again. I wish that I had never done long jump that one day. It drives me crazy to know that I could have prevented screwing up my knee, but that is in the past. I am just going to look forward from now on. Well, tell me how your week is going so far! I am really enjoying talking to you and being able to find out new stuff about you! Please keep me informed!

Love, Kenzie

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