lastsong

 **Book Club: Last Song**  **Part I.** Person A-madison Person B-raeanne Person C-raeanne Person D-erin   
 * 1) ===== **//Quotation Finder://** =====


 * 1) ===== **//Key Questioner://** =====

~How do you think the fire at the church ties into the story? We think the this ties into the story by the church being burnt survives but the marriage gets destroyed but nothing else changes.

~Why do you think Ronnie is so sad in the Prologue? Because she thinks of old memories, that she misses.

~What do you think the reasoning of Ronnie stealing and disobeying her mom all the time? She is doing it in spite, to be annoying and prove a point.

Person A:

The main characters are:

 Ronnie- a spoiled teen who needs a reality check. She interests us because she just does things to make her parents angry, like steal and stay out past curfew. She used to be a pianist who played at Carnigee Hall and has since quit the piano.

Steve: The dad of Jonah and Ronnie, who used to teach piano at Julliard in New York. He was hoping to get a career as a musician and during this time, he and his wife got divorced. His children are seeing him for the first time in 3 years and staying with him for the summer. We are drawn to him because we feel bad for him because of how Ronnie treats him.

Jonah: Jonah is Ronnie's little brother. He is really excited about seeing his dad and looks up to his sister. He is interesting because he idolizes he father and can't wait to spend time with him. We are drawn to him because he funny, and er can all relate because we have annoying little siblings.

We are drawn to Steve, ronnie, and Jonah because we can relate to them.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: ArialMT,sans-serif;">Blaze: She is the girl Ronnie meets and they become friends. She is a nieve teenager who lets her boyfriend walk all over her like she is dirt. The only reason she does this is because Marcus, her boyfriend is the only person she has. We were drawn to her and she interests us because we feel sorry for her.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: ArialMT,sans-serif;">Marcus: He is the jerk boyfriend of Blaze. He hits on other girls and doesn't treat Blaze very well. He thinks he is better then everyone else and he acts that way. He even admitted that he was staying with Blaze for the all wrong reasons. He interests us and we were drawn to him because he is a jerk and we want him out of the story line.

<span style="color: #000000; font-family: ArialMT,sans-serif;">We don't like the characters Blaze and Marcus. Blaze is pathetic for letting Marcus walk all over her. Marcus is a jerk for treating Blaze so badly. Marcus is obnoxious and he treats his friends and other with no respect. Person D This Friday, in Group discussion, we mostly focused on the main characters. My objective was to listen to the conversations on Friday and tell Mr. Morone our discussion. Jonah was the first name to come up in out conversation. Jonah has no major sides of him, that not all people see. Jonah would be known as two faced person because he acts likes a perfect child in front of his parents, and then on the other side he instigates his sister. Ronnie is Steve's other child. Ronnie acts like she is a rebellious teenager. My group decided that we think that Ronnie acts rebellious because she is crying for help. Ronnie acts really sensitive about her parents because they got divorced. Blaze is another person who is a troubled teenager that is afraid. Blaze has a boyfriend named Marcus, but she has a fear of him. In our meeting we were wondering what made Blaze characters. As you can tell this was a very predictive. Part II: Person a:erin Person b:Madison Person c:Madison Person d:raeanne A: In our book, The Last Song, my group during the discussion this week decided that our book was one of the easier books we had read. We thought that it didn't meet adult standers. "The Last Song" we think should be an young adult book. We think it should be young adult because of the vocabulary choice and the story behind it. Most teenagers can relate to this story more then adults can. The book is in conversational form and it is told by more then one persons view. The Last Song is a great book, as I keep reading it I have a hard time putting it down. B- Quotation Finder:

“Will you be back for lunch or dinner?” “I don’t know,” she huffed. “I’m leaving.”(pg 93)

“Maybe I just want to spend time with you.” “You want to? Or did your wife want you to?”(85)

“Dad?” he heard on the other end “Ronnie?” “I need you to pick me up. I’m at the police station.”(102) C- Key Questions: He means that he wasn't a hands on kind of dad. He was not that kind of dad who would come to your football game, or dance recitals. He wasn't very supportive and wasn't always around. 3. Why do you think Ronnie cares enough about the turtles to sleep out by the nest on the beach? She wants to be there for the turtles and protect them, because her dad never protected her when she was little so she wants to act differnetly then him. D- **The second week of our book club, we had a great discussion, about everything! We talked about a lot of the main topics in section two. First, we can really relate to the main character, Ronnie in the book. She is a little older then us but is a normal teenager, that was sent to North Carolina. We also talked about how Ronnie treats her dad so poorly. She has something against her dad and does not say one nice thing to him. Then, how the the book is written great. It is an easy read and tells the point of view of each character.** = **Part III** = ** A- Raeanne Dean ** ** B-Erin Connolly ** ** C- ** Erin Connolly D- Madison Weis
 * 1) What do you think Steve means when he says his dad was not “that kind of dad”?
 * 1) Why do you think Steve believe Ronnie even though he knew how she had been acting and who her friends are? Also, even though Ronnie treats him horribly, why does he honor he request of not even wanting to look at the piano?
 * 2) He believes her because he trusts her and wants her to stay. He honored the request because he wants to show her that he loves her and that he will do anything to win her back to being close to her.
 * More things we talked about was that it is a really good book. And all of us don’t want to stop at that section, we just want to keep going on. There were a lot of important events that took place in these couple of chapters. So, we talked about all the events, quotes and other things each of us felt was important. Our discussion this week was a success! **

Quotes: 1. "Have you ever realized that you have more opinions on my life then your own life?"

2. "Sitting beside him in the truck, Ronnie remained es enigmatic as ever."

3. "I care though. Unlike some people, I like to make a good impression."

4. "The plane whined as it skirted over trees, swooping low over the Intracoastal Waterways."

5. "The uncertainty didn't seem to frighten her, though, which made him admire her even more?"

Questions:

1. Why do you think it was so important for Will to change for diner with Ronnie's Dad? It was so important because he wanted to make a good impression 2. Why do you think Will is so attracted to Ronnie? I feel like she opened up to him and her inside is what makes him like her alot. 3.Why does Will describe Ronnie as a "Crocodile in the Antarctic"? Ronnie looked lost and an outcast just like a crocodile would because they belong in hot places they don't know what to do with its self in the arctic. 4. Who was the person who kissed Ronnie under the stars thinking how lucky he was to be with a girl like her? It was Will. 5. Where is Will working in the Fall? He will stop working for his dad in August and work in Vanderbilt.

Group Leader: In our book, Last Song, their are all different moods for each individual character. Most of the book is happy but in the the beginning it was sort of upsetting between Ronnie's attitude towards Steve. It also switches based on each character individually. The overriding emotion of this book is happy because Ronnie and her dad become close after three years of never talking. Ronnie also meets Will and ends up dating him and she never thought she would like him.

Person d: madison

Today we talked about the moods about the characters. We described the way each character acts in this book. We discussed how Ronnie's attitude has changed toward her father. She was wickedly mean to him and she has finally accepted the fact that she has to spend the summer with him and that she should try to have fun which she is. Will has also changed the way she is. Will has made her a much happier person. Marcus is a weird, scary person who scares us a little bit. He stalks Ronnie and is just a weird character.

=Part IV= Person A:Madison Person B:Raeanne Person C:Raeanne Person D: Erin

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> A-   <span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">The piano plays a significant role in the book because it is a big part of Steve’s and Ronnie’s and childhoods. Steve uses the piano as a “drug”. For example, when he and Ronnie get into a fight, he plays the piano to make him feel better and clear his head. When he is sad or not feeling well he plays the piano. As much as Ronnie doesn’t want to admit it the piano is always going to be a bug part of her life.

<span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">The Bible, is another image that represents Steve. He always has, or is reading the Bible. He also spends a lot of time with Pastor Harris. This shows thats Steve is a very religious person.

<span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">The turtles are a big part of Ronnie, she is constantly looking after them and making sure they are okay. From the day she first found them, she has been acting like their mother. The book would not be the same without the turtles.

<span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">The last object that symbolizes something of importance in the book is the stain glass window. In the prologue, they mention the fire in the church and how it destroyed the beautiful stain glass windows. Steve is making and new one with Jonah. It means a lot to the two of them to make it together. I think in the end, the stain glass will be a very important part of the story.

<span style="font: 13px/19px Arial; letter-spacing: 0px; margin: 0px;">The author uses these objects to symbolize there characters because they wouldn’t be the same characters without these objects.

Quotes: person B "She immediately began to shake her head. It wasn't true. It couldn't be true(Sparks 321)".

"The first egg beginning to crack open, followed by another and then another, all the eggs seemingly wiggling on their own until the first turtle actually emerged and began to scramble over the wiggling eggs and out of the nest(Sparks 311)".

"He struggled to stand, the adrenaline leaving him shaky and off balance(Sparks 300)".

Questions: Person C 1) Why do you really think Will's mom hates Ronnie? Will's mom doesn't think she is a good influence & is not in their "social class".

2) What was the reason Will went to go fight with Marcus after Blaze was burned? He wanted to get back at Marcus for all he had done to everyone including him and Ronnie.

3) Why do you think Steve was hiding that he had terminal cancer from his kids? He didn't want them to worry about him. He wanted a fun summer worry-free, after not seeing his kids for so long.

Person D-

This week in Read Workshop we talked about many things. Such as what signs we have notice from our book. There were two things that we talked about this week and they are the turtles eggs and the Piano. They are the two meaningful things that we thought of. Some of the reasons we talked about were that the Piano is like Steve's (Ronnie Dad) drug. He goes on the Piano and plays it to make him feel better. He can't feel better till he plays his Piano. Just like a drug addict doesn't feel conferable without their drugs. Ronnie with the turtles is another thing that we talked about. Ronnie protects those turtle eggs because when she was little her dad was never there to protect her so she wants to be there to protect the turtle eggs when they need her. As you can tell this was a very productive Reading Workshop discussion. Person A:Erin Person B:Madison Person C: Madison Person D:Raeanne A- Erin
 * //Part V.//**

=
This week in Reading workshop, I held the discussion. My group discussed that we think that our peers should read this book. It is an easy reading book so every one can read and enjoy. It is about a girl who gets transformed into a natural human being. If we classified this book as a love story we would think that Dear John would be better. We don’t think that it should be a Curriculum because it is not a book that all people would enjoy. It is about love and I think that it is mostly a girl book. My group thinks that it should be a book that you can choose on your own so you can pick if you really like it or not.=====

B&C--Madison:

How is Ronnie different then she was the in beggining of the book toward her dad? She grew up, and put her and dad's difference aside and they turned out that they have a very good relationship.

What does the stain glass symbolize? Why does Jonah want to finish so bad? It symbolizes love, and unity between Jonah, Steve and the church. He wants to finish so bad because they promised to finish it with the beggining of the summer.

How will the death of their father effect Jonah and Ronnie even though they didn't know him that well at the beginging? Do you think Steve should have kept his sickness from his kids, or told them? As soon as they became close with him again, his sickness got. The kids were finally able to grow a relationship with their dad. We think it was good he kept it from them because they would not have acted real around him and they would have acted like he was deathly ill when in the begining he wasn't. Because they didn't know, they were able to do many fun things with him.

"Just been standing too much these last few days. Jonah wants to finish the window before he leaves." (300)

"Life he realizes is much like a song." (376)

"The funeral was simple affair, held in the church that had recently been reopened. Her dad asked the be cremated, and his wished will be honored." (378)

D-

For the last book club meeting of The Last Song, we talked about the book overall. Madison, Erin, Leigh, and I all agreed that we would definitely recommend this book to a friend or to anybody. We also discussed the last part of the book. It was sad but also happy in a way. We all though that it was really nice that Ronnie stayed with her dad through his last days and making every single the best. She finishes the song that Steve wrote for her and plays it at the funeral after not playing for a long time. We think she realizes she was being ridiculous over the years and also wants her dad to be happy and attends Juliard. My group also discussed that we did not think it should be a school curriculum book. We thought this because not everyone would like the genre of the book. Overall, all of us really enjoyed this book!