keeping it :)

Stay Inspired!!

I'm now a high school senior (Class of '17) working on other service projects at the S. C. Governor's School for Science and Mathematics in Hartsville.  Thank you again for everyone's support of this project over the last few years in Georgetown County.  Take a look at everything we accomplished together!!!  Click here

I've heard from other kids all around the country about how this blog has inspired them to make their own websites for their communities.  Keep up the great work!!!
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My sister and I enjoyed touring the center, especially meeting the cats. 

Presenting the LSBR check to the Director. 

Grand Opening of the New Waccamaw Branch Library!

Thanks to everyone who helped Little Squirrel Book Review, the new Waccamaw Branch Library opened with the help of YOUR donations!  I was so honored to be asked to speak at the Grand Opening Ceremony by the Director of the Georgetown County Library System, Dr. Dwight McInvaill.

Saint Frances Animal Center

Little Squirrel Book Review is excited to announce our fund-raising this year will be gifted to the fabulous Saint Frances Animal Shelter in Georgetown!

Supporters, click on ANY Amazon ad you see here on Little Squirrel Book Review and shop like you normally would.  Up to 6% (and in some cases such as jewelry, up to 10%) of your total will be gifted to Saint Frances totally free to you!  Your Amazon total will remain the same. We're a book review blog with a mission!

Share the link to Little Squirrel Book Review on your Facebook Page and support Saint Frances!

Here's a sample of what you could post on your Facebook Page: 
Friends, please click on this student service project blog (www.littlesquirrelbookreview.org) and then click on any Amazon ad you see  there to shop.  Up to 6% of your shopping total will be gifted to my favorite organization, Saint Frances Animal Center!  It's free to you; your shopping total remains exactly the same!  If you can't find it locally, try this link and help support a great cause!  Thank you!!!


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Donation to FOWL

LOL

The Catcher in the Rye

            The Catcher in the Rye, a classic American novel written by J. D. Salinger, tells the story of the main character, Holden, as he gets expelled from yet another school. The main direction of the story explains what Holden does to deal with getting expelled again, but it quickly turns into an examination of the mind of a teenager. The reader gets a first person view of Holden’s thoughts and mindset, so we get a better understanding of what Holden is thinking when he does what he does. As the story continues the reader really starts to question the sanity of Holden as he starts doing crazier and crazier things after leaving his school for the last time. A key factor the reader needs to realize while reading The Catcher in the Rye is the age of Holden. He is portrayed to be in his mid-late teens; almost finished with high school but not quite ready to face the real world. The sense of adolescence and uncertainty we get from reading the story through Holden’s eyes definitely shines light through the window of a teenager’s mind. Although the sense of adolescence in the story could be explained in many ways, it is best portrayed by the first person narrative, the uncertainty and rashness of Holden’s decisions, and the overall demeanor of his thoughts on the world.

            Salinger’s first person narrative is the first reason why Holden’s youth affects the direction of the story as a whole. When the reader of any story gets the information and events of the story from one point of view, it gets to the point where you might not know if the information being given to you is actually correct, or is biased by the narrator. This is definitely the case with Holden in The Catcher in the Rye after reading about his descriptions of the world and people around him. The main example of this in the story is how he calls everyone phony. The first couple people he talks about and calls a phony might actually be awful people that deserve to be called phony, but after a while it gets to the point where Holden’s view of people is questioned. Another example of Holden’s skewed view is when he is staying at Mr. Antolini’s house and he is woken by Mr. Antolini “sort of petting me or patting me on the goddam head.” To be fair this is certainly a little strange, but what is actually going on would be better described by a narrator who wasn’t just woken up and doesn’t know what’s happening. At times Holden gets worked up or mad for something small, inconsequential, or something that shouldn’t concern him. Take the instance near the beginning of the story with Jane and Stradlater. While it’s true (from what we know of him) that Stradlater is a womanizer, Holden literally fights him just because he went on a date with a childhood friend and Stradlater is being kind of secretive about what happened. From the outside, we realize that this really shouldn’t concern Holden, but for some reason he takes great offense and fights Stradlater.

            Taking offense at random things and making rash decisions about what to do next is another indication of Holden’s adolescence. In the beginning of the story, Holden misses the football game and returns to his room, a completely normal reaction to the situation. As the story goes on; however, Holden’s decisions and actions go in a downward spiral until the end of the story where he actually wants to run away. The spiral beings when he decides to leave the school and venture into the depths of the city, just because he got in a fight. It continues when he gets into the city and he starts making bad choice after bad choice that leave him hurting for money and depressed. Looking back on it, Holden seems pretty crazy. He tries to drink at a bar, but is denied because he’s a minor; even so he calls the guy a phony. After paying the bill of a group of women that he should have realized he had no chance with, he goes to yet another bar and gets hammered this time. Not only is he now making stupid decisions, but he’s making those stupid decisions while really drunk. After trying to hook up with multiple girls and even a prostitute over the next couple of days, he finally makes a decent decision to go home. All the action and adventure in the story seems to lead up to the point where he visits his little sister and decides to run away. After being persuaded against this course by his own conscious, he explains that “A lot of people, especially this one psychoanalyst guy they have here, keeps asking me if I'm going apply myself when I go back to school next September.” Things seem to have worked out, but due to the lack of information the reader really isn’t sure if they have or not.

            Another aspect of the novel that contributes to the theme of adolescence is Holden’s thoughts about the people and the world around him. Multiple times, perhaps because he just got kicked out of school, he asks himself why he has to go to school. In his fragmented opinion, school shouldn’t be that important because the people there are all “phonies” and the “classes” are stupid. This idea that school is useless brings about the notion of running away, “I decided I'd never go home again and I'd never go away to another school again.” He imagines a life for himself where no one bothers him and he can just raise a family; obviously this isn’t how life works, but he really thinks it does. At times he also does the opposite: he dismisses things that might actually be important. One example of this is when he’s leaving Mr. Antolini’s house. He just dismisses it immediately. Another example is given in the form of his sickness. We as the readers know that something weird is going on at the end of the book. He really seems to be out of his mind, but he doesn’t take it seriously at all and we are told at the very end of the novel that he gets sick. Holden says to himself too often that people are phonies and want bad things for him, instead of what seems like them trying to help him.

            Overall, the adolescence in the story really brings it together and makes the story completely different from one written from an adult’s perspective. Every example of the first person perspective through Holden’s choices and views adds to the novel as a whole. Clearly The Catcher in the Rye remains a classic today because it tries to enlighten readers on the angst and adolescence of teenagers.

by Top Lee 
10th grade
The Georgetown School of Arts and Sciences
Georgetown, SC 

I need essays from other people, as well!  Parents and grandparents, I'm sure your kids have essays that they write for school.  Send them in to littlesquirrelbookreview@gmail.com!    -- TOP 

The Javan Tiger

The Javan Tiger

Before humans were here, many animals that are now extinct roamed the earth. When people think of extinct animals, many people think of animals here before the Ice Age. However, many other animals have gone extinct since then. One of the examples of animal that has died out is the Javan tiger. Even though many aspects of the Javan tiger are interesting, its appearance, habitat, and disappearance are the most important.

The first aspect of the Javan tiger that should be studied is its scientific classification and appearance. The Javan tiger, or its scientific name Panthera tigris sondaica, is a subspecies of tiger. Male Javan tigers weighed around 300 pounds, while females weighed about 200 pounds. The Javan tiger had an orange pelt, with a white stomach, and long thin black stripes. They were smaller than most Asian tigers, but bigger than their also extinct cousins, the Bali tigers. The Javan tiger was a beautiful creature; however, according to www.tigers.ca, "all that remains are photographs and pelts."

Another piece of the Javan tiger's history is its habitat and food. The Javan tigers were only found on Java, an island north west of Australia. Around the 1850's, many of the people in rural areas hunted the Javan tigers, and there were so many of tigers in the wild, that they were considered pests. This huge population of Javan tiger ate Rusa deer, wild boar, and bull. They lived in the vast forest, which before the island got overpopulated, covered Java.

This overpopulation was the main factor in the Javan tiger's extinction. According to Wikipedia, Javan forests declined after World War II due to the many teak, coffee, and rubber plantations. Then, in the 1960's, disease wiped out the Rusa deer that the tigers ate. After 1965, armies moved into nature preserves and killed the few remaining tigers that were there. The last confirmed tigers were a mother and her cub found on Mount Betiri in 1976.  Had humans been more careful with their over development that destroyed the tigers’ forest habitat, the Javan tiger might have been saved.  

Like the Javan tiger, many other animals that roamed the earth are not here today. Humans are the main cause of this extinction. When we study the appearance, habitat, and reason for extinction of beautiful creatures like the Javan tiger, we can learn many lessons. Clearly, it's the study of animals such as the Javan tiger that can help us learn how to avoid the extinction of other animals.  

Essay and art work by Anna Ross Lee 

6th grade

Coastal Montessori Charter School 

Pawleys Island SC


No matter how old you are, you can still send in essays.  This is from my little sister, but surely someone has something better!  Her drawing is better than her essay.  (Just kidding, Anna)  ---TOP 

Back to school time!

Order your back to school electronics, books, and anything you need from Amazon through our ads.  Then, SEND IN YOUR BOOK REPORTS!

Keep reading and send me your book reviews, book reports, poems, artwork, anything!  If you can scan it or email it, I can publish it.   - Top

p.s.  Start here to start your Amazon shopping.  Click on any ad and shop like you normally do.  Little Squirrel receives 6% back from your purchase total and gives it away - this year to the new Waccamaw library fund through Friends of the Waccamaw Libary (FOWL, a 501c3)

Thank you for helping with my service project.

Shocking Book Facts

Keep reading over the summer! 

Keep Reading!

Chapter one

           “Chasius, you overslept again!” Katarina yelled, “You know Mentor doesn’t like it when you’re late!”  Leaping out of the simple straw bed he shared with his loving wife, Chasius threw on his crumpled shirt, leather tunic, and simple linen pants and ran to the kitchen soon after buckling on his blunt practice sword.  Reaching the kitchen in a whirlwind, Chasius found Katarina sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of herbal tea in her hand and another held out for him.  Taking the tea he sat down across from her at their plain wooden table in the rustically furnished kitchen.  Sipping the tea because it was very hot, Chasius and his wife chatted for a moment or two before he got up to head out for the day.  Katarina got up as well, “Be careful and work hard, my love,” she whispered in his ear.  After a quick kiss, Chasius headed out the door to get to Mentor’s house on time. 

Blinking in the rush of sunlight that filled his piercing blue eyes, Chasius looked around at the simple village he called home.  Small wooden houses with smoke rising out of the bare chimneys told him that his neighbors were up and about; everything as it should be.  Brushing forward the short, dark hair that covered his head, Chasius began walking down the packed earth that acted as a path for the villagers.  At one side of the village the path led to a grassy field where crops thrived and animals rested in their pens.  On the other side of the village was a dense forest; the gleaming eyes of dangerous animals peeking out of the shadows.  Mentor, the only know inhabitant of the dark forest, lived in a small wooden cabin, not unlike the ones that the villagers lived in.  This is where Chasius headed. 

Stopping before the edge of the forest, Chasius did some basic exercises and stretches that prepared him for the day to come.  After he felt suitably warmed up, he headed into the forest, taking the hidden path unknown to all of the villagers except him.  Pushing his way through the tangled undergrowth he knew all too well, Chasius finally reached the small clearing where Mentor resided.  

-Top Lee
Excerpt from my new short story, Hell and Back

P.S. The Christmas season is approaching!  When you buy your gifts for friends and family on Amazon, simply click on one of the ads on the side of this page and 6% of your purchase will go to the new library!  Happy Holidays

Presentation of the check!

Today at the FOWL luncheon, I presented a check to the President, Mrs. Gramet.  Thank you everyone who has shopped on Amazon through my blog.  Because of you, it was possible to raise this money and help build our new library.  The luncheon and all of the auctions were really fun and helped raise a lot of money for the library, too.  I'm happy to announce that LSBR will be donating all of the funds from school year 2013-14 to FOWL again!  So keep shopping, and keep sending in essays!   

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Donation Final Total!

LSBR is excited to announce that the 2012-13 school year total earned for FOWL is $431.75!   I will be presenting the money to the library at their annual luncheon on October 8th!  Keep shopping on Amazon through this blog and let's try to increase the amount that we raise this school year.  I'm donating one more school year to the new library!  

Thank you! 
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"Dazzling Pink Roses," a poem about Miss Fannie's Hat by Jan Karon

Black hats
Red hats
Green hats
White hats
Navy hats
Beige hats
Brown hats
Famous hat with Pink Straw Roses
Miss Fannie hides her hair
Under hats
Reading the Bible
Every morning
Ninety-nine years old
With God, all things are possible
Lots of hats
Each one her Favorite
DAZZLING PINK ROSES
Really...
Miss Fannie's Hat! 

by Emerson Pate, Pawleys Island


Thanks, Emerson!  Awesome!

This Place

Moonlight peeks through the leaves on the branches,
Wolves' howls echo against the closed space
Where campfires flames dance,
And the stars can be seen clearly from this place.

The river cuts through the old, round rocks.
My breath can be seen in the still moonlight
Where ice forms on my golden locks. 
I can't wait for the sun to end this night.

As the dawn is breaking and there is day
I see that shadows are not so real.
And as I move on, I am okay.
I run to home, I run to mom, and a meal.

Home, sweet, home is all too near and sweet.
I can't wait for my head and pillow to meet!

by Emory McClary, Pawleys Island


Not a fan of camping, Emory?!  I don't like camping, either!  LOL!  Really like your poem about it, though.   Don't forget to shop on Amazon to help build our new library! Click on any ad!   Top

I'm From

I'm from going to my friend's house, and talking to them about anything.

I'm from playing soccer with my dad.

I'm from a big country house with 2,000 windows, my own room, and yard as big as two football fields.

I'm from a no dishwasher kind of kitchen overlooking my backyard.

I'm from a wrap around porch and driving my sister's Barbie jeep all day long.

I'm from a place that has sunflowers taller than Abe Lincoln.

I'm from a church that I could go to a million times and never get bored.

I'm from a no care kind of town where everyone knows everyone.

I'm from a place where the only thing you can hear is people laughing and talking about the day and just living in the moment.

This is where I'm from.

by Anna Sandor
Pawleys Island


Thanks, Anna!  I love your poem! Top

I Am From

I am from Maryland and South Carolina
I am from a small town
From Tanea calling me a farming tree
From playing sports year-round
I am from watching baton competition
From telling my sister which place to go
I am from the beach and the snow

From baking with my grandma
To Poppy's great breakfasts
I am from doing scoreboard at volleyball games
I am from eating jelly and buttered toast
From hearing "wash your hands..."
I am from playing old arcade video games and pinball with my dad

I am from trips back to Maryland
I am from splashing in the pool with my grandpa
And playing on the swing set
I am from walking to the point
Just to play in the water
I am from playing in the pluff mud to play clams
I am from Maryland and South Carolina.

by Josie Mangialardo, Lowcountry Prep School


Awesome poem, Josie!  Keep writing!  Top

Keep Reading!

Keep reading this summer!  It's a great way to stay cool!!!!

The Palmetto Dream

I dream that I will reach Eagle Scout and hopefully Clemson will see me one day.

My Palmetto Dream is that this scout will become the governor of South Carolina.

I imagine what will be written in history books about me.

If I use what I am learning in boy scouts and my knowledge of history, political, and social problems,

The Palmetto State will be okay.

I dream of changing this state for the best interests of people.

So that this state can be a beacon of hope for the American Dream.

I wonder what my grandfather will say when he sees me making my way.

Maybe he will say that,

The Palmetto state will be okay.

I see my hands signing, shaking, making, and even breaking one day for this great Palmetto State.

I will stand tall and show them all what I can make happen with these actions of loyalty, honor, and hard work.

The Palmetto State will be okay.

My Palmetto Dream of becoming governor is about 20 to 30 years away.

Hopefully with my Clemson education one day I can work my way.

Lots of walking the pavement, government debates, and even holding babies will open the gate to the governor's machine.

Even if this nation doesn't prevail,

The Palmetto State will be okay.

       by David Fulton, Lowcountry Prep School, Pawleys Island, SC



Wow, David, when you're the governor, we'll come visit you in your mansion! Top 

We love our readers from the Mitney Project!

Welcome, readers!  There's a lot of information posted on the tab above.  Have a great summer, and keep reading! Send in your book reviews, essays, paragraphs, and poetry to LSBR!
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Reach the Top! READ!

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost

A Summary of “Nothing Gold Can Stay”

            The poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” written by Robert Frost, has many hidden meanings and literary devices you might not realize or recognize.  I found meaning in every line that isn't apparent at first glance. 

Take the first line for example: “Nature’s first green is gold.”  Robert Frost uses a metaphor here, saying that “green is gold.”  I also see a hidden meaning in this line that is apparent in pretty much the rest of the poem as well.  Robert Frost adds chronology to nature in an elegant form only apparent in poems.  He doesn’t merely say “The green went away,” but instead uses lines such as “Nature’s first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold.”  Not only is the progress of time apparent in these lines, but also personification, making an inanimate object act as a human, and alliteration, the repetition of the first consonant sound. 

Another literary device present in the poem is a form of iambic meter.  Saying the poem aloud gives a rhythm similar to a heartbeat. As the poem carries on, nature’s degradation continues.  Later lines give more examples of the passage of time, and the poem ends with the most memorable line, not to mention the title of the poem, “Nothing gold can stay.” 

Clearly, this poem is full of hidden meaning and the passage of time in nature.  Frost’s literary devices fit well with the overall sad mood of the poem.  I can see why he is a beloved American poet.  
by Top Lee, 8th grade 

Reading is for Awesome People!

Really cool t-shirt!  More reviews to come.  I've been so busy reading and doing homework that I haven't written a review in awhile.  Does anyone have a review to share?!