Bad Nad -- Blogmeister

Of all the characters I’ve learned about, I liked Tock, the watchdog from The Phantom Tollbooth the best. He was a great companion for Milo and when it came to keeping time, Tock was always the best at doing so. Without Tock, Milo and the Humbug would be stuck on Conclusions. Without Tock, Milo and the Humbug would’ve been destroyed by the demons. Without Tock, Milo and the Humbug would never have gotten to the Castle in the Air with the princesses Rhyme and Reason inside it. Tock is also the best companion Milo had on his magical journey and he was a great watchdog and always made sure no one ever wasted time. If Tock weren’t in The Phantom Tollbooth, the entire story would fall apart just like the destruction of the Soundkeeper’s fortress in the Valley of Sound. This is why I liked Tock as the best character out of the five books we’ve read throughout the entire school year.

My trip at Westminster Woods was absolutely fantastic, and here are my favorite parts of the trip. My favorite activity was the cargo net at Westminster Woods. Mr. LaMarr was rolling kids into piles and shaking the net, but he said that was his mild level. I can hardly imagine what Mr. LaMarr’s big level was. My favorite trip during the week was the tide pools. I liked it because I found creatures such as sea urchins, starfish, sea anemones, seals, crabs, and best of all, abalone. Sometimes, if I was lucky, I’d probably find a double-sided abalone or a big mussel shell. The coolest information I learned was about the sea cucumber. In defense, it barfs up its organs and intestines to confuse the enemy while it escapes. Plus, it’ll grow new guts and organs over time. I’d say my favorite memory I’ll have when I’m old and gray is the hikes our group had at Armstrong Redwoods and the discoveries we found in the redwood forests. We found scorpions, salamanders, Douglas fir, and banana slugs. I was the only one who was brave enough to actually hold the slug. These are my favorite things that I did at Westminster Woods, March 23-26, 2010.

My life as a miner in Golden Gulch was very difficult. I had to encounter problems before getting to the gold fields. An example was high prices such as $75 for fresh pork or deadly diseases like cholera. Golden Gulch brought fates, good and bad. Most of my fates were bad. An example would be getting shot in the arm and missing a day of mining. Other fates would be decisions. A decision my team faced would be deciding how to get to California. There were other gains and losses that other gold teams got such as tripling their amount of gold. A loss that I didn’t get was having a raccoon getting into the supplies and losing $10 in color. These are big examples that life in Golden Gulch was very difficult.

Theodore Taylor dedicated The Cay to Dr. King’s dream because of Timothy. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) was a priest whose dream was for blacks and whites to live in peace together without judging each other by the color of their skins. Phillip showed this when he thought that since he was blind, Timothy didn’t seem white or black. Then Phillip decided that there wasn’t any difference between whites and blacks because they were all the same inside of themselves. Since Timothy died of a hurricane, Theodore Taylor wanted the readers to be sorry for Timothy so Timothy could get a little credit for trying to help Phillip survive. During Timothy’s time, Martin Luther King Jr. was just a child, but since the Civil War had occurred and ended, blacks were not enslaved but treated very badly. Because of this, blacks and whites were sent to different schools, stores, and churches. Even Phillip who was blind and dependent on Timothy treated him like he was nothing and called Timothy a stupid old black man. This is why Theodore Taylor dedicated The Cay to Martin Luther King Junior’s dream.