This month, I read A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder by Holly Jackson. This book is about a high school senior named Pippa Fitz-Amobi who wants to solve a murder for her year-long senior project. Five years ago, a popular high school senior named Andie Bell was murdered supposedly by her boyfriend, Sal Singh and then who committed suicide. But, Pip doesn’t think Sal actually did it. Sal was always a kind, selfless person never seeming to have killed his girlfriend. So, Pippa’s goal is to try to find out who truly killed Andie Bell and prove Sal Singh innocent. Yet, someone is sending her cruel messages telling her to stop her research or something will happen to the people and things she loves dearest. What will Pip do? Will she continue her research or face the consequences?

I loved A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder because of the genre and setting. I know the genre is a mystery/thriller and I’ve never read a book like this so I really enjoyed it. I usually read rom-coms so reading a mystery book is way out of my comfort zone and I am so grateful that I tried it out. I am now definitely going to read the second one of the trilogy. The suspense of the book to find out who did it kept me on my toes. Also, the setting of it being with teenagers in high school is what I loved because it kinda gave the vibe of the regular rom-coms that I read. So, the fact that the story took place as her as a teenager with still some teenage problems and fun really helped me attach to this novel. As you can see, I loved reading this story because of its genre and setting.

My favorite character in this novel was Pippa Fitz-Amobi for her determined spirit, intelligence, and realistic personality. Pippa is determined because she works hard and looked at every little detail to get the murder right. She spends most of her time interviewing and finding clues to get her final suspect. Pippa is intelligent because she put all of her evidence together to be the true detective into finding the different parts of the mystery. The knowledge that she has also gets her great grades and helps her do well in school. Pippa lastly feels realistic because she isn’t a professional detective and a high school senior who wants to solve a murder. She also acts like a teenager as she goes to house parties and has sleepovers with her friends. Evidence from the text that shows Pip is detail-oriented is, “ A good detective never overlooks a small detail.“ This quote explains how Pip says she will always look over everything before she makes a decision. This happens a lot in this novel when she decides to check over all her research so she cut down to the real suspect. As you can see, Pippa is my favorite character for her determination, intelligence, detail work, and realistic personality.

My favorite quote from the novel is “ The people you love weren’t algebra: to be calculated, subtracted, or held at arm’s length across a decimal point.” This quote was meaningful to me because I believe that you can love whoever you want or the people that you weren’t supposed to love. Like the author states, it doesn’t need to be totally planned out who you need to love, you can feel free to love whomever your heart desires. Also, the people you love most aren’t always blood related to you.

During April, I read We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This by Rachel Lynn Solomon. This story is about an incoming college freshmen named Quinn Berkowitz. Her family owns a wedding planning company called Borrowed + Blue and she plays the harp at their weddings as a bonus to the marrying couple. Her family works with a catering company that has a son named Tarek Mansour who she has fallen in love with and confessed her love to at end of the previous summer before he went to college. This summer, Quinn still has feelings for him but doesn’t know if he does for her. She also has trouble figuring out if wedding planning is for her or if she’s just trying to build and continue her family’s company. She even learns to make harps and finds something for herself but doesn’t know how to tell the people she loves around her. How do you think Quinn will cope with all the emotions and secrets bottled up inside of her?

I loved this novel because I loved the growth of the main character, Quinn Berkowitz. I loved seeing her hardships, ups, and downs throughout the story because they showed who she truly is. For example, the troubles she had with her parents about learning what she truly loves and overcoming her mental health troubles. The connection between Tarek and Quinn was also so cute as love grew at each wedding they helped at together. The way the author described they glanced at each other and how Quinn saw him was adorable. Now you know, I liked this book for the character development and love connection between two of the characters.

My favorite character in this novel was Quinn Berkowitz. I loved her character because she was caring, a perfectionist, and self aware. I liked that she was caring towards her family not wanting to let the down their family business. I enjoyed her being a perfectionist always wanting to be at her parents standards even if she didn’t feel like being at them. Lastly, I love her self awareness as she was capable to tell how others felt and decide what to say to help them in her business and personal life. A quote from the text to describe Quinn’s trait of being emotional, “ That voice. It’s a time machine of familiar longing, tugging me back.” This explains how Quinn feels because she doesn’t want to leave her family and their business behind but wants to follow her dreams. She doesn’t want to leave her family but everything about her family is their wedding planning life. So, Quinn is trying to comprehend how to leave the business but not her family with it. As you can see, Quinn is my favorite character for her perfectionism, emotional side, caring sense, and self awareness.

My favorite quote from We Can’t Keep Meeting Like This was, “ And sometimes the world is terrible, and love stories… They make it feel less heavy.” This quote was meaningful to me because I love reading romance books and reading helps me find time for me when I am too overwhelmed. I love reading as a hobby outside of my regular daily life as it is an escape for me to dive into the stories of different characters. To me it is so fun to try different books and recently I have also been trying different genres.

While working on my twenty percent project this week, I finished my goal of learning how to connect my letter to make words. Additionally, I wrote on envelopes in calligraphy to show an example of using calligraphy in real life. This week was amazing and I was able to accomplish my goal and extra. I didn’t have any struggles during week four. There was not much time because we had a different schedule for state testing but after I was done with my state testing on Thursday, I got extra time to work on my calligraphy. Since nothing went wrong, I have no adjustments to make except for being ahead. I am ahead, of my goal next week of writing on signs, envelopes, and making a calligraphy alphabet. So, next week I will be working on, planning out my trifold and putting it together. I will be writing my title out, bringing supplies to figure out how I want to place my examples, and put my practice sheets on my board.

This week, I accomplished learning how to write my alphabet without the worksheets. My goal was to finish writing my alphabet for my trifold without the workbook underneath with tracing paper. This piece of work will be on display at my presentation. Additionally, I had time to practice learning how to link my letters to make words which is next week’s goal. Week three was a great week and I have no struggles to share. Since nothing went wrong, I have no adjustments to make. But, since this week went wonderful, I will start looking for signs and envelopes to write on for my upcoming presentation. It would be great if I could start writing on them to tape or glue on my trifold. I would like my presentation to show different ways people can use calligraphy in real life. Next week, I will continue learning to connect my letters to make words and start writing on signs for my trifold.

My favorite room in my home is my bedroom. My bedroom is decorated with gold dots, on the white walls and has more gold accents throughout the room including my gold body-length mirror, hanging picture display frame, pencil holder, and lamp. My bed has a light teal frame, white comforter with teal bedsheets, and a gray accent pillow and blanket hanging off my bed. My desk is a light wood and I have a white desk chair. One of the reasons I love my bedroom is my bed. It’s so comfy and I love getting a good night’s sleep in it. I also love the way my bed looks with the teals, whites, and grays. Another reason my bedroom is my favorite room in my house is my closet. I love my closet because it holds all my clothes and books. I love figuring out my outfits in the morning with all my clothes and organizing my clothes by color and type. Lastly, I love my bedroom because of my books and bean bag chair. I love taking time to read in my room in my bean bag chair in any sparred time! As you can see, my bedroom is my favorite room in the house for these three reasons!

While working on my twenty percent project this week, my goal was to finish learning how to write the calligraphy letters M through Z in uppercase and lowercase form. Some successes I experienced this week were finishing learning how to letters M through Z in calligraphy in lowercase form. I practiced on tracing paper multiple times to get my letters fluid and correct. Over the week, I also found some brush markers to make my letters look more like authentic calligraphy. My main struggle was that at the end of twenty percent project time in class, I found out that I am not on track with my project. I found that the two different kinds of letters I was learning were both lowercase so I never accomplished learning the uppercase calligraphy letters. The last two weeks I have only accomplished writing the whole alphabet in lowercase. Because I didn’t get to write my calligraphy letters in uppercase, I had to make changes and learned how to write the uppercase calligraphy letters over the week before my next work time in class. Next week, I will be working on learning how to write the whole alphabet on my own without the outlines within the worksheets.

In the last weekend of February, I had my second dance competition of the season. At this competition, I competed my solo and two group routines. I’ve visited to this competition for the last five years and it is so fun! But, this time was extra exciting because I won first overall for my solo over twenty other soloists! I was ecstatic that I won and it was the best feeling because the hard work paid off. It was definitely the highlight of my competition season so far. I loved walking up to the front of the stage receiving my trophy and representing my dance studio. I especially enjoy my solo this year over last year’s solo, because it has so much personality and I enjoy the lighthearted music. I wear a light purple, knee-length dress with bows on my costume, and dance with a tissue box. The tissue box fits my dance because the dance is named “Cry To Me”. I love my solo and am so happy and grateful that I won first overall!

There are so many people I would want to invite to dinner, but these are my top three: SZA, Sabrina Carpenter, and Olivia Rodrigo. SZA, Sabrina Carpenter, and Olivia Rodrigo are all famous, female, music artists. First, I would want to invite SZA to dinner because I love her music and she seems like a kind, well-rounded person in real life. Next, I would want to invite Sabrina Carpenter to dinner because I would want to ask her about her one of her newer albums, “Emails I Can’t Send” that I enjoy listening to. Lastly, I would invite Olivia Rodrigo because she’s one of my favorite singers and I would want to ask her about her tour going on right now. Together, we would eat at a fancy, Italian restaurant, and I would order spaghetti. As you can see, I would bring SZA, Sabrina Carpenter, and Olivia Rodrigo t o dinner with me.

Hi, my name is Mia and for my 20% project I have chosen to learn about calligraphy. This week, my goal was to learn the capital and lowercase letters of A through L. I accomplished this goal, and learned how to write some words with those letters including chalk, bad, glad, and back. I used a calligraphy work book to learn my letters and words today. I struggled seeing the difference between the way the capital and lowercase letters looked from the style that was shown through the workbook and wish I have bought a real calligraphy pen before this so it would be easier to write. Because I couldn’t see the difference between the uppercase and lowercase letters, I will adjust next week to find letters with more significance between each other on YouTube. Before next Friday, I will also find and buy a calligraphy fountain pen on Amazon. My plan for what I need to complete next week, is to finish learning how to write letters M through Z in uppercase and lowercase. I am so happy I chose calligraphy as my 20% project because I think it would be a great skill I could use in real life situations. Thank you for reading!

This month, I read The Upside of Falling by Alex Light. This book is about two high school seniors with their own different problems told between two different perspectives. Becca has no friends at school and head is always in a romance novel, liking to experience love in books instead of real life after her parents divorced. While on the other hand, Brett Wells is captain of the football team, has a perfect and wealthy family, looks up to his father as an idol, and is one of the most popular boys at school. But, when Becca’s ex best friend makes fun of her in class for never having a boyfriend, Becca wants to try to prove her wrong. So, Brett overhears the conversation between Becca and her ex best friend, Jenny and he steps in to the rescue and pretends to Becca’s boyfriend. Now, Becca and Brett are trying to hold up their fake relationship to show Jenny that Becca can have a boyfriend and for Brett to impress his dad idol that he can get a girlfriend. But, when Becca grieves with her past parents divorce and Brett’s pitch perfect family starts to fall apart, they find they have more in common than they think they do. Will their feelings and love for each other become real or stay fake?

I enjoyed this book because it was told from multiple perspectives, a cute romance, and had some hardships making it feel like someone’s real life. I liked that it was from Brett and Becca’s perspectives because I got to see what it was like in each of their personal lives and what they were feeling without the other character there. It was a cute romance because I liked how Brett flirted with Becca making her blush, paying for her if she wanted something, and took her on mysteriously fun dates. There were also hardships making it feel more real like financial problems, divorces, and loneliness. Overall, I liked this story for its two perspectives, rom-com feel, and lifelikeness.

My favorite character from The Upside of Falling was Becca Hart. I liked her character because she is a book lover, caring, and intelligent. Mostly all of her time is focused on reading, Becca always reads her romance novels during lunch and after school. She was caring to Brett as she would do anything for him and would always take time to help out at her mom’s bakery. Becca Hart is also intelligent because she works very hard in school and has straight A’s. A quote from the book is, “These books were safe. Like an alternate, paper world where anything was possible. And after my parents’ divorce, I gave up on love. I never wanted to fall into it or feel it because what was the point? These books let me feel it through other people. That way, I didn’t have to worry about being hurt. It sounds dumb, but they helped. They helped me when nothing else could.” This shows that Becca Hart is not a risk taker because she doesn’t want to fall in love like her parents did and have to deal with the chance of their being heartbreak. So, she decided to read romance novels and so she could experience love through the books without having to deal with the consequences in real life. As you can see, my favorite character is Becca because she is intelligent, a book lover, and caring to others

My favorite quote from the book is, “ Life didn’t have to fit into a four-sided box that was neat and tidy. It was okay if the box had three sides or the fourth one was hanging on with duct tape. It was okay if the corners were dented and if there was a big red FRAGILE sticker on top. It was all okay.” This quote was meaningful to me because I have learned that it’s okay if you’re not perfect and that you never can be. Sometimes you are sad or there is something gone on in your life that you’re struggling to push through but it’s all fine and everyone will make it out of it.