Thursday, September 27, 2012

Patricia Reilly Giff's pictures of hollis woods

Author's Note: I wrote this retelling piece about Patricia Reilly Giff's drama, picture of hollis woods




All a foster child wants is to find a home. In Pictures of Hollis Woods, the main character is an orphan and has been paired with many unsuccessful foster families.  She finally finds someone that she wants to stay with, but a problem surfaces -- her guardian is losing her mind.  With reoccurring flashbacks of a past family and her new life falling apart, she starts questioning her decisions.  In the end, she learns that doing what's right can lead her to her ultimate goal -- finding a family.  

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Trapped

Trapped

Author's Note:  Dreams can sometimes feel like reality, you know the feeling, just like Veronica, the main character in my writing piece.  She had a crazy dream, a really crazy dream, you should know that feeling too.  I just want to let everyone know they can control their own dreams through this writing piece.  

           If only my father hadn't left after my mother’s death.  I could say what I want to say again and look like the seventeen year old I am.  I could be in control of my dreams.  It’s tough to think that it was two years ago today that I could say what I wanted and look my age. 

 Two years ago today my mother went from alive and kicking to late, how?  Well, no one knows.  That may be a lie though, someone may know, and that someone is my dad who I haven’t seen since, the morning of my mother’s passing.  My godmother and I will not give up, we are searching around the world for him.  There’s one other thing, my mother’s words are stopping us from continuing our search for my father.  My soul is trapped in my mother’s body and I can only write my voice and my godmother is the only one who can see my voice, no one else.

                 When my godmother took over my life one year and three hundred and sixty-four days ago we started our search for my dad and we have still yet to find him.  We’ve searched the whole country of North America in two years.  The only thing that is stopping my godmother and I from continuing our search is my mother’s mouth.  Once we get to Asia, we are going to be forced to find another way to locate my father because, my mother asks,  “What are the directions back to Georgia?”  Which is where we used to live and we can’t get the directions if that’s all either of us can speak.   My godmother must leave me behind and continue the search after we get to Asia.  She’ll leave me and come back to me with my father hopefully but, if not she will be coming back to me to get on a boat to travel to the next country. 

                 Within two long days of sea-sickness we arrive in Asia and with no time to waste my godmother, leaves me behind in a little cottage that has been abandoned for years sales clerk mentioned after I bought my food and water for the week with the money my father left behind for me.  The days seemed like weeks, I’d just stare out the window and watch the children play outside.  I wasn’t hungry and my food grew moldy but, I never left the window to clean it up.  I couldn’t sleep either, and what seemed like the fiftieth day of being stranded inside the little cottage, I fell asleep.  I don’t know how long I was asleep but, when I awoke it was because, of a nightmare, a nightmare where my godmother found my father but, never made it back the abandoned cottage.  I awoke in the night and I walked straight out of the semi-creepy home and through the town and I kept walking and walking and didn’t stop till I ran into a man, an older man, that looked a lot like someone I knew.  I couldn’t quite put my finger on who this old man was.

                 My father, that’s who he is.  Where’s my godmother?  Right then, I saw her.  She looked different, she had numerous wrinkles that she hadn’t had before.  She had a cane with her but, a smile on her face.  I asked my father, “Where are the directions back to Georgia?”  He answered back in a deep sad tone, “You can’t.”  I can’t be the girl I am, I can’t be the seventeen year old I am and I can’t say what I want to say ever again.  I have to look like my mother and say what my mother wants?  I started to hear screaming, that seems to come out of me and then it grew louder and louder and everything got fuzzy.  I felt something in my hand, a pillow and something over my body, a blanket.  I sat up and looked around the room, my bedroom.  I was dreaming?  My mother walked into my bedroom and sat on the foot of my bed.  “Honey I’m deeply sorry that you have to have these insane dreams,” she said.  “These insane dreams,” I asked with a questionable tone.  “Yes, everyone has crazy dreams but, remember, they’re your dreams that you can control.”
                
                 You can control your dreams.  I can be the seventeen year old I am and say what I want.