SOME CORRECTIONS

     From some of the comments I got the idea that  some people felt sorry for me because of the hardships faced. There were challenges but I didn't hurt myself . I was a poor student. I was incredibly lazy. I skillfully got by doing the least possible. 

      I did my work except for one time that I remember and my friends will never let me forget it.

     In Gr. 11 English we had a novel to study. Since there was very little teacher time, he wrote questions on the board for each chapter and we were supposed to write answers for the questions. No checking of the work...almost no checking. I did not do any of the questions. I faithfully copied every question in my book but wrote not one answer. One day about 11:50 the teacher decided to take a look in our books at the questions and how we were doing. Everybody knew I hadn't done anything. There was an air of tension. The kids were all waiting for me to get caught . It would be a lot of fun to see me get caught.  So the teacher started at the front of my row and started checking. He was checking the student in front of me. Just then the bell rang for noon. I remember some of my buddies couldn't believe my good luck of not being checked. They've never let me forget this incident.

     At the end of the year I would bring all my school stuff home and Mom told me to put it in the closet. I would come home and she would tell me to sort out what I didn't want and put it on the floor. I would come home a few months later and everything had been put back in the closet.

     So my brother had the same teacher and novel study. My brother wanted to take a shortcut so he decided to get my book and copy the answers! Guess what. There were no answers for him to find. 

     So I wasn't exactly an angel. Math was checked every day. The teacher would ask each student for an answer. If something was wrong the teacher would explain the concept. Now I was pretty good in math . I did learn to factor trinomials. Does anybody remember trinomials? Does anybody remember how to factor trinomials? Does anybody remember what trinomials are for.? Has anybody ever used a trinomial since they left school? But I did my math.

     So I was good sometimes and bad sometimes. However I don't need sympathy. I  had the opportunity and got there.

    Now I have all my report cards. Do you know why? You guessed it. Mom kept them all. I will not copy one report card to show you my marks. 

Book Review: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

     In the last year I've read many good books but none of them were fiction. Somebody in blog land must have recommended All the Light We Cannot See and it's a good story.

    The story is set during WW II. It features two children: one in France and the other in Germany.  The author tells their stories by alternating chapters. So one chapter describes what happens to Werner and the next one tells about Marie-Laure. The author makes their lives realistic as he describes the horrors of war children had to go through.

    I don't normally like war stories or stories with violence. This one was dark but I couldn't put it down. It's easy to read. There's lots of conflict and most of the predictions I made about what was coming next were wrong.

    For all stories a certain amount of research has to be done. Either Anthony Doerr did a lot of research or was extremely knowledgeable about science. Whether it was radio, physics, snails, biology or minerals and gems the details were there. Marie-Laure was blind and he had to know in great detail how blind people function.

    In the end we come away understanding much more about the horrors of war during the war and what people suffer years after the war.

    Now I haven't told you any part of the story. You'll have to get all the story yourself.

 I enjoyed the story and recommend it.

     After I finished reading this story I noticed that it won the Pulitzer prize.

     Don't check Wiki Pedia as it gives a story summary