My Life Next Door

In My Life Next Door Samantha has a best friend and her brother works with Sam at the community center. Sam kinda helped him get the job but he is always doing drugs and asking for money and ask for help. But he always shows up late and isn't in uniform. So when Samantha's boss comes and finds him he gets all mad and wants to fire him. Sam is like no, no but he does it anyway. I would think that if you are trying to pull your life together and get a job you wouldn't just flirt with the girls and actually wear your uniform but that seems to not be the case. I would just think he would appreciate it more then he does.

Book Recommendation

One book that I think a lot of people should read is The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks. It is an awesome book. I would give this book a 8 out of ten. It is about a teenage girl who goes and visits her dad for the summer with her little brother. She already didn't want to go but right when she gets there she gets in a fight with her dad and leaves. Her little brother hates seeing them fight so she agrees that she will try not to fight with him anymore. Well the book goes on and she meets this guy named Will. At first she thinks he is just some kind of summer guy who looks for some girls to hook up with but she comes to find out that he truly likes her. The summer goes on and one night her dad gets really, really sick and ends up in the hospital. She gets all mad at herself and her boyfriend Will because she thinks she spent her whole summer worrying about Will and not spending enough time with her dad. So she tells herself that she is going to stay when summer ends and help out her dad. Now you may be thinking oh I have seen the movie I don't need to read the book but actually the book is a lot better then the movie. It goes into way more detail and the ending is 1000 times better then the movie. But, I am not going to give away the ending so you are going to have to read to find out for yourself.

Theme and Summary of My Life Next Door

I think the theme of My Life Next Door is you never know who you may fall in love with. Samantha is your average teenager. She goes to school and is on the swim team. But her mom is into political stuff and her dad left her when she was a baby. She has a sister who left for the summer to go to The Vineyard. Her mom is dating a younger guy named Clay, who Samantha cannot stand. But they had a talk and I think she is starting to like him more. Sounds sort of like a regular family. Right? Well her mom does not like neighbors, and refuses Samantha to talk to them. She thinks that they are a huge family of seven and does not keep their yard up. But what her mom doesn't know is that Sam sits out and observes the Garrett's every move. One night she is sitting on her roof when Jase, one of the Garrett's sons, comes up and starts talking to her she thinks nothing of it until the next day Mrs.Garrett Samantha can start babysitting for them. Sam says yes. With her taking this babysitting job she becomes closer with Jase. So one night after babysitting Jase takes Sam to the beach thinking Sam's mom won't be home for awhile because she has been working late hours more lately. Sam is having a good time with Jase, kissing in the ocean and just messing around. Only did Sam know that it was way past curfew. Sam gets home and gets yelled at by her mom and gets grounded but then Clay comes in and says that everyone comes home late from curfew once in awhile. She goes upstairs to take a shower but actually Jase is on the roof so Sam starts talking to him. Her mom almost catches her. She keeps getting closer and closer to her mom finding out. Sam never knew she would fall in love with Jase and even her mom thinks nothing of it. Some quotes to support this are "Oh God. I leap back in through the window, so fast I smack the top of my forehead on the frame. Ow! "Were you talking to someone out there?" Mom, looking chic in a sleeveless black shirt and fitted white pants, has her arms folded, frowning. "I thought I heard voices." I try to keep the flush from flooding my face. Unsuccessfully. I'm blushing, and my lips are swollen. I could not possibly look more quietly. "Just calling hello to Mrs. Schmidt across the street," I say, "She was getting her mail." Incredibly, mom buys this. She's already distracted" (Fitzpatrick 121). This quote is when Samantha is on the roof talking to Jase when her mom hears some voices talking she thinks nothing of it and gets distracted right away. "He circles my belly button with that light finger. I turn my head, bury my lips in the worn cotton of his shirt" (Fitzpatrick 119). And this quote is when they are on the roof flirting with each other. So like I said I think the theme of My Life Next Door is you never know who you may fall in love with.

My Life Next Door

I liked how Samantha had a talk with her mom's boyfriend of him kissing another girl the other day. I think it was good for her to confront him about it because she kept holding it in. But when he said it was only an ex girlfriend from the past it kinda worried me because most people don't kiss their exs. I think he is more understanding then Samantha's mom but I don't think he would make a very good step dad because I think he is only being nice to her because he wants to make sure her mom likes him. He always keeps her late after work and Sam even said she is like never home now that she is dating him. He also seems like he is only in it for the politics.

Links and Displays My Life Next Door

 

I think Romeo and Juliet is a good text to text connection.



This is the cover of the book.

 

This is an Youtube video about what the book is about.

Another Youtube video about why she liked the book. She talks more about the characters.

This Youtube one is about just the overall view of why she likes the book.

My Life Next door=Very good article of good quotes that are used in the book.  

Prompt

The tone if My Life Next Door is romantic. I think it is romantic because it says "He drops his gloves to the ground, sliding his bare palms up my arms, then edging me into the shade of one of the buses. I want to lean into him, but I'm still tense" (Fitzpatrick 116). This quote tells on of the times when Samantha is looking and talking to Jase. And what romantic thoughts she has of him.

I think the mood of My Life Next Door is surprised because you never know what is coming next. There is always surprises and always new curves and problems. One quote is " Then suddenly, I hear a voice, right near me. Right below me. Hey. Startled, I almost lose my balance. Then I feel a steadying hand on my ankle and hear a rustling sound, as someone, some guy, climbs up the trellis and onto the roof, my own secret place" (Fitzpatrick 13). This shows when Samantha is just sitting on her roof alone and not doing anything and Jase comes up, someone she isn't suppose to be talking to. This shows a new surprise that you would probably never see coming.
Here is one moment when a character swayed the beliefs of others "Clay lets out a rich, low laugh. Eleven o'clock on a summer night? And she's seventeen? Honey, that's when we all miss curfew. He walks over, reaches to squeeze the back of her neck lightly. I know I did. I'm sure you did. His hand moves to her chin, edging it so she's looking right at him. Give a little here, sugar" (Fitzpatrick 102). "Maybe I overreacted, she says finally, to him, not to me" (Fitzpatrick 102). These two quotes show when Samantha comes home late from curfew and her mom is about to ground here. But Clay says that she shouldn't because everyone has come home after curfew before. So after Clay is done talking Samantha's mom ends up not grounding her. The character's tone impacted his persuasiveness because he used vialed points and used some loving words to her.

Blog Post-Blow driers

I read an article in the schools newspaper and it was about what the students and teachers think about the blow driers at school. I agree with most of the people that I rather have paper towels than blow driers because the blow dries are cold and take forever. I usually try to go to the bathroom in between bells and I feel like that is hard to do because it takes more time and you can never hear the bell ring when you are in there. Like never! I know the blow driers help the environment more than the paper towels. But it is also annoying having them when I need to whip my face off. What am I suppose to use? My shirt?

My Life Next Door RE-DO

The independent novel I am reading right now is My Life Next Door. In this novel it is about this girl, Samantha, who lives in a nice neighborhood in a big house with her sister and mom. Ever since her mom became a politician she isn't home as much as she use to be. Samantha has these neighbor who her mom said she is never aloud to talk to or socialize with. But she actually sits her in window and watches the Garrett's. They have Joel, Alice, Jase, Andy, Duff, Harry, George and Pasty. Even though Sam has never talked to them face to face she still can pick out everyone's voices and what they look like. But one night Samantha is sitting on her roof watching the older Garrett's play basketball one of the sons come up on her roof and sit down. They get to talking and they actually have a pretty deep conversation. The next day she is walking home from school and she sees Jase, the guy she was talking to last night working in the garage. She talks to him for a little while and Jase invites her inside. Jase is actually babysitting so Samantha helps out with the two older kids. Mrs. Garrett comes home and meets Sam. Sam leaves and the next afternoon they see each other walking home. Mrs. Garrett asks Samantha if she would want to start babysitting George and Pasty twice a week. Samantha says yes but how is she going to do this when her mom said she isn't even aloud to talk to this family? Is she going to get caught? What happens when her mom actually does find out? Why did her mom say she can't hang out with this family just because they live a different live then there's? I think when she starts babysitting her and Jase are going to start falling in love. I think they are going to

have a hard time keeping it a secret though. One connection I made is text to text. In the book the Outsiders they boy and girl next door aren't aloud to talk or even see each other but the boy sneaks out everyday and goes and sees her. Another connection I made was text to self. Two summers ago I was at my lake house and there was a boy two houses down and his mom was very rude and did not get along with my aunts so they just kept there distance from each other and didn't talk to each other. But one of the boys threw a football on our part of the lake and I went to go get it for him and we started talking even though our families tried keeping there distance from each other. And the last connection I made was text to world. My Life Next Door is like Romeo and Juilet because they weren't suppose to be seeing each other. And Romeo and Juilet actually happened it wasen't just a poem and play.