Romulus and Remus Comic Strip

Romulus and Remus by KChan | Make your own at www.toondoo.com

Author Memo

To: Kate Brian
From: Kara Chan
Date: March 7, 2010
Re: Private
Dear Kate,
I love this book because I think that every teenage girl is able to relate to it. Everyone has to go through the struggle to fit in and a struggle to reach our dreams. I made plenty of connections and I’m sure plenty of other people would be able to do the same too. Another thing I like about the story is that it is written in a way where there is so much mystery about the Billings girls. Since not much was said about them, it made me keep wondering if they would be nice or mean and what they were really like underneath all those rumors. I desperately had to find out more about them which made me keep reading.
Something I’d like to ask you is where you got the idea from. Is there really a private school where special people are selected to live in the same house? In some ways it seems kind of strange and a bit cruel to have only selected people living in the best house. Also, where did Thomas Pearson disappear to in the end? It was so unexpected because he told Reed he wouldn’t leave and that he would meet her the next morning. Why did he suddenly leave without a trace or notice?
One suggestion I have is not to make the ending so packed up. Plenty of important events happened within the last chapter, like Reed meeting Thomas’s parents, scrambling around wondering where Thomas disappeared to, and being invited into the Billings House, all in the last few pages. There were just too many unanswered questions and things going on that it all felt rushed and confusing.
However, overall I enjoyed the story and look forward to reading the next book in the series.

Pyramids of Egypt

Three interesting facts I learned were:

1. Pyramids were built so that each side faced exactly north, south, east and west which is called cardinal direction.

2. There were plenty of things inside pyramid chambers: hieroglyphs and hieroglyphic writing on walls (including hymns, magical spells, instructions on how to act in front of the gods and other useful knowledge known as Pyramid Texts), potter vases-some containing wine and expensive perfumes, furniture for pharaohs to use in the afterlife, stars on the ceiling to symbolize the heavens, and sometimes even one or more boats were buried near the pyramid, possibly for the king’s pleasure in the next world or to allow him to sail across the sky.

3. The Bent Pyramid was known as the first true pyramid with sloping sides but it's also unique because the structure bends halfway up. The reason why it bends has been argued and is still a mystery. Some theories are that it was a calculation error, it was part of a new design, or it started to collapse halfway up so it had to be finished at a different angle.

Reading Response Podcast

Proud Piece #1: The Secret Knowledge of Grown-ups

Rule#66: Don’t pick your nose
Official Reason: It’s disgusting and impolite
Real Reason: It makes your nostrils grow bigger

Unfortunately, yes it is a fact and the 100% truth. When those small ignorant children, shove their filthy little hands up their dirty nose, they think that they are doing themselves no harm but slowly and surely they are making their nostrils grow bigger. Each day they pick their nose, it increasingly activates their nostrils to grow huger each day. From then on, their nostrils continue to expand until the person stops picking their nose for several years. In rare cases, the nostrils may grow as massive as a soccer ball! It is also occasionally spotted that one nostril may grow faster and larger than the other causing the being to have a bizarre and lopsided face.
It was around the 1970’s when the hazard of nose picking was discovered. A vast majority of these top secret scientists called this the Gostril Disease (giant and nostril combined.) Top secret scientists in China believed that a person’s nostrils would grow so immense there would be nothing left of them except for a nose. Scientists in Europe believed that once the nostril got so humongous it would be able to suck up the entire earth when the person inhaled and blow away the earth when exhaling. Or worse, when the person sneezed they would blow away the entire universe.
“I’ll always remember the first time I was introduced to a man with the Gostril Disease,” says Professor Zinko, President of the Top Secret Scientist Corporation in Austria. “It was so massive it made me nearly jump out of my skin! I wasn’t sure whether I should be more shocked or disgusted,” he claims.
These undercover scientists agreed that nose picking was a serious danger and they immediately took action to stop it. The news eventually spread to all adults who then told their children not to pick their nose because it was disgusting and impolite, which is actually true but not the main point. Of course this secret was only for grown-ups and they would never tell their children.
Luckily today, human nostrils have grown firmer over the past few years. Firmer nostrils also mean that the person has better control over them which allows them to flare their nostrils, but prevents them from growing. We are thankful today that human’s nostrils are strong and do not grow – at least 99% of the time.

I chose this as my proud piece because it has a lot of imagination and I had a fun time writing it.