Reading Journal advice:
Avoid vague phrases.
Example 1:
Instead of:
"This part is about the theme of the story."
Try instead:
"Growing up is a theme of this story, and the description of junior high as a magic trick gets
across how confusing and mysterious, but at the same time full of wonder, this time in life is."
Example 2:
Instead of:
"This quote lets us get to know the characters."
Try instead:
"The way that the narrator talks about adults (his teachers and his mother) shows that he has a
very rebellious, "us vs. them" way of looking at the world. Adults have rules he doesn't
understand, and different priorities that they won't explain to him, so he has no use for them."
Example 3:
Instead of:
"The author did a really good job here of showing the characters emotions."
Try:
"The author chooses to leave out the spaces between the words, making it easy to feel how
breathless and excited the characters are when they find the grinding ball."
For the "summary" paragraph:
I am not asking for a summary of the story, but rather a summary of YOUR analysis you've done
in your reading journal. Make connections between the quotes you chose, talk about themes that
are present in all three, etc.