Ship Breaker - Post Reading

“You toss your luck in the air and it rattles down on the gambling boards and you either live or die.” This quote was important to Ship Breaker as the book regularly talked about luck. I think what this quote means is that, you can do a certain amount of work to get something to happen, but it’s not certain that it will.
To me, it seems like a lot of this book has to do with luck. Perhaps this is because they live in a world where your life depends on how much goods you can pull from a small, dangerous space so that someone else can profit off of it. Everything in their lives depends on how much wire they pull out, if the weather is good, and if they don’t have an accident. In Nailer’s case, his day also depends on what kind of mood his dad is in.
Some people, like Lucky Girl, are born rich, and don’t seem to be affected by luck at all. However, she made it through the storm, when all the others on the clipper were killed. Others, like Lucky Strike, are born poor, but happen to find or do something that makes them rich. For example, Lucky Strike found oil and smuggled it out, becoming rich and using his influence to become richer.
Pima and Sadna say that Nailer is lucky after he escapes alive, and call him “Lucky Boy”. Others say that if he was lucky, then he would have escaped and still kept the oil.

I think that the characters became too consumed with luck and the like and didn’t do anything themselves. I think they went from “I can’t control everything, so I shouldn’t get upset if something doesn’t work out right”, to “If I can’t control everything, then why should I make any plans in advance at all”. In my opinion, we should try to do what we can, but realize that it won’t always work out.

Ship Breaker - Pre Reading

The word “loyalty” is defined as “obedience, allegiance, devotion, steadfastness, or reliability”. Often, someone is only seen as loyal if they are unconditionally loyal. It is nearly impossible to be loyal to someone at all times. There are many times when it is hard, or wrong, to be loyal to someone. 
If what someone is doing is wrong, should you be loyal to them? If being loyal to one friend goes against being loyal to another? There are reasons not to be loyal to someone, but it is hard to know when to be loyal. It is up to the person to make that judgement. This can be difficult, because the person wouldn’t want to offend their friend. 
It is also hard to be loyal when others disapprove. For example, if your friend wants to try something new, such as a new sport, you would support them in their decision. However, if others think that the idea or plan is dumb, peer pressure could convince you to be disloyal to your friend. In this situation, it is easy to know what the right thing is, but just as hard to go through with it.
Some aspects of loyalty are somewhat easier. Don’t talk behind your friend’s back, for example. In theory, this is easy, but if other people are talking about your friend, it can be tempting to say something. Still, this type of loyalty is simpler to understand: you usually know it’s not good to gossip about your friend.

If you feel that you should be loyal to someone, then be loyal. If what they are doing feels wrong, then confront them nicely. These rules are more like guidelines, because they don’t work in every situation. So when should you be loyal, and when should you not? Trust your instincts and remember to think it through.

Code Name Verity - Post Reading

           "Careless talk costs lives” is a quote that is often repeated throughout Code Name Verity. If you tell someone something that is secret, it will soon make its way to someone who should not know. In wars, this is especially important. Code and important information is kept closely guarded so that it is harder for it to get to the enemy. This is also true today, in different situations, such as school. If you tell someone a secret, they might accidentally tell someone else, who they trust. That person might tell another of their friends, not knowing that you did not want the information to get to that person. Of course, it does not “cost lives” in that situation, but the idea is basically the same.

In Code Name Verity, if Julie or Maddie, or anyone else, were to be too loose with information, the enemy would probably get it. Both of them are involved in very secret missions. They often say that careless talk costs lives, meaning that they do not want to talk about what they do.

Julie gives false information to her interrogators. However, she tells it in such a way that they believe it to be true. She pretends that she is upset about writing it out, while, in reality, she is faking all of it. She is able to do this because she is good at acting, and uses that for her job.

Maddie, however, has a more practical job as a pilot. Still, she takes the people who have secret missions, such as Julie, to where they need to be. While she is in hiding, she writes out all that has happened as an “Accident report”. This is foolish because the papers could fall into the wrong hands.

If “careless talk costs lives”, then we should all be more careful about what we say. We never know who it could get to, and how fast.

Code Name Verity - Pre Reading

Ten Things I Am Most Scared Of

1. Having dreams so big that they will never happen

I have really big dreams. I feel like I spend so much time planning them that I don’t have time to work on making them real. I feel like they are so big that they will never happen, and I give up.

2. Losing the chance to do something important

I have plans of what I want to do, often with other people. Because of being shy, I often don’t pursue the plans and lose the chance to do these things.

3. People not liking me

I always have the problem of worrying how people will like me or what I do. Many times, I changed something or backed down because of this.

4. Not being good enough

Before I do something, I always worry about how good the others there are. I worry about how I will compare to them.

5. Time going by too fast

I like to take time to plan things out. When time seems to go by too fast, I feel like I lose control of everything, and that makes me waste more time.

6. Not knowing what I am supposed to do

I always get nervous when I am told to do something and not given clear instructions. I want to ask how to do it, but I’m scared to. I have plans for most things, but I hardly ever know where to start.

7. Forgetting something important

I always worry that I will forget to do something important. I wonder what will happen if I do, and I plan everything out so that I won’t. Still, I worry about forgetting to do something that I need to do.

8. People controlling everything I do for all my life

I always look forward to when I can make my own decisions. I have plans for what I want to do later in my life. If there is someone telling me every little thing to do all of the time, I think I will go insane.

9. Freedom

I don’t know how I will act when I am given more freedom. Right now everything is so strict that I hardly have any time to sit down and think. It’s like every second of my life is planned out. Without this, I might only want to sit and think, and never get any of the things I think about done.

10. Spiders

I was playing outside one day in fourth grade, and I got bit by a huge spider. No one knew whether it was poisonous or not, so we went to the doctor’s. It wasn’t poisonous, but I still remember how bad it hurt and the hole in my thumb. I know that most people are at least a little scared of spiders, but ever since then, I have been more afraid of them than the average person.