Reader's Journal#22 auobiography

Readers Journal #22                                                     2/7/12

Dear Mrs.Zrihen,

The book I am still reading is Through My Eyes by Tim Tebow, is an autobiography and it falls under the nonfiction genre. The quote that I chose is“People often seem to think that when you're following the Lord and trying to do His will, your path will always be clear, the decisions smooth and easy, and life will be lived happily ever after and all that. Sometimes that may be true, but I've found that more often, it's not. The muddled decisions still seem muddled, bad things still happen to believers, and great things can happen to nonbelievers. When it comes to making our decisions, the key that God is concerned with is that we are trusting and seeking Him. God's desire is for us to align our lives with His Word and His will.” This quote really inspired me to think that we can not leave everything to God, sometimes there will be situations that is going to be bad but we have to trust and seek God no matter what. I used the same strategies as I explained in the last journal. But in the middle of the book it has pictures and captions of Tim Tebow.

The topic of this book is about football and his life out the field. The main idea of the book is that you can accomplish a lot in life but you need to put effort into what you want to accomplish, that nothing is easy in life. You have to have a certain mind set in life and if you practice daily on what you want to be, God will help you on your journey. The main idea is implied because if you read the book you can tell that Tim Tebow is devoted to his religion and God. He gives specific information and details that support the main idea. One detail is when he talks about the final seconds of a game that can take him to the Sugar Bowl and he prayed to God to help his team’s defense to stop the man from making a field goal. Tim Tebow’s dad told him not to pray for trivial things but football really meant a lot to him and he also remembered when his parents told him to pray for things that he felt were most important in his heart. The essential message of this book is to believe in God and how he works in mysterious ways.

The text features that I can identify are the headings and chapters, also the pictures and the captions help me identify what the picture means and understands the important ideas in the following chapters. The pattern of organization is chronological order because he’s telling you what happened to him from when he was a kid until now. Author’s purpose is to entertain the readers and also to inform about his life. The tone that the writer used in this book is a serious one and the mood that he created was excitement. The point of view is Tim Tebow’s because it’s an autobiography. The text-to-self features I found are that we both strive to be the best we can when we are playing sports and in school. Text-to-text features i saw were that I read a autobiography about Mike Strahan who was a defense on the New York Giants squad. The text-to-world conclusions I found were that I saw a video about a bunch of people in Croatia, doing the “Tebow”. The response starter I have is #38 I admire Tim Tebow because he never gives up on what he strives to do and how devoted to God he is. The rate I give this book would be a 10 because I can look up to Tim Tebow with a lot of things and how his advice comes in good use. I thought this book was great because I never got bored reading it like I do with some books.

From your student,

Alan Alvarez

Readers Journal #23 autobiography

1/31/12

Readers Journal #23

Dear Mrs. Zrihen,

The Book I am reading currently is Through My eyes by Tim Tebow.  The two strategies I used before reading this book were looking at a review on Amazon to see what I am going to buy, and then I used context clues for words I didn’t understand in the preface. The strategy I’m currently using in this book is reading chapter titles to understand what Tim Tebow is going to talk about.

The genre of this book is an autobiography because Tim Tebow is telling the story of his life. The story is told from first-person point of view.  The topic of this book is about his experience as a football player. The main idea of this book so far is the life of Tim Tebow and his childhood and early teen years, the main idea is stated in the entire book. If I have to give another title to this book it would be The Journey of a Quarterback. The reason for selecting this title is because he played football through high school, college and now he is playing at the professional level. The essential message of this book is to never give up and follow your dreams and that God does his work in mysterious ways. The pattern of organization is in chronological order because he is narrating the events in the order that occurs. The author’s purpose was to inform the readers about what he went through in his life.  The author’s perspective is subjective because he wrote from his thought and feelings. The author’s point of view is 1^st person because he uses I and my. The tone of his writing change several times through out the book, sometimes he was humorous, but other times he was serious.

Text- to –self connections for me were that I play football and before I read this book he always inspired me to be a better player and person. Text to text connection is when I read a memoir by Michael Strahan.  Text to world connections is that he is known worldwide for how he acts on the field. A response starter that I used was #26; I wish I could meet Tim Tebow in real life. The rating I would give this book would be a 9 because I like reading about football players and the fact that I watch Tim Tebow play every Sunday gave me a better reason to buy this book and give it this rating.

The quote that I found very wise was “You and I were created by God to be so much more than normal…Following the crowd is not a winning approach to life. In the end it’s a loser’s game, because we never become who God created us to be by trying to be like everybody else.” I liked this one because it’s true. We are all here on this world for our individual purpose.

Sincerely,

Alan Alvarez