Summary of Discussion 5 curveball

The summary of our discussion was about man vs self.Because he isn't being honest to his friends or his family.He is not being honest because he's afraid he will lose them.He is not being honest to his family because he does not want his grandpa in a nursing home.He wants to tell them but can't get the nerve to.

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Peter is not telling AJ so angelika is getting mad at peter and peter is mad at her.Peter is catching AJ and AJ is throwing hard at him because he wants him to pitch.He is not telling his parents about his grandpa and this is making his grandpa a person that has no memory that can drive instead of keeping him safe.

What Would You Say To Your Main Character Right Now? (ZAEED)

If I could talk to my mine character Peter I would yell at him about not being a good friend. I would tell him to tell AJ about the whole baseball situation. I would ask him if he considered AJ as his best friend then why doesn't he always be honest with him? I would lecture to him about how it won't just affect him it will also affect AJ. Peter is only worrying about himself and he is being really selfish.

I would also talk to him about something else. It would be how he is keeping his grandpa's secret from his mom. That would be the smart thing to do to make sure his grandpa doesn't have Alzheimer's. It also bothers me how even Angelika told him to tell his mom and he still didn't. I would literally sit there and lecture to him about how bad a grandson and friend he is.

To conclude if I could talk to Peter I would tell him that he needs to tell AJ about the truth of him not being able to play baseball. Instead of getting AJ's hopes up about being able to play with him. I would tell him to tell his mom about the whole grandpa and alzheimer thing. He thinks that he is doing the right thing by not telling anyone. While he could be having the doctor look at his grandpa and everything can be resolved. Of course Peter isn't telling him he really needs to realize that he's not the only person in the world.

What I would say to Peter

First off how didn't you know there was alcohol in the punch.Why did you drink so much punch.You should really tell your mom and dad about your grandpa.Please tell AJ your going to ruin your friendship.Why did you join the yearbook.
How is school and what is your favorite class mine is reading.Why do you trust angelika more than your parents.I love baseball who is your second favorite team.Who is your favorite baseball player.Whats your favorite pitch to throw minds a curve.Do you get a feeling in your body when you throw a good pitch and you know your going to strike them out.
Have you ever hit a home run.Do you like your photography class.Do you like your Yankees room and why didn't you tell anybody about your arm.I would have because I would not risk the career I could have.Do you get jealous of AJ

Strong to weak comparing for eter

LINK

So my character compared to other characters was the 2nd strongest, in my other group, character of them all, my other group members, from the original, put that he was 3rd strongest, 2nd weakest, because of a book they had that I didn't have in my group. I personally have finished my book, but from where the point we had planned to stop I honestly didn't have much hope in Peter because not tons of things were really going his way and none were really going against him that he could change. I think he is going to pretty much stay the same because of that broken arm unless in heals, then he will become much stronger because he can actually do stuff.

Peter: Strong or Weak?

SPOILERS: Not really, actually.

Peter isn't a very strong character, and I think this because he doesn't decide too many things for himself. His friends decide things for him. He isn't that weak though, because he does decide things for himself, and he does do things other people don't do.

(Source)

Our ratings did compare, but they were a little off. In my group, my character was the 3rd strongest, or the second weakest, so I rated Peter lower. Most of the ratings were very similar. I don't think Peter will get much stronger throughout the book, because he still won't decide things for himself. He will eventually have to tell his parents about grampa but he isn't willing to do it yet.

Rating for Peter?

Strong vs. Weak (Image Source)

       Today I will be talking about how my rating of Peter was compared to my other partners. I rated Peter third on our strongest to weakest chart out of 4. Compared to my partners we were all basically the same. The only reason we differed is because our character, Peter, competed against other and different characters from other books.
       I think so far throughout the book Peter has definitely gotten smarter and stronger throughout and I think he will continue to do so as we keep going through the story. Peter has became stronger, more responsible, and just smarter in general throughout the book and I think he will continue to get stronger, more responsible, and smarter through the rest of the story.

Curveball Authors

The Author of Curveball is Jordan Sonninblick. He is 46 years old and has 8 other books.These books are After Ever After,Zen and the Art of Faking it,Notes from the midnight driver,Drums Girls and Dangerous Pie,Dodger and Me,Dodger for sale,Dodger for President,Are you Experienced.Drums Girls and dangerous pies and After Ever After are a series about a boy who has cancer.Dodger and Me,Dodger for Sale and Dodger for President is a series about a Imaginary friend and he is a blue chimp. Notes from the Midnight Driver is about a 16 year old who gets drunk and goes to pay his dad a visit for something and hits a gnome and pukes on a police officer.Zen and the art of faking it is about a thirteen year old who is movie to a new town and school and wants to stand out.
Jordan Sonnenblick was born at an army base in  Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He grew up in  Staten Island, New York.He always wanted to be a author and wrote drums girls and dangerous pies. I think he wrote curveball because maybe he hurt his arm in high school and maybe could not play sports.He could have also seen one of his students go through this problem.He could have also wrote this book because maybe his grandpa had alzheimer's disease.It could have been any one of these. 

Information about our author Jordan Sonnenblick- Zach B.

JORDAN SONNENBLICK

Jordan Sonnenblick is the author of Curveball and 6 other books! Jordan lives in Pennsylvania where he is married and has two kids. Surprisingly his favorite pet is his garter snake which he named hector after finding him by a lake. In one of Jordan's books (Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie) he incorporates his hobbies in the book like drums,guitar, and bass. And some of his other hobbies are riding his bike with his wife and kids, which he rides for 50 miles a week. For Jordan his all time favorite band is the beatles, although he likes other bands this is his favorite. 

As Jordan was growing up he loved going to the New York Yankees game with his best friend, and they usually would open ketchup packets and through them off the balcony. Before all of this Jordan was born on July 4,1969 on a army base in Missouri. Then he was teaching a 8th grade English class where a girl named Emily had a brother with cancer, and all of a sudden Jordan finally wrote a book in her honor, and that book was called (Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie) which is more recent and so as Curveball. This author is very good at writing books and i cant wait to read more from him. 

Jordan Sonnenblick! -Zaeed

               The author of Curveball is Jordan Sonnenblick.  Jordan lives in Bethelhem, Pennsylvania.  He was born on July 4, 1969.  He was born at in army base in Missouri. Currently he lives with his wife and his 2 children. Here is a fun fact Jordan's favorite color is blue! Jordan has written 7 books. He writes a book every year and plans to keep on doing it.

               Jordan wrote this book for his teenage son. The book was based on an incident that happened on his son's travelling baseball team. Jordan loves reading. As a kid he would read sci-fi, fantasy and even comic books. Jordan has written Drums girls and dangerous pie, notes from the midnight driver and many more. Jordan says he plans to keep on writing as long as they get published and people besides his mom keep reading them.

Dear Peter,

Image Source

Hey what's up Peter?

Hey JJ.

I have a question about your character in the story Curveball.

Ok What is it JJ?

Are you nervous that Angelika likes AJ?
i just wanted to know because it seems like since she is your girlfriend without being the girlfriend you are being really restless and thinking that she likes AJ. I was also wondering what you think is going on with grampa? I wanted to know this because it seems like you are kind of nervous with the sticky notes at his place.
*whisper* How did you find out about the sticky notes, I havent told anyone?!
Just read the story to find out.
What story?
Curveball... The year I lost my grip...

If I could talk to Peter

Link

Be careful at that party, don't get drunk and for goodness sake don't make out in public. Be careful around Linnie and Angelika at the same time, remember that you are around two "lionesses". Don't break that camera cause that is everything to you right now. Keep on going on with what you are doing.

What Would you say to the Main Character Right Now?

SPOILERS: As always

Peter is the main character and he likes baseball. Enough said. But he makes some good and bad decisions.

(Source)

If I could meet Peter right now, I would tell him to tell his parents about his grampa, and that he's making the wrong decision not telling his parents. He has already told Angelika, but he needs to tell his parents. Peter needs to do this so his parents can attempt to do something about it.

Peter also needs to tell AJ that he will never be able to play baseball again because of his arm. Peter and AJ are going to get to tryouts but when AJ realizes that Peter can't play, he'll probably be very angry with Peter. He needs to do this so AJ won't be very angry with him when tryouts come along.

Conflict About Our Main Character- Zach B

Main Conflict

Peter our main character is struggling with baseball. Baseball for Peter is very different from everybody else. Peter is struggling with pitching and really just playing the game of baseball, and he is not happy that he isn't going to be the star pitcher. In Curveball Peter's conflict is Man vs. Himself, because he is dealing with himself and the emotions that he has for baseball which are begging to stress him out and its taking a big role in this book. I think that Peter will solve his problem by spending more time doing photography and spending time with Angelika( which is the cute girl in his photography class). In my opinion I don't think that peter will try to hurt his arm or try to play baseball again until he gets better, but i think that with all of this going on, I'm hoping the Angelika will help him out and let him know that he is good at baseball, but needs to respect the things outside baseball, and that everything is going to be okay. 

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Conflict in Curve ball-Alex Duke

The conflict in Curve ball is definitely man vs himself.Peter is struggling with his arm and high school. He thought high school was going to be a breeze until he hurt his arm while pitching.He could have stopped it by telling his coach or somebody but he did not tell anybody about his pain.He thought high school would be a breeze because he could make the JV team as a freshman.Now his whole plan to make it through high school have twisted around. He has not told his best friend that he will never be able to pitch again.
This makes Peter's situation worse though. Aj is talking about them being able to pitch together again soon.Peter knows he won't be able to pitch again but can't get the nerve to tell Aj. This hurts Peter even worse because Aj is talking about getting the feeling of striking some one out.While Peter is thinking I'll never get that feeling again.Peter is basically beating himself up about this.This is why the conflict is man vs himself.

What Is The Book's Main Conflict? - ZaeedH

         In this book the main character (Peter) is having a conflict. The type of conflict is Man vs. Man. I think this because Peter is struggling with himself because of his arm. That is not the only conflict but it is one of the main ones. For example another main conflict would be Peter not getting along with many people at school. This one thing that has moved his arm conflict farther. There are a lot of conflicts but most of them come from the fact of him not being able to play baseball.
         I think that Peter will solve the conflict without causing more harm. I think this because Peter is a very smart and generous person. He is also smart enough to use his intelligence to get him out of situations. For example Peter got himself out of the photography class and got into a more advanced one. Even though it was because he wasn't on task and started laughing in the middle of class. Hopefully Peter will be able to pitch again. After that everything will go smooth for him and there will be no problems.

Curveball - Conflict

WARNING SPOILER ALERT

Image Source

       Today I am going to be discussing the main conflict in the story ''Curveball". Peter has a broken arm and I think that is the main conflict in the story. Some things that have made this worse is Peter's granpa is not doing well and he has all of this freetime and lots and lots of nightmares.

       This results in a man vs. himself main conflict. This means Peter (man) vs. His Arm (Himself). I know this because his arm is the reason he can't pitch which is one of his biggest worries.

Curveball: Man vs. Himself

SPOILERS: But you should have already read up to this point. It's around page 40.

Peter has a messed up arm and because of this, he can't play the sport he enjoys, baseball. He can barely do anything he wants to do that's physical. His injured arm is really affecting him physically and emotionally. He can't play sports and he is stressed because of this. Also, his friend AJ is very pushy and wants him to start pitching again, but he obviously can't do this.

(Source)

Peter may never be able to pitch again because of this injury, but he might try to practice more and more to get back into it and hopefully recover. He could also injure his arm or his body even more than it already is. He has, however found a new hobby, which is photography, which could be a solution to his problem, but he still might never be able to play sports again.

Conflict of Peter

Peter is plainly struggling with his broken arm. It is ruining his life because he can't do anything he wants to, basically baseball. Peter's friend AJ is also making it worse since he doesn't seem to even realize what's going on with Peter and his life. I think Peter himself won't get his arm fixed but I feel as if some point through the book his arm will be healthy and he will be happy.

(Katie Z) About Peter

    The main character Peter hurt his elbow and can't play baseball so he has to find something else to do in his free time so he starts doing photography more.He doesn't like his class though and is having a hard time dealing with everything like the doctor telling him that he might not play baseball ever again. Peter and AJ really wanted to play on the baseball JV team but Peter is really sad because he wont be able to.

    Peter isn't very happy about not being able to play baseball so that shows that he really likes the game. At the game when his elbow was hurting he was determined to get through the last batters so that they could win the game. This shows more about his personality.

Main Discussion Topics

WARNING SPOILER ALERT

       Today I am going to talk about the main topics that we kept coming back to in our discussion. So one of these topics is Peter's grampa. We talked about the big yellow mountain on his van. We also talked a lot about whether Peter's grampa had Alzheimer's disease or whether it was just old age. 

        Another topic we focused on was Angelika and Peter's relationship and their families. We were talking about whether each one's parents jobs affected Peter and Angelika's photography skills. 

       The last main topic that we focused on in our discussion was whether Peter would ever pitch again and whether he would tell AJ that he might not.

By: JJ

Curveball- Zach Barton

Curveball

By: Zach B.

In Curveball baseball is a big deal to the characters and the theme. Peter Friedman, the main character loves baseball and dreams about soon becoming the best. Peter's actions tell us that he is very competitive about the game of baseball and also by his actions, it tells us that he loves photography, and he try's to do it on his off time. I like this main character very well and i think that his life is surrounded by baseball and photography and i play baseball, and i love it just the same way he does. The only thing i don't like about peter is that he is a little to competitive about the sport and takes it to seriously to the point where he try's to hard to impress everybody and he try's to hard to be the star pitcher when he is just the same either way if he is good or not. For me Peter is going to be a good character and i hope everything gets even more interesting. 

(ZaeedH.) Impressions of My Main Character

Impressions of My Main Character

Main Character: Peter Friedman

          Peter's actions tell the readers that he is a intelligent, responsible teenager. Observing Peter's actions reader know that he is really passionate about Baseball and is also passionate about photography. He is into photography because he knows a lot about it because his grandfather is a professional photographer.  Peter is a lefty that catches and pitches for his team. When he is catching his best friend AJ is pitching and the other way around.
          Peter and AJ hope that they get into the JV team for baseball. Unfortunately, over the summer at a game Peter throws out his arm and the doctors say that he will never be able to pitch again. Peter is too worried to tell AJ about him never being able to pitch again. He is worried that he won't be friends with AJ anymore and he will lose all of his popularity. In my opinion I think Peter is a great person because no matter what happens he stays strong and perseveres.

           

                        

What I Think About Peter-Alex Duke

The main character in curve ball is Peter.Peter is sad because he can't play baseball and Peter really wanted to make the Junior Varsity team or JV as a Freshman.Peter's friend Aj is making it worse by saying that he will be able to play.Peter got told by the doctor that he will not be able to play ever again.Peter likes baseball,basketball,taking photos, and girls.Peter does not like his photographing class and does not like not being able to play baseball.Peter likes this girl named Angelika and she likes him to but they're not dating.

Peter does not like school right now because he is worried about his grandpa and upperclassmen.Peter decided to join the yearbook committee and is doing the sports page with Angelika. Peter thinks his grandpa has Alzheimer but does not want to believe it. Angelika wants him to tell his mom but Peter promised his grandpa not to tell.Peter is very Athletic and Outgoing just by how the writer talks about him I know.Peter is very good with a camera.Most important Peter's love for baseball.

Main Character: Peter

SPOILERS:

In the book "Curveball," Peter is the main character, and he doesn't make bad decisions like other characters in other books. He likes baseball and he's a pitcher for his team, but he can't play because of an injury on his arm, so he has to choose different things to do. He also likes photography and he likes to go with his grandpa to take pictures.

(Source)

I do like the main character because he's interested in baseball. I don't really care for photography, but he likes baseball, at least he has that going for him. He also has a friend named AJ, who I don't really care for because he doesn't really think about things logically. He does however play for Peter's team as a catcher. Both of them are really good at what they do.

Peter, or 'Peetuh'

WARNING SPOILER ALERT

The Story Cover (Image Source)

       In our story "Curveball", the main character is Peter, a pitcher who loves photography. Peter and AJ are best friends and teammates that are trying to get on to the high school JV baseball team. Peter's grandpa likes to take photos and him and Peter have one of those special "grandson and grandpa" relationships. You know what I'm talking about right? No? Oh never mind.

       Anywho... Peter has been feeling a terrible pain in his throwing arm, but he only has three more batters in the season, then it will all be over, the pain of the grinding of bone and cartilage against one another. He strikes the first batter on three pitches, he gets the second batter on a line out to first. 

       Then he gets to the last batter... He gets a fastball by him, then the batter fouls the next pitch off. Peter throws the curveball and hears a 'snap'. Peter drops to the floor and groans in pain. The last sight before Peter was taken to the hospital was the batter standing triumphantly on first.

By: JJ