Criminal Minded Different Perspective

Papa

Man, my grandson kills my other grandson. They used to be real homies too. Since they was in diapers, they been laughin' and messin' around forever. My chest hurts a lot of the time, my back is gettin' worse, and I got a lot of shit to deal with, takin' care of my wife, my kids, and my grandkids. I cant do nothing about my grandkids cause you know them youngsters always goin' 'round sayin' shit like "I already know that Papa! You just tellin' me old news!" or "Why do I gotta know this? It ain't worth anythin'!" My grandson, Lamine, man he had a good thing goin' on. He had a beautiful wife, a good job, and a huge house. He supported the whole family. Until he fucked up. In order for him to get his career, he had to pay for it with drug money he got from dealin' in the streets. And the people he worked with and knew in the streets, came back to bite his ass good. The news kept callin' him a former drug leader, an accomplice in a murder and all that bullshit. And ya'll know in the music business, yo' publicity means everythang. Eventually, all that stress got to his head and he couldnt think no more. His career went down the drain, he married some other bitch and cheated on him, and he can't even see his baby boy no more. How did I raise kids and grandkids so fucked up? One of my daughters is workin' her ass off day and night just to get money for food and rent and to support her grandson who is now dead cause of Lamine. My other daughter is becomin' a slut and even kicked Lamine out for helping her out. My son has been livin' with us for 40 years and he aint ever worked in his life. Man, I just gotta hold on until the sun comes back shinin' on my soul.

Criminal Minded Dynamic Characters

In Criminal Minded, I think that Lamine changes in some ways, but stays the same inside. In the beginning, Lamine was kicked out of his mom's house, and had to make money for himself. He started playing the drug dealing game. He was out on the streets all the time. Then, his friend Zion helped him make more money selling crack cocaine and meth and other drugs. Eventually, Lamine and Zion are making big money, and living the rich life, but Lamine is then one day shot, and Lamine decides to get out of the drug game. He uses the money he got from the drugs to start is own directing/music career. He becomes rich and famous. In the end, Lamine kills his own cousin, who was like his brother, and his fame and publicity goes down the drain. He's going back to where he started. In the beginning, Lamine is shown as tough and doesn't let shit get in his way. When he becomes rich, he starts living it up and in some ways spoils himself and thinks too high of himself and loses his love when he cheats. After he starts losing everything, Lamine is now an alcoholic and does'nt know what to do. He can't think for himself anymore and is always grumpy. So, through out the story, Lamine goes from tough and a good kid, to an alcoholic that fucked up one too many times.

Spy High

I like this book because it brings you straight into the action, and it gives you a mysterious background to the story. The background is like a hook that makes you want to find out whats wrong with the plot, and why its like that. They introduce the main characters and switch to different people to explain the problem. The book keeps me interested and makes me want to keep readin. It shows a little past stories of the characters lives, making them unique in their own way. I predict that the teenagers will have to fight the CHAOS and maybe one of them will risk their lives for the team, and one of the will get the Sherlock Shields medal. They will become one of the best groups in the Deveraux Academy

Criminal Minded Freewrite

Man, my life be outta wack now. In the beginning, I was strugglin' but now I'm just fucked. My moms died from AIDs and I never got to know her, I shot my own cousin who used to be a brother to me, my lil' sister got fucked and had a kid with some drug dealer that I used to work with, and my epic directin' career is falling through the cracks. My grandpa died and my family ain't got much love for me after I killed my cousin. My wife was cheatin' on me with some punk and turns out she was a hoe. Man.. How did I fuck up so bad? I was on fuckin' cloud 9 with my directing career. Alright, now that I reminisced on good times, let me tell you how shit's going on now. My directing company is falling outta wack, and I'm trying hard as hell to keep it up, but them media hoes is always talkin' shit about me and bad publicity means bad business. My wife took custody over my son with some bullshit accusations and now I can only see little Jordan on weekends, granted I have the damn time, what with all the work I have to do. My first true love, Lucky, is datin' some rapper, and that shit infuriates a nigga. I've been trying to get her back, but all the conversations are awkward and very short, since the dude got Lucky on a leash. Man, sometimes I just wanna blast that nigga. I still feel bad about killin' my cousin, Curtis, and his moms, my aunt, ain't talkin' to me cause I took her baby from her. Grandma still gots love for me, but I can tell shes just fakin' trying to be happy. Her husband died, her daughter died, and her grandson got killed. Damn, grandma is one tough lady. My lil' sister, Olivia, is takin' care of her daughter, Adiva, while Zion is trying to quit the crack game. The more he tries to stop that shit, it seems like the more he gets dragged in. I warned my lil' sister about him, but she's infatuated with his ass. I'm slowly turning into an alcoholic cause of all the stress of my work and family and shit. Things can't get any worse than this. I pray that God will hear me and help me get back on my feet, but I ain't sure if he's listenin' to me anymore.

Criminal Minded Connection

I believe that Criminal Minded can be compared to an episode of CSI. In one episode, theres 2 young boys that are big time crack dealers and they have and form a bond because they're cousins, and they always have eachothers backs. Despite the crimes they do, the bond they formed was quite touching. They were like brothers, and always supported eachother when one was in trouble. They even killed for the other person. Every now and then they would argue, but they wouldnt take it personally because they knew they would always be close friends. That story is extremely similar to the story of Criminal Minded. Lamine meets a boy named Zion, and they become close friends. When Lamine gets into the drug dealing business, Zion shows Lamine how to make big money with Crack. They become partners in crime with a bond so tight, a titanium hammer couldnt break it. Like the two boys in CSI, they have eachothers back, and in a few cases, Zion kills a few people and threatened Lamine. Oddly enough, The older boy in both stories get shot, and the other boy gets revenge and kills the shooter. Both stories had both boys grow up in a bad environment with either one or no parents. For all of those reasons, that's why I chose CSI to compare to Criminal Minded.

Respond to Reading: Criminal Minded

Question: What do you like and dislike about the book so far and why?

Personally, I like how they put us into the mind of the children and how is switches points of views and perspectives every now and then, so we know what the characters are thinking about the current situation. I think it spices things up a bit and makes it more interesting. I don't like how Lamine is money crazed and I dont like how Curtis shot someone. They should still have enough common sense to get legit money and I obviously don't agree with what they chose to do. Although I don't agree with their decisions, I have to admit that their decisions make the story what it is, and I wouldnt change one thing about it so far. I think Lamine will end up dead or in prison, but there is a small chance he'll be sucessful, and Olivia will end up pregnant or being abused for playing men like she does.

Book Talk Presentation

Today, I did my book talk. It was about Crossing The Wire by Will Hobbs. In the beginning, I think I stuttered a little too much and I couldnt find the words I needed to say. As my presentation went on, I became a little more comfortable with everybody and decided to relax and just go with the flow. Overall, I think I covered the main requirements pretty well, and I think the class liked my Visual Aid. I think I answered the questions from everybody pretty well. Oh, and throughout my presentation, I tried adding just a little bit of body language and emotion in my voice. Overall, I believe I did pretty well.

Dynamic Characters

Victor Flores starts out as a young 15 year old boy living in Mexico. He is a very hard working boy, and is the man of the house since his father had died. His job and his life is dedicated to supporting his mom, brother, and sisters. The price of corn is dropping fast and Victor realizes he wont be able to even buy tortillas for his family to eat. He needs to find a way to get money and fast. Not long before, his close friend had left to go into the States to make good money to spend for himself. Victor decides he has to do the same. Not for selfish reasons though, but to send money home to his family. In the beginning, Victor was a very cautious boy. " 'It should be easy for you, Victor. Cmon, Tortuga.' Only Rico called me this. Mostly it was because of my cautiousness." As Victor learns more about how tough leaving home really is, he learns he has to do whatever it takes to keep his family from starving. Multiple attempts and many scars and cuts later, Victor finds out on his first real attempt that crossing the border may actually take his life. Victor takes weeks to eventually cross to Arizona, failing multiple times before. The journey always takes days of trekking in the extreme heat of the desert with little food and scarce supplies of water. In his last and sucessful attempt, he has to keep walking with a swollen leg from a snake bite, scare off jaguars, run from Border Patrol, climb mountains, and even climb steep slopes thousands of feet up. Victor learns that he should still be cautious, but some things you just need to do.

Cirque Du Freak Connection

I think Darren makes some good and bad descisions, and the people around him are affected or are simply crazy. For instance, Darren becomes a vampire to save his best friend Steve, even though Darren doesn't want to be one. When he leaves and Steve finds out, Steve thinks Darren lied and betrayed him and left Steve to die. What kind of best friend is that? Through out the whole series, Steve turns into a blood thirsty, revenge-bent maniac to kill Darren. Darren is a smart kid, and can think and stay calm in most situations, although he does need guidance from Mr.Crepsly and Vancha March some of the time. He is able to quickly adapt and blend in with the envoirment but usually things dont go his way for too long. He either gets busted or vampaneze chase after them, no matter where they go. I like how even though he's a half-vampire, hes still a human at heart and although he may act cold, really he is just a human like all of us. He cares, he loves. He has a girlfriend that loves him, he loves Mr.Crepsley and even cried when he was killed. He would have given everything up to save Mr.Crepsley or Debbie's (Girlfriend) life if Vancha or Harkat wouldn't have cleared his way of thinking. All in all, hes a good kid, and Darren Shan chose a good personality for the main character.

Reading Connection

Speak connects to me because she shows her troubles of being a teen, and a freshman in high school. Our troubles might not be the same, but the social life is similar. I have many friends I can talk to, but she doesn't. We both know how hard it is to make new friends. All the friends I have have been my friends since Elementary or Middle School. She has classes that she hates and likes, and so do I. I think we both know that the class isnt hard. It depends on the teacher that makes it harder than it really is. We both have teachers we love and hate (I dont hate you Ms.Crabtree, heh :) ) and we have similar views about parents. Hers love her and so do mine, but we both don't really talk much to them. The only words we say to them are probably "I'm back." Or "What are you doing?" She stays home most of the times, and so do I. She's lonely at home because of she has no brothers or sisters. I have a brother and sister, but my brother and I hate each other and my sister and cousins and uncles and aunts are in college, so this year, I've been lonely too, seeing as how they're 4 years older than me so that means they all went to high school together in Bravo, and when I become a freshman in Lincoln, they start their first year in college. They're either 4 hours up North, or all the way in Harvard. That's all. :]