The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane by Polly Horvath

 I only recently began The Corps of the Bare-Boned Plane by Polly Horvath and have yet to see the connection between the story and the title. What I have read is about a girl named Meline who's parents have recently died in a train accident. Her parents along with her cousin's parents. The only person in that crash to have survived from that family was her cousin who now has to live alongside Meline. They didn't show much grief when they died but they were, of course, sad of this happening. Both had to live with their uncle Marten Knockers. He is the oldest of the three brothers and the richest. So rich he bought his own island and a majestic mansion to live on his own away from everyone. Now he had to take care of two girls until they went to college. When Meline and her cousin, Jocelyn, reached the island from a helicopter they didn't talk much or at all at first. Mainly because they hadn't seen each other in three years and when Meline tried to start a conversation it would just lead to disgust from one or the other. When they first met after three years Meline smiled at Jocelyn and Jocelyn just made a face as if smiling was weird. Meline is a normal 15 year old girl with quite quite rude table manners according to the 17 year old Jocelyn who was taught to hate Canadians and Americans even more by her mother. Not much happened until Marten realized he didn't have any skills to talk to people let alone cook for them. He'd been serving them Mac and Cheese and hot dogs for a while until they got extremely sick of it. He lived alone in the huge mansion with no one to look after him so he had no one to cook for him. Thus resulting in the hiring for someone to clean and cook for them.

 From the little I've read I can already tell I'm going to like the book. Each chapter changes the perspective of who's telling the story. The first chapter is Meline telling what had happened and the next is Jocelyn continuing from where Meline had left off except from her point of view. I've read other books like that and only one didn't really interest me. I enjoy how the story starts out with the first thing being told is someone's parents dying and how they don't really feel grief. I honestly don't mean to sound dark but the way it starts out make you want to read more somehow. Like, you're reading the first sentence and you're like, "Woah, okay, it's going to be this kind of book. My god, book just started and someone's already dead. This is gonna be a doozy."

Goals 2015

 An academic goal that I have for 2015 is to do better in my overall grade. Last quarter I didn't do as well as I wanted to, probably because I'm lazy. This quarter and the next I want to do better in my classes, specifically Lit Studies and Social Studies. To do this I will pay more attention in class and ask for help when I need it. I will need it. Also, I need to do my homework. That used to be a problem, but this quarter I want things to change. I will remind myself of what homework I have by using this notebook I found at home. I will know I have accomplished this goal because my end grade would be A's and B's. This is my goal mostly because my parents don't like bad grades, but I also like to have good grades because it makes me more confident in whatever subject it is.

 A personal goal I have for 2015 is to have less of an attitude. This is a tough one to know if I have succeeded or not and might take more time than just a couple months for people to actually notice enough to tell me I succeeded, but I want to do this. I will start with my family for they are the ones that I spend most of my time with and the ones who notice it more. Mostly my brother, but he is stubborn so that'd be really tough. To do this I will be more careful with what I say instead of just saying the first thing that comes to mind. That usually leads to trouble. I will know I have succeeded if I start noticing people treating me differently. If they treat me in a more negative way then I know I have failed and need to try even harder, if they treat me in a more positive way then I know I have succeeded.