Thirteen Reasons Why written by Jay Asher

What would happen if you were a high school student and heard that a classmate had committed suicide? Also, what if you have received cassette tapes by someone explaining why you were a reason they had committed suicide?

Thirteen Reasons Why written by Jay Asher, is a fictional story about a boy named Clay Jensen who received cassette tapes and a map. On the tapes that were made by a classmate of his, Hannah Baker, who committed suicide. Before Hannah died she sent out thirteen cassette tapes but on those thirteen cassette tapes, Hannah Baker explains about certain events that had occurred that led her to commit suicide. Before Hannah passed away, she sent the tapes out to all the people whom she blamed her decision to commit suicide.  Along with the cassette tapes, Hannah also sent out a map so people would know which places she was referred to in her tapes.

When Clay Jensen received the first set of the tapes and the map from someone, he decided to travel around town, while listening to the tapes, visiting the places that Hannah explained the events that occurred and how she felt when they happened. During his little expedition, Clay constantly wondered about three thoughts in his mind; first, he wondered what he had done to Hannah that led her to commit suicide. Second, Clay was getting worried when Hannah was explaining what other classmates had done to make her feel depressed. Third he wondered when Hannah was going to mention him somewhere in the tapes on what he had done that led her to be suicidal. At the end, Clay Jensen met someone who he knows and received the second half of the tapes (there are thirteen tapes that Hannah Baker had made). Oh the irony!

 I enjoyed reading Thirteen Reasons Why because I think Jay Asher did a great job writing the book with a lot of emotion between Hannah Baker and Clay Jensen. For example, when Jay Asher was writing Hannah’s character, I could tell that Hannah was a lonely person who wanted to be accepted in the high school world. As for Clay Jensen, Asher wrote him as an average person in the beginning of the book until he was traveling around town visiting the places that Hannah Baker once visited while learning about the real person his classmates were outside of school. In the end of the book, I think Clay Jensen did become a totally different person based on what he learned hearing from Hannah Baker

In concluding, I came across this book after I saw that this book is going to be a mini TV series on Netflix and I thought it looked like an interesting book to read. Finally, if you like stories that are sad but love watching the story unfold before your eyes, I would recommend this book to you.

I promise you I tried to describe this book the best that I could without giving anything away, so if you are still confused to what I what I read, here is the link to the TV series trailer for Netflix.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1837492/

Trivia Questions:

1)                    How did Hannah Baker commit suicide?

2)                    What did Clay Jensen do to Hannah Baker that she blamed him for to commit suicide?

3)                    Who gave Clay Jensen the rest of the cassette tapes?

Asher, Jay. 13 reasons why. New York: Razorbill, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2017. Print.

"13 Reasons Why (TV Series 2017– )." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2017.

Prairie Tales written by Melissa Gilbert

 May I introduce to you our favorite American sweetheart, Half-Pint! Also known as, Melissa Gilbert, who played the famous pioneer author, Laura Ingalls Wilder, in the hit TV series Little House on the Prairie. That’s right, Melissa Gilbert, the girl in the braided pigtails who we saw growing up in front of our eyes on Little House on the Prairie wrote her own memoir, Prairie Tales.

In her memoir, Melissa Gilbert talks about her life growing up playing Laura Ingalls Wilder in the hit TV show Little House on the Prairie and her life as a recovering drug addict and an alcoholic.

         Melissa Gilbert was adopted into the Gilbert family when she was a baby and became an American TV icon in the classic TV series Little House on the Prairie. During her earlier years, Melissa’s parents went through a divorce. After that tragedy, her father died when she was eleven - years old. Since Melissa had a lot of family members in the Hollywood industry (intermediate and extended), she did do some acting gigs before Little House. The first time Melissa Gilbert appeared on TV was for a Dean Martin Christmas special. While Melissa was playing Laura on Little House, she was also in movies, such as, the remake of The Miracle Worker. Melissa played Helen Keller along side Patty Duke as Ms. Anne Sullivan. It is interesting to note that Patty Duke played Helen Keller in the original The Miracle Worker movie. Another movie that Melissa starred in was The Diary of Anne Frank as the young Anne Frank.

The first Little House fact that I bet you did not know was that Melissa Gilbert had a sibling in Little House. Remember mean Willie Oleson, Nellie Oleson’s little brother and henchman? That’s Jonathan Gilbert, Melissa’s little brother whom was also adopted. Jonathan and Melissa were from different biological families when they were adopted into the Gilbert family.

The second Little House fact that I bet you would never assume is this: remember the ten-year-old girl who Laura and Almanzo Wilder adopted from Almanzo’s dying brother in season nine? Shannen Doherty played that ten-year old girl. (I didn’t see Melissa mentioning Shannen’s character’s name, unless I somehow overlooked it). Ten years later after filming Little House, Shannen Doherty did have a one-night stand with Melissa’s first husband, Bo Brinkman. Oh the shame of it all!

 Melissa Gilbert tells everything in her memoir, events that happened on and off the set of Little House, her dating life, and life when she became a mother. Also, another life that Melissa mentions in her memoir was being an alcoholic and a drug addict. I know, it is sad to think that our little Half-Pint has gotten into some trouble with drugs. Thankfully, Melissa Gilbert did overcome her drug struggles and eventually became the president of The Screen Actors Guild Board.

Over all if you were a Little House on the Prairie fan, especially a Laura Ingalls Wilder/Half-Pint fan, I would highly recommend you to read Prairie Tales. Why? It’s all about Half-Pint’s life that we never knew underneath those iconic braided pigtails in Little House on the Prairie.

Trivia Questions:

1)    How old was Melissa when she tried alcohol?

2)    Who told Melissa Gilbert that she would be playing Laura Ingalls? (Fun Fact: the person who told her later played a schoolteacher in Little House).

            3) When Melissa first got pregnant, who was going to be the baby daddy? What happened to the baby?

Gilbert, Melissa . Prairie Tales . New York, NY: Simon Spotlight Entertainment, 2009. Print.

Forever Liesl written by Charmian Carr with Jean A.S. Strauss

I am sixteen going on seventeen…

Oh my goodness! Guess who wrote a book about her life on the set of the classic movie of all time, The Sound of Music? That’s right our very own Liesl Von Trapp, played by the late Chairmain Carr, wrote her own memoir called Forever Liesl along with Jean A. S. Strauss.

Chairmain wrote her memoires of playing the beloved character, Liesle Von Trapp, who was the oldest of the Von Trapp family in the film The Sound of Music. But did you know that in the real Von Trapp family, the oldest child was a boy not a girl? Charmain does mention in her book why the people working behind the film changed the family line up.

Want to hear something really wild? In The Sound of Music, remember that famous song, Sixteen Going On Seventeen, which Liesl sang to her boyfriend, Rolf, in that famous gazebo? Well Charmian did mention in her book that she actually hurt her ankle while shooting that famous scene, she had to reshoot the scene several times while wearing a brace! Can you tell that she was wearing a brace in the film?

One more secret that Charmain does mention in her book, remember when Fräulein Maria (Julie Andrews) was praying next to her bed? While she was asking God to bless the Von Trapp children, Liesl snuck into her window. Noticed how Julie Andrews spoke one of her lines a bit louder? That’s because Charmaian couldn’t hear her cue behind the wall to sneak through Maria’s window. Talking from experience, an actor or actress cannot miss a cue or the scene is messed up, which makes the director not happy!

Besides talking about her life behind the scenes of The Sound of Music, Charmain talks about her life leaving her acting career and becoming an interior designer! She went on to design rooms for famous people. Such as the late pop signer, Michael Jackson, and a Von Trapp costar from The Sound of Music.

If you love The Sound of Music and of course Liesl Von Trapp. I would recommend reading Forever Liesl written by The Sound of Music . Dir. Robert Wise . Perf. Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer . Twentieth Century-Fox , 1965. Film. Web. Carr herself along with Jean A. S. Strauss. Who doesn’t want to learn about the actors, actresses, and the secrets behind The Sound of Music?

On September 17, 2016. Charmian Carr passed away; she will be forever missed for playing the beloved Liesl Von Trapp.  

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/sep/20/charmian-carr-obituary

Trivia Questions:

1) How did Chairmain hurt her ankle while shooting Sixteen Going On Seventeen?

2) While designing several rooms for Michael Jackson, Charmain needed ideas to redo the rooms for Michael's Neverland home, where did she go with Michael and his family to get ideas for Michael's home?

Carr, Charmian, and Jean A. S. Strauss. Forever Liesl: a memoir of The Sound of Music. Thorndike, ME: Thorndike Press, 2000. Print.

Bergan, Ronald. "Charmian Carr obituary." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 20 Sept. 2016. Web. 13 Mar. 2017.
The Sound of Music . Dir. Robert Wise . Perf. Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer . Twentieth Century-Fox , 1965. Film.
I want to put citations in my blogs to show credit to the author(s) and editor(s) who published the book. The description above are my words. 

The Way I See It written by Melissa (Sue) Anderson

        Ah yes! Little House on the Prairie, that old TV show that aired its first season in June of 1974. The TV show that showed good morals, family, friendship, love, and tragedy into one episode for eight seasons. Remember the Ingalls family? Caroline Ingalls, Charles Ingalls, along with their four daughters, Mary, Laura, Carrie, and Grace. Well if the book Confessions of a Prairie Bitch written by Alison Arngrim, wasn’t enough to read behind the scenes of the TV show Little House on the Prairie, read the book The Way I See It written by Melissa (Sue) Anderson, she played the role of the older sister in the Ingalls family, Mary Ingalls!

         Melissa was in the sixth grade when she started playing Marry Ingalls in the pilot for Little House on the Prairie. The definition of a pilot is when creating and filming the beginning of a potential TV show to see if a network would be willing to pick up the show and start filming seasons. After the pilot for Little House on the Prairie aired on TV, it was picked up by NBC and thus a seven - year contract (that later turned into a nine-years) was made. Therefore from the pilot film all the way to season eight, Melissa played Mary Ingalls.

         In her book The Way I See It, Melissa mostly described about her life being on set of Little House and talking about what happened in the well-known episodes in each season. She also talked about her life while doing other film work when she was taking a break from playing Mary. Instead of filming for Little House, Melissa also played a character in a movie called The Loneliest Runner, which is a story based on the life of Michael Landon, the director of Little House. Melissa played the part as Michael’s first girlfriend in the movie.

         Several interesting facts that Melissa (Sue) Anderson mentioned in her book was she and her costar, Melissa Gilbert who played her little sister Laura Ingalls, have the same first name, in order to tell them apart Melissa Anderson was called Missy and Melissa Gilbert was called Melissa for awhile until Michael Landon changed it to Half-Pint. Also, Melissa did have her real best friend, Tracie, play Mary Ingalls's best friend from school, Christy Kennedy, in the series (what a coincidence). Finally, remember that orphan boy, Albert, which the Ingalls decided to adopt? Well, the boy who played the boy who played Albert, Mathew Laborteaux, once played as the young Charles Ingalls in an earlier episode before given the part as Albert. Neat right? Finally, Melissa even said that she got her first on screen kiss from a Brady Bunch kid while guest starring on The Brady Bunch, another popular TV show that aired in the 70s; she played Bobby Brady’s, played by Mike Lookingland, first love interest. Years later, Mike Lookingland made a guest appearance in a Little House episode called "Time's of Change". 

         Overall, Melissa (Sue) Anderson tells stories of what went behind the scenes in one or two episodes of each season Little House on the Prairie, that does include of her talking about the episodes when had to act as Mary Ingalls being blind.  Besides, describing her life on the Little House set, Melissa did other shows and movies during and after the Little House series along with a tiny description of her life right now. If the beautiful Mary Ingalls was your favorite character in The Little House on the Prairie and you want to know more about life behind some of your favorite episodes, then I would suggest that you read this book.

Trivia Questions: 

11) While shooting the opening credits for Little House on the Prairie, Melissa had to run down the hill; while running she tripped and fell, what happened when she fell? 

22) Melissa once went to visit the famous movie director, Steven Spielberg, at the Universal Studios lot, what did she and Steven do together and why did he want to see her?

      Anderson, Melissa Sue. The Way I See It: a look back at my life on Little house. Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press, 2010. Print.

Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch written by Alison Arngrim

“Laura Ingalls!” Oh remember those high-pitched words coming from a girl with curly blonde hair, wearing nice dresses, and being mean to her classmates in a small town called Walnut Grove? I’m talking about Nellie Olson from the hit TV show, Little House on the Prairie, the girl who everyone loved to hate. 

         Alison Argrim was the little girl underneath the blonde curly wig of meanness acting as Nellie Olson! She wrote the book Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch, describing her life growing up in a family of actors (her mother were the voices for Casper the Friendly Ghost and Gumby) to auditioning and getting the part of Nellie Oleson, and to her life growing up on the Little House set, and after when she left the show.

         Not giving too much of the book away, I will say that Alison did experience trauma in her life growing up before acting as Nellie Oleson. Her older brother, who was an actor at one point, sexually abused her for three years and she didn’t tell anyone until she became an adult!

         I loved watching Little House on the Prairie on TV when I was young. If you were like me, I know you will enjoy reading Confessions Of A Prairie Bitch because who would not want to know what happened behind the scenes of a once hit TV show?

*** This book does contain inappropriate language, some sexually graphic scenes, drug use, and minor talk about HIV/AIDS in this book is not recommended for readers under the age of 12***
Trivia Questions: 1) Instead of having a cat or a dog as a traditional first pet for a child, what was Alison’s first pet? 2) Who was Alison’s best friend on the set of Little House on the Prairie? 3) According to Alison, Nellie Olson is based on three girls who the real Laura Ingalls Wilder knew, who were those three girls that portrayed Nellie Olson in the Little House on the Prairie book series?

Bonus Question: There is a word in the book that is misspelled! What word is misspelled?

Fun Fact: Laura Ingalls Wilder changed the real Nellie Olson’s name because she didn’t want to write about someone that was unpleasant to be around; therefore Nellie Olson is a fictional character that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote in her books. 

 Arngrim, Alison. Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: how I survived Nellie Oleson and learned to love being hated. New York, NY: IT , 2011. Print.
I want to put citations in my blogs to show credit to the author(s) and editor(s) who published the book. The description above are my words.