Blog 091714 - Text connections

Text-to-Text
Passage from page 112: Grandma doesn't watch me close anymore or put the cornstarch-looking powder in my underwear drawer. She talks about getting over or through, like there's nothing much else to do but see whether or not a next day comes. So when Drew comes up the porch today and gives Grandma flowers that she sets in the middle of the table, there is nothing better. Because Grandma looks something like happy and maybe she'll really rub Drew's feet today—just to have some fun. (Durrow, 2010, p. 112)
After Aunt Loretta died, Grandma stopped caring about Rachel as much. She was no longer enthusiastic about life or outgoing. She must have felt like she didn't have a reason to live. This is just like in The Hunger Games, after Katniss and Prim's father dies, their mother stops taking care of them and they almost starve to death.
Text-to-World
Passage from page 115: I wish I could say: Just like me, but taller. Like a grown-up me. If I describe what Mor really looks like it will make her seem plain: long blond hair, white skin; she had an accent (and that's important even though it's not something you could tell by looking at her. If I describe her to Lakeisha, it will make Mor seem like any other white person you'd see. (Durrow, 2010, p. 115)
I don't think that description of Mor should sound plain at all. I think Mor sounds like an interesting person from that description. There is nothing plain about that description. I do not think Mor sounds "like any other white person you'd see" from that description. This passage makes me think about how racist some people are in the world that they think "long blond hair, white skin" describes any other white person. This passage relates to the real world because some people are racist like that.
Text-to-Self
Passage from pages 111-112: Grandma is wearing a good dress with an apron. She wipes her hands on the inside of the apron pockets as she cooks. She has made her spicy beans and a roast with gravy and real potatoes, not the ones that are flakes in a white box that says mashed potatoes. For dessert, there's peach cobbler cooling on the stovetop. This is the first day in a long time Grandma's seemed anything like happy. She wants me right up under her, watching how she does the cooking so I can feed my future husband a healthy meal. She shows me how to cut the onions, the carrots, and stir the gravy brown. When she lets me taste the cobbler, she feeds it to me from her hand that still has a salty onion taste. (Durrow, 2010, pp. 111, 112)
Grandma made peach cobbler for dessert when Drew and Lakeisha came over. This reminds me of when I ate peach cobbler with my best friend Lauren. Also, Lauren made that peach cobbler with her Grandma. It was the best peach cobbler I've ever had in my life. It was so amazing. It was the last time I saw Lauren before I moved to Minnesota.