2015 – Page 7 – Janet Ruth Heller

The Novel mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine Captures the Point of View of a Child with Asperger’s Syndrome

Post author:Janet Ruth Heller
Post published:May 27, 2015
Post category:Asperger’s syndrome Books Bullying Coping with Deaths in a Family Emotional Development Gun Violence Literature Parenting Psychological Issues Reviews

Motivated by her concern after the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007, Kathryn Erskine wrote mockingbird (mok′ ing-bûrd) to examine how families cope after a sudden tragedy. Erksine’s first-person narrator is a ten-year-old girl with Asperger’s syndrome named Caitlin Ann Smith. Caitlin is a talented young artist, but her life is difficult. Caitlin’s mother died of cancer, and her older brother Devon died after a shooting at his high school. The two siblings were very close, and Devin had helped his sister to deal with the complex and confusing world around her. Caitlin’s father is paralyzed by grief after he loses his son, and he has trouble parenting Caitlin. (more…)

The NFL Should Ban the Patriots from Post-Season Playoffs for Five Years for Cheating

Post author:Janet Ruth Heller
Post published:May 7, 2015
Post category:Cheating Deflategate Football National Football League New England Patriots Sports

The National Football League announced on May 6, 2015, that it had found evidence that the New England Patriots had purposely under-inflated eleven footballs for the American Football Conference championship game against the Indianapolis Colts in January 2015. Investigators believe that, before the game, locker room attendant Jim McNally and the Patriots’ equipment assistant John Jastremski probably released air from the footballs after a referee had inspected them. Although the Patriots won the game by 45-7, the outcome might have been different if the team had used normally inflated balls. The Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady has said he prefers deflated balls, and the NFL report also blames him for the cheating, which enabled the team to compete in the Super Bowl in February. If this were an isolated incident, the penalties would not have to be serious. However, the Patriots also cheated in 2007 by illegally spying on opposing teams. Also, the NFL report cites text messages between McNally and Jastremski that imply that the deflation might have taken place during other Patriot games in…

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I love books by British writers P. D. James, Seamus Heaney, S. T. Coleridge, Jane Austen, William Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, W. B. Yeats;

American writers Judy Blume, Edna St. Vincent Millay, T. S. Eliot, Maxine Kumin, Jim Daniels, Mong-Lan, Robert Hayden, Langston Hughes, Naomi Shihab Nye, Alberto Ríos, Gail B. Griffin, Jerry Spinelli, Jane Yolen, Kathryn Erskine, Gary D. Schmidt, Adrienne Rich, Judith Minty, Gwendolyn Brooks, Marge Piercy, Grace Paley, Alicia Ostriker, Jaimy Gordon; South African writer Athol Fugard;

Israeli writers Chaim Nachman Bialik, Yehudah Amichai, Rachel Bluwstein, Chaim Guri, S. Y. Agnon; and Hispanic writers Sor Juana, Federico García Lorca, Ruben Darío, Antonio Machado, Jorge Guillén, Pedro Salinas, and Dámaso Alonso.

I also love Japanese haiku, especially those by Matsuo Bashō.

My writing has been influenced by many other authors, including British writers Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Jane Austen, William Wordsworth, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, George Eliot, W. B. Yeats;

American writers Edna St. Vincent Millay, T. S. Eliot, Maxine Kumin, Adrienne Rich, Judith Minty, Gwendolyn Brooks;

Israeli writers Chaim Nachman Bialik, Yehudah Amichai, Rachel Bluwstein, Chaim Guri, S. Y. Agnon, and Hispanic writers Sor Juana, Federico Garcia Lorca, Ruben Dario, Antonio Machado, Jorge Guillen, Pedro Salinas, and Damaso Alonso.