Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee (Part 6)

After the mom read the letter, she became to be more eased with Rose and started to talk to her more. She finally got to fix her problem with her mom!

In the meantime...
let me show you a clip of what we would be talking about next.

Yes, Prom! :)

Rosie and Kyle are going to Prom together! If you take a look at 2:39-3:21 in this same video, you can see how Kyle and Rosie were like on their Prom day. The only difference? Rosie spilled out the three dangerous words you can ever tell someone. "I- love-you." When Kyle heard that, he didn't say anything and instead changed the subject. Boy.. if I was Rosie, I would be so embarrassed. Wouldn't you? Well, as the book goes on... Kyle and Rosie do more things together and go through a lot more drama together but if you want to know, youre going to have to read it from the book itself! :P

Overall, I liked this book because it did have a lot of emotional subjects that girls can connect to. Weight, boys and just physical appearance in general is what basically defines our social life. In this book, you can see Rosie in all these different situations. I recommend this book to you if you like teen romance and seeing how one girl changes tremendously from 3 important people in her life. One being her weight. In the end, she lost a lot of weight (45 pounds!) just from her wanting to lose weight for these certain people. She even began to eat unhealthy, junk food in little portions and was in a better shape. If you would like to look at some reviews of this book, check out these links! 1.) http://blbooks.blogspot.com/ 

2.) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2698889-artichoke-s-heart

3.) http://www.amazon.com/Artichokes-Heart-Suzanne-Supplee/dp/0525479023

^- It's the heart of an artichoke! This definitely symbolizes Rosie and how she

relates to this artichoke. She may be "ugly" on the outside, but inside

she has a pretty personality.

Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee (Part 5)

"Dear Mother,
I know you've succeeded in your life by being tough, by not showing your feelings, by never stopping or slowing down or giving up. I admire all those tough qualities about you, really I do. But, I just want you to know that I'm not a little girl anymore. I see what's really going on even when you try to hide it. I wish you'd let me comfort you just a little. I wish you'd talk to me about how you feel- your fears, your worries, your hopes for your future. I think if you actually talked about these things, we'd both feel better. When you try to protect me by always saying everything's "fine," it only makes me worry more, because I KNOW things are not fine right now.
I also know that things are complicated with Aunt Mary. You two were sisters long before I came along. Since I don't have a sister, I don't know what that's like, but I wish you'd try to see my side of things once in awhile instead of always defending her.
                                            Love,
                                            Rosie."

This was the letter Rosie wrote to her mom because she wanted to fix her relationship with her. She couldn't take the unhealthy mother-daughter relationship so she decided to do something about it first. As you can see in the letter, you can tell that she really means it by wanting her mom to know that she always has her by her side. I know for me as I read the letter, it was touching because I think that Rose did a mature thing to do. Before, she would just ignore her mom and not really show her how she cared about her but in this letter it really did. I wouldn't see how her mom would not be smiling and feel comforted after she reads the letter.

Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee (Part 4)

Just as I expected, Kyle and Rosie begin to have a closer relationship between each other. When Rosie did not go to the next game of Kyle's, Kyle ended up calling her after the game. At that point, Rosie was at home from her work at her mother's salon; she was reading the post-it-note on the tuna casserole her mom made for her for dinner. After Rosie picked up Kyle's call, she agreed to go out to dinner with him since she didn't go to the game and because he lost his game. Rosie quickly had to dress up and look pretty in only 15 minutes. Now, let me tell you. 15 minutes to getting ready is NOT enough time for girls. It's the truth. I can probably take a shower in 15 minutes! So you can see how fast Rosie was trying to hurry herself to making herself look at least decent especially because she just came from work.
 <-- I wonder how long that took?

Anyways, Kyle picks her up and they end up going to a pizza restaurant. Something like Connie's Pizza! Yum.        

During their car ride there, I think Kyle showed his sense of sweetness and kindness in his heart. He told Rosie that she better likes deep-dish instead of thin-crust. In a way, you can tell that he doesn't care about her weight and he likes her for who she is. Gah.... so romantic. It might not seem romantic to you, but to me it is!

Later in the story, Rosie finds out from Kay-Kay (*an ex-Bluebird Society member*) that her and Kyle were close back then. Kay-kay told her that Kyle used to be obese but he cut down a lot of weight because he started to play a lot of sports. She also told Rosie that she thinks that Kyle likes her. Rose, in her heart, felt that she was somehow connected to him.

*You might have not been familiar with what I meant by the ex-Bluebird Society member. The Bluebirds Society is a club where only certain types of people were in. For instance, the pretty people. The Bluebirds Society is kind of like the Plastics in Mean Girls (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBLWQSZmSRw&feature=related) <-- Please ignore the music, haha

Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee (Part 3)

"You like basketball? You should come to our basketball game Friday night." 

"Well, what I was ....um....about to say was that I just wanted to see if you'd come to the Raider's game tomorrow night."

(Voice message) "Hi. It's Kyle again. Just wanted to let you know the game starts at seven-thirty. In case you decide to come.... It's a home game, by the way."



These were things that Kyle told Rosie in the hallway at school and on the phone. I predict that Kyle is going to like Rosie back and end up going out with her. No guy would ask and try to get a girl to go to a game if he didn't like her....unless it was some jerk, but I doubt that because how he treats her is different and sincere. Oh, did I also forget to mention that Kyle tried getting Rosie's number by asking Miss Bertha who worked at her mom's salon. Yes, there is certainty that he likes her. Either way, Rosie begins to change positively by losing weight and abandoning her addiction of junk food.

Rosie ended up calling the cab and going to the game. She watched Kyle play non-stop and scoring points. I connected to this one part of the story of the basketball game. Well, the Spring Hill Raiders (Rosie's school) was beating the Wildcats in the basketball game. I connected to that to the football games that I went to at our school and the Wildcats football team would lose. I also connected to Rosie when she had the school spirit to support her school team. (Don't get me wrong...That means I'm still a Wildcats fan!)

Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee (Part 2)

As I continued reading with this book, there were many good and bad events that happend with Rosemary.

Well, let's see. She poisoned  herself with heated up mayo just so she could stay home. She was constantly shanked by her Aunt Mary's hurtful words. Kyle invited to her to his football game. She wanted to lose weight for Kyle and bought a bunch of dieting products such like these:



^--- (Want to know what it takes to lose weight by taking Weight Watchers? Check out the link: http://www.weightwatchers.com/plan/www/online_01.aspx)

She was the new guinea pig in a study with obese people. She was dragged to going to this lecture hall for fat people because of Aunt Mary, who spent about $150 for that. But the most tragic event that Rosemary found out was that her mom was diagnosed with cancer.

This really shook Rosemary. She became a bit more understanding with her mom and became a bit concerned and upset about it. I think that she tried to lose a bit of weight not only for Kyle, but for her mom too.

As I was reading the part with Rosemary and her sick mother, I understood what Rosemary was going through. My dad was a cancer survivor. I remember before when my dad wasn't diagnosed with cancer, he always liked to go out with my siblings and me everywhere. Rosemary had the same type of experiment where her mom did not go to work as much nor talk as much. That was a big change for her.

Artichoke's Heart by Suzanne Supplee (Part 1)

"When you’re normal-sized, no one cares what you eat; when you’re fat, it’s everybody’s business."

       Rosemary Goode, a fifteen year-old girl who is five-foot six inches, is probably the only kid who has a food hangover. She is overweight. By overweight, I mean about 200 pounds. Now, you might be wondering how she gets so obese but let me tell you. Her daily schedule? Probably sleep, eat food (chocolate especially), and go help her mom at her beauty salon later during the day, and eat more food.

Although she eats a lot, it gives her comfort. A comfort that her friends or family does not give to her. Her aunt calls her disgusting who have no shame, her mom doesn't do anything but side with her sister, students pick on her at school. That includes calling her a fat artichoke ever since she wore a green insulator jacket to help her look thinner.

Like almost all American teen movies and shows, there has to be a guy involved with the plot. Well, this guy happens to be a pleasant guy like Kyle Cox. He has curly dark hair and brown eyes. As I'm reading the book, I can picture him like this:

  (:  

In this story plot, Rosemary describes him as almost as good as a Mr.Goodbar in the story. He is the only popular guy in school who is nice to her. He smiles at her, acknowledges her, and does not call her a green artichoke, fat artichoke, and the following other names with the word "artichoke" in it. She starts to crush on him hard.

(In case you do not know what an artichoke is, it looks kind of like this)

Wake by Lisa McMann (Part 5)

Now, I'm not going to be telling you the rest of the book but let me tell you. There's still a buttload of drama in the book so go to the closest library and check it out! :)



Anyways, my critiques on the book?

Well, since I told you to go check this book out at the library....it's common sense that I thought that it was good. It was kind of slow at the beginning, but when it came to the ending, I wanted to read more. The story plot was pretty good and I thought it was interesting to know what the characters were really like through their dreams. For example, Melinda and her Carrie crush, Carrie and her traumatizing death experience of her little brother. Overall, I would recommend this book to you because it had both romance and action. What can be better than that?

                           

If you would like to know other's critiques, check out these links! (http://teamouse.wordpress.com/2010/07/16/wake-lisa-mcmann/)
(http://thebookpushers.com/2010/02/03/review-wake-by-lisa-mcmann/)

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. This book might be made into a movie so you, movie people, should check this book out before the movie comes out!

(http://www.seventeen.com/teenmag/miley-cyrus-wake-series) <- Miley Cyrus as Janie....sadly.