Friday, September 16, 2016

Tyrone's New Life by Z. Collins


              Tyrone’s New Life

    This book is written by me, Zelvin Collins II. The son of author, Maggie Collins. This will be my last book blog because of being busy with school and book advertising. I made this book for the people that can connect to it. This book is about a boy in New Orleans named, Tyrone Lamar III that moves to Franklin, Louisiana with his grandparents because his father died. He experiences different things. I made this book for the people that can connect to it and to change some people's lives. I was trying to get my book to be a 8th or 7th grade book to read  because that's around the grade that I'm in but I guess any grade in middle school could read it. Almost any grade can read it because it doesn't have that many big words. There are probably about only three big words in it, or maybe more. It's a 70 page novelette.
      I was trying to make it funny a little bit and my mom said that it is funny a little bit but only certain people could probably believe that it's funny. From time to time, it rhymes because that's something that I'm pretty good at. When I first started reading, I was first produced to poetry so that's why I think that I'm pretty good at rhyming. I liked Langston Hughes poems and Dr. Suess poems but I pretty much forgot most of them.
   The character Tyrone comes  from other boys at my school that had lost their fathers to gun violence, but I'm not going to get too much into my book because that's spoiling it. I just want to change the community by this book. I know that many kids my age probably won't want to read this book because they don't like to read but I hope that they get encouraged to read this book some other how.
    New Orleans is a bad city, the crime makes no since. Many things affect this,  bad music, poverty, being depressed, parental issues, and other emotional feelings.  I just don't want kids to be like that when they get older. I'm going to try to do my best to get as much knowledge so I can put it into fictional books so it can entertain and probably even make them a better person.
    I know that people are going through a lot and I want to fix that. I want to help communities even if it's not mine. We need to teach people to do better and not worse. We need to teach people to give compliments instead of give insults, we need to get people to be calm instead of fight, we need to teach people to read books that makes them feel interested in instead of watching  television shows/movies that they're interested in, we need to teach boys to be gentlemen like instead of lady like, we need to teach girls to be lady like instead of un lady like/man like, we need older siblings to teach younger siblings, and we need to teach people to do intelligent things so maybe we can grow a better community and a better nation. We all can't be the perfect or the same, but the majority of us can help the community instead of depending on something to do it for us.
   
 
                                                                     MY BOOK TRAILER!!

Wednesday, September 7, 2016

New Orleans Unique Foods Part 3 by Z.Collins




New Orleans Unique Foods Pt. 2
By Z. Collins



    I grew up in New Orleans and I live in New Orleans. A lot of New Orleans is fascinating. Especially their food. If you want great quality food then come to New Orleans. A lot of our food is spread across the country for various reasons. Places like Utah, Alabama,Texas, and many other states. One thing that caused this was Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was in the year 2005. Many evacuated because of the dangers of this hurricane. People evacuated to other states with their food which caused some of this. That's how good our food is.


                         Chicory Coffee





    New Orleans has coffee that has a mix in it called "chicory." Chicory is a type of plant.  It is also served at CafĂ© du Monde. I haven't tasted any coffee from other cities, but New Orleans coffee has more of a tangy taste. I guess every city has a different taste in coffee compared to other cities.



                                Gumbo

      Gumbo is New Orleans most famous type of soup. Texas and Mississippi are the other states that copy us with gumbo. You can put anything in it. You can add shrimp, chicken, rice, okra, onions, sliced sausage, Tobasco sauce, and etc. You can put almost anything into gumbo.


                               Corn Bisque




Corn Bisque tastes incredibly amazing! All I know is that corn, shrimp, and maybe crab meat is in it but it tastes so good that I don't even know the other ingredients to it. It's not really a New Orleans dish, it's more like a Louisiana rural dish but let me tell you, it tastes great.


                                Turtle Soup




    Turtle Soup tastes good to a lot of people but I wouldn't support anything like that. It's popular in other country just like dogs and cats are popular to eat in Asia when it kind of makes me want to lose my appetite since they're food is amazing. I had two pet turtles myself and I don't want them being extinct. Some places would have "Turtle Soup" on their menus but it's really a reference to something else because they don't have turtles. Snapping turtles is what is in it but I still don't like the idea  because I think it's disgusting  since they're muddy when they're alive.  I like to eat alligator too but I think it's different since alligators are in the water. It's your opinion though 


To read my previous blogs, click the link below, I thought that New Orleans tea is different then other cities' tea but I'm not sure. Either visit New Orleans to find out or do your own research.







Sunday, September 4, 2016

Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis

                         Elijah of Buxton

     Elijah of Buxton is a book written by my favorite author, Christopher Paul Curtis. Previously in one of my book blogs, I did a blog about one of his other books which is "Bud Not Buddy." This book is Historical Fiction. It's about a eleven year old boy  named Elijah Freeman that lived in a rural area in Canada called "Buxton." He was the first child to be born free from slavery in Buxton which made him known. He is nosy, fragile boy who's scared of thing, sneaky, and a liar put into one character. I believe Christopher Paul Curtis talks about Elijah of Buxton in his interview below. He wrote the last chapter first which had me curios on what was going to happen next. I thought that the ending was going to keep on going.
     One thing  that I noticed in the book was that most of the people that Elijah knew were crazy which is also what my main character says in my book that's coming soon, "Tyrone's New Life" about the people he knew in the rural area. To be honest, this is a coincidence because I didn't start reading the book until after my book was getting edited. When I was writing my book I just observed on my experience with people from rural areas but I didn't know for sure. That's just half of the people, I don't mean to be prejudice or to make a statement of a stereotype because there are a lot of brilliant people from rural areas but there are a lot of crazy people you'll meet in rural areas as well.

     Anyways, almost everyone that Elijah meets or know in the story is crazy. The preacher is crazy, the teacher is crazy, the Sunday/Sabbath school teacher is crazy, some of his friends are crazy, and half of the people he know is crazy. Some of the crazy people even died. This book is probably PG 13 but it's a really good book. He had lots of journeys with trying to save slaves and Fredrick Douglas was even mentioned in the story.
    One of the things that I really liked in the story was when he was walking with his friend, Mr. Leroy. I wouldn't probably say they were friends because I believe Mr. Leroy even said that he's not Elijah's friend in the story. In plus, he is a man in the story that's the same age as Elijah's parents but Elijah and Mr. Leroy are really close. Anyways, my favorite part was when Elijah and Mr. Leroy were walking together and all of a sudden Elijah said the N word on accident. That was when Mr. Leroy smacked him in the head because he felt that it was disrespectful. He told Elijah not to say that because he's keeping the hate alive by saying something that is a hateful word and I thought that it was extremely true. The only thing that can stop hate is not to give hate.


Read the blog about Bud Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis: http://truefactsreading.blogspot.com/2015/10/bud-not-buddy.html



Please watch Part 1 of the Book Trailer for my upcoming book that's coming soon. I'm going to publish a Part 2 of the Book Trailer once I get more info on which day it'll be published and I might publish the full book trailer on either the day before it'll be published or the exact day it's published.






Wednesday, August 31, 2016

New Orleans Unique Foods Pt. 2 by Z. Collins

 New Orleans Unique Foods Pt. 2
By Z. Collins
 I grew up in New Orleans and I live in New Orleans. A lot of New Orleans is fascinating. Especially their food. If you want great quality food then come to New Orleans. A lot of our food is spread across the country for various reasons. Places like Utah, Alabama,Texas, and many other states. One thing that caused this was Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina was in the year 2005. Many evacuated because of the dangers of this hurricane. People evacuated to other states with their food which caused some of this. That's how good our food is.


                         Food & Dessert


   Our food is different from other food because it has a appendage of  taste. It would sometimes taste a little bit spicier than usual but not as spicy as Mexican or Thai food but most of the time our food would have it's own kind of taste. The dessert is different because it has it's own type of sweetness.


                             Jambalaya



   Jambalaya is filled with rice, cut up sausage, and sometimes shrimp. It has vegetables in it as well. The rice is not white rice and it's more of a light orange or brown color. Sometimes it would taste a little bit spicy as well. Sometimes it has okra in it too which is common in Alabama as well. There is also a festival for Jambalaya and I would love to go there. It seems like the only fun festival for one of our foods in my opinion, they have a boxing match on a football field. The other festivals probably just have good food.


                        Po Boy Sandwich

 
  Po Boy Sandwiches are basically long sandwiches. They are filled with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, and any type of meat that you want in it. It can be fish, chicken, crab, shrimp, craw fish, lobster, oyster, sausage, and any type of seafood. In other cities or states this would be called a subway sandwich. I guess that they're called this because their size in length is compared to a subway. In New Orleans we still call the sandwiches at the restaurant, "Subway" a subway sandwich but subway sandwiches and Po Boy Sandwiches are two different things. 
  Po Boy Sandwiches originally got their names from the Great Depression. It was called a Poor Boy Sandwich.



                     Craw Fish Etouffee
 Craw Fish Etouffee is filled with white rice with a sauce that I believe comes from garlic and other good stuff. It is also covered with craw fish and diced celery. It tastes OK in my opinion but not too good.


                            Bread Pudding






   Bread Pudding is one of our desserts that tastes great. Especially with ice cream. I have no idea of what is in it but I think that it has different flavors in it and different varieties of bread pudding. I'm familiar with the dessert but it's just that I don't know too much about it.


                               Praline

 
   Pralines are candy that are produced in New Orleans. They are known as praline candy or pecan candy. Pecans are types of nuts that mostly grow in New Orleans. Squirrels and chipmunks like to eat them. Pralines are very sweat. Pecans are also used for pecan pie. 



                              Beignets



   A beignet is a type of french doughnut. In New Orleans they are sold at Cafe du Monde which is in the French Quater, New Orleans Hamburger & Seafood, The Morning Call which is in the city park, and other places. Cafe du Monde is the best place to get them. The other restaurants are in competition with Cafe du Monde. There are more than one New Orleans Hamburger & Seafood places and more than one Cafe du Monde but the French Quater is the main place for Cafe du Monde. Beignets are also in San Fransisco and Houston but it's best to get them from New Orleans because it tastes well. Also, because our culture comes from the French which is where beignets came from.

I only decided to do a blog with 3 New Orleans foods and 3 New Orleans desserts. I'm sorry if I left a few out like frog legs, the difference between our coffee, the difference between our tea, and etc. Look them up on google if you're  curious. I might  talk about the difference between our drinks compared to other drinks in other cities in the next blog. The next blog will be with 3 of New Orleans soups. If you want to read the previous blog then press the link below.  

The last blog: http://truefactsreading.blogspot.com/2016/08/new-orleans-unique-foods-by-zcollins.html