Annotated Bibliography
The author of Swing Time is Zadie Smith. Smith was born October 27, 1975 in London. Smith was the daughter of a Jamaican mother and an English father. She began writing at a young age, and studied English literature at the University of Cambridge. The first piece of writing that she submitted was White Teeth. Smiths second novel The Autograph Man was published in 2002. Smith has been a very successful author.
The novel Swing Time is about two girls, Tracey and the narrator. They met in a dance class in London. The narrator was a very good student who thrived, but while Tracey was talented she had trouble in school, which was probably because of her home life. Later in the story the narrator became the assistant to a pop-Star names Aimee. Eventually that came to an end. After that, Aimee started to like Lamin, but Lamin liked the narrator. Later in the book Aimee revealed that Lamin and the narrator slept together. This is the reason that the narrator was fired. Aimee felt betrayed because she liked Lamin, so she fired the narrator. After that we find out that the narrator’s mother is in Hospice. Tracey’s kids apparently need to be taken away from her, so they can be better cared for. At the end of the book we find out that the narrator’s mother dies, and the narrator finally finds peace. While I did enjoy this book I found it kind of hard to get into. I feel like books like these are very good, but aren’t for people like me. Personally I do not like reading at all, and I feel like this book made it even harder for me because I just could not get into it.
Robert Beatty is the author of the #1 New York Times best selling Serafina Series. Beatty lives in the mountains of North Carolina with his wife and three daughters. Serafina and the Black Cloak was a #1 New York times best seller for 59 weeks. Before Beatty started writing he wa a successful entrepreneur in the tech world. He was founder, CEO, and chief architect of Plex systems.
The book Serafina and the Black Cloak, is about a young girl named Serafina who lives in the basement of the famous Biltmore estate. Serafina lives with her “pa”. Her Pa have her two rules to live by. Rule #1 was to not let anyone know that she exists except for her pa, and rule #2 was to not go into the deep dark forest, especially at night. Serafina noticed that children who lived in the Biltmore were going missing one by one, and she needed to do something about it before all of them were gone. She teamed up with an unlikely partner, Braeden, and they set out to find what was taking the kids. The man in the black cloak A.K.A. Mr.Thorne, was the one taking the kids using his cloak and stealing the kids talents to be used as his own. From then on they come up with a plan to fight the man.
The Blind Side: Evolution of a game was written by Michael Lewis. Lewis was born October 15, 1960, and has a wife and three kids. He is an american non-fiction author and financial journalist.
The Blind Side: Evolution of a game is all about the beginning scene of the movie. This is a very detailed description on ho Joe Theismann’s football career came to an abrupt end. A major part of this passage is fear, and how fear drives people. Lawrence Taylor might have been the most feared football player to ever play the game. On line 5 of the 2nd paragraph Lewis says “Parcels, whose passion is the football defense, believed that fear played a big role in the game.
Blogs vs Term Papers was written by Matt Richtel. Richtel is an American writer and journalist born on October 2, 1966. He attended the University of California at Berkeley, and won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.
The article Blogs vs Term Papers is about how blogs are more effective than term papers. Term papers are almost always frowned upon by students. Students don’t like being forced to write papers on things that they have learned in that class, and this is where blogs come in. Blogs can be a fun alternative to term papers. I say fun, but honestly it can be less of a hassle to write a blog than a term paper.
Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? Was written by Jean M. Twenge. Twenge is an American psychologist researching generational differences. She was born in 1971, has three daughters, and studied at the University of Chicago, and the University of Michigan.
Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation? Is all about how smartphones have affected the lives of millennials today. Almost every kid that you see walking down the street over the age of ten has a smartphone. In her article Twenge goes on to explain that kids having access to their smartphones all day every day can be a problem min the future, and she recommends going outside and leaving the electronics in the house.
Snow Day was written by Billy Collins. Collins is an American poet born March 22, 1941. He attended the University of California, riverside, and is married.
Snow Day is about a day where school and everything is canceled because of snow. The poem describes a child’s morning to mid-day activities while he/she is as home during the snow. The poet goes on to describe that they person that they poem is describing is eavesdropping into conversations of two little girls outside near a fence.
The aspect of work that I consider my best is my monthly letters. I say this because I feel when I have the ability to write whatever I like, I then write my best pieces. I have sent every one of my letters home to my family, and I get text messages from my mom when they receive them. Even though my handwriting is not the best, they very much appreciate me writing to them. I just feel like writing without having to worry about a grade relaxes me more to a point that I can write better. I think I have grown a lot as a writer in this course. I know a lot more than I did when I started, and am glad that I learned these things. I think the main part that has developed my writing skills are writing about the books we’ve read. I think this makes me think deeper than I usually would, and bring out the best in my writing.
Works Cited
Beatty, Robert. “Robert Beatty – Author of Serafina and the Black Cloak.” Serafina and the Black Cloak, robert-beatty.com/robert-beatty-author/.
Collins, Billy. “The First Night.” Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, 5 May 2015,
Lewis, Michael. The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game, Chapter One Excerpt. Norton, 2006. Pp. 15-16
Richtel, Matt. “Matt Richtel.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Apr. 2018,
Smith, Zadie. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Zadie Smith.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 27 Feb. 2018,
Twenge, Jean M. “Jean M. Twenge.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company,
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