Braun,+Stephanie

__**Characters:**__ Ichabod is in __The Legend of Sleepy Hallow.__ He is a schoolteacher and likes music. He doesn't have much money. He lives in a house of one of his students. He is a vary large man, long legs, long arms, and big hands. He also likes to gossip with all the school childrens' mothers. Brom Bones is a very strong man with great skills in horsemanship. He is always ready for a competition. He has three men following him around. He is after Katrina, the girl who Ichabod is also after, he is expected to win. Rip Van Winkle is a man who will help anyone around town, but won't do any work around the house. Him and his wife always fight about him being lazy. He is know around town. All the kids run after him. He also has this dog that acts just like him. He is a faithful companion and always follows Rip around. Baron Von Landshort is rich and lives in a castle. He often throws feasts at the castle. He has a daughter that is very pretty and smart. Her aunts keep her safe, teach her, and teach her to stay away from all the guys. Any guy would like to marry her. Another rich family has a son and the son and daughter get married without even seeing eachother. __The Legend of Sleepy Hallow__ is about this schoolteacher who likes Katrina, but Brom Bones also likes her. He seems like he is the one that is going to win her heart. Both Ichabod and Brom Bones are invited to a party that Katrina is also going to. You will have to read the book to find out how it ends. :) __Rip Van Winkle__ is about this man who is well-known in his town. He will always help anyone, but he won't do any work for his family. One day he is in the woods with his dogs and meets a strange group of people. He steals a drink from them. He wakes up with his dog missing, the group of people missing, and strange scenery. He walks back to the village to find many more houses, weird clothes, and no familiar faces. He finally meets his daughter and learns his wife has died. His daughter has a baby named after him. __The Spectre Bridegroom__ is about a very pretty and smart women. Her aunts keep her away from guys and bring her up proper. Her father has chosen a man for her to marry. He is from another well-liked family. On the day of the wedding, the guests are at the wedding, but the bridegroom isn't. He meets a group of robberers on the way to the wedding. He is severely hurt and is on his deathbed. He asks that his bride be notified. Back at the party, the crowd is growing restless and they decide to start the feast. Meanwhile, a the bridegroom shows up. The two fall in love at first sight. At the end of the night, the bridegroom says he has to leave. He talks to the bride's father and tells him why. The group finally realizes the bridegroom was a spectre. That night the bride, now a widow, is sleeping in the same room as her aunts. They see the spectre again. Another night, the widow is sleeping and disappears. Does she come back or not? Is she alive or dead? If you want to know, read the story. __The Broken Heart__: This short story basically describes a womens heart. It describes many ways that it can be hurt. Then it talks about a girl. The person who told the author the story, said she was at a masquerade. A man talked to her, but she ignored him. He kept trying to get to know her. He takes her to Sicily to help her become happy again. __The Inn Kitchen__ is about a traveler who goes to this one inn. He goes to the kitchen which is full of many different people and scents. There is this great storyteller in there that everyone is listening to. I would give the short stories as a whole a rating of 3. At first I really liked them because I found them easier to read than longer books, but in the end I wish I would have read one book instead of five different stories. The stoies had lots of details which I found a little boring. Sometimes I found them a little too short. Also, the language used in the book was hard to understand at times. My favorite story was __The Spectre Bridegroom.__ I think I liked it so much is because I really like weddings. I've been dreaming about mine since I was little. I really liked the ending of this short stoy so I would recommend you read this one. I really like using Wikispaces to write about our books. I like this way better than reading logs. This way, you can also see what others are reading and what they think of it. You should keep using blogs for future classes.
 * September 28, 2011**
 * __Summary:__**
 * __Rating:__**
 * __Wiki Reflections:__**

I have read 10 pages in Rip Van Winkle. I didn't know that the title was really a character in the book. Rip Van Winkle is an odd person. He has a dog that seems like him. He is very well liked throughout the town. What makes him odd is that he is friendly and will help neighbors do anything, but at him he is lazy and won't do anything. This annoys his wife. They are barely making it through life since he doesn't like to work on their farm. I left off at the part where he and his wife were fighting because he wouldn't do anything and he and his dog just walked out the house. I think he will discover something while on his walk. I really like reading short stories because they keep my interest easier because they get to the point right away.
 * September 17, 2011**

I have read 28 pages since my last blog. I finished __The Legend of Sleepy Hollow__ and plan to start reading __Rip Van Winkle__. There isn't much dialog in this story. One line that I found is, "Who are you?" Ichabod says this, with courage, when he meets the headless horseman. This showed me he had courage and was also curious. He was all alone with a old horse at night. If I was him, I would have ran away. Since Ichabod tried to talk to the ghost, it made the story more interesting than just running away. The headless horseman started chasing Ichabod through the woods. I liked this short story because it provide lots of detail and was an interesting story.
 * September 8, 2011**

I have read 18 pages in __The Legend of Sleepy Hollow__ so far. It has been hard for me to read because the author is describing a few characters, and that doesn't really interest me. He introduced the ghost of the headless horseman. This ghost is the scarier than all the ghost and witches put together. Another character is Ichabod Crane. He is a school and music teacher. He is also a very big man. A description from the book is, "...hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together." He doesn't make much money except to feed himself so he lives on a farm with a student's family. Ichabod is gossip. He is on a mission to get Katrina Van Tassel, a very pretty, well-known girl. The book started getting good when I left off because Ichabod has to win Katrina. I think he will win, but I want to know what the headless horseman has to do with this story.
 * September 2, 2011**

I am reading short stories by Washington Irving. One short story I know I'm going to read is __The Legend of Sleepy Hollow__. I think it sounds interesting, and my dad said I would probably like it. I haven't decided what other short stories I will read, but there are some with interesting titles. I know The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is about a headless horseman. I think he will haunt people throughout the book
 * August 26, 2011**