Sketches final Quarter

The remaining 48 pages revealed a lot about Dana and gave some insight on why she has left. It starts in Tent Town with Dana waking up to a loud noise coming from outside their tent. It turned out to be officers who broke through their gate to remove everyone there. They didn't mean to do harm but they gave everyone one hour to leave, if people stayed longer than one hour then they would removed by force. Atleast that was at first before some big guy who was the sergeant says that if people needed more time they were allowed more time to leave and even says that the people can take the buses outside the gates and there were even trucks that served breakfast for free. Afterwards Dana and her two friends had to leave so they sold their tent for 35 bucks( they bought it for 20 which means they got 15 profit) and looked for a place. Brent brought them to some place which reeked to the girls and they found that there was something in the corner under a blanket. They soon discovered that there was a dead body filled with insects and it kinda traumatized Dana. Dana decided to call Nicki since she was allowed to do so if she needed it badly. Nicki allowed them into the SKETCHES building and let them sleep in her office and even slept with them there to comfort Dana. Ashley and Brent were disgusted by the body, but it didn't really bother them as badly as it did to Dana. Nicki told her friend who worked on the police about the body since Dana wanted the body to be found(not really sure why since her explainatio didn't make much sense.) and the day afterwards two cops in plain clothing came to SKETCHES to talk with Nicki. They asked her questions and Nicki didn't answer them, but they were persistent until Nicki asked them questions. While this was happening Dana told the news about the cops to Ashley and Brent. When she told Brent the news Gizmo suggested that they stay since they would go after the three if they were to leave since it would be suspicious. Dana agreed and Brent told her that they were allowed to crash with Gizmo at his place as long as they needed. Dana then tells Ashley and Nicki comes back to see Dana working on pottery with Ashley. Dana did a bad job and Nicki told her(she's usually positive) and wanted to talk to the two about what happened. As Dana washed the clay off her hands Nicki saw the marks on her arms. She then confronts Dana about it and asks her if she did it to other places like her thigh. Turns out that Dana was sexually abused by her step father for about 4 years(another reason for her leaving?) and Nicki wanted to help out since it started when Dana was 11 and Dana's little sister turned
11 recently so she might be in trouble. Some time passed after this since the story cuts to Dana talking to Becca( the person who wanted to show Danas work on her next show) about her work. It was also revealed that Brent and Ashley got out of the street as they now got a apartment with two bedrooms and Brent's idea of selling scooters took off as they recently sold three of three of them which covers two months of rent. Dana managed to get her step father arrested for what he has done and she is starting to talk with her mother and little sister. She hasn't returned to her home because he said that she wasn't ready which I guess is understandable since she was sexually abused for four years and going back to that place is kinda painful. The show was started and Dana's mother was going to attend it, the story ends with Dana seeing her mom in the crowd of people and they make eye contact. This book was good, I say 4.5 stars out of 5 because I'm still mad about the part with those thugs jumping Dana and her friends.

Sketches Third quarter

Now i'm three quarters done with the book and it is amazing. With the recent activity of using chalk to recreate a fine piece of work called starry night by Vincent Van Gogh it gave Dana a good idea of how to make money without panhandling or squeegeeing. Dana demonstrates her thought by borrowing some materials from SKETCHES and bringing her two friends along to try it out. She picks a good spot for using the chalk and does the same thing she did in the group earlier(recreate Vincent Van Gogh work). Dana and her friends figured that this was the way to go because they soon found out that they made about 74 dollars(more than what they would make from panhandling or squeegeeing) and the day hasn't even finished. This made Dana feel ambitious as she says that if they keep this up they could not only buy food or cigarettes, but even an apartment and live peacefully together. Brent disregards this idea as many people said this in the two years he has been on the streets and none of them actually made it UNTIL a business man comes up and tells them that they did a good job and drops a fifty dollar bill in their hat. Brent then says,"but if the two of you want to try...then...what the hell..let's give it a shot."(page 122) which makes them a bit more hopeful. The story cuts into Brent running towards Dana holding a newspaper yelling MCKINNON which is Dana's last name and proceeds to tell Dana that her mother is looking for her( took her couple months to look for her kid....) and wants to bring her back which frightened Dana since she wants to stay with Ashley and Brent. They try to shrug it off and Brent says that Ashley and Dana should go to SKETCHES and have some fun to which they both agree. On their way they get sidetracked as Dana goes to feed a cat that she grew fond of and says her name is Pumpkin since the kitty cat is orange. Ashley opens a bit during this and talks about her past and family(she cried a bit too). THey talk about Brent and how good of a guy he is since he is very thoughtful and kind. They speculate that Brent is gay since it might have been the reason he is out in the streets.( what a surprise :o). After wards Dana is shown to cut herself(a bit weird but everyone has their own reasons) and tries to cover it when Ashley confronts her to talk to her. Ashley notices the cut and asks Dana what was going on and tries to stop the bleeding and go through some deep talking stuff. After this Brent tells the two that they were going to stay at Tent Town since it is safe and no one really messes with your stuff since almost everyone there just want to have a peaceful time (there are a couple weirdos there). nearing the end of the third quarter everyone from the group go to SKETCHES(lets hope they don't get jumped this time D:) since Dana wanted Bret to see her artwork and also since they were serving pancakes. One of the person in SKETCHES found Dana's artwork amazing and asks her if she could present it on her next show. Dana says yeah and then she goes off to look for Brent who is in the design and technology studio talking with a guy named gizmo. he then says if they could use about 300 dollars from their saving to work on making a scooter like gizmo did and hopefully sell it for a hefty profit. Ashley was against it as she wanted to but the apartment since they were close(they saved 800 out of the 1,000 they had in mind) but Dana says why not both. Dana says if they could save a thousand then why not twelve hundred and they agreed since they could probably crash at Tent Town for a couple more weeks. Brent will learn from gizmo how to make these cool powered scooters and try ot make one himself.That was all that happened so far.

Sketches second quarter

So now i'm halfway into the book "Sketches" by Eric Walters and a lot has happened, Some very nice a couple no so pleasing. The story takes a turn towards another scene that's possibly the day after the whole explanation thing in the beginning (It's really confusing, maybe i'm just dumb) and Dana the protagonist is under a bridge in what seems to be in the middle of the day doing some graffiti. Some guy who is later introduced as Robert complements Dana for her artistic skills and Hands her a card for a drop-in centre which isn't like most drop-in centres since they don't offer food or showers (arrangements can be made for it though), however it offers people artistic things like pottery or painting. Dana keeps this away from her friends Brent and Ashley because they would just shut down anything that she would say about it since it won't really help them out with food or shelter, but they find out when all three of them are emptying their pockets to count the money they gathered from begging and it slips off with Dana's money. They don't pay much attention about it as it didn't really interest them and partly because Dana tried to dismiss it.The day after Dana decides to go to the drop-in centre called "SKETCHES" and is greeted by a person who works there called Nicki who tells her the basics and then proceeds to give her a snack. Dana meets up with her friend and tells them that she went to the drop-in centre and Ashley gets a bit mad since she didn't help with begging,but brent tells her to calm down since Dana was just having fun. They sleep in some abandoned area which isn't important, BUT the next morning the group decide to squeegee since it would pay off more than just panhandling (begging for money). The group manages to gain almost 40 bucks which is really good for them. The group do get threatened by a group of other street peeps for "taking their spot" and decide to leave since the cops might come by(they were squeegeeing for 2 hrs). The story then cuts into Dana being in SKETCHES and Robert complements her art and tells her what is it called. Dana doesn't know, but it is a drawing of two girls(one being Dana, the other being Dana's younger sister). Robert Says that people usually draw things that they miss and Dana begins to think about her younger sister and cries a bit. Dana then returns to her friends and they begin to go towards somewhere( it isn't specified) and Dana says it wouldn't be bad if they go to SKETCHES and see what she likes . The group decides to go but they get jumped leaving Brent with a broken nose and scraped face, Ashley with a busted rib, and Dana was fine. the group got robbed from everything they had. THey decide to rest for the day and afterward Dana goes to SKETCHES since Brent and Ashley just want to relax for the day. THe moment she gets to SKETCHES she was dragged into a group with Robert, Nicki and others to do something fun. They were just recreating the artwork of Vincent Van Gogh called Starry Night. Dana had so much fun doing so that she didn't notice a hat to the side of their work which slowly collected money and Nicki who had left to get some food for the whole group. Dana then tells Nicki that her two friends got injured and Nicki scheduled a time for them to get checked free of charge. The group get the help needed and prescribed some pain medications and Dana offers to but them food with twenty-four dollar.(she got 1/9 of what the hat earned.)

Sketches first Quarter

So i've been reading this book called sketches. I found it in my shelf filled with books and it revolves about a girl named Dana and how she ended up being a street person and along with her experiences from the first 55 pages I just read. She has two other friends that she hangs out with, a girl named Ashley and a large guy named Brent. It all begins with Dana going home and was sure of being late, so she takes multiple rides and before she knows it, she ends up  being 30 miles away from home. She said that she couldn't even go home as she can't trace back her steps. She is afraid of calling her parents to pick her up because she is afraid of the consequences (or at least that's what i think). she stays a day by herself and meets her two friends, Ashley and Brent. She is hanging around with them for three weeks and possibly for more time. Also, one last thing about this book. There is a part where Dana is begging for money(her, Ashley, and Brent do it to manage in the streets) and she goes to this business man who pulls out two twenty dollar bills and says that he knows she is a beggar. He then proceeds to tell her that if she wanted the money, she had to do something nasty for a couple minutes and even says, " i like em young". This is where it ticks me off because afterwards Dana begins to shout "Pervert!" and the police shows up and the man blames it on her! They both get away scott free since the police officer didn't want to deal with the problem. Aside from this, the story is really good and i'll definitely recommend this book even though i'm at page 55 out of 226.