Book Review

Title: Gravity Journal

Author: Gail Sidonie Sobat

Publisher: Geat Plains Publications 2008

Awards/Nominations: White Pine Awards; Official Selection

Summary: 16 year-old Anise suffers from anorexia. Being hospitalized for the third time, she turns to her journal. Her journal-the place where she can make scathing ovservations about her family, other people, the world and life in general. Will Anise decide whether to live or die?

Comments: VERY intriguing book! Lately I've been reading about troubled girls that write in their journals. Most have been enjoyable but this book stuck out at me. I'ts full of angst & bitterness, but at times there is a lighter side of Anise. The whole time while I was reading I couldn't get over the fact that Anise thought she was fat. At the begining , she weighed a feeble 44kg ( around 88-90 lbs) at 5'9!!! I found this frightening that a girl just like Anise could be suffering this atrocious disease.

Rating: 5/5 stars, perfect for anyone who needs a bit of a downer or a touch of reality.

Genre: fictional journal/ real life

Tree Planting

Day 3
Our group was at Rattrai Marsh by Lake Ontario preventing erosion. Which is basically when water from a water shed gains water (rain) it travels at a greater speed, which makes the sides of the river cave in. Therefore the rain water scrapes away at the sides of the stream or river exposing tree roots ect. At the marsh unfortunately, the erosion was getting so bad that the tree roots started to stick our of the river banks. Instead of using some man made material we used good old natural resources. Using bungles of twigs & sticks. We filled in the caves and then boarded them up with logs of old trees. We also destroyed some invasive reeds!
All in a good, planet-saving day.

Day 4
Just a normal tree planting day. Our guide/ CYC leader, Michelle said that by the end of the 5 day week we'll probably end up planting around 300 trees! Yeah us!

Day 5
The final day of this experience was the cherry on top of the sundae. Electrofishing is when an electrical current is put into a body of water with fish in it. The electrical current doesn't harm the fish, it just shocks their bladders (it helps with their buoyancy), which makes them float up to the surface of the water. Now you must catch the fish and put them in a bucket of water. The purpose of this is to see what kind of fish there are in this specific body of water. One fish in particular tells you if its a clean body of water. If you ever find a fish called a Rainbow Darter. (Look at picture) It's very sensitive to pollution. Therefore you know if the water is polluted or not. Thankfully, we found a handful of Rainbow Darters. Not to mention that yours truly caught a few. Then the fish (not only Rainbow Darters, but others as well) are sorted, weighed and measured and put back into the water. Keep in mind; you may not see the fish I have mentioned in this entry. Therefore do not get upset when you cannot find these types of fish. You may live on another continent! And to end the day, we visited the bad-lands near Terra Cotta ( Bad-lands; are hills of gravel and dry clay where trees used to stand. But when deforesting the trees it was either done too fast or the soil underneath was not up to such circumstances. Therefore; the land turned into hills.) Overall this experience was fantastic and I have learned so much. I cannot wait until next year!