Why Not Learn Something New?

Not much has happened in this part. Nothing big anyway.

Antonia, Jimmy, and Yulka make a sort of "nest" for them selves in the long grass.

For most of the time that there there by the "cliff" under the open sky Antonia is trying to learn new words from Jimmy. Antonia tries to give Jimmy a ring to wear. He wont take it. I dont think he wants to give her the wrong idea and all. After a little bit of arguing over the ring, they hear a voice calling for them Mr. Shimerda. As Jimmy, Otto, and his grandmother are leaving Mr. Shimerda hands them a book with the English alphabet and the Bohemian alphabet. He asks Jimmy to teach Antonia English.

I think it's cute that Jimmy is going to teach her. They just met and he is going to do this for her? That's the making of a very good friend. Let's see where this leads to.

"...He looked at her enrreatingly, and said, with an earnestness which i shall never forget,' Te-e-ach, te-e-ach my An-tonia!' "

The Shimerdas

Jimmy and his grandmother took food to the new foreign family that lives down the road. That's where he met the Shimerda family. They were Bohemian and were living on land that was not broken in and was not good for a garden. There was not a chicken house either. They were the first Bohemian family to settle in that part of the country. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Shimerda, two sons and two daughters. Mrs. Shimerda has a lively, alert face. She has little eyes and a sharp chin. The first child introduced is Ambroz. He is the oldest son (19). He has broad shoulders, a flat head and a wide face with hazel eyes. There was also a little girl, Yulka (Julka), she was mild and obedient. Antonia struck him though. Her eyes were big and full of light. She has rich skin and dark cheeks. The last child is Krajiek. Krajiek isn't smart but he is a good farmer. From what the book is saying i think he has some type of down syndrome or mental disorder. The last one introduced is Mr. Shimerda. He has long, thick gray hair. He is tall and slender with thin shoulders and soft, well shaped hands.

I think that this book is going to get alot more inturesting now that he has met Antonia. He seems to like her very much and thats with out getting to know her. So right now its a sort of infatuation. The little sister, Yulka, seems so cute. She kind of reminds me of my little sister.


"... Antonia came up to me and held her hand coaxingly. In a moment we were running up the steep drawside together, Yulka trotting after us."

The Countryside

During dinner on Jimmy's first night there he meets many of the working hands on his grandparents ranch. He and Jake become friends with Otto Fuchs. He shows them the horse that was brought for Jimmy. He also tells Jimmy everything he wants to know about him including how he lost his ear.

During the first few days he marvels at the country side. He loved the high red grass that made all the great prairie the colour of wine-stains. His grandmother had taken him to the garden. When she was done and ready to leave he asked if he could stay even though he was scared of the snakes and other animals. He liked to looking at the sky. While he was there and alone he felt a new feeling of contentment and lightness.

Im really starting to enjoy this book. I like how much you can picture whats written. It creats a vivid picture. It is also written very well.

"The light air about me told me that the world ended here: only the ground and sun and sky were left, and if one went a little farther there would be only sun and sky, and one would float off to them, like the tawny hawks which sailed over our heads making slow shadows on the grass."

The Start

so far not much has happened in my book.

So far a boy named Jimmy is on his way to his grandparents ranch to live there with them. Both his parents recently died. While he is traveling he is under the watchful eye of Jack Marpole who is going to work on the ranch. this is both their first time traveling to the west. they arrive at the train station at the same time that a another family (they are also working on the ranch) does. Jimmy has fallen asleep in the wagon on the way to the ranch. he wakes up in his new room with his grandmother over him. She has him eat some lunch and then go take a bath.



i dont mind the book. it just moves very slow.





optima dies... prima fugit

-Virgil