Critical Question: if the character in your book has problems, can you see how those problems are about having or not having money, struggling with others for power, or being cheated or helped by society rules?

            In the book, "Just Breathe” by Heather Allen is about a teenage 18 year old girl, that just dumped by her boyfriend. It has been three whole years that they were dating.  She is miserable. She doesn’t know what to do. She doesn’t know if she should look at him anymore. This book has many serious topics about problems in the world and how the characters feel in the moment.

            One example is breaking up with someone. Ever, the main character just faced this problem and it isn’t going so well. She just got dumped by her boyfriend, Michael. He is a guy that everyone wants as a boyfriend. If I was her, it would feel terrible dating someone for three years and then getting dumped. It makes you think what did I do wrong? They would be millions of things that would be going in my brain for a while. “I was very hard to live with for a while, to say a least.” I could imagine the tempers some people would have in this type of situation. I would want to be alone for a bit, until I got back to normal. Especially, when you have that feeling that “he’s the one.”

            Another example would be struggling for power or being the one on the top.  After the break up, Ever just wanted to get payback and make Michael feel jealous.  Of course in the book, she thought of the idea and then the very next day she got a date with this boy named Jack. Surprisingly, it went very well. In the middle of the book, he turns out to be friends with Michael. It turns out to be a very hard decision for Ever to make. Jack is always hanging out with Michael that they is no space for Ever. She learns that she has a life and she should use it wisely as she can.   

This book teaches teens to forget about one bump in the road because everyone’s life has a bump in the road. But, you have to forget about those and just live your life.  

                

READING RESPONSE

In the book, “You’re the Closest to Heaven that I’ll Ever Be” shows a girl and a new boy who are outcasts in school. There are a lot of issues in this book that includes suicide, and peer pressure.

            The main character Lily has a special box that she would never trade in for.  It is a box of razors that she cuts herself with.  She meets a boy where she sits down and cuts herself and brings him in for dinner. I feel like she wants to have friends. I feel like she is trying to fix her problem with cutting herself. Hayden, the boy she met is very similar to her. He is very lonely because he moved and he is depressed. On the first day of school, Hayden got bullied and Lily didn’t do anything about it. I think she doesn’t want to be all the way on the bottom of the school friendships. She wants to protect herself first.

            Hayden and Lily have a difficult friendship. They just met so they don’t know pretty much anything about each other. Hayden sang a song to her and it end with a kiss. Hayden also has always wanted to be in a band.  Lily felt bad of what she was doing ignoring him and all, that she said she was going to make that wish come true for him. 

            Lily’s parents are slightly mentioned in this book. Her parents don’t care about her. I think that’s one reason why Lily cuts herself. She doesn’t have parents to support her and guide her through tough times. I bet Lily sometimes wishes she could have a normal family. This is so sad to me. If I have a tough day I know my parents will always be there for me. But for Lily, she doesn’t have family. But I think having a friend like Hayden will make her feel better.

            These issues happen a lot. They are big ones and someone needs to help these innocent teens. They could end there life just like that. But, this age, teens don’t know what to think, what to say and when to take action.

MONDAY MUSES

My favorite picture book is “Kittens First Full Moon” by Kevin Henkes.  When I was four or five I read it so often that I memorized the whole book.  I remember my mom reading it to me, and then when I got older I started reading it to her. It established a tradition to read books. I always wanted a pet and reading about a kitten made me happy. The book is very imaginative. The cat thinks the moons is a bowl of milk and has series of accidents, while trying to drink it.

Since, the book is set at night; the pictures are all black and white. I really liked the picture in the book. And looking at them again brings back happy memories. 

Argument Essay

Every year we teens complain about banning of books. It’s ever harder to find a good book to read. Sometimes books are banned because of small details. We should have the right to read any books we want. If we are comfortable reading about the topic, we should be able to do it. We are almost adults and some topics we will have to learn about someday. Why not now?

The people who are stopping us from reading banned books are parents, teachers, and counselors. Were the books written for them? I don’t think so. For example, in the article “Darkness Too Visible” it is stated by Amy Freeman “‘nothing, not a thing, that I could imagine giving my daughter. It was all vampires and suicide and self-mutilations, this dark, dark stuff.’” If her daughter is not reading about real life issues, what would she be reading about? Fairy’s and dwarfs?  Things that are not really reality. Teens will face challenging subjects in life, hear and learn about them one day anyway.

When you walk down the street, or sit on a bench outside, you hear so many different conversations. “I just broke up with my boyfriend” or “ugh I hate my life, I just wish I could just end it.” Everywhere you go, you hear things like that, and you don’t just read about them in books. It is reality.  For example, in “Darkness Too Visible” it states “… relates the delirium of a traumatized youth who witnessed his parents murder, and it does not have a happy ending.” This quote made me a little puzzled. Most happy endings aren’t reality.  Life is not always about being happy and teens have to know that. If they are reading just about happy endings, they will think that that’s what life is.  However, if they read about suicide, or a person who gets bad grades once in a while, they will realize that they are not the only ones to whom bad things occasionally happen. Nobody is perfect.

In conclusion, reading makes teens feel warm inside. If we don’t have a topic that we like to read, we wouldn’t like reading. Banning a book is one less book that one teen would love to read.  If an author has a write to write about a topic then teens have a right to read it. If all the books are banned that are about serious real life topics, then we are left with only fairytales, perfect popular kid books. Topics that aren’t reality.  We are almost adults and these books will help us get more to that goal.

MONDAY MUSES

This poem is reflecting on one poem line. “Eternal nightmare”

A block away

I heard a boom

A block away

This is trouble

A block away

It’s a dark basement

My block

Is a backyard

Filled with beautiful beautiful flowers

A block away

There’s segregation

My window looks through this

Beautiful beautiful sky

Where clouds dance in tune with the wind

My window

Looks through all of this

Blocks and blocks

All the way I can see.

In this beautiful beautiful world

This poem is about a song “summer love.” I wrote how the song represents something in my life. The song is about my friend that lives miles away and I only can see her once a year in the summer.

Summer vacation

Represents

Jovana

The balcony

Singing out to strangers

The McDonalds milkshakes

 Chocolate, strawberry and vanilla

Summer without you

Is like

A tree without soil

A flower without petals

Or

A friend without a friend

Jovana without Amber

The next poem is about a girl named Malala Yousafzai. This is my reaction.

One shot

One bullet

One touch of a trigger

Made her even stronger

That touch of a trigger

That day represents

Every man, every women for their own rights

Encouragement

Through the hard days

Support

Rights

Equality

“Education first”

Theme!

Friendship is very big part of everyone’s life. Everyone has someone to “lean on.” In “Perks of Being a Wallflower” by Stephen Chbosky, friendship is a huge part of this book. Charlie, the main character sees a lot going around him. Throughout the book, his moods change so much that he doesn't even know how he feels anymore. When you think of friendship, the first thing you think of is best friends, couples dating, and a happy ever after. But, friendships aren't always positive relationships.  

                Charlie has a rough relationship with his family members.  In their teenage years, everybody at least once gets into an argument with their parents. One example from the book is on page 25. Charlie’s sister says “I hate you!’ to her dad. She got caught with her boyfriend and Charlie just stood there thinking the whole thing was his fault. Relationships with parents are very complicated; once you’re best friends, the next time you argue and don’t talk for a while. Relationships among siblings can be difficult, too. An example is on page 54. It states “my brother and sister would fight about things that my sister and brother would fight about, and I would sit at the bottom of the shopping cart.” I know that most siblings fight. Often one sees it in the movies or TV shows. However, it is considered bad behavior to fight with anybody.

                Some teenagers seem to fall under peer pressure. If they see someone else doing something, they do it.  One example from the book is smoking cigarettes.  There are a lot of hanging out and party scenes. Young people, who smoke, are popular among their peers. They start it to become to be accepted.  “… I had seen in lunch, when I ate my orange, while they smoked their cigarettes.” This shows that Charlie is not part of the popular group. He doesn't seem to care that much either. One sees a lot of things going around one and has to know what to avoid. 

                As a teenager, you need your friends to help you through these difficult years. Charlie is just like us, he needs his friends too. He also needs his parents to support him along the way.  These few years are the breaking point between being a kid, and starting to act responsibly like an adult.  In this book, friendship is a big theme.

               

               

                                    "Don't Eat This Book"

            In America, obesity is big problem. There are many ways of becoming obese.  When you are at the point of being obese it is hard to get back the way you were before. The book “Don’t Eat this Book” by Morgan Spurlock describes how we got to this epidemic.  American life style is a path to becoming overweight, unless we diligently avoid certain distractions

            This country is set up to be attracted to unhealthy foods. In grocery stores, the cheapest foods turn out to be the unhealthiest ones. For example, soups that are packaged in cans are full of unhealthy ingredients. The people who are most impacted are the ones with limited money or who rely on food stamps. When you walk down the street and you are looking for something to eat, most of the places you would pass are fast food ones. In fact, in America, there are more fast food locations than regular restaurants. No wonder obesity is such a big problem.

Our lives are very busy. We work. We eat. We sleep and we do the whole routine all over again the next day. We start our day with waking up, getting ready for school or work and hop into a car or take other public transportation. When we get to work or school we sit down for the rest of the day looking at computer screens or listening to a teacher. Our brain gets so tired by the end of the day that we just want to go home and rest. But, did we exercise at all today? No. When we get home we want to go to the gym. But we decide to lay down on the couch instead. We get so caught up that we forget that we wanted to go to the gym. Procrastination is a big deal with obesity. Sedentary jobs tire our brain and our body. This life style makes us lazy.

Obesity is getting out of control in this country. Certain distractions are a major factor. There are too many fast food places; we have to stop them from growing. The American life style is set up for becoming overweight. We need to diligently avoid these distractions.