In "Looking For Alaska," by John Green, the author takes you through an emotional roller coaster of madness, confusion, and depression. Throughout the story, the main character, Miles starts going to a boarding school. Miles does not seem to mind because he didn't have any friends at his regular school. When he meets his room mate "The Colonel" and his friends, Miles is really confused. Miles is confused because their lifestyles consist of smoking, drinking, and a ton of pranks. This was really different from Miles' old life which didn't even include friends.

          Later on in the book, Miles has a love affair between Alaska and a "girlfriend" that his friends chose for him. Miles feels really awkward about not even meeting the girl before going out with her. Even though he does like her, Miles really really likes Alaska. Alaska is both confusing and mysterious at the same time. She does this on purpose for some reason. Then, after a night of drunken kissing, Alaska remembers something and drives off to go kill herself.

          Then, Miles realizes that Alaska's death was his fault. He feels extremely guilty about this. This brings Miles and The Colonel to a crazy investigation of Alaska's death to determine whether it was a suicide or not. Since Alaska was driving drunk and apparently did not swerve at all when she drove into the cop car and killed herself, they do a drunk test. Miles and The Colonel determine that Alaska must have been sleeping. They eat a lot of McDonalds throughout the story.

Response to "Then Again, Maybe I Won't," by Judy Blume

     In "Then Again, Maybe I Won't," by Judy Blume, it takes you through the life of an Italian boy's family and their money struggles. Even though this book doesn't sound like there's anything wrong with it, there is. All throughout the book, people are stealing, stalking, and getting wasted.
   
     An example of something that a character does wrong in the book is how Tony (the main character) stalks his neighbor's older sister Lisa. He does this throughout most of the book and half the time he knows that it's wrong . Another example is how Joel (Tony's neighbor) keeps on stealing things and almost never gets caught. Even though Joel is filthy stinkin' rich, he still steals stuff. Weird, isn't it?

     All in all, there are many things people do wrong in this book such as stealing, stalking, and getting wasted. Considering the fact that Tony and Joel are only in the seventh grade and they are both rich, it is actually kind of weird, I would never do any of that ,unless for a good reason, and I'm older and less rich than they are.

Non Fiction Reading Response 11/10/14

In the article “First Cases of Chikungunya Acquired in U.S.” By Lila Gutterman, the author wants you to know that there is a new virus spreading in mosquitoes that people have gotten without travelling to Africa, Asia, or Europe (where Chikungunya originated). A line in the article that made me think was in the 3rd paragraph where it says “the two species of mosquito that most often carry the virus, Aedes aegypti and A. albopictus, live in a broad swath in the United States.” This line made me think about how one day there could be an outbreak on a very large scale.

    The word “debilitating” made me think about how it must be horrible for people not to be able to be able to move at all. The description of the symptoms of Chikungunya made me feel bad for the people who get it because they would be bored all day and in an immense amount of pain and they also would not be able to go to work and get paid. Some textual evidence that supports the claim is in the 1st paragraph where it says “this is the first time people in the continental United States have acquired the virus without traveling outside the country.”

    This virus made me think deeper about humanity because more and more viruses and diseases are popping up here and there throughout the world. For example, things such as Ebola and Chikungunya are becoming bigger and bigger every single day

     The author of  "Darkness Too Visible," Megan Cox Gurden of the Wall Street Journal, wants us to think that there are too many crude themes in today's young adult literature. this idea is supported throughout the article with loaded words and quotations from real (live) people. The author is trying to say that the books people my age are reading have too many dark themes such as incest, rape, suicide, self-mutilation, pederasty, kidnapping, brutal beatings, and homicide.

     The author wants us to feel the way she feels, critically opposed to these themes. she shows this with loaded words such as rape and incest (I only took these out because they seem to be the most horrifying). These words are loaded words because they can spark an even bigger argument about the themes in young adult literature. She also uses quotes from the 46 year old mother of 3, Amy Freeman. Freeman says that she had popped into a bookstore to pick up her 13 year old daughter, but could not find anything that wasn't extremely terrifying. However, the author does not have the teen's opinions on this topic which is most heinous because the books she is talking about are marketed towards teenagers.

     I both disagree and agree with the author on this topic. I disagree with the fact that books have been banned for bad content, they can just censor the words, or rewrite a child friendly version. Also, she only lists the bad sides of books, there is not one single positive thing about a book in that article. However, I still agree with the fact that people my age should be reading something really dark, then again, we should be able to chose what we want to read.

When a group of kids take shelter in a supermarket from a hailstorm, an earthquake and a chemical spill from a testing facility called N.O.R.A.D., chaos turns to hope as brothers Dean and Alex work with twelve other kids in order to survive.  Set in the near future in Monument, Colorado, "Monument 14: Sky on Fire," by Emma Laybourne takes the reader through the trials a post apocalyptic world.

Laybourne uses symbols to convey optimistic themes.  For instance, the floodlights along the road stand for a symbol of security because it means that somebody was looking out for the kids on the bus.  Without the floodlights, the group would not have been able to see the road clearly enough to get to safety and take refuge at an airport in Denver.  The air was dingy and the windows on the bus were dirty and thick, so it would have been very very hard to see the road ahead of them.

The school bus itself is also symbol of hope because it offers the only way out of the big supermarket to the safety of the airport in Denver.  The kids need to take refuge at the airport because the air around the supermarket in Monument is contaminated with compounds from the chemical spill.  The also need to transport a badly injured kid named Brandon, who had been shot and needs proper medical attention. The fact that the bus still works is a miracle since every other type of vehicle was inoperable due to the various disasters.

    In conclusion, most of the symbols in the book were related to optimistic themes such as hope and security. These themes made me think about things in my own life (such as when I get out of my house on time to catch the bus to school).

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This summer, I read, A Long Walk to Water, by Linda Sue Park. This book is about two different people in two different times in similar situations. In one time, it's set in the 80s during a war in the middle east and this kid is at his school when they start dropping bombs around him. He runs into the bush away from home. He then takes refuge with a group of people. This relates to today because there is warfare in the middle east right now, and lots of people are taking refuge. This can also relate to this other kid in this other time. She walks every day to get water from the water pump. It actually does take her all day, so I feel as if she feels that she is being separated from her family and civilization when she goes to get water. Back to this other kid now, he is then left behind by this group of refugees because he is a child and he thinks that they thought that he was going to slow them down. I don't want to give away the rest of the book so I won't say any more than I already have.