Reading Response On "AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES"

     In the book “AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES” by John Green the message is that you can’t stop the future from coming.  This book is about a child prodigy, who enjoys anagramming, named Colin Singleton.  When it comes to dating, Colin’s kind is girls who are named Katherine.  Every time he has dated a Katherine he’s gotten dumped exactly nineteen times in a row.  Colin Singleton and his chubby, religious, best friend named Hassan go on a road trip far away from home to take a break of from their issues.  On the road trip they go to Shotgun where there are no Katherines.  Colin’s goal is to validate his theory called the Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability.  Colin believes that this theory will predict any relationship between a girl and a boy depending on their characteristics.

Formerly, there is one issue that Colin is dealing with in his life.  Colin Singleton is heart broken.  The last Katherine that Colin dated was Katherine nineteen who just dumped him.  Colin tells his parents “she’s just- she’d had enough of me.  She got tired.  That’s what she said.”   In addition, Colin tells Hassan “all I ever wanted was for her to love me and do something meaningful with my life.”  Colin loved Katherine nineteen.  She had long eyelashes and pretty blue eyes.  Katherine was a kind person and had a friendly heart in assisting people.  Following that, Colin discovers that relationships don't always last for a reason because he can't predict them.  It's not the memories of Katherines that matter, it's the stories.  Colin thinks "because like say I tell someone about my feral hog hunt.  Even if it's a dumb story, telling it changes other people just the slightest little bit, just as living the story changes me."  In a minuscule way.  To conclude, Colin determines that we all matter, even in a small amount.

Earlier, there is one major problem that Hassan is handling in reality.  Hassan doesn't want to go to college.  He says he’s taking a “break” from school, but Colin thinks Hassan is just taking a vacation to relax at home and watch his favorite TV show Jude Judy.  Later in the book, Hassan experiences a realization, that the main problem is that he doesn’t do anything because he is lazy.  Furthermore, Hassan tells Colin “I never did anything that helped anybody.  Even the religious things that involve doing.  I don’t do.  I’m a total non-doer.  I’m just sucking food and water and money out of the world, and all I’m giving back is, ‘Hey, I’m really good at not doing!  Now I’m going to tell you some jokes.”  This issue of Hassan connects to my claim that you can't stop the future from coming.  Hassan is going to have to go to college sometime if he wants to get a good paying job.  In order to earn what you desire, you have to work hard and not think about the future unless it's necessary.  As you can see, Hassan just has to decide on what he wants and live in the present.

“AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES” by John Green is a story about Colin Singleton, who is really smart, only dates one type, girls who are named Katherine.  Towards the end of the story, Colin falls in love with this girl named Lindsey in Shotgun, his first Lindsey and they start dating.   Hassan  decides on what he wishes to do with his life, and signs up for college, for two classes in the fall.   Also, Colin becomes aware that the Theorem of Underlying Katherines doesn't work because the future is unpredictable. The future is "infinite and unknowable and beautiful." In conclusion nobody can block the future from approaching.

Reading Response on Regan's Blog posts

             This weekend, I read Regan's blog posts on Dr. Bird's advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos and I thought they were great.  The first blog post on this book was descriptive of how the main character felt and his problems.  Regan's second blog post on Dr. Bird's advice for Sad Poets talked about the main character's primary relationship.  This book is about a young adult named James Whitman who currently is in high school and is coping with depression.  His sister Jorie got evicted from their home by their parents and is now living in a nasty apartment by herself with no cash. 

             I found it most fascinating when Regan described James's problems.  When James asks his father if his sister Jorie could return home, the writing draws you into the story.  Regan uses very clever vocabulary and the way her sentences flow is just incredible.  Then she talks on about, how after James's father answers his question, it creates a bigger issue, which leads into him figuring out how he has to resolve it.  I agree with Regan, that James’s problems only increased when he asked his father if Jorie could return to their home.

I also enjoyed how Regan described James’s relationship with his parents.  His parents are negligent to James’s issues.  James’s parents hardly accept his existence, they are unconcerned about him.  Regan states “I don't think his parents really realize how hard they are making it for James and for themselves.”   I believe Regan is right because the parents don’t seem to be aware of how badly they are treating their only child in their home at the time.  James’s relationship with his parents is precarious.  

Overall, I think Regan did a fantastic job on her two blog posts, they were well-detailed, and had a nice structure to them.  I like how her second blog post only talked about the most meaningful relationship that James has.  I would like to try this method next time I do a blog post.

This is a link to Regan's Blog:http://reganhockenberry.blogspot.com

Non-Fiction Critical Analysis

          The article "Substance Abuse and Homelessness" by the National Coalition for the Homeless wants us to know that a large amount of homeless people suffer with substance abuse and need special treatment and therapy in order to defeat it.  One thing that the National Coalition for the Homeless does is they quote Didenko and Pankratz to show how substance abuse is “a cause and a result for homelessness.”  The National Coalition for the Homeless also quotes Fisher and Roget to portray how homeless people have difficulties recovering from drugs.  Lastly the National Coalition for Homeless quotes the National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health to show the amount of homeless people using drugs in a certain length of time.  These examples demonstrate the relationship between homeless people and substance abuse.

    The National Coalition for the Homeless persuade you that substance abuse is more of a result than a cause.  They achieve this by saying that homeless people frequently “turn to drugs and alcohol” to manage with their surroundings.  The National Coalition for the Homeless quote Didenko and Pankratz, “additionally, some people may view drug and alcohol use as necessary to be accepted among the homeless community.” Finally, the National Coalition for the Homeless say that, “in reality, however, substance dependence only exacerbates their problems and decreases their ability to achieve employment stability and get off the streets.”

  The National Coalition for the Homeless has persuaded me that substance abuse is more of a result than a cause.  They quoted several people to support their opinion.  In conclusion substance abuse is a result of homelessness.

                    

Reading Response On "Pay It Forward"

             In the book "Pay It Forward" by Catherine Ryan Hyde the message is that people have the ability to change themselves and the world around them.  "Pay It Forward" is about how a twelve year old boy, named Trevor McKinney takes on a challenge to create a plan to change the world, that his social studies teacher Reuben, gives his class.  Trevor's plan is to do a nice deed for three people and ask them to "pay it forward to three others who need assistance in their life.  He imagines an immense motion of sympathy spreading from his town in California to around the world.  I believe that justice is served in this story in several ways.
            For Trevor, justice is served towards the end of the book.  First, Trevor helps three people, Jerry, Ms. Greenberg, and Reuben his social studies teacher.  He asks these three people to pay it forward, but Jerry ends up being in jail, Ms. Greenberg dies, and Reuben fails to pay it forward.  Trevor becomes miserable and thinks he didn't do anything right.  Trevor thinks "what if the world really changed because of my project? Wouldn't that be the coolest thing?"  Then his plan really does work, and Trevor doesn't know, until a reporter finds and tells him about it happening in different places across the world. Reuben and his mom are both lonely and Trevor thought Reuben would pay it forward by getting married to his mom and that eventually this happens.  When they tell Trevor they're engaged Trevor jumps up and down and screams "Yes! I knew it.  I told you!"  Next, after Ms. Greenberg passes away she asks three people to pay it forward in her will.  She accomplishes her deed and this spreads through LA to Chicago.  Once Jerry gets out of jail, he too spreads it forward.  Justice is served for Trevor because his plan ends up being a success and everybody is helping each other.
         For Reuben, justice is served close to the end of this story.  In the beginning, Reuben is lonely and is a new social studies teacher at this middle school.  He decides to give his class a challenge to come up with a plan to change the world.  Trevor, one of students chats with him everyday after school talking about his plan.  Reuben ends up loving this kid.  When Trevor sets up his mom Arlene and Reuben on a date, Reuben thinks this child is crazy.  Reuben then realizes that him and Arlene are alike, they are both defensive and stubborn.  Trevor ends up helping Reuben not be alone.  Reuben and Arlene end up being engaged and then when Ricky Trevor's real father comes back to their house Reuben leaves and Arlene realizes she made a mistake.  Arlene kicks Ricky out and goes over to Reuben's house and she says "I know you don't forgive me, Reuben. I don't expect you to. But some little part of you must miss me, right? God knows I miss you."  Then Reuben forgives her and they get back together and get married.  Justice is served for Reuben because he finally gets a family and becomes happy.
           "Pay It Forward" by Catherine Ryan Hyde is a story about Trevor McKinney, a boy who gets assigned a challenge in his social studies class to make a plan to change the world.  At the end of the book he gets invited to the white house and meets the president with his mom Arlene and Reuben.  When he's in Washington D.C. he tries to help two men getting beaten up by two other men, but Trevor ends up getting stabbed and when he and his mom and Reuben get to the hospital they tell him he's in critical condition and they have to do a surgery on him.  After surgery, Trevor passes away the day before his fourteenth birthday.  There is a funeral and twenty thousand people come to honor Trevor.People keep on paying it forward, even after Trevor is gone. In conclusion humans have the power to make the world a better place.



              

Reading Response On "Six Months Later"

         In the book "Six Months Later" by Natalie D. Richards the message is that you have to be careful of your actions.  You can't trust everybody you know even if you like them.  "Six Months Later" is about a girl named Chloe who falls asleep in Study Hall and when she wakes up she can't remember the last six months of her life.  Earlier she was an average student, but now she is the student with the best grades for Ivy league schools.  Before she didn't have an opportunity with this jock, that she had a crush on named Blake. However now he's her boyfriend. Previously Maggie and her were best friends, but now Maggie won't talk to her. Chloe is confused.  Remembering might damage her.   Chloe thinks that her memory loss was on purpose, but nobody believes her.

         For Chloe, depending on the people she knew wasn't clever.  She was in a study group in July with  Adam and Blake and that's how she got to learn and know more things about Blake and they, eventually became a couple.  Trusting Blake was not a good idea. Blake's dad, named Daniel was the reason Chloe lost a chunk of her memory. Blake is now her ex boyfriend and Adam, her friend, she becomes to love him. Adam says to chloe, after they've been hanging out for several months,"you were right.  Part, right anyway.  Your memory loss was an accident, Chlo but it wasn't natural.  Daniel Tanner was testing that chemical in our study group.  I don't know how or why, but he wants to sell it.  And apparently we were the guinea pigs."  Only two people in Chloe's study group lost their memory, Julien and Chloe because one of the symptoms of the chemical was memory loss.

         For Adam, chloe's friend trusting Daniel Tanner was dreadful! Daniel Tanner lied to Adam's face.  Adam tells Chloe he got hired by Daniel Tanner to monitor their study group.  Daniel Tanner said to Adam that he wanted him to "peer the information on the relaxation techniques." Adam says that Daniel "fed him a bunch of crap about subliminal messaging and meditation, but he never" told Adam what he was really doing to their study group.  Adam also says to Chloe that Daniel Tanner "sold it to the school board as a big community service project, and he sold it as my only way out of this shit-hole town and I bought it Chloe."  Chloe ends up forgiving Adam for what he did and they end up dating.  This example shows that you can't depend on  people you know even if they seem innocent.

         In the book "Six Months Later" by Natalie D. Richards is a story about a teenager named Chloe who goes into a deep sleep and was aroused in the middle of May, and can't recollect the last half year.  Daniel Tanner ends up being the person who caused everything.  At the end of the book, Chloe stabs Daniel with the help of Maggie and Adam, with his own chemicals that he created and he gets arrested. Blake, Chloe's ex-boyfriend was working for his dad Daniel Tanner by dating Chloe to know where she was at all hours of the day.  This story is missing the perspectives of Daniel Tanner, Blake, Adam, and Maggie.  I think the author did this because she wanted the reader to see the issues in Chloe's life and how she dealt with them with the people she became to know.  In conclusion be cautious of your actions and you can't rely on all the people you are familiar with.

             

Argument Essay: Should YA fiction Be Limited?

Should YA fiction be limited? 

For the past 40 years YA fiction has been judged on if their grim inappropriate tales were acceptable or not for teens to read. 40 years ago there was simple literature, but in the 1960s everything changed.  Hinton published The Outsiders in 1967 which was considered violent. This book started an era of scary books for teens.  YA literature should be limited because they have become more gruesome, violent, and profane, which has had bad effects on teens, making them “grow up too quickly.”

YA literature, even though it teaches lessons, has become “too dark” for teens to read. In the article “Darkness Too Visible,” by Meghan Cox Gurdon, she says, “in Jackie Morse Kessler’s gruesome, but inventive 2011 take on a girl’s struggle with self-inquiry, “Rage,” a teenage Missy’s secret cutting turns nightmarish after she is the victim of a sadistic sexual prank. She had sliced her arms to ribbons, but the badness remained, staining her insides like cancer.”  Another example of a dark book is in the same article “Darkness Too Visible” it states “in Andrew Smith’s 2010 novel, The Maybury Lens, young Jack is drugged, abducted and nearly raped by a male captor. After escaping, he encounters a curious pair of glasses that transport him into an alternate world of almost unimaginable gore and cruelty.  Moments after arriving he finds himself facing a wall of horrors, covered with impaled heads and other dripping black-rot body parts.”  These books portray that YA literature has become more gory.  Although some people connect to the situations in these books, most teens matured suddenly by reading them.

YA literature has an enormous amount of violence and sex, and parents should shield their kids from these books.  The article “Darkness Too Visible” by Meghan Cox Gurdon states, “how dark is contemporary fiction for teens? So dark kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just a part of the run of things in novels directed, broadly speaking at children from the ages of 12 to 18.”  According to the article,“The ‘sick-lit’ books aimed at children; It’s a disturbing phenomenon.  Tales of teenage cancer, self-harm and suicide,” by Tanith Carey, most YA literature “are also liberally peppered with sex and swearing. The blurbs for “teen sick-lit’ as it’s become known trip over themselves to promise their books will drive readers ‘to tears’ or leave them “devastated.”  These YA books influence mischievous behaviors on teens making them think that they can swear, take inappropriate actions wherever and whenever they wish. Parents can be overprotective, but for this subject matter they have proof why they’re right.  In life we need our parents to lead and teach us lessons, even if they appear to be insane.  

Some people think that parents shouldn’t protect teens from YA literature because they can’t shut them off from the outside reality. Some teens can relate to the situations that occur in YA books and know they’re not alone. Also teens learn morals from reading these books that can help them in the future. The article “Darkness Too Visible” by Gurdon says, “that books focusing on pathologies help normalize them and in the case of self-harm, may even spread their plausibility and likelihood to young people who might otherwise never have imagined such extreme measures.”  Another article “Has young adult fiction become too dark?”,by Mary Elizabeth Williams states “that’s why it matters; why, in the name of protecting teens, we can’t shut them off from the outlet of experiencing difficult events and feelings in the relative safety and profound comfort of literature.”  However, parents aren’t excluding teens out of the real world by not allowing their children to read YA fiction, the parents are just protecting their kids from learning these things too soon. Even though some teens associate with the events in the books, most teens mature rapidly and lose their innocence by reading them. Parents aren’t shielding their kids from experiencing difficult events and feelings by denying their kids from reading these  books because teens will have those activities later on in their lifespan and learn what to do then.  Lastly, teens don’t have to learn lessons from these YA books, they can be taught by their parents. 

For the last 40 years YA literature has had an argument, on if they are too gloomy or not for teens to read.  It is the opinion of most people that YA fiction “has gone too far.”  Parents are worried about their teens reading these books. YA literature should be limited because they have become more gruesome, violent, and profane, which has bad effects on teens, making them develop instantly. In conclusion if teens were banned from reading YA fiction it might be preserving their innocence, so they won’t lose it immediately.   

   

Reading Response On "Clarity"

              In the book "Clarity" by Kim Harrington the message in this book is protecting the ones you love, before others makes more trouble than you already have.  "Clarity" is about a teenage girl named Clarity "Clare" Fern, that can see things nobody else can see.  When Clare touches a certain object, visions appear to her.  This is a gift and a curse.  Then a girl named Victoria Happel is found murdered in Clare's town, her ex-boyfriend Justin asks Clare to help solve the case.  Clare is still enraged at Justin for cheating on her, but when her brother Perry becomes the prime suspect, she has to help justin.  Clare ends up working with Justin, the hot detective's son Gabriel, and the police on this case.
             For Clare, when protecting family, before others it just made her situation worse.    Perry has a special power too, he can talk to ghosts that are dead relatives of the people sitting in front of him in the room.  When Perry tells Clare he slept with Victoria Happel the night she got killed, he says that she has to tell the police.  Perry states "That makes me the top suspect.  Hiding that information would make  you an accessory or whatever."   Clare says "Screw the police and screw Justin.  Family first.  Keep your trap shut."  Clare knows that she has to shield her brother from everybody.  Later on in the story the police find out that Perry was with Victoria Happel the night she got killed because they see it in a video.  This example shows that protecting the ones you love can create problems.
              For Justin, protecting the one he loves, before himself made this event painful for him.  Justin cares a lot about Clare.  After he cheated on Clare he realized it was a mistake right away.  Justin has apologized several times.  He believes that Clare and him have a chance in getting back together because they still love each other. Clare is the one, the first girl he fell in love with.  Towards the end of the book he risks his life at the  last second, and instead of Clare being shot by the murderer, Justin gets shot!  At the end of the story Justin gets rushed to the hospital in time and doesn't die.  In the hospital Justin says "being shot sucks.  I'll be honest.  But it was worth it if it saved you." 
                 In the book "Clarity" by Kim Harrington is about a teenage girl named Clare Fern that has the ability to see images when she touches particular objects that are important to people.  When a girl named Victoria Happel gets murdered in Clare's town, Clare ends up working on the case using her powers to help the police whenever she can.  At the end of the book Justin, Gabriel, and Clare end up finding the murderer  Stephen and he gets arrested.  Stephen was Clare's friend he was a teenage boy! Stephen only murdered Victoria because  his mom, Cecile wanted him to. You can't trust everyone you know, even if they are your friends.  The message in this book is that guarding the people you care about before others has its consequences.  In conclusion Clare was Brave to protect and stand up for her brother Perry.