Revision "To All The Boys I've Loved Before"

In the book to all the boys I've loved before by Jenny Han, it tells the stories of the main character, Laura Jean, and all the boys she's ever loved. Every time she loves someone she writes a letter to him confessing her love, she "Writes like he will never read it. Because he never will." (like the blurb states.) Laura Jean keeps all of her love notes in a little hat box of her mums. Laura has 2 sisters and her dad, her mum had passed away when they were a little bit younger. Reading this story I realized that something was holding their family back on being somewhat happy and letting Margot go to college.

  While I was reading this book recently I was wondering who blocks justice. In the story Margot, Lauras older sister, and her are talking about their mum. Before she passed away their mother had told Margot, Laura Jean and Kitty to stay together no matter what, "song girls forever." I think that the three of them took that to mean don't let anything change and never stray apart even the slightest. I believe this because in the book Margot is leaving for college and it is really upsetting Kitty and Laura Jean, obviously more than it should. So I think the way the three sisters perceived their mothers loving message is what is blocking justice because it is keeping them from moving on. The mother wanted them to stay close sisters but she didn't mean don't grow up and move on.

  In conclusion I think Laura Jean, Margot and Kitty are the ones who are blocking the justice from themselves because they misunderstood what their mother had told them. What their mother had said was very important to them now that she isn't with them so they take it, understandably, seriously.

Revised Blog Post | Theme tracking Paper Towns by John Green

The book Paper towns by John Green is about a boy named Q who is an outcast by some terms who has a major crush on the beautiful and popular Margot. One night Margot shows up at Q's window seal asking for a favor. They then go on a revenge seeking journey to get back at her horribly unreliable best friend, cheating boyfriend and a few others along the way. In the beginning of the story it starts off with young Margot and Q biking to the park when they come across a man bleeding leaning against a tree with a gun in his hand. Quentin (Q) was very scared and asked why he would do that and Margot responded "Maybe all the strings inside him broke.” And they biked away. Another theme I noticed was that in the beginning of the story Q thinks that Margo is perfect but as time gos on it’s revealed she isn’t.

I chose to talk about this part of the story because later on in the story Q and Margot are talking and Margot says all the strings inside her broke, and now the next day she is missing. I think that her saying that had something to do with why she’s missing. Margot tried very hard to be mysterious to everyone to the point that she's alienated her family and pushed away her friends and boyfriend. She realized that she has pushed everyone away and they are beginning to not care as much about her. For example her boyfriend cheated on her with her best friend, and her family don’t really mind that she is gone.

Another theme I noticed in the book is the image of Margo slowly changing. In the beginning of the book it describes her pretty and smart with a boyfriend and loads of friends and a perfect family. And then as time progresses it shows she really isn’t perfect. For example she pushed away her family so much they don’t mind she’s missing, her boyfriend and best friend cheated on her and she’s a bit nuts. But the more and more Margo is shown as her true self the more Quentin likes her. Margo was the same person throughout the story but the image of her progressively changed.

In conclusion the strings breaking metaphor has something to do with why Margot is missing and Q’s perception of Margot isn’t correct but is revealed throughout the book,  Margot’s life isn’t as perfect as it seems.

Paper Towns book review

     The book Paper towns by John Green is about a boy named Q who is an outkast by some terms who has a major crush on the beautiful and popular Margot. One night Margot showed up at Q's window seal asking for a favor. They then go on a revenge seeking journey to get back at her horribly unreliable bestfriend, cheating boyfriend and a few others along the way.

       Although i haven't finished this book yet i recommend it to young adults and adults ( due to some questionable content ) but it is such an intriguing book, I cannot seem to put it down.

Blog Review

I recently read Alison’s blog post on Someone Like You By Sarah Dessen. She did a very good job of writing this post because she really thoroughly explained her thoughts on the social issues of the story. Alison stated that the social issues were teen pregnancy and finding your identity in high school. She then goes on to further explain her thoughts on how these two ideas fit into the story.

One thing I really enjoyed about Alison’s blogpost was that she wrote her sentences straight to the point, instead of filling her reading response with endless babbling about how it was a good book. She really got to the point she wanted to make.

Another thing I appreciate about Alison's post was that she gave a bit of background on both the issues she related to her book, so her readers could really understand the issues before she connects them to the story.

In conclusion i really enjoyed Alison’ blogpost, it was very well written and she got right to her point an explained things very efficiently. She used interesting evidence and reasonings to support her claim. I haven’t read Someone Like You, But it seems like a very interesting book and I will check it out.

Non-Fiction Critical Analysis

      In an article "How I Quit Smoking" by Wendy Fox it is an article completely about how Fox realized she was harming herself. She talks of her addiction an of how even as she changed, from moving to losing friends and gaining new ones, she never stopped smoking. Eventually she had a minor medical scare and had an epiphany she then speaks of how she quit. Her opinion is pretty clear throughout the telling of her story but especially when she talks of a book she read about quitting and how this one quote spoke to her, "Would you deliberately step under a bus?"

    At first Fox only talks of her story and her experiences how her, "smokes stayed with me as I moved to five different cities, changed careers, met new people and left old friends behind." But she then talks of how she had her "a-ha" moment, "My “aha!” moment came last year after a health scare... I was worried about my life potentially being shortened, and suddenly saw the irony: By smoking, I was purposely reducing my life expectancy. What a fool! I asked myself, 'If I don’t quit now, then when?'" She talks then about how she struggled with quitting but only really stopped when she read a book. The book was called "Allen Carr's Easy Way To Stop Smoking." Fox talks of her "open[ing] myself up to Carr’s advice" and how a lot of what he said in the book stuck with her. For example, "'Would you deliberately step under a bus?'" Fox then finishes her story saying Then there was the chapter in which I had to account for the money I’d spent on smoking, and would spend in future. I was shocked: Smoking a pack a day for another 20 years, I’d spend $73,000 for the privilege of killing myself. (The sad part is that I had already spent almost that much.) I finished the book, and quit."

   I always agreed with people when they would say 'Smoking is wrong' and now after doing so much research on the topic I agree with it even more so. It affects every single part of your body, the people around you, the environment, your bank account and quitting, well that sounds horrid. Smoking is a ridiculous waste of time and money and i agree with Wendy Fox on every level.

To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

    In the book to all the boys Ive loved before by Jenny Han it tells the stories of the main character, Laura Jean, and all the boys she's ever loved. Every time she loves someone she writes a letter to him confessing her love, she "writes like he will never read it. Because he never will." (like the blurb states.) Laura Jean keeps all of her love notes in a little hat box of her mums. Laura has 2 sisters and her dad, her mum had passed away when they were a little bit younger.
   While I was reading I was wondering who blocks justice. In the story Margot, Lauras older sister, and her are talking about their mum. Before she passed away their mother had told Margot, Laura Jean and Kitty to stay together no matter what, "song girls forever." I think that the three of them took that to mean don't let anything change. I believe this because in the book Margot is leaving for college and it is really upsetting Kitty and Laura Jean, more than it should. So I think the way the  three susters percieved their mothers loving message is what is blocking justice because it is keeping them from moving on.
   In conclusion I think Laura Jean, Margot and Kitty are the ones who are blocking the justice from themselves.

Social Issues in the book The Lovely Bones

      In the book The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. I have only just started the book and already there are two main issues.The story began with the main character, Susie Salmon. She was raped and murdered by one of her neighbors. The social issue I chose to write about for this particular book is rape.
     Rape in the United States is more common than it should be. In an article I read on statistics of rape and sexual assault occurring it stated that 44% of rape victims are under the age of 18, 80% of the victims are under 30 years old. It also stated that every 2 minutes another american gets sexually assaulted. This is far too many occurrences, and this is only in the U.S. In the story Susie is only fourteen years old when she is raped. In the book Mr Harvey, the man who rapes and kills her says,
"You aren't leaving Susie. You're mine now." How is this not terrifying, for anyone no matter your age. 
    In conclusion there is a big theme of sexual assault in the beginning of this story. The Lovely Bones portrays this theme in a way that really makes you think about how sadly common this horrid issue is.