Red

In finishing reading Red, I enjoyed reading about young teens and their experiences. I think the book would have been better if there wasn't so much editing going on. I think it would have been better to have the essays as the girls had wrote them so that they would all sound as individual as each of the girls are. I think this book did well in showing that almost all teen aged girls have issues they too face. It helps show other young girls that they aren't the only ones facing their problems alone. I think that some of the stories I could relate to while others I could not. I felt that as a young girl I didn't feel the need to fit in and do all the things that my friends wanted to do. Most of my friends were into make up and doing their nails and all the girl stuff that a young girl wants to do. But for me I was more into horse back riding, playing softball, and messing around with my brothers and his friends. So I guess you could say I wasn't the typical young teen girl. I believe that a girl should stay who they are. They shouldn't change for someone because there friends are doing it or they want to fit in. I noticed that some of the girls in these essays did just that though. They were first changing themselves to fit in, but then realizing that this just isn't them. I think one should learn to keep to their true self and be who they want to be.

young adult novel

If I were to write a novel for young adolescence, and were similar to The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian I would write the novel in first person as a diary entry. I believe that writing in a diary entry form shows things that happened just as they were. They were first hand experiences for the young adult. In my novel I would write about family issues, friendship, and relationships. I would talk about these three topics because I feel as if every teenager goes through something in their life at some point of time dealing with family issues, friendship, and relationships. Through out the novel I would have a young teenager write like he is writing in his diary or journal. In the novel I would write about a young teen who is having issues with his father and not being able to connect with him on a personal level. It is very important for a young male to have a relationship with him for his own well being and development into adult hood. I would also talk about having true friends in the novel, and what it is like to have true and fake friends in their life. Last but not least I would talk about teen relationships, and how some last but others only last for a short while. Even though many young girls claim to have found their true love at a young age and they will spend their lives with them, most of us from experience know that this isn't true. I would want readers to realize these issues do happen when they are young but this is just how a young teen lives through life with difficult issues to overcome.

Part Time Indian

While reading the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, I was impressed with the way Alexie was able to write like a true adolescent boy, and have the readers actually believe that it was an adolescent boy writing the story. I believe Alexie used appropriate teen age language just as a teen boy would. He did not make Junior seem too young or too old. I believe that the story showed a great real life story of what an adolescent goes through when growing up. With having friends then suddenly realizing you want to make your life better to having friends not accept what you want to differently with your life. I believe that Alexie does a good job of portraying that all races, ages, color, and gender go through the same things. I also think that the cartoons that were placed through out the novel was a great idea. I liked that we were able to see Juniors feelings through cartoon drawings rather than just the words. I agree with what Junior says in the first couple pages of novel that, No matter the language you read and speak, you always can tell what a person is saying through drawings, and you don't have to question what they are trying to say, because you can interpret it the way you want to interpret it. There are so many different languages out there that it is very difficult to know all of them, but if anyone from anywhere draws a picture you can know what they are trying to portray. Over all I think this was a great novel and an easy read, compared to the last novels that we have read. I think Alexie did a wonderful job of portraying an adolescent going through some difficult times.

Betsey Brown

When I was reading this book I thought it was a very easy read. The way Ntozake Shange wrote was very poetic and they words just flowed together wonderfully. I did however feel sorry for Betsey. I felt that as a young lady she had too much pressure put on her from her family. For only being a teenager I thought she was both brave and strong for dealing with the things she had to deal with. Maybe it is because of the time period difference, but I know that when I was Betsey's age I would not of been able to of done all that she had to do. I don't think it is fair that a child has to have some of the responsibilities that an adult would normally be responsible for. I know that children should have chores and help with day to day things, but it seemed like she had too much on her plate for a young girl. I felt that Jane was also some what different. She didn't have the motherly part about her. I felt she was more of a friend at most times than a mother.

I was not very happy with how the book ended. I thought that Carrie would have been able to of stayed, since Betsey and her did have such a strong connection. I would have liked to have seen more of a controversial issue, since this was during a historical time period. But over all this was a pretty decent book, that I related to a some points in the book.

Outline

I will first introduce my topic about teen pregnancy. I will talk in a more general sense about the subject matter. Within the body I will discuss facts about teen pregnancy. What the average age is. Whether it was more common for teen pregnancy from now to back in the earlier days. I will also talk about how society looks upon teen pregnancy. Why everyone thinks it is such a horrific thing to happen to a young teen. I want to talk about, how a teens life can still move forward, and it isn't the end of their life. I want to also give my own opinion about teen pregnancy. I will also talk about some books I have read that has teen pregnancy's within them. I would also like to give my own opinion on teen pregnancy as well. Finally I will conclude my essay and wrap up my discussion on teen pregnancy and draw it all together.

Huck Finn

I think Huckleberry Finn was very hard for to read. I didn't like to read the parts when Jim was speaking. I felt like I was reading a different language. I didn't really enjoy this book in general though. Maybe if it was in normal reading language I would have enjoyed it a little bit more. I just thought that this story could have been cut down so much if there was just unimportant stuff took out of the story. I also think that Tom Sawyer brought Huck down a bit. Huck liked to get things done, simple and do them just to do them. But Tom had to make everything extravagant and make everything so complicated. I believe that Tom was immature and that also had an effect on Huck. One thing I did enjoy about the book was Mark Twains humor throughout. No matter what was going on he had a funny joke in there somewhere. Sometimes i thought it was a dry dull sense of humor but it was funny to read some of his jokes. In the end Huck did a very honorable thing with helping everyone out and making everyone happy. I think Huck matured a lot towards the end of the story and I believe him going back out on the river fit Huck very well. He gets to be on his own and do what he wants to do and I believe he has the mentality to be on his own as well. Even though the book was very confusing and I didn't so much enjoy it I enjoyed Huck as a character.

Charlotte #2

Charlotte is a young and naive girl, and puts her trust into anyone. Her parents are very important people in high office. Charlotte, being an only child decides she wants to go off to Australia for the summer and do study abroad. Her parents trust that she will make great decisions and won't get into any sorts of trouble. So her parents allow for her to go away to Australia for the summer. Charlotte decides to invite her best friend Emily with her.

Charlotte and Emily aboard the plane and are off to Australia for three months, without parental supervision. Now Charlottes' parents thought that she was going to be staying in a school there in Australia, but Charlotte had other plans. Charlotte had been talking to this boy, named Jason, she had met last summer while she was shopping at a hot local mall. The young boy was from Australia, and had convinced her to come down and stay with him for the summer, and promised her she would be very safe there with him and his family. Jason was a typical Australian boy, he had the shaggy blonde hair, surfed all the time, and seemed to always get away with everything.

Charlotte and Emily finally arrived in Australia early in the morning only to not find Jason anywhere. They ended up waiting for hours for him to come along. When he finally did arrive, Jason was not the same as she had remembered him as. He now had his hair dyed all shorts of colors and reminded her of a punk rocker. Although Charlotte was upset about this, she decided to keep going along with him to his place, cause he still seemed the same just a different look.

When all three of them arrive to Jason's place she sees a very nice and appropriate house Jason had initially described to her. So her concerns were now no where near as bad as she had thought.

Jason and Charlotte had a great two months together so far. It definitely turned out much different than she could ever had imagined. Emily also met a local boy and started dating him as well. Charlotte and Jason then decided they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. So planned on Jason going back to the states with Charlotte and Emily at the end of their stay.

When Charlotte, Emily, and Jason aboard the plane they were all nervous as to how Charlotte's parents would take it. When they landed and met up with Charlottes parents they were very surprised to see a young boy with them.

After hearing Charlottes adventure and why she went to Australia they were in shock. But they ended up liking Jason very much and allowed for him to stay with them as long as he wanted.