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.

Charlotte Temple

While reading Charlotte Temple, I was very confused with all the characters they were introducing all at once. I was also confused with how the author Susanna Rowson jumped from one point to another without a good transition. But as the story went on it all soon fell into place and I understood who was who, and their part in the story. Throughout the story I felt a little bit sorry for Charlotte. She endured a lot of pain towards the second half of the story. In the beginning though I feel that Charlotte was a very confused individual and wasn't sure what she wanted to do with herself, or whom she wanted to interact with. When Montraville was first introduced to Charlotte I believe there was a instant attraction between the two, which is what caused Charlotte's confusion with what she wanted. I believe that La Rue is the one who truly convinced her to go with them to America, and was really being a friend at first, but while on the ship started to befriend Charlotte. I also think the fact that Montraville used Charlotte was a horrible thing. The way he impregnated and then deserted her and married another woman was a shame. Then when Charlotte went to her so called friend La Rue, she denied ever knowing whom she was and told the servants to take her away and out of her sight, for she said she was terrifying her to death. The way La Rue turned her back on her friend was terrible for Charlotte, and a horrible thing. I don't know how La Rue could do that to her, when she was carrying a baby and ill. Thankfully one of La Rue's servants said she could stay there until she could have help arrive for her. Although it was very sad that Charlotte passed, it was very nice of her parents to take in a raise Lucy.

All in all I think this was a very good book, even though it was a little bit confusing at first.

Essay Topic

I'm not exactly sure as of what I want to write my essay on. I have a three interests of topics in mind. I think writing about a teenager leaving home and trying to become independent would be a good topic to write about. I know that when I was getting ready for college, I couldn't wait to leave home and become independent and not have to rely on my parents. I was excited to be able to make my own rules and have everything the way that I wanted it not so much as how my parents wanted things. I also think writing about finding a role model would be a good topic too, because when you are developing in your childhood years everyone needs a role model in their life. They need someone they can look up to and be able to go to for advice. I thought I found a good role model to look up to when I was younger, but as the years went by I soon found that they weren't the best of role models to look up to. So I believe that every adolescent should have some type of good role model they can truely be able to look up to. The third topic that I think would also be interesting to write about is if adults can really write like a teenager, and have an authentic voice of a teenager. I believe that some adults may have the ability to write and sound authentically like a teenager, but it takes a very talented writer in order to be able to do so, and have their writing sound really good.

Hine- Part 2

Ch. Eleven Dead End Kids

In reading this chapter, one part that stood out the most to me was the fact that during the Depression high school enrollment increased by about 50 percent. Slightly less than half were between 14 and 16 in the 1930's, while by 1940 two thirds were in school. In the reading Hine's also noted that there was no point in dropping out at fourteen and fifteen or even sixteen to get a job, because there weren't any jobs out there for them.

I don't necessairly think that the Depression was a good thing, but the fact that the loss of jobs kept young children from dropping out of school just to work was a good thing. As a child, they have a responsibility of going to school and furthering their education. Although in the reading he says that with children being in school it helped keep children off the streets, until it became to over crowded and had to switch to double sessions. At least the child still had the option of going to school and getting the education everyone deserves.

I don't believe that any child or teenager for that matter, should have to decide whether or not they want to work and help support the family or go to school and get an education. I think that a teenager can have a part time job, but not to support the family, but rather have extra spending cash, or save it up for their car or what ever it maybe. The parents are suppose to do be the ones that take care of there children, not vice versa. I know that there are cases which the teenager may need to help, but they shouldn't have that weight on there shoulders at that age.

Now a days teenagers are starting to have part time jobs around the age of 16 or 17. They are still attending school, and many are even now going to college and furthering there education.

I know when I was still living at home my parents didn't want me to get a part time job until I knew that I could handle my school work and the job at the same time. My grades were more important than starting a part time job. They didn't want me to be stressed, they wanted me to be the teenager that I was, rather than be stressed out and my grades start to fail.