Reading Response for Finally 12

            The book I’m reading is called “Finally 12” by Wendy Mass is a young adult book about Rory Swenson the main character growing up. Rory has been waiting all her life to finally be 12, for her parents to finally live up the promises that they have said over the years. She thinks she ready for anything now that she’s finally 12… but is she? Through this journey of Rory Swenson life, following her through the months of growing up we find out that maybe everything she ever wanted isn’t what she thought it would be.

            Rory Swenson isn’t the most popular girl you could say but she has a plan for that. On her 12^th birthday she has kept all the things her parents have promised her for her birthday over the years. In the book she even says “I bet my parents are hoping I’ll forget some of the things they’ve promised me over the years. But I’ve been writing them all sown so not a single on slips through the cracks.” The quote shows that Rory is very persistence to get these promises and won’t let one single one slip out of her sight.   One of the first things she does when turning 12 is get rid of all the kiddies things in her room, this means her favorite teddy bear called Throckmorton, when she does this is thinking to be grown up you have to throw away your childhood which is very wrong. In the end of the book I think she learns that she can still be a little kid no matter how old she is, the last sentence in the book is “maybe Sawyer (her little brother) and Throckmorton would like to join me in the fort.” This is a really important quote in the sentence because she thought that growing up was the best thing and she couldn’t wait for it, but towards the end of the book she realizes that growing up isn’t everything and she learns that she can always still be a little kid no matter how old you feel.

            I felt that this related to teen issues a lot because every teenager wants to grow up already and leave his or her child hood behind. I think the author was trying to get across the message that you can never leave behind your childhood because that’s such a big part of who you are. I think at a point people forget that you can try as hard as you want to forget your childhood but it is a huge part of you and will always have a place in your heart.

Reading Response: Looking for Alaska

Moira Griffin

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Reading Response: Looking for Alaska

            Have you ever wanted to change your life? Be someone different? Maybe happier, or more popular or funnier? Well many things in life can cause major changes, like love or birth or death, but we can also can also be changed in smaller ways by the people we meet or by the books we read. Looking for Alaska by John Green is a book that tells a heart-wrenching story about death, love, mystery and fear, with a character going through difficult changes in life.

            The story begins with Miles, the main character, alone at his own going away party. The party is to celebrate him leaving to go to a boarding school in Alabama. This is a big part in the story because it will show how Miles changes throughout the story, from a lonely and unconfident kid to someone who knows who he or she is and who feels more self-assured. Throughout the story Miles reflects character growth by meeting new people and trying new things.

            “I was more or less forced to invite all my ‘school friends’ i.e., the ragtag bunch of drama and English geeks I sat with by a social necessity in the cavernous cafeteria of my public school, and I knew they wouldn’t come,” says Miles on the first page when he is telling the reader about his going away party and how no one showed up. This quote introduces the character Miles as someone that doesn’t have any friends. So over time he develops this friendship with Alaska, her friends and other people. As his friendships grow he also grows and changes into someone more confident and social. In the next line, Miles mentions, “the Colonel (one of Miles’ friends) didn’t tell me where he was going to spend the evening he just shut the door behind him and left, so I guess I wasn’t welcome.” This quote shows that he automatically thinks he wasn’t invited because he didn’t know what Colonel was doing. This gives the impression that Miles is not that confident around his friends. Throughout the novel you can see Miles is able to socialize more and he begins to take down some of the walls he has built up over the years.

            Miles changes as a character in the story as the challenges he faces grow. Towards the end of the book Colonel says “But we will deal with those bastards, Pudge. I promise you. They will regret messing with one of my friends.” This shows that Miles, also known in the story as Pudge, has grown as a character because in the beginning of the book he does not really have any friends. For someone to call him a friend shows that Miles has developed stronger relationships. Miles has changed from someone who might have been more shy and timid to a person who is now more outgoing and sociable. In another section, Miles stands up for his new friend and says, “He walked out of the room, again just assuming I'd follow, and this time I did.“ In this case, Miles makes the decision, showing how he has developed as a character.

            In the end my opinion about the book Looking for Alaska is that it is remarkable and holds many different stories of both love and death. John Green wrote a beautiful book, which holds many wonders and many adventures that Miles goes through, but mainly the author shows Miles going through changes to find himself.

Ashes by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Moira Griffin                                                                                                                    808

Many writers use symbolism to appeal to the reader’s emotions and to clarify the meaning in the story. The story is about a teenage girl named Ashleigh (nicknamed Ashes for short) who has divorced parents, with her mom as a on top of it parent and her dad as a lazy, not really caring parent, she still seems to think very fondly of her dad in the beginning, thinking he’s the best parent. As the story goes on her opinion on him seems to shift. As we follow ashes though the story, the author uses symbolism to keep the reader understanding whom she is and ultimately, to guess who she will decide to be

            Throughout the story, the weather mirrors ashes relationship with her father. An example of this would be “That winter, it felt like every time I saw my father, the sun cast off just a little more warmth than it had the day before. I don’t remember a gray day when I saw him.” Ashleigh says this line on the first page, showing that her father makes her very happy and she looks forward to seeing him. On the last page Pfeffer writes, “ I looked out the window and saw only ash gray sky.” The quote here is showing that her opinion on here dad changed out through the story. This is presented by the change of weather, which was from always sunny and warm days to gloomy and gray days. This shows that Susan used weather to compare to the dads relationship with the Ashes.

In the story, the necklace is symbolized with the dad and how he can never keep a promise. The reference by Ashleigh “ when I was little, dad used to promise me the stars for a necklace, but like most promises, that one never quite happened.” This symbol stands for how her dad always made promises he could not keep. It also displayed the little bit of distrust that she felt in her dad because he could never keep to anything he would say.

During the story the teapot, symbolized the dream life the she will never get. The quote that Ashleigh says is “ it was shaped like a little house with a curtained window and a flowerpot on the windowsill. It was the sort of house I would never live in.” The quote symbolizes here dream that she knew she couldn’t get. The quote also demonstrates that Ashleigh’s dreams of living in her dream house are crushed by reality.

            Symbolism helps tell the story by showing the growth of Ashleigh. This story has a lot of symbols to show how Ashleigh, the main character, deals with her issues of the father. In the end we are able to see the character growth that Ashleigh has gone through. The author shows us the change of character by using symbols instead of words.

Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech

One book I read this summer was Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. This book is about a girl named Sal how tries to find herself. In the book she goes on a crazy adventure with her and her grandparents unravels a crazy story about her and her friend. On this adventure she looking to find her but at the same time trying to find her mother who had passed already.

            In the first few chapters it explains her past, like how her mother had died and how she moved after that from this big farm with trees and swimming hole to this small town with not a single barn or swimming hole. In my opinion this made Sal feel real lost inside and confused that she leaving all these precious memory of her home and her mom and moving to this small town with here dad. Soon in the book she and her grandparents go to visit her moms grave in Lewiston, Idaho. Towards the end of the book I feel like Sal is begging to let go of her past to make room for her future because she finally learned to accept the past, which made it easier to let go of it.

            I feel like this book connects to teenagers because a lot off teenagers go a period in their life where they don’t know who they are yet. They might feel lost sometimes or confused about who they are which is normal. At points I feel like kids think they should know who they are always and never be confused about it, but that’s not true at points everyone has felt misplaced and has had to stop and find out who they are truly. For some people that might take a week and for others it might take a year or two, which is perfectly normal.