Stay

     The book “Stay” by Deb Caletti is a really good, complex book. It’s about a girl named Clara. Clara is like any other teenage girl. She thinks and feels normal. 

     But then Clara finds true love and her life turns into a complete crazy mess in good and bad ways. At first, Christian seemed perfectly harmless and normal. They met each other and it was love at first sight. They were harmless; just two people who spend all their time together.

     But then Christian gets more and more obsessive and it gets worse. Clara can’t even have dinner without him being there. It gets so bad that he starts stalking her and Clara starts to get scared.

     If I were Clara I would be really scared myself. It is unimaginable to be stalked.  Even if it is your boyfriend. They didn’t even know each other very long when he started acting strange and creepy. Clara tries to break up with him but he does not leave her alone. Eventually, they have to go as far as telling her dad and calling the police.

     This story makes me think a lot about how intense that must be for a family. Clara’s mom had also died. You don’t find out until the end that she had drowned and that it was the dads fault. It was a really intense scene and really scary. Especially since after that, Clara almost drowned.

     I also feel that if Clara's fathers perspective was included, the book would be completely different. He is a big part of the story. He had to do with many of the events that took place. I like how Deb Caletti decided to only share Clara's part because we would have already known the mysterious secrets if the dad's point of view was revealed. 

Martin Espada

    Martin Espadas poems “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School”, “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson”, and “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877” all show discrimination. I think that Martin Espada has experienced this type of racial discrimination in his life. This is based on the furry he expresses in his writing. I can also relate to many of his points about unfairness.
    In the poem “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School” Martin Espada gives the reader a clear picture of boys speaking Spanish in the bathroom of an English school. The principle is in the bathroom stall when he hears his name. Although he does not know what the boys were saying about him, he assumes the worst and immediately bans Spanish from being spoken in the school bathroom. The action of banning Spanish was discriminatory towards the boys because they were not even given the chance to defend themselves. Their language, a huge part of their culture was taken away from them without a fight. Martin Espada did not express his anger so openly as he did in other poems. Instead, he made the poem brief and made the reader acknowledge the discrimination by getting right to the point. As I thought about this for a while, I came to a conclusion that the principle was most likely white and had never had his culture or language taken away from him.
    In “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson” there is a boy who is upset because his name is continuously mispronounced. I can infer that his name is of great importance to him because of the way he describes how he wants to “hijack a busload of Republican tourists.” I also feel as though this poem is based off of the author’s personal experiences. I think this considering that his name is Martin. It is a name descended from a non-American culture. It is Spanish and is usually pronounced differently in America. Perhaps it is culturally special to him because the mispronunciation affects him greatly. It is unfair and discriminate towards people who’s names are always mispronounced when people do not care enough to try to get it right. I can relate to this issue because my name isn’t very common and it is annoying when nobody can pronounce it.
    In “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877” Espada sets a scene from the past. It involved vigilantes taking charge and people being hung. I think Martin Espada wants the readers to think about the abusive power in this situation. People of different cultures were being tortured and discriminated. Another sign of the authors relationship to Spanish culture is when he involves Spanish rituals. This includes “the Virgen de Guadalupe” and “Dia de los Muertos.”
    The three poems, “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School”, “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson”, and “Two Mexicanos lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877” by Martin Espada, all show discrimination. Though all the topics are different, the author seems to relate back to discrimination in every poem. According to his writing, it is something he is passionate about and feels he needs to get his point across. I agree with these multiple issues. Discrimination is a big problem and must be identified by all people.

Just Listen To Yourself

     In the book I'm reading, Just Listen by Sarah Dessen, the main character, Annabel, is having trouble communicating with everyone she meets. There's her mom, who wants her to continue modeling when it's not in her best interest. There's her sister Whitney, who's eating disorder is adding weight on the whole family, and she just doesn't know that. There's Sophie, her ex-best friend, who doesn't really know the full truth about the night she fought with Annabel. And then there's Owen, a quiet boy at their school. Owen and Annabel barely know each other, but Owen has already taught Annabel to be honest, be courageous, and really listen to other people. The book is called Just Listen meaning just listen to others, but I think the title really has a deeper meaning.

     Reading this book has taught me a lot about opening up to other people in your life. There are so many people worth getting to know around you that you wouldn't be exposed to otherwise. At my point in the story, you are starting to really get to know Annabel's character, and I'm seeing the way that she interacts with others. To me, I see that Annabel is a very good listener. She always listens to what her sisters and parents have to say, and of course what Owen tells her. Although she finds it easy to listen to other people, I feel like Annabel has a harder time listening to herself.

     Annabel always tries to please others and tell them exactly what they want to her. I feel as if Annabel isn't listening to herself or her needs. Owen is always telling her to just listen, and Annabel always listens to Owen. I think that if Annabel really listened to herself, she would tell her Mom that she didn't want to model. She would tell her sister Whitney that she needed to take care of herself, and explain what a weight she was putting on the family. She would tell Sophie that it was never really like that and she didn't know the true story. And she would tell Owen what she really thought about him, and how she was planning to go about it.

     I think that everyone can definitely relate with Annabel. I'm pretty sure there has most likely been a point in everyone's life when they didn't listen to what they wanted, and instead went the easy way out and put someone else's priorities before their own. Obviously, it's okay to put someone else before yourself. What most people don’t realize is it’s not selfish to address your own needs. There comes a point in everyone's life when it's important to show what you want and listen to yourself. 

It's Kind of a Funny Story (kind of spoiler)

 The book It’s kind of a funny story is a great book written by Ned Vizzini. The book is about a boy named Craig who is mentally depressed and suicidal. Craig is a freshman in high school and he is under a huge amount of stress. Craig used to be on anti-depressants, but then he stopped because he thought he was all better. But he wasn’t. One night, Craig was really serious about killing himself, he even thought of a plan. At three in the morning he was going to go to the Brooklyn bridge and jump off of it, but he started to freak out and instead he called suicide hotline and they told him to go to a hospital.

     I think Craig did the right thing by calling the suicide hotline. I bet it would be really, really hard to just stop in the middle of about to kill yourself and call someone. That is really intense stuff to just stop in the middle of doing. Craig is a smart kid, he knows what hes doing and I think he just had a really bad night and freaked out. I feel so bad for Craig, he is only 14 years old and he is immensely suicidal. The only people that know is his family and that must be a really hard thing to hide.

     Craig got the full treatment he needed at the hospital. They sent him to a mental unit in the hospital that helped him realize that he has his whole life ahead of him and he shouldn’t end it. Craig was suicidal the entire first part of the book, and what I think really triggered him to almost kill himself, are two very important things in his life. First, I think his family and friends really didn’t help him all that much even though they wanted to. They even made him more depressed without meaning too. Also, I think that Craig’s school also made him more suicidal, he had too much pressure on him.

     I think one of the reasons that Craig became more depressed was because of his friends and family. Of course they all love him very much and never meant to make things worse but they did. His family is always asking him how he is doing and they are always wondering if he needs something. This makes him feel like there is something wrong with him, like he is crazy and he should feel bad about himself. That is not going to help him in life. Also I think that his friends don’t realize it, but they don’t help much either. They don’t know that Craig is suicidal and they joke around with him a lot and act like friends should, and they are a little harsh on each other but in a loving way. But what they don’t realize is, that Craig probably doesn’t take it like that. He feels that his friends aren’t really serious about life. Also Craig’s best friend named Aaron is dating the girl he likes and that must be really hard. He has to watch them be in love with each other while he is just sort of there.

     The other thing that I think stressed Craig out is his school. Craig is a freshman and he lives in New York just like me. He has to take a specialized test to get into the high school that he wants to go to. So he starts studying really, really hard and he gets into that school. The only problem is, that it is a really high pressure school that stresses him out a lot and he has a lot of pressure to do well. I can relate to Craig, my school isn’t like that, but I am taking that same exact test and I know how hard it is. And if you get in, the school is really hard and stressful and it can’t help Craig at all. It will just make him more depresse
     It’s kind of a funny story is a really amazing book and since Craig is basically my age, I feel like I can really connect with him. Eventually in the end, everything gets sorted out and he isn’t depressed anymore. In this book I feel like I can really picture everything that happens. I can follow Craig’s life and know whats going on. I feel bad for Craig. How awful must it be to be going through such a rough patch in your life and only be in 9^th grade! I mean that is really intense stuff he is going through. Overall, Craig made the right choice to call that suicide hotline because otherwise, he would have died.