NON FICTION

"The Bravest Girl in the World" in the Upfront magazine is an article about a really brave girl named Malala Yousafzai. Malala is a teenage girl that isn't afraid of the Taliban. She believes in education for girls which brought her extreme troubles with the taliban. So much that the Taliban decided to end her life by shooting her in the head. They failed, Malala was still alive. She wasn't afraid of anyone because she knew that her idea was the right one. The author chose for this article to be an excerpt from Malala's book. The author of this article wanted us to know that Malala is inspirational and that we should look up to her. He does this by using quotes like "... the Taliban had never come for a girl..." and "I wasn't scared. She also tells a story about her life at school to prove the point. She talks about how she rides the bus, and how she was afraid for her dad. She was always proud of speaking against the Taliban. She was never afraid of what they might do. She also talks deeply about what happened when she was shot. All these point make us believe that she is inspirational. A teenage girl that said something had the Taliban so afraid that they had to shoot her. On top of that she continued to speak out after she recovered. This all makes us believe she is inspirational.

I believe that the author wants us to feel and think that Malala's message should be heard.  he does this by including the huge excerpt from malala's book and by talking about her many experiences. For example they talked about how Malala's dad was talking about the Taliban negatively. he made this point because we all would think they would shoot the man but they ended up shooting Malala. Another story was from when she went to the U.N. to speak publicly. She talked about how the Taliban's mission to silence her failed. Also that she wouldn't silenced. That they are afraid of knowledge,books, and learning.

Some of the craft moves that the author uses is trying to sympathize with you. The whole article starts off with a teenage girl going to school and being normal. I fell that this was out in to sympathize with teenagers. we all go to school, and have friends. Malala is just like us. But then it changes the mood when she starts talking about what she and her family believe. Then they say "His (father) close friend, and fellow campaigner, Zahid Khan, had just been shot in the face..." Then we are lefty thinking why are they shot for speaking their minds and ideas? In addition this is a very effective tool.

I agree with the author. Malala is truly incredible. For a girl so young she has done so much. She is an inspiration for all. Her ideas are spot on. this changed my mind on how the world works. On how some countires were able to pass on new ideas to others while some refused to accept them.

Legend and Prodigy by Marie Lu

The books Legend and Prodigy by Marie Lu are a good series of dystopian novels. The first book is Legend then comes Prodigy. They both have the same continuing characters June and Day. In the new book June and Day get separated for different Patriot missions. They are balancing their relationship at the same time. While also trying to get revenge on the Republic for what they did to Day in the first book.  I felt that these books were extremely addicting and left you with so many unanswered questions. these two books are similar. Both of these books answer the justice social action questions which are is justice served, and who blocks justice.

The question in both books is if justice is served. It's not. I also think it will never be served. It would take so much for June and Day to receive justice. For starters the Republic would have to be destroyed. They were the ones that killed Day's mom and brother. They made Day's little brother Eden a guinea pig by infecting him with a new strain of their biological weapon the plague. Also, they were the ones that murdered June's brother. Then they would have to do something about the fact that the kids who fail their trials get sent to be experimented on and die. I think that Day has too much anger in his heart now and won't ever forgive the Republic. June and Day are on the same level. They are both the republic's prodigies.

The other question, is who blocks justice. The thing that blocks justice is the republic government. They made Day hate them. they tested on him and took him away from his family. They are the reason that Day is so angry. They are also the ones that are preventing Day from bringing them down. Also June isn't so fond of the Republic. The republic government are the one who committed the injustice first. They are trying to prevent their downfall which I think will ultimately fail because we learn that Day and June are continuing with the Patriots.

In conclusion justice isn't served. it will take a lot for it to be served. Also, the thing that blocks justice is the Republic. Maybe in the third book June and Day find closure and actually get justice from them.

SA Blog Post John Carter of Mars

In the adventure book John Carter of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the author uses symbolism in the characters to represent a societal problem. I believe that a societal problem Edgar Rice is trying to portray in this book is racism. Many instance in this book shows a hidden type of racism.

One of the first examples of the hidden racism is when they capture the Princess of Jedak, Dejah Torris. The Martians that captured her are called the Green Martians because they are Green.The princess Dejah comes from Helium which is filled with Red Martians. Both of them are always fighting against each other. They all have different beliefs and feelings. They would do anything to destroy one another. The green men believe that they are superior and that they should enslave animals and the great white apes. the red men have opposite beliefs. They both also have different birth laws. This reminds me of the two political parties as well as racism. The Green men are kind of Republicans and how they want to be the rulers and enslave the "lesser" beings. Back in the Reconstruction Era in the United States, the Democratic Party was for slavery. But the Democrats and Republicans switched so now the democratic beliefs are republicans and the republican beliefs are in the democratic party. The Red men would be Democrats nowadays.

Another example of a hidden symbol of racism are the people on Mars that they call blacks and the white apes. The white apes are the slaves kind of that work underneath Mars. They are kind of the reason Mars has no real work like cropping and all those things. Also they treat the blacks differently than the others. I think this is a symbol for racism because of how white men used to treat African Americans. They used to treat them differently.

I think the book John Carter of Mars is filled with symbols from the author that signify Racism.
This was a very good book from an amazing trilogy. Better than the movie.

Argument Essay

A recent popular question has surfaced the youth of America. That question is, should some young adult fiction books be banned? Well, some YA fiction books should be challenged by adults and teachers, because the themes and topics that are discussed in YA fiction are to gruesome, images and descriptions of books are to grueling to look and imagine and they give thoughts to the kids reading it.

            The first reason YA fiction books should be allowed to be challenged by adults is because the content is gruesome. For example, according to the article “Darkness Too Visible” by Megan Cox Gurdon “So dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are just part of the run of things in novels directed, broadly speaking, at children from the ages of 12 to 18.” All of these topics and themes are in YA fiction nowadays. All of these topics that adults don’t even talk about normally, are being introduced at age 12 to young adolescents that are making the switch from fairytales, short stories and kids books to the horrid YA fiction realm. These are not all of the topics that are far more grueling ones such as murder, drugs, rape, sex, and etc. All of these topics sound like things from a police report. Aside from these horrid topics YA fiction is filled with profanity. According to the article “Should Young Adult Books Have Age Ratings?” by Husna Haq “ A recent study by Brigham Young University found that young adult bestsellers have twice the rate of cursing of video games and characters who swear are typically portrayed as wealthier, more attractive, and more popular than their clean-mouthed counterparts.” Which means we are letting our children read lines and lines of dialogue filled with words that if our kids said we would ground them. So what’s the point of protecting our kids from video games that contain violent topics and profanity, if they are already reading this in books?

            Another reason for challenging certain YA books is that they contain vivid descriptions and images of grueling things. “stomach clenching detail” (Gurdon 1) is the descriptions they give. These so called “book” descriptions sound like excerpts from horror movies rated R. For example in the book “The Hunger Games” kids are forced to murder each other with weapons until one is left alive for entertainment. Also in the book “Tweak” by Nic Sheff  which about a young man who struggles with substance abuse and is high on drugs like meth and heroin and likes to live the wild life having sex with girls and not caring about his health. Kids have vivid imagination. I could only imagine what kids would picture once they read about kids killing other kids, or a needle in someone’s arm injecting drugs into their veins. Some parts of books are very detailed descriptions that are inappropriate. For example in the various YA books such as again “The Hunger Games”, “Legend” by Marie Lu and “Divergent” there are description of death that are very detailed.

            Finally challenging YA books should be allowed without question is because it leaves kids with bad thoughts. Other people may think that people that are going through a bad time and have problems will find comfort and will be inspired by reading the same thing in YA fiction. One person is Sherman Alexie who wrote the article “Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood” which he states that his YA book has “inspired students” because “it was the student speakers who told the most important stories about survival.” While this is kind of true some kids that are struggling find comfort and are inspired after reading a YA book others don’t. Some kids might get the wrong idea. For example if a child were to read a book about drugs and they saw that no matter how much harm he had gone through he had been happy with himself and his choices, the child might think that drugs are good that they make you feel good which is not the case. Kids are easily influenced by what they hear and see. A bigger influence is their books. Not everyone is influenced the same way. We are all different people. Also Patrick Ness says that “Teenagers look at the Internet, they look at the news, they look at pornography on the internet, they look at violent movies on the Internet.” Yes this is true teens are aware of all of these things but why are we addressing them more? Shouldn’t we prevent them from at least reading about these things. Also not all of the demographic is for teens.  More kids are reading YA. Shouldn’t adults have the right to protect them?

            In conclusion YA books should be challenged without question because they portray gruesome and inappropriate themes and topics, their descriptions and images are gruesome and they leave negative thoughts. This debate could go on and on but it all goes down to the point where if kids can be protected from reading these things at such a young age, then they should be.

LEGEND by Marie Lu *SPOILER*

       In the book Legend by Marie Lu the main character is Day. The basic plot of this story is that Day is a young rebel kid who likes to steal and cause havoc throughout the Republic. One night he goes into a hospital to steal medicine for his sick brother and gets framed for killing a Republic official. June a young republic prodigy makes it her mission to capture Day. This is a very thrilling story and mysterious one. I believe that the relationship between Day and his family is strong.
       One of the reasons that I think the relationship between Day and his family is strong is because Day almost died for them. "I don't care, I just got to take care of Eden" Eden is sick with the plague. This is the main reason he went to obtain the cure in the hospital. He had to sneak into a Republic infested hospital filled soldiers just to get one vial of medicine.
        Another example would be when Day reviled himself to his family because they thought he had been dead. He told them to hide under the house because the Republic officials were coming. He was the first to come out fighting so his family can be okay. This was a very sad and devastating part of the story because even though Day fought against the officials they captured his two brothers and viciously murdered his mother in front of him. This part made me die a little inside.
        Finally his brother had a great and deep relationship with Day because he died for him. Day was sentenced to be put to death but June tried to help Day escape. So June broke his brother Daniel out of his cell and then, went to get Day. Day was knocked out and unconscious so they needed to buy time. Daniel took Day's bandana and ran towards the arena to make them kill him instead of Day so his little brother could escape. That's love.
         In conclusion Day's relationship between his family and himself is very strong, emotional and deep. He would do anything for his family and his family would do anything for him even though they didn't know he was still alive.

"Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood" by Sherman Alexie

      "Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood" by Sherman Alexie is about how YA fiction shouldn't be banned because YA books help kids that are going through problems and dark things. One way that Sherman Alexie show this is by adding mini stories. One story was about how he attended a high school filled with survivors of depression, attempted suicide, gang warfare, sexual and physical abuse, absentee parents, poverty, racism and learning disabilities. He talked to the students about his issues but he says that "-but it was the student speakers who told the most important stories about survival." He also tries to sympathize with the readers by telling his story about him facing these topics about abuse and drug addiction. He also tugs at the exact phrases of Gurdon's article. For example "Yes he was old enough to die and kill for his country. And old enough to experience the infinite horrors of war. But according to Ms. Gurdon he might be too young to read a YA novel." All of these techniques are used in order to make readers feel that Gurdon is wrong.

       The author Sherman Alexie wants us to think that Gurdon is wrong in saying that YA books are dark and horrible. He makes us do so buy using strong words and using his personal stories and other stories to get his point across. An example of a strong word would be the word infinite in the quote "old enough to experience the infinite horrors of war." Infinite is a powerful word. When I read this that made me think of never ending horrors which sounds really tragic and sad. What could be worse than an infinite number of horrors? This makes readers feel like there is nothing worse than what he's going through. This helps his statement that Sherman Alexie is trying to get out which is if they are old enough to experience infinite horrors than why can't they read 1 dark YA book.

        Another craft choice the author is using to sway you on his side is him trying to sympathize with readers. He says 'They tried to rescue me" and explains all of his past trauma and dark things in his life. Also he says "I can only wish, immodestly, that I'd been given the opportunity to read "The Absolutely True diary of a Part-Time Indian." Finally he says in the last paragraphs that "I write to give them weapons- in the form of words and ideas- that will help them fight their monsters." All of these quotes help Sherman Alexie sway the readers to agree with the main idea of the article which again, that YA books help kids that are going through problems and dark things. These quotes say that when he was going through these dark things he wished that he could read YA fiction to help him and now he writes YA fiction to help others with their problems. Which helps him prove his point. He also uses other stories from other people like the pregnant mothe and the teenage boy who wants to be a writer to help sympathize with the readers.

        I totally think that Sherman Alexie's point is right. Before I thought that of course young adults should be able to read young adult fiction without much fuss about what is written. But now I see that YA fiction is more than just darkness. YA fiction is helping other teens with their personal issues. which changed my point of view.

"Faithful Elephants"

          In the short story, "Faithful Elephants: A True Story of Animals, People and War" by Yukio Tsuchiya there are many symbols. Symbols are in the setting. Symbols are hidden throughout the story. The author does a great job with symbols as in making them meaningful and leaving the reader thinking if a tiny detail means something more. The symbols in the book are The Cherry Blossoms and when Tonky and Wanly daze at the sky.
         "Faithful Elephants" is about there elephants named John, Tonky and Wanly. This is the time of World War II in Japan. Bombs were dropped in Tokyo everyday. Zoo keepers get orders from the military to kill the zoo animals in fear of bombs destroying the animal's cages, and dangerous animals running free. The zoo keepers have a hard time, but they kill John. Then they kill Tonky and Wanly. The zoo keepers are upset and curse the war.
          Towards the middle of the passage it says "They just lay on their sides, hardly able to see the white clouds floating in the sky over the zoo. However, their eyes appeared to be clearer and more beautiful than ever." I think that this sentence signifies that Tonky and Wanly are going to heaven or a better place. Before this sentence the elephants are suffering because they are being starved to death. So this signifies no more suffering, no more sadness, it's all over. Usually when people suffer they want it to be over. I know I would like to be shot rather than suffer for so long. Them looking up at the sky and their eyes being more beautiful than ever means they're done going away no more suffering.
           Another symbol is found in the beginning of the passage and in the end. In the beginning it says "The cherry blossoms are in full bloom at the Ueno Zoo." This sentence means happiness and warmth. The cherry blossoms represents hope. They are in full bloom which represents spring. When flowers blossom it's in the spring and their in new life. The cherry blossom represents something that is new life and joyfulness. Sticking with the cherry blossom another place we see it is in the end of the passage.
           The end of the passage says " He was still patting the tombstone tenderly as the cherry blossoms fell on the grave like snowflakes." This sentence signifies death. When the cherry blossoms fall or an flower falls its because they're dead and they are making room for new flowers. In this case instead of signifying happiness, the cherry blossoms signify sorrow and sadness. The second part of the sentence, "like snowflakes" represents winter. In winter we think about death and resentment.
           All in all, symbols can be found throughout  the story. Two of them are the cherry blossom and a better place. " Faithful Elephants" is an amazingly written story that will make you cry.

The Last Olympian

               During the summer I re-read my absolute favorite series which was the Percy Jackson series. Now all the books in the series are and always will be amazing, but my favorite is probably the last book in the series which is The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan. The reason I like it is because it ends and awesome series in an amazing way and Percy changes more in this book. Percy realizes more about the end prophecy.
               Percy realizes many things one of which the fact that he isn't the hero in that prophecy. The actual hero was Luke and that surprised everyone. In fat Percy this as if Luke was never on Kronos's side and treated Luke like a real hero. Percy respected what Luke did in the end. I think I would pretty hard to realize that although you did many things for the cause you weren't the hero, but Percy took it well. He also changes by refusing to be immortal like his father and stay human. This was hard because in past books they were leading to the idea of heroes being immortal and he rejected his dad's offer. He really did change throughout the series.
               In conclusion The Last Olympian  was an amazing book. Percy changes and realizes he isn't the real hero. This is a truly great for anyone.