Loneliness

Have you ever felt like no one was there to help you through hard times?

I know I have.

            The book How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr is about two 17 year old girls, Jill and Mandy, with no one in their lives to help or support them and how they struggle together. Mandy is pregnant and Jill’s dad is dead. Jill’s mom, Robin, wants to adopt Mandy’s baby. One of the themes in the book is loneliness can always be ‘fixed’.

            A reason for Jill’s loneliness is her dad dying. Jill shuts everyone out and when she wants company and a friend, no one’s there for her. Although she is lonely, Jill is able to put an end to (or fix) her loneliness. For example, Jill reaches out to the people she had previously shut out. Slowly, Jill and her ‘ex-friends’ move forward towards friendship. “It’s the third time in about a week I've had lunch with Laurel and Cinders. They’re warming up to me again. It feels mostly good…” This shows that Jill moved forward and tried to be more with the people who were once her friends and hopefully will be again, because they’re eating lunch together and talking again.

            A reason for Mandy’s loneliness is because her mom shuts her out from the real world. Also, her being pregnant and having a baby at a young age, gives people bad assumptions, and makes them act unfriendly towards her. “my mother took me out for ice cream…”Eat up, Mandy, while you can,” she said… she said from then on I had to watch my weight… I couldn't be friends with boys… I should never come out of my room fully dressed… I had to use deodorant and wash my hair every day and not sit cross-legged or run around the schoolyard... “Your childhood is over.” I was only just eleven.” This shows that Mandy’s mom is the reason that Mandy’s lonely because she doesn't give her the time to be a kid, even at eleven. Although, Mandy faces these problems, other people end (or fix) her loneliness. Thanks to Robin and Jill, they make her feel like she has a home, support and friends who care about her. They also adopt Mandy, instead of the baby in the end.

            This connects to my 6^th grade year. Moving to a new middle school there wasn't anyone I knew. For the 1^st two weeks, I only focused on my schoolwork which caused me to have no friends in my class. I decided it had to change. So I walked up so someone and said hi… all leading to a new friendship and an end to loneliness.

            All in all, what I’m really trying to say is that teens tend to feel like no one is there to help them with tough situations, but there’s always some way to end or ‘fix’ their loneliness. Either they can ‘fix’ it themselves, or someone might come along and help you ‘fix’ it. Everyone can end their loneliness and/or help others end theirs.

A Long Walk to Water

Over the summer, I wanted to try a different type of book than I normally read so I tried A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. It's a pretty short book so I decided it would be a good book to try something new on. It's about a boy leave his town and family because a war is going on. He makes a trip across Africa in the desert to find a safe haven, food and water. In the future, a girl everyday two times a day has to fetch water for her family 8miles away. She can't do anything else during the day. As the books continues, Salva (the boy) and Nya (the girl)'s paths cross in an unexpected way.

This book was okay. I was really glad that I tried a new genre but didn't find myself getting lost in the book until the end. I prefer when you get sucked right in with books. I thought it was fun how the character roles alternated and felt sympathetic for Nya, who really wants to go to school but can't because her family needs the water.

I would recommend this book to people who enjoy books based on true stories. I don't think I would recommend this book to a younger child or teenager though because (sorry adults) it's a bit boring and sometimes as a younger person, you don't understand the struggle of surviving.

First post ever!!

During the summer, I read a book required for school that I really enjoyed. It's called The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler. It's about a girl named Emma, in the time period of 1996, who gets her first computer. At the time, Facebook didn't exist but on a small sidebar in her email account, a link to Facebook was there. It showed Emma herself but 15 years later. With her best friend Josh, Emma learns more about her future. Josh having a superb future but Emma -- a not so great one. So Emma does things in the present to try and fix her future... causing wacky things to happen!

I liked this book because having a Facebook of my own I knew what the story was talking about. It was funny to see what Emma thought about the account and interesting to see how she tried to change her future. I didn't expect the ending but enjoyed it anyway. There are some suspenseful moments when you think the authors are going to reveal some information about Josh and Emma's relationship situation but end up not giving anything away and leaving you with even more suspense (I love those type of moments!!!).

I would recommend this book to everyone because it's a pretty easy book since we know about the future (Facebook) that Emma's clueless about, giving us a small advantage on the book. It's also a fun, read-in-1-day sort of book that everyone loves to settle down with on a rainy day. So... just read the book already! :)