Nomad

All my notes I took while I was writing:

• rowdy cares about him enough to reply to email (using humor to try to be friends?)

• starts to be lucky with suit & roger

• will he get cocky?

• sis too caught up in boy? Will something bad happen because she is caught up with him?

• total underdog, rooting for him at tryouts

• heart hurts when he gets hit in game

• coach cool- was he underdog too?

• christmas :(((((

• maturing, realizes he has good parents

• gay ppl in indian culture magical, true??

• then just killed the grandma so fast after really describing her

• alcoholics end up either dead or in jail or sober (AA saying which seems to hold true in this book)

• will dad stop drinking after g'ma killed?

• forgiveness (is this a theme that is lacking in Indian culture? The g'ma seems like she is a rarity so it would make sense that forgiveness would be semi-rare)

• starts to get happy then sad again

• takes death for them to leave him alone- messed up

• ted: what is his purpose in the novel?

• so much death

• bobby killed eugene then himself (Death/murder/drinking are an evil cycle)

• Junior said he drew more to cope with grief: now more drawings in the novel now

• cultural curse? Thinks he cursed his sister, are curses a cultural belief?

• Gordy is the smarter foil to Rowdy? Or replacement Rowdy?

• They respect junior, which seemed impossible from the start of the book

• list of musicians: puts others favorites first, shows how much he values family members and their thoughts/opinions

• hatred: wanting to beat rowdy, haven't really seen a 'hatred' side in Junior before

• white vs indian ball game- supposed to be like how they used to fight? alluding to the old fights that americans used to have with indians

• was rowdy going easy on junior in the game?

• really maturing for realizing that indians didn’t have anything after he beat them

• desperately wants rowdy back

• dead sister

• mom says 'don’t leave me' but he already kind of has

• did rowdy love Junior's sister and that's why he was hiding in the woods and blaming Junior for her death?

• now junior has to deal with guilt

• Is it worth it to leave the rez? You take the chance of dying 
•  Predictable ending, that they are friends again

 My notes are all over the place, but that's the progression as I was reading. I thought that Junior really matured through this section of the book. He realizes how lucky he is with the parents he has but also he realizes that winning isn't everything. It seems like he starts to get cocky but I think the win actually put him back in his place and made him less cocky which was surprising. In the end, Rowdy and Junior were friends again which was a bit predictable. But it wouldn't have really made sense any other way. I felt like the book was up and down, meaning happy and sad. Just when things were going well, something bad would happen, and then something good, then something bad. But that also made it less predictable too because most of the times YA books are so happy and it was nice to have a somewhat 'darker' one. Everyone seems to die off quickly and unpredictably. Is Alexie trying to make a statement about how life is short or something?
I'm glad we read this book, especially in the spring. It's entertaining and one that I can actually understand. And it has pictures!!! It's also a great time to read this book because as most everyone is getting senioritis, this book keeps people entertained. I also love how we're examining it for deeper meanings, because I've never done that in YA or kids books. I love this book, I really do because while it is still a YA book, it's not one in the traditional sense.

TATDOAPTI

The last time I read this was in middle school. I've always loved this book but I feel like it made me feel really upset. Or maybe because I'm already upset.
But I felt like it started off just upsetting. Like how he has water on his brain, and no friends, and everyone beats him up, and he has alcoholic parents, and he's poor.
I guess my first question is is this representative of Indians? Are most Indians that live on reservations poor and upset and alcoholics?
I feel like at Severn, we don't learn about other cultures that much so it is nice to read about them through books.
I think Junior lost something when he gained something. Almost like a sacrifice. He lost his childhood friend because he wanted to go to a new school. That's sad too. It's said that his friend couldn't support him. It's like you can't have the best of both worlds, you have to either have the friends or the school.
I also see Junior as a lot older than he actually is. With alcoholic parents, the kids usually "grow up" faster than other kids because the parents are absent (emotionally or physically).
At the start of the book, I thought Junior had no balls. But it turns out that he really does. He does something crazy by going to the new school. He knew nothing about it and knew no one but he knew he would be one of the only Indians and he still did it. That takes a whole lot of balls. He also seems like he has tenacity. He's been beat up and poor and not the best life, but he is still pushing through and trying to do the best that he can. That could also be conveyed as him having hope. Mr. P probably saw the hope in him and wanted to 'save' him while he could. Junior seems different than a lot of other people on the Rez. He seems like he is self motivated and wants to succeed. He decided to go to the new school and he sometimes walks 22 miles to get there. He goes to great lengths to get the education that he wants.
I was probably most upset by the fact that when he took the drawing to Rowdy how his dad acted and how Rowdy acted. Maybe Rowdy is jealous that Junior is out doing these great things while he doesn't feel like he can. I hope that they become friends again.
I feel like I can kind of relate to Junior so I'm happy that I'm reading this book again in high school. When I transitioned from Annapolis to Severn, all my Annapolis friends didn't want to be my friend because I was going to the "rich" school. We have a lot of other similarities too, like parents and the whole friend issue.
I didn't remember exactly what happened in the book but as I read it, it started to come back to me. One time I was reading this book in 49 West and Ms. Lewis the librarian came in drunk with her friends and one of the guys tried to talk to me about Sherman Alexie and I knew nothing about him. So I will go research him now. But it was really funny to see a teacher in public, especially drunk. I thought teachers lived at school?
(p.s. thank you so much for giving me extra time to do it. Going to the wake last night put me behind for today so thank you for letting me have extra time to get caught up on this, I really appreciate it.)

Bluest Eye: Part 2

I'm not sure I really liked this book. I would have lived it more if Claudia was narrating it the whole time, but I didn't like how the book always skipped around. Also, it did make me uncomfortable. I know that you said it is good to read books that make you feel uncomfortable, so I guess that was good, but it's tough to read about rape.
I thought that when the "Spring" section began, that it would be lighter and happier, since Spring often symbolizes rebirth/new beginnings. I was very surprised when it was none of that.
When we watched the video in class about the picture ads and women (sorry I forget the name) it mentioned that women are often portrayed as objects. Because of this, it makes it easier to abuse someone. I thought that was relevant to the book. The women all seem like objects and then men can do whatever they want to them. Mr. Henry touches Claudia, Cholly rapes Pecola, and everyone is beaten/whipped.
I thought it was interesting when the girls described Maginot Line/Miss Marie because it sounded like they were describing a tree. It was also sad to see that Mrs.Breedlove was nicer to the girl she was watching than her own daughter.
One thing I did like about this book was how they gave the back story on Pauline and Cholly. Pauline seemed like any other girl, she wanted to feel pretty and understood and just jumped at the opportunity to marry someone who saw her that way.
(Side note on page 116 when they are describing the brownness of the teeth, everyone in Africa had that and they had teeth missing. I wonder if that is just an African American thing?)
I liked when it said that Pauline went to the movies and then she learned about physical beauty. It's a bad drug, it's terrible and it makes me mad that there is an example of a 'perfect' person.
I thought they married too quickly. They may have had "young love" but it quickly fell apart. I thought that Pauline had a fine upbringing other than her foot, but I felt like Cholly was destined for failure. He was left on a railroad, raised by a great aunt, watched by white men, and rejected by his dad. I can't imagine having to go through all of that and imagining how sad I would have been. In part 1, I thought that the dad was just a crazy dick. But now after learning his story, I have more compassion. That doesn't mean I'm okay with what he did, it just means that I can kind of see how it happened.
On page 127, they are describing a little white girl getting bathed. I could see all of this in my head. I could imagine this happening, but then I realized that if it was a black child, I don't think I could have imagined that just because that's never something that's really shown. I haven't really read many books where the characters are black, but I feel like that's because there really aren't that many compared to the amount of books there are where characters are white.
ALSO what is up with Soaphead Church? I don't get why he's just introduced at the end of the book. I understand how it relates to the title because the girl comes and asks him, but I'm not sure why he was a character and why he was introduced so late in the novel. That kind of bugged me. And how can he be all religious and then force the girl to kill a dog???
I really like Claudia and Frieda and it's a shame that they aren't in the novel more. Are they still considered main characters even though the story focuses more on Pecola and her family?
I feel like Claudia and Frieda are super compassionate, especially when they want to pray to God to help Pecola and even bury their money. That's so sweet and it brought some happiness into the book.
Lastly, I don't understand the dialogue on page 193. I know one of the girls in Pecola, but who is the other? And what is the author's purpose in including it? I'm just confused by the whole conversation. Is it supposed to serve as a recap of the book in a way?
This book was just okay. I would rate it like 6/10. I really didn't like how the characters were switching and the narrator didn't remain the same. I thought that really ruined the story for me. But it was also better than some of the other books we read.
I'm looking forward to reading "The Absolutely True Diary....(i dont want to type the whole name out since it is long but I probably should have instead of typing this side note). I've read that book like 3 times and I love it.

Beauty Myth

First of all, I love when things I read can relate to other classes. Recently in Women in America, we have been studying advertisements on how women were and are portrayed, from the 1800s until modern times.
I know that this essay was written in 1991, so it would be interesting to see how Naomi Wolf would rewrite it now.
I always love when writers use statistics because it seems more credible, but I was shocked at the statistics in the third paragraph. Especially the follow up on statistics on page 492. I know that anorexia and bulimia has been rising more than it has ever been. I also have had the opportunity to talk to girls who are this way, and it’s shocking to hear what they have to say. One quote that struck me was on page 487, “American women . . . would rather lose ten to fifteen pounds than achieve any other goal”. I battled with my weight last year and was a lot smaller than I should be, and I can say that now I’m so much happier. But it’s shocking to me that some women would rather lose weight than achieve a goal of lets say getting a raise at work, or accomplishing something in the work world. Instead of being powerful, women would rather be pretty.
I thought it was interesting to see how Wolf wrote about beauty. I loved the paragraph on page 489 that said that beauty was related to their behavior. I had never thought about it that way until now, and she gives some great examples.
One thing I disagreed with is when she says that “strong men battle for beautiful women” isn’t true. I believe that it is entirely true, but maybe this is just a generation gap that I feel this way. As much as I hate it, I do think it is true that the strongest men always want the most beautiful girl.
I think that advertisements were women’s downfall. I liked how Wolf said that this “beauty myth” wasn’t really a thing until the 1830s because this was the first time things were being reproduced and mass marketed. I would have loved to live before the 1830s just to see what it was like to be a women.
Another thing that related to my Women in America class was the “Iron Maiden” reference. We studied how Hilary Clinton was seen as an “Iron Maiden” while Sarah Palin was seen as the more beautiful one. In their campaign, the news only really covered their outfits and how they looked, rather than their actual politics. Because Hilary wasn’t “the prettiest” by media standards and since she was a powerful woman, she was seen as an iron maiden and nagging wife. I loved that this article gave the history of the Iron Maiden from medieval Germany.
I’m a bit confused by the title “Beauty Myth” though. Maybe there is something that I wasn’t picking up in the article, but I feel that beauty is not a myth. Being a teenager, these ideals of beauty are thrown in my face everyday. If I go to the store or turn on tv, the ideals of the perfect woman are everywhere! So I’m not sure why she says it’s a myth, that’s the only clarification that I need.
Other than the bit of confusion, I really liked this piece. I thought it was well written and informative, and I really loved how I can relate it to my other class, as well as relate it to my life by being a teenage girl.

The Bluest Eye: 1

By looking at the cover and title, I didn't think this book would be about African Americans. They don't normally have blue eyes, and the cover makes it look like some European novel with the fancy cursive lettering. Then I looked at the back and read the little plot summary and saw the picture of the writer and was like, "woah."
I guess my first question is does the narrator switch from chapter to chapter? Because it feels like it is different, like Claudia is narrating some and someone else is doing other parts?
It feels like Claudia's narration doesn't really match her character too, because she is 9 I believe and the way she's narrating makes her seem like she's older than she actually is. 
I definitely like the sister Frieda more than Claudia because shes sassy but caring and she seems like she'd be a pretty cool person to be friends with because she seems tough too. She reminds me more of a mother figure which makes sense because the oldest child is kind of like that.
In the chapters about Claudia and Frieda, it seems like a coming of age novel and I hope that if it ends up being that, that it's not super cliche.
When you told us that we may skim over parts, I only found very few sections where that's the case. It's only when she goes into descriptive mode and describes people but gives them no name and it seems like there's no reason to include that in the story.
Not sure how I feel about Mr. Henry. At first I thought he was kinda cool for giving the girls money for ice cream and doing magic, but I realize now he just gave them money to get them out of the house.
And poor Pecola, that's all I have to say about her because it's sad. Everything about her gave me the feels.
And lastly, what was up with the first chapter about the house and  the family and why is it used as titles for the chapters?
My immediate thought was that the writing of that chapter and the titles make it seem like someone might have a mental illness, and by your email that GAVE AWAY A SPOILER WITHOUT DECLARING THAT THE EMAIL HAD A SPOILER ALERT I'm going to assume that whichever girl gets raped (which I'm guessing is Pecola) suffers from a mental illness after being raped.
Everyone said that this is a terrible/boring book  but I honestly don't think it's bad. I enjoyed reading most of it.
But then again I have nothing else to do on my Saturday night so my life is thrilling. Yay.

Purple Hibiscus Part 2

For this post, I'm going to comment on things I found significant in the book based on the annotations I made...
Page 111: Kevin kind of is two-faced. He tattles on the kids to their father, but then he does things the father wouldn't like, like bribery. The kids don't tattle on him.
Page 114: Aunt Ifeoma's village and house is the "Africa that we know". Like Adichie talked about, we're often only shown one side of Africa, the poor side. That is what is being shown here, a village and family that is lacking money. It's interesting that Adichie showed the rich part first. I wonder what effect the book would have on the reader if the story was switched around to show the aunt's village before the father's.
Page 116: It's clear that Amaka is jealous of Kambili. How old is Amaka? I feel like she hasn't developed a filter yet, that's why she is so rude to Kambili.
Page 121: Again, the poor side of Africa with the toilet is shown. This is exactly what the readers expect to see when they read about Africa.
Page 125: I thought the difference in religion between the two families was interesting. I wonder how this difference came about. Is it a village difference?
Page 128: The purple hibiscus which shows the mixing of culture. Does this mean that the Aunt is a peacemaker?
Page 142: Since you said the book will have a plot twist, I wrote: "Will Kambili kill Amaka?" But after reaching page 206, I think that's highly unlikely.
Page 145: I HATE THE FATHER. HOW CAN HE THINK HE WILL GO TO HEAVEN BY CUTTING OFF HIS KID'S FINGER AND ABUSING HIS CHILDREN. I HATE HOW HE POURS WATER ON THEM LATER AND BEATS HIS WIFE. One would think that since he is so religious, he would not beat his children. But it's cool that Jaja found a passion, gardening, that he likes.
Page 150: It's sad to me that she prays for her grandpa to be saved. The part that is so sad is that she doesn't know any better, since it's something her dad has taught her to do.
Page 161: I liked the story that the grandpa told. It reminded me of the stories that they told in TFA.
Page 170: When the aunt told Kambili to talk back to her. . . I have mixed feelings about that. First, it was bad that she wasn't correcting her own child, but it was good that she was telling Kambili to grow a pair.
Page 173: Kambili and Father Amadi sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G. Here is the first sign that she has a crush on him. It's cool to see it evolve through the chapter because it seems like he gives her more self confidence.
Page 179: The first time Kambili laughs in the book.
Page 181: Just when I thought the book would be uplifting, it gets crushed again. I was happy for Kambili because she finally is happy on her trip, but now her dad's ruining everything.
Page 182: My heart broke a little bit when the grandpa died, but I feel like the death makes Kambili and Amaka stronger.
Page 191: I liked earlier when the Aunt told Jaja that it is okay to be brave and stand up for what you believe. On this page, I saw the first sign of him doing that to his dad.
Page 192: The trip has humbled Kambili.
Page 194: Another example of the dick father burning water. I hope the kids stand up to him sooner or later.
Page 198: Maybe he's trying not to be a dick father now because he sent money for the funeral?
I liked this part. I like the character development and think this is one of the most interesting books I read. I'm excited to keep reading!

Purple Hibiscus: 1

Like I said, I really like this book. I feel that it's more of a story so it's more enjoyable for me to read. I have written so many notes in the margins about characters and settings. My first main question is is the dad abusive? And if so, how can that be if he's so religious? How famous is he? These children are very privileged and their family is very rich. It's interesting to see a rich side of Africa, because most people (myself included) wouldn't typically think of Africa being a rich country. I like how more and more of the family is introduced. And if their vacation house is 4 stories tall, how big is their actual house??? One question I thought of is if I would like to be those kids. They have a lavish lifestyle, which I would definitely want, but would I want to be one of them because of the father they have?
I forgot to mention this in my last post, but I feel like the father is like Okonkwo. His attitude and temperament is all over the place, and they are both violent. The father in PH puts so much pressure on his children. I would hate that so much. And why the heck would you disown your own father because he doesn't share the same religion as you? It's just like Okonkwo disowning his dad! But I guess this shows how important religion is to their culture. You know how when parents shelter their kids too much and then they get freedom and go crazy? I think that will happen in this book. Maybe when they go on the trip with their aunt, they will drink and smoke and party hard!!! Just kidding but I think that definitely something will happen.
Also, I believe this book will have a crazy plot twist just like TFA does. Maybe the government will kill a bunch of people or something crazy.
Since you read so many blog posts, do you ever make it to the end of all of them?
If so, here's an African joke to congratulate you for making it to the end!
Have you heard any good South African jokes? They're malarious!