We'll Always Have Summer

            In the book We'll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han, the main character Belly is torn between two guys. One is named Jeremiah and the other is named Conrad, they are brothers. Belly and Jeremiah get engaged after Belly's first year of collage. Both there families do not approve, especially Conrad, who after two years is still in love with Belly. Belly is not a strong character, and lets her whole lives be run by boys.

            One way that Belly lets her life be run by boys is how she doesn't care if this wedding ruins her entire life, she just wants to be married to a boy she's not sure she's in love with. For example Belly's mom who she is incredibly close to does not approve of this wedding. But Belly goes against everything her mom says, moves out and plows through like its a race, leaving her whole family behind in the dust.

            The last example that Belly lets her life be run by boys is how after everything that Belly put her family through she decides that she doesn't want to marry Jeremiah, she wants to merry Conrad, therefore having to put her family through double the stress.  

Beautiful Boy vs. Tweak

            In the book Beautiful Boy by David Sheff, it tells a story about a fathers fight through his sons drug addiction. It is a very touching book, and it is very hard to think about someone going through so much in their lives. It was really amazing to compare the book Beautiful Boy, to the book Tweak  by Nic Sheff. Tweak is a book that Nic wrote about his own drug addiction. It was breathtaking to read these books back to back, because when one thought that another had given up on the other, I would think to myself, if you only knew what the other person was thinking. 

            One way that you can see every one's different points of view in the different book is how the dad is always wondering about what Nic is doing all the time. But if you read Tweak, you would know what he was doing,whether he was dead or alive, and that was really interesting. It was really interesting to see how the different books connected, and how some important moments were important for both David and Nic
             Another way that the books fit together is when you see the same scene from a different perspective.  For example both in the book Tweak and in the book Beautiful Boy, both David and Nic experience the moment when Karen is driving after Nic. Nic feels fear and sorrow and David feels pain and disappointment.
             It is very interesting how, you can get two thing out of one moment. It made me think about how, people say "always look on both sides of the argument" this is an amazing example of that. 

Dreamland

            I just finished reading the book called Dreamland by Sarah Dessen. The book tells a riveting story about a 16 year old, Caitlin. She gets involved with this guy named Rogerson, who takes over her life almost. Caitlin at first is very happy, she loves Rogerson, but then he starts hitting her. Soon it gets so bad, that Caitlin can no longer go out with any of her friends, in fear that Rogerson might see her and get jealous, or Rogerson, comes to pick her up, and she is not there. These are the things that Rogerson gets angry at. Through out the book, Caitlin changes, for good and for worse. 

            Caitlin changes a lot through out the book. One way that Caitlin changes is she stops standing up for herself. For example in the beginning of the book, when Caitlin didn't want something, she would say she didn't want it and not do it. But then towards the end of the book, it feels like Caitlin just gives up, and decides she doesn't care what people do to her, or make her do. For example in Dreamland, Rogerson asks Caitlin to go to a party with him, even though she knows he was going to hurt her. 

            Caitlin changes a lot through out the book. The last way that Caitlin changes is she closes in. This change is due to her boyfriend. Her mom and all of her friends asked Caitlin, to tell them whats wrong and why she kept pulling away from them, but all that made Caitlin do was pull away further. 

Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pies

            Our class just finished reading the book Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pies by Jordan Sonnenblick. The book tells a story about a geeky, self-conscious, thirteen year old boy named Steven. Stevens whole life gets turned upside down when he finds out that his little brother, Jeffery, has cancer. Steven has to find a way to deal with the fact that Jeffery is sick and deal with the finishing middle school. Throughout the story Steven matures a lot through the personal sacrifices he makes for the people he loves. 

            Steven matures a lot through the personal sacrifices he makes for the people he loves. One personal sacrifice that Steven makes for the people he loves is when he decides to stop taking drum lessons to try and save his family money. This was a big sacrifice for Steven because drumming is his passion. When ever Steven got upset he would just play, and play, and play his drums. But Steven knew how expensive it was to get the treatment for Jeffery's cancer and saw how much stress it put on his family. This shows how much Steven matured because in the beginning of the book Steven would never give up something he cared about, even for his family.

            Steven matures a lot through the personal sacrifices he makes for the people he loves. Another personal sacrifice that Steven makes for the people he loves is when he leaves his concert to go to the hospital with Jeffery. This is a very mature thing for Steven to do because Steven had been looking forward to this concert for a year. He had this huge part and he was supposed to be the star of the show. But when Jeffery asked Steven to go to the hospital, Steven went. This was a huge sign of maturity because Steven decided to put his brothers wants before his own.

            Steven matures a lot through the personal sacrifices he makes for the people he loves. The last personal sacrifice that Steven makes for the people he loves  is when he tells Renee that she can't come in the house because she has a cold. This a big sign of maturity for Steven because Steven has had a huge crush of Renee for a long time. But when Renee comes and tells Steven she has a little cold, Steven didn't even let her into the house because he knew that Jeffery couldn't get sick because of his cancer. This shows that Steven matured through the personal sacrifices he made because he thought about was was best for his brother and his family, before he thought about himself.
             In conclusion,  Steven not only helped his brother, he changed his-self. Steven thought about other's peoples opinions before his own. He helped people and wasn't worried about how it made him look. This was Steven at the end of the book, these are the examples of how he matured.