It's Kind of a Funny Story- About the Author

It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini is about a teenager named Craig Gilner who becomes really depressed and almost kills himself all because he is determined to succeed in life and he thinks that he's not good enough. Craig checks himself into a mental hospital and while he's there he meets many great new people, learns a lot, and helps himself get over his anxiety and finally get better. Ned Vizzini based this book on a real event that happened in his life. 85% of the story is actually true.

Ned began writing at the age of 15; his writing career began when an essay of his was published in the New York Press. Ned got a job at New York Times Magazine where he had to write articles concerning teenagers. At one point, he wrote an article that ended up developing into his first book Teen Angst? Naaah.... This story contains real life stories from when he was in high school.

Next Ned wrote Be More Chill. This book was about a teenage boy who was bullied in school. But the boy solves the problem by learning about a brain energizing computerized pill. It go many positive reviews. Ned Vizzini wrote many amazing books, especially these three that many teenagers can actually relate to.

"A book about depression that's not the least bit depressing"

-Teen Vogue

The Longest Ride- Conflicts

One of the main conflicts in The Longest Ride is an external conflict between Luke and his mom. Luke is a very good bull rider but his mom doesn't approve of his bull riding anymore. Throughout the book Luke and his mom go through times when Luke's mom is so mad at him about it that she won't even talk to him. This conflict connects to an internal conflict with Luke because Luke feels guilty about his mom's farm being taken away. Luke's mom is furious with Luke because he keeps bull riding, but the only reason he is continuing to do it is because he feels guilty about his mom losing her farm. Luke's internal conflict creates the external conflict with his mom. Luke's internal conflict also eventually leads to an external conflict with Sophia. Luke knows that if Luke doesn't quit bull riding, then he will lose Sophia forever.

The author, Nicholas Sparks, relies more on internal conflicts than external conflicts. Throughout the book Sophia constantly has the internal conflict about whether she should stay with Luke or not. Her roommate Marcia, makes Sophia question her relationship with Luke even more than she already was.

Another one of the main conflicts in the book is internal with Ira. Ira is trying to decide if he should keep fighting and try to live or if he should just give up to be with his wife in heaven. As Ira is having this internal conflict, he keeps seeing his wife who is telling him that it isn't his time to die yet. Ira's internal conflict ends up being an external conflict with his wife, Ruth. Ruth keeps pushing him to keep fighting and even though she's not really there, she turns his internal conflict into an external conflict. 

Through all the internal and external conflicts in The Longest Ride, the resolutions to them all come down to one thing. True love.

Stargirl- Real Life Issues

Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli is about a new girl who moves into the small town of Mica, Arizona. Everyone in Mica was exactly the same. But when Stargirl arrives, everyone at Mica Area High School starts to question their "normal" way of doing things.

One of the main real life issues that is presented in this book is how people judge and discriminate against people who are different from them. At the beginning of the book, Stargirl didn't care what people thought of her and ignored everything they said about her. "We didn't know what to make of her. In our minds we tried to pin her to a corkboard like a butterfly, but the pin merely went through and away she flew" (Spinelli 15). This quote shows how no matter what everyone at MAHS tried to do, Stargirl just went on being herself. During the book at one point, Stargirl stops being herself and tries to be "normal" so people would talk to her. " 'Stargirl, you just can't do things the way you do. If you weren't stuck in a homeschool all your life, you'd understand. You can't just wake up in the morning and say you don't care what the rest of the world thinks" (Spinelli 136). She decided to become "normal" so she could be like the rest of the world. When she did that, she cared about what the rest of the world thought about her for just those couple days. She was so unhappy when she acted unlike herself to please everyone else. In the end of the book, Stargirl goes back to being herself and she was so much happier and she really didn't care what other people thought about her.

When I read Stargirl, I really started to think about how much I cared about what people thought of me. I realized that I shouldn't care what people think about me, and I shouldn't change myself for other people. If I didn't try to be the "normal" that everyone says is normal and just acted like myself, I would be so much happier and I wouldn't care what people say about me. I really enjoyed reading Stargirl, it was a very interesting story and I would definitely read it again.

"Dare to be different."

Theme Presentation

Theme #3: In the Wrong Hands, Technology can

Negatively Impact our Relationships and/or Communities

Group Members: Gabi Renshaw, Kelly Tibbetts, Sam Cannava, Suhas Kolli, Rishi Mehta

Timeline of Events:

Quote from Part I: “Wasn’t there an old joke about the wife who talked so much on the telephone that her desperate husband ran out to the nearest store and telephoned her to ask what was for dinner?” (Bradbury, 39)

Explanation: This quote represents Montag’s current situation with his own wife. Technology has ultimately led to the degradation of their relationship in the sense that Montag and Mildred would most probably communicate through technology rather than actual face-to-face conversations. Similistic technology in Fahrenheit 451 affects the relationships and communities due to the fact that they have almost completely disregarded social interaction and made technology their main means of communications even when social interaction is possible.

Quote from Part II: “It’s perpetual motion; the thing man wanted to invent but never did...it’s a mystery…Its really beauty is that it destroys responsibility and consequences...clean, quick, sure; nothing to rot later. Antibiotic, aesthetic, practical” (Bradbury, 109).

Explanation: In this passage, Beatty muses to Montag about the mystical nature of fire before he was burned alive by Montag. Fire in this passage represents Montag’s subjugation and his liberation. Montag who had been accused by Beatty, was told about how he wasn’t considering the consequences of his actions. Beatty then defines the beauty of fire and how it will destroy responsibilities and consequences.

Quote from Part III: “The sun burnt every day. It burnt Time….Time was busy burning the years and the people away, without any help from him. So if he burnt things with the firemen and the sun burnt time, that meant that everything burnt!” (Bradbury, 134).

Explanation: In this passage, Montag escapes the city and floats down the river in “Burning Bright.” Montag muses at the sun while he escapes. For the first time, he finally enjoys the leisure that Faber told him about, in order to regain his life. Montag for the first time sees the stars. He starts considering that the sun is constant to time and burns with its own fire. He then considered the moon, which gets its light from the sun. He and the firemen will burn everything since the sun burns time, meaning it burns away the people and years. Bradbury repeats the word “burning” to tell the audience how Montag experiences and how he now must redefine his conception of the burning and fire and also identity and purpose.

Theme Explanations:

    This theme is important to our understanding of the story because it helps us realize that we need to appreciate what we have and be weary of new advancements, as they may,ironically contribute to both the rise and fall of society.

    This theme connects to our modern-day society and how we see it play out in our lives and in society today by helping us realize that importance and significance of books while also highlighting the negative outcomes technology may potentially pose on both communities and relationships.

Unbroken- Louis Zamperini's Story

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand is an unbelievable true story about a famous Olympic runner, Louis(Louie) Zamperini, who became a bombardier in the Army Air Corps during World War II. As the war goes on Louis encounters many challenges that he has to overcome.

As a young kid Zamperini always got into trouble in his small town of Torrance, California. He would steal things from people's homes when they weren't looking, run from the police, play tricks on people, and get into a lot of fights. At one point his brother, Pete, told him that he had to use his energy for good not evil. Louie began to run. He ran track in high school and realized his talent for long distance running. When Louie was just 17 years old, he set the national high school mile record. He became known as "The Torrance Tornado". He went on and got a scholarship at USC for his outstanding running skills.

In 1936, Louie qualified for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. He was still just a teenager. Amazing, I know. I wish I was that talented. He didn't end up getting a medal but he came in 8th place and ran the fastest last lap in Olympic history. At just 19 years old! Wow he really was a fantastic athlete. When Louie went back to college after the 1936 Olympics, he kept setting records. The year he graduated from college he was ready to go back and compete in the 1940 Olympics. But World War II intervened and they were cancelled.

After the 1940 Olympics were cancelled, Louie enlisted in the Army Air Corps. Even though he hated planes and vowed to never have anything to do with planes, he ended up being a bombardier on the B-24 Liberator (Super Man). In 1943, Louie and his crew went up to search for a missing plane. When all of a sudden one of the engines failed and they ended up going down over the Pacific Ocean. Out of the 11 people on the plane only Louie and two others survived.

The men ended up being stranded on raft together for 47 days! That's crazy! I would've lost my mind out there with just the sea and the sky. Okay so maybe one guy did actually go crazy out there, but I totally see why. The three of them were stranded out there for 47 days on an ocean that covered over thousands of miles, sharks trying to eat them, they were dehydrated and starving. And I mean literally starving, like no food, not like when you say you're starving just because you haven't eaten in like 3 hours. They went days without food. They also were shot at by an enemy aircraft and ahead lay a challenge Louie never saw coming.

Finally Louie and Phil were rescued. The only issue was that they weren't exactly "rescued", more like captured, by the Japanese. Louie and Phil were separated and sent to POW camps, where they were beat and tortured. Louie was always singled out and punished and abused more harshly by the camp sergeant that everyone called the Bird. Louie was pushed to the limit, but still he fought on. After being held in captivity for more than 2 years, WWII finally ended and Louie returned to the United States.

After WWII, Louie was scarred from everything he went through during WWII. Who wouldn't be scarred by all that. Louie was a true hero and didn't give up hope despite everything he went through. Louie ended up founding a camp for troubled youth and forgave the Japanese that tormented and abused him. Louie went to a Tokyo prison in 1950 and gave forgiveness to some of them in person. He wanted to give forgiveness to the Bird in person, but the Bird refused to see him. Later in 1998, Louie carried the torch at the Nagano Winter Games in Japan. Louie was such a strong person to be able to put the past behind him and return to Japan not once but even twice and forgive his captors.

Louis Zamperini died at age 97, but he definitely lived a meaningful life. And Louis Zamperini really was a real American hero.

A Rebel Who Became A Champion... A Champion Who Became A Survivor... A Survivor Who Wouldn't Be Broken...

UNBROKEN.

Maybe One Day- Text-To-Self

Maybe One Day by Melissa Kantor is about two best friends, Zoe and Olivia, who have been inseparable ever since they met. But when Olivia founds out that she has a life-threatening illness, both of their worlds get flipped upside down. Zoe has to be brave and positive for her friend Olivia. Zoe keeps moving by believing that Olivia will beat it and be just fine, and their lives will get back to normal. It is a kind of serious book but it also goes deep inside the lives of real teenage girl problems. And Melissa's description about teenage girl stuff is on point.

Maybe One Day relates to me because my mom had cancer and it's been super hard living with it everyday. But I knew I had to put on a brave face for my mom every step of the way even now and trust that she would beat it and be just fine. I'm still waiting for my life to get back to normal but at least I know that she is okay.

Everyone has something in their life that no one knows about. Everyone has their own struggles. Everyone has to work through it and be brave for those around them. Just like Zoe for Olivia and me for my mom.

This book is really great and the second you open this book you are committed to it and you won't be able to put it down till the very end.

12 Years A Slave- Text-To-Society

My second memoir that I chose to read was 12 Years A Slave by Solomon Northup. 12 Years A Slave is about a freeman who lives with his family in Saratoga Springs, New York. He is a very good violinist and one day two white men offer him a job for a lot more money that he was currently making. He took them up on the offer and one night while they were in Washington, D.C. Solomon became very ill, and then as he was going to a doctors office he passes out. He was drugged. When he wakes up, his hands and feet are bound in chains and he has no idea where he is. He later finds out that he was sold into slavery by the two men who he was traveling with. When he tries to say that he is a freeman, he is severely beaten. Nobody believes him, and from then on he is never allowed to say that he is a freeman. In the twelve years that he was forced to be a slave, he moved from plantation to plantation doing what his masters told him to do. When he didn't follow their rules he was whipped and beaten. Finally after twelve years in bondage, he is freed by his friends from New York.

The central idea I gained from reading my second memoir was that everyone has a right to freedom. Solomon had his right to freedom taken away from him and that was not right. Everyone has their right to freedom and it shouldn't be taken away from them, especially just based on race, religion, gender, etc.

My central idea relates to Brittany Maynard's death because she decided to end her own life. People who have moral objections to suicide really disagree with Brittany's decision. Since Brittany had her own right to freedom she could do what she wanted to. She was really suffering and she didn't want to deal with it anymore. I think it was okay for Brittany to make the decision that she did. She didn't break any law when she decided to end her life. I don't understand why people freak out so much over her decision. It doesn't even affect half of the people who are making such a big deal about it. She had her right to end her life and she did because she was terminally ill and couldn't deal with living anymore. She didn't do anything wrong, it was her own decision, not anybody else's.

Brittany Maynard's Right To Death