If you’re only seen as half of this and half of that, how can you ever feel whole?
This book by Sharon M. Draper is about eleven year old Isabella who has been through this situation. Her father is black, and her mother is white, and now that her parents are divorced, Isabella feels like a push-me-pull-me toy. Isabella learns to define her identity, and find her voice through personal and social visits. She’s constantly changing between visiting her mom, and her dad that seems to add a lot of pressure on her. Continue reading “Blended”→
This book by Jasmine Warga is about a girl named Jude who has to leave Syria with her mother and fly to Cincinnati, leaving her beloved father and brother behind. They stay at Jude’s uncle’s house where Jude meets her cousin Sarah. Sarah seemed nice at first, but in school she can be different. Jude was the best in her English class when she lived in Syria, but when she moved to Cincinnati, she has to take ESL (english as a second language), where she also has to deal with questions about her hijab. She is labelled as being from the ‘Middle East’ which causes some questions too. Her cousin Sarah knows little Arabic, so it’s very hard for them to communicate with each other. making things difficult. When Mrs. Bloom( their Drama teacher) says that there school will be performing a play, Jude is ecstatic and that is where she met Layla. Layla understands what Jude is going through and can help her but, when an argument occurs between them, Jude is not sure she wants to take part anymore.
What this book teaches us:
This book’s overall message was to show children to be brave and to not give up. In the book Jude says “I am bold and fearless and do not care what other people think.”
In another part of the book Jude says is “And that’s when I realize I don’t have a choice. I’m going to have to learn how to be brave.”
One of my favorite characters would probably be Miles because he always is positive even when things are going down. He also is very supportive and helpful to Jude when she’s not feeling very well.
My favorite parts of the book:
I really liked Jude and her brother, Issa’s bond together. “He squeezes my hand again. It feels like some sort of promise, an assurance that he won’t leave me all alone.”
I absolutely loved Jasmine Warga’s style of writing. It wasn’t like many author’s where they have 12 lined paragraphs. Warga’s paragraphs were 3-4 lines which is quiet unique.
This book by Gordon Korman is about a boy called Chase who fell off his roof. He woke up in the hospital remembering nothing. The doctors told him he had amnesia. He also loved to play football, but after his fall he couldn’t play, since he had dislocated his shoulder too. When he was able to go back to school, he saw kids with very different reactions towards him. Some of them treated him like a hero, others were very afraid of him. After, not playing football for months, he decided to join the video club where he met Shoshana Weber -Joel Webers sister. Before Chase’s fall, Chase and his 2 best friends Aaron and Bear would bully Joel so much that Joel had to leave and go to a boarding school.
My Thoughts.
Each chapter is written with the perspective of a different character. I didn’t realize this until I read a couple chapters. This book was quite different book because the main character was actually a bully . How often do we see that? It seemed upsetting at first. however, when Chase joined the video club and realized he was actually decent at filming, it lifted the sadness that was floating around. There was also bits of humor sprinkling around in the book.
My favorite character was Chase because he was a different person after the accident. I think this meant that perhaps people can change for the better. Even bullies. My least favorite character was Shoshana’s mom and dad because even though they don’t have a major part in the book . They didn’t believe Shoshana when she said that Chase was a different person after his fall.
The author’s writing was brilliant. He was able to have me hooked from the very first page. Korman used simple but effective writing and carried the story forward at a good pace.
This book is available at the ASD school library. Maybe you can check your school library to see if it’s there.
RBG’s real name is Ruth Bader Ginsburg but people call her RBG. People call and name her after Notorious BIG, the famous rapper who died in 1997. RBG also wrote some of her own books such as My Own Words, Text, Cases, and more. She was also referred to as”the smartest person on the East Coast.” Although, she had lost her older sister and mother it didn’t interfere with RBG’s achievements.
A famous quote RBG stated was “Fight for things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.”
Furthermore, she isn’t just strong on the inside, she is also strong on the outside! In the book, it told us what she did for her workout to stay fit, which was really interesting to read!
Pros
I learnt a lot of interesting facts about RBG
It was packed with information
This book was very inspirational
Cons
The story moved a little slowly and it took me a while to get through it
Here is a video clip that I enjoyed watching with my dad that casts Steven Colbert and RBG. The clips shows her workout!
This book, 
Zoha Flips a Page 