Critical thinking question #2: My First Love

in the book My First Love by Callie West, there is no voice or perspective from any boys or men at all. Chris is in the book and is a major character but, we never get to see his point view in things. The main characters dad Amy is also mentioned in the  book but we have no dialogue from him and the only way we know of him is how Amy's mom describes him. 

i think that the reason Callie West does this is because, the book is about Amy's battle with her mom so she made only their perspectives shown. Amy is changed throughout the book by Chris but that was only made to move along their problems. Chris had no say at all in what Amy or her mom would do.

since we had Amy's dad voice excluded we only knew what happened between her parents from her moms point of view. her mom could have been exaggerating or lying, or maybe she had no idea at all as to why Amy's dad left them. and sometimes we tend to lie when things were our fault and blame it all on the other person. having Chris's perspective excluded made use have to guess what he thought about Amy, her mom, and her life. 

i know that the author excluded these voices for a purpose and even though sometimes i was dying to know the answer to things, i still like how the story played out. i would definitely recommend this book to people who like romantic books and books about finding out who you really are.

Am I Blue?

i think that in this short story the hero is Vince. he displays courage  when he shows Marvin how he feels and he tells him that he is gay. he is changed the journey that Marvin takes him on because, in the beginning of the story he is ashamed to tell people that he is gay bt by the end he realizes that he is not the only one out there and that its normal.

the mentor is Marvin, he is the symbol of knowlegde and wisdom all through this book. he shows Jess that hes not the only gay person and that he should not be ashamed of himself. he assists Vince through his journey of finding out who he really is. he shows Vince how he is not ashamed and uses his majic to show him how many guy people are actually out there.

i think that the shadowt  is both society and Vince. the society says that people shoud only be straight not gay and they judge Vince and other people like him. a lot of people would usually fight for their right and show  that its fine if you like the same gender. but Vince doesn't do that instead i feel like he adds  to the pressure, he always critizes himself and says that he should be straight.

i think that the shapeshifter is also Vince becuase, throughout the story he'll change his feelings and how he feels. sometimes he'll believe in himself and sometimes he'll be so ashamed. he just keeps on going back and forth throughout the book.

at the end of the day you can't control who you are. you can't control if your straight or gay, people have to learn how to deal with that and to know that everyone is different.

Bridge to Terabithia: guided reading question

i have a mixed reaction about the ending of the book Bridge to Terabithia. i like that Jess crowned a new queen of terabithia. but i don't really like and i don't get why Jess made May Belle the new queen. it doesn't really make sense to me. as a reader i would have liked if Jess crowned someone like Janice Avery, it would have made more sense to how the book played out.

i think that Jess crowning a new queen of terabithia brings a resolution because, it shows that he overcame Leslie's death and, that terabithia and his life can and will go on. he also shows that he has the strength and courage to let someone take Leslie's place.

as a reader i feel that Jess has changed a lot (in a good way!) from the beginning to the end of the book. he went from being ashamed of himself and always worrying what people think. to a strong person, who makes the best of what he has, and doesn't care what people think about him. and we have to thank Leslie for most of this. (: