What is some difficult or complex thing happening in your book?

I am currently reading “a long way gone” by Ishmael beah. It’s depressing. Although I just started, I already know so much. It’s about 12 year old Ishmael beah going into war. He is a child solider that is forced to fight with the rebels and wanders land rendered by violence. There are so many difficult things happening in this story so far. He lives in Sierra Leone, which is where the war started. He is getting separated from his friends and family which is devastating, but even smaller then that is his parents are divorced.

This might not sound big, but it does have an impact on Ishmael which makes this a difficult situation. Since the divorce, he has had so many step moms  and he has liked none. He can’t show his feeling around them. According to the story, it says how one day he dad stood their smiling at him, until the step mom came out, and he looked away. I think it almost like the dad is afraid to show that he cares about his son. Why is he like this? I think he is like this because, maybe he has had a hard life with all the step moms and he can’t even shows his feelings anymore. They probably do not care really about how he feels or what he is doing. This has an impact on Ishmael because he wants to have his family back, but doesn't know how to start, but what makes this problem worse is his town is ruined.

Rebels have taken over. Another complex thing in the book is, rebels are over-powering his country. Their killing people, people are throwing up blood, bullets everywhere, it’s a messy bloodbath! This leaves Ishmael in a scare, because he know eventually he is going to separate from his parents and has to live on his own. This is a real-world issue. Example: what if you are in a grocery store and lose your parents you get sacred and worried. Well yeah, being separated from your parents in a war is even worst. This is not an easy obstacle to conquer; having to fight in a war at 12 years old is insane!

In conclusion, some difficult things in the book that I am reading are him going off to fight war without his parents and his parents being divorce. I hope as I get to the middle of the book, he gets over his fears or conquers his obstacles. 

It Happened to Nancy

              The book I am reading is “It happened to Nancy” Edited by Beatrice Sparks. This book is living  a bitter taste in my mouth.  Nancy is a fourteen year old girl who is dealing with a lot of scary events in her life. She was raped by her boyfriend Collin who was five years older than her. She later was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. Nancy is a strong young woman. She kept this terrible news to herself for some time.   

Nancy has been going through a lot at her young age. Her mother is not a good support in her life. Her mom worked long hours, and always come home really late.  By reading this book, I learned not to trust anyone period. I also believe that young girls should not be dating older guys. I have no intentions of doing that, but it helps me to have that note in my head. I was curious to know why Nancy would even cross that line. But I do understand how she is feeling. She does not have the support of her parents. She doesn't mention her father at all. I think Nancy is looking for ‘love’ which she thought she found in Collin. Although she is going through a difficult time, I think she should be a leader and not a follower. Collin took advantage of her in a bad way.  This is a terrible thing for anyone to go through. It wasn't nice what Collin did to Nancy, but it happened, what can I say?

I am not sure but I think the editor named this book “It Happened to Nancy” because she wanted teenagers to know what can happen if they don’t listen. It seems that Ms. Sparks the editor also wanted young girls like Nancy to know about HIV/AIDS. She knows how teenagers think. They do not always like to listen like Nancy did. Here this young girl Nancy is sick at heart. She has gotten raped and unfortunately diagnosed with AIDS. I don’t think Nancy would ever be herself again or around other people especially guys. She would probably feel uncomfortable. Nancy has taught me to always speak your mind and never follow others. She followed Collin and look where that got her. Nancy always wrote in her diary about her deepest feelings and her deepest thoughts. She was very open in expressing her feelings in her diary.

It seems that Nancy got closer to her mom after the incident.  She started telling her mom every single thing that happened between her and Collin. She told her what he did to her, how he acted, to me I would have done that from the start. As a mom, I would be supportive but really mad at the same time. I would say to myself why my daughter is dating a college student. Maybe as a mom I might blame myself for not being at home often. Nancy now notices that she doesn’t have only her diary, but she also has a mom to talk to. I think she has to learn to ‘love’ herself.

Annie's Baby

The book I am currently reading is “Annie’s Baby” edited by Beatrice Sparks. It’s about a 14 year old girl, Annie, who was raped by her boyfriend and has to raise a baby by herself. She is confused and lost. She truly has no idea what she is doing meaning she doesn't even know how to ‘control’ a baby, which is making her nervous and making her have more anxiety. This book explains a teen issue of having to raise a baby by yourself and no one to talk to.

Annie is terrified of telling her mom that she is pregnant. But she hasn't come to realize that sooner or later, she is going to have to spill the whole situation. This relates to a teen issue because today so many teenagers are getting raped, and having babies that they can’t even take care of or afford. Annie thinks her mom will yell at her once she knows the problem and will not love her again, but that’s not true. Where I left off in the book is when, Annie was telling her mom about Daniel and what he has done to her and the outcome that she is left with. I couldn't even believe what the mom said. The mom was very supportive. She said things like “I’ll be here with you, every step of the way” and it was in just a motherly tone, which came off really well.

I think Annie has come to realize that although she has some obstacles she needs to conquer, she is not alone because she has her mom and friends by her side, boosting her when she is down. Annie speaking up to her mom about the problem, showed she needed help and she couldn't do this on her own.

Overall, I’m pretty much almost done with this book and I think it was amazing! It really showed me how you can’t trust anyone, no matter how many times you say ‘I Love You’ it truly means nothing. Also, this book has taught me that you can’t overcome obstacles without help from others, because you always need someone to boost your spirit once in a while!