With Their Eyes-What really difficult or complex things are happening in the text?

The book With Their Eyes by Annie Thoms is about the 9/11 attack in the view of Stuyvesant High School students. One societal issue mentioned is terrorism. Terrorism is an obvious social issue in the book because 9/11 was a terrorist attack. I feel like terrorism is absolutely horrible. I think its good that after the 9/11 attacks national security mad advancements in airport security, and are closely tracking everything near important tourist cites. I think the author wants us to know that terrorism has such a big effect on a community. She does this by having people tell many different stories about how it effected them in bad ways.

An underlying societal issue in this book is racism. After the 9/11 attacks ended and we found out that the terrorist were Muslims, every "joke" was about how Muslims are going to terrorize us. It became such a stereotype in our society that people would see a muslim man and assume that he was some kind of terrorist. I think it's bad but interesting how one event made our society completely change the way they looked at a certain race.

Tina Fey Bossypants

     I recently started reading the book Bossypants by Tina Fey. IT IS HILARIOUS. It's probably the only book I've ever read that actually made me laugh out loud. The whole book is Tina Fey telling stories about Tina Fey. Some of them are just funny stories, and some of them aren't so funny but she makes them funny with her commentary anyway.

     I really like how Tina Fey is the author, and it's not someone writing a biography about her. I like this because she can add in what she was thinking, or what she thinks about her own experiences. This allows the book to be more comical. I think that even if someone else was narrating this book and saying the same things as Tina does, it still would not be as funny. It wouldn't be as funny because it would be someone else making fun of Tina rather than Tina making fun of herself.

     I most enjoy the childhood stories in this book. One was about her getting slashed across the face in an alley when she was in kindergarten. This was pretty interesting for me to learn because I always wondered what those scars on her face were from. I also liked the whole section she does on all the things that she learned could be wrong with a body. In the book she says "I thought there was just fat or skinny." Then she lists all the things that she learned could be wrong with a woman's body, stuff like big pores and lunch lady arms. I though this was interesting because that whole thing about  thinking there is only fat or skinny was in a part of Mean Girls.

     I recommend that anyone who can read this book, should. I am almost certain you'll get a kick out of it. 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

     The book the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian is about this boy Junior who lives on an Indian reservation. Junior says that he was born with "water on the brain." He explains it as a medical condition where your "brain grease" get all backed up and slows everything down. Junior explains how he gets bullied by a lot of kids, and even some adults on the reservation, because of his condition, but he does have one friend, Rowdy. Rowdy is about the toughest kid on the reservation according to Junior, so he is not only his friend but also his protection. In the story, everybody on the reservation is poor, including Junior and his family. Junior says that his mom and dad could have been successful, but no one ever listened to their dreams.

     I think that one of Junior's external conflicts is that he gets bullied by the kids on his reservation. Junior says that he gets called a retard about twice a day. I  don't think that Junior should have to put up with that. If I were to be in his situation I would tell someone, I wouldn't just do nothing. I wonder why Junior isn't really doing anything? He doesn't seem like he is uncomfortable talking to authority figures, so why doesn't he just tell? I'm guessing that he is just afraid to be beat up after he tells, for telling. I think that the people who bully him probably don't have the best life, so they "survive" off of hating on a kid who probably has it worse than them.

     I think that one of Junior's internal conflicts is that he doesn't know where he belongs. I guess in my world  at school, kids are always asking themselves, "what group do I fit in?". Junior's situation is completely different. He doesn't know what community he fits into. He lives on this poor Indian reservation, with a crappy school, and crappy people, but he wants to go to a school outside of his reservation. He feels like if he stays on the reservation, he will never be heard. He feels like if he doesn't leave soon he will be there forever. The only problem Junior has with leaving is that everyone on the rez will frown upon him for going to a "white school". If I were Junior I would go with what I want to do, I wouldn't hold back, but I guess that being bullied for having "water on the brain" is already enough for Junior.