I read the book Drowning Anna by Sue Mayfield. It is a book about a girl who is forced to deal with a ruthless bully, Hayley Parkin. She also goes through heartbreak, backstabbing, and much more. Anna Goldsmith, the main character of my book, moves from a classy city in London, England, to a small Yorkshire town. At first, she is treated like a queen, mostly because of her movie-star good looks. She has beautiful black hair, and perfect, glowing skin. She is also an A student. She plays the in the orchestra and succeeds in everything that she does. Everyone liked her at first, especially Hayley Parkin. Hayley is rich and beautiful with long blonde hair. She is the popular girl who everyone bows down to. Hayley and Anna were inseparable at first. Haley would buy Anna clothes and fancy watches. Also at lunch Hayley would buy Anna cokes every day. And just as Anna thought she had a best friend already, for she had only been at the new school for a week, things changed, and they changed fast.
Hayley and Anna had only been friends for a week, and Hayley did what she usually did to all her friends. She dropped her, completely ignored her and didn’t talk to her. Hayley always did this to her friends. She decided that they weren’t good enough and dropped them like flies. But there was something different about Anna. I think that Hayley was jealous of Anna. Jealous that she was perfect, possibly more perfect then her. So she acted on it. Hayley decided to make Anna’s life miserable. And they were just small things like writing notes about her and calling her rude names, childish stuff. But like Anna said in the book, “It’s like she’s digging her nails into me. Just little scratches, but the same spot every time so that it hurts more an...
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...n’t faced an issue I wasn’t able to solve by myself. But I have friends that need my help and support. And so does Melanie, she has to help Anna deal with her bullying dilemma. Just like I have to help my friends deal with their problems.
I would recommend this book to all my friends. This is a book that I think would help my friends deal with a lot of their problems. For example, one problem that Anna has to face in the book is friends turning their backs on each other. I think that a lot of girls go through this problem, and this book would help anyone deal with that. On a scale from one to ten I would rate this book a ten, because the author really knew how to relate to the readers. And that always makes a story better when you can relate to it. I couldn’t put this book down, it was so magnificent. So I think that anyone could read this book, and enjoy it.
The fourth Chapter of Estella Blackburn’s non fiction novel Broken lives “A Fathers Influence”, exposes readers to Eric Edgar Cooke and John Button’s time of adolescence. The chapter juxtaposes the two main characters too provide the reader with character analyses so later they may make judgment on the verdict. The chapter includes accounts of the crimes and punishments that Cooke contended with from 1948 to 1958. Cooke’s psychiatric assessment that he received during one of his first convictions and his life after conviction, marring Sally Lavin. It also exposes John Button’s crime of truancy, and his move from the UK to Australia.
Jonathan Kozol's book, Amazing Grace, analyzes the lives of the people living in the dilapidated district of South Bronx, New York. Kozol spends time touring the streets with children, talking to parents, and discussing the appalling living conditions and safety concerns that plague the residents in the inner cities of New York. In great detail, he describes the harsh lifestyles that the poverty stricken families are forced into; day in and day out. Disease, hunger, crime, and drugs are of the few everyday problems that the people in Kozol's book face; however, many of these people continue to maintain a very religious and positive outlook on life. Jonathan Kozol's investigation on the lifestyle of these people, shows the side to poverty that most of the privileged class in America does not get to see. Kozol wishes to persuade the readers to sympathize with his book and consider the condition in which these people live. The inequality issues mentioned are major factors in affecting the main concerns of Kozol: educational problems, healthcare obstacles, and the everyday struggles of a South Bronx child.
In the novel, Beauty by Robin Mc Kinley, the family of a wealthy merchant looses their wealth when the shipment boats get lost at sea. There are three daughters named Hope, Grace, and Honour, whom is nicknamed Beauty, and a father. The family is forced to move to the country and start a life more modest than accustomed. After the family adapts to country life, one of the older sisters gets married to an iron worker who used to work at the shipyard owned by the father. They have babies. Life goes on in the country.
Traditions, heritage and culture are three of the most important aspects of Chinese culture. Passed down from mother to daughter, these traditions are expected to carry on for years to come. In Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club, daughters Waverly, Lena, Rose and June thoughts about their culture are congested by Americanization while on their quests towards self-actualization. Each daughter struggles to find balance between Chinese heritage and American values through marriage and professional careers.
The book “Dead Girls Don’t Lie” written by Jennifer Shaw Wolf focuses on a variety of different ideas and topics, mostly fixating the murder of the main character’s best friend Rachel. With this also comes gang violence, lost and found relationships, and the fact that some people will go to great extents in order to keep a lethal secret from the public eye. Rachel and Jaycee were best friends up until 6 months before where the book started. But, an altercation between them caused the breakup of their long lasted friendship. It is soon found out that Rachel was shot through her bedroom window, which is at first suspected to be gang violence. When Jaycee doesn’t answer her phone on the night Rachel was murdered, she received a text that circulates
Winifred "Winnie" Foster from Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt is a sheltered but curious pre-teen who wants to explore the world outside the gates of her home, but is never allowed to because of her helicopter parents. At the beginning, all she wants to do is run away and make a difference in the world and have an adventure of sorts. But what Winnie doesn't know is that particular summer will be one she will never forget. That summer will change her from a sheltered, shy, and obedient little girl in to a selfless, witty, and fearless hero. She will also have to make one of the hardest decisions of her life; whether or not she will join the Tuck's everlasting lives by drinking from the spring. Specifically, her crucial decisions throughout the novel are what make her character so gallant. Although it appears that Winnie Foster is a shy introvert who only wants to be left alone, she is actually an adventurous character who's personality transforms in to a heroic protagonist at the end of the narrative.
The first encounter with Helga Crane, Nella Larsen’s protagonist in the novel Quicksand, introduces the heroine unwinding after a day of work in a dimly lit room. She is alone. And while no one else is present in the room, Helga is accompanied by her own thoughts, feelings, and her worrisome perceptions of the world around her. Throughout the novel, it becomes clear that most of Helga’s concerns revolve around two issues- race and sex. Even though there are many human character antagonists that play a significant role in the novel and in the story of Helga Crane, such as her friends, coworkers, relatives, and ultimately even her own children, her race and her sexuality become Helga’s biggest challenges. These two taxing antagonists appear throughout the novel in many subtle forms. It becomes obvious that racial confusion and sexual repression are a substantial source of Helga’s apprehensions and eventually lead to her tragic demise.
Michael MacDonald’S All Souls is a heart wrenching insider account of growing up in Old Country housing projects located in the south of Boston, also known as Southie to the locals. The memoir takes the reader deep inside the world of Southie through the eyes of MacDonald. MacDonald was one of 11 children to grow up and deal with the many tribulations of Southie, Boston. Southie is characterized by high levels of crime, racism, and violence; all things that fall under the category of social problem. Social problems can be defined as “societal induced conditions that harms any segment of the population. Social problems are also related to acts and conditions that violate the norms and values found in society” (Long). The social problems that are present in Southie are the very reasons why the living conditions are so bad as well as why Southie is considered one of the poorest towns in Boston. Macdonald’s along with his family have to overcome the presence of crime, racism, and violence in order to survive in the town they consider the best place in the world.
The story that Jess Walter tells, much like any other novel, is one of joy and sorrow. Lives intersect and separate, people fall into and out of love, and dreams are made and broken. What Walter does with his plot though is quite different. He writes it in a way where the whole book itself relies on the reader’s ability to realize that though some people meet for only a brief amount of time, their dreams and hopes, can hinge on even the briefest moments. Sometimes the characters in the novel have their stories intersect, some in very interesting ways, and other times you see their story as it is and was, just them. Walter does a wonderful job of bringing together many different lives, many stories, and showing how just because you feel alone, does not mean you are, your life and story can at any moment intersect with another and create a whole different story. Perhaps, Alvis Bender puts the idea that Walter is trying to convey into the best words, “Stories are people. I’m a story, you’re a story . . . your father is a story. Our stories go in every direction, but sometimes, if we’re lucky, our stories join into one, and for a while, we’re less alone.”
...olescent finding herself. The world of a young teenage girl has not changed much at all. The same things are concerns; friends, boys, siblings, parents, and teachers. Anne is just a young girl trying to discover herself. The empathy is still here, but the world surroundings are constantly changing. It is hard to remember Anne was not writing knowing people were going to read this years and years later. She connects to readers in a way that provokes endless emotions and questions. Could Anne Frank fit in well to any 8th grade school classroom? The diary is still read today because it genuinely connects our hearts to her life. The realness of the expressions truly show how horrible the Holocaust was and the indescribable actions that hurt innocent lives. Anne is just like any young girl reading her diary entries, which makes the brutalness of the Holocaust surreal.
Anna is not afraid to speak her mind. For instance, when her mom is she is so called “sick.” Anna asks her mom if her hearing is okay, she says “Yes”. Therefore, Anna tells her that there is nothing wrong with her and leaves her Mom’s room. She is outspoken when she stood up to her Mom at the factory; Anna was tired of her mom telling her that she is overweight. Anna stood up to her mom and said “ You’re overweight as well, so why are you judging me if we both have the same weight.” Anna is outspoken when on her last day of school, she goes to her job and quits,
In conclusion, I would highly recommend this book to early teens who are fans of drama and comedy because they could probably relate to most of the issues discussed to a certain extent. Girls my age, especially, would enjoy this book as they could relate to the issues discussed and they have probably already experienced similar
Communication is cited as a contributing factor in 70% of healthcare mistakes, leading to many initiatives across the healthcare settings to improve the way healthcare professionals communicate. (Kohn, 2000.)
The novel, Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other (2011) written by Sherry Turkle, presents many controversial views, and demonstrating numerous examples of how technology is replacing complex pieces and relationships in our life. The book is slightly divided into two parts with the first focused on social robots and their relationships with people. The second half is much different, focusing on the online world and it’s presence in society. Overall, Turkle makes many personally agreeable and disagreeable points in the book that bring it together as a whole.
To what extent does Carol Ann Duffy’s poem ‘Medusa’ challenge stereotypical masculine and feminine attributes?