Blog post #4

"People called them broken homes, didn't they? But there was nothing broken about his home, except that his dad just happened to be in jail for a bit. Broken homes happened to other people. In broken homes parents fought about visiting rights and money.  Kids from broken homes had two frantic Christmases spent elbowing for space and attention with half brothers and step-sisters. Some people called them single families as if they were special, but Danny knew he had two parents and he wanted them both. Together. At the same time. When Dad got out everything would be okay again." (Rosemarie Boll,11)

I think that this quote shows how clueless Danny in the book "The Second Trial" is. Even though everyone is basically spelling out what is happening to his family, he still isn't believing it. I think that a big part of this is that he doesn’t want to believe it to be true. By Danny not accepting this fact, I think he is thinking that he won't have to face the fact.

I think that later in the book when Danny finally does come to realize what is happening, he is going to be in a state of shock and panic and possibly do something that threatens his family.

The video I related Danny to was the song "Roll away your stone" by Mumford and Sons. I think this relates well to this because of the sentence from the song "Don’t leave me alone at this time, for I am afraid of what I will discover inside." I think that this sums up what Danny is feeling well because he isn't accepting the fact of his parents divorce because he doesn’t want it to happen.

This reminds me of.....

One very touching book is Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin. “On, there are so many lives. How we wish we could live them concurrently instead of one by one by one. We could select the best pieces of each, stringing them together like a strand of pearls. But that's not how it works. A human life is a beautiful mess.”  (Gabrielle Zevin)

The connection I have made it between this quote and the children’s book The Memory String by Eve Bunting. This book is about a little girl who keeps a string of buttons. Some of the buttons are ones from her moms wedding dress, a prom dress and a baby shirt. I think this connects to Zevin’s quote nicely. To me, the buttons represent all the happy times that went on during the girls life and her family life. When she looks at the buttons she sees all the best pieces of many peoples lives. Even though these books are very different, they have a very similar connection.

"The Worst thing She Ever Did" by Alice Kuipers; Summary and Review

I am currently reading The Worst Thing She Ever Did by Alice Kuipers. I am very close to being finished this book. The story is about a 17 year old girl named Sophie. She lives with her Mom, after her Father dies when she is young. She also had an older sister named Emily, who died in a tragic accident recently. Deeply affected by the accident Sophie struggles to continue on with her life. The book is based a lot on Sophie coping with her sisters death, but also touches on the subject of Sophie’s family, friends, school, and relationships.
I think that this is a five out of ten for me. I think that Kuipers could have added more aspects to this book then the stereotypical friends, boys, family and parties that most books geared towards teenage girls are about. Until the last 50 pages, you don’t know how Sophie’s sister died. Although this kept you wanting to read, it was rather annoying to go through 150 pages without knowing a major detail. All in all it was an okay book, and I think that other teenagers that like story plots like this would enjoy it a lot more then I did.



Book cover: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41%2BBMCOU4cL._SL500_.jpg