The book that I chose for the Reading Without Walls Challenge, The Boys in The Boat, was written by Daniel James Brown. This book is a story about the lives of nine boys and their journey to win the gold medal at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. These boys faced many challenges along their path to the Olympics. Their freshman year, they had an amazing crew and were able to win the Poughkeepsie, a rowing race between the best schools in the United States. However, their crew was not near as good during their sophomore year. They were split up and they raced junior varsity instead of varsity like everyone had thought they were going to at the Poughkeepsie. The did win the junior varsity race, but most people lost hope in them. During their junior year, their coach, Al Ulbirckson switched up their crew and they won the varsity race at the Poughkeepsie. They went to the Olympics in Berlin the next year, after besting California’s crew, who had alway been their rival. Even though they were placed in the worst lane during the final, they were able to pull off a victory and set a world record. The challenge that I chose was to read about a character that doesn’t live like me or look like me. I chose this challenge because I thought it would be interesting to about families in war times when it was always hard to survive. In this book, all of the boys in the crew came from relatively poor families, and they all lived on the bare minimum that was required for them to survive, whereas I always enough to eat and money for extra things that are not necessary for living.I was very moved and inspired by this book. Many of the boy in their crew had very little money and found it hard to stay in college so that they could row. Their lack of resources taught me to be humble about what I already have, and not to always want more. As Daniel James Brown put it, “The challenges they had faced together had taught them humility—the need to subsume their individual egos for the sake of the boat as a whole”(Brown 173). The boys in their crew all had to do their very best work in order for them to win the Olympic gold medal. A few of them were still sea sick from the trip over. However, they all had faith in each other and knew that each one of them would do whatever they needed to in order to win cat gold medal. Their victory gives me hope that even when things start to go very badly, you can still do great things. Written by Jackson
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The book I chose to read for the reading without walls challenge was The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. When I first picked up this book, I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. It pushed me outside my comfort zone and met the challenges in two ways. The first way was that it was written in a diary format. I generally wouldn’t read a book in this format, but I am now very glad I did. The second way The Perks of Being a Wallflower meet the challenge, is by making me read a book about a character that doesn’t look or live like me, Charlie. Charlie is a sixteen year old male who is considered more of an outsider or a “wallflower.” I am a very energetic and friendly person and was curious to see the world through a different lense. I decided to take on this challenge because I wanted to learn more about what it is like to feel so alone, passively watching your life go by. I hoped to see what this was like so I could help people who are struggling with similar problems. However, I ended up learning much more than just this. The Perks of Being a Wallflower is the diary of a young boy named Charlie. Charlie’s mind is very active and all he wants to figure out in life is why people do the things they do, and understand the side of people that they don’t show. He also is trying to figure out who he is. Throughout the book Charlie is referred to as the “wallflower.” He sits back listening and understanding everything, but never participates. As the book continues Charlie begins writing papers for his teacher. The books he gets assigned all push him to realize how things work in life and teaches him where he fits. Charlies teacher keeps encouraging him to participate in the events around him and stop focusing so much as to why he is doing it. He pushes him to stop second-guessing himself. As the book continues on and Charlie continues to learn more about himself and others and eventually comes to understand his purpose and feel as if he belongs. Stephen Chbosky really opened up my eyes to a view I have never really looked at before. Many people don’t know where they fit or where they belong. They isolate themselves and never try to participate, because they don’t know how. People think that they have to fit in and they have to be like everyone else, but once Charlie meets Patrick, he learns to just be himself and stop thinking so much about why he’s doing things and just does them. There is a point in the book when Charlie says, “"When we got out of the tunnel, Sam screamed this really fun scream, and there it was. Downtown.Lights on buildings and everything that makes you wonder. Sam sat down and started laughing. Patrick started laughing. I started laughing. And in that moment, I swear we were infinite." This part of the story really made me understand what it is like to not know who you are or where you fit. Charlie finally figured out what it felt like to just live in the moment and he finally knew where he belonged. This opened my eyes by helping me understand that it takes time to find who you are and sometimes, it takes encouragement from other people. There are many people out there who don’t know where they belong. I want to take the message from this book and help encourage people to participate. This book has inspired me to help people discover who they are and it has also helped me to figure out more about where I fit. Written by Leah For my Reading Without Walls Challenge, I decided to read Missoula-Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer. I wouldn't usually pick up a book like this because, first of all, it's non-fiction, and second of all, it's non-fiction! Usually realistic fiction, or historical fiction is what catches my eye when I step into a library, but I'm so glad I stepped out of my comfort zone to read something I wouldn't normally read for fun. This book explores many different cases of sexual assault in the town of Missoula, Montana. It contains interviews with victims, the ones convicted of sexual assault, people who worked at University of Montana, people who worked at the Police Department of Missoula, and family and friends of the victims and the accused. It takes you through the details of the events of sexual assault, the details of the court cases, and the drama from all the time in between. This book, only states the facts of these events, but it opens your eyes to why rape and sexual assault are still such a huge problem on our American college campuses. It is beyond powerful, heart wrenching, and shocking. I already knew that rape is a huge problem when it comes to college campuses in the US because I'm a strong advocate against sexual assault and sexual abuse, and I have done some research on this topic myself. But there is a huge difference between knowing it's a problem, than knowing why it is a problem, and Jon Krakauer showed me exactly what that is. We have a huge misunderstanding when it comes women who accuse men of rape. I think many of us have the misconception that the number of times a man has been falsely accused of rape, is pretty close to numbers of men who have been truthfully accused of rape. That is completely false, and there are actually barely any cases where a man is falsely accuse of rape. When it comes to sexual assault cases, many women don't come forward because of the backlash they receive from society, peers, friends, and even family. The number of women who actually come forward after being sexually assaulted is slim to nothing compared to those who don't. During 2008 to 2012, Missoula had reported 350 counts of sexual assaults. Only very few of these cases actually went to court, but even the cases that did go to court were not always properly handled by the Missoula Police Department. There are many reasons for this, but a few include that some men that were accused, were on the Grizzly football team, the Missoula Police Department usually thought these cases would be a waste of their time, and most of the time, investigators at the Missoula Police Department didn't believe the victim's statements. Some women, who were victims of sexual assault, never got the chance to be able to give their testimony in front of a jury, because the police already made that decision for them. The information I read about these cases in Missoula were absolutely terrifying and shocking to me. These stories brought me to tears half the time, but also made me feel blinding rage towards these men, the police department, and all of Missoula for trying to absolutely destroy these women's reputations to hide the fact that their precious football players and other well liked students of the University had raped these women. These women who had survived these sexual assaults usually end up suffering from PTSD, which is a disorder usually known for survivors of war. "Rape and war, she explained, are among the most common causes of post-traumatic stress disorder, and survivors of sexual assault frequently exhibit many of the same symptoms and behaviors as survivors of combat: flashbacks, insomnia, nightmares, hypervigilance, depression, isolation, suicidal thoughts, outbursts of anger, unrelenting anxiety, and an inability to shake the feeling that the world is spinning out of control" (Krakauer 349) This quote is from the end of the book, from an interview with a therapist, Trisha Dittrick. Sexual assault is a huge problem in our society. What I've grasped from this book is that, first of all, police departments need to take these cases more seriously, we need to recognize stereotypes when it comes to victims of sexual assault and do everything in our power to fight them, and if you know of someone who is a survivor, be there for them and do whatever you can to help them. These women and more women everyday, are going through hell, and we need to fight this head on. But we can't wait to do this next week, or tomorrow, we need to start today. Written by Elise I chose to read The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. The book is written as letters from Charlie, the main character. Charlie is in his first year of high school. Although he doesn’t really have any friends, that doesn’t seem to bother him. He went to a school football game, and happened to see a boy in his shop class named Patrick. Charlie, Patrick, and his stepsister Sam instantly became best friends. The story explains the events of Charlie’s freshman year, and all of his fun times with the first friends he’s ever had. The Perks of Being a Wallflower fits two categories for me. Firstly, I would never read a book written as letters, and secondly, I am not like Charlie because I have never done drugs. Although the book is fictional, it provides insight on what it may really be like for someone so smart, yet so unsocial. The book is plain, and I wouldn’t have read it unknowingly but now that I have read it, I have bought my own copy, along with a million others. This book is powerful and should be read by everyone with the chance to. Some might say this book is too serious for teenagers. Many schools have removed it from their libraries because of the drugs. Others simply don’t like it’s message. In my opinion, the truth of the matter is that this book insights you on a majority of topics, whether it be drugs, sex, friendships or love. These are all things that teenagers will encounter, and this book does a fantastic job summarizing how difficult some kids’ lives may be. It speaks the truth about how to be a great friend. “And I guess I realized at that moment that I really did love her. Because there was nothing to gain, and that didn't matter.” ― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks Of Being A Wallflower Written by Cameron I read Slasher Girls and Monster Boys, an anthology compiled by April Tucholke. It had many creepy stories from multiple authors. It took me awhile, but eventually I realized most of the stories were actually based off of older films or books, like Hitchcock's 'The Birds' or the story of Alice in Wonderland. I rarely read collections of short stories, and when I do it’s definitely not all by different authors. On top of that, while I frequent the science fiction and fantasy genre, horror is not something I read particularly often. I quite enjoyed these tales, even the ones that kept me up for a bit on some nights. While I originally was looking for a different book (a short collection of love stories) it was checked out, and I found this book instead. While I plan to read the other eventually I was quite happy with this book. I was expecting it to be lame and cheesy, but the psychological horror definitely was quite chilling at times. For example one of the first stories is about a girl who often has tea parties in the woods and eventually sees a large rabbit man watching her. He participates and creates sick and twisted tea parties, making her a victim often times so she isn't suspected for hurting the other girls. That story had me scanning my yard for rabbits all evening. As opposed to excessive gore, many of these stories by young adult writers are wonderfully crafted suspense, and I've never enjoyed the genre this much before. I often have considered short stories to be a bit of a waste of time. I think now I realize I just used to be too young to enjoy the curiosity of what came before and after the snapshot in time that these stories hold. I was delighted with the anthology style, especially since I got to read multiple writing styles within the same genre. I would definitely consider reading more short horror stories. They work well with the format since then they can be short and chilling, without too much buildup or drawing out the 'scary' moments for too long. This challenge makes me want to read more styles of books, and find out what else I might be missing. As the short story Hide and Seek said, "If death can cheat, then so can I", which reminded me of how bold a message these shorts stories, regardless of genre, can convey. In a sense they can be like poetry, short and to the point, but still beautiful or mysterious. Written by Owen For my reading without walls challenge I read the book Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson.This was a nonfiction book that describes the life of Bryan Stevenson and the obstacles him and his clients face. This book challenged me because I usually do not read nonfiction narrative books for fun, especially on the topic of the law and death row. Just Mercy opened my eyes to see that the justice system we have isn’t what they make it all out to be. Bryan Stevenson, a black lawyer who represents people on death row, opened a nonprofit law organization, Equal Justice Initiative, to help poor people in jail who couldn’t afford an attorney. As a reader, I was so intrigued by what Bryan Stevenson had to say and his story, along with his clients, moved me. From his perspective, it showed what is truly behind the walls of the justice system and jails and how racism convinces many people to think wrongly about the defendant. 1 in every 15 African American men and 1 in every 36 Hispanic men are incarcerated in comparison to 1 in every 106 white men. More information on this topic is at https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2012/03/13/11351/the-top-10-most-startling-facts-about-people-of-color-and-criminal-justice-in-the-united-states/ Reading this book opened my eyes to see that our country doesn’t give every race the same rights. Racism is a big topic in the book and Bryan Stevenson does an amazing job at giving details to support his reasoning. His writing had a huge impact on me and it’s so disappointing to see how people in our country could be so cruel to others just like them. This is one reason I do not always enjoy reading books that are nonfiction. It is very important that people open their eyes and see that the world we live in isn’t really what we think. So many things are hidden behind closed doors and people don’t like to expect the reality of it all. An example from the book was that even though Walter McMillian was proven innocent after all those years being wrongfully committed, no one would take him into their nursing home when he got older due to his background.Just Mercy made me feel so many emotions. From being happy to sad to angry with our country. I never imagined myself sitting down and reading a book based off of documents and real case files about people and their lives. Their stories were so heartbreaking, but it seemed as if Stevenson was trying to show us that we need to step up and take action in this problem. Bryan Stevenson started out as a small nonprofit law organization with not much of anything,but even the littlest things make a big difference.“We are all broken by something. We have all hurt someone and have been hurt. We all share the condition of brokenness even if our brokenness is not equivalent.” - Bryan Stevenson. Written by Jordyn I chose to read the novel Paper Towns by John Green. Typically, I prefer to read either science fiction or fantasy books, so I hoped reading a realistic fiction book about characters that I have nothing in common with would challenge the select variety of genres I read. Quentin Jacobsen moves to a new house which just so happened to be right next to the place where a childhood friend of his, Margo Roth Spiegelman, lives. Quentin, or Q, has loved Margo for as long as he can remember. However, he doesn’t really understand Margo all that well. Margo has a deep love for mysteries and adventures, so she decided to go on an adventure of her own and leave a mystery for Q and her family. She runs away without a trace, leaving clues behind for Q to find her. If Q really wants to be with Margo, he has to understand her and her motives first. I gained the insight that you can’t love someone without understanding them first. Q thought he loved Margo, but he never understood her. So Margo took the steps foreward to help their relationship, not in the way that Q would have thought, but in the end it seemed necessary. “I’m so mad at her. For… for, I don’t know. Not being the Margo I had expected her to be.” The Margo Q thought of was a typical kind of girl, but since he never understood her, he never thought of Margo something different. Many people fall in love with looks at first, not personality. However, if you never understand them, the love could fall apart. Throughout the novel, there are many times that Q had a chance to understand Margo, but the figure of her that he already had in his mind was blinding him from what was reality. If he accepts who Margo is, an girl with an odd sense of adventure and mystery, then their love could flourish. Written by Erin The book that I read for the Reading Without Walls challenge was Paper Hearts by Meg Wiviott. This intense story was based on a true story of two young girls living in Auschwitz that worked together to keep strong and survive the tyranny of Hitler. It showed their struggles and their successes as well as their failures. This book met all three challenges for me. It fit the first challenge because I’m not Jewish, and have never been forced to live in a concentration camp. Along with this, it fit the second challenge because I didn’t know much about what happened during the Holocaust. Everyone knows that Hitler caused the deaths of thousands of humans, but to read from the perspective of a minority portrays the horror in a completely new light. The formatting of this book was a lot different than other books I typically read: the words were spread on the page to support the imagery in the writing. While there were no pictures, I could physically see what was occurring. Although this book was short, the power that emanates from it is extremely strong. Several times I had to set the book down and think about what I was reading because it was all too horrible to imagine. By the end of this book, Meg Wiviott makes you understand what it was like to live as a young, Jewish woman during the Holocaust. I was incredulous when I first started reading this book. That horror only grew as the book continued. The way that the Jewish and other minorities were treated during the Holocaust was ghastly. It made me see the world differently; and not in a positive light. The book rarely touched on what the soldiers were actually physically doing, but reading the reactions that the girls had to what was going on around them showed everything. Meg Wiviott made me feel things that I can’t describe in words. Every page was a new experience that led to new feelings. “The scent of death as constant as the ash, a certain smell seeped under my skin. I absorbed it, breathed it, knew it. The perpetual possibility swelled inside my soul.” These three sentences brought frustration, anger, and helplessness. Having nobody helping these poor girls broke my heart. Thinking about everything that all the minorities had to go through really made me evaluate everything around me. Written by Sarah The book I read for the reading without walls project was Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez, a fictional book based around the 1937 New London school explosion. This book met two out of the three challenges, which was read about a character that doesn’t look like you or live like you and read a book in a format you normally don’t read for fun. I rarely read books that are based in an older time frame like the1930’s and I usually don’t read books in a different race’s perspective especially during that time. The book is also split into different perspectives for the main characters in the book,a format that I normally would not read. I picked this topic because I wanted to learn more about life during that time period such as racism, sexual abuse, and violence against minorities all which are present in this book. Naomi and her twin siblings, Beto and Cari, are sent to live with the twins' father,Henry, after being raised by their grandparents in San Antonio. Naomi’s real father was Mexican so in the new community it’s hard for her to fit in. She can’t even go to the theatre with her family because of signs, “No negroes, mexicans, or dogs.” So instead she goes about keeping the house clean and making dinner. She also makes sure that Beto and Cari a well taken care of. Her siblings eventually befriend a black boy named Wash. After a while Wash and Naomi fall in love, which of course they can’t show in public. This causes a lot of trouble in the end. This book gave me a lot of insight and a new perspective on racism and what it was like back then in that time frame. All the cruelty and hatred towards different races really terrified me especially on how they were treated. Perez did a really good job on giving the reader all the different perspectives while still making sense and blending it well. This book definitely left me in tears and also to many other people who have read this story. “Beautifully written, but one of the most traumatizing gut wrenching books I have ever read. My booktalk for this book could quite possibly only consist of holding up the book and sobbing.” Besides all the heartbreak in this book I’m glad that I got to read about it and learn something new about the 1930’s. I’m also glad I got to learn about the New London, Texas school explosion and the effects it had on many people. I believe this book would be good for everyone to read and learn the different perspectives between these different races. Written by Aubrey The book I read for the reading without walls challenge was The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. This is a short fiction book about a boy named Arnold Spirit, also known as Junior, that is born and raised on a reservation. The novel actually met two of the three requirements because if I remember right; I never lived at or ran away from a reservation. I know it was a fiction book, but I had no idea what I would learn or what I was in for. Junior is at school one day and finds his mother's name written in a geometry textbook. Infuriated, he throws the book at his teacher, Mr. P. After he is suspended from school, Mr. P comes to visit and tells Arnold not ever to give up. He encourages Arnold to leave the reservation. Arnold takes Mr. P's advice seriously and tells his parents that he would like to transfer to the white school in Reardan. His parents are in agreement. Throughout the book, Arnold realizes he will always miss his best friend, Rowdy, and he will always miss his family. He hopes he can forgive himself for leaving them, and the reservation, and that they can also forgive him. Although the novel is rather humorous, we learn that Junior’s life is more devastating and dramatic for the wrong reasons. During the last half of the book, Arnold undergoes a series of losses. Junior’s family has been overly traumatized by alcohol. His grandmother is run over by a drunk driver and dies. His father's best friend is shot in the face and killed over a drink. Then Junior's sister is drunk in her trailer with her husband when a fire consumes the trailer. Junior's sister never even wakes as she is burned to death. I realize this isn’t a main point in the novel, but in this book and also in life and society, we all tend to interpret words, phrases, and even each other differently. Life catches us with surprises, whether good or bad by the decisions we make. Before you do something unsafe or harmful, for instance drinking and driving or driving drunk, remember what is at risk and who is at risk. Someone’s life is not worth a stupid decision. They are loved by someone whether you know it or not. You could take the life of a brother or sister, mom or dad, friend or relative. So in the future, remember you are risking somebodies everything. Written by Kolin |
AuthorSTenth grade students at Decorah High School share how they're reading outside of their own experiences and how it has changed them. Categories
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