Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez is about a girl in her senior year of high school in Rosario, Argentina. Her mom is meek and self-conscious and tries to convince Camila, her daughter, to be the same way. Camila’s father is an ex-professional soccer player who mentally and physically abuses his family. Her older brother Pablo plays for the local pro soccer team, where he is a star player. Camila has dreamed of going to America to play on a women’s national soccer team, but she can’t tell her family she plays soccer, which complicates her future. She is on a local competition team named Eva Maria. Their roster is a patchwork of teen moms, privileged kids, and others playing in secret like Camila. Along with soccer, Camila works at a small church that helps kids in need. The person that helped her get this job is Diego. Diego, or el Titan on the soccer field, is a local legend in the sport of soccer. He was also Camila’s boyfriend before he went pro. When he comes back to Rosario she is full of conflicted feelings that end up changing her life forever. I liked that Furia is a very realistic story. The book isn’t super romantic or based on her relationship with Diego. It does have some romantic parts, but it’s not the basis of the entire story. Not putting romance or head-over-heels love as the main plot makes the idea of female empowerment even more evident. Camila has to make many difficult choices in love and other parts of her life, and the author made it very hard for me to predict what will happen next. Though soccer is the main idea, there is more depth than just the sport itself. One major part of the story is the disappearances and attacks on girls and women in Rosario. There are also beliefs about how respectable women and girls should act and their role in the world. Camila, like many other girls, was forced to stop playing soccer when she was about 12. This age is when girls should become “women” and take up their role as women in society. These gender norms restricting women from playing sports are very suppressive and show how women are treated in Camila’s culture. Soccer is the main idea because it represents how Camila and other “futboleras” break free of society’s expectations by doing what they love. Her family also incorporates many parts of Rosario’s cultural issues. Her father is overbearing and abusive, her mother is passive and only shows her son love, and Camila is ignored and under-appreciated. Furia made me realize how lucky I am to have all the support and opportunities here in America. Learning about the oppression and violence that goes on in different places made me think about how I can do my part to stop these trends of society. Reading about how far Camila is willing to go to reach her goals really inspired me to work through obstacles I’ll face when pursuing my dreams. Camila’s story made me realize how hard it is for some women and girls to reach their goals, and the fact it’s just because society restricts them is really upsetting. After reading Furia, I feel like I have a better understanding of how lucky I am for all the opportunities I have, and I’m also more cognizant of the struggles women face to succeed in this world. - Ana S.
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When you were young did your parents deny you of an education because it was ungodly, forced you to work in a junk yard because you had to help the family business, or even be forced to bring your brother home for medical attention after he was in an almost fatal car accident? Frankly, I doubt any of these have happened to you, but these are just some of the things that happened to Tara Westover. Tara grew up on a small farm in rural Idaho as the youngest of 7 children. Her parents, Gene and Faye, had the goal of raising all their children as perfect mormons. Tara’s father, Gene, believes that the government is always watching them and that there is a sort of impending doomsday that will eventually be upon them. This belief results in Faye, Tara’s mother, becoming a midwife so she is able to provide care for the family and eventually help repopulate the world when they survive the doomsday. This also results in Gene being very untrustworthy of the government and all things that are related to the government. His hate for the government grew as he had more children. His eldest few had their birth certificates at least, but as more and more children came along he started to not allow them to have birth certificates or even attend public school. This book really surprised me in the way it was written and the way that the story was told. The story is based on the real life experiences of Tara Westover and how she makes her way through life trying to adapt to the outside world after being sheltered by her family for so many years. I think it's incredible how Tara’s emotional changes are written throughout the book, it’s transmitted to the reader very well and really makes you feel that she did have this emotional change rather than just stating it blandly. I think the book conveyed multiple important factors of Tara’s life and really made the reader think about how all of the things happening affected adult Tara’s opinion of those around her. This is shown specifically in the book when Tara’s finally makes it into college. When she arrives she is basically disgusted at how other people, especially other women, are dressing. As she is supposed to be attending a primarily Mormon college, she expects that all of the other people attending would have been just like her. It’s conveyed extremely well in the book when she finally starts to notice that her father may be slightly deranged, and how she begins to rebel against him. While reading this book I definitely felt a multitude of emotions from happy, to sad, angry, empathetic, and even disgusted. The book “Educated” has the capability of having the reader feel almost any emotion you can think of, and in my opinion it’s almost entirely based on how you were raised. This book really made me realize how well off I am and how loving my family is. Even though I may be mad at my parents occasionally, I know that I will never have to suffer through what Tara did. It practically gave me a whole new perspective on life and how I should be living it. I need to be more grateful for what I have and help those who may not be as fortunate. Caden M. Imagine a life of constant hardships, where every choice you make can determine your entire future. Imagine the dream you hold on to your entire childhood gets shattered. Imagine, at the age of 18 years old, you get put on death row. Set in North Carolina during Luke and Toby’s senior year of high school, this story captures the hardships and adversity that the best friends endure every day. Right away in the book, the old, abandoned plane in the middle of the woods plays a significant role in the story. This is an anchor in Luke and Toby’s lives. This is a place where they would play for hours when they were kids, or huddle in the capsule when life at home was hard. It’s also where their dream of flying away and leaving behind all their troubles first began. The plane is a symbol of safety, security, stability, and hope. This also shows the reader the firm foundation on which Luke and Toby’s friendship rests upon. They have a strong bond of trust and closeness. They suffer through all their hardships together. As the story gradually progresses, however, a series of events occurs where their trust becomes less and less stable. The introduction of two new women in their lives, for example, tests their loyalty. Along with that, throughout the story, the story flashes forward to Luke on death row. We read the letters Luke writes to Toby in his cell. The tone of Luke shifts between his letters on death row and his life before. He relays his relationships between the other inmates and reflects on his broken childhood, along with the strong friendship bond him and Toby shared. This story shifted my perspective in that it woke me to how privileged and fortunate I am. Of course, I’ve always known how privileged and fortunate I am, but this story made me realize that people all around me can be struggling in life. In other words, people don’t have to look a certain way or act a certain way to have a less fortunate, less privileged life. Even people I sit next to in school, people I pass by in the hallway, it’s very likely some endure the same ordeals Luke or Toby did. That also makes me realize that these people have much greater stress in their lives and face many more hardships than I do. This created more empathy for me because the story allowed me to dive into these types of lifestyles and made me feel what they were feeling. For example, I felt the same frustration Luke felt toward his mother for not supporting the family. I felt Toby’s frustration toward everyone’s pitying eyes who felt bad but didn’t care enough to help out. I felt Luke’s helplessness on death row, and the feeling of being unheard. I felt the betrayal Toby felt when Luke chose others over him. All of these examples sent me through a rollercoaster of emotions that ultimately, by the end of the story, gave me a certain awareness for those who have lives like Luke and Toby. -Nora L Punching Bag is a memoir of Rex Ogle and his upbringing. Ogle talks of how difficult his home life was, between his likely mentally unwell mother and his abusive stepfather. In this story, Ogle is only 16 and is continuously trying to protect his younger brother, Ford from not having such a childhood as he’s had so far. The setting is always at home, almost as if the author is trying to convey how inescapable this terror really was. Ogle was consistently urging his mother to leave his stepfather for a better and less abusive life, but every time his mother refused. Ogle suffered this utter pain and torture for 18 gruesome, bloody years. This book is very intense, to say the least. As soon as the book opens, you’re immediately introduced to the mood of the book and how tiresome this constant abuse truly was. It made me think and worry quite a bit about my peers around me-- what if they were going through a similar situation? What if their home isn’t safe? What if? It shifted my worldview just a bit, just enough to want to do something about it. But, really what can you do? In this book, the cops are called for a disturbance in Ogle’s home after a fight between Ogle’s mother and stepfather. Instead of telling the police the truth, Ogle lied to protect his mother. How many abused children have done this? How many abused children have had to cover their bruises and scars? How many abused children have had to protect the younger ones from harm? From their own parents? Most of all, the book hurt my heart. I felt angry at Ogle’s mother because she wouldn’t leave him. Ogle did a wonderful job putting you into each and every situation with intense word choice but somehow keeping it adolescent to remind you that he really is just a kid. I constantly felt as if I was walking on eggshells right along with him, I felt helpless for him. He can’t leave, he has nowhere to go; he can’t leave, he’ll leave Ford behind; he can’t leave, his mother will find him soon. There is no solution for him, and he perfectly conveys that in his memoir. I sincerely hope he is doing well today. By Kealy H. Do you think you are smart enough to go to Harvard? What if you never had formal education? Everyone who isn’t lying to themselves would say no. But the book Educated would prove you wrong. Educated follows the true story of Tara Westover, a girl who did that very thing. Tara Westover was born the youngest of seven children in a house in Idaho surrounded by a serene mountain and a junkyard. Tara’s family were extremely strict Mormons, who were seen as crazy by almost everyone in the nearest town, which was predominantly Mormon. Tara’s father was the source of their ways; he believed they were one of the few righteous Mormon families following the correct life of God’s teaching, and everyone else was evil gentiles. He believed the government was the source of most evil and indoctrination, which among many, meant avoiding hospitals no matter the cost, attempting to have his children undocumented, and not placing his children in school. Tara endured extreme physical and mental abuse by her parents and siblings, most notably by her brother Shawn. Educated shows how slowly Tara starts to question the highly damaging lies her father fed her that she kept as truth for her entire life. Eventually, she decides to go against her father’s will and attend college. This was a hard task as she had never been to public school and her mother had failed at homeschooling her. After a lot of studying, however, she got a good enough score on the ACT to attend BYU. There she slowly learned how little she understood of the world. She was miles behind her peers in knowledge but had an extreme work ethic and natural smarts, and she eventually earned a scholarship to Cambridge University in London, then went on to get a Ph.D. at Harvard. Through her academic journey, she learned more about the world and became fluently aware of the abuse she faced in her childhood. Educated ends with Tara walking through the struggles of choosing to remove her family from her life, and the immense unexpected challenges she faces through the process. Educated is jammed packed with things I could write pages about. It makes it hard to write about how the book made me think as a whole without further focusing on one specific idea. One of these parts was the way it talks about Tara’s father’s mental health. When you think of someone with a mental illness, you immediately think of the effects it has on their life. But rarely is the first thought on how profusely it affects the lives of the people close to the person with a mental illness. It is clear that Tara’s father has some sort of mental illness. Tara spoke to many professionals and concluded that it could be bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, but he never took any tests so he was never diagnosed. Tara and her family's lives were completely different because of Tara's father. Tara wrestles with the idea of hating her dad. She hated the way he raised her and the struggles he caused her later in life. But since she believes her dad has a mental illness, does she hate her dad, or the illness? She tries to see her dad empathetically and instead of hating him for what he did, pity him for the delusion he is in. In the end, she decided to remove her dad from his life, as he was significantly detrimental to her mental well-being. This really made me think about balancing the sacrifice of some of our own well-being to help others, while also prioritizing your own mental well-being. Educated has made me realize how significantly someone’s background determines their personality. Before Tara went to college, most of everything she knew came from her father. Her thoughts and actions were completely different before she went to college than after. In the book, she doesn’t describe this change as normal growth, but as her actually changing into a different person. This book has significantly changed how I look at people and how they act. It doesn’t make me judge them for their background and make assumptions about what they are like based on it, instead, I find myself imagining what it is like to be in their situation. This greatly helps me understand why they do what they do. For example, one of my closest friends is the oldest sibling, with one middle school sister and two elementary brothers. I am the youngest sibling with an older brother in college. This isn’t a very big difference, but I can notice its effects on our personalities. My friend is the first child of his parents to go to high school, so everything seems a lot more stressful for them as it is all new. Meanwhile, my parents have already gone through the process of having a kid in high school, so they know what they are doing. Freshmen year was a lot harder for him than for me because he went in not knowing any of the upperclassmen, while a lot of the juniors and seniors knew me since a lot of them were friends with my brother and had been coming to my house every week for years. There are plenty of other examples of how this simple difference actually affects our lives and personality a lot. Recognizing this helps me to be a better friend as I am able to better understand why he may do some things differently, so I’m not quick to tell him that he’s wrong and I’m right. Educated helped me build empathy by showing how someone’s decisions may seem wrong to me, but in reality, their actions are just a byproduct of their circumstances. By Liam Chamberlain I never truly understood the importance of education until I read about Tara Westover's life. She lived a childhood unimaginable and overcame her trauma while learning about a world unfamiliar to her own. Westover grew up in an off-the-grid home in Idaho and was raised by her bipolar father and mother who follows him mindlessly. Tara faces conflict with her extreme father and abusive brother at a young age. Her father preaches ideals of the education and medical systems being run by large organizations, like the government or illuminati. Tara grew up without a birth certificate, schooling, or contact with a real doctor. Her mother was a midwife and herbalist, delivering children at home and using herbal remedies to “heal” injuries. When Tara’s brother suffered third-degree burns on his leg, or her father burned half his skin off they were both entirely healed at home. It isn’t until Tara begins her education journey that she recognizes the influence her upcoming has had on her perception of the world. Tara’s story is one that evokes confusion and shock. The morals Tara’s father expresses to his family are beyond my own comprehension. He describes his dislike for the education system, medical system, and government in a highly harsh fashion. He fails to make a logical argument as he lacks any rational evidence to back his claim up. It makes me question where he discovered such radical thoughts in the first place. When Tara leaves for college she is still brainwashed with these absurd morals. This created an apparent divide between her and her peers also attending BYU. She got weird looks because of her modest clothing and was often yelled at by roommates for her lack of hygiene. What surprised me the most was her lack of knowledge about the world. Classes discussing the civil rights movement and the Holocaust left Tara confused as she had never heard of these things before. It was very clear that Tara had grown up with a much different childhood than those around her. Educated helped me realize that my perception of the world is much smaller than it should be. Tara’s life only took place 1,000 miles away from my home, in a place I would have never imagined. The story of brainwashing and abuse is one I would never expect to hear about in the United States. Now I realize that horrible and heartbreaking stories can occur closer to home, and my eyes are much more open to the world. I am able to perceive stories with greater empathy for those experiencing them. I could especially feel my empathy grow while reading Tara’s story. When she described her hardship throughout the story, it was as if I was feeling it with her. When she was happy, I was happy. When she was sad, I was sad. I felt an overwhelming feeling of compassion for Tara and all the hardships she faced. By McKenzie R. I never realized how fast you could become in love with a stranger, until I read Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. Eleanor and Park is a book that alternates between Eleanor’s perspectives and Park’s perspective. Eleanor is a 16-year-old girl with curly red hair, and Park is a half- Korean, 16-year-old boy. They meet each other on a school bus on Eleanor's first day at the school and gradually connect through comic books and mixtapes of '80s music, sparking a love story. Park grows to love Eleanor and Eleanor learns to understand Park. What surprised me the most is how close Eleanor and Park grew throughout the story. In the first chapter of the book Eleanor got on the bus for school, and had nowhere to sit. Park hesitated but eventually let her sit with him. The next few chapters Park and Eleanor became very close. I was challenged because of how much Eleanor and Park became to like each other, it didn’t make sense. Eleanor had horrible conditions at her house with her abusive stepdad and tiny home. She was also bullied everyday. Where as Park fit in with all the popular kids at their school and his home was filled with love. However, I noticed that the author was trying to get people to understand that there is more to people than what is just on the surface. Eleanor may have dressed weird and had not many nice things, but she was so much more than just a chubby, quirky girl. The same goes for Park. His father was a very masculine guy and took pride in it. So park put on a fake appearance of being tough and rugged, when really he was very insecure about his size and heritage. This book changed me in many ways. It taught me about understanding that people are much more complex than what you may think. I learned that just because people dress differently or act different doesn’t mean they are weird or different at all. In this story Park fell in love with a girl who he thought was weird, which shows how alike everyone is. I learned so much from this book. I learned that the saying “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” has such a deep meaning and is so true. I’m a person who used to judge people before I really even knew who they were. After reading this book however, I have changed my ways. I truly understand how unique people can be and how much they have to offer when you really get to know them. This book has changed me forever and changed me for the better. I will never again judge a person because of their looks or how they dress, but by what kind of person they are, deep down. I'm a completely different person because of this book and I can’t believe the effects it had on me. This book is going to help me for the now, and for the future. I feel that because of the relationship Eleanor and Park had I am able to connect with people on a much deeper level. by Lane R. Conflict with family is inevitable and can be incredibly difficult to deal with at times, especially if that conflict creates a rift between you and the ones you trust most. Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake is the story of bisexual teenager, Mara McHale, and her inseparable twin brother, Owen. Ever since they were little, they’ve spent nights together on their roof staring at the night sky and sharing stories based on the constellations. After one wild night of drinking and partying, Mara’s friend, and Owen’s girlfriend, Hannah accuses Owen of rape. Despite their parent’s convinced by Owen’s pleas of innocence and how much Mara wants to believe him, she can’t shake the feeling that he’s holding something back. This creates a rift between the two, as well as between Owen and his best friend Alex. Broken-hearted and desperate for comfort, Alex and Mara go from just friends to something more while trying to distract themselves. And to make matters more complicated, Mara’s relationship with her best friend, and former girlfriend, Charlie is strained. Navigating this new terrain, Mara must come to terms with her traumatic past, confront the difficulty of sexual assault, and decide where Charlie, Alex, and Owen fit into her future. Girl Made of Stars addresses the uncomfortable topic of sexual abuse while answering difficult questions surrounding it. However, the book brings so much more into perspective. It also addresses the subjects of complicated relationships, self-identity, and overcoming high school drama. When Owen is introduced, it’s easy to grow attached to him as Mara’s dorky, loveable twin brother. This made it harder for me as the reader to comprehend the possibility of him committing rape because it completely contrasts with his personality. Even so, this conflict allowed me to better understand Mara and the difficult position she’s in throughout the story. I chose to read Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake because I was interested in a book with an LGBT+ main character. The characters show wide varieties of diversity and I was fascinated by how similar yet different they all were. It was particularly interesting to read about Charlie, who struggles with accepting herself while interested in girls. Her parents are aware and supportive of her sexuality, but have no idea she’s questioning her gender identity. This was eye opening for me, as I haven’t thought much about people coming out more than once and how that can be just as difficult and just as scary as coming out the first time. I was also interested in the topic of sexual assault, as it’s sadly common in today’s society. Although being a female and knowing someone who’s been through sexual assault, like Mara, I can’t imagine what it’s like to be in that position. It was also eye opening to read about Hannah’s experience because it never occurred to me that rape could occur within a consensual relationship. This changed my viewpoint on how sexual assault can occur and that the situation isn’t always black and white. Despite the challenges Mara encounters, I admire her audacity and courage when it comes to facing those difficulties head on. Quote: “And I’m not sure I ever will recover from what Mr. Knoll did. Not fully. It’s changed me forever, but changed doesn’t have to mean broken. And I know my family will never be the same either. My brother’s and my connection has been altered, never broken but twisted into something I never expected, never wanted. We’re no longer the twins in the sky, and I have to figure out how to live with that,” (Blake, 270). by Jenna H. Imagine being on death row as a teenager in high school. We’ll Fly Away by Bryan Bliss, is a captivating story about two teenage boys and how one of them ends up on death row. Not only is it about one of the boys experience on death row, but about how they survive their challenging lifestyles. Both boys have struggling, abusive families, and learned how to live on their own at a young age. Their names are Luke and Toby. Luke lives with his mother and his two younger brothers Petey and Jack. They live in a small apartment that they can barely afford the rent for. His mother has been off and on with work, as well as going on trips with men she meets. Luke is in charge of taking care of his brothers, cleaning, cooking, and practically anything else that needs to be done. Toby often comes over to Luke’s apartment and helps him do his chores. He does this to escape his abusive father, who is often drunk most nights. Luke and Toby stick together to make each other's lives easier, and this has created an inseparable bond between them, or at least until other factors got involved. Toby, Luke, and I are not very alike. We have only a few similarities, such as we are all teenagers in high school. Luke had a scholarship to wrestle at Iowa which made the book more interesting to read knowing there was some connection to where I live. Other than that our lives and experiences are drastically different. There are small differences, as well as significantly large differences. For one, I am a female, and both Toby and Jack are males. It was interesting to hear about high school from a male's perspective. Another difference between us is our lifestyles, I come from a well off family, with both parents around. I never have had to endure the same struggle that Toby and Luke have experienced with their abusive families.The larger difference between particularly Luke and I is that Luke is living his teenage years on death row. The book switched back and forth between the events leading up to him ending up in death row, and letters he wrote to Toby once he was in jail. I think because of these differences between the characters and I in this story, it meets the criteria of this challenge. “I didn't want to hear another word he was saying, but then he was like, "You get to choose if you care. They can't take that away from you. And you get to choose if you're going to walk through the rest of your life like a dead man. I've made my choice." The main focus of the story was what happened leading up to Luke's time on death row. But, after finishing the story I realized I gained the most insight from the small portions of the book when Luke was in jail. Luke became super good friends with a guy named Eddie when he was on death row. Eddie was one of the most impactful people in Luke's life. He made Luke think about his actions and words and how they can harm or help him. Along with impacting Luke’s life, Eddies words impacted mine as well. The quote I stated earlier stuck with me long after I read it. Yes, our lives are completely different, but we both had the choice of which road to go down. “The truth is, it’s exactly what I want, but I’m scared of wanting it and even more scared of actually having it.” -Angelo Surmelis, The Dangerous Art of Blending In. Evan Panos is a seventeen-year-old boy who is a child of a strict Greek immigrant. He lives with his mom, Vee, and dad, Eli, who encourage him to follow in the strict rules of Christianity, especially his mom. When Evan goes to school, he gets picked on by the school bully, Thommy, and his crew, about his sexuality which makes him question himself. On top of what happens at school, his mom has always seen Evan as a disappointment and she believes that her son seeks evil constantly behind her back. She has abused him since he was five and he possesses many bruises that he tries to hide from the outside world. Although his dad is very loving and supportive, he is very subtle about stopping the abuse that happens constantly to his son. Evan thinks he has no one to talk to, so he writes down all of his experiences and feelings in journals and draws in an old monastery. One day, his mom finds the journals and turns them into their pastor for help. The pastor reads about Evan’s abuse and the discovery of his sexuality. The pastor then talks to him about how he’s just going through a ‘phase’. Evan believes that he can’t hear the word “gay” without the stigma and shame from his mom and his faith. I picked this book for this challenge because I’ve never read a book from the genre of LGBTQ+. Evan and I are very different because of our gender, sexuality, religion, culture, and the location in which we live. All differences aside, we are the same because we both know what it’s like to be a teenager and we both are the only child. Throughout my life, I’ve been really open to meeting people with different cultures, religion, political views, gender, etc, but I’ve never had a true insight of the LGBTQ+ community. I’ve seen parades, marches, and lots of social media posts of people of different ages showing their pride and I really wanted to know what some may go through. Some people go through finding their true self with love and support, while others go through hatred and even worse, abuse. It’s important for people to know that it’s hard to please everyone no matter what, but being yourself is a true way of being the light in the darkness and it inspires others to do the same. Most of the time, other people are going through the same thing you are. You are never alone. In the book, Evan was so worried to love someone because he was scared of what society and his mom would think of him. In the end, his best friend, Henry, was going through the same thing and they end up together. Love is love. I’ve gained so much awareness about the lives of other teenagers from reading this book. This story shows the harsh reality of what happens behind closed doors. I’ve learned some of the struggles of those who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. Growing up as a teen is hard enough, but trying to figure out your true self without love and support is tougher than others may think. It’s devastating that some people can’t live their life without the stigma that comes with being who they are. It’s sad that society sometimes traps people from being who they want to be. I think it’s important to have opportunities to learn about someone else’s life experiences to join communities together to gain understanding. The world would be such a lovely place if we all took the chance to communicate with each other and learn together. Amanda K. |
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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