Two people who fall madly in love live polar opposite lives, yet still find a way to communicate with one another and see each other. The book, Like No Other, by Una LaMarche, is about two teenagers, Devorah and Jaxon, who’d seem to live similar lives to someone who doesn’t know them. They’re both 16, they go to the same school, and even live in the same neighborhood, even with all of that in common, they live more opposite lives than anyone could probably imagine. The author switches perspectives from each of the main characters, Devorah and Jaxon, every chapter throughout the whole book. The author wants readers to see that even with drastic differences and both internal and external conflicts in the way, two people can still come together. This could be applied to individuals, groups of people, or even whole nations. At the beginning of this book, I thought, “No way these two people can ever be friends.” On page 76 in the book, Jaxon says “My mother used to say that no one knows what's going on in a stew but the pot and the spoon” (LaMarche). Jaxon said it to Devorah because he never could never fully know what’s going on in her life, because she’s the only that would ever know the whole truth. The whole beginning of the story is almost set up to make you think that they are going to hate one another. As the story evolved along with Devorah and Jaxon’s relationship, I began to realize that they have much more in common than I thought; they get along very well, and they like and care about each other very much. Throughout the book, the author has chapters that seem like Devorah and Jaxon have completely changed their minds about one another, but then you realize this is just the author’s way of making readers realize how strong of a relationship the two individuals have. After reading this book, I realized that I could be much more open-minded about other people who are very different from me; whether that be that they are a different race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, or gender than me. The book made think I should try to expose myself to more people who are very different than me. Many of my friends are very similar to me: white, Christian, grew up in small-town Iowa, and mid to upper-mid class. There isn’t much diversity in my school or in Decorah in general. Fortunately, my parents have made it a point to teach and expose me to people who are drastically different than me. Usually, this has been through travel or the internet. I think this book will help me a lot in the future to make a point of exposing myself to very diverse communities, ones that are very different than me. By Justin R.
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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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November 2022
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