I Am the Messenger

       Ok, now I know what everyone has been talking about with this book. The plot devices used are quite improbable to say the least, which breaks the rule that a narrative has to be at least plausible for a reader to buy into it (unless it is a fantasy or science fiction book, that is). The mystery letter that Ed Kennedy that forces his life into action is definitely a convenient plot device, a deus ex machina, if you will. That aside, this is an enjoyable read with some nice dialogue in it. At the beginning I was confused about where the story's setting was (Southern Hemisphere? English surnames? A sort of half British, half American dialect?? ). I would have thought England if it weren't for the Southern Hemisphere and the fact that they call soccer soccer, and not football. Oh well... but do they call soccer soccer in Australia? I don't know. If not, this may be an adjustment made in order to make the book more accessible for U.S. readers.
       Otherwise the premise of the book is one that provides a good message to students. Even if you don't have much self confidence you can still make meaningful change in your world even if buy seemingly small acts like buying someone an ice cream cone. I know that when I experience someone's random act of kindness that I remember it and it changes my whole day. The same thing happens when I see someone exhibit a large amount of patience with others, it makes me want to become more patient, myself.
      This is the golden kernel of this story: a story about how one makes the world more humane with one act at a time. As far as the odd plot devices and rather limp ending, however, these aspects could have been planned out better. Although, as some of our classmates also already mentioned, these faults within the book provides the students with opportunities come up with better ideas, as well as opportunities to critique a book's structure in an intellectual way.
     Definitely worth putting on your classroom bookshelf so that one can find out about how someone who has a negative self-image can can their circumstances, as well as the circumstances of others, as so is actually quite capable of being powerful.

Last Activity

A. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
     The Outsiders
     Divergent
     My Friend Dahmer
     The Arrival
     Ender's Game

*These judgements are based on how much I wanted to keep reading the book, as opposed to wanting to break up reading them into sections. 

C. Paper Towns; I feel that the narrator (given that he was supposed to be a good student) was quite eloquent, even enough to correct the other characters on their malapropisms.

D. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian; This is such an engaging story, as well as true to the harts of many children that I feel that this book would be very well received as a movie. The tricky part, of course, would be to find the right Junior Spirit.

G. La Línea; The characterization and the setting were the main driving forces in this book. This is due, I assume, to the author's main objective of helping the reader understand Latin American family dynamics, as well as to give them an accurate sense of what people go through in order to cross the Mexico-U.S. border.

Trouble Right Under Your Nose: My Friend Dahmer

     I feel that most people can relate to the narrator of this book. He is a normal high school kid who hangs out with his friends and has his jokes and lives an average, cush, white, 70's suburban middle-class lifestyle. Nothing too dramatic. As I said, he has his group of friends within a school teeming with students. Many of these students get overlooked. People tend to stay within their circles, and the loud ones are the ones that get the attention from the school staff.
     Dahmer is one of the students who gets overlooked. He does get some attention from the narrator and his friends, but it is really only as the but of their ongoing joke. They are not so much laughing with Dahmer as laughing at Dahmer. Sadly, this is the closest Dahmer seems to have gets when it comes to forging a friendship.
      That said, Dahmer also shows signs of a troubled teen. I suppose an emotional disorder would be the immediate label placed upon him if teenage Dahmer were in high school today. Clearly, however, there were also other, more dangerous thoughts and urges going through his brain. As the narrator notes, it is amazing that the school staff did not catch or act upon these signs of trouble which seemed to have been common knowledge within the student body. How could someone like this manage to slip through the cracks, so to speak?
       Thankfully, as the narrator also noted, schools today do a better job of keeping tabs on their students. This does not take away from the fact that it is very important to reach out to every kid so that there are not isolated and troubled individuals like Dahmer who won't receive the help that they clearly need. Yes, their lives may be lived under the influence of medication, but that is better than having someone like Dahmer acting out their dangerous fantasies. Also, this book also underlines the importance of parent involvement in their child's life, as well as the importance of communication between the parents and the school.
       I think that this book would be a surefire read for any reluctant reader. It is definitely an eccentric topic that will grab anyone's attention, the illustration is eye-catching, and the story underlines the need for people to look out for one another so that troubled, isolated individuals don't fall into a downward spiral of mental disturbance without any social safety nets. I am not sure if this story makes me feel sympathetic towards Dahmer, but it definitely makes me lament the circumstances that enabled him to eventually do the things that he would later do. I suppose this blog leans a little on the nuture side of the nature-nuture debate... which leads me to wonder what a memoir of the elementary school experience with Dahmer would be like. Hmm....

Paper Towns: Be Careful What You Wish For

      Ah, yes. Remember back in high school, or in middle school, or maybe even more recently, that certain person who was just out of reach, but who you just could not get out of your head? Maybe it was an infatuation from afar, but perhaps more frustratingly, maybe it was a case of "so close, but yet so far." This is what Paper Towns reminded me of. The curiosity of what is inside that certain someone's head, the discouraging let downs, as well as the occasional glimpses of hope that they may feel similarly infatuated with you. Well, maybe not infatuated, but most likely you would have taken what you were able to get, even if a slight inclination in your favor.
    This story centers around a boy named Quentin Jacobsen, who is a rather well-adjusted kid living in a subdivision within the rather artificial town of Orlando, Florida. Quentin in obsessed with the girl next door: Margo Roth Spiegelman. Margo is vivacious, intelligent, out-spoken, beautiful, and, for Quentin, frustratingly elusive. She is also out of Quentin's league, as she is the "queen" of their high school, whereas Quentin is a band kid. Suffice to say, their paths do not cross too often except for the fact that they are neighbors, except when Margo shows up one night at Quentin's window dressed in all black and takes him on a tour around the town enacting personal revenge until the early morning. This excursion gets Quentin's hopes up about becoming closer with Margo, but to his dismay she does not show up at school after that night. Bewildered, Quentin, along with his friends, soon find a series of clues that they suppose Margo so that they may track her down. What happens should they find her is another object of Quentin's imagination.
      Is this dubious cat-and-mouse game an extended metaphor for Quentin's chase after Margo in a romantic sense? I think so. He's not sure if he's reading the clues correctly, and when he gets a lead it keeps him searching on... but he is also not sure what he will find in the end.
      Yes, I do remember feeling like this, myself. It is not fun, but it can also be oddly exhilarating at times. This seems to also describe Quentin's rising and falling hope. Margo, on the other hand, seems somehow above this all. She also seems a little conceited, as she seems to express little interest in others. She does, however, seem to analyze others enough to be able to make snap judgments about how shallow and insubstantial their lives must be in their artificial communities, hence the book's title.
      So yeah, I was able to relate to this book. I also think that it will be of value to others who read it, since it is a common habit of young people to strive for goals with tunnel vision goggles on, and then only later really comes to terms with what they had once put so much emotional investment in.
      What else can you do? You live and you learn.