Eleanor and Park

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell is about two 16 year olds who have to sit next to each other on the bus. Park is a somewhat popular boy who originally thinks Eleanor is strange, and Eleanor is new to the school and is intrigued by Park. Over time they realize that they have many similarities, and become friends. But Eleanor is bullied a lot and Park starts to get bullied too when Eleanor becomes his "girlfriend". Eleanor and Park get to be really close over time, and although Park has started to be somewhat bullied and Eleanor is being threatened at home they are happy with each other. My favorite character was Park and I thought he was kind of the main character. There are a lot of mature topics in Eleanor and Park, but I would definitely recommend it.

To Be Read:
- Where She Went
- Fangirl
- Looking for Alaska

Kindred by Octavia Butler

My book group book for the last few weeks was Kindred. Kindred is about a 26 year old African American woman named Dana who time travels to the past to save a young boy named Rufus. Over time she travels back as Rufus gets older, but she is still 26. Rufus lives in the 1800s, in a time of slavery, and Dana lives in 1976. Kindred is sad and pretty graphic in some parts, but the plot and the writing are all super poetic and good. I would definitely recommend Kindred if you are interested in books about slavery, but I wouldn't describe this book as a time travel themed book.

Slice of Life 6: The Camera

"Mom, can I change these batteries?" I ask. I am holding a white video camera. I don't know if it will work for my Short Story Film, and I don't know what videos I will find on it.
"Sure," she replies absentmindedly. I walk into the kitchen and grab the plastic container filled with batteries of all shapes and sizes.
After fixing the camera, I press the small power button and wait. To my surprise, the screen flickers on. I press all of the buttons, and figure out after some effort how to film a video. I then click the arrow button, which directs me to a short video. I press play, not really caring what I find.
In the video, I am only about 5 years old. There is a lot of yelling, and I make out the words "...noah's birthday...birthday cake...three years old!" Noah's face appears on the screen. Noah is my younger brother, and in the video he has two missing teeth. It is adorable!
I scroll through video after video. Most of them are just minutes of blackness, videos taken by accident, but a rare few actually seem important. I remember taking these videos with my 3 year old brother. I can barely believe that this camera actually hasn't been turned on in almost 5 years, according to the small date at the top of the most recent video. I wonder if, in 5 years, I will see these  videos again.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Thirteen Reasons Why is a fiction novel about a boy named Clay who receives tapes shortly after a girl he had wanted to date named Hannah Baker committed suicide. Thirteen Reasons Why isn't a sad or depressing book, but it is emotional, and the topic of suicide is prominent. My favorite character was Hannah, because simply through her talking in the tapes you get to know her character really well. Hannah tells 13 stories to 12 people explaining why they are the reasons that she killed herself. I thought that a lot of the stories were really intriguing, but there were some parts that were pretty boring. Overall, though, I would recommend Thirteen Reasons Why, but it has multiple mature topics.

Unfair Slice of Life

I think that every time I experience the "no fair" feeling, the feeling that something is wrong, and I should be receiving more care, or attention, or substance, it is only a matter of time before I realize how incredibly fair all of these things are. They are a few dollars, or minutes difference that we complain about, when other things in the world are unfair by millions of dollars, or hundreds of years. When I was littler, my Dad would tell me that his least favorite words in the world were "no fair" and that was because kids always complain about the little things. But no one, kids or adults, seems to really complain about the big things, the things that are unfair by miles, not steps. So I feel like I understand more now how little personal issues are, because there are so many bigger issues in this world.

Great Book-- Orphan Train

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline is a historical fiction book about a girl named Molly who has to do a community service project, and decides to help a 91 year old woman clean out her attic. Molly is an orphan, and she doesn't particularly like her foster parents, but she really likes the town she lives in, and after about 20 hours of working for the old lady (named Vivian) she decides to interview her for a project that she has to do for school. Vivian tells Molly everything about her life as an orphan. She was Irish, and a fire killed her family. She was sent out on a train full of other orphans, and went to stay with some families who didn't care for her well, and some who did, in the 1920's and 1930's. Even though the book is originally about Molly, most of the stories are told from Vivian's perspective about her childhood. I really loved this book, but it covers a lot of pretty inappropriate topics. It is pretty short, and I couldn't put it down!

Thanksgiving Slice of Life

On Wednesday morning, my mom asked me what we should have for party favors at Thanksgiving. I shrugged. It didn't really matter, we just had family and close friends coming. Anything little would do, I thought. But my mom had other plans. She took me to a gift store, and we looked in tins for a while to choose little tokens to give out. I thought it was a good idea, each of the tokens had a quote or picture engraved into the metal, but I didn't really see the significance until later that day. We were back home, and I had put the tokens in to cute little gift bags, and labeled each bag with a name-- 16 bags for our 16 guests coming the next day. My mom tapped me on the shoulder, and I looked over at her, and the computer screen. She was on a site called coloradogives.org. We scrolled through the many charity options, while mom described the plan. For each person, we would make a donation to a charity that they would care about. Now suddenly the simple gift bags had a real thanksgiving purpose. When we had our thanksgiving dinner everyone opened the gift bags, and we explained to them what we had done. Everyone was smiling, thanking us, and having a good time. Giving the money to all of the charities really seemed to give the whole concept of thanksgiving a deeper purpose.