Becoming Chloe by Catherine Ryan Hyde**spoiler alert**

This week I read "Becoming Chloe" by Catherine Ryan Hyde.  The story focuses on two characters:  Jordy and Chloe.  They meet many characters on the way that come and go alone there journey.  The story is told from Jordy's point of view and it makes the story more interesting because Jordy is really smart and you follow him along his journey with Chloe. They leave New York city together and hitch hike there way to the pacific.  Jordy's mission is to prove to Chloe that the world is really a beautiful place. Chloe also wants to experience things that she's never experienced before because thats what she says is 'her most favorite thing' and 'the thing she loves to do most.'  Chloe wants to experience things such as the grand canyon or the mule ride.

Chloe writes two columns in a notebook. beautiful and ugly.

Jordy helped Chloe because Chloe was going to put some things in the ugly column but Jordy made a point so Chloe put them in both columns.

For example when the two were camping out in the middle of a rain storm Chloe told Jordy that rain was ugly but Jordy proved that rain is beautiful because it helped water the plants and flowers that Chloe had already put in her beautiful column.

I thought that this book was really thought provoking in following through the mind of Jordy.  I think it is a good read for people that like sad stories that are also down to earth.

Tap Out by Eric Devine

In this book an occurring issue was being pressured.  seventeen year old Tony, was often pressured into fighting for his moms defense against her abusive boyfriend or selling drugs with a gang.

Tony often had a hard time controlling his emotions and he would outlash at people using verbal violence or physical fighting.  Tony would get in trouble a lot with the princiopal of his school but in his school the principal, who Tony called Big O, would threaten tony saying that he could not do his favorite activit, Vo-Tec,  once when Big O saw ton'ys reoccuring problem he said that tony should try fighting.  Tony joined a gym with his friend Rob and other friends, Amir, and they went far.  Rob was able to fight against other counties to bring his fighting status up, and even thhough Tony looked scrawny and didn't look strong, he was very powerful and strong when he was fighting the older more mature boys.

The book is told from Tony's perspective so even though other characters said   it looked like Tony wasn't worried when he was getting prepared to fight the bigger and more experienced guys, on the inside Tony was freaking out and was contradicting himself. 

Tony's best friend was Rob and they always followed each other. And I think that there friendship was really important in the story because it helped show Tony's feelings even more. 


One thing that I found interesting was the fact that the book started with a saying and ended with the saying.  In the beginning, it wasn't as significant because you really didn't know about all the characters and all there background life yet but at the end of the story it was really a significant saying because you knew about the characters and knew more about Tony was thinking.  Since it is told from his perspective.  

Send by Patty Blount

This week, I read the book SEND by Patty Blount.  It was about a 18 yr old boy named Ken who posted something ver harsh online about a classmate and caused a death and cost him time in juvie.  Now Ken wants to forget about his past and focus on his present.  He wants to start at a new high school, with a new name, with a new reputation.  On the first day of school "Dan" breaks up a fight and gains himself one enemy and one friend.  Then Dan meats Julie and despite his promises to himself and his inner conscience ( who makes an appearance through out the book and is known as Ken)  Julie acts like she doesn't like Dan but soon after, they find themselves in a scandalous relationship. Dan keeps telling himself it's wrong but Ken keep saying it's right.
At the end of the story Dan tells Julie who he is causing julie to hate him for a little and then when she finds out Dan is in danger, she goes to protect him.
I think that in the book Dan feels like a horrible person because since he bullied that boy, everyone is looking on him like he is an mean and horrible person but through out the story Dan does little things that make me realize he is not a bad person.
One thing he did was when a little girl fell and was about to get hit by a car, he ran ahead of the mom (who was pregnant and unable to run quickly to aid the child) and scooped up the little girl and then he bought her ice cream. In the story, while he was running, you hear what he was thinking. He was thinking about how Julie was watching him (she appeared just as he was getting ready to leave and they have yet begun to talk) and he was also thinking how the court did not want him to touch or be alone to anyone under the age of 18.
Another thing that Dan did was that he always was nice to Brandon even when Brandon was mad at Dan.  Dan even stood up for Brandon when he was being bullied.
All in all, even though Dan would reflect on his inner self and regret the things he did and how much of a bad person he was I would think that he really isn't that much of a bad person, because of these nice things he would do that he didn't think mattered. I think juvie changed Dan, whether it was for good or bad.

Am I Blue? blogpost by Alexa Maldonado

I read the short story “Am I Blue?” by Bruce Coville.  In it, 16 year old Vince, find himself getting constantly bullied by Butch. Butch is constantly pushing and hitting Vince, along with calling him gay.  One day, after being harassed, yet again, Vince finds himself face to face with Melvin, a guy who claims to be Vince’s fairy godfather.  Vince and Melvin talk about being bullied.  They also talk about being gay in which Vince says “’Does that mean I’m gay’  I didn’t mention that I had been trying to figure that out the same thing myself for about a year now.”  I think this quote really confirms that Vince isn’t completely sure of who he is. 

Melvin grants Vince “gaydar” which is an ability used to spot all gay people.  Vince is also allowed 2 wishes.  His first wish is to allow the rest of the country to see using gaydar.  This lasts for 24 hours.  Vince’s 2^nd wish is to turn Butch blue.  Lucky for Vince, he gets to redo his last wish because butch was already blue.

I think that the result to this short story is really important.  I know this because if butch was already blue than this shows a possibility of why Butch bullied people.  He might have bullied people because he wasn’t really sure of himself, similar to Vince.

Another reason Butch could’ve bullied people was because of his insecurities.  Maybe Butch thought that if he didn’t bully people, others might find out about the true Butch and start bullying him. 

Either way, butch’s bullying of other people was very wrong and mean.  Also, Butch could’ve done the bullying to protect himself.