I started the book The Greatest Things That Almost Happen by Don Robertson a little while ago. I then learned it was the third book in the series I was readying so I stopped and read the second. I started up again now. The series follows a young boy named Morris Bird III. In this book, the last of the trilogy he is in highschool and getting ready to go to college. Over the course of the series Morris has dealt with a lot of death. The main part of each book so far has had to do with a death. In the first book he deals with his best friends death. In the second it has to do with his grandmas death. Even though I have only just started this book the issue of death has already come up. His mother died.
        Don Robertson makes each book centered around death to bring out the characters truest self in a realistic way. When authors want you to see a characters real emotions and the way they are, a lot of times they cheat and use a way that would not work. When someone dies your raw emotions come out. It is a time when you are very fragile and exposed. This is a point where you can explore a characters subconscious emotions. This is what Don does with Morris Bird III. When he sees his friend Stanley killed in an explosion he becomes less aware and all of his subconscious emotions came through. This is the realest part of a person. Ever times a new death occurs you learn something new about Morris. When Stanley dies you see Morris stop being a kid. When he is traveling to see his friend he is still very innocent, but when Stanley dies you see a change. He stops looking to be helped and starts taking things into his own hands. There are many other people that were hurt from the explosion. He is just in elementary school but he steps up and helps people that are hurt. Then when his grandma dies you see that how ever mature he is still young and he wants his family together. But he doesn't get his family together so when his mom dies you see him push his family away and start to reside in his girlfriend Julie.
        Don choses who and when he kills people to illustrate all the sides of Morris. Each death has its own significance to the arc of the story and to Morris

The Sum and Total of Now

This was the second book of a trilogy, and it was very similar in structure to the first. The books are very slow paced yet very complex and confusing. This makes for a very difficult and interesting read. The climax is always at the very end of his books and the beginning is never important. In this one his grandmother is dying but the real action doesn't come until the end. The effect it has is there is sooooo much build to the climax. In some aspects a like it a lot but in a way it feels like the story is cut off too soon after the resolution. In the story the main character Morris is really close with his grandma and it's hard to deal with the fact that she is dying. His family spends all their time arguing over who will get what after she dies and this really hurts Morris because he feels like his family doesn't care about him or his grandma.

Morris and his grandma both go through a lot of struggles in this story. Morriss' biggest struggle is just the fact that his grandma is dying. She has helped him through a lot and he feels like once she is gone he will be alone in the world because he has become more and more distant with his family. When he goes to see him grandma to say goodbye all his family does is fight and Morris gets very upset because he is sad and he feels like no one in his family cares about him or his grandma. His grandma has a big barn full of old stuff and a nice old house and his family can't decide how to split it and that's all they care about. This is why Morris gets so upset. He sees the barn as the problem and he can't comprehend how his family is only concerned with what they can get. He idolizes he grandmother and feels like she is the only person that can understand him and when she is gone he feels alone. 

His grandma is dealing with similar problems. She feels that again no one cares about her. She sees what her death is doing to her family and she doesn't like it. She is in constant pain and she suffers a lot. Nobody sees this but Morris. She eventually asks him to kill her. I think this had a very Lange effect on Morris. He now feels like he should do what his grandma wants but he can't. When he does kill her he doesn't understand the fact that this is going to make his family stop fighting and that that was what is your grandmother ultimately wanted for him. Morris burns down the barn that had all of his grandmothers possessions to effectively stop his family from fighting and to achieve what his grandmother wanted for him. This changed Morris because he saw the world as more of an adult he realizes that it's not always easy to do the things that are the best for the people you love.
Morris faces a lot of problems but in the end I feel like he pulls through in a way that is much more mature.understands that even know what she did was an easy it was best for him his grandmother and his family and that even though all they did was bicker and fight over his grandmothers death he still cares a lot about them and he always has to do what's best for the group.

http://zacharygeessuperblog.blogspot.com/ 
        I read Zach Gee's blog post about Scat. I too have read the book and I agree with his analysis of the book. He talks a lot about if justice is served and why he feels it isn't in some cases and is in others. The story is about and illegal drilling operation. The company lights a fire and the main character Duane is blamed.
         Zach talk about how Duane is blamed because of the fact that he committed arson before. He burned a billboard that was advertising the plane company that his mom to when she left him. Zach feels that in this case justice was served, and this I disagree with. Yes burning a billboard isn't the worst thing in the world, but it's still wrong. The company did nothing, and he shouldn't take his anger at his mom out on it.
        Another point he makes is how justice is served for the cub and his mom. They are separated, because of the drilling company. Duane works with his teacher to help reunite them. In this case, I feel justice was served. The drilling company has done a lot of horrible things. One of them was splitting up the mom and cub. When Duane reunites them, justice is served because a bad deed was rectified even if it wasn't rectified by the people who caused it.
        I think overall Zach and I have very similar opinions about the book, and where justice was served. I think he made a lot of very good points even if I don't agree with all of them. 
                

Nf blog post

        In a piece by ESPN's Paula Lavigne she uses a few different techniques. She wants to make the piece as objective and possible and to keep he own personal bias out of the piece. She does this by presenting a piont and then giving a good strong case for one side. She gives evidence and quotes people. Then she does the exact same thing for the other side of the argument. This is a very effective technique. She wants you to form your own opnion and think for your self. By peresenting the information this way it makes you look at the information and form your opnion.
        I think the author supports sports in schools. She try's to keep the arrival as unbias as possible but in her style of writing some of her opnion slips through. There are topics like GPA's that must be obtained by athletes. She only gives opinions for people that want to rais them but gives good strong evidence for keeping them the same. I don't think it was intentional but I think subcountiously she gives stronger evedence for the side she supports.
        I think sports are good to have in school. They teach kids valuable lessons that can not only be used in the class room but also in life. The fact that some people want to take sports out shows me that they don't truly understand sports and what it is like to play. The main argument is that it interferes with school. I play sports and I know it only effects school if you let it. If you put in the time and detication in both areas than you can come out a great athlete and a great student.

Social Action Blog Post

        In the book The Sum and Total of Now by Don Robertson there is no specific social issue. The book focuses on the struggles and issues of a young teen growing up. Morris Bird III faces a lot of struggles as he goes through adolescence, but nothing out of the ordinary. The story is told from Morris' perspective, but I feel that the main excluded voice is that of Morris' parents.
        In this book the parents have no input into Morris' live or problems. There are several different scenes in the story in which you see the parents opnions excluded. Moriss' aunt is dying and he goes through a very emotional time with this. When he is trying to come to terms with this there is nothing  at all said by the parents. They are characters but when he is dealing with stuff they sort of slump away into the background. I actually like the fact that they are. I feel like I can relate to it more because it is how I deal with stuff. The fact that the parents voices are excluded gives you a better incite into a young teens mind. In a lot of books I feel that the kid has a trouble and the parents swoop in and fix everything. This isn't reality. If I have a problem my last choice is to go to my parents, I first want to try to fix things my self. Now because the parents voices are excluded the problems have more meaning and depth to them. When Morris attempts to solve his problems you see a more raw story, and you get a better sense of the character.
        I belive its the parents voice that it's excluded. I think this advances the story and makes it more complex. Sometimes adults try to but their heads into problems they can't understand.  Kids can sometimes when left to their own devices do a great job of solving their problems.

Independent reading blog post

             I have only just started The Greatest Thing That Almost Happened by Don Robertson, but there is one immediate social issue that pops out. Teenage sex. There are lots of questions surrounding this issue. How young is to young? How should kids handle pressure? These questions aren't answered in the book but situations do give you a helpful insight to what goes on and how to deal with it.  In this book the main character and his girlfriend are put in these situations. I think this book can help kids realize what to do if they are ever in a situation like the ones in the book.
            In the book Morris Bird III who is seventeen has a girlfriend, and at that age they may have sex. His girlfriend Julie doesn't want to. One night Morris is over at Julie's house and they kiss and stuff but Morris trys to go a bit further. She says no. One of the issues is having the courage to say no.  I think this is one of the positive messaage this book sends to teens. It could also help adults understand kids. This book is written from Morris Bird III's perspective. You see what he is thinking in all these situations. This could have real value to adults trying to talk to kids about this topic. In the same scene Morris is thinking about how annoying it is that she keeps saying no. This could help adults teach kids to respect people's choices and body's. A lot of the problems people face talking to kids about this stuff is not understanding how they feel and what they think. This book could actually help people understand kids.
             In conclusion there is a good message in this book. The social issue it deals with is very sensitive and complex. I have not gotten far in the book but it's message has already taken an affect on me and I can see how this will be continued through out the book

argument essay 2

Harper di Liberto-Bell

805

           For years there has been a battle over banning YA books with mature content, and who should have control over what our kids read. This is happening because some people think the topics that are displayed are too adult for teens. Many YA books do have mature content, but it’s nothing teens won’t be exposed to. There are many very popular books that have been challenged, and school boards have very consistently challenged or banned these books. Parents should be the only people to have a say in what their kids read, so access shouldn’t be limited.

           Kids are really able to connect to YA literature. Sherman Alexie writes, “There are millions of teens who read because they are sad and lonely and enraged. They read because they live in an often terrible world. They read because they believe despite the callow protestations of certain adults, that books, especially the dark and dangerous ones will save them. ” These kids’ lives are often similar to some of the kids in YA books. This gives these kids an outlet even if the character is in a situation that’s just as difficult as theirs. They can escape their pain and experience something else. In YA books the main character tends to escape whatever world they are living in, and gets a better life. That’s what these kids want. When they read these books, they see themselves escaping their own world for something better. They are able to connect to the wants and the needs of the character. Alexie was talking to a millionaire’s son, who said, “I don’t want to be like my father,” that young man said, “I want to be myself just life in your books.” He grew up in a rich family. His life wasn’t horrible. He had never been hit or starving, but these books were still able to help him. He connected because he saw what he wanted to be. He saw that he could be free to be himself, and that’s a big part of YA books.

           People that are opposed to YA books say we need to ban them because of content. Now it’s perfectly true that YA books deal with mature and dark material, but sometimes the world is dark. Kids need to learn that.  Alexie wrote, “I write in blood because I remember what it feels like to bleed.” As a child he was abused. He can understand what some of these kids are going through. The content is no different than what some of these kids are going through. And I know someone that opposes YA books will say, “Not all kids get abused and have horrible lives.” This is perfectly true. Not all kids cut, and not all kids are abused, but these kids can still learn and be helped by YA books. It makes them more mature and empathetic. It helps to teach them about the world, and some of the issues our society faces. If there is a specific topic a parent doesn’t want their kid to read, then it’s up to them to tell their kid they can’t read it. If you let someone else make that choice, then that could be taking away a valuable life lesson from a kid. Mary Elizabeth Williams quotes her daughter saying, “Does she get that they’re not called children’s books? They’re called ‘young adult.’ Adult.”  This is a great point. There is really no point trying to hid kids from this stuff. As we grow up, we begin to learn about the world, and these books can help us start to grasp the reality of life.

                              

The opposition also says that YA books display a distorted reality where everything is horrible. This is true to an extent. The whole world isn’t horrible, and not everyone’s life gets messed up, but it does happen. To take YA books away from kids would blind them to the fact that some people have issues things like this. This would be a shame. Kids need to know about things like this. If we tell them that things in YA books are distorted, that is in most cases just plain lying.  Alexie writes, “they wanted to protect me from sex when I had already been raped. They wanted to protect me from evil when a future serial killer had already abused me.”  This is proof that the world YA books portray is not distorted. “When some cultural critics fret about the “ever more-appalling” YA books, they aren’t trying to protect African American teens forced to walk through metal detectors on their way to school, or Mexican American teens enduring the schizophrenic life of being an American citizen.”… “They aren’t trying to protect the poor from poverty, or victims of rapists. They are trying to protect their privileged notions of what literature should be.” This further illustrates that the examples aren’t hideously distorted, and that stopping kids from reading YA books won’t protect them.     

YA books shouldn’t be banned. These books provide valuable lessons.  If you take away YA books, then you are cutting off millions of kids from something that brings them joy and teaches them life lessons. Even though YA books deal with dark topics, the lasting effect is only good. These kids don’t need to be hidden from this. These books can change the way teens look at the world, and make them more mature. It gives them skills to face the world, and if you want to take that away something is wrong with you.