Jared Ramos 806                                            Glass,       

                                                            by Ellen Hopkins.

During my reading I came across some powerful messages and that’s people go through doing a certain drug. Kristina was a side to her that wants to have fun by doing drugs and these urges that Kristina gets has gotten her into the worst habit of all doing crystal meth. While reading the book Glass, by Ellen Hopkins, I encountered a message that really told me the story. The message was that life is to short to fit really bad mistakes.

One example of a powerful message was when Kristina the main character had be craving the feeling of being buzzed, she had driving out of her way to a destination that took 3 hours on the road and when she arrived, there was the supplier. They had entered his home and the author explained how she grew more anxious with every passing second. After reading this paragraph about her desires of meth, I thought to myself how she had ruined her life with even a tiny piece of meth. Another example is how she got pregnant because she thought she was ready meanwhile it was just the other side of her bree, talking to her telling her what to do while she was as high as the clouds. Reading these powerful descriptive writing I remembered, that growing up I learned how one mistake so big or so small could have the biggest most destructive impact on ones life. 

From reading this book I learned a very important message that it could be the smallest mistake or the big mistake doesn’t matter unless it is a costly mistake that could ruin something that your parents tried to keep on a straight road to success but one of those mistakes led to a bumpy road halting that success until corrected. 

Jared Ramos 806                                      Glass                                              11/13/13

                                                      by Ellen Hopkins

            Crystal meth, or as they say in the book Glass, "the monster," is the main theme called social justice. Kristina is the main character of the book that got hooked onto this one summer thinking that she could control the monster, and herself from craving the drugs. Kristina has another part of her called Bree, she only becomes Bree is the opposite of what Kristina is a smart girl has no sense of fashion. Crystal meth has brought Kristina and her friends far apart to the point where they cant be together.

            In the book Glass, by Ellen Hopkins, she explains how Kristina had a lot of friends but she couldn't trust them with her big secret and this secret that she was hiding from her friends just ruined her relationship with them. I say this because when reading this part of the books she is hinting that her friends aren't trust worthy of her secrets and one main thing that I read was that her friendships didn't last very long after the author explained why she couldn't tell her friends, and as a result of her being on "the Monster," she lost the ones closest to her because they thought of her as less of a person when knowing that she was addicted to doing drugs. My thoughts on this is that, losing your closest friends and losing the respect of your family members is not worth doing drugs at all and that because it just eats up your body and take a lot to stop your addiction for crystal meth.

            In conclusion I find that crystal meth destroys life and that people should try really hard to stay away from it if they haven't done drugs because all it takes is one time to mess up something nice and I think I can speak for a lot of people when I say you wouldn't want to throw your life away for a drug. One question I have been formulating is what do you think we could do to stop friends from ever trying drugs? Just think about it and you could self reflect meaning think about what you would do to stay away from drugs.  

  Jared Ramos     806                            "Age Rated Books Right or Wrong                                ELA

           

            The article "Age Rated Books: right or wrong," discusses how books should be age appropriate, like movies if it they are PG 13 or under. But Anne Fine, is against it she says that children feel the sense of achievement toward the end of books till they turn it around and see that the age is rated for 5+ and they're 8. The main interests of the article is how age rating books to be a let down for kids who thought the book was challenging at an older age than the recommended age on the book.

           

            Kids at the age of 8+ are finding that the books they read are challenging to them and when they are almost finished with the book they find that it is for the ages of 5+ which brings the children down making them not want to read. Anne Fine, thinks that, "why should the child of eight who struggles with dyslexia, or has English as a second language, or learning difficulties of any sort (and they are legion) struggle to the end of a book and feel their sense of achievement turn to humiliation as they see 5+ on the back? I understand exactly what Anne is trying to express in this article, she is trying to say that some adults might think that a book might be for that specific age group but really they don’t know, because they don’t know how kids are comprehending what they read.

            As others agree with age rating books how do they know what kids think? How do they know what the kids understand? These questions are mainly what Anne Fine is trying to explain, show and I agree with her. I agree because they have no clue what reading level the kids are, they don’t know the speeds of how fast the kids can read. So that is why I side with not having age on the back of the books so they don’t bring some kids down when they are almost finished.  

Jared Ramos 806                                       Push                                                                 ELA

            As I notice why Precious Jones, is always trying to escape her home, its because of the environment that she is exposed to and living in. her environment is her father would go as far as getting his own child pregnant, and her mother beats her senseless, "till I cant feel no more." But all she wants is a normal life, "like them white girls that don’t have there father getting them pregnant." Reading this book makes me feel that the author is trying to express the main idea, that there is always some kind of happiness as you progress through life but the author is expressing the main idea by using race and how Precious wanted to live a normal life. She wanted to live a normal life with someone who can care for her and care about her and that is why she is always trying to escape her living environment.

            Precious, has gone through many traumatizing things that she has to live with forever, and a lot of these problems can not be solved. The main problem that I see is, what had occurred with her father. What happened was that her father raped her and then he finds out that she is pregnant and he abandons her. The mother thinks that "she stole her husband," made him leave her so she begins with the beatings. When her babe comes out something wrong had occurred the babe had down syndrome, and as the doctor explains " because of the beatings to the stomach the baby's face had been smashed in."

All she wanted was a normal life, to be able to have happy child hood memories. But as I read this in disgust and sadness, I felt that she had no way of having a future with a little happiness I just couldn't see that as I read those parts. This is important because it made me see that there are worse things that are happening to kids everywhere and these children have to live with this memory with a rewind button replaying that experience, and it is just so messed up that there are people so disgusting that they could do that to a little girl.  

            Although Precious, has gone through a lot she wants the best for her and her child she wants to be educated unlike her family, she wants that one person who would help her in such a rough time and care for her. She finds this one person at her school the one person she needed to get her through her times and this person was Ms Rain, she was the nicest to her she made precious feel good and smart about herself, and the biggest thing was that she cared for her like she was her own child. What this says to me is that there is always something bright when least expected meaning that there is always something good waiting for you or a better opportunity lurking right around the corner. This matters because, reading this book is just so depressing and to know that there are children that are being abused like she had been just makes me sick to read and hear stuff like this and its very disturbing. And also not being able to do anything at such a young age to fight back and tell anyone because the person potentially threatened them and it was just a traumatizing thing for them.  

            Jared Ramos           "Wonderstruck'' Selznick Brian,    Summer Reading Response          

          In the book "Wonderstruck'' the main character Ben, has many issues during the book. Ben is a kid who is more mature for his age, he could help himself he knows how to get places were other kids his age don't. The major issue that Ben is dealing with is, his mother died and his aunt and uncle are taking care of him, but after the passing of his mother he searches around his mom's house and finds a book with a name on it.

             He found a book called "Wonderstruck" and the name on it was the name of his father and the address to were he lives. So Ben Is thinking that his dad could still be there. Ben went to were his dad used to live and asked the person in the building if his father lived there and Ben was so excited to see his farther in after many years, and she says he doesn't live here any more so Ben went outside sat down put his hands cupping his face and cried. If I was in the position that he was in I would've done the same thing because, if I went a long way to find my father after my mother died I would be depressed to.

           

            This occurred in the middle and toward the ending when he found his grandmother instead of his father. Ben was in a museum and his grandmother's son worked there and recognized him and followed him to see what Ben was looking for.  And then noticed that he was looking for his father and then his grandmother appeared and he remembered right away that he saw her at the front of the museum and she hugged him and said "long time no see", Ben was puzzled and had a flash back to when he was little. And he knew that it was his grandmother. After talking for a while Ben asked do you know were, my dad is and she brought him to his art works and they were amazed with the replica of New York City, the buildings and everything. And she told him after he finished this replica he past. And Ben was sad but at least he still had close family members.

            Ben has many issues during the course of the whole book, these issues that he had faced worked them selves out, and he had to face some of them that really hurt him in the inside even though he didn't show it, at times. Many kids go through what Ben went through and had similar problems through out there lives.